☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
It wasn’t a great idea to act out of character and raise suspicion immediately after possessing someone’s body.
So, as Levy would normally do, I readily accepted my uncle’s invitation to dine together.
Thanks to the memories of the body’s original owner, I knew that Aaron didn’t have the guts to poison food and kill someone.
“Sit here, Levy.”
As expected, Aaron greeted me with a friendly smile and guided me to the head of the table.
A sign that he knew perfectly well who the true master of the house was.
He was hiding his dark intentions, playing the role of “the uncle who only wants to protect his niece, who has been left all alone.”
For Levy, who had been frail since birth and spoiled due to overprotection, her uncle’s presence likely brought her a sense of relief.
But for me, having lost both my parents when I was young and having grown up without a single trustworthy person in my previous life, this was a different story.
‘It’s ironic that my past life, where I had to be suspicious of everyone who showed me kindness, is actually helping me in this situation.’
While thinking that to myself, I smiled sweetly.
Just like Levy always did, unaware of her uncle’s ulterior motives.
“Thank you. Shall we eat now?”
I attempted to end the conversation with a light remark, but Aaron quickly latched onto my words.
“It’ll be perfect for your taste. You’ve had a small appetite since you were little. The chefs are always fussing, saying you don’t eat enough, which is why you get sick so often.”
“Is that so?”
I calmly replied and slowly began cutting my steak to take a bite.
But Aaron, once again, started speaking.
“But on cloudy days like today, perhaps some spicy food would be more enjoyable… It’d be nice if the kitchen staff would listen to my suggestions once in a while. Haha.”
My uncle’s voice was as gentle as ever. His casual request wasn’t hard to grant. All he wanted was for me to ask the chefs to consider his preferences when preparing meals.
But I had already seen through his true intentions.
‘A clever move.’
Admiring my uncle’s subtle tactics, I simply smiled.
“My tastes are quite picky, so that might be why. Please understand.”
“…I see, alright then.”
He had expected me to grant his request, as I always had, so for a brief moment, a hint of irritation flickered across his face.
‘He wants me, who’s acting as the head of the family while the real head is away, to tell the servants to pay attention to him.’
It would start with subtly hinting to the chefs, and then he would gradually use the same method on higher-ranking servants.
Soon, all the servants would subconsciously think that I value my uncle’s comfort greatly.
‘He wants to use me so that the servants will instinctively start catering to him.’
My uncle was someone who had been banished by my grandfather and wasn’t supposed to set foot on this estate.
But a few years ago, after hearing that Levy Heron had fallen ill with a seasonal cold, he had brought a bundle of herbs and knocked on the mansion door while my father was away.
Levy, who had been so isolated from society due to her frequent illnesses, couldn’t turn him away when he pleaded for a job, even if it was just in the stables.
Though Levy appeared cold and aloof, much like a cat, she had actually been consumed by loneliness.
For Levy, it was a mistake made out of a longing for human companionship.
Now, months after his arrival, Aaron sat at the same table, eating meals as if he were still part of this family.
If I didn’t cut ties with this troublesome man now, in the crucial moment when Demian would march into the imperial palace with his rebel forces, he would likely say:
“As a descendant of Heron blood, I have the right to command the family’s knights. Hand them over!”
—spouting nonsense as he tries to demand knights to protect him while fleeing from the rebellion.
If Aaron hadn’t caused unnecessary trouble and taken away capable knights, Levy’s fate in the original story might have been different.
‘I’ve figured out what needs to be corrected first.’
I continued eating, maintaining a perfectly drawn smile toward Aaron.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
A few days later, Levy, accompanied by a group of servants, headed towards the room where Aaron was staying.
As she passed the lion statue decorating the hallway, she reflected.
The key difference between the Heron family and other knight families was their ‘blessing.’
According to records, the first Count Heron was a great white lion, a divine beast.
He used his supernatural abilities and immense physical strength to assist the first Emperor in driving out demons.
‘They say Heron’s power is the second most effective against demons after divine power.’
Thanks to this, the emperor was able to establish the Evelon Empire, and he later granted Heron the title of Count in gratitude.
The Heron title was only passed down to successors born with the ‘blessing.’
Of course, Aaron, who was good only at causing trouble, had not inherited the ‘blessing’, unlike Levy.
Levy flexed and relaxed her frail hand, pondering.
‘This weak body… to think it carries the ‘blessing’. No, is it because of the blessing that I’m still alive?’
Because the head of the family possessed both the recognition of the first emperor and supernatural abilities, the Heron family had many loyal followers.
In other words, the fact that Levy had inherited the ‘blessing’ meant that many were ready to help her drive Aaron out.
“Open it.”
