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Chapter 14
“By now, that girl must already be dead, right?”
If the maid sent as Amelia’s stand-in had died from poison, then all of this could be buried.
They could say Caesar, now returned as a bloodthirsty murderer, had killed his wife.
Maybe the reason Caesar had been so quiet until now was that he had mistaken the poisoned victim for Amelia and was trying to clean up the mess.
If only that were the case.
The count held his pounding head and stepped into his office.
“Eek!”
Even in broad daylight, the portraits of the previous count and the generations before him felt sinister.
“Butler!”
The count called for his butler, Jobern.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Take down all the portraits from the walls and put away the decorative swords too. Also store all the ceramics and vases in the warehouse!”
“I-I beg your pardon… why are you ordering this?”
He could not say that his ancestors kept appearing in his dreams and beating him senseless, so Count Anderson replied with a dull expression.
“I’m planning to renovate this place into an exhibition hall for our ancestors. For now, the portraits will be moved to storage, so keep that in mind.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll call the servants.”
The butler stepped outside the office, then not long after, crept back in with hesitant steps.
“M-my lord, about the one sent to Count Caesar Maise’s household…”
“What is it now?”
Count Anderson sprang to his feet, and his face turned deathly pale.
“G-gah! A ghost?”
Odette was walking into the office.
Ghost? Did he think I was dead?
Caesar had gone through two and then three rounds of rooting out Count Anderson’s spies hidden among the servants. In the process, he must have eliminated every one of the count’s informants, leaving his information network completely clogged.
Still, how could he mistake the living for the dead?
Come to think of it, Count Anderson’s eyes were bloodshot, and dark circles had formed beneath them.
He must have lost a lot of weight too. The jacket that used to look like it would burst at the buttons now hung loose.
So he’s been worn down by nightmares.
She had made use of his dreams to gather information and also vented all sorts of resentment while inside them.
She had even tied him up and beaten him to her heart’s content.
It seemed that had reduced him to this state.
Count Anderson staggered backward, his face white as paper.
“You… you’re not dead. What is the meaning of this…?”
“It means your plans all failed, I suppose?”
“You little wretch! You ruined all of my plans!”
Murderous intent flared in Count Anderson’s pupils.
Whenever things did not go his way, he fell back on the habit of killing the other party.
“Then all I need is to kill you! I can just say you went mad and impersonated the young lady of the house of your own accord.”
Count Anderson drew one of the decorative swords.
It gleamed nicely, but it did not look sharpened at all—probably not even able to slice tofu.
So what exactly was he planning to do with it?
Still, being hit by a sword would likely hurt, so Odette dodged and said,
“I already told them I was sent in as a substitute because Miss Amelia ran away.”
“So you blabbed everything. I told you to keep your mouth shut!”
Count Anderson swung the sword wildly.
Crash! Clatter! Vases and papers shattered and scattered. The office became a complete mess in an instant.
“If I’m harmed, Lord Caesar won’t sit still. He even proposed to me—formally.”
“W-what?”
Thud!
The sword flew from Count Anderson’s hand, hit the wall, and bounced away.
“S-say that again. Caesar did what?”
“He’s completely smitten with me. He told me to marry him.”
“This is fucking insane!”
He had planned to frame Amelia as a murderer and have her executed, then swallow the entire Maise count’s house whole.
But the maid he had sent as a sacrificial pawn would become Caesar’s wife instead and the mistress of the Maise household.
And now this girl was saying she had told Caesar everything about Amelia’s affair too!
Caesar will never let me off the hook.
And if it became known in noble society that he had switched a maid with his own daughter, his reputation as the emperor’s tutor would collapse.
He would never be able to move in social circles again—and maybe the emperor would abandon him too.
Count Anderson clutched his hair and groaned in agony.
“My money… my property… nghhh… my reputation. No, this can’t be the end.”
“You could just take me in as your adopted daughter.”
Odette had returned to Count Anderson’s estate because of money.
She needed to run away, but she had no money?
If she wanted to escape far enough to avoid Caesar, the only way was to leave the empire entirely.
For that, she needed forged identification and magical contact lenses.
My eyes are too noticeable.
There were plenty of people with green eyes, but emerald-green eyes that sparkled like jewels were rare.
So anyone who looked directly at her face rarely forgot it.
It would be ridiculously easy for Caesar to track me.
What she needed were supplies for a perfect escape route and enough money to settle somewhere.
And a pension for a comfortable retirement. On top of that, she wanted extra funds she could invest and grow.
That was why she planned to squeeze Count Anderson for everything he had.
If she had time, she also intended to find proof of his crimes so Caesar’s revenge could be settled a little sooner.
He tried to kill me, so he can just get stepped on and passed over? No way.
Of course, the count might simply ignore everything she said and try to kill her.
So Odette took off her hood.
That revealed Caesar’s shirt, embroidered with the Maise family crest.
When Count Anderson saw it, his face went pale.
“Y-you really…?”
“I slept with Lord Caesar.”
“S-so… that’s why you’re so bold?”
“Of course.”
Odette continued with a teasing expression.
“Adopt me as your daughter and send me off to marry Lord Caesar. Of course, you’ll need to provide a dowry.”
“If I adopt you, then I won’t need to pay alimony… and it would no longer count as switching a maid with my real daughter.”
“That’s right.”
“You little snake. Trying to get both money and status at the same time.”
More than anything else in the world, Count Anderson loved money—and seemed unwilling to hand over even a single coin. He clawed at his hair in distress.
Still, you’ll have to pay up.
Under Odette’s relentless stare, the count groaned.
“Fine. I’ll give you ten million gold.”
“It’s too little.”
Honestly, Odette felt her nerves shrink to the size of a pea.
“Too… too little? Ten million gold?”
“Yes.”
Keep your head down, don’t let him see you’re shocked.
A maid’s monthly salary was 50 silver. Since 100 silver made 1 gold, it took two full months of work to earn 1 gold.
So 10 million gold was a sum Odette could never even dream of touching.
But part of why she was demanding money from him was revenge for almost being poisoned to death, so she did not want to compromise easily.
“Lord Caesar said he would claim 50 million gold in alimony from Miss Amelia.”
“Re-really?”
Count Anderson’s mustache twitched.
What was that? Did he just relax a little? Was that amount not enough to shake the count’s household?
So she pressed harder.
“Multiply that by seven.”
“What?”
“The marriage lasted seven years. He plans to claim 50 million gold per year.”
“This is fucking crazy!”
Shouting the curse, Count Anderson slammed his fist on the desk.
As expected, she had to ask for a number this large.
“You wouldn’t be able to handle 350 million gold in alimony, would you? So just give me a clean 100 million.”
The moment she named such a huge number, her heart began pounding so hard she felt dizzy.
But when she remembered the moment the count had tried to strangle her, she became terrifyingly calm.
“How much longer do I need to give you to think?”
At Odette’s urging, Count Anderson clawed at his hair and finally said cautiously,
“70 million gold…”
“Goodbye.”
As she turned to leave the office without hesitation, Count Anderson blocked her path.
“Fine! 80 million.”
“One hundred million.”
“…90 million.”
“Ugh!”
Odette scowled fiercely, and Count Anderson looked on the verge of tears as he said,
“Fine. One hundred million. But in return, you must forget whatever grievances I may have caused you in the past. Understand, my daughter?”
Grievances?
After trying to kill her twice, what was he talking about?
