“I was really scared, Sir Guard Captain.”

Maid Mary sobbed, pretending to wipe away tears. Another maid roughly wiped her face with the hem of her skirt and said kindly,

“Oh, Mary, you were really frightened. Don’t cry.”

Mary made a fierce expression at the self-interested touch, but as soon as the skirt hem fell away, her face became pitiful. Then, with sparkling eyes, she said,

“If the Captain hadn’t been here, I could have been in big trouble. Isn’t that right, girls?”

At Mary’s instigation, the maids nodded vigorously.

“Yes, yes.”

“Oh, of course.”

“Thank you so much.”

Not knowing that the hobby of the strong-willed northern women was to steam and eat men, Vernon grinned with satisfaction at having protected the girls. He pounded his chest and shouted,

“If something like this happens again, report it to the guard post immediately. Understand?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, how reassuring.”

“We trust you, Captain!”

With the maids’ fervent support behind him, Vernon left the place triumphantly. As soon as he was completely out of sight, the maids finally revealed their true colors.

“I almost burst out laughing.”

Mary muttered, patting her shoulder.

“My bones ache from pretending to be weak and shrinking.”

Then she gazed at the outer castle with a regretful expression.

“Is the head maid busy? She didn’t come.”

“Yeah. What a waste. It was a good opportunity.”

The smallest maid, Evie, rolled her shoulders while smacking her lips. Her shoulders must have been stiff from acting so realistically.

“The capital folks talk tough, but they’re actually quite soft.”

Another maid nodded in agreement.

“If it were the north, they would have started by hitting the back of the head with firewood. They called out ‘Miss!’ first.”

The maids exclaimed in unison.

“Is that announcing that they’re about to attack me now?”

“How polite.”

“Well-trained.”

Then Mary laughed ominously and asked the maids,

“So, are you going to go easy on them because the people over there are fluffy?”

At those words, the maids simultaneously snorted.

“No way. We need to fix their mindset so they never underestimate the north again.”

Then they huddled together and started whispering excitedly. Various brutal opinions were thrown around, such as sending in a burning mouse while they sleep in their quarters, mixing laxatives into their food, breaking their lances and slightly reattaching them, or perhaps it would be better to break their legs, and so on.

Amy, who arrived late, gaped at the sight. Cecil, who had been fidgeting beside her, tried to defend her friends by saying,

“Well… they may talk rough, but they’re actually very gentle.”

Just then, as if on cue, this conversation reached their ears:

“Let’s push them down the stairs when they’re staggering drunk after drowning them in alcohol.”

“You’re too soft-hearted if you look closely. Stairs? It should be at least from the top of the tower.”

“…”

When Amy silently looked at Cecil, she shrugged her shoulders and forced a smile.

“Come on, they’re just saying that. They won’t actually do all of that.”

“…”

Amy made an exasperated expression, thinking that couldn’t possibly be called “just saying,” and Cecil, with her neck like a turtle’s, muttered while sweating,

“Actually… almost all…”

“Enough.”

Amy knew that northerners were rough and fearless, but… She closed her eyes tightly, opened them, and sighed.

“It’s fortunate nothing happened. What if the children had been hurt?”

Cecil, who had always lived a life of winning and never thought they would be in danger, made a strange expression at those words.

“If we had been hurt by the knights’ hands…”

Amy frowned at Cecil’s hesitant question, as if to say not to even mention such a thing.

“Then I would have immediately stormed in and negotiated with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“…You’d go to His Highness?”

Cecil blinked at the unexpected words. Surely, she wouldn’t go that far, she thought. Amy spoke firmly.

“The knights belong to His Highness. His Highness is responsible for not properly controlling his subordinates.”

Then she looked at Cecil suspiciously.

“Surely… you didn’t do it on purpose?”

“Oh no, of course not!”

Cecil waved her hands excessively and forced a smile. But cold sweat was breaking out on her back.

Actually… she and her fellow maids had planned to break the arrogance of the Crown Prince and his knights before the banquet began, as they had been swaggering around the inner castle lately.

They had chosen a day to get the knights drunk and lure them. While they were acting as victims being intimidated, Cecil was supposed to bring the head maid to witness the scene…

Amy spoke sternly.

“It may be needless worry, but be careful. If we crawl on all fours, the knights are practically on horseback. How can you compete? It’s a fight that’s not even a match from the start.”

“…”

As Cecil hung her head dejectedly, Amy gently consoled her.

“I’m not saying you’re incompetent. Just because you dislike someone, you can’t rush in and crack your own head. But I’m not telling you to endure unconditionally either. You’re my responsibility, so the fighting is my job. So value yourselves. Do you understand my meaning?”

“Yes…”

Cecil nodded her head demurely. Amy thought she was discouraged and felt sorry for her, but in reality, she was overjoyed.

‘We failed, but it feels good.’

Seeing the head maid who genuinely cared for them, Cecil’s heart swelled. She was certain that after this time, she and her colleagues would come to respect and follow the head maid even more.

