Grand Duke's Beloved Granddaughter

Barden asked me in a cautious voice. It seemed like his voice was shaking a little. The question I asked was unexpected, but it wasn’t an unreasonable question, but he seemed particularly nervous. Was it because word about Mom’s letter is already circulating within the mansion? So you think I’m going to push him? As I thought, it was true that I spoke to Barden on purpose to try to get him to know. Since Barden is the butler in charge of Daniel, I thought he might know something.

 

“I was wondering if I could send a letter too.”

 

I wanted to press him right away and find out what he knew, but I couldn’t do that just yet.

 

“A letter? Who are you sending it to?”

 

“This is a friend I met while coming here.”

 

As he spoke in a flirtatious manner, Butler Barden’s frozen face quickly softened.

 

“If you know the address, I can send it to you.”

 

“Ah…”

 

In front of the friendly Barden, I felt embarrassed and hesitated to speak.

 

“Why are you doing that?”

 

“My friend has no home. I’m still moving to another area. Can’t you send a letter in that case?”

 

“I can’t send the letter because I don’t know where to send it.”

 

“I see.”

 

After listening to Barden’s kind explanation, he nodded his head as if he agreed.

 

“Then why did Mom’s letter never arrive, even though it was clearly addressed to her?”

 

“…”

 

I blinked innocently, pretending not to know anything. Barden stared at me quietly and then smiled.

 

“That’s right. If the letter had been delivered to His Excellency the Grand Duke a long time ago, there would not have been such a difficult reunion. It’s such a shame. Still, it was fortunate that the two of us were able to meet again thanks to the little lady.”

 

Barden also muttered in a regretful voice. I stared into his eyes. I wondered if there was some kind of commotion, but I didn’t feel anything like that.

 

“By the way, I can’t send a letter to my friend, but how about leaving it at the capital guard? If you pay them some money, they will give you a letter to check who is coming and going.”

 

I nodded as Barden explained, returning to the original topic.

 

“I’ll think about it.”

 

I wasn’t planning on sending the letter anyway, and I didn’t think Geoffrey would see it if I left a letter at the capital guard, so I turned away, leaving my words vague. Meanwhile, I continued to think about the discomfort I felt from Barden. This is just my guess, but Barden seemed to know something. I guess so. Even now, I am closely related to Daniel, so even if I were Daniel, it would be easier to go through Barden to handle matters in the Grand Duchy of Crichton. He was the most likely suspect at the moment and the person most likely to have access to information about the handling of the letter.

 

“Little lady, you can tell us about the letter.”

 

Kalina said to me as I was climbing the stairs, recalling my conversation with Varden.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Anything that the little lady tells you to do can be given through me or Anita. “You don’t have to go looking for the method one by one.”

 

Kalina kindly advised me. He was saying that since Kalina and Anita were taking care of me, there was no need to go through Barden.

 

“Yes. I will do that from next time.”

 

“By the way, little lady.”

 

As soon as she finished answering, Anita carefully opened her mouth.

 

“Why?”

 

“What happened to the eldest lady’s letter earlier?”

 

Anita asked, tilting her head.

 

“Oh, that. When her mother was away from the Grand Duchy, she kept sending letters here asking for her forgiveness, but she never reached them. If only she had arrived earlier, her grandfather and her mother wouldn’t have been separated for so long. Her grandfather was still looking for her mother, and her mother also wanted to return. … … So I was wondering if there was a separate department dedicated to letters. If there is such a place, I will go there anyway.”

 

“…So something like that happened.”

 

Kalina sighed sadly. She couldn’t keep Viscountess Maynard waiting any longer, so she quickly walked up the stairs and suddenly turned her head to check on Kalina and Anita.

 

“Little lady?”

 

Kalina called out to me as if it was strange that I suddenly stopped on the stairs and looked back. I frowned, realizing something strange I had noticed during the conversation, and opened her mouth again.

 

“You two didn’t know about her mother’s letter?”

 

Both of them spoke as if they were hearing it for the first time.

 

“I heard the little lady talking to the older lady, but I didn’t know the details.”

