All the work had been dumped on poor Reuden. It wasn’t even my fault, but I still felt guilty.

What the hell... Renee Blair was originally responsible for this job, but she refused to do it? So Reuden had to take care of her work on top of his own? Well, if it was always meant to be Renee’s job anyway, that makes things easier.

“Y-yeah! It was supposed to be my job, so I’m taking over now. Bestow upon me the position, Your Excellency.” I put my hands together, practically begging, but Reuden was unimpressed.

His walls were as impenetrable as a fortress. His face crumbled into a deep frown as he sighed. He must have been suspicious of how I was suddenly coming over, asking for work.

“I asked what you have up your sleeve this time.” His eyes focused on the paperwork again. He seemed to think that this was all a waste of time.

“I’m telling you. I have no ulterior motives,” I said.

“You haven’t done any work in forever, and now you’re telling me that you want to. You think I’d fall for that?”

Of course, I understand where you’re coming from, but still... His stance was firm. I started biting my lips, and then I planted my hands on the table.

“So what will it take for you to trust me?”

His hand quivered for a second. He clearly wasn’t ignoring me, so I continued.

“If you really can’t trust me, let’s make a deal on your terms.”

“Hmm. Terms, you say?” he muttered and then looked up. His eyes, the same as mine, were as still as a calm lake. He still felt like an impenetrable fortress, but I could tell that he was carefully considering my offer.

I’ve got him. I tried to say something to seal the deal, but then, he said something unexpected.

“I wasn’t going to ask, but what’s wrong with your face?”

My face? I raised my hand, wondering if something was stuck to my face. I was greeted by a stinging pain flowing down my cheek like electricity. I realized what he was talking about and answered nonchalantly, “Oh, you mean this?”

“Did someone hit you?”

“Oh, why do you ask? Are you worried that your dear little sister may have gotten beaten up?”

“Worried?” he repeated sarcastically.

Come on... I know you aren’t close enough with Renee Blair to be genuinely concerned, but that still hurts... I coughed dryly and shifted in place out of embarrassment.

“Well, anyway... What do you think? Can I take over?” I asked.

“Does that mean that you’ll agree to any conditions?”

“Yes! It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s something within my means, then by all means.”

Reuden sat silently. He made a face, but I couldn’t make out what he was thinking at all. I tilted my head as I watched the cogs turn in his head.

Eventually, he let out a sigh. “Okay. I still don’t know why you’re being so insistent all of a sudden, but if you agree to any terms, then I’ll let you take over.”

“Great! So what do you have in mind?”

“Don’t abuse your power.”

Does that mean that I shouldn’t fire people whenever I feel like it?

I answered immediately, “Sounds good.”

“I’m saying that you cannot lower the servants’ wages for no reason, or anything of that manner.”

“Come on now. Of course, I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“If you abuse your power...”

“Then what?”

Reuden’s eyes locked with mine before moving to the floor. I got the sense that he was avoiding eye contact. “I’ll disown you from the family.”

Damn, that’s harsh… I admired his determination to set a high bar, but I wasn’t worried since I didn’t intend to break his condition.

My only goal is to hire myself. Not only that, I also wanted to make a good impression on him. That meant that I would never do anything to betray his trust.

“I accept!” I exclaimed. It was a no-brainer, really.

Reuden’s eyes darted to me again. I was satisfied, but since he still seemed suspicious, I offered him a pinky. “You don’t believe me? Then I’ll make a promise.”

I waved my pinky at him. Reuden looked down at my finger, which was shaking in front of him.

Did I go too far? He had ignored my hand when I’d offered to help him to his feet. I didn’t expect things to be any different this time, so I was just about to withdraw when he surprisingly locked his pinky with mine. It was quite a shock. Flustered, I stiffened up.

What... I thought he would flat-out ignore me, but he’s actually playing along. Is this a good sign? The poor guy definitely seemed reluctant, but I couldn’t resist reading into it.

Either way, this means that I can finally complete the mission! I was screaming with joy on the inside, but when I tried to take away my pinky, Reuden wouldn’t let go. My eyes widened as I looked up at him.

“Something’s off about you.”

I had no clue what he was talking about, so I just stared. Then it all hit me, and I smiled as I pressed my thumb against his.

“Nope, everything’s perfectly fine. I’m back to normal, dummy!” I wanted him to know that from now on, I would be a new woman.

