Chapter 9 …

The Villain’s Future Makes Me Uneasy

“It’ll be troublesome if you’re with me.”

I muttered as I scooped up a spoonful of soup.

“Huh? Why?”

Judging by the way she blinked her gentle, foal-like eyes, she still hadn’t grasped what kind of atmosphere surrounded me.

Just then, as if someone had decided to enlighten her about the situation, a maid approached us.

I didn’t know her name, but I’d seen her showing off around the maid dormitory several times.

She was just a maid herself, yet she acted as though she had maids of her own, ordering the younger girls around like they were her personal servants.

I just assumed she was the senior maid with the most experience, I thought indifferently.

But now I finally understand where all these rumors started.

Come to think of it… she was flirting with that soldier.

Yesterday, on my way to work, I had happened to see her.

She had been giggling and flirting with the very soldier who had first brought me here. I’d simply pretended not to notice and walked past, but apparently they had seen me.

That loudmouthed soldier must have spread the story… and this idiot maid blabbed it to everyone else.

A dry laugh escaped me.

“Alisha. Who told you that you could share your bread?”

She looked down at us with all the authority of a dormitory matron, as though she owned the place.

“Uh… excuse me?”

The woman sitting across from me widened her eyes at the sharp question.

“I wasn’t going to eat it, so I was just giving it away.”

“If you’re not hungry, then you don’t need this bread either.”

She picked up the bread from Alisha’s tray, tossed it onto the floor, and casually crushed it beneath her foot.

It was such childish behavior that even little children wouldn’t stoop to that I stared at her in disbelief.

I felt my blood begin to boil.

“N-No! Why?!”

Alisha stared blankly at the bread that had been trampled into the floor.

“Pick up your tray and go sit over there!”

The obnoxious maid finally grabbed Alisha’s hand and yanked her to her feet.

“Ahh! I-It hurts!”

Of all places, she had squeezed the hand with the burn blister.

It was painful enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Hopefully the swollen blister hadn’t burst.

The blood that had been simmering inside me suddenly surged.

Crash!

I shoved my tray aside.

It hit the floor with a deafening clang, sending food flying in every direction.

The obnoxious maid jumped back in surprise, staring at me with wide eyes.

“Y-You…! What do you think you’re doing?!”

I calmly wiped the soup off my hand with my apron before answering.

“Do you really think crushing one piece of bread is enough? You have to overturn a tray like this if you want people to say you really bullied me. That way it’ll even reach the Head Maid’s ears.”

She clearly hadn’t expected that response.

Her pupils trembled slightly.

“What have you done? You overturned your tray! If the Head Maid finds out, you’ll be beaten half to death and thrown out!”

Realizing that everyone in the dining hall was watching us, she refused to back down out of pride.

Smiling leisurely, I stepped closer.

The way she instinctively took a step backward was almost laughable.

“Oh no. It can’t stop with just the Head Maid hearing about this.”

“The dimwitted soldier who leaked information about who I am—and his girlfriend—should know too.”

At the words his girlfriend, her eyes widened.

“And shouldn’t the Commander, the Knight Commander… and even His Grace the Grand Duke hear about it before I’ll be satisfied?”

The moment I mentioned His Grace the Grand Duke, the hand gripping Alisha loosened on its own.

“T-That’s ridiculous…!”

“You’re the one being ridiculous right now!”

I shouted.

She flinched.

Perhaps sensing she had been cornered, she looked around desperately, silently asking someone to help.

But after hearing the words His Grace the Grand Duke, naturally, no one stepped forward.

“H-Head Maid…”

As expected, she looked around desperately for the Head Maid.

It was almost pitiful.

“Go call the Head Maid.”

Before she could finish speaking, I turned toward the other maids.

“There’s no need.”

“I’m already here.”

Suddenly, the crowd of maids split apart like the Red Sea.

The dormitory witch walked toward us.