 

“Anita?”

 

“Yes, little lady.”

 

Seeing Kalina and Anita agreeing, I felt like she was speechless. Was the information from these two people too slow? Certainly, if the information was slow, you might not know. Moreover, since the owner of the mansion, Archduke Crichton, was not looking into it in detail, they too could not have known that such a thing had happened if they were not paying attention. So how did Barden know? Was it possible to collect information because he was a butler with years of experience? Questions kept popping into my head. No matter how hard I tried to understand, things that I couldn’t understand kept popping into my head.

 

“Little lady, if you keep this up, you’ll be too late for class.”

 

“Oh, yes. I’ll go.”

 

Kalina spoke to me with her concerns. I belatedly nodded and entered the living room.

 

* * *

 

“Little Princess, you can’t seem to concentrate in class today.”

 

Perhaps because I had too many thoughts, the class with Viscountess Maynard did not really enter my mind. I expressed my annoyance at Viscountess Maynard’s words as she frowned.

 

“I’m sorry, Viscountess. I’m not feeling well today, so I committed this rudeness.”

 

“Are you very unwell? In that case, since you won’t be able to attend class properly anyway, how about we end this for today?”

 

Viscountess Maynard suggested, looking concerned for me. She thought it would be better that way, so she quickly agreed.

 

“Then I’m sorry, but can we end today’s class here? “It’s been a long time since you took the time, so I’m really sorry.”

 

“No. Princess So’s health is more important. It’s okay to take class slowly, so I’ll just leave. Take care of yourself and I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

 

“Please come in, ma’am.”

 

In the end, I had to apologize to Viscountess Maynard and postpone her lessons. Viscountess Maynard left the drawing room first, leaving me, Kalina, and Anita alone in her drawing room. We were scheduled to visit the Duana Temple in the afternoon, but there was quite a bit of time left until then. As I sank into the sofa, I recalled the conversation I had with Barden. Barden clearly knew about his mother’s letter. That’s why she was nervous when I mentioned the letter and the fact that her mother’s letter had not been delivered. If I didn’t know anything, I would have reacted like Kalina and Anita did. Did that mean Barden was somehow related to the letter? I couldn’t help it, so I got up. Then, Anita and Kalina went down to the first floor. Following Kalina’s guidance, I found the department that manages letters. And just as Kalina was about to knock on her door, she heard a sound inside her. I hurriedly stopped her Kalina and put her index finger to her mouth. It meant to be quiet. Kalina and Anita understood and nodded silently.

 

“…You better do it.”

 

“Yes, me too…”

 

When I looked closely, I saw that the door was open with a small gap. I could hear someone talking there. The voices coming from inside were all unfamiliar. I kept my mouth shut and listened through the crack in the door.

 

“It seems the little lady is suspicious of something about the letter. I heard you talking with Barden earlier, and she suddenly mentioned a letter.”

 

“How much do you think the little lady knows… If you just turn a blind eye, Cedric, no one will know, so…”

 

“How long should I close my eyes? Walter, don’t you realize how dangerous what you did was? If His Excellency finds out, he will definitely not forgive you. If you know that I turned a blind eye to you, I too…!”

 

The more I listened to the conversation between the two, the more I became convinced that it was about my mother’s letter.

 

“So what should I do now? If you get caught…”

 

“Even if I get caught, there’s nothing I can do. Wasn’t it all your doing? Just leave me a little bit. All I did was turn a blind eye to your dead son.”

 

“Master Cedric! How can you speak so cruelly?”

 

“Keep your voice down. Are you planning to advertise outside? You were secretly stealing letters from her eldest sister?”

 

“That!”

 

I felt the blood in my head run cold as I heard the conversation coming from inside. I immediately opened the door and checked inside. As I headed inside the postal department, past the tightly organized letters and documents, I saw two people.

 

“What does that mean? Who stole what?”

 

Unable to control my anger, I asked the two deacons who were talking. They looked at me in confusion at the sound of my voice. Among them, the older butler looked pale and his mouth trembled.

 

“Little lady!”

 

“Come on, little lady!”

 

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