Heaven’s Proud Daugh Chapter 89

Chapter 89. Worthy of You

"Naturally it's because……I believe in little Aina, Pati!"

When Luo Nan removed the Human-Skin Mask and revealed his true face, the expressions of the remaining few people in the sitting room ran the full gamut.

So showed shock, so suddenly understood, so wore complete bewildernt, and one looked as though a great weight had been lifted.

"Luo Nan……Young Master?"

Pati stared at Luo Nan's face, voice halting and intermittent. She blinked her eyes, as though afraid she was seeing wrong.

"It's , Pati," Luo Nan gave a nod and settled back into the sofa with a rather swaggering posture. "Do you mind if I switch to a more comfortable position to chat with you?"

"But of course — you are the Young Master, please do as you please."

After a brief spell of astonishnt, Pati recovered to her usual unruffled calm, expression blank, as though she were still that excellent, graceful Maid of Glory.

"Luo Nan?! How can it be you?"

Anya — who had been feeling hungry again — also stopped eating the small pastries on the table, forgetting even to wipe away the flaky crumbs at the corner of her mouth, as a pair of bright golden eyes stared fixedly at Luo Nan's face.

"……" Luo Nan glanced back at her, and couldn't be bothered with this one.

Soone had already been shocked once — if she needed to be shocked again, he certainly wasn't going to repeat himself a second ti.

Seeing that Luo Nan was ignoring her once more, Anya's curiosity, which had been on the verge of spilling over, instantly transmuted into indignation, which she then sublimated back into appetite — sweeping up every last pastry remaining on the plate.

"Hateful Luo Nan von dillion — just you wait until this lady eats your household into poverty!"

Luo Nan swept his gaze over the golden-haired princess and found that only Serela's expression had remained unchanged from beginning to end — still that composed, graceful, faint smile.

Right. With her level of intelligence, she had probably figured it out the mont he walked in behind Grego.

His disguise had been thorough, but he had failed to account for Serela personally visiting the Duke Manor, forcing him to hastily adjust his plan on the spot — and in doing so, let her see through his identity.

"Young — Young Master? You……you're not hurt, are you?"

A lithe figure flung itself into Luo Nan's arms. The pleasing fragrance of a girl's body drifted along her hair into Luo Nan's nostrils.

Feeling the soft warmth pressed close against him, Luo Nan reached out and stroked the girl's chestnut hair, and lowered his head to say soothingly: "Aina, I'm back. And……I'm sorry."

Aina lifted her little head from Luo Nan's arms with evident reluctance, raised her hand to wipe the tear-tracks from the corners of her eyes, and said softly: "As long as the Young Master is safe, that's all that matters — you — you have absolutely no need to apologize to !"

From the girl's expression Luo Nan could read not a trace of resentnt toward himself — only the most unguarded, transparent joy.

"I……never mind."

Luo Nan did not explain to Aina how he had made use of her. He felt that since Aina herself didn't mind, there was no need to lay it all bare.

But in his heart he quietly resolved that starting tomorrow, he would give Aina Anjiru a raise!

"Alright, Aina, I still have unfinished business on my end — why don't you first……"

Though the girl's figure was both soft and fragrant, and he very much wanted to hold her and play around to his heart's content, for one thing he had serious matters to attend to right now, and publicly displaying such affectionate behavior wasn't a great look.

For another……both Serela and Anya were staring at him!

For so reason, being simultaneously fixed in the gaze of the "Benevolent Imperial Princess" and the "Chosen Hero" gave Luo Nan a chilling feeling that made his spine prickle.

It was not far inferior to the battle against "Nature's" projection.

"Mm mm, Aina understands."

Maidservant Aina — her energy replenished by the Young Master — finally relented and withdrew from Luo Nan's embrace. The girl raised her bright little face and positioned herself less than one tre from Luo Nan.

‘Fine, let her stand wherever she likes.’

Luo Nan paid no mind to Aina's little sche, and shifted his attention back to the Mole, Pati Beckett.

