I’m Not Doing This With A Friend Chapter 111

 

Luckily, thanks to my half-hearted attempt at tears in the Duke’s office earlier, it wasn’t hard to draw them back.

 

Once I’ve gotten my emotions under control, it doesn’t take long for my voice to crack.

 

“…Duchess.”

 

I chewed my lip slightly and opened my mouth with a pleading look in my eyes.

 

“I’m a commoner, and I don’t want to be told that I’m pretending to be a noble just to please the Duchess.”

 

“Who would say such a thing!”

 

‘Hmm. I hadn’t heard anyone say that yet, but perhaps that’s what the butler was thinking.’

 

I lowered my gaze and muttered, “It’s hard enough that Madame is estranged from the Duke because of me, and…”

 

Then I heard a deeply puzzled voice up ahead.

 

“You, I don’t think it’s because of you.”

 

“But you were angry with the Duke earlier because I picked up his pen for him…”

 

The Duchess cleared her throat, searching for a rebuttal.

 

“I hadn’t thought of that, my dear, how much thought must have gone into that little head of yours…”

 

I went into the affirmation, feeling that things were going well.

 

“Duchess, please believe me, I was only trying to pick up the pen.”

 

“…I see. Not if you put it that way.”

 

Nice! I blinked in disbelief and wiped a tear away with my hand.

 

  “…You really believe me?”

 

“Of course.”

 

I smiled sheepishly and would have thanked her, if it weren’t for what came next.

 

“But aside from that, there’s still something I haven’t settled with him, and until I do, we’re on opposite sides.”

 

The tone of her voice was firm, as if she wasn’t willing to make any concessions, and I had no choice but to shut my mouth.

 

‘I’m sorry, Mister.’

 

I think I’m done here…

 

🍃

 

Tensions were high in the ducal residence.

 

The Duke and Duchess were having a rare quarrel. While they often had minor arguments, it was rare for them to go to war.

 

We don’t know the details, but everyone assumed that the Duke had lost his cool a few days earlier.

 

The Duchess’s new companion maid. They knew Leen was a maid, not someone they were supposed to mow down.

 

It was no wonder the Duchess had looked forward to her arrival in the Duchy.

 

Besides, she was Master Carson’s sweetheart.

 

The Duke’s disapproval, however, put the servants in an awkward position as to how to treat Leen.

 

The servant who was diligently sweeping the floor turned to the maid who was sweeping with her.

 

“I don’t know how to behave with her.”

 

The maid stopped sweeping and was told, “It seems that Butler Altemere has already made up his mind to side with the Duke…”

 

“He’s a butler, he usually treats commoners like dogs. I’m sure he’s glad the Duke disagrees with the Duchess.”

 

“Well…”

 

“Funny, he was a commoner himself until the Duke knighted him.”

 

The maid winced at her companion’s comment and put her index finger to her mouth.

 

“Shh, shh. What are you going to do if someone hears you?”

 

“As long as the butler doesn’t hear it himself, I don’t mind. We’ve all had enough of him.”

 

The servant tilted her head and asked, “So, are you on the Duchess’s side or the Duke’s?”

 

“I am…”

 

Normally, she would have sided with the Duchess without a second thought.

 

But she had never seen the Duke so emotional and angry in front of the Duchess before.

 

It was even causing the Duke and Duchess to be at odds with each other.

 

The maid sighed heavily and continued brushing.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

The servant said, as if she knew why she gave that answer.

 

“I heard that the Duke took the young lady aside and made her kneel down and spit out some nasty words?”

 

“I heard that the bandages on the young lady’s wrists were also done by the Duke?”

 

Pity flashed across their faces. The Duke was too kind.

 

The servant picked up where he left off, “But the young lady, don’t you think she’s rather likable?”

 

Although she had said she didn’t know which side to take, she agreed with the servant.

 

“Yes. It’s her looks, but it’s also the way she bends you over with her words…”

 

“She doesn’t make any pretense in front of the Duchess, nor does she seek to be treated as such.”

 

“Besides, she’s concocting all kinds of medicines and distributing them here and there, which makes her even harder to hate.”

 

Leen’s behavior after arriving at the ducal residence was somewhat peculiar.

 

One would have expected her to follow the Duchess around to curry favor with her, or to consolidate her position by staying with the Master…

 

Instead, she only saw the Duchess at set tea times, and pushed the Master away.

 

And relentlessly.

 

More than one servant had seen her thrown out of the laboratory and found the Master slouched in the doorway with a sullen face.

 

Whenever she came out of the lab, she was never empty-handed; she always had something to give to someone.

