Became the Imperial-Certified Mad Dog

The Fox Takes Off Its Mask and Wags Its Tail

‘Phew, why does my back hurt when I haven’t even trained…’

Maybe it’s because that devilish lady keeps making me pick up things she drops – my joints and spine hurt even though I haven’t moved much.

Thud. Since Peri’s room’s trash bin was full, I collected the garbage from that floor and put it in the incinerator in the yard. As I straightened my back, the gardener approached.

‘Gul, how’s life as a guard? Isn’t it hard working at such a young age?’

‘It’s a bit tough, but I’m okay since I used to help at my father’s store.’

‘How admirable. My son at your age was too busy playing around instead of studying, haha!’

The gardener, whose bald crown showed when he took off his hat, pulled out a cigarette pack and matchbox from his back pocket, lit a match, brought it to the cigarette in his mouth, and then threw it into the incinerator.

‘So he smokes…’

Though I hadn’t seen him much during the week, I was slightly surprised as I’d never seen him smoking or talking about cigarettes before.

Crackle, crackle. The matchstick disappeared into the incinerator, and along with the sound of burning trash, began consuming the garbage.

‘Phew~ Ah, keep this a secret from the butler? Peri hates the smell of cigarettes, so she doesn’t let me smoke while working.’

‘Ah, yes… but won’t they notice from the smell anyway?’

‘It’s fine, I can say it’s from the burning trash. Since the master is quite a heavy smoker, I can say the smell came from burning his cigarette-stained items.’

It seems more like they know but choose to overlook it rather than actually believing it…

I didn’t want to say anything and risk becoming unfriendly with someone who was being nice to me.

‘Hiding in a bigger smell…’

Regardless, the gardener’s excuse was somehow impressive. Like protective coloration used to hide from predators or to avoid being detected by prey, hiding something you don’t want to be caught in a larger background.

‘…’

I’m not sure why those words struck me. I just vaguely thought that maybe the bastard x who’s making me anxious now might be hidden in something bigger, like the gardener’s cigarette smell, which is why we couldn’t find him.

‘…Should I try changing perspective?’

Whatever the case, when there’s no immediate solution, trying everything possible is the best strategy.

*

After confirming that Peri had fallen asleep as usual, I quietly left her floor and entered Karma’s office on the floor below.

‘What’s the matter? Do you have something to report?’

Despite it being bedtime, Karma’s desk was still piled with what appeared to be unfinished paperwork, probably due to Serpe’s affairs.

Rustle, rustle. He seemed genuinely busy, as he didn’t even look up when I entered, almost touching the papers with his nose as he wrote something while staring intently at the documents.

‘Has there been any major incident in the duchy recently?’

‘…What kind of incident?’

Not quite understanding the intent of my question, Karma stopped his pen, took off his glasses, and lifted his head for the first time.

To help him understand the question, I explained about protective coloration to Karma, leaving out the part about the gardener smoking, and after hearing my explanation, Karma quietly stroked his chin.

‘So you’re saying that the reason this observer hasn’t been caught by our people is because they’re hiding behind something so obvious or untouchable that our people wouldn’t even bother with it?’

‘Something like that.’

‘It sounds plausible, but what specifically do you mean?’

‘I’m not sure either, that’s why I’m asking if there have been any notable incidents. Even small ones would help. They must be hiding in some seemingly insignificant change that happened either after I arrived here, or slightly before.’

‘But how exactly…?’

Though he grumbled, Karma seemed to think there was some merit to it as he pushed aside the papers in front of him and seriously pondered, and so did I.

‘Setting aside normal hiding, if they’re targeting either me, Karma, or Peri, they must be conducting surveillance and tailing…’

Ever since Peri’s near-kidnapping, both Karma and Peri had their subordinates search for signs of surveillance or tailing whenever they left the mansion, but they never caught any leads.

‘If I were x, how would I observe a target with many watching eyes…?’

Let’s think from an assassin’s perspective, abandoning my own viewpoint.

‘Surveillance is practically impossible in a noble’s mansion where not only the duchy’s soldiers but also the security force stand guard. Serpe’s headquarters has almost no windows to prevent surveillance, so it’s impossible unless someone sneaks in. That means it’s only possible when they go out.’

However, while that might work for Karma, Peri and I haven’t gone out once in a week since Peri isn’t the type who enjoys going outside.

By now they should be getting anxious and trying something, but there’s no sign of that at all.

‘This might just be overthinking something trivial, but…’

It could simply be that they have plenty of time to deal with Peri and are patient, but the one who accidentally revealed their killing intent to me probably isn’t that level-headed.

Why? Why aren’t they being detected, and why is nothing changing?

As the questions became more complex the more I thought about them, I wasn’t alone in my frustration – Karma had already put a cigarette in his mouth.

‘Phew~ Ah, don’t tell the other servants about my smoking, especially not the old man. He made me quit because our daughter hates it, it would be embarrassing if he found out…’

‘Then just don’t smoke. What’s so great about those cigarettes…’

‘When I try to hold back, my body gets restless and I feel like I’m going crazy. It feels like I can’t breathe, and my mind won’t work.’