"Young Master Luo Nan, have you finished warming up with Aina?" Pati remained in that utterly unruffled tone, as though she had not been exposed at all.

"……Shut your mouth! Pati Beckett — just who do you think you are, presuming to make a mockery of this Young Master?" Luo Nan reasserted the bearing befitting a top-rank noble.

Though in the eyes of the world he was a good-for-nothing scoundrel, even as a scoundrel, he was the most top-rank scoundrel in this nation!

"But of course, Young Master Luo Nan — Pati is nothing more than a lowly maidservant," Pati was montarily cowed by Luo Nan's bearing, but swiftly recovered her composure. "It's just that I have always been unable to understand — why did you suspect ?"

Seeing the quizzical expression on maidservant Pati's face before him, Luo Nan gave a light laugh and replied slowly: "Naturally it's because……you gave yourself away."

"My tell?"

"It can't quite be called a tell — after all, you were quite shrewd about not lying in any verifiable way; you only deliberately concealed part of the information."

"What is this about? What information did she conceal?"

Anya, having finished all the pastries in her hand and feeling not quite as indignant anymore, also raised her head to ask Luo Nan.

This ti Luo Nan didn't keep her in suspense, and continued: "Anya, did you happen to notice — apart from the basic factual questions, every question I posed to each person was different in content?"

The girl scratched her head and knitted her brows, casting her mind back carefully. "It seems……yes?"

"Well then — on the basis of my trust in Aina, and this key item," Luo Nan drew the sealed necktie from his pocket, "all the subsequent questioning was built entirely around these two points."

"To be candid, Pati, I trusted you at the outset as well — even when you substituted for Peini in going out to receive the supply procurent, and the timing of Aina secretly taking……the necktie I had Aina help nd going missing — those two events falling in close succession, I still did not suspect you from the start."

"Oh? Then when did you begin to suspect , Young Master?"

Luo Nan chuckled. "Do you rember the 'casual chat' you and I had before you left?"

"Of course I do. Was it then?"

"To be precise, it was after that."

"Why?" Pati was sowhat puzzled — she did not believe she had given anything away.

Luo Nan glanced at Aina beside him and said with sothing like nostalgia: "You, Aina, Peini, and the other maidservants — you've all served

for quite so ti now, haven't you?"

Pati gave a small nod. "Naturally, Young Master — you have……practically been watched over as you grew up by ."

Pati was nearing thirty — nearly a decade older than Luo Nan — and could truly be called a maidservant who had watched him grow up.

At that, even Pati could not help but let a flicker of nostalgia show.

"Based on what I know of Pati — when I asked you about information concerning Aina, given your temperant……you shouldn't have given Aina's details so fully and completely, should you? Going so far as to even deliberately, or half-deliberately, emphasize how close she and I have been lately."

"If I were not Luo Nan, but truly a Rol with little knowledge of the Duke Manor's inner workings, after hearing those words of yours, the first target of suspicion would naturally have been Aina — especially with the necktie there as corroborating evidence."

Luo Nan let out a quiet sigh. "But unfortunately……"

"But unfortunately, you are Young Master Luo Nan." Pati spoke up to complete the sentence.

"So — you concluded that my conduct did not match the Pati you knew, and that was why you suspected ?"

"Not only that. When I produced that necktie, your reactions before and after also showed a subtle change — one you may not even have noticed yourself."

"What kind of change?"

Luo Nan looked at Pati. "A sort of……urgency to exonerate yourself?"

"Is that so?" Pati gave a slow nod. "Worthy of you, Young Master — even after three wasted years, you are still as……sharp and perceptive as ever. Just like when the Madam was here……"

Seeming to realize she had said sothing she ought not to have, Pati hurriedly lowered herself in a bow. "My apologies."

Having received no reproach from Luo Nan, Pati straightened up again and continued to press:

"But re suspicion alone is not sufficient to convict , is it? Wasn't that sothing the Young Master himself said?"

"That is quite right — which brings us to the matter of your concealing Peini's 'Autumn Chill'."