Camilla had a variety of ways to torment mixed-race demons. Among them, her favorite method was using hot tea. The sight of them following her orders, even while in pain, was something Camilla enjoyed. Every time she witnessed it, she felt a sense of perfect control and exhilaration.
In the Empire, while there were people who revered the superior abilities of mixed-race demons, there were also those, regardless of their status, who looked down on them as mutts. Camilla was one of them. She secretly called mixed-race demons mutts and despised them. They were beings who spoke human words but were no different from livestock. Her negative views of them, on the other hand, gave her a subtle sense of superiority and pleasure. With the Grand Duchess’s backing, she always tormented mixed-race demons like this, enjoying the feeling to the fullest.
Just as the corner of Camilla’s lips was subtly curling up, Mina, unable to bear it any longer, shouted, “Stop it!”
“That’s enough!” Mina shouted, unable to endure it any longer. “Not before, but now… If Her Highness finds out about this, she won’t leave you alone!”
“…What did you say?”
A faint crack appeared in Camilla’s elegant facade. Rebecca would blame her for punishing a mixed-race demon? The very woman who had enjoyed it more than anyone else whenever she did this? It was a ridiculous thing to say.
‘It was your owner, Rebecca, who even told them to keep quiet so that she wouldn’t get caught by the Grand Duke and get kicked out.’
And it was she herself who had worked to make Rebecca that way. After becoming the Grand Duchess’s maid, Camilla had gradually, but over a long period of time, made her aware of the fact that these lowly creatures were different from noble humans. Of course, at first, Rebecca often showed signs of discomfort. However, as she began to suffer from severe attachment deficiency and madness, she, too, gradually started to fall into this hobby. She had finally opened her eyes to this secret pleasure that instantly relieved her stress.
But for a mere mixed-race demon to dare… talk back to me?
Camilla suddenly sharpened her eyes and gritted her teeth. “I was punishing a monster who was lying, and you’re still lying without coming to your senses?”
Slap!
Camilla slapped Mina’s cheek hard. Then, in a high-pitched voice that sounded as if her ears were about to tear, she shouted roughly, “If you’re going to spew lies from that dirty, disgusting mouth, what use are you!”
Camilla continued to scream like she was possessed by a demon. “So put your hand on the table, you monster! Now!”
Mina truly felt that Camilla was a monster. She wondered how long she would have to be treated like this. Enduring the pain by biting her lower lip, Mina finally screamed. “I really didn’t lie!”
“I told you to be quiet! There’s no truth in your words! You’re saying that after being brought to the House of Darkness with your deceitful lies, what are you, a mere mixed-race demon?”
“…”
“…The Princess’s personal maid?”
Camilla’s eyes rolled wide and she snorted.
“It’s true! Her Highness really did designate me as her personal maid!” Mina pleaded her innocence to the very end.
At that, Camilla, who had been fiercely wrinkling her brows, finally let out a slow sigh as if she couldn’t help it. “You really… need to be disciplined properly to come to your senses.”
After saying that, Camilla began to frantically search the reception room like a madwoman.
‘The whip that the Grand Duchess used to punish these things must be somewhere here.’
When she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she nervously stomped her foot.
“Ugh!”
Her gaze then stopped next to the fireplace.
‘…It’s there.’
Camilla went and came back with the whip. Seeing her, Mina’s face turned even paler than before.
“It’s true! Please believe me, please!”
Mina’s pleas of innocence were useless. No, they only made Camilla’s patience run out.
“As expected… I have to use a whip on disgusting creatures like you.” Camilla’s eyes gleamed with madness as she raised the whip.
Whoosh!
The sound of the whip cutting through the air echoed chillingly. Just as Mina’s body cringed like a baby,
Crash!
The two women’s gazes instantly turned to the door at the sudden rough sound. A woman with eyes redder than the sun was observing the situation from the wide-open door. It was the Grand Duchess, Rebecca.
“Your… Highness?”
Camilla breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that the person who had suddenly appeared was Rebecca.
‘Phew… I thought it was the Grand Duke.’
If it had been anyone else, she would have been in trouble. With her mind at ease, Camilla smiled leisurely and spoke in a coquettish voice.
“You surprised me, Your Highness. I thought it was someone else!”
“Someone else, who?”
Rebecca quietly closed the door and asked back. Then she slowly looked around. Mina’s face was a mess with tears. Steam was coming out of the teapot, and her hand was red. And the whip in Camilla’s hand.
“…”
After a moment of silence, Rebecca calmly walked to the sofa. She then sat down with her legs crossed and smiled leisurely at Camilla. “It was me, of course. No one comes here except for my servants, Lady Dimitri.”
“What? Then… is what this monster said true?”
“…Monster?”
A vein pulsed on Rebecca’s beautiful forehead. However, Camilla was too excited to notice it. She knew that the relationship between the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess was not good, but she never thought they would separate.
‘I guess the social circles won’t run out of gossip for a while.’
Camilla licked her lips inwardly. At the same time, she lowered the corners of her lips as if she felt sorry for Rebecca. “Sadly, it seems it’s come to that. My heart aches so much, Your Highness…”
“Oh, is that so?”
Camilla put down the whip and immediately went to Rebecca, hooked her arm through hers, and sat down.
“Just call me Camilla, Your Highness, as you usually do. Don’t say ‘Lady Dimitri’ as if there’s a distance between us.” Camilla spoke gently.
But for some reason, Rebecca just looked down at her.
‘Why is the Grand Duchess acting like this? Something is strange…’
Around the time she was thinking that, Rebecca pulled her arm away from Camilla and stood up from the sofa.
“You returned from your vacation earlier than planned?”
