Chapter 13
“Pardon?”
“Huh?”
“The gemstone on the cufflinks—it was a pale red, wasn’t it?”
“What?”
Was Nise having eyesight problems?
As far as Trisha remembered, that wasn’t the case.
‘Something’s off.’
She wasn’t the one who was mistaken.
After all, she’d thought about that suspicious boy countless times a day.
And each time, she would take out his cufflinks to look at them again.
There was no way she could have confused the color of a gemstone that large.
The gemstone on the cufflinks had definitely been a dark, blood-red hue—
that strange, swirling, almost black-red color that had drawn her eyes without her realizing it.
The memory was vivid.
As the realization dawned, Trisha’s eyes narrowed.
‘I see.’
She had encountered this kind of thing once before—
back when she was still just a low-ranked mage, long before she became the Tower’s second-in-command.
“Why is this magic stone turning bluish when it was clear just a moment ago? You idiots! I told you to handle it carefully!”
“No, it’s still perfectly clear….”
She could almost hear the Tower Master’s furious yelling echoing in her ears.
Magic stones were basically gemstones infused with magical energy,
and it wasn’t uncommon for their color to change during that process.
However, only a few highly skilled individuals—like the Tower Master or Trisha herself—could see those changes.
“Master, are you losing your mind? How can you call this sky-blue? It’s obviously navy!”
“And you—have your eyes gone bad already, boy?”
Among those rare few, Trisha alone could distinguish when the change in color came specifically from dark magic.
‘People who can’t perceive the altered color of a stone…’
So that gemstone wasn’t just any ornament.
Trisha calmly pieced her thoughts together.
If ordinary people saw the gemstone as red—
‘Then it was dark magic that made it appear blood-red to me.’
That boy—Reshi.
The thought of him deepened her curiosity.
She needed to find out who he truly was.
And to do that, she needed to examine those cufflinks again.
Trisha rose to her feet.
Nise’s gaze instinctively followed her.
“Who did you entrust them to?”
“Ugh, I’m sick of it already. Can’t we drop the topic? What did the young lady even do wrong for everyone to be like this?”
“Sick of it? I find it entertaining.”
“She never said herself that she’s Lady Trisha’s daughter, you know. I don’t like badmouthing a young girl.”
“Oh, please. You’re just enjoying the perks of being a noble’s servant now, so you’re keeping your mouth shut. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
In the servants’ lounge, groups had already formed—those who sympathized with the newly adopted daughter,
and those who didn’t.
“I’m going back to work.”
“Yeah, me too.”
The few who had been defending Trisha left, fed up with the vulgar chatter.
With only the like-minded left behind, the talk quickly devolved into open gossip and slander.
That was when—
The door to the lounge suddenly flew open.
The one who entered, with a sharp flick of her wrist and a defiant posture, was none other than Trisha herself.
“Oh—uh, Young Lady?”
The servants scrambled to their feet in surprise.
Trisha slowly scanned their faces one by one.
Most of the household servants were familiar to her,
but the people gathered here were almost all unfamiliar—new hires, it seemed.
“Which one of you is Sam?”
“S–Sam?”
At her question, every head turned toward one particular man.
He looked visibly uncomfortable under the attention.
“You’re Sam?”
“Uh… yes, that’s me.”
He answered reluctantly, his expression sour.
Moments ago, he had been having great fun spreading stories about the “adopted girl,”
but now that she stood right before him, the awkwardness was plain on his face.
“I heard you were helping inspect my cufflinks.”
Trisha strode up to him.
“You have them now, don’t you?”
“No, not with me.”
“What are you talking about?”
At his evasive answer, Nise cut in sharply.
“You took them to the jeweler yourself, remember? I didn’t see you leave the estate afterward.”
“Well, I—I dropped them off early this morning….”
“Don’t lie. You didn’t even show up until afternoon because you were hungover.”
Each lie he tried to tell was neatly countered by Nise’s precise recollection.
Finally, Trisha lost patience.
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“Cut the crap and show me.”
Her tone left no room for argument.
Realizing he couldn’t weasel his way out of this, Sam grudgingly led the way.
The cufflinks she was searching for were indeed in his room.
“Here they are, miss. The cufflinks you were looking for.”
Trisha snatched them up at once, disbelief flickering in her eyes.
“I swear, I was just about to take them to the jeweler! I wasn’t slacking off, truly.”
“Sure.”
“You’re not going to tell the Madam, are you? Please, we’re both commoners here—show a little mercy—”
“Hey!”
Nise snapped before he could go any further.
Trisha ignored his babbling and focused on the cufflinks in her hand.
Her gaze fell on the large gemstone set at the center.
‘Hmm?’
Her brows knit slightly.
“This is a fake.”
Nise blinked in confusion. The gemstone gleamed beautifully under the light, a clear crimson hue.
But Trisha could tell immediately—
‘No trace of dark mana. Not even the faintest hint of magical energy.’
The gemstone that had appeared dark red before had contained dark magic.
She was the only one who could have noticed that difference.
So someone had replaced it with a look-alike.
“They dared to swap mine with a fake?”
Her sharp gaze pierced through Sam.
The way he’d tried to conceal where it was, his nervous excuses—all of it fit too perfectly.
‘I don’t want to accuse a household servant without proof…’
But everything pointed to him.
He’d joined the estate while she’d been away, so there was no bond between them.
“Where is it?”
“…What, miss?”
“The real gemstone that was in here.”
“I—I don’t know what you mean. It’s right there, see? The red one.”
Snap.
Something in Trisha’s patience broke.
“Nise.”
“Yes?”
“Wait outside.”
“…What?”
The sudden command startled Nise.
She had sharp instincts, honed from years of surviving as a maid among nobles.
And those instincts screamed that the young lady believed Sam had stolen her gemstone.
But Nise had seen those cufflinks herself—
they looked exactly the same as before.
Even if Sam had switched them, how could he be so confident?
‘Still, Sam’s the kind of lowlife who’d make bets about the young lady…!’
Leaving her alone with him didn’t feel right.
The young lady might be a noble now, but she was still just a girl who’d once lived as a commoner.
Sam, on the other hand, had only recently joined and already carried a reputation for being trouble.
And this was his room—in the detached servants’ quarters, away from the main house.
At this hour, most other servants were out working.
If anything happened, no one would hear right away.
Nise hesitated, swallowing hard.
“But, my lady…”
“Wait outside. I’ll be fine.”
Trisha turned to her with a calm, reassuring look.
As much as Nise hated it, disobeying a noble’s order wasn’t an option.
“I’ll stay nearby, then. If anything happens, please shout right away.”
She reluctantly stepped out of the room after leaving those words.
And then—only Trisha and Sam remained inside.
