The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 104

At a busy intersection, a carriage bearing the crest of a noble house came to a stop in front of a restaurant.

At a gesture from a young man who looked like a secretary, a tall man with a sculpted appearance stepped down.

When the secretary opened the restaurant door, the man strode inside, entering a plainly common eatery that didn’t suit him at all.

Jingle.

At the sound of the bell on the door, a familiar young man chewing gum greeted the customer with nothing more than words.

“Welcome.”

As Cedric headed toward the bar where the staff stood, his sharp eyes swept over the restaurant.

Even in broad daylight, the interior was dim, with a bar counter and stairs leading up to the second floor. It was exactly as Cedric heard.

Jerry, who was already one of Cedric’s investigation targets, stayed busy with his work. Only when Cedric and Rufus came right up to him and fixed him with an uncomfortable stare did Jerry finally lift his head to look at them.

“Huh? This isn’t exactly a place nobles would come to, you know. If you’re looking for a restaurant or lodging, there’s a high-end inn over there….”

As Jerry actively gestured to shoo them away, Rufus bristled and was about to speak. Cedric stopped him with a hand and stepped forward.

“Guildmaster.”

At the word “guildmaster” spoken by an outsider, Jerry’s expression changed.

To outsiders, this place was nothing more than a restaurant or pub. It was rare for someone who didn’t know that to suddenly come looking for the guildmaster.

“And who might you be?”

Jerry’s voice carried more wariness than before. Once again, Cedric stopped Rufus as he tried to step in.

“I’m Cedric of House Calley. Tell the guildmaster I have urgent business to discuss.”

At the name “Calley,” Jerry’s eyes shifted. He quickly composed himself and said, “The master stepped out for a moment. He has no reason to meet people who came without an appointment.”

“What did you say?”

At Jerry’s words, Rufus finally raised his voice. At once, a large man holding a square-bladed knife appeared from the kitchen. Standing before the armed man, Jerry spoke again.

“Make an appointment today and come back tomorrow.”

Facing off two against two, Rufus let out a scoffing laugh and stepped back.

“Guess it was rude to come without an appointment. But I need to be back today.”

Cedric spoke as he thought of his promise to Sheila.

“Just looking at you, you’re already showing hostility for no reason. You’d really meet us properly just because we made an appointment? We came knowing the guildmaster is here. Stop the tricks here.”

As Cedric said, Bill was in the second-floor office. But hearing that the heir of House Calley knew the guildmaster’s schedule made Jerry’s expression harden.

The man behind Jerry stepped forward with a vicious look and slammed the square-bladed knife down onto the bar with a bang.

With the knife embedded in the table between them, four… no, three men locked eyes.

“What’s all this commotion!”

A booming voice rang out from the stairs at that moment.

The man who appeared radiated intimidation not just through his voice but also through his appearance as well. Anyone could tell he was the guildmaster.

After Jerry stepped forward and roughly explained the situation, Bill, who never took his eyes off Cedric, said, “Come upstairs.”

Leaving the glaring Jerry behind, Cedric and Rufus went up the stairs to the second floor.

Bill threw open the door to the empty office and said, “Go on in.”

As Cedric stepped inside, Bill blocked Rufus as he tried to follow. Then Bill looked at Cedric and asked, “Do you want to speak privately, or should we sit down together and have a discussion? If you want a discussion, I can call more people in.”

“Y-Young Count…!”

Rufus called out to Cedric desperately, as if begging him not to leave him alone.

“Wait outside.”

The moment Cedric finished speaking, the door slammed shut in front of Rufus’s anxious eyes.

“Please, have a seat.”

Bill guided Cedric to a chair, then went and sat behind his desk.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Bill, the guildmaster in charge of this area.”

“Cedric Calley.”

They skipped the handshake.

“There have been suspicious people wandering around the guild and the town lately. So they were your people, Young Count.”

“I had something to investigate.”

Cedric’s attitude was confident, as if there was no need to hide it.

“Isn’t that something guildmasters do all the time?”

At Cedric’s pointed remark, Bill shrugged lightly.

As Cedric said, the guild didn’t only deal in clean business.

“So, what brings the Young Count all the way to a place like this…?”

It was obvious who the Young Count came here for. Still, there was no need for Bill to bring it up first.

“I’ll get straight to the point. I want to know why Sheila comes and goes here.”

Bill let out a small laugh and tapped his fingers against the desk. “I don’t see any reason to answer that.”

At Bill’s words, Cedric smiled in a way that looked almost vulgar.

