Chapter 2
The Carceido Ducal Household.
Lionel sat on the sofa in the drawing room, trying to calm her anxious nerves.
A short while later, the door opened with a click and someone stepped inside.
He was a young man with brown hair and green eyes that gave him a friendly impression.
“Lionel Frencia?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Thank you for coming such a long way. My name is Kaylen Brexter, and I serve as an aide to His Grace, Duke Carceido.”
Kaylen placed a tray in front of Lionel before taking a seat across from her.
Feeling grateful, Lionel looked down at the plate—only for her movements to suddenly freeze.
…Beef jerky? And orange juice with a straw?
Wasn’t this usually the kind of situation where they served tea and cookies?
While Lionel was still wondering about that, the interview began.
Kaylen looked over the documents she had prepared and let out an impressed exclamation.
“You graduated at the top of your class from the Imperial Medical Academy, and you were even the youngest graduate…! It’s an honor to meet someone so talented.”
“You flatter me. By the way, is Duke Carceido not going to attend the interview himself? Or are you completely in charge of the hiring process?”
“Ah, well… the truth is…”
The ends of Kaylen’s eyebrows drooped.
He lowered his voice and spoke almost in a whisper.
“I’m terribly sorry after making you travel such a long distance, but His Grace has actually ordered us not to hire any more personal physicians.”
“What? Why?”
“Dozens of personal physicians have come and gone over the years, but every one of them caused some sort of problem… I imagine His Grace simply became fed up with it.”
Even so, if thirty-two people ran away, shouldn’t someone hear their side of the story too?
At this point, Lionel was starting to wonder if the rumors about the duke sucking people’s blood might actually be true.
Seeing Lionel sitting there with a serious expression, Kaylen apologized once again.
“I’m truly sorry. Instead, I’ll arrange another job for you somewhere else. If I introduce someone as capable as you, I’m certain they’ll welcome you gladly.”
From the way he spoke, it seemed getting hired by the ducal household was completely out of the question.
When Lionel reluctantly accepted the situation, Kaylen rose from his seat.
“It’s already late today, so please stay the night. I’ll have a room prepared for you.”
Spending the night in a mansion that thirty-two doctors had fled from.
It felt a little unsettling, but Lionel still nodded.
Lionel was shown to a guest room.
It was an excellent room befitting such a magnificent mansion.
Surprisingly, however, the meal they gave her consisted of nothing more than hard bread and two strips of beef jerky.
At least there was apple juice, so she didn’t choke on the dry food.
“Do the people in this mansion not have taste buds?”
Lionel sucked loudly on her juice through the straw while thinking about the family members she usually bossed around back home.
She supposed her stepmother, who always twisted her face in misery whenever she ate rye bread, might have deserved some sympathy.
Lionel did not feel the slightest bit sorry for her.
What’s there to pity? That woman is a terrible person who’d sell me off whenever she got the chance.
Fortunately, the aide had promised to introduce her to another workplace.
She could just go there.
Things would work out somehow.
Thinking that, Lionel pulled the blanket over herself and tried to sleep.
It seemed as though the peaceful silence would continue until morning.
At least, it would have—
if someone hadn’t suddenly thrown open her door just as she was drifting off.
“Doctor Frencia!! Are you safe?!”
“Y-Yes?”
“Come out, quickly!”
Kaylen had rushed over in his nightclothes.
He grabbed Lionel by the hand and pulled her out of the room.
Still dazed, Lionel was dragged down the hallway and hurriedly asked,
“W-What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later. First, we need to get you somewhere safe—!”
Kaylen never finished his sentence.
He suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.
Lionel stopped dead in shock.
A suspicious man stood in the dark hallway.
He was huge, with a vicious-looking face.
Bright red blood dripped from the dagger in his hand.
It was Kaylen’s blood.
“Foolish. If you’d stayed hidden quietly, I might have passed by without noticing you.”
The man chuckled unpleasantly.
Lionel froze where she stood.
The man twirled the dagger in his hand as he threatened her.
“Where did the duke go?”
“I-I don’t k-know…”
“Is that so? Then you can die too.”
The man raised his hand high.
Lionel frantically looked around before grabbing a vase sitting in the hallway.
“You think you can fight me with something like that? How foolish. You’d be better off begging me to spare your life.”
“Like I’d ever beg a pig like you!!”
“You…! How dare you run your mouth!”
Apparently offended by being called a pig, the man reached toward her.
Lionel hurled the vase with all her strength.
“Aaaah! Get away from me!!”
Crash—!!
Fragments scattered everywhere.
Against that glittering backdrop, the man’s huge body suddenly flew into the air.
For one brief moment, Lionel wondered if she had somehow thrown a fastball powerful enough to launch him away.
But that was obviously not what had happened.
—Thud!
A tall man had kicked the attacker in the head.
