There was also the fact that Samantha, who was in charge of household affairs, had to give permission to bring in a dedicated maid, and it wasn’t terribly inconvenient without one. So I was going to just leave it, but after experiencing the theft incident, I changed my mind.

“I need to bring in a dedicated maid.”

So Lily brought it up at breakfast. Samantha, who was spreading jam on bread, asked in bewilderment.

“You suddenly want to bring in a dedicated maid?”

“With last night’s incident and all, I think it would be good to have at least one dedicated maid.”

Mentioning last night’s incident, Samantha nodded reluctantly while exuding an air of displeasure.

“Alright. I’ll tell Anna to assign you a suitable maid.”

“You don’t need to do that, I’ll find one myself.”

“Find one yourself? Surely you don’t mean to bring in someone new?”

Lily nodded at the obvious question. She needed someone loyal to her, and there was no way she would accept maids already influenced by Fredrick and Samantha as her dedicated maid.

“No, the mansion is overflowing with maids, yet you insist on bringing in a new one?”

“The culprit who touched my belongings could be among those overflowing maids, so I can’t trust them until the culprit is caught. That’s why I’ll bring in a new maid.”

Samantha snorted and picked up her glass.

“Do as you please. But know that I won’t pay more than 10 shillings as salary.”

10 shillings was barely enough to hire an apprentice maid. It was no different from a threat not to think about hiring a new maid.

“I understand.”

But Lily didn’t back down either. Seemingly angered by this, Samantha glared at her while slamming down her glass as if to shatter it. The servants tucked their necks in like turtles and watched Samantha’s mood at the terrifying intensity that made their flesh tremble.

“I’ll need to request resumes from an agent to hire a new maid. And since it’s my dedicated maid, I’ll conduct the interview alone.”

Speaking such words and further grating on her nerves, Samantha stood up abruptly. The door slamming shut loudly represented her current emotional state.

With Samantha gone, there was no reason to stay here any longer. Lily was about to return to her bedroom when Brian, who had been quietly sitting there as if invisible, suddenly spoke up.

“Aren’t you curious, sister-in-law? About who stole your shoes, I mean.”

“……”

Although she had intended to ignore whatever Brian said, she couldn’t. When Lily just turned her head to look at him, Brian smiled, tilting his lips crookedly.

“You seem curious after all. Well, of course you would be. You searched the entire mansion in the middle of the night to find the culprit. Oh, you didn’t search my brother’s, mother’s, and my rooms, so I guess you didn’t search everything?”

“Who’s the culprit?”

Lily asked directly, not wanting to engage in unnecessary conversation with Brian.

“My, aren’t you impatient.”

Brian shrugged, got up from his seat, approached Lily, and held out his hand.

“If you want to know who the culprit is, you have to pay the price. Let’s see, 10 gold should be enough.”

It was outrageous enough to ask for money in exchange for revealing the culprit, but asking for 10 gold was even more outrageous. 10 gold was enough to cover a year’s living expenses for a family of four commoners. For Lily to earn 10 gold, she would have to translate a book of nearly 200 pages.

She didn’t want to give money she had earned through hard work to such a scoundrel, but… it couldn’t be helped. If she could just find the culprit who took the letter, she was willing to pay gladly.

“Do you really know who the culprit is?”

Lily asked, wanting to be certain before agreeing. Brian’s eyes wavered for a moment.

“O-Of course! Why would I be doing this if I didn’t know who the culprit was?”

“……”

He’s lying. He does know something, but he doesn’t know for certain who the culprit is.

“I refuse.”

“W-Wait a minute!”

As Lily, having noticed this fact, refused and turned away, Brian hastily grabbed her arm.

“A-Alright! The truth is, I don’t know who the culprit is. But I do have definitive evidence that can help guess who the culprit is! I saw it with my own two eyes.”

A witness, is it? This didn’t seem to be a lie, so Lily turned back to Brian. Seeing her show interest, Brian brightened up and continued.

“Even I think 10 gold is too unconscionable, so how about 8 gold?”

Lily still said nothing and just stared at him.

“O-Or 7 gold?”

“……”

“Th-Then how about 5 gold? That’s reasonable, isn’t it?”

“I’ll decide how much to give after hearing what you have to say, so tell me what you know first.”

