Reincarnated as the Villain's Butler

Chapter 14

A/N: Welcome back everyone! Please enjoy Scorpius being a smug little shit :>

WARNING: This chapter contains a brief but explicit depiction of child abuse and violence. It is located towards the end of the chapter, after the double section break. Proceed with caution or skip the section if needed.

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The light sounds of footsteps filled the sun lit room, the tall bookshelves made of polished teak wood lining the walls. Beyond the glass of the tall windows, was the sound of many carriage wheels traversing over the cobblestone paths.

"The young lords must be arriving now, it looks like," a maid stated as she peered outside for a moment. "This is the first time in a while that the young master had guests over, right? I've never seen him host a big event like this before."

"You can't really call this big, but yeah I think so," another replied.

"Really? This many carriages and it's not a big event?"

"Well it's not as formal an event as a ball, but it is with the heirs of the eastern faction."

"You talk like you know what a ball would look like. You've barely been here longer than I have, you know?" The other snickered as she drove an elbow into the other's side as she passed by.

"Hey, I'm from the estate back in the capital city—" the other replied with a giggle. "I know my way around these things, thank you very much."

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say." She squeezed the excess water out of the cloth and into the washing bin, folding it up again to continue wiping the hardwood floors. "Still, I'm surprised the young master rarely had any personal guests until now. I heard that he barely had any at all except for Prince Orion."

"I heard from the seniors that their relationship isn't that great," she recalled. "But yeah I heard that too."

"Really? Aren't they cousins or something?"

"First cousins yeah. I heard every time His Highness would come over they would fight."

"Aww, well I'm sure it's just sibling— Er, cousin? Rivalry out playing there. The young master's little rough 'round the edges but he's not so bad. I'm surprised he had even the guts to do that in the first place for sure. I wonder how His Grace reacted."

"Well, this is before his attendant began serving him I think. Heard he used to be quite a handful," she chuckled.

"Guess our young master's lucky he got his own little chaperone following him around," she giggled. "He's such a sweetheart. He's so shy but he tries so hard to be tough and proper. I swear all the rumors from before just have no idea how children work. He's a kid for crying out loud."

The other shrugged. "Yeah... From what I've heard, he was just really lonely. That's also probably why his attendant helped so much."

"Yeah, it's impressive, honestly. I—"

"If you have time to chatter, I'm assuming you're all done with your work?"

The two servants sputtered where they stood, quickly bowing down.

"Apologies, Sir Butler!"

"You should know better than to speak lightly as a servant of Linhearth."

As the two remained bowing in silence, Ernett stared at them, before waving the two off dismissively. Saying hushed thank yous, they scattered off, making themselves look busy as Ernett sat back down at his office desk. After his promotion to junior butler, more work has been piling up that he really couldn't be bothered to reprimand them further. How the head butler manages to juggle everything, including the affairs of other estates was beyond him. The work won't be getting any easier either, since he highly doubted His Grace would be remarrying, and his other options were, well, not ideal.