FDND 08

   Chapter – 08

“A thoroughly arrogant thing has come in, hasn’t it?”

A voice cold as an ice shard pierced through the warm sunlight. Susan’s pale blue face said it all. I was done for.

“How dare a commoner—”

The duchess only looked down at me with a composed stare, but it felt like being trampled.

The duchess stepped lightly closer and snapped my chin up with a fierce grip.

“How dare you act so cheeky as to call me pretty in front of your betters.”

It was terrifying enough to bring tears to my eyes.

“Come up here and kneel.”

“W-what? Y-yes!”

Was the duchess planning to teach me a proper lesson? She actually sat down on the picnic mat and made me kneel in front of her.

“Tell me why you had the gall to call me ‘unnie’ (big sister).”

“Y-you, you’re… you’re too… too….”

The charisma emanating from the duchess right in front of me was a pressure that made lying impossible.

“Too?”

“…….”

“Are you saying I don’t look my age?”

My voice came out trembling, on the verge of tears. I couldn’t possibly lie.

“…Yes.”

I found myself replying in a choked voice.

The duchess smoothly lifted a prepared teacup and handed it to me.

“Drink.”

“Ah, uh, yes!”

Just as I was about to take a sip of the chilled tea I had packed for the picnic—

“Explain properly why you called me pretty. If you can’t explain it right, you’ll be punished.”

The duchess began scolding me again.

“I said you’re pretty because you’re pretty… but if you ask me to explain properly… I’ve only ever seen someone this beautiful in paintings.”

“Paintings?”

“Yes. Ones that depict goddesses…”

“You — drink it now.”

“Yes!”

The sip of tea slid down cool and had a balanced sour-bitter-sweetness.

Huh?

And it tasted like mercury.

I forced my face to stay neutral, so the poisoner who slipped mercury into the tea wouldn’t suspect anything.

If I showed I’d noticed right away, before I could find out who gave the duchess mercury, Leviathan would know of my existence.

Then… I’d be killed without mercy.

“It seems fine!”

I answered cheerfully to the duchess. A tiny dose of mercury wouldn’t kill me immediately anyway.

“Try this too.”

The duchess gave me cookies, cake, and desserts adorned with colorful fruits.

I tried each one carefully. There was no poison, but the flavors were excessively exquisite.

Thud.

A handkerchief dropped onto my knees.

“If even a single crumb at the corner of your mouth falls onto my garden, you’ll be punished for daring to dirty it.”

Um… so she wanted me to wipe my mouth?

The duchess watched me as I daintily bit into the dessert so no crumbs would get on my mouth.

Was wiping my mouth the right thing to do? When I used the soft, pleasantly-scented handkerchief to clean around my lips, her fierce aura softened a bit.

Somehow, I survived the picnic until the end.

I was exhausted, so I went straight back to my room afterward.

“You’re back? Good news. Madam says she won’t be taking dinner tonight.”

Susan was already in the room. Thanks to madam skipping dinner and going straight to bed, both Susan and I were off early.

After a light dinner, Susan lay down and kept muttering to herself.

“Phew. The more I think about it, the stranger it is. Is the new medicine working so well?”

Was she talking to herself or wanting an answer? I asked briefly.

“What is?”

“Hm? Madam. She didn’t get angry at all today. Ah — you’re new so you wouldn’t know, but….”

“You mean she wasn’t angry earlier?”

“When?”

“When she just scolded me and said I’d be punished.”

“Oh. That was just… a cute joke. She didn’t mean it for real.”

Cute… joke? This maid seemed out of her mind.

“I-is that so?”

“Yeah. It seems she’s being lenient because you’re young.”

True — being six years old makes it hard to scold harshly.

But it’s too early to relax.

Childhood has an expiration date. I have to live at the duchy at least another ten years — if I get on the wrong side of someone, even once…

Besides, the duchess was no pushover. From what I’d heard here and there, she might be the real power behind this estate.

The duke himself couldn’t handle the duchess? I had never heard of such a thing.

She looked delicate and as if she might float away, but there was a poisonous edge to her — like she’d repay any wrongs manyfold.

…Hmm, I’d better stay in her good graces.

I mustn’t make her an enemy.

After confirming Susan was asleep, I slipped out quietly and gathered herbs under the moonlight that would help expel mercury.

I figured I should secretly treat the duchess’s nervous breakdown a little. Her fatigue and lethargy symptoms surely came from mercury poisoning.

When the body is sick, the mind suffers too! If her irritability, anger, and nervousness were all from mercury, removing the mercury might make the duchess much gentler.

That would be good for me.

Three months later.

Having passed spring and welcomed summer, the duchess’s room had been freshly redecorated — so impeccably that you couldn’t find a single flaw.

Clink!

Everything was quiet until I knocked the amethyst music box on the table and sent it tumbling.

A frosty glance landed on me at once.

The softness that had filled the duchess’s eyes tightened into a sharp, cutting stare as she glared at me.

“…Noisy.”

She muttered irritably, rubbing her temple with her fingertips as if she had a headache.

“I’m so sorry, madam!”

The duchess hated noise. Since the thing she despised most was loud, grating sounds, her room was thick with tension.

“Magritte.”

“Yes, yes! Madam.”

I shook like a frightened child who had made a mistake.

“What on earth.”

The duchess seized my shoulder tightly.

“When will you stop making mistakes?”

“I’m, I’m, I’m sor—”

“You got cocky because I kept saying you’re pretty.”

“Eek!”

One of the maids could not help but look away.

All the maids pitied how I, such a small child, was being scolded. Susan in particular was restless.

“Everyone out.”

The duchess’s icy voice ordered the maids to leave. They hesitated at leaving the little child alone.

“What are you waiting for? Move. Don’t stand there.”

But the duchess’s loyal head maid scolded them and they took reluctant steps away.

“Magritte. Today I will personally teach you.”

“Yes, madam! I’m sorry!”

“It’s too late.”

Until the head maid finally left and all the other maids had gone, fearful looks rained down onto my back.

I waited a moment until everyone’s footsteps were out of earshot.

When the sounds had completely disappeared, I peeked up and bobbed my head toward the duchess. The malice melted away in her eyes.

“Are they all gone?”

“Yes, madam! Your acting was top-notch today.”

I gave a thumbs-up like I always did, and the duchess smiled faintly.

No one would guess.

No one could imagine that instead of being hauled and scolded to tears, I would be sitting on the duchess’s bed, crunching on cookies and spending a warm, friendly time.

“How is it?”

“It feels like my hair has been pulled out!”

While I ate cookies, the duchess had ruffled my hair with wholehearted vigor.

“Hmm. Your clothes could use a bit of work.”

She crumpled the apron with delicate hands until I looked thoroughly bedraggled.

“If I go back to the dorm like this, everyone will think you really attacked me!”

“Right?”

The duchess’s face showed a pleased smile as we looked in the mirror together. She gently brushed the crumbs from the corner of my mouth and mumbled,

“I can’t wait until next week.”

“Why?”

“Why, to carry out the plan that’ll turn this place upside down that day… I’m looking forward to it so much I can hardly stand it.”

The duchess was so excited just at the thought that she clasped her hands over her face.

“I’m so glad madam is on my side!”

I said it sincerely.

A fortnight ago I never would have imagined the duchess would be so cooperative.

“You should consider yourself really lucky.”

“Ugh!”

I was squeezed into her arms and crumpled, and I thought about the day we’d promised to carry out our joint operation.