 

For the cooks, she’d give them a salve for burns.

 

Potions for knights who often got hurt in training.

 

Energy drinks for the wizards who always had dark circles from their studies.

 

For the maids and servants who suffered from joint pain, she gave them patches that felt cool to the touch and relieved pain.

 

At first, they were repulsed by the foul odor.

 

Once they tried them, they raved about their effectiveness.

 

The maid shrugged, “I can’t tell you because of the butler, but they say most of the servants have already gone over to the Duchess’s side.”

 

“They’re all handmade, she says, some of them invented by herself.”

 

“Wow, so if you make a cure for hair loss and give it to the butler, you’ll win him over, won’t you?”

 

“Eh, how do you cure genetic hair loss?”

 

“Maybe she can.”

 

Meanwhile, Altemere, who had been listening to the conversation between the two servants out of sight and planning his exit, stiffened.

 

Hope flashed in his eyes.

 

“A cure for hair loss…?”

 

🍃

 

I rattled off the lab I had inherited from the Duchess.

 

She asked me if I wanted to take a look around…

 

I thought it would be okay to take a look, so I followed her and accepted it.

 

Various herbs filled the walls of the lab. And when I saw the newest tools for alchemy, I couldn’t resist, because my mouth automatically started to express my gratitude.

 

I stretched out in the herb-filled lab.

 

“What shall we brew today?”

 

The only thing I was supposed to do at the Duchy was have tea with the Duchess once a day.

 

So, with time to spare, I looked at the piles of herbs, along with the preservation spells, and realized I should use them for the Duke.

 

It wasn’t hard to put the idea into action. The hard part was building trust with the servants.

 

Those who were skeptical when I first offered them the medicine were now happy to see what I brought.

 

“It’s worth all the hard work.”

 

I chuckle as I recall their reaction.

 

A knock sounded on the door and an unwelcome voice answered.

 

“It’s Butler Altemere, my lady.”

 

I walked to the door, feeling my mood instantly sink.

 

When I opened the door to meet him, he was uncharacteristically disheveled. He also seemed excited about something.

 

“I’m here today on personal business, not as a butler.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“I need you to make a cure for my hair loss.”

 

I blinked slowly and repeated, “A cure for hair loss?”

 

Was that full head of hair a wig…!

 

“If you can make that, I’ll be on your side.”

 

“What?”

 

What does he mean by taking my side? I didn’t realize who I was fighting with.

 

As I continued to look puzzled, the butler explained his words.

 

“We’re here to help you get settled into the ducal household.”

 

Oh…

 

How useless.

 

I’ve already been passed over, and you should be the one to convince me to marry into the ducal family.

 

He was staring at me with a desperate look on his face. I looked at the butler’s head and tilted my head at an angle as if I didn’t understand.

 

A look of innocence, of not knowing anything, of no malice.

 

“But you have a full head of hair, don’t you?”

 

“It’s…”

 

He hesitated, his mouth twitching several times, then ran a hand through his hair as if deciding something.

 

“It’s actually an illusion created by magic.”

 

As the butler spoke, his once-plentiful hair was transformed into a dreamlike mass of white.

 

Uh-oh… I pondered a bit. There really wasn’t a single strand of hair on his head.

 

There was not even a trace of hair, let alone a hair, so I was done arguing.

 

Somehow. If it had been a wig, I might have questioned whether it was his own hair when I saw it in the dining room before.

 

But what if there was no hair to fall out in the first place?

 

Then he could have been sure it wasn’t his and summoned the chef.

 

After a long silence, the butler, misunderstanding my silence, asked nervously.

 

“If there is no cure for hair loss, how can we mitigate it…!”

 

I stared at the butler and opened my mouth casually.

 

“Your hair looks so good on you, did you have it styled by a famous hair designer?”

 

The butler’s eyes widened in disbelief,  “What did you just say…!”

 

“Oh, right. I’ve heard so many good things about you, sir, that you really don’t have any ‘hai’…”

 

I, who had blatantly shifted my gaze to his head, suddenly jerked my head around and squinted my eyes as if trying to look at the sun with my bare eyes.

 

“Ouch, my eyes!”

 

I put my hand to my chest and took a deep breath.

 

“Huh… I see you’ve been recognized by the Duke himself. The butler was so dazzling that I couldn’t open my eyes.”

 

I let out a devilish laugh in my mind.

 

How do you feel now, butler?

 

You wouldn’t dare lay a hand on the Duchess’s maid.

 

Especially since it’s up to me to create the cure.

 

So you should have known better from the start. You knew how this was coming.

 

Foolish.