I Left the Time-limited Villainous Duke Without Saving Him

Episode 3

My name is Betty, a commoner, so I don’t have a family name.

It’s just Betty.

It was only around the time when I was starting to learn how to walk that I realized that this was my second life.

There was a time when I was excited, saying that I was going through something similar to the

“an unfamiliar ceiling when I opened my eyes” trope.

—Director, what name should I give this child? 

—What, just call her Betty. I’m too lazy to name it. 

When I heard that my name is ‘Betty’, I thought that even a thunderbolt would hit the dry sky.

I’m Betty. Betty.

I don’t know which novel it came from, but there was only one name I could guess.

It was clear that I would be nothing more than a maid 1, 2 or maid 1 and maid 2.

Born with such a lame fate, I grew up in such an orphanage in the Dukedom of Janus. It was an orphanage with a pretty good curriculum compared to the circumstances.

I learned all the basic skills to get a job as a maid, such as cleaning, sewing, and cooking, there. No one taught me letters and I didn’t even have time to learn them.

From the time I can walk properly, I work when the sun rises and sleep when the sun goes down. As the hard days continued, the excitement I felt at first gradually dried up.

When I found out that this land I was stepping on was “the celestial continent, the Noah Empire,” I remembered the transmigration novel “SLV,” but what does that have to do with me?

Now, even the memories of my previous life were fading.

I remember what country I was from in the past, what gender I was, and what job I was in, but I quickly lost my memories of what I liked and what I hated, or who was my close friend.

The only thing that I remember in detail as time goes by is <She’s a Little Devil>.

I remembered it very clearly as if it was the only important thing.

「This time, I pray you to enjoy a good and trivial life.」

***

“Gasp.”

My eyes lit up as if I had received some revelation.

The bed that I was always crouching to overcome the early morning cold is replaced by soft yet fluffy bedding and a ray of sunshine gently wrapping my body.

I slowly got up and looked around.

A bedroom that is a little smaller than the room where six lower-level maidservants sleep together.

A large, clean glass window that faces south and lets in warm sunlight.

The feel of the carpet, touching the feet that got out of bed involuntarily.

‘This is a guest room.’

I was locked in the kitchen and was doing the dishes, but I could tell. This was the Duke’s castle’s guest room, which had not been used for a long time.

As soon as I found out, I quickly looked at the expensive things around me. Famous paintings in front, small statues, and ceramics adorning the fireplace and tabletop.

I shouldn’t touch anything.

In the cucumber field, do not even change your shoes, and you may wander around expensive items for nothing.*

‘What is that fluttering thing?’

A white ribbon-like thing moved above me and then I saw my reflection in the mirror when I turned around.

A small freckled child, as if sprinkled brown sugar on a pale face, was wearing an expensive children’s robe, which must have cost several times of my annual income.

‘This is obviously… …the duke’s doing.’

Even when I’ve read the book, I couldn’t understand what that nutcase was thinking, but when I actually experienced it, it was even harder to understand what was going on in his head.

I looked out the window to infer the atmosphere of the castle.

And my body suddenly hardened.

“30 minutes left. Everyone, cheer up.”

The brightly smiling boy had a hunting rifle on his shoulder, and scared servants sometimes appeared and moved quickly throughout the beautifully maintained garden.

No matter how much I looked at it, I could only see it in the form of a hunter and its prey.

The butler, who was always sitting in the upper seat and replacing the owner’s vacant seat, was already lying in the corner as if he had been caught already, but he did not look alive.

Crazy bastard, he’s such a nutcase.

“Betty…! Y, you’re awake.”

I got startled by the sudden voice that my body, which was tense from the chilling sight, was able to move. I looked back and saw Anne.

The rich blonde hair she was proud of was unruly and above all, she was barefoot. Looking around, Anne crawled under my bed.

Looking at her with curious eyes, Anne put her finger to her mouth and forced her lips to smile. It couldn’t have been so bizarre as she tried to smile with a frightened face.

‘She’s asking me to hide her.’

I wondered if I could get more information about the outside, so I lowered my body and made eye contact with Anne under the bed.

“Anne, how long has it been since I collapsed?”

“Are you crazy? If you do this, I’ll get caught!”

As I approached her, she freaked out and suddenly became angry.

“Are you hiding from the duke?”

“Can’t you see? Betty, you filthy orphan girl… Quickly get on the bed and lie down.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, do what you’re told to.”

