Living as a Butler to the Northern Duke chapter 31

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By now, the southern region had fully crossed into early spring, and each day grew warmer.

“…The Empire, young master.”

‘And why am I listening to this boring lesson on a weekend morning?’

Ed let out a small sigh.

It was because Ronen had asked him to attend the lesson together.

Their tutor, Felix, was currently in Ronen’s room, passionately lecturing with maps and models set up on the blackboard.

‘Normally, he’d just toss us a book to read and be off doing something else.’

Felix often delayed lessons at the drop of a hat, and the progress was usually made up through homework.

If that was the case, why even hire a tutor?

They might as well be self-taught.

Ed wanted to go straight to Irtel or Jaynon and tell them to hang Felix out of the window, but Ronen was sitting there with such bright, attentive eyes.

Even though the whole mansion was in disarray due to Ronen’s impending departure to the imperial family in a few days, his focus on his studies was unwavering.

Lowering his gaze, Ed propped his chin up with one hand and began writing in his notebook.

Herins Count Couple – ○ △
Young Master Naisen – ○ △
Elisa Shelton – ○ △
Izar Tailor Couple – ○
Butler Kerrill – ○
Tutor Felix – ○
Swordmaster Sener – ○
Sener’s Subordinate 1, Asler – ○
Sener’s Subordinate 2, Telon – ○
Chef Siemens – ○
Servant Bence – ○
Maid Anna – ○
Coachman Matthew – ○@
Orphanage headmaster – ○@

People who were favorable to young master Ronen:
Maid Sena
Kitchen Assistant Erin
Gardener Gio
Knight Commander Taylor (just indifferent)

“Bored with the lesson? What are you so diligently drawing?”

Ronen glanced at Ed’s notebook, written in Korean, and asked.

“Ah, no.”

When Ed turned the page, Ronen grinned playfully.

“If it’s boring, should we stop?”

“No, we need to keep up with the lessons.”

Felix, who abandoned lessons on both weekdays and weekends, had left the lesson plan as clogged as a weekend highway in Korea.

“Then, I will resume the lecture.”

Taking a short break, Felix, who had been drinking water and flipping through pages, cleared his throat.

Propping his chin up again, Ed thought to himself.

△ meant that the Grand Duke had completed the investment, while ○ indicated that a contract had been signed.

The names with lines meant they’d been suitably dealt with.

‘I thought the butler would hold out until the end before signing.’

Surprisingly, Jaynon had easily secured the butler’s signature.

It seemed to have something to do with the trinket and song related to the minor count.

‘Maybe I should head down to the kitchen today and handle the chef?’

Still unable to concentrate on the lesson, Ed continued doodling in his notebook.

Just then, a knock echoed through the room.

Felix, who had been passionately lecturing with his voice raised, frowned, and Ed craned his neck, wondering what it was.

The person who entered was Jaynon.

“Sorry for interrupting the lesson, Mr. Felix, but it seems an important letter has arrived for you.”

“What could it be?”

Felix, upon checking the white envelope with the red seal that Jaynon handed him, immediately froze.

It was obvious without words.

Flipping to the front of his notebook, Ed drew a long underline beneath Felix’s name.

It was likely a letter demanding an explanation for his involvement in a plagiarism scandal.

“I wonder if something happened to Mr. Felix? He didn’t look too well.”

As they made their way to the kitchen, Ronen tilted his head in concern for Felix.

“Indeed, young master.”

Felix, the second son of a small trading company from the southern region, had earned his degree more through tricks and money than through effort or skill.

He had even plagiarized when obtaining his doctoral degree.

Ed remembered this from a short side story in the original work.

Felix had copied an ancient manuscript he’d acquired through the trading company to obtain his degree.

So all they needed to do was find that book, but… who could recall such a brief mention of the book’s title?

With a deep sigh, Ed was reminded of the book’s title thanks to Jaynon, who, upon hearing about the pattern on the cover, exclaimed, “Ah!” and remembered.

It was a maroon-covered book on the fifth shelf of the ancient studies section on the second floor of the third northern archive.

‘What… that’s terrifying.’

Looking at Jaynon’s innocent smile as he asked which part of the book he was curious about, Ed thought to himself, ‘I should never mess with Jaynon again.’

Having figured out the book’s title, Ed sent a letter to the academy, detailing the ancient research records and Felix’s plagiarism.

Though Ed thought it might take some time, recent reports of scholars plagiarizing or stealing their students’ work had sped up the process.

The letter only stated that they would re-examine the thesis, but that alone was enough.

