The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 36: Slip Up

When Renelle said she wanted to have a word, he hadn’t expected it to be in her room.

Though he had been here the previous night, there was too much going on for him to get a proper look of the place.

Right now though, the room looked quite different from what it was previously.

All the large portraits of the prince had been taken down, some of which had been replaced by the same painting that was in the main Ardent Estate.

The color scheme in the room had also been changed from blue to a mix of red and white.

This much change meant that Renelle had probably woken up immediately after he left the Mansion earlier.

It was a bit strange though, that Margaret didn’t know that she was awake, could it be that she had done all this by herself?

Highly unlikely, since Margaret would definitely notice when the previous blankets and portraits were being discarded.

Whilst Adrian observed the change, Renelle calmly sat on the bed, looking at his expression or rather, the lack of.

"Have a seat," she interrupted his thoughts and pulled his attention towards her as she pointed at the chair opposite the bed.

"Thank you," Adrian said with a small smile on his face, "but I’d rather keep standing."

"I see," Renelle nodded without saying anything else.

He, on the other hand, had mana flowing through his glasses as he looked at her, noticing that the cold aura coming from her was a lot larger now.

"You successfully broke through," he commented, "congratulations."

Renelle looked up at his face, noticing that he seemed genuinely proud, before she nodded.

"Hmm," she said, "thanks to you."

Her three tailed fox, previously unsummoned, suddenly appeared, peaking at Adrian from behind Renelle’s hair.

Adrian also noticed it and wondered if the spirit was hesitant because of Noctis’ mana, even though he was currently in the [Shadow Vault].

But it soon started approaching, and with the littlest of hestiations, it floated to his head and made itself comfortable there.

"She likes you," Renelle said with a smile that caused Adrian to freeze.

Her genuine smile truly was beautiful and he was lost in it for a few seconds, so much so, that even Renelle noticed.

"You really are a strange man, Adrian," she commented, pulling him back to the real world.

"I guess I am," Adrian said with a chuckle, slightly lifting his hand to his head and petting the fox, "does she have a name?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Crystal," Renelle answered, looking at her ice spirit.

"You really are bad at naming things," he chuckled and absentmindedly added, "as always."

"....."

That...was a slip up, the pressure in the room suddenly changed, and so did the mood.

Renelle’s expression had turned completely serious, but not because he thought her naming sense was bad...

She thought it was great.

Her change in expression was due to the fact that she had basically confirmed that Adrian knew a lot more about her than he was letting on.

He seemed to know her likes and dislikes, knew enough about the ball’s events to interfere at the right time, and now, he had just revealed that he even knew about her poor naming sense.

And again, she wondered, ’who the hell was he?’

Adrian looked at the suspicious expression on her face and sighed, he truly hadn’t intended to slip up this badly.

"As far as I can recall," Renelle began calmly, "you arrived by my side yesterday, so I’m certain you haven’t observed me long enough to know about my poor naming sense."

She paused, her icy blue eyes looking directly into his grey ones.

"So I ask again," she continued, "who the hell are you?"

Adrian looked at the serious expression on her face, he knew exactly the answer she wanted, he knew that she wanted to know how he knew so much about her.

And that raised a question in his mind, ’should I tell her?’

He had no intention of keeping secrets from her, but he was also certain that there would be some sort of restriction that would prevent him from telling her the truth.

Maybe some sort of mechanism put in place by whoever transmigrated him into this world.

With a sigh, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately, he massaged his forehead as he could feel a headache coming.

Maybe Margaret was right, he really did need some rest.

"Do you believe in regression?" He asked after a long moment of silence.

He couldn’t exactly tell her that this world was created from the imagination of an author on his earth, but he could, at least, find a way to explain how he had so much knowledge about her.

Renelle seemed to have some sort of reaction when he mentioned regression, confirming his thoughts of her being a regressor, so this much should be fine.

"Go on," she simply said, quickly masking her expression.

"In my previous life, I was the lady’s admirer," he started, keeping as close to the truth as possible, "obsessed with finding out every single thing about you."

Renelle frowned, wondering if there truly was someone like that in her previous life.

"I wanted nothing more, than to stand by the lady’s side," Adrian continued, "but I couldn’t."

He couldn’t because she was nothing more than an art work, one digitally created, and one he could only see through the screen of his laptop.

Renelle studied his expression, and although it seemed neutral, his eyes told her a lot more than she needed.

"Powerless, I watched the lady’s end at the hands of the prince," he was only revealing this much because he was certain that she had already experienced it.

And from the lack of change in her expression, he was sure of it.

"I wanted nothing more, than to stop them," he went on, "to ensure your safety, but in the end, there wasn’t a single thing I could do."

Renelle calmly listened, though her micro reactions showed that she, herself, was reliving that life again.

"And then?" she asked.

"Then I died," Adrian answered simply.

"And when I opened my eyes again," he looked at her, "I was back in the North, a day before you rescued me."

Renelle was silent after his words, she was sure that she would’ve noticed someone this obsessed with her in her previous life....

That was a lie.

With how much she was obsessed over the prince, it wouldn’t be surprising that she didn’t notice half the people in her life.

"So you’re saying," she began slowly, "that in your ’previous life,’ you dedicated yourself to watching mine... unfold?"

"Hmm," Adrian nodded.

She was silent for a while before asking again, "and what makes you so sure I’d believe you?"

Adrian smiled a bit as he looked directly into her eyes, before saying,

"Because I know I’m not the only one that regressed, my Lady."