Chapter : 26
There was a saying that went, if you want to fight against and win over the enemy, then you must know the enemy first.
There were so many people who were itching to knock me down and drag me all over the place, but I couldn’t let it go and pretend not to see.
No matter how helpless I was and how many surprises life would throw at me, I was not such a fool that I’d just let myself be a mob’s prey.
In this household, I was ever the target of an ongoing withhunt. It didn’t matter whether the person who the mob would lynch and burn at the stake was truly a witch or actually innocent.
What these people needed was just someone who could be the target of their anger as they rode on that sick sense of pleasure of oppressing others.
So, I made up my mind.
Rather than letting myself be attacked one-sidedly by your vile maliciousness, rather than letting myself be left in tatters—I’d rather let us all burn in the fire.
It was Charlotte’s presence that gave me courage. I was no longer alone as long as Charlotte was beside me.
Charlotte was my only friend, the only one at my side, and the person I had a duty to protect.
In fact, I was more enraged by the fact that these people’s malice had been directed at her instead of me.
Just like right now.
“It’s true that Serena was the one who pilfered the knight commander’s gold brooch, but you’re the one who ordered her to do it. After you failed to frame Charlotte, now you’re trying to get Serena to take the fall as your accomplice.”
“W-What are you talking about, I… N-No, that’s not…!”
Taken aback, Ayla blinked wildly as she stuttered.
It was a piece of cake to deal with someone who couldn’t take the heat and couldn’t even think rationally when in a pinch.
I continued speaking without an ounce of hesitation.
“I knew the truth from the very beginning, Ayla. That you were going to pay off your lover’s debt with the money that you would have gotten from selling the gold brooch. Then you thought to use Serena to steal it since it would be easier to order her to do it. Serena has a family of six to provide for, so she also needs money to feed them. That’s why she accepted your offer to steal the gold brooch. What do you think? Did I get anything wrong?”
“……”
Ayla’s face was entirely pale as she bit her lips.
To be honest, everything I said just now was nothing but speculation. However, the guess itself wasn’t baseless as I had knowledge of accurate facts.
When a person was in trouble, they would commit something that they wouldn’t normally think of, or they would be completely paralyzed and wouldn’t be able to think of anything.
In this case, Ayla was desperate. So, she would also…
“…Serena, is that true? Did Ayla really tell you to do that?”
Missus Seymour glanced down at Serena as she asked.
As she was sitting collapsed on the floor, Serena continued to be dazed and spaced out. But, trembling, she soon looked at Ayla and nodded.
Serena dropped her gaze back to the ground in an instant. Then, with a quivering voice, she answered.
“Yes, it’s the truth… Lady-in-waiting Ayla, s-she told me… she ordered me to steal something reasonably expensive from the knight commander’s room…”
While confessing, Serena grew emotional and so tears flooded from her eyes, then she unhesitatingly dropped to the floor and prostrated in front of Missus Seymour.
“Missus Seymour, I-I just followed Miss Ayla’s orders. It’s the truth, I—without me, my younger siblings will all die from hunger…! O-Our youngest contracted pneumonia not too long ago, and, and my salary couldn’t cover the cost of the medicine, so… please forgive me, Missus!”
“……”
Missus Seymour stared at Serena for a moment, then she let out a long, drawn-out sigh. She cradled her own forehead.
While pressing down on one temple with an index finger and a thumb, the missus spoke gently.
“First of all…”
Missus Seymour’s gaze reached Ayla. At this, Ayla flinched and grew even paler. Her entire body was trembling just as much as Serena did.
Missus Seymour continued.
“Ayla, who is your lover? Is it your fiancé?”
“……”
Ayla bowed her head and said nothing. It seemed right. She wouldn’t be able to bear answering with the truth.
Because Ayla’s ‘lover’ was not her fiancé.
Ayla had already been engaged, and she had already promised her future with someone else.
And it was not just someone—it was a man who Missus Seymour had personally chosen for her.
Ayla was not originally a citizen of Veronis. She was from the former Duchess’ hometown, and that’s perhaps the reason why Missus Seymour especially cherished her. To the point that she personally found a marriage partner for her.
However, it didn’t seem like Ayla had any feelings for her fiancé, and she recently became enamored with an actor from a wandering theater company.
That actor was Ayla’s lover.
It would have been better if it simply ended with just a brief entanglement, but Ayla had gotten swept away. She slept with the man, and she recently learned that he got her pregnant.
Ayla hid this fact from everyone and consulted the town doctor without revealing her identity, but then this piece of information reached my ears by accident.
‘It really was just a coincidence.’
Of course, I’d been secretly doing a background check on Ayla in the meantime, but… In any case, after further investigation, Ayla seemed to be thinking of breaking off her engagement with her fiancé and eloping with her lover instead.
However, the man had a debt towards the wandering theater company. To be exact, this debt was towards the merchant who was sponsoring the theater company. So, he couldn’t leave until this debt was completely paid off.
Being as thorough as he was, the merchant who sponsored the theater company made sure to brand the actor who owed him money using a magic tool. If the actor were to run away, the brand would instantly burn him.
That’s why Ayla had been stealing from the Valentino Castle all this time—it was to pay off her lover’s debt.
And yes, Lucy’s silver earrings had also been stolen by Ayla.
Now, the person who ‘should be lashed’ was not Charlotte, but Ayla.
However, Ayla continued to remain silent. I couldn’t see her face because her head was down, but… she probably had a look of despair on her face right now.
“Ayla, what on earth happened? I won’t blame you, so just tell me.”
Missus Seymour urged the younger woman with a gentle tone. She cared about Ayla, so she would definitely feel sorry because of the situation. Even so…
“M-Missus… hiic…”
Ayla barely raised her head when she burst out in tears.
Missus Seymour embraced her and comforted her again. Ayla began to murmur into the missus’ ear.
“……”
After a while, Ayla finished talking and looked up earnestly at Missus Seymour.
In turn, Missus Seymour was frozen stiff, silent. She looked as though she was wearing an icy mask over her face, and the look in her eyes gradually became colder and colder.
Right. I knew this would happen.
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.