That afternoon, Amy headed to the treasury at the top of the inner castle with the butler, Melvin.

The inner castle was mainly where the lord’s family lived, but the tower with the treasury was narrow and tall, making it unsuitable as living space. Naturally, it had been left out of urgent repair targets and was not in good condition.

As Amy opened the iron-barred door that had been sealed for a long time with a key, Melvin looked around curiously.

“I knew it was here, but it’s my first time entering.”

“Well, you can’t enter the treasury carelessly.”

“Except for when the previous Grand Dukes sent representatives to check at the beginning of their reign, the door hasn’t been opened.”

“Is that so.”

Amy frowned and thought. If they sent representatives to check, it seemed like there probably wasn’t anything really valuable inside.

‘Well, there wasn’t anything particularly precious on the list either.’

The first Grand Duke of Noidelman recorded in the empire’s history was originally not part of the empire, but the heir to an independent northern kingdom.

After his father, the first king, died and the country rapidly declined, he became a Grand Duke by submitting to the empire at the emperor’s suggestion.

Even then, he didn’t live long and died prematurely without an heir. Consequently, the treasures they had possessed since the kingdom era were scattered by collateral bloodlines. When the empire’s emperor sent the next Grand Duke, the treasury and storerooms were probably already empty.

Amy smiled bitterly.

‘If there had been anything even slightly useful, they wouldn’t have given this place to Lord Noah.’

The thought that something world-changing might be hidden in a land neglected by the empire almost from the beginning made her feel dizzy even now.

‘As soon as I came to the north, I skimmed through the records of this place, but…’

There was less material than expected, so she couldn’t find what she wanted. However, the public perception that the north was under the empire’s protection was wrong. They were surviving on their own. From the harsh cold, woefully insufficient produce, and the nomadic tribes beyond the Black Mountains that frequently provoked them.

‘I wanted to learn about the nomadic Viscon tribe, but it’s a bit strange.’

Despite frequent invasions, the damage to the duchy was not significant. To put it lightly, it was as if they struck lightly, observed the reaction, and then left. Of course, the duchy that was hit for no reason would have been annoyed.

‘That’s probably why the empire ignored requests for support.’

Amy, who had used this fact to exaggerate and gain independence as a duchy, wasn’t one to talk.

‘There were official documents passed down from the first Grand Duke on the treasury inventory list, so maybe I can find something there.’

Somehow, the people of the north had managed to uncover the secret before her regression. Whether the process was shrouded in secrecy or it was by chance, Amy was determined to find out one way or another, even if she came up empty-handed in the treasury.

‘If nothing else, I’m confident in my persistence.’

She was the stubborn one who had endured for years, eating like a bird and becoming emaciated.

At that moment, Melvin, who was carefully looking around the treasury, asked,

“What did you come to find? What should I do?”

“Ah, there should be bundles of official documents. Could you look mainly in the bookshelves?”

For a place that had been sealed for so long, the treasury was in good condition. Perhaps because of the north-facing window, the books hadn’t faded, and it was appropriately dry with no mold. There was a lot of dust, but that was expected.

“I should organize this someday.”

Amy planned to resolve all the annoying tasks while she was in the north. After adding cleaning to the very end of her mental to-do list, she calmly surveyed the treasury.

Not long after, Melvin brought several bundles of yellowed and twisted official documents.

“Are you going to look at them here?”

“Since removal is prohibited.”

Amy roughly brushed the dust off the desk and sat down, spreading out the documents.

“I’ll lock up and go down on my own, so you can go first. Don’t let anyone come up to the tower.”

“Understood.”

After Melvin left and Amy was alone, she immersed herself in reading the documents. Luckily, the official documents up to the time of the previous Grand Duke were all included without omission. After diligently examining them for three or four hours, she finally found what she wanted and smiled, stretching her stiff back.

She let out a sigh of relief. If she couldn’t properly use the magical tool she had gone to such lengths to find while Jack and Dwayne were struggling outside, she would have been ashamed to face them.

“Now then, let’s compare with the list.”

Having put out the most urgent fire, it was now time to work as the head maid. Amy busily moved around the treasury, checking if there was anything different from the list. And with a hawk’s eye, she appraised the value, which, as expected, was mostly things that could be discarded without much concern.

‘Now that Lord Noah has the right to dispose of them, I should submit a report for approval and clear them out.’

And she would gradually collect treasures to make the treasury abundant. Then Lord Noah would be able to give magnificent gifts to the Grand Duchess when he marries later. Of course, they could also be passed down to their children.

‘It feels good that everything seems to be going well.’

She approached the window to close it, which had been left open for ventilation, with a content smile. As she touched the window frame, she caught sight of the Crown Prince standing in the shadow of the castle wall far below, as if hiding.

‘Huh? How did the Crown Prince enter the inner castle?’

Something smelled suspicious. Amy narrowed her eyes.