“Huh? Why isn’t Young Master Dietrich having his meal in the dining room?”

Robert, who was chattering beside me while I was in a bad mood, covered his mouth as if he had heard an unexpected question.

As he choked on the garlic he was peeling because he covered his mouth, I grumbled while watching him constantly exclaim, “Oh my, you didn’t know this?”

“I haven’t been here for long.”

“Ah, right. That’s true. Then you don’t know what happened before?”

As I threw the garlic peels into the container and made a gesture indicating I didn’t know, Robert quickly surveyed the surroundings.

I didn’t know what he was going to say, but his quite serious expression seemed to suggest it was a grave story.

Was there a reason mentioned in 《The End of Salvation》 as to why Dietrich didn’t eat in the dining room?

I thought about it while leaning my face close to Robert, who was waving his hand beside me, signaling me to come closer, but there was no such content.

‘I don’t know.’

I figured I should just listen to what Robert had to say.

If it turns out to be nothing, I won’t give him today’s evening highlight, garlic bread!

With that thought, I raised the knife again to cut off the ends of the garlic.

“In the past, Young Master Dietrich was almost poisoned.”

“Poisoned?”

The knife fell to the floor with a clang.

Poisoned?

It wasn’t nothing.

Poisoned meant someone had deliberately planned to take Dietrich’s life.

Robert was startled to see the knife fall between his two feet.

“Hey! That was dangerous!”

“I’m sorry, Robert. But please tell me quickly. Young Master Dietrich was almost poisoned?”

“Don’t you see that I was almost assassinated?”

Robert, who wiped the cold sweat flowing down his forehead, asked in a trembling voice.

He grumbled, saying, ‘You’re always so careless,’ and continued.

“It’s a bit of an old story, but it was the day of a family dinner to celebrate Young Master Yurian’s birthday. That day, a high-quality steak was served for the feast, and after eating that steak, Young Master Dietrich’s right arm was paralyzed due to poisoning. The mansion was turned upside down at that time.”

“…Young Master’s arm?”

“In order to catch the culprit, no one was allowed to leave the dining room, and the culprit was caught there.”

“Who was it?”

I put down the garlic I was peeling and focused on Robert’s words.

I had never heard or read about someone trying to poison Dietrich in the novel or from anyone here.

“A servant who was serving food in the dining room. His neck was cut off on the spot by the sword Young Master Dietrich usually carries. Gruesome, isn’t it?”

“In the dining room?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. All the servants and maids present at the scene were fired and kicked out of the mansion. No one knows the whereabouts of those dismissed servants now. Everyone was amazed that Young Master Dietrich recovered quickly even after being poisoned.”

Robert spoke with a grim expression.

“When he was paralyzed, the doctor said he would never be able to use his right arm for the rest of his life, but he overcame it. He’s not human. But he’s cool.”

However, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with the remark about him being cool.

I was stunned as if I had been hit on the head by the shocking past that Dietrich had almost been poisoned.

Dietrich’s life was being threatened far more seriously than I thought in the Delgado family.

Suddenly, a scene from the novel came to my mind.

It was a scene where Dietrich, standing alone under the large full moon on a terribly lonely night, was lost in thought.

Readers had a passionate response to the scene showing how lonely he was.

It also doubled the charm of the female lead who had warmly melted the heart of Dietrich, who had lived a lonely life.

The reason why Dietrich had no choice but to grow up cold and heartless.

The feeling of directly witnessing that reason was incomparable to the emotions I had read in the book.

‘They’re all really too much.’

If one grew up in this situation, it was obvious that even the nicest child would grow up to be dark and selfish.

According to Robert, Dietrich was only fifteen years old at the time of the poisoning attempt.

At such a young age, even though he knew who the culprit was trying to kill him, how sad and lonely must he have been when no one listened to him or believed him?

There were no proper adults by his side, nor any colleagues to comfort and embrace him.

After growing up a bit, he opened his heart a little to the good-natured Nocturne Frey, but that was also limited to a certain extent.

He locked his true feelings and hid them in a place where no one could find them.

So that even Dietrich himself couldn’t find them.

“What happened next? Did he eat well and live well?”

“After the poisoning attempt? No way. The young master almost completely stopped eating and drinking. The fact that he almost lost his right arm must have been quite a shock. He was always sincere when it came to swords.”

