TCNS 16

Chapter 16: One Who Knows Gratitude (2)

“Hmm.”

The skill of hiding stolen goods was quite sloppy. I shrugged and grabbed the long chain of the necklace. This wasn’t worth the time I’d invested in finding it.

I turned lightly, now all that was left was the desk.

‘Is it here?’

While rummaging through the desk, I noticed something peculiar.

‘What’s this?’

The drawers on both sides of the desk were tightly shut, with no gaps—except for one.

The top right drawer stuck out ever so slightly, as if something was caught behind it. I opened the protruding drawer and reached inside. There was indeed something snagged in the empty space behind the drawer, just as I had suspected.

‘Found it.’

With a satisfied smile, I pulled it out.

It was a thick black leather notebook. Inside were sheets of paper filled with names and numbers.

A ledger.

“This is just…”

Seeing the numbers densely packed on the pages made me chuckle.

“Not only was the hiding spot for the stolen goods shoddy, but the trickery itself was poorly executed.”

The suspicion I’d had was now confirmed, with the evidence in hand. I tapped the documents and looked around the head maid’s office.

“Indeed, having things beyond your means always stands out.”

The bookshelves and cabinets were filled with expensive decorations and books. Items far too pricey to have been bought with a head maid’s salary.

“I’ve gathered enough evidence, so I should leave.”

I tore out a few pages from the notebook and tucked them into my coat. Now, it was time to return what was given.

***

“Where on earth could it be?”

A look of distress covered the face of the Third Prince’s head maid.

Something that should never have gone missing had disappeared. The ledger that recorded the origins of all the funds she had amassed.

The five most crucial pages from it. Those five pages had vanished without a trace.

Those pages represented her ambition and were her lifeline. She could not afford to lose them or let them fall into anyone else’s hands.

“No, it must be here somewhere. It has to be!”

Cold sweat trickled down her forehead. As she turned over each desk drawer, she also swept all the books off the shelves.

“Why isn’t it here—?!”

The head maid’s shrill scream echoed through the room.

“Head… Head maid!”

“I told you not to come in without knocking!”

“Kyaah!”

Smack—!

The book thrown by the head maid in her frustration fell to the floor.

“Oh dear.”

Behind the knight who blocked the flying book stood a woman.

It was none other than Countess Feline Katrina, known as the flower of the social world.

“No matter how angry you are, you must maintain your dignity as a noble, Head Maid.”

Why is that woman here?

Fear flashed across the head maid’s eyes. She had once sworn loyalty to this woman but no longer.

She had only formed a connection with her to get close to the Second Consort. Since gaining the status that allowed her direct conversations with the Second Consort, she had cut off contact.

So why was that woman now seeking her out in person?

“It’s been a while, Head Maid.”

“I-I greet you, Countess.”

Countess Feline’s crimson eyes were burning with anger. Yet her lips still held a smile, befitting someone called the flower of the social scene.

“What are you looking for so intently? Would you care to share with me?”

“I-I lost some important documents, so I was looking for them…”

“Is that so? Surely, the important documents aren’t these, are they?”

The head maid, who had been staring at her own feet, slowly raised her eyes at the ominous words.

Between Feline’s slender white fingers, a few sheets of paper fluttered. They were the missing pages from the secret ledger.

“How… How did you…!”

The head maid’s face instantly turned ashen. Feline lifted one corner of her mouth, smirking at the sight of the head maid.

“One particularly righteous maid sent these to me anonymously.”

What? A maid sent them?

The head maid’s eyes quivered with shock. She was overwhelmed by betrayal and confusion.

“Head Maid, you should have managed your subordinates better.”

Clicking her tongue, Feline scanned the contents of the documents. One hundred crates of carrots, one hundred crates of onions, two hundred sacks of beans, fifty sacks of turnips.

“Sure, it makes sense that a palace with just twenty maids would need one hundred crates of carrots every day, right?”

The head maid’s face turned beet red at Feline’s pointed remarks.

“But this part here is what I’m most curious about.”

The countess pointed to one of the entries in the documents.

“Why is there a record of three hundred gold coins for gifts from Countess Katrina’s household?”