“Yes, a few days earlier. The day I was supposed to return is still a long way off, but I couldn’t bear not seeing you, Your Highness…” Camilla tried to shake off her strange feeling and stood up from the sofa. And she smiled again and continued to speak softly. “We’re like sisters, aren’t we?”
Rebecca was a woman starving for affection. Such a woman had left the South, where she was born and raised, and was now staying in a foreign land. Camilla had used that point to manipulate Rebecca, the Grand Duchess, to her will.
‘She seems to be a little upset with me… But if I say things like ‘I missed you’ and ‘we’re like sisters,’ she’ll get over it quickly, right?’
Just as Camilla was curling her lips up, hiding her sly intentions, Rebecca, who had been silent all this time, slowly parted her lips.
“…That precious vacation you had for just a few days.”
“…”
“It would have been better for both of us if you had rested at your own home.”
A flustered Camilla blinked her eyes.
“Pardon…?”
“And even if you are my maid, it seems to be a great disrespect to visit the Grand Duchess’s quarters without any notice.”
Rebecca’s red eyes were clearly criticizing Camilla’s impoliteness.
‘Why is she acting like this? Something is really… strange.’
Camilla, who realized that the situation was not going as she intended, quickly changed the subject.
“W-When I arrived a little while ago, this child was lying, wasn’t she? So I was in the middle of punishing her.”
“Ah…”
Rebecca nodded her head low. Camilla took that as a sign of her listening.
‘As expected. There’s nothing better than putting forward a common enemy to get out of a difficult situation.’
Camilla’s voice became even more confident. “When I told her to get out because I didn’t want to be in the same room with her, she kept resisting, talking nonsense about being Her Highness’s personal maid.”
“Lady Camilla, I am…!”
“Look at her now! She keeps talking back with that vulgar mouth! That stubborn monster!”
“I really didn’t lie! Your Highness, please say something…!”
Mina wailed. At the same time, Rebecca’s eyes, which had been looking at Mina, began to get even sharper than before.
‘Now’s the time.’
In a brief moment, Camilla’s eyes gleamed slyly. She immediately started to groan. “I, Camilla Dimitri, am so proud to be Her Highness’s maid… But even so, it’s too difficult to endure such hardships from these disgusting mutts!”
“…”
“If I have to watch these monsters run wild so insolently, I’ll have no choice but to resign from my maid position!”
It was an ultimatum. By now, the foolish Grand Duchess would immediately punish this disgusting monster. She might even torment the monster in a more vicious way to prove their friendship. Camilla confidently waited for Rebecca’s next move.
As expected, Rebecca immediately asked back, “Are you… serious about that?”
Camilla, who was trying to hold back the corners of her mouth from going up, nodded with a pitiful expression.
“…I guess I have no choice.”
Rebecca, who said that as if she was murmuring to herself, calmly approached Mina. It seemed the time had finally come to properly punish the monster. Rebecca looked down at Mina for a while without saying or showing any expression. And finally, her tone of voice was calm, with no highs or lows.
“Was it fun?”
Her voice was slow like lava but filled with a fierce rage. Camilla smoothly curled one corner of her mouth up and came to stand next to Rebecca. And in an even higher voice than before, she began to scold Mina.
“You, you! Why aren’t you answering Her Highness’s question? She’s asking if you had fun lying to me!”
At that moment of exhilarating pleasure for Camilla, Rebecca’s face slowly turned to look at Camilla, who was standing next to her.
“No.”
“…”
“…You.”
Suddenly, the smile on Camilla’s face disappeared. The red eyes, filled with undisguised hostility, were clearly… directed at Camilla herself.
“Your… Highness?”
As Rebecca slowly came closer, a slight tremor appeared on Camilla’s mouth, which was flustered.
“Answer me.”
When they were finally close enough to hear each other’s breathing, Camilla gasped without realizing it at Rebecca’s chilling voice.
“While I was away, did you have fun… destroying what’s mine?”
“…”
“Did you have fun?”
Camilla trembled her shoulders with a look of disbelief.
“Your… Your Highness. T-That’s just a joke…!”
Rebecca ignored Camilla and turned her head. And she commanded the maids outside the door.
“Come in.”
The situation was unfolding completely differently from what she had expected. It was at that moment, as Camilla was nervously shifting her eyes, that Rebecca commanded the maids who had come in with a cold voice.
“Make Lady Dimitri kneel before me right now.”
At that, the maids, without hesitation, ran towards Camilla and grabbed her shoulders firmly.
“W-What is this! No matter if you are Her Highness, you can’t do this to me…!”
Her enraged shouts were short-lived. Camilla fiercely scrunched up her face as if the maids’ touch was dirty. However, as a human, she was no match for the strength of the mixed-race demons. It was humiliating, but Camilla had no choice but to kneel in front of the mixed-race demons.
“I-I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but if you don’t stop right now, I’ll tell the whole world about this!”
Camilla, with her pride shattered, screamed as a last resort.
‘No matter if she’s the Grand Duchess, she can’t treat me, Camilla, like this! Not if she doesn’t want to be isolated in the Northern social circles!’
Camilla reassured herself in that way. However, for some reason, Rebecca still seemed relaxed.
“You’re right, Camilla. You’ll be able to tell the whole world about this.”
“…”
“…If you can leave this place alive.”
Camilla’s lower jaw finally began to tremble, her face completely pale.
“I-I’ll scream!”
At that, Rebecca suddenly burst into a hollow laugh. After a while, Rebecca finally stopped laughing and slowly bent down towards Camilla. Meeting her gaze up close, the corner of Rebecca’s red lips curled up smoothly.
“Camilla, I told you before. No one comes here… except for my servants, you know?”
