Chapter 9
“It’s going to be trouble for you if you stay with me.”
I murmured while scooping up some soup.
“Huh? Why?”
Seeing her blink with eyes like a gentle foal, it seemed she still hadn’t grasped the mood of the situation.
Just then, someone approached her, as if coming over specifically to enlighten her about what was going on.
I didn’t know her name, but I’d seen her a few times at the maids’ quarters, always acting high and mighty.
Despite being a maid herself, she lorded over the younger ones like they were her own attendants.
I had thought offhandedly, “Maybe she’s the most senior maid?” and didn’t think much more of it—but now I was starting to see where this story really began.
Come to think of it, she was flirting with that soldier…
Yesterday, on my way to work, I’d seen this maid. She was giggling and being affectionate with the soldier who had first brought me here. I’d pretended not to notice and passed by, but apparently they had noticed me.
The soldier must have blabbed. And this maid, even dumber, spread it around.
A laugh slipped out of me.
“Alicia, who told you to share your bread?”
She looked down at us with an air of authority, like some headmistress witch.
“Huh…? Pardon?”
At her sharp tone, the woman sitting across from me widened her eyes.
“This is bread I was saving without eating.”
“If you’re not hungry, then you don’t need this bread either.”
She picked up the bread from the tray, dropped it to the floor with a thud, and then lightly ground it under her heel.
Even little kids wouldn’t do something so childish. I stared at her with an incredulous expression. I could feel a faint rush of heat somewhere inside me.
“W–Why!”
Alicia stared blankly at the bread, now squashed on the ground.
“Pick up your tray and go over there!”
The odious maid even grabbed Alicia’s hand and yanked her up.
“Ahhh! O–Ow!”
Of all places, she had pressed right on the blister from Alicia’s burn—it must have brought tears to her eyes. Hopefully the swollen blister hadn’t burst.
The blood that had been simmering inside me suddenly boiled over.
Crash!
I shoved my tray to the side, knocking it to the ground. The loud noise sent food flying everywhere.
The unpleasant maid recoiled a step in surprise, staring at me with a flustered expression.
“You… what do you think you’re doing!”
I calmly wiped the soup off my hand with my apron and said with an indifferent face,
“Squashing a piece of bread isn’t enough, is it? You have to overturn the whole thing if you want people to hear you’ve bullied me properly. That way, the head maid will hear about it too.”
Her pupils wavered slightly, as if she hadn’t expected that reaction.
“Do you know what you’ve done? If the head maid finds out you overturned your tray, you’ll get beaten half to death and thrown out.”
She clearly knew all eyes in the dining hall were on us, but maybe out of pride, she refused to back down.
I smiled leisurely and stepped closer to her. She instinctively stepped back—it was almost funny to watch.
“Oh no. It’s not enough for the head maid to know. The clueless soldier boyfriend who leaked my information should know too.”
At the words clueless soldier boyfriend, her eyes widened.
“Shouldn’t it reach the corps commander, the knight commander, and His Grace the Grand Duke as well?”
When I mentioned the Grand Duke, the grip she had on Alicia suddenly loosened.
“T–That’s ridiculous…!”
“What’s ridiculous is what you’re doing right now!”
I shouted, and she flinched, startled. It must have felt like she was being cornered, because she glanced around, silently begging someone to help her.
But with the Grand Duke’s name now in play, of course no one was going to step in.
“H–Head maid…”
As expected, her desperate gaze went searching for the head maid—it was almost pitiful.
“Go fetch the head maid.”
Before she could even finish speaking, I turned to the other maids and said,
“No need. She’s right here.”
Like the parting of the Red Sea, the maids stepped aside, and the headmistress witch strode forward.
I didn’t know when she had arrived, but apparently she’d been watching from behind.
“Head maid! She—she invoked the Grand Duke’s name to bully me! She even threw her tray at me! Hmph…”
She appealed to the head maid with a look of outrage, but the other maids—who had seen the whole thing—only exchanged uneasy glances.
“How dare you speak the Grand Duke’s name so carelessly!”
The head maid scolded her sharply, at least keeping some dignity as the supervisor.
“You two! Follow me! The rest of you, sit down and finish your meals at once!”
