Volume 2 - CH 35

Upon hearing the young  marquess’ sweetly whispered words, the corrupt soldier spilled everything. It seemed that the noble behind all of this was after this diner and was also attempting to dirty the name of the young marquess at the same time.

After they heard him out, the corrupted soldier, along with the debt collectors, were handed over to the soldiers that they had actually called in. Since there would be an investigation, they demanded that everyone related to the case accompany them.

Similarly, Regina and Leena were requested to come with them as well, but thanks to the interference of the young marquess, they were excused from going and only heard what happened at the guard station later. Since they couldn’t leave the diner unattended, they were honestly grateful for that. However, Effy and Ciel ended up being taken in for questioning as individuals involved in the incident.

The debt, and the part-timers. 

Even if Leena and her mother were anguished over how this whole incident would end, they still continued running the diner. As they did so, the time to close the diner for the day quickly arrived. Leena was cleaning up when Effy and Ciel finally returned.

“Are you two alright?!”

“Yes, we’re fine. I’m sorry for making you worry,” Effy answered but the wording she used was no longer that of a young Lady, which was the language she had used up until that point. While Leena was still confused in many ways, they all sat down around a table at the front of house in order to listen to what had happened. Leena and Regina, the mother and daughter pair, were the ones listening, while Effy and Ciel were the ones explaining the situation.

“Firstly, I want to apologize for having lied to you all this time. Our real names are Emma and Roy. We’re siblings that work for Lady Sophia as her servants.”

“Siblings and servants? Then, you were pretending to be a young Lady and her servant because…?”

“We were ‘learning by doing’, so to speak. As servants, we still lack experience so, to make up for that, teacher Cyril had given us an assignment.”

Apparently, the two of them were taking turns in personally experiencing being a master and a servant and were learning how to conduct themselves as servants. And this time, it was Emma who was playing a young Lady.

“Then…um, you two coming here was purely coincidental? Um…but those debt collectors said stuff like that you also wanted this diner…”

""

“It wasn’t a coincidence. We were ordered by the young Lady to come here. It just wasn’t for the reason that you think, Miss Leena. Please, look at this.”

Emma held out a document. Even as Regina accepted it and was scanning it over, Emma continued talking, facing Leena.

“What I gave you just now is a document stating that Lady Sophia took over your debt.”

“So basically, you’re telling us to sell this diner to your master?”

Leena’s words became just a little bit sharper. It was true that the two of them being here was a huge help to her. It wasn’t hard to imagine that they were more virtuous than those debt collectors from earlier either. However, despite this, the shock of the thought of having been deceived revealed itself in her attitude. But—

“No. My Lady wishes for this diner to stay open.”

“Wishes for it to stay open? Then… you’re telling us that she took over the debt to…”

Regina pulled at her sleeve and Leena swallowed her questioning words back. Ignoring Leena asking her what was wrong, Regina turned to Emma and spoke.

“Is everything written on this document true? It says that we can repay the debt within a reasonable time frame and also that you won’t charge us any interest…”

Leena gasped upon hearing the overly favourable contents written on the document. Ignoring Leena peering into the document, Emma reaffirmed: “It’s true.”

“… Why are you doing things like this?”

In reaction to Regina’s question, Emma and Roy exchanged glances. Then they shook their heads. 

“Our Lady’s thoughts are unfathomable to us,” they said in unison and laughed.

Of course, this didn’t make much sense to Leena and Regina. Nevertheless, the fact that Leena’s family’s debt was transferred to Roy and Emma’s master and that its burden on them had lessened substantially were both true. 

Moreover, Roy and Emma would apparently continue helping them out until Leena’s father came back. 

At first, they were suspicious of them but no matter how much they prodded them about things, they could find no problems. Thus, while Leena and her family still weren’t fully able to comprehend what had happened, the danger had passed and peaceful days returned.

***

During the afternoon of the following day, Sophia was relaxing while being seated at one of the tables tucked into one of the corners of the courtyard while Cyril placed the tea-time dessert and a cup of tea onto the table.

“It’s another dessert that I have never seen before.”

“Yes. I’ve prepared it because I wished for you to enjoy yourself, my Lady. It’s called sweet potato. 1 Although its appearance is plain, thus making it more commoner-oriented, it has just the right amount of sweetness and tastes very delicious.”

“Hehe, I’m really looking forward to finding out what it tastes like.”

Cyril having made it was the same as having a great taste guarantee. Sophia’s eyes sparkled as she cut off a small piece of the sweet potato and brought it to her mouth. The dessert had a very peculiar texture, crumbling in her mouth. Somehow feeling relieved, Sophia’s eyes crinkled happily at the perfect amount of sweetness present in the dish.

“It has a…how should I describe it… a very gentle taste.”

“It does, doesn’t it? It’s an easy-to-make dessert oriented towards commoners.”

""

“…Could it be that the ‘potato’ part is referring to potatoes?2”

“No, my Lady. While it can be made with potatoes, this one is made from yams. However, the conclusion you have arrived at, my Lady, is most likely correct too.”

In other words, Sophia’s thoughts were one step behind Cyril’s and Cyril was helping her out. Even though Sophia realized this, she didn’t feel resentful and smiled.

“I am no match for you, Cyril, am I?” 

For her most recent Social Study, Sophia was tasked to research ‘The Relevance of The Crêpes’. Her assignment was to recognize the problems that would arise from letting Libert’s company open a café that would sell crêpes in the name of the royal family and to minimize the impact it would have on its surroundings.

Therefore, Sophia first gathered information about the café’s surroundings. As a result of having done so, she was able to determine that other nobles and merchants had their eye on the lands that surrounded this soon-to-be constructed first café of the franchise. That’s why she expected Leena’s diner to get targeted and had Roy and Emma stand guard there.

Unrelated to that issue, she also gave away some potatoes to a few shops. While this also served as insurance that Leena’s diner wouldn’t go out of business, if anything, the more important goal was to spread the potatoes throughout the country as the Rosenberg marquis family had just started to grow them.

It was a plan that killed two birds with one stone. Or, it was supposed to be.

However, as Sophia looked at the sweet potato, she realized that there was something that she had forgotten to consider. Just as how the surrounding shops would be affected by the opening of the crêpes store, other ingredients, especially other tubers, would be affected by the spread of potatoes on the market as well.

This meant that Cyril predicted the decline of the other tubers and created the sweet potato, in order to compensate for the smaller demand for yams. This was an area that Sophia didn’t even think of.

“I am still inadequate.”

“No, you have done really well, my Lady. You didn’t just simply reach out to people but you also evaluated the individual chefs’ abilities, intending on making use of them later, which was especially wonderful.”

“Thank you, Cyril. But I am still not at your level. I must work even harder next time in order to catch up to you. Therefore, please watch over me from now on as well, alright?”

“Of course, my Lady.”

Cyril flashed the courageous young Lady a gentle smile. 

This was a fairly typical scene when it came to Cyril assigning Sophia with studies.

And that’s the end of this side story! Also wow, we’ve been bamboozled! I totally thought Effy was Sophia lol.

Next side story features a lot of Cyril and tying up some loose ends from this side story. 

Thank you for reading! The Villainous Daughter’s rank on the site is 39, thank you so much for your continous support!

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