Chapter 05
The owner of the voice was instantly recognizable. It was Penny, one of the maids attending to me.
“Get your dirty hands off it and give that to me, now!”
“N-No! The Head Maid personally entrusted this to me. And if you go in there…!”
“Ha, if I go in there, what? Hey, you’re just a baron’s illegitimate child who got lucky and became a maid. Don’t think you’re somebody now just because of that.”
‘The other one seems to be Jenna.’
She was also one of the maids serving me.
Seeing that the situation was clearly unusual, I got up from the bed and tiptoed to the door.
*Creeeak.*
I opened the door just enough not to be noticed, and saw Penny and Jenna arguing in the hallway.
To be precise.
*Thud!*
“Eek!”
It was the sight of Penny shoving Jenna hard against the wall.
*Crash!*
The tea tray Jenna was holding fell to the floor with a harsh sound.
I wish it had only been the tea that spilled.
*Gasp…!*
The steaming tea scalded Jenna’s hand, and on top of that, shards of the teacup were embedded here and there in her palm.
My mind went blank for a moment at the sight of the red liquid staining my vision crimson.
I froze stiff, my hand covering my mouth. I wanted to move, but my body wouldn’t obey.
It was because the sight of the red blood triggered a memory from a certain day, gripping me tightly.
Meanwhile, Penny twisted her lips into a sneer.
“See, I told you to give it to me. Tsk tsk, this is why we shouldn’t hire commoners. No sense of professionalism. Do you even know that tea costs more than you’re worth?”
“Grr, you… you pushed me. And you’re the one with no professionalism. You were trying to go in to steal the jewels, weren’t you?”
Jenna, clutching her injured hand, glared sharply at Penny.
Her tightly bitten lips to keep from crying and her reddened eyes looked as painful as her wounded hand.
*Roll*—I shifted my gaze to Penny. I thought she would be flustered by Jenna’s words, but she wasn’t.
“Pfft. So what? What are you gonna do about it?”
Penny lightly kicked Jenna, who was lying on the floor, as she continued.
“You seem to be mistaken about something. I’m the daughter of Viscount Dock, and you’re just a commoner, no better than an illegitimate child. Even if we’re both maids, we’re on different levels. Besides, I’m practically like sisters with Cierra?”
No. What a ridiculous lie.
‘I only had one person who could be called a friend, you know?’
To me, she was just ‘Maid #1’, so how could she be so brazen?
‘And I just found out about the stolen jewels now.’
The situation was so absurd it made me want to swallow back my own hollow laugh.
My still-stiff body was also being a problem.
“Guh, sisters? That’s funny. And you’re the one trying to steal jewels secretly?”
“Do you have proof? You can’t report me because you have no proof, right? Wow, they say you shouldn’t hang out with those who’ve tasted power. Scary, huh?”
Penny kept sneering and leaned down towards Jenna.
“What? Go ahead and tell. But who would believe you? Use your head and think for a second, huh?”
“……”
“Your mother is sick, right? You need to stick around here *well*. This incident… was you slipping and falling by mistake, right?”
Her *puhuhu* laughing voice was full of mockery.
Penny passed by Jenna as if nothing had happened.
Her behavior was so brazen she even hummed a tune.
At that sight, the tangled mess in my head *exploded!*
‘I can’t take this anymore.’
*Slam!*
Pushing aside the red haze swimming before my eyes, I flung the door open wide.
“Stop.”
While my insides were boiling, my voice came out cold as ice.
“Y-Your Grace?”
Penny, who had been walking away from me, quickly turned back towards me.
The face that had been smiling even when she pushed Jenna finally showed a crack.
“Causing such a mess and you think you can just leave? Do you take me for a fool now? Did you deliberately come by my room just to say that?”
I frowned deeply and fired back at Penny, using my old ‘Cierra’ personality.
“You’re the one who needs to think. Not only did you try to steal jewels, but you laid a hand on my maid?”
“Your Grace! It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!”
Penny, quickly sensing the situation turning sour, dropped to her knees with a *thud*.
“Really, it wasn’t like that!”
Penny’s shoulders trembled as tears dripped down.
“It’s slander! Sob, you know, Your Grace. Why would I do such a thing, huh?”
Her face was already stained with tears. The look she gave me, looking up so desperately, seemed sincere at a glance.
If it were the old me, I might have believed Penny.
‘Because Penny is a noble.’
As she said, I would have considered a proper noble more trustworthy than the illegitimate child of a minor family.