“Do you need a reason?”

The unspoken meaning was that he’d make one if necessary. Silence fell.

Only the sharp gazes of the two men clashed in the air.

Bill was the first to speak again.

“Then let me ask you one thing. Why are you going this far?”

“I don’t think I have any reason to answer that either.”

When Cedric replied calmly, Bill shot back at once. “There’s been a lot of talk lately about you keeping a whipping maid.”

“My youngest sister’s a bit willful, so I tried using a whipping maid for three months. News travels fast.”

Cedric crossed his legs leisurely and continued, “Or maybe there are servants with loose lips.”

Despite his casual tone, Cedric’s eyes weren’t casual at all, as if he wouldn’t let it slide if there really were servants who talked too much.

“Sheila.”

Bill spoke heavily.

“She may look strong, but she’s fragile. Don’t touch her carelessly.”

At Bill’s warning, Cedric raised one eyebrow. “And who are you to say that? Are you her kept man or something?”

Seeing the Young Count show such childish emotion, Bill felt a bit relieved. It meant Sheila wasn’t just a passing amusement to him.

“You’re a little different from the rumors,” Bill said.

The man before him was Cedric Calley, widely praised even among nobles.

What kind of people are nobles?

They judge a person’s worth by status and don’t even see commoners as equals.

Yet Cedric Calley came all the way to a place like this for the sake of a mere maid, Sheila.

But even so.

Even if the Young Count’s feelings for Sheila were genuine, the difference in their status wouldn’t disappear.

A man who already completed his appointment ceremony had only one path left: to marry a noblewoman of equal rank, produce an heir, and continue the unequal class system.

So even if the Young Count’s feelings were real, it couldn’t be said to be a good thing for Sheila.

As far as Bill knew, Sheila wasn’t the type of woman who would live in the shadows as the mistress of a married noble.

Cedric thought Bill bringing up “rumors” about him was nothing but arrogance.

Whatever the rumors said, he was simply himself.

“You speak as if you know me pretty well. Then you must also know how busy I am. I’d like to stop wasting time here.”

At Cedric’s words, Bill replied, “You won’t hear the answer you want from me. I may not look it, but I value trust with my clients.”

“Clients…”

Cedric repeated the word that came out of Bill’s mouth as he watched Bill tap his fingers on the desk.

Just the day before, Cedric received a meaningful letter from someone he planted in this area.

The contents said that this place didn’t just function as a guild, but also took on the work of an information broker, and even handled contract killings.

In that instant, the amount written in Sheila’s ledger came back to him.

The money Sheila was aiming for was two hundred solids.

If that money wasn’t simply saved for the modest goal of buying a small cottage…?

Cedric spoke to Bill, who used the word “client.”

“Right. Two hundred solids would make someone a fairly big client here.”

At Cedric’s words, the fingers tapping the desk froze for a moment.

Seeing that, Cedric continued, “That amount would be just right for getting rid of one person. Especially if it’s not a noble, but a commoner living without much care.”

Bill’s thick eyebrows twitched slightly.

Cedric wasn’t wrong.

Of course, Bill didn’t carry out such work himself. All he did was connect contract killers with clients.

The history of assassination organizations was just as long as the history of the guild itself, and generation after generation, guildmasters colluded with the organization’s intermediaries.

When Bill became guildmaster, he also came to know those contacts in secret, but he didn’t particularly like illegal work. Still, the reason he kept ties with them was simple.

The law was too distant from commoners, and it wasn’t fair either.

Of course, contract killers weren’t exactly close at hand.

Since human lives were at stake, you couldn’t approach carelessly, nor could you kill people indiscriminately for a few coins.

That was why Bill didn’t shave off even a single coin from the amount he quoted to the young Sheila.

Money was time, and part of it was to see whether Sheila’s resolve would change while she gathered that money.

If Sheila’s resolve didn’t waver, he planned to carry out the contract killing as promised, and even pay extra to ensure everything was handled cleanly afterward.

Even though he could boast that the skill of the organization connected to the guild was top tier, he couldn’t let Sheila’s life be ruined because of some piece of trash, just in case.

“The person she wants dead is either the brother-in-law who drove her sister to her death, or the brother who’s been sucking the life out of her.”

As Bill recalled Sheila, Cedric continued voicing his own deduction.

“But that Duker guy is said to be sick, just waiting to die. There’s no way you wouldn’t know that. And if you know it, Sheila wouldn’t fail to know it either. So the one she’d want to get rid of, even spending money on, would be her own older brother, Fred.”