K-Eldest Daughter Possessed a Childcare Novel

There happened to be one suspicious guy.

In the original story, he resented and hated the Duke of Alton’s family, so there was enough possibility that he could be a spy. Using the ring would easily get a confession out of him.

While I was contemplating how to deal with him once I caught him, a more amusing idea crossed my mind.

‘… right. There’s no need to use the ring for something like this, is there?’

This was a good opportunity to use the watchers.

After modifying my plan to catch and punish the spy immediately, I called Emily.

“You called for me, Lady Belladi.”

“Emily, come here.”

I glanced at the ring and asked.

“You’ve never leaked any information about the Alton family, right?”

“Of course not, Lady Belladi. I’ve always been loyal to the Alton family and you.”

The ring didn’t shine. Seeing the result I had expected, I smiled in satisfaction.

Yes, loyal Emily would never betray me.

With a pleased voice, I gave Emily an order.

“Tonight, gather a few people who are loose-lipped and love spreading rumors in the drawing room. It doesn’t matter who they are, as long as they work in this mansion.”

“Loose lipped… people?”

Servants must keep their mouths shut to survive long, but no matter where you went, there were always those who didn’t.

I intended to make use of them.

“Yes, bring them in secretly.”

Usually, when a master summoned a servant privately, he would choose someone discreet and trustworthy. After all, calling someone in secret implied there was a sensitive task at hand.

However, my order was the exact opposite, and Emily seemed slightly confused. Still, being the seasoned professional she was, she didn’t show unnecessary curiosity.

“Understood, Lady Belladi.”

Later that night.

When I headed to the second-floor drawing room, several servants were waiting for me.

I plopped down on the sofa and looked at them.

“These are the ones?”

Emily, who had followed me in, politely replied.

“Yes, Lady Belladi. I’ve gathered the most talkative ones in the mansion as you instructed.”

“Good work.”

The servants, overhearing our conversation, stood with their hands clasped, bowing their heads.

“You… you called for us, Lady Belladi?”

I hadn’t even said much, but they were already trembling. Their faces showed they had no idea why they had been gathered here.

I looked at the ring on my finger and asked.

“Is there anyone here who has leaked information about the Duke of Alton’s affairs outside?”

At my words, the servants appeared momentarily confused. Then, as they grasped what I was asking, their jaws dropped in shock.

“N-no!”

“Even though I like to talk, how could I spread the affairs of the duchy outside?”

“Not me either! I haven’t breathed a word!”

“Please believe me, Lady Belladi!”

Seeing them frantically deny it, I raised an eyebrow.

“All right, enough with the fuss.”

At my one remark, the previously noisy servants quickly shut their mouths.

Even in all that commotion, the ring showed no reaction. That meant they were telling the truth.

‘Well, they’re too jumpy to be spies.’

Just watching their denials gave me a clear sense of what kind of people they were.

I slightly raised the corners of my mouth and gestured for them to come closer.

“Come here.”

They hesitated but eventually shuffled toward me.

I leaned in and whispered quietly to them.

“Spread a rumor. Tell people there’s a traitor in the mansion, and I’m searching for evidence.”

The servants’ eyes widened at my command. Still, thanks to Emily’s prior warning, they didn’t dare question me.

After blinking in surprise for a moment, they soon realized they hadn’t been called to be punished but to carry out an order. Their voices grew confident.

“Leave it to me, Lady Belladi!”

“Yes! That’s my specialty!”

“I won’t let you down!”

I tilted my head, watching them.

“Good. Start immediately tomorrow. You can go now.”

With my dismissal, the quick-witted Emily escorted them out of the drawing room.

I leaned back onto the sofa and chuckled softly.

‘They might not be suited to spying, but they’re perfect for stirring things up.’

Now, it was time to see how the spy would react.

***

Among the servants working in the Duke of Alton’s mansion, there was one unspoken rule that was never to be broken.

‘Never speak carelessly outside the mansion.’

Inside the mansion, servants were free to exchange various bits of information with each other. Even if some stories got exaggerated in the process, it was acceptable.

Rumors and gossip were one of the few sources of entertainment in the hard lives of the servants, and the lenient masters of the Alton family turned a blind eye to such things. Besides, it was practically impossible to keep track of all those rumors anyway.

However, the masters’ generosity was only allowed within the household.

Even the smallest piece of information or trivial rumor leaking outside the mansion was treated as a clear act of betrayal.

The masters of the Alton family always tracked down anyone who spread rumors, whether it was by accident or intention. And they dealt harsh and cold punishment.

For this reason, no matter how loose lipped someone was, they were extremely careful not to speak outside. This was why the servants working for the Alton family rarely changed, and new hires were uncommon.