“Why should I do that?”

Heuum.

As I watched Anne trembling under the bed, I got lost in thought.

As I looked at her with a confused expression on my face, she seemed to be nervous, but she quickly put on a smile and soothed me.

“Betty, you’re a good kid, aren’t you? Can you help me? We don’t see each other often, but I like you the most out of all the kids who work in the kitchen. You’re a nice girl, right? Go up to the bed and lie down.”

At that, I couldn’t help but smile.

Anne must have misunderstood something. I wasn’t good, I was weak.

“Why should I lie on the bed and be the bait? I don’t understand at all.”

***

“You two are not good enough.”

It didn’t take long to notice the presence of the escaped prey. The young Duke Janus was instantly offended.

Nothing beats the fun more than breaking the rules of the game. He was a generous lord, so he gave opportunities to his negligent subordinates.

He said he would let it slide if they could hide anywhere and avoid him as much as they could. However, don’t go into the castle. That one constraint was placed.

He was a nobleman. He’s not the pimp who shoots in his own house.

He kindly explained the circumstances and told them not to enter, but one of the prey had crawled into the castle.

While chasing the traces, he was very displeased when he tried to pick up a pair of shoes near the back door where the servants came in and out. Thinking of going inside the house and shooting, he was already feeling a little queasy.

It was the time when the boy’s face, which had seemed quite easy-going so far, became scary.

“Ugh!”

A groan was heard above his head, clenching his teeth and trying to contain the scream. He looked up and saw the prey he had missed hanging by the window.

At the same time, the horses of the stable on the other side jumped out startled by something and sprinted across the central garden. Some of the users who had been hiding in various places in the sudden commotion raised their heads towards the running horses without realizing it.

The boy’s mouth widened as he pondered what had happened.

He looked so happy that no one could tell that he just had his face hardened a short while ago.

***

Seeing the disturbance of the central garden, Gilbert seemed to have moved as planned.

And Anne, hanging outside the window by now, must be confessing to where I ran to live.

She thinks I escaped on Molly, the smallest and weakest of all the horses released from the stable. Because that’s what I told Gilbert as well.

But even if Gilbert was captured, there would be no problem.

Because I have no plans to run away from the Duke’s Castle within today.

As expected, I could hear Anne speaking urgently to the duke who had caught her.

“I’ll tell you the truth! Betty, the little girl is scared and wants to run away, so I was trying to catch her…”

“Did Betty wake up?”

“What? Yeah, she just woke up…”

Anne’s bare feet could be seen through the cracks on the board wall. Gilbert didn’t seem to have been caught.

“…I think she rode Molly! Don’t you think it’ll be easy to handle because Molly is the smallest and gentlest?”

“Aren’t you dizzy?”

The Duke, who was listening to Anne, said suddenly. Anne asked back as if embarrassed.

“What?”

“I’m talking about Betty. Dried twin grasses take a long time to detoxify, so you can feel dizzy even after you recover, your daily life becomes impossible. It means there’s brain damage.”

Listening to that, I think I’m a little dizzy.

However, it seemed that I would last a few days in this narrow and cozy place.

The Duke won’t be in the castle for long anyway, and it’s ridiculous to run away while he’s around. No matter how small and gentle a horse is, it is impossible to climb on top of it with a 10-year-old body and run until it escapes from the duchy.

For this time, I had looked at the right space in advance. In the corner of the kitchen, there is a hole roughly blocked by a board (I don’t know why it was blocked. I think it can be used as a cupboard.) The board that blocked the entrance was so sloppy that if you crumpled your body well, a small child like me could enter.

Besides, the place beyond the board was originally drilled as a ventilation window, so you could look outside through the cracks in the board.

As if he had no idea I was hiding, the duke continued.

“It’s also a good way to eat decoction of Wing flowers and Temi tree fruit for a week or so. Both are easily available.”

Eat the fruit of Wing flowers and the fruit of Temi trees.

As a person who ate dried twin grass, it was very useful information, so I was listening without realizing it.

But when I thought about it a little more, it was strange.

‘You must have been quite angry about Anne, so why are you suddenly bragging your knowledge?’

As if to make someone listen on purpose…

“So it would be great to just lie down in bed and get some rest. Wouldn’t it?”

I felt something unusual and tried to look through the cracks in the boards, but I just stiffened.

It was because I met his red eyes through the gaps.