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Chapter 26 – Part 2
Missus Seymour suddenly jumped to her feet and pushed Ayla violently away from her. She stared at the lady-in-waiting in disgust.
As Ayla looked up at the missus blankly, these cold words followed.
“Dirty, vulgar thing.”
“M-Missus…”
“You’re a lady-in-waiting of House Valentino. Is it not enough that you slept with that wandering scoundrel, but you’re bearing his child as well?”
Missus Seymour was this kind of person. She endlessly pretended to be affectionate, but the truth was that she was ruthless beyond measure and she wouldn’t hesitate to cut someone off if need be.
And, she was an aristocrat to the core.
Whenever she considered other people, she tended to put more weight to their lineage rather than their character. The only reason she was particularly fond of Ayla was because of Ayla’s lineage.
Ayla was the daughter of a fairly respectable family in her hometown, and she was an impeccable lady-in-waiting.
If Ayla had instead been a lowborn maid, then Missus Seymour wouldn’t have even deigned to spare her a single glance.
As a matter of fact, Missus Seymour’s dislike for me and Charlotte was from the same vein. She was dissatisfied with me not just because of the sole reason that I was a daughter from House Everett.
Of course, that much was a considerable reason, but about half of her loathing for me stemmed from the fact that I was born from a commoner maid’s womb.
“Ayla, you shall be confined to your room, so don’t even think of taking one step out of there until I so command it. And you, Serena, it’s the same for you.”
“Yes, Missus…”
“M-Missus… Please forgive me. I made a grave mistake…!”
Unlike Serena, who readily accepted Missus Seymour’s orders, Ayla grabbed the hem of Missus Seymour’s dress and clung onto it for dear life.
Missus Seymour looked down coldly at the crying Ayla and soon shook her off roughly once more. Her icy voice rang through the entire Avoridge Hall.
“How dare you touch me with those filthy hands.”
“……!”
“Now what are you all doing? Hurry up and drag Ayla and Serena to their rooms!”
As they were watching from the sidelines, the other ladies-in-waiting and maids began to drag the two other women by their arms.
Other people emerged from behind the columns to help. Perhaps they had been hiding and watching from there since earlier.
Serena was taken away from the scene without any problems, but Ayla continued to struggle and resist, shouting out that there was something she had to tell Missus Seymour.
Nevertheless, she was outnumbered, and so her figure shortly disappeared from the Avoridge Hall.
“……”
Averting her eyes from the direction where Ayla disappeared off to, Missus Seymour turned to look at me.
Her eyes were as sharp as the blade of a knife. She was supposed to apologize for accusing Charlotte without any proof, however, it looked like she would rather die before doing that.
Sure enough, Missus Seymour instead brought up another topic.
“I wasn’t aware that you knew so much about the Valentino Castle’s servants, Lily.”
In other words, she was asking whether I did background checks on the servants or not.
At this, I smiled broadly. Doing background checks was a piece of cake for me, and it was because of the disguising magic tool I got from Owen.
I disguised myself as several other people and gathered information here and there. Charlotte also helped from time to time.
Charlotte herself had a natural talent for breaking down other people’s guards and befriending them. Besides that, her acting skills were excellent as well. Missus Seymour was clearly underestimating Charlotte.
“As the lady of the house, it’s only natural that I need to know the people who are working for the family…”
“……”
Hearing my reply, Missus Seymour was rendered speechless, however, she soon put on a mask of composure.
Still visible in her eyes was her burning fury, but she couldn’t even ask me why I was doing background checks on the servants.
Because it really was only natural that the lady of the house would ‘know’ about the personal history of the servants.
“Right, you must have been very busy in the meantime, Lily. This is truly unexpected.”
“……”
I remained silent and continued to smile.
Missus Seymour dropped her gaze from me and turned to look at Charlotte, who stood quietly while holding that gold brooch. Missus Seymour spoke.
“Then, Charlotte. I’ll personally return the brooch to the Commander, so hand that over to me.”
Until the very end, she didn’t seem inclined to apologize to Charlotte. ‘I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.’ ‘I went too far.’ It’s not as if she’d lose face if she said even just a few words such as these.
My anger had already subsided, but I felt it simmering once again.
Missus Seymour must have already known that Charlotte was innocent, but she still went on to try punishing Charlotte with those lashings after an empty accusation. She was hell bent on cutting off my arms and legs.
As she pretended to be more noble than anybody else, she’s the one who was more disgraceful than anyone else.
Charlotte hesitated for a moment before she held out the gold brooch. But as soon as Missus Seymour tried to take it from her, I stood in front of Charlotte.
“…Lily, is there something more you have to say?”
Missus Seymour’s face crumpled into a displeased expression as she asked. In response, I let out the sentence I’ve sorted out in my mind, articulating one word at a time.
“Do not touch my people again, Missus Seymour.”
“…What did you say?”
“This is a warning. If something like this happens again… Just like today, I’m not going to stay still. As you mentioned, there are many things that I ‘know very well’.”
I pushed out the last few words of the sentence with force and looked straight into Missus Seymour’s eyes.
This much should be enough.
This should send the message that ‘I know about your weakness as well.’
“……You…”
Missus Seymour’s mask collapsed right then, showing her raw emotions on her face. Her face contorted in anger that was as ferocious as a demoness.
Her usual noble countenance was nowhere to be found. All that’s left standing before me was a woman who had lost her rationality, viciously baring her teeth at me.
As her shoulders seemed to shake tremendously, something that no one would have expected transpired in a blink of an eye.
SLAP!
“How, how dare you…!”
My cheek burned and stung.
I realized a beat late that Missus Seymour had slapped me. It happened in a flash.
Feeling the corners of my own lips curling up, I raised my head. Charlotte cried out to me.
“Madam!”
“……”
Like a madman, I let out a short bark of laughter.
I didn’t expect how ‘that fact’ would get this much of a rise out of Missus Seymour!
I wanted to laugh even more, even louder, to enjoy this unexpected harvest.
But instead, I wrapped a hand over my stinging cheek and made a pitiful expression.
Because one such person had arrived just in time.
Across the hall, I made eye contact with Theodore, who was standing there, frozen in shock.
The corners of my lips twitched again and I suppressed the urge to laugh. Instead, I strained my eyes and deliberately shed tears. Crying at will was as easy as breathing.
Fixing my eyes on Theodore, I spoke with a small, shaking voice.
“Duke…”
And it was at that time that Missus Seymour flinched and backed away from me hurriedly. The moment she saw Theodore, her complexion turned entirely ashen.
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