“…So he didn’t eat well either?”

Robert handed me the knife that had fallen between his legs and nodded.

“That’s what they said. I’m not sure because I just heard it from others. Sometimes when he eats, he eats and drinks very little. That’s why everyone finds it amazing. Even though he eats like that, he’s tall and has a good physique.”

Robert tapped my shoulder with his shoulder, telling me to stop slacking off and start peeling the garlic.

I moved the knife out of habit and bit my lip hard.

I didn’t know that and found it bothersome to bring food to the office.

‘I hurt Dietrich without knowing it.’

To be honest, I was quite proud of my conscience.

I wasn’t the type to easily sympathize with someone, but I had a personality that couldn’t stand injustice and would step up.

Even if the other person didn’t acknowledge it, I was satisfied if I felt good about it.

But just now, I wasn’t much different from the maids who were gossiping about Dietrich’s usual behavior.

I judged his actions based on my own standards after seeing his usual behavior.

‘I feel really sorry.’

Why did I think of excluding delicious food when bringing it to him?

Let’s reflect, Harpe.

This was no different from whining like a child that he didn’t come to find me.

It would be more accurate to say that I threw a tantrum at him for not understanding my feelings of constantly being curious about him.

I started peeling the garlic again, putting in my best effort.

With the sole determination to bring the best garlic bread to Dietrich.

I’ll let him taste the best garlic bread that he can eat with peace of mind!

Robert’s mouth gaped open when he saw my incredible hand movements. That’s how amazing my garlic peeling skills were.

Even after peeling all the garlic and the bread in the oven was giving off a savory smell, my only concern was the garlic bread.

“Heidi, step away from the oven!”

The head chef shouted at me for looking into the oven too much.

It would be nice to bring him the garlic bread while it’s still warm from being freshly baked.

As I stepped back absentmindedly, I thought of Dietrich.

The way he stared at the food on the tray for a long time and then trusted me to eat it because I had personally tasted it suddenly felt special.

‘Then that means he trusted me, right?’

He trusted me, so he directly assigned me to be in charge of his meals.

Ah, that fox-like guy!

“Head Chef. Heidi has been a bit strange since earlier.”

“I see. It seems peeling the garlic was a bit tiring for her today. But fortunately, she has good skills, so she finished it quickly.”

“Have my skills improved a bit too?”

“Robert. You still have a long way to go.”

I couldn’t hear the conversation between the head chef and Robert at all.

No matter how hard I tried to pull down the corners of my mouth that were smiling brightly, it was insufficient.

Honestly, I had no choice but to admit it.

Now that I understood, I was disconcerted by the heart that was subtly trembling.

‘Agh! This is a game I’m losing.’

All the feelings of being disappointed with Dietrich disappeared like melting snow.

“It’s done.”

As soon as the head chef said it was done, I was the busiest person in the kitchen, which was already hectic with dinner preparations.

I rushed to the oven with a white dish decorated with golden wave patterns on the edges.

“You want this?”

“Yes, yes! I’m going to bring it to Young Master Dietrich!”

The head chef, who saw my eyes that were more passionate than ever, chuckled.

Then, wearing gingham check patterned gloves, he carefully placed the freshly baked garlic bread on the dish.

The savory and pungent aroma pierced my nose and stimulated my salivary glands.

I thought even Dietrich wouldn’t be able to resist eating this.

As expected, the head chef’s cooking skills were amazing.

I gave a thumbs up and hurriedly prepared the rest of the food.

“It’s been a while since Heidi worked so hard.”

Another kitchen maid standing next to Robert asked him.

“Isn’t Heidi afraid of Young Master Dietrich?”

At those words, Robert burst into laughter, holding his stomach as if he had heard something ridiculous.

“What? Heidi being afraid of Young Master Dietrich? That’s nonsense!”

I thought I heard him shout, ‘She’s not afraid! Heidi really likes Young Master Dietrich!’ but it wasn’t important to me as I was focused on the preparations.

I also seemed to hear another maid say, ‘I guess Young Master Dietrich isn’t as scary as I thought.’

“I’ll be back!”

Those words weren’t important to me as I ran out towards the mansion.

I’ll feed the most warm and delicious food in the world to the hurt Dietrich!

I walked briskly, almost running, straight towards the main building.

Because of that, I didn’t see the satisfied smiles of the other servants following behind me.