Working at a Haunted Mansion Chapter 129 - Side Story Chapter 5

Then one day, the duke awoke—
and fearing punishment for her “impure conduct,” Lily Dienta turned the tables, blackmailing the steward and securing a transfer to the capital.

Sometime later, when the steward followed the duke to the capital, he found himself unable to forget the young maid’s charms and sought Lily Dienta out once again.

Believing firmly in her own allure, Lily Dienta boldly demanded a higher position—she became the duke’s counselor and, at last, succeeded in ensnaring him.

That was the story being told.

Everything about it was fabricated, yet if one looked only at surface appearances, parts of it seemed to line up.

So someone who knows I used to be a maid is running his mouth for attention, huh? Ridiculous.

Her fists wouldn’t stop trembling.

And the people who enjoy listening to this garbage are just as bad. As long as it’s juicy gossip, they don’t care if it’s true or not. If they’d just think for two seconds, they’d see how full of holes it is—yet everyone’s listening, even inviting him to their homes! Disgusting.

According to Countess Dorian, a few nobles intrigued by the “scandal of the House of Kashimir” had invited Norbert Rider into their own salons to tell his story.

If she had met that man even once in person, she might not have felt so furious.

That “poor Mr. Norbert Rider,” who claimed to have devoted his heart to Lily Dienta only to be cruelly cast aside for power.

She slumped onto the sofa, completely at a loss as to how to fix this mess.

Today marked the end of Julius’s funeral. After three days of mourning, there would be the ceremony and banquet announcing the new emperor.

Lily was meant to attend as Aiden’s partner.

But with her reputation so stained, she couldn’t even imagine stepping past the mansion’s front door, much less attending a royal banquet.

Maybe she should hide away for two or three years—marry Aiden in secret and live quietly in the duke’s estate…

Knock, knock.

At the sound, Lily straightened up. Aiden was standing at the door.

He wore the mourning clothes she had grown used to seeing lately—entirely black, with a cloak that draped over the left side of his body down to his thigh.

Even his accessories were made of silver. With his usual impassive face, he might have looked cold and intimidating, but since he always smiled around her, she couldn’t really tell.

That same faint smile made her realize she’d missed his arrival.

Normally, she would have been watching the window, waiting to see his carriage return so she could go greet him—but today, anger had kept her from doing so.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve come out to meet you—”

Before she could finish rising to her feet, Aiden strode over.

He pulled off his leather gloves and gently cupped her face in his hands.

“What’s wrong?”

His voice was calm but sure—he already sensed something was off. Lily’s eyes welled up immediately.

“Well, you see…”

Aiden guided her back down to the sofa.

Pressed close at his side, she poured out the story of the despicable man who had been slandering her.

By the time she finished, a few tears had slipped down her cheeks.

It could’ve been worse—had it not been for the warmth of Aiden’s hand holding hers the whole time, she might have cried enough to fill a bucket.

Of course, Lily hadn’t wanted to cry over something like this.

When she reunited with Aiden, she had vowed to face society’s prejudice head-on. She had wanted to laugh off her first real trial as something absurd and trivial.

But once it actually happened, it wasn’t so easy. She felt humiliated, hurt, and guilty.

Her honor wasn’t the only one dragged through the mud—it was Aiden’s and Wolfram’s as well.

And she had never imagined her existence could be treated as mere entertainment. There wasn’t even great malice in it, probably. People were doing it just for fun…

“I’m sorry. You had to hear things like that because of me.”

Aiden reached out with his free hand and wiped her tears away.

“Don’t apologize. None of this is your fault.”

“But if I—”

“Enough.”

Aiden brushed his lips lightly against the trail of her tears.
It was barely a touch—soft, fleeting, ticklish.

When she blinked up at him, he smiled faintly, and the warmth in his eyes slowly melted away her fear.

Once she’d calmed, Aiden took out a handkerchief and gently finished drying her tears.

“What do you want to do?” he asked softly.