Ed had planned to transcribe the book from the north if the letter was rejected, but thankfully, he didn’t have to go through that trouble.

Felix would now have to tear his hair out trying to defend himself.

His degree was at serious risk of being revoked.

According to the original work, obtaining a degree wasn’t easy.

Even with money, it required at least five years of being worked like a slave under the professors.

‘This is what they mean by reaping what you sow.’

Ed and Ronen entered the kitchen.

The kitchen was bustling, as lunchtime was approaching.

“Oh, young master Ronen! Ed! Hello, did you study hard?”

Kuan, the head chef from the northern castle, greeted Ronen as soon as he saw him.

Then, the dozen or so people in the kitchen all welcomed Ronen.

“Hello! It’s a wonderful weekend! Young master Ronen! Ed!”

The spacious kitchen echoed with various voices.

The kitchen at the Herins Count’s estate had originally been run by the head chef Siemens and the kitchen assistant Erin.

However, due to a lack of manpower, the servants and maids rotated in to help, making the kitchen disorganized and chaotic.

Once the northern kitchen staff, brought in by the Grand Duke, were deployed, they reorganized the kitchen’s hierarchy.

“Deputy head chef Suri, is the jam ready to be taken off the heat? It sticks to the spoon like this.”

“No, Erin. Blue raspberries tend to harden as they cool, so you need to cook it down until it clumps.”

“Ah, I see.”

Erin, who had been the kitchen assistant at the Count’s estate, was now glued to the deputy head chef from the north, carefully writing down the recipe in her notebook.

It was a scene that had never been seen under Siemens’ rule.

Of course, the kitchen was always busy, short-staffed, and full of tasks, which could have led to harsh treatment.

But Siemens wasn’t like that.

Siemens had been more concerned with lining his own pockets than running the kitchen properly.

He often replaced high-quality ingredients with cheaper ones to pocket the difference, but since Erin had started sticking close to him, that behavior had been curbed.

He had tried to harass Erin into quitting, but she stubbornly held on for the sake of her younger siblings.

Not only that, she even pretended not to notice when she called out Siemens for messing with Ronen’s food.

“Shouldn’t it be discarded since it’s spoiled? Or is it being used like cheese? Is it going to be added to food? Or is it just for decoration?”

With that, Siemens quietly discarded the spoiled ingredients and left.

Whenever Ronen was imprisoned, it was Erin who left food on the corner table in the kitchen.

Thanks to this, Ed was able to easily take the food and deliver it to Ronen.

Ed looked over at Siemens, who was busy chopping spicy peppers in a corner of the kitchen.

Siemens had been demoted to kitchen assistant after spilling oil into the hearth while desperately trying to outperform the northern head chef who had joined the Count’s household.

‘He must want to quit out of pride, but that would be difficult.’

Even though the contract terms offered by the Grand Duke were too good.

The contract promised to pay him ten times his previous salary as long as he stayed in the kitchen.

Ed shouted loud enough for the whole kitchen to hear.

“Head Chef Kuan.”

The northern head chef, who had been showing Ronen how to make bread, turned around.

“I’d like onion soup, fried onions, pickled onions, and sautéed onions for dinner tonight. Is that possible?”

As soon as the word “onion” left Ed’s mouth, Siemens glared at him.

When Head Chef Kuan’s gaze followed to the corner of the kitchen, Siemens, who had been glaring at Ed, quickly averted his eyes.

At the same time, burly figures carrying onions appeared.

Siemens’ lips trembled.

His eyes were already stinging and his hands burning from handling the spicy peppers, and now they had added a mountain of onions.

He must have wanted to quit on the spot.

The onions here were notoriously hard to prepare.

Even when soaked in water, they were pungent and difficult to peel.

But once cooked, they became incredibly soft and sweet, much more so than the onions from Korea.

“Achoo, achoo, ah-ah-choo.”

Siemens sneezed several times in a row.

“You can stop if it’s too much,” said the sous-chef leading the onion crew, glancing at Siemens.

Siemens shook his head furiously.

The northern staff would only be around for a few more days. He couldn’t quit over something like this.

Besides, there was no place better than the Herins Count’s household to pilfer high-quality ingredients.

If he held on a little longer, he’d get the money the Grand Duke had promised.

What was pride compared to that?

Siemens began preparing the onions, sneezing all the while.

“Shall we go, young master?”

Ed, who had been quietly watching him, turned to leave, following behind Ronen, who had recently taken a liking to kneading soft bread dough.

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