SEM 36

#036

“You there! Go get the butler. And you, follow me.”

As soon as she left the drawing room, she gave orders to the maid wiping rain off the window. She gestured at each one she saw, making sure they followed her.

She had already noted where the head maid’s office was, so she didn’t get lost. But she didn’t expect Emma to block her path like this.

“Please give me a moment. Your Grace, the Grand Duchess.”

When they reached the head maid’s office, Emma stood in front of the door, blocking it. She looked as if she couldn’t believe Eliana, once so naive, would act so aggressively.

“I believe I’ve already given the head maid plenty of time…”

Eliana crossed her arms and looked Emma up and down.

At first, she wasn’t sure. But a single comment from Grady earlier had solidified her suspicions.

“Rosella’s hobby is spying on my every move!”

Had it not been for that one sentence, Eliana might have hesitated a bit longer.

The Grand Duchy hadn’t had a mistress in a long time, and Empress Rosella had treated Grady like a dog. It was a well-known rumor among the nobles. Grady had never once disobeyed Rosella’s orders.

People considered that loyalty a sign of true love. His actions could only be explained by something as irrational as love.

And the person in the best position to monitor someone like Grady was the head maid.

Grady had even attached the head maid to Eliana as one of her personal attendants.

In hindsight, it had been strange. Even if she were to become the Grand Duchess, why would the head maid of the Grand Duchy abandon her post for weeks just to tail Eliana?

What is this feeling?

There was no way Grady didn’t know the maid’s true identity. He was sharp, intelligent, and wise—contrary to what rumors suggested. He had probably tolerated the surveillance out of duty, to keep Rosella’s mind at ease.

Maybe it was even to prove he was faithfully carrying out the Empress’s orders by having the head maid serve Eliana directly.

It was highly likely all reports were being passed on to Rosella through her.

I feel… betrayed.

Eliana, deep in thought with her arms crossed, snapped her head up in surprise. She was startled by her own emotions.

“If you open this door, Your Grace, you will regret it.”

The gentle, smiling head maid who had always doted on her was gone. Emma now glared at Eliana with tight lips, her tone threatening. Eliana slightly turned her head.

The maids she’d told to follow her now stood behind her. More were arriving, drawn by the commotion.

“Drag the head maid out of my sight. Now.”

One of the maids, the same one who had been wiping the window earlier and had first followed Eliana’s orders, stepped forward, hesitating slightly.

“What do you think you’re doing?! Do you want to be fired?!”

Emma shouted as a maid roughly grabbed her and pulled on her clothes.

“What are you waiting for?! Get her off me immediately!”

Her loud voice made the other maids hesitate, glancing at each other, then divide into two opposing groups and begin pushing and shoving.

“What in the world is going on here?!”

The butler, having heard the news late, rushed in and stood protectively in front of Eliana, surveying the chaotic scene.

A brawl between maids in the Grand Duchy?

It was unheard of. The butler was clearly flustered, unsure of whom to separate first.

“Call the knights. Now.”

“Your Grace…”

The coldness in Eliana’s voice startled the butler. Her gaze toward the brawling maids was eerily calm and detached. She looked at the two opposing groups of maids with calculating eyes.

After a brief hesitation, the butler quickly summoned the knights.

“If he finds out, you’ll be punished for this!”

Emma, forced to kneel before the knights, screamed. She was a mess, but what truly seemed to upset her was Eliana calmly flipping through a ledger.

“Butler.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The butler, who stood behind her, bowed his head slightly. The noise only died down once the knights arrived and detained the maids. Everything was carried out under Eliana’s orders and the butler’s hand.

“Any maid who disobeys her mistress is unnecessary.”

“Pardon?”

The butler, who sometimes forgot small things but had never been unable to do his job, questioned her uncharacteristically.

But Eliana continued without mercy.

“And even more so, the maids who not only disobeyed my command but also sided with the head maid who helped herself to the Grand Duchy’s property—they are especially unnecessary.”

Emma’s face went pale at those words.

The butler was the same. Even with his long years of experience in the Grand Duchy, he stood frozen at Eliana’s cold tone.

“You there, do you know how to read?”

One of the kneeling maids—just like the head maid—looked up at Eliana.

“Me?”

She was the first to respond when Eliana ordered them to drag out Emma. She did the most menial tasks in the Grand Duchy, so it was unlikely she could read.

“Yes, you!”

“No, but I’ll learn! If you teach me, I’ll learn quickly!”

She shouted with scratched cheeks, a torn button, and cracked hands from years of hard labor.

“Then can you do arithmetic?”

“Yes! I can!”

Her eyes sparkled like glass as she looked at Eliana. She was older than expected and had a determined look.

“From today, you are the new head maid of the Cryber Grand Duchy.”

“…What?”

“As your first task as head maid, expel all the maids who disobeyed me and sided with the previous head maid. Do it now.”

Gulp.

The maid swallowed nervously at the sudden command. Everyone else seemed equally shocked. Emma’s face had turned deathly pale as if she would collapse at any moment.

“You’re thinking too long.”

“I can do it!”

Before Eliana even finished, the maid—Silvia—jumped to her feet and turned her back to her.

Eliana quietly watched Silvia, who stood with the butler behind her. Her brown eyes swept over the still-kneeling maids.

“Lora, Annie, Anna. Help me.”

A few maids stood up at Silvia’s call.

“You can’t do this!”

Emma and several others cried, protesting unfairness. But Silvia quickly began organizing sides.

“You were with her!”

“No, I was just standing there!”

“Standing by is the same as agreeing!”

At Silvia’s sharp words, Eliana found herself nodding unconsciously. The luxurious, overly plush chair in the head maid’s office was perfectly suited for quietly watching this scene unfold.

“Looks like it’s the butler’s turn now.”

“…You won’t regret this?”

The butler asked seriously, his voice tinged with hesitation.

If the head maid was Empress Rosella’s pawn, the butler was loyal only to Grady Cryber.

Until now, he had turned a blind eye to the head maid’s behavior with Grady’s tacit approval.

He hadn’t liked what she did. It had always rubbed him the wrong way that someone hiding their true face had become Grady’s close aide and reported his every move to the Empress.

“It’s far too late for regrets.”

Eliana, flipping through Emma’s ledger with her chin resting on her hand, didn’t seem at all interested in the chaos she had caused.

The only reason she still observed was likely to see if Silvia, the maid she had chosen, would carry out her duties properly.

“I’ll handle it.”

The butler stepped forward for the first time. Eliana glanced at his back and bowed her head slightly.

“If you can really steal me away… I’d like that.”

Grady’s murmur echoed in her mind.

The ledger was full of items and amounts, most of them for Empress Rosella.

Jewels. Dresses. Tea leaves…

All were luxury items irrelevant to a household without a Grand Duchess.

So Rosella’s been using my husband like her personal wallet.

Eliana frowned. The Empress must have had a considerable private fund, yet she freely used the Cryber estate’s money.

She had likely done it deliberately.

Eliana recalled the Empress.

She hadn’t noticed it at first, but Rosella had looked at Grady with longing in her eyes.

Maybe they both want each other…

But Grady’s words that day had been sincere.

Eliana couldn’t understand the relationship between the two. Maybe they had reached a point where even if they wanted to let go, they couldn’t. Maybe that’s why they were using her.

Eliana stared expressionlessly at Emma, who was glaring at her with venomous eyes.

Whatever the case, the immediate problem needed to be dealt with first.