I Only Want Your Child - Chapter 39

Just thinking about it made my blood boil again.

Even if he really was the one behind it, I still had to meet Denion.

And in this life, I would protect my child from him no matter what.

Even if I had to stake everything I had on it.

Just then, I heard an unfamiliar voice.

“Um… Madam…”

It was an ordinary maid dressed in a maid uniform.

I looked at her curiously and answered.

“What is it?”

“Um… Please forgive my impertinence, but I wanted to greet you like this.”

With that, the maid bowed deeply at the waist.

“Thank you… truly, truly, thank you!”

My eyes widened at the maid’s sudden gratitude.

“You’re thanking me? For what?”

The maid glanced at me nervously before continuing hesitantly.

“Actually… I grew up at Heloika Orphanage.”

Only then did I understand her behavior, and I looked at the maid with renewed surprise.

I knew many of the children from Heloika Orphanage were eventually sent to work for Baldomer or its vassal houses, but I hadn’t expected to meet one like this.

“I heard that you risked your life to save the children at the orphanage. Those children are like my own younger siblings. Thank you, truly, truly.”

But there was something strangely familiar about the maid’s face.

This girl…

Only then did I remember the face of a maid I’d seen in my previous life.

The maid who had adored Denion.

Back when even the attendants had been hesitant to care for Denion because of Kallion’s indifference toward his own child, she had treated him with genuine care and devotion.

To think we would become connected like this.

“Your name is…”

“My name is Kate.”

To think I was only learning now the name I hadn’t even thought to ask back then.

Perhaps this too was fate.

Just like my connection with Jared, whose fate had changed through the orphanage.

If I wanted to investigate Baldomer’s secrets in a place where nearly everyone around me was an enemy, I needed an ally I could trust with important tasks.

Since she was a servant of House Baldomer, I couldn’t trust her completely, but at the very least, I needed someone who could become my eyes and ears.

Perhaps this girl could become my hands and feet.

I looked at Kate and smiled gently.

“Kate. Would you like to become my personal maid?”

At my question, Kate’s head snapped up.

“What? M-Me?”

“Yes.”

“But I’m only a low-ranking maid who does cleaning…”

“That doesn’t matter.”

Kate stared at my kind smile as though mesmerized, and I drove the point home.

“You’ll be able to earn at least ten times your current salary.”

Kate answered instantly without even taking time to breathe.

“I’ll do it! I will!”

I smiled at her response.

At my smile, Kate also gave me a bashful little smile.

“I’ll serve you with all my heart and do my very best!”

She was a very enthusiastic girl.

* * *

Following the head butler’s advice, I intended to inspect the unused rooms in the estate while organizing them and see whether anything seemed suspicious.

Kallion was hardly likely to leave anything incriminating lying around in an obvious place, but there was no harm in checking.

After instructing Kate to inspect the guest rooms and empty rooms on the first floor, I headed to the third floor. The third floor, where Kallion’s office was located, had an unusually large number of empty rooms.

Come to think of it, the third floor, which I had never once explored in the past, seemed the most suspicious.

Back then, I hadn’t even had the authority to look through the rooms.

Fortunately, if it could be called fortunate, I found nothing suspicious in any of the empty rooms I inspected.

Then I reached the room at the very end of the third floor.

I hadn’t even known there was such a large room here.

When I opened the enormous door and stepped inside, I found a fairly spacious bedroom.

The room was decorated in an old-fashioned, elegant style and looked lived-in, as though someone had been staying there.

I thought Kallion’s room was on the second floor…

The head butler had definitely told me that no rooms on the third floor were currently in use aside from Kallion’s office.

And it seemed too feminine and elegant to be his room. There was the enormous, ornate dressing table and a dressing room filled with distinctly feminine tastes…

Puzzled, I began opening drawers here and there. As expected, there was nothing suspicious inside.

Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.

No matter how deep his grudge against Heister ran, he wasn’t the kind of man who would casually kill his own flesh and blood.

At least, regardless of how he might appear on the outside, he was fiercely protective of anyone he considered part of his domain.