The color drained from the head maid’s flushed face.

“I don’t recall doing anything deserving of a gift from you, Head Maid.”

Feline’s voice dropped.

“Surely, you’re not suggesting that the value of this cheap necklace you sent me for my birthday was three hundred gold, are you?”

She took a pearl necklace out of her coat and threw it on the floor. The pearls scattered across the room as the necklace broke.

The head maid watched the scene, trembling all over. Feline slowly approached the frightened head maid, one step at a time.

“Three hundred gold, every year, too. Wasn’t the last gift I received from you three years ago?”

She roughly grabbed the head maid’s chin, forcing her to look up. The countess’s demeanor suddenly changed.

“You filthy thief.”

Feline’s beautiful face twisted like that of a demon.

“I placed a mere baron’s servant in the palace, and you dared to try and stab me in the back?”

“N-No, that’s not true. I never intended to!”

“Did you really think you could take my place?”

“N-No, I didn’t mean…”

“Silence.”

She cut off the head maid’s words sharply.

“I suppose mingling with the Second Consort made a commoner like you feel like you’d risen above your station.”

Feline flung the head maid’s chin away as if shaking off something filthy. The head maid collapsed to the floor, her legs giving way.

“Did you really think you could tarnish my name with your petty thievery? You wretched ingrate.”

Feline looked down at the head maid with eyes full of contempt.

“Those who don’t know gratitude deserve punishment. I will decide on your punishment in due time.”

Her gaze was icy beyond measure.

“For now, you should return to your hometown. If you show up before me again, you won’t keep your head.”

“M-Madam! Please, wait! Madam!”

The head maid grabbed at the hem of Feline’s dress, screaming, “I swear it wasn’t me, Madam! This must be a misunderstanding! I didn’t write that ledger!”

“You think I can’t recognize your handwriting?”

Feline merely shook off her hand and stepped back.

“Madam—!”

The head maid tried to cling to her again but was blocked by the countess’s guard knight.

Feline glared down at the head maid kneeling before her and spoke again, “You’d better leave this palace on your own two feet soon, Head Maid.”

“Madam, p-please, anything but that…”

“What’s wrong? Don’t want to go back to that rat hole of a life?”

The head maid bit her lip.

She had forgotten her own reality.

Her husband, who spent every day drinking and with other women, would beat her whenever he was bored. Just a lowly baron in the countryside, he used his empty title to justify it.

The head maid bowed her head, clenching her fists. She had served Feline, even licking her boots if necessary, to escape that place.

But it was all for nothing now.

She herself had thrown away the opportunity, yet she couldn’t realize it. All she felt was resentment and frustration at her failed plan.

“If you don’t leave on your own, you’ll face something far worse.”

Feline smiled at the head maid.

“You didn’t earn your position through your own efforts, so don’t be too attached to it.”

“Madam, please…”

“Or do you need to lose your limbs for embezzling imperial funds to come to your senses?”

Feline ripped the ledger in half in front of the trembling head maid.

“You should be grateful that this is all that’s happening to you.”

As the countess turned to leave, the head maid’s eyes met those of a woman standing at the doorway.

It was her—the new nanny, Rachel Brown.

Rachel watched the head maid as if she were merely observing a distant fire.

As Countess Feline stepped out, she greeted Rachel. “Thank you for the kind guidance, Lady Brown.”

“Take care, Countess.”

Rachel bowed deeply to the countess, and once she disappeared, she straightened herself.

She gazed indifferently at the head maid, who was kneeling in the middle of the office.

Of all people, why did it have to be that woman who witnessed this?

Just as the head maid lowered her head, her face flushed with shame,

“You shouldn’t have done it.”

A chilling, emotionless voice made the head maid doubt her ears.

She slowly raised her head. The nanny, Rachel, was staring at her with cold eyes.

“You always said lying was bad, didn’t you?”

The head maid stared blankly at Rachel.

At that moment, she saw it. The mocking smile playing on the nanny’s lips.

The head maid staggered as she stood.

She knew.

There was no reason or evidence, but she knew.

The misfortune that had befallen her was undoubtedly the doing of the woman before her.