At her words, the maids all returned to their seats.
“What now…”
Alicia alone looked at me with worried eyes, anxiety written all over her face.
I’d expected this, so without hesitation, I followed after the head maid.
The troublemaking maid, looking reluctant, trailed behind me—clearly she hadn’t anticipated things to blow up like this.
As I followed the headmistress witch, I wondered if what I’d done was the right move.
I knew she often kept that unpleasant maid close and showed favoritism toward her.
The other maids hated the way she tattled on their every move to the head maid, but no one dared say anything to her face.
That arrogance—treating the other maids like her own servants—came from that favoritism.
By dragging the Grand Duke into it, I’d deliberately escalated the matter, knowing the head maid’s personality.
From what I’d seen of her, she despised any trouble arising under her supervision—especially if it became public.
“Come in.”
The head maid gave us a cold look as she spoke.
Thanks to the scene in the dining hall, it was my first time stepping into her office.
While the maids lived in damp, dim rooms like basements, the head maid had a bright, tidy room with sunlight streaming in.
One side had a bed and furniture; the other, a small desk and shelves—apparently used like an office.
Cough, cough.
Her coughing was noticeable. I thought maybe she had caught a cold—maids in damp quarters often had a cough, but for her to cough so much was unusual.
“Over there.”
She sat at her desk and lined the two of us up side by side.
Only then did I get a good, close look at her face.
Hm?
The moment I saw her, I sensed something was wrong.
“Tell me the truth, from beginning to end, about what happened in the dining hall.”
She spoke sternly, dabbing her nose with her handkerchief.
I didn’t even blink—just watched her movements carefully.
“I–I was only trying to tell her she’s not a noble anymore after she complained the food looked like pig slop…”
Blah, blah… she whined about her innocence, but at some point, I stopped hearing her voice at all.
I slowly looked around the head maid’s room, noting every little detail.
‘She’s always trying to look good—cleans and decorates the head maid’s room every day, while pushing her own chores onto the others…’
I remembered overhearing the other maids complain.
“Garnet!”
The sharp call snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked at the head maid.
She seemed annoyed that I was still lost in thought, waiting for my explanation. I could hear the faint snicker of the maid beside me.
“You’re standing there dazed even now, after what you’ve done—invoking the Grand Duke’s name with that mouth of yours. Have you truly lost all fear?”
She spoke in a rush, perhaps making her cough worse—this time, she looked like she might choke from it.
“The dried snowdrop bells are lovely.”
I said it calmly, completely out of nowhere, which made both of them look at me like I’d grown another head.
“What?”
The head maid’s brow furrowed sharply, her gaze turning icy, as if she thought I was mocking her.
I looked straight at her and enunciated clearly,
“I hope, whoever it was, didn’t have malicious intent toward you. Because if they did, it would be little different from attempted murder.”
She caught her breath and asked,
“What are you talking about? Speak clearly!”
“These days, have you been coughing a lot, suffering headaches, or sometimes feeling your vision go white like sudden dizziness? I bet you’ve even felt nauseous for no reason, without eating anything bad.”
When she heard me out, the head maid dropped the handkerchief she was holding onto her lap.
The maid beside her looked anxious, clearly not understanding where I was going with this.
“Think carefully. Didn’t it all start after you put up those snowdrop bells?”
Both the head maid and the maid turned toward the snowdrop bells hanging above the bed.
“The toxins released from those flowers would have entered your nose and mouth while you slept. For someone with an allergy, the poisoning could be fatal.”
The maid standing beside her went pale, her hands trembling as she opened her mouth.
“I–I…”
Before she could finish, I cut her off.
“Surely you didn’t hate the head maid so much that you hung those pretty flowers to kill her? Of course not—you must have done it without knowing.”
I nodded seriously, wrapping it up.
“Fortunately, I have an antidote. I’ll bring it to you right after I return to my room.”
The head maid’s frightened eyes shifted from me to the maid beside her.
The maid collapsed to her knees, shaking her head desperately as she wailed.
“N–No! I truly didn’t know, Head maid!”
My gaze drifted toward the white, fluffy clouds outside the window.
It was a bright, clear afternoon.
