The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 39: An Intruder

Night arrived quickly and the Ardent mansion grew quieter as most servants and maids had already turned in.

Though, there were still multiple guards patrolling the premises under the pale light of Avera’s twin moons.

They patrolled in such a way that, almost no blind spots were left.

Almost.

There was a brief moment, barely a few seconds long, where two patrol routes overlapped just enough to leave a sliver of space unguarded.

It was a gap so small that no ordinary intruder could ever take advantage of it.

But this was no ordinary intruder.

The moment the gap appeared, a shadow moved from the walls and through the opening.

By the time the guards turned back, there was nothing there. A guard passed by moments later, completely unaware of the intruder’s presence.

Meanwhile, the shadow moved quietly through the premises, the wind actively canceling any sound he created.

Though there wasn’t much in the first place as he seemed to be floating slightly off the ground.

He suddenly stopped and leaned back into the shadows, completely erasing his presence.

A second later, another guard walked past him, none the wiser, his instincts failing to register the man that stood no more than an arm’s length away.

Once the path was cleared, the intruder continued forward, aiming for the mansion.

He soon reached it and without a sound entered through an unlatched servant’s window.

The moment he entered the mansion, he stopped moving and immediately summoned his spirit, a translucent green bird.

Definitely a wind spirit.

"Scan," the intruder, a man in a black cloak, ordered.

The moment he did, an invisible ripple went through the air, covering the entire Mansion, locating his targets...or rather, target.

As he expected, most present within the mansion were already asleep.

"This should be easy," he muttered quietly, noticing his target was in one of the lower rooms.

His job was simple, retrieve the Mesmerling, and get out without trying to offend the daughter of the grand Duke.

He wasn’t afraid of her, after all, from the info they had, she had spent so much time obsessing over the prince that she had neglected her own growth,

So she was currently stuck at E-rank.

A disgrace for the daughter of a noble of such high standing.

The one he was afraid of was the Grand Duke himself.

His absence didn’t mean that he didn’t care about his daughter, and although the intruder was certain that the master could handle the grand duke, it wouldn’t be without sacrifice.

So, the best-case scenario was to complete his job and leave without encountering her, which should be easy, since she was probably also asleep right now...

Right?

"Huh?" He let out as his environment seemed to get a lot colder.

So cold that his breath was visible to him, but that wasn’t even the strangest part, as right now, he could see tiny white specks falling towards him.

"Snow?"

***

Renelle couldn’t sleep.

How could she, when she had a lot to think about right now?

Her death, her regression, and a variable in the timeline that was obsessed with her, and the worst part was, she was curious about how deep his obsession went.

Pat!

She slapped her cheeks as she muttered, "Stop thinking about him for a moment and focus."

Crystal looked at her curiously, from the bed, wondering what was wrong with its contractor.

"The academy starts tomorrow, which means everything begins moving again," she muttered, trying to recall the important events that took place in the academy.

But a part of her mind told her she didn’t have to, after all, a certain butler would be making his moves far earlier than she would.

Pat!

Again, she slapped her cheeks, removing such thoughts before walking towards the window.

She looked up at the twin moons before looking down, noticing that the guards were still patrolling.

All seemed fine.

Until she suddenly spotted a shadow moving in the darkness, causing her eyes to narrow.

"I needed to clear my head anyway," she muttered as she walked towards her door exiting the room to welcome her dear intruder.

***

"Don’t you know it’s bad manners to be sneaking around in someone else’s home?"

The intruder froze, immediately recognizing the voice behind him.

’She just had to show up,’ he thought to himself in annoyance before slowly turning around.

Sure enough, the one responsible for the cold and the owner of the voice was Renelle Ardent, the prince’s simp.

Or was it simpess?

"If you wouldn’t mind, Lady Ardent," the intruder calmly said, "I’d just like to retrieve something and be on my way."

In her previous life, nothing like this had happened and the only major change she could think about, that would’ve caused this was the girl,

Isla.

"I see," Renelle nodded slowly, a faint smile forming on her lips, "then I’m afraid I can’t allow that."

"You misunderstand," the intruder said and the next second, he was gone, reappearing with a dagger in his hand, positioned close to her neck, "that was not a request."

"You’ll quietly return to your room," he ordered, "and I’ll be taking the Mesmerling with me."

Now, doing this might risk her alerting the guards outside, but he was confident that he could deal with her before she could even react.

Or at least, that was what he expected.

Crack.

"I’d rather you didn’t stand so close to me," Renelle said calmly.

A thin layer of frost had already formed around the blade near her neck.

"And for your own safety," she added, her gaze lowering slightly to his arm, "you should step back."

The intruder frowned, about to scoff but the next second, his eyes immediately widened as he felt the cold move from his dagger to his hand, quickly spreading upwards.

In less than a second, his entire arm was encased in solid ice.

"...!"

The dagger slipped from his frozen fingers and dropped to the floor, shattering into multiple smaller pieces, followed by his entire arm which ended with the same result. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Unfortunately," she continued, her voice dropping just slightly, "she belongs to me now."

The hall got even colder as her eyes seemed to be glowing.

"And I don’t recall giving anyone permission to take what’s mine."