IALFMFL CH 11

The scream was short and monotonous.

I immediately grabbed a napkin from the table and wiped my mouth. The disgusting smell and taste still lingered, making me feel as though it were clogging my very airways.

“How dare you serve this kind of tea in front of me? Are you out of your mind?”

As I spoke, I poured the tea that had been placed in front of Charon over the maid as well.

Charon, who had been standing beside me, grabbed my shoulder in alarm, but unfortunately, I had no intention of stopping there.

I rose from my seat and went to retrieve the teapot that had been neatly placed on the table behind us.

The maid, who had collapsed on her knees right in front of me, looked at me with an expression as though she were about to burst into tears.

Did she think I would back down just because she looked at me like that?

I poured the black tea from the teapot over the top of her head.

The tea was almost as red as the maid’s hair, and it was warm enough for a faint wisp of steam to rise from it.

“You deceived me, the Crown Prince’s fiancée. That is no different from deceiving His Highness Nazar himself. I wonder what gave you the confidence to do something like this. If you don’t want to be kicked out of here, bring the head maid or the butler here right now!”

The maid hurriedly scrambled to her feet and approached me.

The tears that had been streaming down her face had disappeared completely.

You’re willing to bow this quickly now?

And yet you had the nerve to serve rotten water in the tea at my table?

Her lips and eyelids trembled as she grabbed the hem of my dress. Instead of calming down, my irritation only grew.

“I-I’m truly sorry! I have committed a grave offense! I’ll gladly accept any punishment, so please, please don’t report me to the head maid! I-I beg you!”

Apparently noticing that her hands were covered in muddy water, she hurriedly pulled them away and began pleading with both hands.

Her face was soaked and a complete mess, strands of hair clung to her forehead, and above all, the sight of her sprawled on the ground and sobbing was utterly pathetic.

Perhaps it was that pitiful appearance that stirred Charon’s sympathy.

After watching silently, she spoke to me.

“L-Lady Katrina, perhaps you didn’t like the tea? I’ll bring you a fresh one right away. So please don’t be too angry.”

“Did you just ask whether I didn’t like it?”

I tilted the green-vine teapot over the empty cup.

Since I had poured nearly all of it over the maid, only three or four drops remained, but that was more than enough for Charon to understand.

“Try it. No, don’t drink it. Just let it touch your tongue.”

Charon’s expression immediately fell as she nervously watched me.

She stared quietly at the teacup I had placed in her hands, but she made no attempt to put it to her lips or taste the tea.

After staring at the tiny amount of rotten water barely covering the bottom of the cup, Charon eventually gave me a bitter smile.

The corners of her mouth were forcibly lifted, trembling against her cheeks.

“No. I think I understand without tasting it. I understand what you mean……”

In the end, she placed the teacup back on the table.

Her tightly pressed lips were clearly visible even from several steps away.

Her lips, already red like flower petals, had swollen until they looked as though they might burst at any moment.

If I were in her position, what would I be feeling right now?

Would guilt come first?

Or humiliation?

“I’m s-sorry, Lady Katrina. This is all my fault……”

“Your fault? Of course it isn’t. Don’t apologize. Instead, watch carefully how I deal with this. If you’re the daughter of a noble family with a long history, shouldn’t you know how to correct a maid when she does something wrong?”

I reached out and lifted Charon’s chin, which had nearly fallen to the ground.

Her eyes were already red and swollen, as though she had cried an entire flood of tears.

It had been barely a week since we had gotten to know each other.

If Charon hadn’t met me at the Knights’ headquarters, how much longer would she have had to endure this unreasonable treatment?

Even after I lifted her head, Charon’s gaze remained fixed somewhere near the garden.

I left her where she was and walked toward the maid, who was still sprawled on the ground with a dazed expression.

Even the sight of Charon’s angelic appearance hadn’t been enough to calm my anger.

But seeing that irritating face up close made heat rise in my chest.

Slap!

“Ah!”

I slapped the maid across the cheek with all the emotion I had been holding back.

I felt Charon’s shoulder jerk violently beside me.

But I paid no attention and turned the maid’s head, which had fallen to the side, back into place.

“Where do you think you’re screaming? Shut your mouth right now! If you make another sound, I’ll call the head maid. Understand?”

The maid nodded frantically, apparently taking my warning seriously, and bit her lip.

Not hard enough to draw blood like Charon had earlier.

Although she might learn to do that in the future.

Slap!

“This is your punishment for daring to be insolent to me.”

Slap!

“This is your punishment for daring to deceive His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Slap!

“And this is for daring to look down on Charon……”

“What is going on here?!”

“……for daring to treat her with contempt.”

I slowly lowered my hand.

A sharp female voice had come from across the garden.

The maid, who had been thoroughly slapped by me, trembled as she covered both cheeks with her hands.

Her shabby appearance and small frame might have made someone feel sorry for her.

But I felt absolutely no pity.

If anything, I was annoyed that I hadn’t managed to deliver a fifth slap.

Just imagining how cruelly she must have treated Charon until now was enough to make my blood boil.

“W-What in the world is going on……?”

An elderly woman with a deeply wrinkled face came running into the middle of the chrysanthemum garden.

The black lace collar that distinguished her from the other maids immediately revealed her position.

If my guess was correct, she was the head maid of Entera Castle.

Was the sound of the slaps really that loud?

Well, I had poured every ounce of emotion into them. There was no way they could have been quiet.

I kindly explained the situation to the maid who had arrived so late.