“If you want Norbert Rider on his knees, I’ll make it happen. If you want to duel him, I’ll arrange that too. Whatever kind of revenge you want—I’ll help you.”

It was a typical Aiden Kashimir way of comforting someone—blunt, almost violent.

Yet she couldn’t deny that the idea was tempting. She did want that awful man to pay for running his mouth. But… wasn’t that going too far?

As she hesitated, she suddenly realized something.

“Wait—I never told you that man’s name…”

Aiden Kashimir blinked, then smiled—a dazzling, evasive smile clearly meant to dodge the question.

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

Aiden had been doing everything he could to help Lily grow comfortable with aristocratic society.

To be clear, the one doing the accepting was Lily herself. Whether the nobles liked her or not was of no concern to him.

If Lily ever said she couldn’t stand the sight of those people, he would simply build her a warm, peaceful home—somewhere she could live a quiet, simple life for the rest of her days.

But since she truly wished to become a duchess beyond reproach, Aiden was happy to make the preparations.

For instance, he had already handpicked a circle of families—vassals of House Kashimir, the empress’s personal friends, and a few of the duchy’s long-standing allies—and spoken with their heads himself.

Their cooperation came freely, without coercion or obligation.

That was no surprise. Among noble houses, mutual association was a natural state of affairs.

In doing so, those families reaffirmed their friendship and solidarity with House Kashimir.

They were guaranteed a stable supply of ore from his mines and protected from any increases in the tariffs levied on merchant caravans that passed through his lands.

As he had told her again and again, Lily had no reason whatsoever to worry about her social standing.

But things changed during the emperor’s funeral.

“My wife, too, eagerly awaits the chance to meet Lady Dienta. For the honor of our house, however, we do hope that her innocence is proven before that day comes.”

There were two such letters—formal requests to prove Lily’s purity before any meeting—and another two that described the gossip in greater detail.

Furious, Aiden had mobilized every available resource and contact. By the time he returned home that evening, Wolfram had compiled several reports for him.

They contained the true name of one Norbert Rider, the conversations he had held in the drawing rooms of the Marquis faction, his current whereabouts, and a list of the powers suspected to be backing him.

Aiden summarized it for her:

“My friends told me.”

For a moment, Lily gave him a look that said, You have friends?

A perfectly understandable reaction—but he wasn’t lying.

According to the genteel logic of high society speechcraft, his words were strictly true. Regardless of motive, those people had acted on his behalf.

Lily decided not to press the matter. Her expression clouded again.

“So you already knew…”

“Not for long. I was planning to discuss it with you today.”

Though his voice was gentle, Aiden quietly clicked his tongue in regret.

Ah, how nice it would be not to have to discuss such things at all—to simply take care of everything as he pleased, and let her remain blissfully unaware.

He almost missed his old ways.

Kidnap the scoundrel, throw him into a dungeon, and make him confess his sins.

Send imperial auditors to the houses that gave him an audience, inflate their petty embezzlements into treason, strip them of their lands and titles.

Those reclaimed estates could then be distributed to Aiden’s own supporters—a tidy benefit for the empress, who in turn needed to keep Caleb Shaywortz in check for her son’s sake.

Finally, orchestrate the whole play so that Caleb Shaywortz would meet his end within a few years at the hand of the crown prince who sought early succession…

A delicious fantasy, but nothing more than that.

Because Aiden Kashimir was no longer the man he once had been. He had become a new person—because of Lily.

He took quiet delight in the strangeness of his own transformation, when Lily’s hesitant voice broke his reverie.

“Then… um, if you’ve already heard everything and you’re still being this kind to me, does that mean you don’t believe any of it?”

“Of course not.”

Aiden burst out laughing.

Not because he took her worries lightly, but because her question was almost endearingly absurd.

“The story about you and Wolfram having some secret affair in my office? Everyone else might believe it—but I couldn’t. From the moment you set foot in the manor, I was watching you the entire time. Like a guardian angel—always by your side…”

Aiden Kashimir, it seemed, had a gift for romanticizing the past.