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Chapter 63
Riana made a pitiful face.
“Why noooot?”
“It’s annoying. And isn’t tea-blending your specialty?”
Smack. Riana pouted and nodded. That was true.
Mrs. Baker waved her hand like she was shooing her away and said bluntly,
“There’s a café on the first floor of Genevieve Castle. If you ask the barista there, they’ll make it much better than me.”
“Oh, you mean the one with the terrace?”
“Yes.”
At that, Riana remembered the place.
It was the very spot where she had once met the fake Diana and accidentally planted her very first villainess flag
‘Wow… memories are flooding back.’
Standing in front of the terrace, Riana felt a strange wave of emotions as she looked around.
After the gossip incident, she had avoided this place for quite a while—almost obsessively. She had been afraid some ridiculous coincidence or accusation might happen again.
‘But today, I came here not to avoid Deborah, but to face her.’
She had already steeled herself for the possibility of triggering another villainess flag.
Some sharp gazes pricked at her, but none of them were like Troy Diares, who might literally jump at her throat, so she ignored them.
Dressed in a maid’s uniform, Riana boldly pushed open the café door.
And inside, she found an unexpected face.
“…Butler?”
“…Miss Riana?”
It was Bastian. Normally, he managed the household, not company work, so she rarely saw him here in the west. Just as rare as it was to find one of the Isolation Tower maids wandering around at this hour.
Both of them were surprised, then exchanged polite nods. At his gesture, Riana sat across from him.
“What brings you here, Butler?”
“Coffee. Today’s one of those days when I need the extra-caffeine-special. What about you, Miss Riana?”
“Coffee for me too. But what kind of day is so desperate that you need that much caffeine?”
Riana quickly took mental notes: Extra-Caffeine-Special. That sounded exactly like what she needed.
Bastian glanced around, then leaned closer and whispered,
“You remember the incident, don’t you? The desert kingdom’s underground prison…”
“Remember it? I could never forget.”
“There was a traitor back then—one of the staff who sold out information. Since then, we’ve been conducting a massive internal review.”
Bastian lifted the huge cup in both hands and gulped the pitch-black liquid, wincing at the bitterness before continuing quietly,
“We’re eliminating people with unclear identities and digging deeper into those with gaps in their records. The Duke is convinced there are still spies leaking information.”
“Didn’t we already take care of all the traffickers?”
“Yes, that side’s been cleaned up. But as you know, the Ducal household draws a lot of eyes. Recently, far too much information has been leaking. The Duke wants to clean that up too.”
“With how many people go in and out of the estate? No wonder you need an ‘extra-caffeine-special.’”
Riana agreed—she herself had thought the gossip paper Postb published far too much inside news about the Droche estate.
A barista arrived to take Riana’s order. She ordered the same drink as Bastian’s, but added oat milk and whipped cream.
Once the barista left, Bastian spoke again.
“Actually… I wanted to ask you something. How is Madam Midas’s employment agency doing these days?”
“…Excuse me?”
“Didn’t you meet Madam Midas recently, during your outing? I wondered if you might’ve checked if she had any spare staff available.”
“Oh, right. Yes, I did go out.”
He must have been referring to when she went to meet Oliver. Since Bastian knew she had no family connections, it made sense he assumed she had been visiting the agency. In fact, it seemed like he was hoping that was the case.
When he rubbed his dark eye circles, Riana almost felt sorry for him. But she quickly cut him off:
“Sorry. I don’t think Madam Midas has any workers available.”
“Still, could you arrange just one meeting with her?”
“She’s just soooo busy…”
Just then, the barista returned with coffee. Riana lifted the warm cup, took a sip, and smiled.
“She’s probably drowning in caffeine just like us.”
“Haa… I thought so.”
Bastian sighed heavily, clearly disappointed.
Riana felt relieved that he didn’t show even a hint of suspicion toward her or Madam Midas. After all, this time she had entered under her real identity—no forged resume, no fake recommendations, nothing to hide.
Maybe the blind trust in Midas’s Employment Agency really just comes down to the power of the name.
She mused idly, then blurted out:
“If someone’s name is Judas or Brutus, maybe keep an eye on them.”
It was half a joke—but suddenly Bastian’s face went pale.
“Ah, right! Now that you mention it… yes, there was something suspicious!”
“…Huh?”
“Ha… Brutus, even you?”
With a sorrowful face, he pressed his forehead.
Riana froze, stunned. Wait… that actually worked?!
She had just unintentionally exposed a traitor the butler himself hadn’t identified yet. Now she needed an excuse for how she knew.
Quickly, she forced a voice out:
“W-well, Madam Midas taught me name divination. Wow… Madam Midas really is incredible!”
Of course. In this world, names did carry power.
“Well then, I’ll be going!”
Downing the rest of her coffee in one shot, Riana rushed out of the café.
As she climbed the stairs of Genevieve Castle for her substitute maid duty, a thought struck her.
Isn’t it strange?
The original storyline might be a mess now, but the laws of the narrative were still firmly in place.
This wasn’t the original story, but it was still undeniably a story.
Take people like Ashlina, Baker, or Monopoly. In reality, names couldn’t possibly hold that much power—but here they absolutely did.
The heroine and hero were obvious too. They were practically a different species—brighter, stronger, more beautiful than everyone else.
After all, how could someone like Killian exist in reality? A man who literally had everything.
Or Gray—wherever he went, his presence dominated the room. If he wasn’t a male lead, then what was he?
And Deborah—every time she stood with a man, sunlight seemed to shine on her and butterflies fluttered around. How else could that be explained?
Most of all—there was herself.
The undeniable fate of a villainess. Ten long years of living under constant villainess flags and obsessive scrutiny.
This world was definitely a story. But not the original one.
If it followed the original, there wouldn’t be transmigrators like her, or multiple webtoon protagonists all existing on the same continent, interacting with each other.
Clearly, this world has some hidden truth I don’t know yet.
But there was no way she could figure it out alone. She wasn’t some grand philosopher.
Which means—I need to catch that “X.” Grab them by the collar and shake them until they talk.
And if I get caught instead?
Doesn’t matter. As long as one of us can’t run away, we’ll be forced to talk.
Almost excited by the thought of such a confrontation, Riana stepped into the maids’ room.
But it was empty.
Looks like everyone’s already at work.
Not that she’d expected to meet X easily. With so few maids working at Genevieve Castle, it would be faster to check each one individually anyway.
Still, that meant it would be easier to narrow down the suspects.
If I’m lucky, I might even find them today.
She glanced at today’s work list and picked up the tools she needed.
Today, Daniel’s assignment was cleaning the second-floor hallway. So Riana carried the magical cleaning supplies with her.
I’ve always wanted to try this!
Forget X for now—she was excited. She started giving the tools commands.
“Chulsoo, you clean the right window frame. Younghee, the left. And you, broom—what was your name again? Oh right, Malsook—you handle the corners on the floor.”
She had always thought Sophia looked like she was having so much fun when she cleaned the main building with enchanted tools.
But it wasn’t as easy as it looked.
Even after giving them names, the tools were still too dumb to remember them properly.
Come on, Droche tools, step up your game.
“Okay, Chulsoo, to the right! Not the glass, the frame! Don’t smear dust all over the window, alright?”
She had thought cleaning with magical tools would be easy. But this wasn’t cleaning—it was childcare. Not physical labor, but mental labor.
“Phew…”
Finally, after much coaxing, the enchanted cleaning tools began to do their jobs, and Riana was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
