The Strongest Brother Lost His Memory-Chapter 4Vol 2.

Of course, it was the maid who responded to my words.

“You were caught at the scene—how dare you make excuses? Then do you have proof that you didn’t steal it? Huh?”

“I do.”

Whether the maid screamed or not, I nodded leisurely.

“I do have proof...”

I first yanked the handkerchief out of the maid’s hand and held it up. Then, I handed it to Linna and spoke.

“This maid said she packed this handkerchief inside your dress today, my lady.”

“Mm... That’s right.”

At some point, the focus had returned to Linna’s eyes. In fact, she even looked amused.

I continued speaking slowly.

“But today, you drank quite a lot of alcohol, sprayed on very heavy perfume, and I believe you even went into the smoking room. Is that correct? When I supported you, I caught a strong whiff of those scents from your dress.”

“Ugh... y-yeah. That’s true, right?”

“But this handkerchief doesn’t have any of those three scents at all.”

At that moment, the maid flinched with an “oh no” expression and stumbled backward.

“If it really had been inside the dress all day, shouldn’t it smell the same as the dress?”

Linna slowly took the handkerchief from me and brought it to her nose, sniffing.

There was no smell on that handkerchief. I hadn’t noticed any scent when I held it either.

Eventually, Linna flung the handkerchief aside with a thwack and glared fiercely at the maid.

“You...”

“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, my lady!”

The maid immediately dropped to her knees.

“I truly, truly apologize! I-I just... I just wanted to keep serving you, that’s all!”

I sighed and stepped back.

That handkerchief must have been something the maid had been carrying around herself.

Linna’s room was completely disorganized. Judging by the state of it, she probably didn’t even know what she owned.

The handkerchief was made of top-quality silk and embroidered with elegant patterns, but it clearly wasn’t Linna’s style. If it had skulls dangling off it, maybe.

In short, that maid had probably been carrying the handkerchief around pretending it was hers.

Even if something went wrong, she could just say, “I always keep a spare in case the lady drops hers.”

“You.”

Linna slowly turned her head to look at me. Then she rummaged through a messy drawer, pulled out a set of indoor clothes, and tossed them at me.

“Go in there and wash up first. You’ve probably got my vomit on you.”

“...Excuse me?”

Uh, Linna didn’t throw up, though?

As I stood there, puzzled, holding the clothes, Linna’s eyes snapped wide open and she shouted:

“Unless you want to see something ugly, get moving!”

Ah. That must mean she’s about to beat the maid to a pulp...

I immediately replied.

“No, I’ll go wash up right away.”

The First-Class cabin’s bathroom was incredible.

Not just compared to the Third-Class cabins—this was leagues above the two-story house I’d stayed in at the Magic Tower.

Since the maid’s screams kept ringing out from outside, I turned up the water and treated myself to a luxurious bath for the first time in ages.

‘She’s infamous for her nasty temper... There’s no way she’s letting that maid off easy.’

Eavesdropping a little, I realized the maid had been carrying more of Linna’s belongings besides just the handkerchief.

‘Still... that one really was the maid’s fault.’

Anyway, everything inside the bathroom was top-tier.

Even the indoor clothes Linna gave me—though a bit large—were incredibly soft to the touch.

When I cautiously stepped out of the bathroom, the maid was already gone. Only a few clumps of her hair remained.

“Yaaawn...”

Linna opened the door as if nothing had happened, yawned, and lazily swept the hair clumps out into the hallway with her foot.

“Hey, be my maid for just a day, will you? We’re arriving at Bellotsa Port tomorrow anyway, and the new maids from the Idra Duchy will be waiting there. Just until then. I’ll pay you well.”

Linna looked at me and grinned, then handed me a pillow.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“I really like clever and capable girls. I’m not like that myself, so...”

Then she thrust the handkerchief—that handkerchief—into my hands.

“You can have this.”

It was the same one the maid had used to try to frame me. Said to have been hand-embroidered by some famed artisan.

“If I were the type to prepare a proper contract gift, I’d embroider one myself, but I’m absolutely hopeless with a needle... This will be better for you.”

Linna shoved the handkerchief at me, and then sat down at the table and opened another bottle of liquor.

She was already plenty drunk, yet she downed the strong alcohol without hesitation.

‘This... might actually work out for me.’

Holding the pillow and the handkerchief in a daze, I blinked.

I hadn’t exactly said I’d stay on as Linna’s maid, but spending some time with her didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

‘If I leave now, that knight guarding the stairs might order me back down. But if I hang around here for a bit, I can stay in the First-Class cabin longer. And...’

I looked over at Linna, who was chugging her drink with dull, sunken eyes.

‘Maybe I’ll learn something about the Idra Duchy.’

The Idra Duchy.

The first to fall under the Temple’s control, and thus now the most influential house in the Empire under Temple protection.

Linna had been forcibly made the Divine Beast’s master as a child and privately educated by the Temple ever since.

She was so closely tied to the Temple that even Zahid hadn’t known much about her before the regression—only that she was a rampaging disaster to be avoided at all costs.

‘Ray kept saying all the incidents benefiting the Temple must be the doing of the Earth Divine Beast.’

I swallowed dryly and cautiously sat across from her. Looking into her eyes, I spoke.

“Me, clever? My lady... Compared to you, who was personally trained by the High Priest, I’m nothing.”

I didn’t even think I’d said anything particularly funny, but Linna burst into a fit of laughter.

“Ahahahahahaha! So you like the High Priest too? Ahahahahahahahaha!”

It was truly a bizarre sight. The five skull rings on her fingers clinked as she laughed.

“Well, he iiiiiis great, isn't he? Wahahahahaha!”

Then she started drinking straight from the bottle again. The stench of alcohol was so strong, it felt like I’d get drunk just from being near her.

Before I realized it, I grabbed her wrist in panic and shouted:

“You’re really drunk, my lady... Please stop. You’ll die at this rate. Your liver is probably crying out for mercy!” freewebnoveℓ.com

“What are you saying? This is good for you! The more I drink, the less I remember, and the more I sleep peacefully!”

Linna snorted with laughter.

I fixated on those words—“the less I remember”—and decided to say what I’d been holding back.

“Then why did you even board the Entoho if you’re just going to keep drinking like this?”

To be honest, Linna Idra wasn’t a name I had fond memories of.

‘The Idra Duchy is the one that sent Chloe to the Noart estate.’

It had been years ago, but Chloe, pretending to be Felide’s daughter, used to go on and on about “the Idra Duchy” and “Linna Idra.”

She even managed to change her eyes to the same golden hue as Linna’s. So to be honest, I didn’t particularly want to face her.

“Hmm?”

“If you just drank at the duchy estate, at least you wouldn’t become a public spectacle! I bet tonight’s gossip topic will be your earlier little performance!”

But I couldn’t help the note of concern in my voice. Linna didn’t look ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) happy at all, even surrounded by all this luxury.

‘It’s obvious, just by looking...’

The newspapers always called her the center of the social scene, but the reality was enough to make anyone sigh.

The maids around her were too busy playing at nobility themselves to care for their intoxicated mistress.

The noble daughters who usually trailed behind her kept their distance once she started to act up from drinking.

Lots of followers, but not a single true friend.

When I looked at her in silence, Linna gave me a sleepy smile.

“You really don’t get it, do you...? We’re on a boat. A boat! For several days!”

Then she clapped and shouted:

“And there’s no earth on a boat! Right? Ahahahahahahahaha! What better place could there be in the whole world?! Ahahahahahahahaha!”

Still laughing, Linna emptied the bottle in one go. Then, thud, she collapsed onto the table and lost consciousness.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