Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End

The silver moonlight cloaked Roel, who was sitting in a daze by the windowsill. He swung his leg lackadaisically as he looked at the ticking clock and sighed deeply.

Ey, I can’t fall asleep. I slept too long earlier in the day.

He spent two hours eating and chatting with Nora before the latter retired to a guest room to sleep. She had busied herself for the entire day, so it was only natural that she was exhausted. Roel, on the other hand, had more than enough energy to expend. So, he headed to the study and grabbed a book to read.

Fast-forwarding on, it was already midnight, but Roel still felt no inclination to sleep at all. After some thought, he decided to head out for a walk. He put on a coat before coming out of his room.

A maid on night duty immediately asked Roel if there was anything that he needed, but he shook his head in response.

“I’m just heading out for a walk. There’s no need to follow me.”

“Yes, Lord Roel.”

The maid respectfully returned back to her original position whereas Roel began strolling around the villa alone.

My house sure is big.

Roel thought as he wandered around this building which had more than a century of history behind it. As the host, it would have been customary for Roel to bring Nora around the house to take a look, but in view of the poor illumination at night, this matter had been postponed till tomorrow.

Nora had really brought quite a lot of people with her. Counting all the maids, chefs, and guards, there must be more than a hundred people. There were over twenty people on normal night duty, and this was not counting the knight platoon stationed around Nora’s room. The maid with long gray hair named Mia, the one who passed Nora the sweets container earlier, was around too.

“Young master Roel, is there anything I can help you with?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just having difficulties trying to fall asleep, so I’m taking a walk around. Is Her Highness sleeping?”

“Yes, Her Highness has already been asleep for two hours.”

“I see.”

Roel shot a look of envy at her room. He was just about to take his leave when he suddenly recalled something.

“Right, did she manage to win the Chorale Choir Competition today?”

“Yes, Her Highness has a voice blessed by heaven. The panel of esteemed judges who came from various countries was deeply impressed.”

Mia proudly replied.

Roel nodded in response as he recalled how displeased Nora was about him not watching her competition. He pondered for a moment before asking.

“Is there any tool that recorded her voice or performance during the competition?”

“Are you referring to the Recording Stone? Of course, we have prepared that too. The church would always record the new year events every year. They would mass-produce the recordings and sell them to other countries so that others can bask in the glory of Sia too.”

Mia’s words surprised Roel.

Now that he thought about it, there was indeed such a thing. It was just that the Ascart House had never bought it before. It was not because Recording Stones were expensive, but the opening event of the church was simply too boring. It was an entire night of prayers! No one but the most devout of believers would have been able to bring themselves to watch people praying for a whopping six hours!

“This includes the choir competition too?”

“Yes, it’s recorded too.”

“Can you bring me a recording of it tomorrow then? I would like to see Her Highness’ performance.”

Otherwise, she’s going to keep harping on it for life.

Roel supplemented the latter half of the sentence in his heart, but the maid, who heard just the front half of the sentence, interpreted his intention very differently. Her pupils widened in astonishment before the air over her head started to turn green. A smile that carried a mixture of relief and maturity appeared on her face.

(Affection Points +200!)

Huh, what’s going on? Why are you turning green? What did I do?

Roel was rendered speechless by the sudden wave of Affection Points. Thinking back, it seemed like he had an inexplicable ability to make maids go green. It was the same for the servants in his house too. Often, before he knew it, all of them would turn green together.

“Young master Roel is truly considerate. I believe that Her Highness Nora will be pleased if she learns about this.”

“N-no, I…”

“Please be assured. I’ll prepare the Recording Stone tomorrow. You’ll receive it at the latest by the day after tomorrow.”

Mia had become excited; she was all pumped up. Having served Nora for many years, she knew just how lonely her young miss was. Roel appeared to be a decent man to her; he came over here late at night to check on her, and he even requested to obtain the Recording Stone from the church beforehand.

He must be anxious to watch the splendor of our young miss as soon as possible!

Not to mention, the two of them had backgrounds compatible with one another, and what was even rarer was that they were actually on good terms with one another. Was there any better partner for her young miss than this?

For that reason, she decided to give everything she had to help this boy who sought to free her young miss from her loneliness.