When Lily countered with this proposal, Brian frowned deeply. An expression full of discontent for anyone to see. Lily removed his hand from her arm.

“If you don’t like it, let’s forget about it.”

“N-No, wait!”

That was brief; Brian shook his head vigorously and grabbed Lily’s arm again.

“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you, so just wait a moment.”

It was amusing to see Brian, who would boast loudly even after losing tens of gold at gambling houses, now begging over just a few gold. The rumors that Fredrick was no longer giving Brian money to correct his wasteful habits seemed to be true.

“So it was around 4 in the afternoon, I went up to the second floor for some business.”

4 in the afternoon would have been when Lily and Fredrick were visiting Count Stacy’s.

“And there was Robert in front of sister-in-law’s bedroom with a large bag.”

“A large bag?”

“Yes. It was about this big.”

Brian spread his arms to about shoulder width. A bag that large would have been enough to fit the gift box Herald had given.

“Why would Robert, my brother’s assistant, be loitering in front of sister-in-law’s bedroom? He couldn’t have not known that you had gone out with my brother. Seeing him with a bag, there must have been another reason, but I couldn’t guess what it was, so I thought it was strange.”

Brian’s eyes sparkled like they had stars embedded in them.

“But when I heard that sister-in-law’s shoes were missing, I thought, this is it. Robert must have taken sister-in-law’s shoes. He must have put them in that bag that was strangely large! My brother probably ordered Robert to bring the shoes.”

Lily, who had been quietly listening as Brian said exactly what she had thought, asked.

“Is that all?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It seems you didn’t think about why your brother would give such a strange order.”

The sparkle in his eyes faded slightly, seemingly taken aback by the returned question. Brian rolled his eyes, thought for a moment, then opened his mouth again.

“Well, that must be because he didn’t like the shoes sister-in-law had! There’s no other reason to steal mere shoes, is there?”

This is different from what I think. Well, since Brian only knows about the missing shoes, that’s all he can think of. Lily chuckled and turned her head. As she acted like she was about to leave right away, Brian grabbed her arm more tightly and shouted.

“What, you’re just leaving? You said you’d pay after hearing the story! Was that a lie?”

“I can’t give it to you now.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“The money is in my bedroom, so I’ll give it to you when we go there.”

At these added words, Brian, who had been shouting like an angry bull, scratched his head sheepishly.

“Oh, is that so? You should have said that earlier! Then I wouldn’t have misunderstood.”

“But, young master.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Why did you go up to the second floor?”

Brian’s bedroom was on the first floor. It was originally on the second floor, but Fredrick, displeased with his conduct, had sent him down, not wanting to share the same floor. Samantha was using the first floor out of necessity due to her bad knees.

So why did Brian go up to the second floor? Lily had a guess but wanted to be sure, so she asked as if she knew nothing.

“Th-That’s……”

Brian visibly flustered and stammered. So it was for that reason after all. Lily continued with a smile close to a smirk.

“You searched your brother’s room. To steal something valuable to pawn.”

And to use that money for gambling, I suppose. Hit right on the mark, Brian flushed red and hung his head low.

“I’ll consider the price for this information as turning a blind eye to your crime.”

Brian lifted his head so abruptly it made a whoosh sound.

“There’s no such thing!”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll send a letter to my husband right now. Telling him you tried to steal.”

“……”

Seemingly disliking that idea, Brian glared at her instead of answering, his mouth tightly shut. Lily responded to his look that said she was going too far by shrugging her shoulders and left the dining room.

‘So it was Fredrick after all.’

Which meant he had read the letter Herald had given her. It was unsettling enough that Fredrick had read that letter, but what was more frightening was that he acted as if he hadn’t. Given Fredrick’s personality, he wouldn’t just let this slide. And if he had intended to overlook this incident, he wouldn’t have taken the letter.

‘What on earth is he thinking?’

Her fingers curled at the rising anxiety. Lily bit her trembling lips and steeled her eyes.

Although she didn’t know what Fredrick was thinking to do such a thing, there was no need to be anxious. He wasn’t in a position to say anything to her. How could he say anything when he was doing even worse things?

It was Fredrick who had said from the beginning not to mind each other’s business. So even as she thought it was fine, that she shouldn’t worry, because the other party was Fredrick, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“……”

Lily clenched her fists tightly, glared at Fredrick’s bedroom for a long while, then turned her steps away.