Haunted Duke’s Daughter Prologue

From a certain estate’s maid’s diary.

Today was another long day that couldn’t have ended sooner. It’s been three years today since I started working at this estate, but the work here still feels just as harsh. The lord and lady here are kind and gentle people, but mistress here is a relentlessly unreasonable person. While yelling at the slightest displeasure, her fist would be the next thing to follow. I’m just a nice maid girl who can only smile politely while receiving such abuse.

Such a mistress was for some reason acting quite strange on this day. Not to say that she suddenly turned nice, or timid. It could only be described as… “strange”.

From the instant she opened her eyes till the moment she turned in for the night, she was incessantly murmuring strange things to herself. As I was staring puzzled and worried at such a sight, a sudden shout would escape her lips. And even more strangely, such a shout was not actually aimed at us maids this time, and the mistress seemed to suddenly come to her senses and turned away as if escaping from our glances.

It was as if the girl before today was a lie. If the case was that we had failed to meet some sort of expectation, we would surely be blamed. If we touch upon something that we shouldn’t be getting involved with, we would also be blamed. Thus, after much consultation, we maids decided to not get involved with the strangeness of the mistress’s behaviour today.

And so, for the whole day, the mistress’s strangeness only stood out more and more. Always talking to herself, suddenly shouting out. We maids, trying to pay no mind to such things, it took our utmost simply trying to respond normally when called upon.

At the end of the day, the mistress simply quietly went to bed without uttering another word. Looking back on it, other than the eccentric behaviour, today was certainly much more peaceful than usual.

In a room lined with extravagant decorations, the s.p.a.ce was filled with various furniture. All of this was forcibly gathered by the master of the room. Through trickery, threats, and sometimes calling upon father’s authority, all of these things were taken and collected in this room.

At a corner of this room, the master here was in fact fallen prostrate on a large table. Sporting long blonde hair and an extravagant dress, a girl who looked no more than fifteen years of age sat exhausted at the table. With a drained expression plastering her features, she seemed to be grumbling, muttering about something all by herself. Things like “why did this have to happen” and “it’s really so annoying” escaped her incessantly moving lips.

—Well, well, let’s calm down okay?

What resounded in her head was the voice of a young woman. This voice that could only be heard by the girl, had for the entire day been unceasingly brandis.h.i.+ng her suddenly new found vocals at the girl.

—Heey, don’t ignore me, Lilia.

Lilia confronted the girl calling out to her, and furiously stood up.

“Enough is enough! You can’t do this, or you can’t do that! Who gave you the right to tell me what to do!”

—No no, I wasn’t particularly giving you orders right? It was simply advice.

The voice, no matter how enraged Lilia became, continued to keep a calm tone of conversation. On the contrary, the voice seemed to be quite cheerful.

“In the first place, what is your advice even supposed to mean? I’ve asked you countless times, but I still have no idea!”

—Haven’t I answered that question every time you’ve asked me? At this rate, you are walking towards your own destruction you know. Meaning total ruin yeah? I’m here to defend you from such a future, and save your neck you know?

“Ha! Ruin? Don’t make me laugh. I haven’t done anything wrong right? Besides, how could a duke’s clan fall so easily?”

The girl was the eldest daughter of a duke’s family. Other than the royal family, anyone would think twice about confronting their influence. At the very least in the current generation, their power was second only to the crown prince.

In such a scenario, it was unthinkable for the duke’s clan to collapse.

“Why do you even proclaim to know of such things anyways.”

—Why? Well… I’m an angel who can see into the future. You should be grateful.

“Well, I wonder what my plans for tomorrow are.”

—Ignoring me, how could you! Okay okay I’m not actually an angel, but I really can see a little bit of the future you know!

She may have had an aloof character, but that one line was tinged in seriousness. Lilia was surprised deep inside, and it also showed on her disgusted expression at her own next words.

“If you insist on it that much, then at least show me some sort of evidence that your predictions are accurate. If you can prove it to me…well, I’ll be able to have a little confidence towards this voice in my head.”

Lilia a.s.sured herself that such a thing was indeed impossible. Certainly this voice was a strange ent.i.ty, but even so something like foresight should be impossible. However, the voice was delighted at Lilia’s words and laughed.

—Really? It’s a promise okay! Here we go…

The voice, seemingly deep in thought about something, fell silent for a while. A small breath leaked out after a long awaited respite from all the noise. While waiting like that, before long the voice returned.

—Here I go, a prediction of two years from now. The season is the beginning of spring, probably.

“That’s quite far into the future. I’ll say this now but, saying I told you so later on will not make me recognise your ability.”

—Yeah, okay. After all, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Insisting so much on such a thing, will it really prove true come two years? Lilia was innocently interested in hearing about it, waiting for what came next. The voice cleared her throat and said this.

—During the spring of two years into the future, entering your senior year of schooling, you will experience the wrath of the crown prince, earning his hatred.

“Wha-…!”

Lilia’s eyes widened in astonishment. The crown prince was her fiancee. To become hated by the prince, what could be the meaning of this?

“There are limits to nonsense you know…”

Wrath entered Lilia’s voice. But the voice that resounded through her head paid it no heed, and seemed to be enjoying herself after all.

—Of course I understand that. It would be great for you if it turned out false, so there’s no need to get angry right?

It was certainly so, thought Lilia. She had confidence that nothing would come of this prediction. And when it does prove false, this voice will definitely go away too. Lilia nodded in agreement.

“Well then, until we find out the result, please do be silent, agreed?”

—Alright, though I’ll be quite lonely… But, well. Of course. It’d be troubling if my words were simply ignored all the time, so I’ll be quiet.

The way those words were said seemed to catch something in her mind, but instead of dwelling on that uncomfortable feeling the conversation continued.

“Well then, farewell. Please don’t ever come out again.”

—Hey that really hurts. Well, I get it. Good bye. Let’s speak again in two years’ time.

Lilia frowned at the unpleasantness of the parting laughter of the voice, as it fell silent.

After that, the mysterious voice that followed her all day could be heard no longer. The words of the voice continued to bother her for a while, but in just a month the very existence of that voice was forgotten.

And so the spring of two years later came.

And with it a declaration from the prince that his engagement-

-was officially annulled.