***

After lunch, Catherine the steward came to my room with a pile of paperwork. She was the one who had led me back to the mansion on day one of becoming Renee Blair. I wondered whether my personal maid ought to be doing something like that, but I hadn’t seen anyone who fit the bill and thus concluded that I didn’t have one.

Catherine had red hair, warm-brown skin, and a scar across her cheek. She was a giant, as tall as she was wide. I was lost in admiration when Catherine looked back at me with a raised brow.

“Do you need anything?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Is that all?”

“Yes. These are the servants’ resumes and weekly schedules. These are the pay slips and these are letters of resignation that we have to keep for a year...” There was more paperwork than I expected, and I noticed one thing in particular.

“There are so many letters of resignation,” I muttered to myself, but Catherine remained silent.

Well, it can’t be helped. She wants to say that it’s my fault, but she’s holding back. I coughed awkwardly and smiled at her.

“Anyway, I appreciate it. I learned the details from Reuden in the morning, so you may go now.”

“Yes, my lady. Let me know if you need anything else,” Catherine said politely before leaving the room.

Once I heard the thud of the door, I gave the paperwork a quick glance. To be honest, I didn’t want to do any of this work. I just wanted to laze around. However, I didn’t want to be the kind of freeloader who dumped all my responsibilities on Reuden.

It wasn’t like this workload would necessarily make his life any easier, but it was still the least I could do. Besides, I needed this to complete the mission.

But what will I do if it’s another failure? I shook the thought away. There was no point in worrying. As I skimmed the resumes, one of them stood out: Susan Balumi, who had decades of experience as a maid. Her title was housekeeper as well as my personal maid.

“So I do have one? Then why haven’t I seen her?”

Isn’t a personal maid supposed to follow you around like a shadow and serve you or something? I didn’t know anything about the hierarchy of servants, but I searched for her weekly schedule to get to the bottom of this. It took a while, but I found it.

“Hmm...”

I read her schedule front to back. It was perfect, except for one problem.

Her schedule includes all these tasks about tending to my needs, but why haven’t I ever seen her? Everything that she was supposed to be doing was instead handled by Hendel.

Is she on vacation? Even so, why would they even include it in her schedule in the first place? Or could it be that she made Hendel do all her work because she didn’t want to deal with a brat like Renee Blair? There’s no way, right? I decided to ask her myself and put down the schedule. However, another piece of paper caught my eye amidst the messy pile of paperwork on the desk. It was a different color than the others.

I pulled it out of the pile and read the large writing on top: “The Order of Hugo Report.”

“The Order of Hugo?”

It slightly rang a bell. My eyes naturally slid down the page.

[Spotted a wind dragon hibernating in the Sukean Mountains to the east of the Kingdom of Euphonia. Successfully subdued over two weeks.]

[The dragon’s body, excluding the bones and the heart, will be distributed to a select few sorcerers’ towers.]

[Three injured.]

[None dead.]

[Two weeks to reach the Kingdom of Conia.]

[All clear.]

The short message was signed at the bottom by Reuden Blair and the vice-captain of the Order of Hugo.

A report to Reuden from the Order of Hugo... But more importantly, a dragon? It wasn’t like I didn’t know what the creature was, but the word oddly drew my attention.

There came a knock at the door.

“My goodness!” The sudden knock startled me as if I were looking at something forbidden. I slammed the paper down on the desk and told them to come in. It was none other than Catherine. “Wh-why are you back, Catherine?”

“My apologies, my lady. I think an unrelated report was mixed in among the other paperwork.”

“Oh, it must be this one! Indeed, I had a feeling that it was out of place.” I instinctively felt that I shouldn’t tell her that I’d already read it, so I handed it to her without blabbering on.

Catherine gave a short nod and left immediately.

Hmm... Well, anyway... I crossed my arms and tilted my head. The word “dragon” was one thing, but I felt like I also recognized the Order of Hugo from somewhere.

“Nah, forget it. Let’s think about that later.”

I pulled out the resumes and placed them at the top of the pile. Reuden said that we recruited servants every three months. Luckily, we were currently in one such enrollment period. What impeccable timing it was. Even if I applied and accepted myself—if it wasn’t during the official hiring time—then the mission window may not have been accepted. It was just an educated guess, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful since the window seemed to be pretty strict.

“Whew...”

Why am I so nervous? I grabbed a pen with my ice-cold hand and started writing my resume. But as soon as I wrote my name, I was stumped. I had to write down Renee Blair’s birthday.

“How am I supposed to know that?”

I only know Anastasia’s birthday!