The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 42: Servant Cedric (8). The Lord of Eched

“Don’t you think the Young Lady’s changed since that apology?”

“Totally. She doesn’t lash out anymore, and when she scolds us, it’s just words now.”

“I—I got complimented the other day for polishing her shoes well! I thought she didn’t even care what we did, but I guess she’s been watching us all along.”

“My mother collapsed, so I had to rush home, and the Young Lady gave me a day off. She’s so thoughtful, honestly.”

“Maybe she’s not such a bad mistress after all? At least she never skimps on our pay.”

“You think so? I mean, sure, but... back in the day, her tantrums were kind of...”

“Hey now! ‘Tantrums’? That was just a phase! A period of youthful rebellion! Everyone goes through that at that age!”

“You’re the one who used to mutter that you’d never serve her if it weren’t for the paycheck.”

“W-What are you talking about! Don’t make up nonsense!”

Murmurs.

Whispers.

In the Redvell estate built on the land of Eched, the servants were abuzz every day with talk of the ‘Young Lady’s’ recent transformation.

At first, they’d eyed her nervously with suspicion and unease—but when Claudia continued to act gracious and composed, their guard began to lower, little by little.

The change was so sudden, so drastic, it was more bewildering than anything.

Still, if asked whether they disliked the change, the answer was obvious: of course they liked it.

After all, which boss would you prefer—a vicious dog that could snap at you any moment, or a kind and elegant noble lady?

There was no comparison.

However, Claudia herself—at the center of all this chatter—felt somewhat differently.

“I’m so tired... This is exhausting...”

Claudia’s room.

She whined with her head slumped over the table.

Always being conscious of others’ eyes, always maintaining her demeanor and speech to win their favor and respect—it drained her more than she could ever have imagined, both mentally and physically.

Especially for someone like Claudia, who normally threw a tantrum the moment she was displeased and followed her impulses the instant she wanted something.

“Cedric. How long do I have to keep doing this?”

“Hahaha, my lady. Surely you know the answer to that. Why, for the rest of your life, of course.”

Claudia’s face twisted in utter despair.

“You’re kidding. You’re telling me I have to keep up this fake, pretentious act forever?”

“Well, that’s how society works. Living life doing and saying whatever you want, airing all your complaints—that’s not what people do. That’s what animals do.”

“So you’re saying your mistress is an animal now?”

“Which would you prefer—the unvarnished truth spiced with personal opinion, or a purely objective truth?”

“...Forget it. I’m not listening to you.”

“Shame. I was looking forward to delivering another priceless piece of counsel.”

Claudia shot a sullen glare at Cedric, who smacked his lips with exaggerated regret, then let out a heavy sigh.

Despite all her griping, Claudia wasn’t unaware of how drastically her reputation was improving.

To be honest, it was happening so quickly, and with such overwhelming effect, that it left her a bit dazed.

“It’s good to be pleased with progress, but this is just the beginning. It’s still far from enough to impress the Marquess of Redvell.”

She frowned slightly at Cedric’s cold splash of realism, but soon straightened her posture and asked,

“Then what should I do next?”

“Before we get into that, allow me to confirm something. My lady, you are the lord of the Eched territory, are you not?”

She nodded.

“In name only. The acting lord handles the actual management. I never really cared about this backwater place anyway.”

“Then the first thing we need to fix is that perception. This is not some ‘backwater’ territory.”

“What?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Claudia looked confused, but Cedric remained unwavering.

And for good reason—by his judgment, Eched was anything but a backwater.

The eastern branch of the adventurers’ guild, where Bern had mainly operated, was in a city with a population of only a few thousand.

In contrast, Eched had a population well over ten thousand, and its territory was nearly five times larger.

The reason Claudia saw it as "rural" was simple:

All of House Redvell’s other territories were even more prime and prosperous.

‘So that’s why the guild, despite its anti-noble stance, avoids drawing swords against the incompetent rural lords. The nobles near the capital are simply too powerful.’

Even combining the lands of the kingdom’s three main pillars—the royal family, the marquessate, and the countships—only covered 30% of the kingdom’s territory.

But population-wise, that 30% contained as many, if not more, people than the remaining 70%.

In other words, a massive concentration of people in a relatively small area, which meant a surplus of talent, capital, and development.

To Cedric, it was a dangerously imbalanced structure—but for now, it worked in his favor.

If it weren’t, the Marquess of Redvell would never have handed over a territory like this to his disfavored daughter and dismissed it as a rural province.

“Listen carefully. From here on, what you need to do is—”

***

“Starting today, I’ll be managing this place myself. You can take the rest you need.”

When Claudia barged into the manor and made that sudden declaration, the acting lord of Eched was struck by a flurry of emotions.

But if he had to strip them down to a single word, the most accurate one would have been:

Ridiculous.

Wearing a smile as polite and hollow as a porcelain mask, the acting lord replied to Claudia.

“Lady Claudia, forgive me, but your words are so sudden that I find them hard to process. Are you truly asking me to step aside?”

“I’m the lord of Eched, aren’t I? Is there some problem with the lord deciding to manage her own land?”

There was.

Quite a few, actually.

To begin with, Claudia’s title as lord hadn’t been granted with any real intent.

