Chapter 30: Arc I – Intermission 5: Charlotte

After an exhausting afternoon sitting in front of the table reading several letters containing marriage proposals, Charlotte decided to take a break for an afternoon snack.

While nibbling on her favorite cookies and drinking tea, she glanced at the young butler who was standing next to her.

“Come on, it must be very tiring to stand all the time, why don't you sit down? It's just the two of us here, you don't always have to be so strict with etiquette.” She said.

"Don't worry My Lady, I'm fine, and for now you should focus on choosing a future husband or your mother will be angry." The butler said.

“Urg, don't even remember that. Why do I have to choose a groom?”

“This is because My Lady is already 17 years old, you're passing the age when the nobles must marry. If you take longer, people can start talking bad about you, that's why your mother is so worried.”

“Nonsense, my love life is none of her business. Also, I am not going to choose my future husband after reading a paper.”

“In that case, accepting the prince's proposal is not a bad idea. He even came here only to propose for marriage.”

"No way, I don't like him!"

After talking a little more, the butler left the room, taking the dirty dishes.

'Baka baka, how can he not realize my feelings even after so many years.'

'And he also recommends another man to me, Winston no baka, Humph!'

Not having her feelings perceived by the man she loved, Charlotte was helpless. But despite that, she couldn't do anything, after all, you can't force someone to love someone else.

Besides, even if they both loved each other, she knew very well that her mother would not allow a marriage between the two to happen. The reason was simple, Winston was just a butler, and she was the daughter of a Marquis.

But disregarding that, she always felt that Winston had a very ambiguous relationship with Elena, her personal maid. It always made her a little upset.

She had a feeling that even his way of looking at her was different. As he looked at Elena with a look of desire, the way he looked at herself is like that of a father or a brother.

That was understandable in some ways, since Charlotte and Winston have been together since they were kids. Although she fell in love with him at first sight, it is not as if he was going to return her feelings.

After rambling on in thoughts, she went back to reading the letters. For even if she would not choose anyone, she still needed to give an answer, otherwise, she would spend a lot of time listening to her mother's sermons.

But at this moment, the door was opened and Winston came in bringing a small brown magic tool in the shape of a flattened circle with a blue magic stone in the center.

Charlotte's expression immediately became serious, as this tool was to be used only in an emergency.

"What's the problem?" She asked.

"I already asked what happened, the answer should come soon."

Just after his words, the tool blinked, and a strained voice came out of it.

"The Reaper is here in Solaris! He said he wants to settle here and even bought land."

Hearing that The Reaper was in Solaris, Charlotte became tense and worried.

This person's reputation was well known to the nobles and everyone was afraid to enrage him. Therefore, she could not take this situation lightly.

"Did he do anything bad in the town?" She asked through the tool and soon an answer came.

“No, so far he hasn't done anything. But I noticed something strange, he seemed a little different from the rumors. He was quite calm and polite. And also [...]”

After hearing the report, she took the tool from Winston's hands and said. "Don't worry, tomorrow morning I'll get there, just be careful not to enrage him."

After answering, she turned off the tool.

"My Lady, it's not a good idea for you to go there, this person has a reputation for liking beautiful women like you. So if you go, you might end up in danger." Winston said worriedly. "We better let your father take care of that."

With excitement at the heights for being called beautiful by the person she loves, she said. "In case things get tough, you can get me out of there."

"My Lady, you must not be so confident, he is an extremely powerful person, we cannot be careless."

“Don't worry so much, from what Sir Priston said, he didn't do anything violent after he arrived and he seems to care a lot about a woman. I have a good feeling about this.”

After that, she immediately wanted to leave toward Solaris, but was stopped by Winston, who said leaving early tomorrow was enough.

Then, the next morning, she left with Winston and Elena towards Solaris. Even though it was a little distant, with the magical chariot that Winston made, they didn't take long to get there.

Before going to the mayor's mansion, she stopped by the orphanage, just to find out how things were going.

And for an incredible coincidence of fate, the person she came to meet was there, along with the Dogkin woman that the mayor had spoken to. From what she could hear, he was talking about adopting a child.

But seeing that he seemed enraged at the receptionist, she immediately decided to intervene in order to avoid a bigger problem.

***

After a long conversation, Sian left the orphanage with Ophilia and Emily, while Charlotte, Elena and Winston went to a private room.

"Personally, I'm very surprised, I've never heard of him apologizing for anything." Charlotte sat in the chair that was on the desk and turned to Winston. "And also, to recognize your strength, he proved to be more capable than the information we have."

"In fact, even though I was hiding my strength, he was still able to find out." Winston said.