‘But not anymore.’
Her act only felt utterly disgusting to me.
I let out a slight sneer, *pfft*, towards Penny, who was looking at me with eyes that seemed to say, ‘You’ll believe me, right?’
“Is that so? I wonder? What do I care if it’s slander or not?”
I am the ‘Grand Duchess’, and you are merely a ‘Viscount’s daughter’.
“Who would believe what you say?”
I paid her back exactly as she had done to Jenna, then immediately turned away.
“Your Grace!”
Penny cried out desperately, but I didn’t care.
Seeing Jenna, whose eyes were wide like a rabbit’s, Penny was immediately pushed out of my concern.
‘She looks like she didn’t expect me to help.’
Her face was full of bewilderment rather than pain.
I cautiously approached Jenna and knelt down on one knee.
“You’ll be fine, Jenna.”
I comforted the frightened girl, making her open and close her hand.
If I had truly become the Saint, as Arte said, then I should be able to heal this too.
‘Ha, I can do it.’
Steadying my trembling breath, I tried to channel divine power towards Jenna’s hand.
“Cierra Eizens, what do you think you’re doing!”
No, I *tried* to channel it.
Until Lucien stopped me.
Since when had they been there?
Without a sound, my family was standing not far away, staring at me.
“I asked what you think you’re doing!”
Lucien shouted at me, his face flushed red.
Then, with angry, stomping footsteps, he approached me and roughly pulled Jenna and me apart.
*Ugh.*
His grip on my arm was forceful. I instinctively grimaced.
Just because of that.
“…My child. This time, you’ve gone a bit too far.”
“We’ll handle this. Go to your room.”
My parents misunderstood.
‘They think I did it.’
…Hmm, this is quite bitter.
As if to pour oil on the fire of my feelings, Lucien tightened his grip on my wrist and spat out his words through gritted teeth.
“What on earth is the reason for this? Do you have to ruin everything until today to feel satisfied?!”
“……”
“You have no intention of changing at all, do you? We… we were so happy to see you awake…!”
*Grit*—He bit his lip and swallowed his last words, abruptly avoiding my gaze.
His face was filled with nothing but disappointment.
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand Lucien’s feelings.
But.
‘Shouldn’t you at least give me a chance to explain…?’
The image of my family holding me in the carriage felt distant, like a memory from long ago.
I watched them silently as they tried to avoid my eyes, and then I spoke.
‘I can’t just sit here frustratingly keeping my mouth shut!’
“Lucien, Mother, Father. It’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t do this, it was all—”
“Cierra. That’s enough. Go to your room now.”
Words that were terribly kind, yet indifferent, fell upon me.
Mother spoke as if she truly understood me, but there was no sense of trust in her words anywhere.
“You’re not even listening to what I have to say.”
“…We’re tired of hearing your excuses too.”
This time, Lucien retorted. Unlike when he was shouting, now his voice was low, barely audible.
“Sob, Y-Your Grace! I, I’m truly wronged!”
In that gap, Penny began to appeal to my family.
“I only had good intentions, trying to help, but Jenna ended up like that, and Her Grace… sob!”
She glanced at me, then flinched and hunched her shoulders, shrinking back.
*Ha.*
Look at that?
Her skill at cleverly shifting the blame onto me was truly impressive.
“Penny. It’s not your fault.”
“That’s right. All of this is our fault.”
Her acting was so top-notch that my family took her words at face value.
‘Well, I never.’
Lucien, who had been holding my wrist so tightly it felt like it might break, was now trying to help Penny up.
Even at a glance, his touch was very careful.
“Sob, th-thank you…!”
Penny, now leaning completely on Lucien, acted as if she was still afraid of me, avoiding my gaze.
‘Do you think this lie will never be discovered?’
Ah. Looking at her sneaking a glance at me and smiling while my family isn’t looking, I get it now.
‘You really think so, don’t you?’
She was smiling with a twisted lip, as if she were the Grand Duchess herself.
‘It seems no one believes you, Your Grace?’
She even mouthed the words mockingly!
‘Right. That’s exactly why she wouldn’t hesitate to steal my jewels.’
How can there be someone like that!
*Urgh!*
I already felt stifled, as if I had eaten a million sweet potatoes.
‘I need a cider… I need a cider!’
I really can’t just take this lying down!
As if answering my silent cry, Arte threw me a lifeline.
*Ding!*
[Arte has donated 10 Florins!]
[(Ad) Would you like to have a refreshing cider shower with me?]