It had been forcibly handed to her purely to justify her inability to attend social gatherings or participate in temple work—activities expected of a proper noble lady—due to her notoriously unbearable personality.

It was nothing more than a line on paper to artificially inflate her résumé in preparation for a future political marriage.

The acting lord clicked his tongue inwardly behind his pleasant smile.

As someone directly appointed by the Marquess to oversee this land, spending even a second talking to this spoiled brat felt like a complete waste of time.

“Hahaha... Lady Claudia. Managing a territory is a serious responsibility. If it’s handled lightly and causes disorder, the Marquess would be deeply troubled.”

Twitch.

The acting lord didn’t miss the way Claudia flinched ever so slightly.

And he savored it.

Hah. Your little tantrums might work on some lowborn servant, but do you think they’ll work on me—someone directly entrusted by the Marquess himself?

Had one of her siblings walked in with such a demand, he wouldn’t have dared show this level of open disdain.

But Claudia was the exception.

Her mother had been of Birkan royal blood, but even so, the support she received from her family was less than what a minor countryside noble might receive.

The Birkan royal family of the day had no clearly legitimate or exceptionally capable successor, leading to endless political strife. None of them were inclined to waste resources on a former princess turned outsider.

While the other siblings inherited material and immaterial assets through their mother or the Marquess’s first wife, Claudia had no choice but to rely solely on her father—a man with whom she didn’t have the best relationship.

A noble in appearance only, with no real power.

So to a retainer like him, entrusted with an entire fiefdom, there was no reason to fear or back down from someone like her.

That was the rational view, at least.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Now, please return to your—”

“—Hey.”

A voice, low enough to chill the air.

By the time the acting lord realized what was happening, a blood-red beast with two heads had already slammed him into the floor.

Grrrrrrr... Grrrrrrr...

A monstrous wolf, its body as if sculpted from coagulated blood, growled from both muzzles.

The beast’s murderous presence, as if it could tear out his throat and devour his skull at any moment, left the acting lord speechless, lips flapping uselessly.

“My—My lady!!”

The knights who had entered the audience chamber with him tried to draw their swords in shock—but it was already too late.

Other blood beasts had long since emerged before them as well, each radiating lethal intent.

Faced with monsters that looked ready to pounce at the slightest move, the knights swallowed hard.

As retainers of House Redvell, they knew well what a blood beast was.

Powerful in sheer might, utterly reckless, and unfazed by injury—these beasts were difficult enough to fight in formation. Facing them in close quarters, indoors, and off guard was suicide.

All the knights could do now was raise their voices in protest.

“My lady!! Have you lost your mind?!”

“I think the ones out of their minds here are you.”

Claudia’s gaze, thick with irritation and disgust, pierced through the acting lord and his men.

Like icy needles stabbing through flesh, her glare seized them where they stood.

“A mere stand-in dares threaten the true lord? And you—yes, you. Just now, you called that man ‘lord,’ but you call me, the actual lord, ‘my lady’? That’s cute. Real cute. Huh?”

As if reacting to her anger, the blood beasts grew even more menacing.

Emotions are like consumables.

Overused emotions become cheap.

But the emotions that are tightly suppressed—when finally unleashed—become overwhelming.

Claudia had restrained her cruelty for days now, always putting on a graceful front in front of the servants. But now that her nature was triggered, the acting lord and his men couldn’t even breathe properly.

She stepped forward, speaking slowly and clearly, one syllable at a time to the man pinned beneath the blood beast.

“Go tell my father this: I’m going to change Eched. He can decide what # Nоvеlight # I’m good for after he sees what I do.”

“U-Understood.”

“And don’t think you can twist my words. I remember every one of your faces. Even if I end up sold off to some strange place, I still have the ability to come back and feed you to wolves. So tread carefully.”

“......”

“No response?”

“Y-Yes, my lady! I’ll deliver your message at once! Please, just... please remove this beast!”

Claudia scoffed.

At her signal, the blood beast stepped off the acting lord and retreated to her side.

Even after the beast had moved away, the acting lord gasped for air several times, struggling to calm his breath.

He looked at Claudia as if he had more to say, but in the end, he left the manor in silence. His guards followed, none of them daring to speak a word.

Claudia turned to Bestian, the head butler she’d brought from her villa, and to a few of her hand-picked servants.

“Tell the rest of the manor staff that I’m taking over this place starting today. Absorb the ones who accept it quietly. Replace the ones who resist. But don’t forget—they must pass on everything they know before they’re removed.”

“Understood, my lady.”

Perhaps because these were the ones who had shown her the greatest loyalty, not a single murmur of protest passed among them.

After all the others had left the room—

Claudia took a seat in the chair the acting lord had just vacated and looked at the one servant remaining in the room.

Cedric.

“...Do you think I can do this?”

Cedric replied.

“Unfortunately, my lady, I lack the ability to see the future, so I can’t answer that with certainty.”

“Hah... Yeah. Of course.”

“But.”

“Hm?”

Cedric smiled.

“I’d say the current you suits the role of my master far more than the old you—the one who wasted each day lashing out at everyone around her.”

Not his usual unsettling smirk, but a quiet, gentle smile.

“...Ugh.”

Claudia blushed as if she'd been caught off guard, but quickly covered it with a scoff and squared her shoulders.

“You’ve got some nerve for a servant.”

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