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"What do you think about what he said?" Charlotte asked.

"If you ignore the part about the attack on the army, he was telling the truth about the rest." He replied.

"It's very convenient to have someone as reliable as you by my side, even without having to use magic you can still tell if a person is lying."

"It's not like you needed my help for this, he's a terrible liar. And also, you made a wise choice. Handing over the child to him avoided an unnecessary confrontation. Even if that woman seemed able to calm him down, I had the impression that if you denied the request, things could get worrying."

"That's not why I let her go with him. Even if he's violent, he still seems like a good person. I felt his sincerity and determination when he said he would take care of her."

"Don't be fooled, My Lady, it's just that you have a few things in common. It doesn't change the fact that he kills people without even blinking."

"That's true, but he seems to really be trying to change, I believe he must really like that woman."

"It's not impossible, but I find it hard to happen. If we consider his lascivious reputation to be true and that that woman's appearance is only slightly above average, he may end up getting rid of her in no time."

"Don't be so pessimistic about people, my intuition says we can trust him. It's just that he exaggerates a little bit in his actions."

“I don't think butchering an army can be regarded as ‘little bit’.”

"Who cares about that? It's a good thing for us if he puts those angry lions in place." Charlotte shrugged.

"So he was the one who attacked Edrorian's army?" Elena, who had been quiet until now, asked.

"Of course." Winston replied.

"If it had really been Nervrathan, instead of slaughtering the army and disappearing, he would have destroyed everything around him. Even this town would no longer exist." Charlotte added.

After a brief silence, Charlotte looked at Winston. "It's very strange of you to get into a conversation with another nobleman, this is not common coming from you." Distrust welled up in her eyes. "Especially when you passed the cookie in the chocolate and gave it to Elena."

Hearing Charlotte's words, Elena got immediately nervous.

'These two are hiding something...' Charlotte thought to see Elena's reaction.

In this situation, Winston remained calm and said. “Since My Lady had already broken the basic etiquette, I decided to do a test, I wanted to check his reaction. But contrary to my expectations, it was very normal. He didn't seem to care about a butler picking up his food. His reaction was only that of a cook proud of the fact that someone else appreciated something he did.”

'That makes sense, there's no way he put the cookie in Elena's mouth because he likes her, isn't it?'

"Anything else?" Charlotte asked.

"From what I realized, although he seems to have a policy of resolving all obstacles with violence, he doesn't seem like a hard person to live with." Taking a brief break, he continued. "And also, he does not act like a nobleman and often lets himself be carried away easily by the moment.

Putting together the information we have with what I've observed, even though he's a Duke, he only uses it as something convenient and is usually quite frank, always exposing what he thinks."

"When you talk like that, he doesn't look so dangerous." Charlotte said.

"If we look only at the observed profile, that would be the case." Winston said. "But still, he is a violent person. I believe something serious must have happened in his past and in the way he has lived that forced him to believe that he should use force for everything, but that's just an assumption of mine."

"I understand, in this case, he has a policy that the best defense is a good offense." Charlotte said carefreely.

"My Lady, you should not treat this situation carelessly. I'm going out for a moment, I'll see if I can get some information about the woman who was with him." Turning to Elena, he said. "Elena, you go to Margarida and tell her to bring the little girl's information."

After Winston and Elena left, Charlotte was alone in the room.

Taking a long breath, she leaned over the desk.

'I still think there's something going on between them... But I feel like I shouldn't intrude, after all, I've been keeping him with me since we were kids.'

'It's like I'm wasting his skills by trapping him with me and letting him work as a butler... If he were at the king's side, he would surely be well rewarded.'

'And there would be a chance we could get married when he got some achievements...'

Denying her own thoughts, she shook her head.

'It's better not. If he does that, it's definitely going to attract a lot of marriage proposals. I'd rather continue as we are.'

Sunk in thoughts, she fell asleep.

Some time later, she was woken up with knocks on the door. When she said to come in, it was Winston.

Briefly, he told the information he had gathered, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with the two people investigated, except for two things.

The first was the fact that Emily had virtually nothing of mana. Which was strange, since any living thing would have a small amount of magic in its body. But she didn't have enough mana for a more basic spell of attributeless magic, and apparently, that amount never increased.

And the second was an envelope with a painting that was delivered by the owner of the brothel where Ophilia worked. According to Winston, the orphanage staff had not told Charlotte about the envelope before because they thought it was unnecessary.

"That's interesting..." Charlotte said after taking a good look at the painting and seeing what was written on the back. "There seem to be some mysteries to be solved."

 

 

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