Seeing the maid thumping her chest with a confident expression that said ‘Don’t worry, I understand’, Roel, despite all of the doubts lingering in his mind, found himself not knowing what to say at all. In the end, he could only bid Mia farewell and take his leave.

…

The following day Roel got up early in the morning and began his work as a tour guide. The Labyrinth Villa, even with its hundred years of history, was actually nothing spectacular to the royal family. After all, even the royal palace itself had centuries behind it!

However, there was one exceptional advantage that the Labyrinth Villa had over the royal palace, and that was the endorsement from celebrities!

“There, do you see the chair over there? Her Majesty Victoria once sat there!”

“Here, here. Look at the lamp over here. Her Majesty Victoria once used it!”

Roel simply vomited word-for-word everything that the excited Carter said when the latter brought him around the house back then.

Actually, the responsibility of the servants of the Labyrinth Villa wasn’t really to take care of the family members of the Ascart House. The Ascart House had few offspring, and they would only stay in the Holy Capital once in a while. There was no need to hire so many servants to wait on them.

What the servants were needed for was the preservation of these historical items. It went without saying that nobles needed to have a fair share of antiques to flaunt their history too! This was a matter of dignity!

The most incredible place of the Labyrinth Villa was probably the library, which contained many ancient books. Being fully aware of this, Roel led Nora over to the library and gestured to a set of books on the bookshelves.

“The books you see over here are the diaries left behind by my predecessor, Ponte Ascart. You may feel free to flip through it, but please do pay heed since the paper is a little brittle.”

Nora nodded her head obediently. As a future female successor as well, she carried great respect for Empress Victoria. Thus, she had a favorable impression of Ponte Ascart, who was known to have helped Empress Victoria through the crisis back then.

This was a rare opportunity to read the diaries of Ponte Ascart, and a rare solemn look appeared on her face.

Roel was relieved to see this since he would be able to take a breather with this. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel curious as to what was written in the diaries. Despite it having been some time since he arrived at the Labyrinth Villa, he hadn’t actually read these yet. He assumed that the diaries were likely to be filled with boring work-related stuff, since Ponte Ascart was a high-standing official. Thus, he never bothered himself with them.

With such thoughts in mind, he took out one of the diaries himself and began flipping through it.

「13th June, sunny.

Uwoh, Victoria’s little skirt looks so cute! It looks like the newest trend in the Holy Capital. There are many noblewomen who have been wearing such skirts recently, but in my opinion, Victoria is still the most beautiful of them all!」

「14th June, sunny.

Today’s Victoria appears to be a little out-of-it. She seems to be bothered with something. I should have given her a stern scolding, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Uwu, a brooding Victoria looks cute too!」

“…“

W-what’s going on? This doesn’t look right!

Roel was taken aback. Even though he had only read two entries so far, it carried a strikingly similar style to some of the otaku-esque websites he had browsed through in the past.

No, no no no no no. How can this be? My predecessor, Ponte Ascart, is a great hero! I… I’ll read a bit more first…

「24 August, rainy.

It was raining when Victoria came by today. She got drenched along the way, resulting in her clothes clinging to her. Ahh, o’ great Sia! Her body is still as small as a few years back. She doesn’t have that unnecessary accumulation of fat on her chest. Her slender frame is truly a work of art! And oops, she caught me looking at her chest and glared at me. I must make sure to do it more discreetly in the future…」

Pah!

The sound of a book slamming shut echoed loudly in the room, shocking Nora, who was reaching out to grab one of the diaries herself.

“Roel? What’s wrong? Didn’t you tell me to be more careful with these books?”

Nora tilted her head in confusion at Roel’s actions. The latter’s cheeks were twitching a little. It took a while before he raised his head up once more with a light smile on his lips. With a tender voice, he said…

“Hm, what could be wrong here? We have spent quite some time walking around. Shall we head out to have some tea now?”

“Aren’t we going to read the diaries…”

“It’s all work-related entries. There’s nothing interesting to read about it. We have a tea set which Empress Victoria is very fond of. Aren’t you interested in it?”

Under Roel’s coaxing, Nora’s attention was successfully diverted, and the two of them left the library together. Before walking out, Roel shot a ferocious glare at the bookshelf.

I’ll burn you down tomorrow!