While giving Karma a disapproving look for making such typical excuses of a pathetic adult, I continued to think.

Why aren’t they moving? Why aren’t they getting anxious like this chain smoker…

Then, something flashed through my mind.

‘Because they weren’t anxious to begin with?’

When Karma wasn’t smoking, anyone could see his complexion was poor from withdrawal symptoms and that he was forcing himself to hold back, but with the gardener who was secretly smoking regularly, no one could tell he was a smoker until seeing it directly.

Similarly, even if Peri or I didn’t go out, they weren’t moving because they had a way to monitor us without being detected and had been doing so all along?

In other words, x is watching us from inside this mansion.

If someone else had said this, even I would have dismissed it as an absurd fantasy. But my instincts were ringing alarm bells with all their might.

‘Why, why are you like that…?’

Karma stammered and broke into a cold sweat, apparently disturbed by my horrified expression.

‘Hey… I’m asking just in case, but among the servants, who was the most recent hire besides me…?’

‘…Huh? Servants? Why…?’

Karma, who was about to question my bewildered expression, seemed to understand what I was thinking and fell silent.

‘You don’t mean there’s a traitor, no, a spy among our servants?’

While a traitor refers to someone whose loyalty has been corrupted, x must have entered with the intention to surveil from the beginning.

‘Just shut up and tell me since we don’t know!’

‘…Ah.’

And then, as if something occurred to him, Karma stammered with his mouth hanging open.

‘The, the maid who cleans Peri’s room… We hired her because the original nanny got old and Peri had grown up too, it hasn’t even been two months…’

‘Dorothy?’

That servant Karma mentioned, she was the sister I met most frequently among the servants due to my duty as Peri’s guard.

The maid who always served Peri tea and snacks, and was the only one who accompanied her when she bathed or dressed, except for today when Peri was being capricious.

That Sister Dorothy is an assassin?

Chills. A feeling like all blood had drained from my body, as if I had carelessly turned around only to find an assassin’s blade tip touching my nose bridge.

Two months – while it’s a long time, it’s certainly enough time to spend if one wants to. Hearing this, I felt like I’d been hit in the head with a hammer.

Bang. I jumped up from the sofa and left Karma’s office.

‘Where are you going!?’

‘Final confirmation… You stay here… No, better yet, go to Peri.’

Leaving Karma behind, I went down to the first floor and knocked on a door in the corner, one I knew existed but had never opened before.

‘Butler, are you there?’

Instead of an answer, there was the sound of someone getting up wearily, and then the door opened to reveal the butler, as impeccable as ever.

‘What brings you here at this hour?’

‘Do you remember the day a week ago when I went out with the young lady and master?’

‘It’s been exactly a week as of today.’

The butler, though old but showing no signs of memory loss, recalled immediately.

‘The master wanted to check something, but did you go shopping that day?’

‘…Yes, I did. As we were running low on ingredients, I said I needed to go shopping urgently. Why, did the master say something about the food tasting different?’

‘Yes, not that it was bad, just slightly different, and he was curious where it was bought.’

‘Hmm, I haven’t heard about shopping at a different store, wait, who went out that day… Ah, Dorothy. Since you all were out, I had that child, Peri’s maid, do the shopping since she was free… Gul, what’s wrong? You look pale.’

‘…Does Dorothy often go shopping?’

‘Not often, but when the young lady is out and she has free time, she volunteers to do it herself. She’s a diligent child who doesn’t avoid work like you do.’

An irrefutable perfect testimony.

‘…Yes, I’ll go report this.’

After leaving the butler’s room, I silently entered the annex and went up to the female servants’ floor, one floor above my room.

Thud, thud. Some servants were still awake, as dim lights and movement could be heard from behind doors, and I stopped at one room.

I don’t know which room belongs to Sister Dorothy, or rather x. But among the rooms with dim light showing under the door indicating someone’s awake, this is the only one with absolutely no sound of movement or breathing.

‘Since it seems I’ve been discovered anyway, I’m going in directly.’

Shing. I drew my two Gurkhas from my waist, cut through the door handle, and quietly pushed the door with my foot.

Creak. I entered through the fully opened door, but strangely, there was no one there. No, that wasn’t the problem…

‘It’s completely empty.’

Not just vacated, but an empty room with dust-covered mattress showing signs of long abandonment, with only a lamp sitting lonely there.

‘I’ve been…’

Bang. Just as I belatedly realized I’d lost the final move in this game of wits, as if mocking me, the wall of the adjacent room shattered and a chain with a blade at its end flew out, instantly wrapping around my body.

‘Oh, what a shame!’

And from the broken wall, Dorothy leaped out, not in her usual maid uniform but wearing black leather clothes that clung tightly to her body showing every curve, broke through the window and jumped out of the mansion, dragging me along the chain outside the building.

‘Damn it.’