“That crazy maid tried to assassinate me.”

As I said that, I pointed directly at the maid lying on the ground.

She had made my mind go blank with rotten water, so it was practically an assassination attempt.

The maid shot upright as though possessed and rushed toward the head maid instead of me.

Then she bowed her head against the head maid’s spotless, gleaming leather shoes and cried out.

“N-No! I-I never did anything like that! I swear, I-I never did, Head Maid!”

“Are you saying that I’m lying?”

At my words, the maid pressed her face against the ground.

She apparently didn’t even want to meet my eyes or show me her face.

“I don’t understand what part of this is supposed to be a lie. I nearly choked to death trying to swallow that rotten water. If that isn’t an assassination attempt, then what is it?”

I shook the teacup on the table as I spoke.

The maid, still pressing her face against the ground, began trembling again.

I wanted to shout at her to get up immediately, but for Charon’s sake, who was surely panicking behind me, I closed my eyes and restrained myself.

Good.

That was rather like a mature young lady just now.

Instead, I held out the teacup containing the rotten water—barely enough to wet the bottom of the cup—to the head maid.

“Drink it.”

As expected of a veteran, the head maid accepted the cup without even asking for an explanation.

Her eyes met mine at close range.

She already seemed to understand that something was wrong.

It wasn’t the confused look of someone who had no idea what was happening.

It was the look of someone who had already steeled herself for what was coming.

The head maid soon tipped the few remaining drops of liquid into her mouth.

Naturally, her expression twisted violently the moment her lips closed.

She struggled to swallow before placing the teacup back on the table with both hands.

What was she going to say?

I sat back down in my chair and calmly waited for the head maid’s response.

After remaining silent for a while, she finally spoke in a hoarse voice.

“I apologize, Lady Katrina. She is a child who has only recently entered the castle, so she must have mistaken the drinking water for……”

“Do you know who I am?”

It was the kind of line an immature noble young lady might say, but even after searching my mind thoroughly, I couldn’t think of anything better.

Even when making excuses, she had resorted to the old excuse that the girl had only recently entered the castle……

At this point, I couldn’t help but feel that the Duchess had deliberately neglected Charon.

If that wasn’t the case, then perhaps she simply didn’t care about what happened inside the castle at all.

At my question, the head maid swallowed very slowly.

“You are Lady Katrina Ezelot.”

“You also know that I am His Highness Nazar’s one and only fiancée, don’t you?”

“……Yes.”

The fact that she knew and still did this was even more shocking.

If someone who didn’t know me had seen this, they might have mistaken me for the daughter of some insignificant noble family from a remote corner of the Empire.

In that case, such a pathetic excuse might have worked.

But unfortunately for her, I was the daughter of the famous Ezelot family.

I glared at the head maid before slowly pressing a hand against my forehead.

Haa.

After swinging my arm around with all my strength, my shoulder was starting to ache a little.

“An assassination attempt against a frail lady like me, who can barely even support her own body…… Lady Charon, did you know about this? Did you know that this crazy girl wanted to kill me?”

“No, no! Of course not!”

Charon shook her head so vigorously that simply saying no wasn’t enough. She even used both hands to desperately emphasize her denial.

I looked at her with a troubled expression.

“I really can’t bear this anymore, Lady Charon. If I stay in a place like this, my heart might stop from fear and I’ll collapse!”

“A-Are you all right? Please sit down first, Lady. I’ll bring you some warm tea……”

“No. I think I need to go see His Highness Nazar right now.”

Why would you bring me tea when there are so many other maids here?

I clenched my fist and stood up.

Perhaps thinking I was about to hit her again, the maid secretly raised her head to look at me, only to immediately bury her face against the ground again.

“I think I’ll feel a little better after meeting His Highness and telling him about this horrible experience I had today.”

“Lady Katrina, please, just wait a moment. We will punish this girl properly, even if we have to beat her ourselves……”

Only now did the head maid seem truly desperate.

She took a step closer to me.

But I firmly stretched out my arm and stopped her words.

“Enough. Just prepare the carriage.”

A dark shadow fell over the head maid’s previously confident face.

At least she had enough sense to understand my tone and expression, because she didn’t argue any further.

She should have shown that awareness from the beginning.

“Ah! Come to think of it, I once mentioned Lady Charon to His Highness Nazar. He said he would like to meet her. If you have the time, I’d like to take you with me. What do you think?”

I asked Charon just before we boarded the carriage heading back toward Ezelot.

Her complexion was nearly as dark as the head maid’s.

“M-Me?”

“I hope you won’t refuse. I came all the way to Entera, but we haven’t even had a proper conversation. It would be such a shame.”

A small red scab had formed on Charon’s lower lip.

It was the wound she had gotten when she had bitten it earlier in the garden.

Her beautiful face, as delicate as morning dew, looked utterly pitiful as she cautiously glanced around.

Especially whenever she looked toward the head maid.

“Is that all right? If you’re okay with it, come on up.”

Worried that she might refuse, I opened the carriage door wide.

Charon hesitated, but after I encouraged her once more to get inside, she quickly climbed into the seat opposite mine.

Soon, the carriage set off with the sound of its wheels rolling along the road.

Through the window, Entera Castle gradually grew smaller in the distance.

After clearing my throat softly, I spoke to Charon in a voice so quiet that it was barely audible.

“Actually, that was a lie.”

“……What?”

“I mean what I said about going to see His Highness Nazar. That was a lie.”