“Huh? Oh, yes, Miss.”
The servant was momentarily startled by Levy’s firm tone, which was sharper than before.
But he followed orders and smashed the locked door handle with a hammer the size of a human head.
Bang!
No matter how loud the noise was, there was no sign of resistance from inside.
That was because Aaron had gone to attend a social gathering at Levy’s request.
Click—
The door opened.
The servants and head butlers who entered looked puzzled.
“There’s barely anything here.”
“The wardrobe and drawers are completely empty as well.”
The reason they were cautiously watching Levy’s reaction was simple.
“Actually, I’ve been suspecting Uncle Aaron of embezzlement for some time, and now that I’ve caught proof, I need your help.”
Just a few hours earlier, Levy had gathered the staff and said this.
‘When did the Miss start suspecting Lord Aaron? She’s always kept him close, to a worrying degree.’
Since Levy usually trusted the experienced vassals and never actively involved herself in family affairs, the servants were naturally surprised by her statement.
They had been troubled by Aaron subtly trying to solidify his position with the staff, but they never expected her to show such insight.
Though the room looked too modest to belong to an embezzler, Levy wasn’t shaken, knowing what she had read in the original novel.
She knew that the drawers and cupboards weren’t what they needed to search.
“Can you lift the carpet?”
“Yes, miss.”
As expected, there was a long, narrow hole in the floor, just big enough to fit several fingers.
‘That’s the entrance to Aaron’s secret stash.’
At Levy’s signal, the head butler, Baron, crouched down and opened the hatch.
A set of stairs leading underground appeared.
“Miss, this is…”
“It’s the old secret passage of the mansion. I read in the records that it was sealed off during my great-grandfather’s time due to fears of assassins using it to infiltrate the estate.”
The secret passage was indeed blocked off by a wall.
However, Aaron, who knew about its existence, had been using the remaining staircase leading to the underground as his secret vault. The sturdy and heavy-looking bags and chests scattered along the stairs were proof of this.
[She didn’t even know that her uncle was secretly embezzling the family’s assets and donations, so it was no wonder she couldn’t stop Demian’s rebellion.]
‘I remembered this line well because it perfectly illustrated Levy’s incompetence.’
Now that ‘she’ had become Levy, this was something she couldn’t let slide.
“Move everything here to my office.”
As soon as she said that, the hallway grew noisy.
Aaron, who was supposed to be attending a social gathering, had arrived.
“W-What is this…?”
He had returned early because his carriage had broken down, and now he was faced with this scene. He looked at his niece standing proudly in the middle of his room.
But why?
“You’re back early, Uncle.”
Levy’s voice was calm, but there was something different about her. A power that made his spine tingle and his body tense involuntarily.
The only way to describe it was killing intent.
Was this how it would feel to stand unarmed before a starving lion?
‘Wait a minute. Did I just say killing intent? Am I really feeling that from this little girl?’
Aaron couldn’t comprehend why his body and mind recoiled so much. He thought he should start making excuses immediately.
But Levy spoke first.
“Uncle, I noticed you’ve been embezzling the goods that were supposed to be donated to orphanages and slums in the name of the family.”
“Levy. What is the meaning of this… Are you accusing me?”
“We’ve already gone past the stage of suspicion. I have proof, so now it’s certainty.”
With each calm word she spoke, Aaron felt as if he was being choked like a beast caught by the scruff of its neck.
“You’ve been siphoning off the expensive items from the donations to sell them for cash.”
“…”
“You’ve been sending cheaper and lower-quality items instead, which have the same purpose, so that the quantity wouldn’t be off and you wouldn’t be caught quickly.”
After several days of discreetly gathering information, I was able to draw this conclusion.
Aaron had exploited the fact that while they checked the quantity of the donated items, they did not verify their quality.
Levy had exchanged letters with the recipients of the donations and obtained testimonies confirming that the quality of the goods purchased by the family was different from what they received.
The shop owners who had secretly bought the stolen items for him were already being called in by investigators to give their statements.
“You’ve been embezzling for years, so you’ll be spending a very long time in prison.”
“Embezzling? What…?”
Thud—
When Levy opened one of the boxes she had found on the underground stairs, several defensive magical stones recently donated to the slums by the Count of Heron emerged.
“…”
When the clear evidence came to light, Aaron was left speechless.
The fact that she knew he had hidden the stolen items in the basement stairs and yet had been so obedient to him until now…
‘Did she play me for a fool? This little thing?’
At that moment, Aaron could no longer contain his rage and clenched his fists tightly.
His eyes, filled with simmering anger, locked onto Levy’s face.
But for some reason, Levy was smiling as if she had been waiting for this reaction.