And so, in the mansion of the Duke of Alton, considered one of the most closed-off spaces in the capital, a man was walking down a quiet hallway, almost at a run.

His heart was pounding harder than it ever had before.

‘It’s just nonsense.’

He recalled the conversation the mansion’s knights had been having moments earlier.

-Did you hear? There’s a traitor this time.

-What? A traitor?

-Ha, unbelievable. Looks like some idiot couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

-You think this might blow back on us?

-It’s more than just a slip of the tongue. It seems like someone deliberately leaked the information.

-Deliberately?

-Yeah! To put it simply…

“There’s a spy!”

At the sound of a voice echoing the knight’s words, the man’s heart dropped.

He quickly pressed himself against the hallway wall to hide. Peeking slightly around the corner, he saw three maids standing near a window.

“A spy?”

“Don’t say such scary things! Even an accidental mistake gets you punished, so if it’s a spy… ugh!”

One of the maids clicked her tongue at this response.

“Do you think someone like me would spread rumors that aren’t true?”

“Well… you do exaggerate, but you don’t lie.”

“Oh my, then is it true? Does Lady Belladi know?”

‘Belladi Alton…’

When the name of the master was mentioned, the maid who was the source of the rumor quickly glanced around.

The man silenced his presence to avoid detection. Thankfully, the maid didn’t notice him and whispered quietly.

“Of course she knows. She even knows who it is and who’s backing him.”

‘That can’t be!’

The man fervently denied the maid’s claim in his mind.

How could they have caught him so quickly when he had moved so carefully and discreetly? He had just barely stolen some useful information a moment ago.

That Belladi Alton had overthrown the heir, Meldor Alton, and taken complete control of the mansion.

Now that he was acting as a spy, the man wanted to provide even more detailed and influential information.

He had observed and documented everything, from the rumors circulating among the servants and the outward appearances, to the precarious relationship between Belladi Alton and Meldor Alton.

He even analyzed the potential impact these changes would have on the succession.

It had taken a lot of time, but he was certain. This wasn’t just a sibling rivalry typical of adolescence.

Belladi Alton, who had been quiet all this time, was beginning to bare her fangs. Though her actions were still cautious, the man’s instincts, honed from secretly observing her, were sounding the alarm.

‘Belladi Alton is a dangerous person!’

The man hoped that the information he had compiled would be useful to those on the other side.

He was willing to provide even more information, eager to see this cursed Alton house brought to ruin.

‘For that, I’d do even worse.’

As the man repeated his vow to himself, the maids’ conversation continued.

“So, who is this spy?”

“I don’t know that. But apparently, he’s backed by someone from the Imperial Family!”

The man’s eyes widened in shock.

‘They even know my backer is from the Imperial Family?’

The knights, the maids—they all seemed to know.

Despite his careful actions, he couldn’t figure out how they had uncovered his backer’s identity.

He focused on the maids’ conversation.

“How did you find this out?”

“Of course, Lady Belladi told me! She said she’s preparing to catch the spy with definitive proof!”

No matter how much they searched the mansion, they wouldn’t find any evidence. He had dealt with it long ago using magic.

Still, how could Belladi Alton know that he received an order from the Imperial Family?

It wasn’t like the other side would have made a rash move based on just one piece of information.

‘Could it be that she realized something at the winter banquet?’

He had already heard that Belladi Alton had earned the emperor’s favor at the winter banquet.

But since he had aligned himself with the crown prince, not the emperor, he had felt secure… until now.

It seemed Belladi Alton had picked up on something just from her conversation with the emperor.

‘She’s young, but as the daughter of Theodore, it’s certainly possible.’

The man knew now that she wasn’t someone to underestimate.

Here was the unfortunate truth, though…

The crown prince’s faction, which had proposed the spy mission to the man, didn’t fully trust his information.

The crown prince’s faction had been searching for a suitable candidate for a long time to infiltrate the Alton house, known for its secrecy.

When they found the man, who held a grudge against the Alton family, they had installed him as a spy…

But still, they found it hard to believe that Belladi Alton had suddenly seized control from the heir.

That girl who had been little more than a typical noble socialite, now the true power behind the house?

It was difficult for the patriarchal crown prince’s faction to accept such information.

Still, they decided to let Casper take action. With skepticism in their hearts, they hadn’t anticipated that Belladi Alton might already have noticed something strange.

The man, unaware of all this, was lost in thought.

‘I was planning to gather more information while Theodore is away from the mansion… but now I have no choice but to lay low for a while.’

At least it seemed that Belladi Alton hadn’t yet uncovered his true identity.

The man quickly retraced his steps.

In his growing anxiety, he failed to notice one of the maids adjusting her glasses and watching him as he disappeared.