I didn’t know how long she had been standing there, but she had apparently witnessed everything from behind.

“Head Maid! S-She kept bringing up His Grace the Grand Duke just to threaten me! She even threw her tray at me! Sob…”

She pleaded tearfully with the Head Maid.

But the other maids, who had witnessed the entire incident, merely exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“How dare you recklessly speak His Grace the Grand Duke’s name!”

The dormitory witch barked at her.

At least she still displayed the minimum authority expected of a Head Maid.

“You two! Follow me! Everyone else, sit down and finish eating immediately!”

The moment she finished speaking, the other maids hurried back to their seats.

“W-What should we do…”

Only Alisha looked at me with worried eyes.

Since I’d expected this from the beginning, I didn’t hesitate and immediately followed the Head Maid.

Ironically, the maid who had started everything followed behind me with an awkward expression.

She had wanted to bully me.

She’d simply never imagined things would escalate this far.

As I followed the dormitory witch, I wondered whether I’d made the right decision.

I already knew that the obnoxious maid constantly clung to the Head Maid’s side and enjoyed her favoritism.

All the other maids hated her because she reported every little thing they did to the Head Maid.

Yet none of them dared say a word in front of her.

That was exactly why she strutted around ordering everyone else like they were her personal servants.

Bringing the Grand Duke into the matter had been a calculated move.

From everything I’d observed, the dormitory witch absolutely hated having problems arise under her supervision.

No matter what, she would want to suppress this issue before it grew any larger.

“Come in.”

The dormitory witch looked back at us coldly.

Thanks to the commotion in the dining hall, it was my first time entering her office.

While the ordinary maids lived in damp, gloomy rooms that were practically basement quarters, the dormitory witch occupied a neat room bathed in sunlight.

One side contained a bed and furniture.

The other had a small desk and shelves, making it function as both bedroom and office.

“Cough… cough.”

Her coughing grated on my ears.

She had been covering her mouth with a handkerchief ever since earlier.

At first, I thought she simply had a cold.

The ordinary maids constantly suffered coughs because of the damp living conditions.

But somehow, hearing her cough over and over felt strange.

“Stand over there.”

She sat behind her desk and lined the two of us up in front of her.

Only then did I get a proper look at her face.

Huh?

The moment I saw her, I realized something was wrong.

“Now tell me exactly what happened in the dining hall. From beginning to end. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

She spoke sternly before once again pressing the handkerchief against her nose.

I silently watched every one of her movements without even blinking.

“I-I only wanted to remind her that she isn’t a noble anymore because she was complaining that the food looked like pig slop…”

The other maid continued rambling about how unfair everything was.

But after a certain point, I stopped hearing her tearful excuses altogether.

Instead, I slowly examined the Head Maid’s room.

Very slowly.

Without overlooking a single decoration.

“Honestly, she’s always trying to impress the Head Maid. Every single day she cleans and decorates the Head Maid’s room, while dumping all of her own work onto the other maids.”

The maids’ whispered complaints from long ago suddenly came back to me.

“Garnet!”

The firm voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

The dormitory witch glared at me impatiently.

She had apparently been waiting for my explanation all this time.

Beside me, I could even hear the other maid snicker.

“You’ve caused all this trouble, yet you’re still standing there in a daze. And to think you even dared mention His Grace the Grand Duke. It seems you’ve completely lost your fear.”

Already angry and having spoken too much in one breath, she broke into another violent coughing fit.

This time it looked so severe that she could barely breathe.

“The dried bellflowers are beautiful.”

Both women stared at me in complete disbelief after I suddenly changed the subject.

“What?”

The dormitory witch’s brows twisted together.

She thought I was mocking her.

Looking straight at her, I spoke clearly.

“I hope whoever placed them there didn’t intend to harm you.”

“Because if they did… it would practically amount to attempted murder.”

She steadied her breathing before asking,

“What are you talking about? Explain yourself.”

“Recently, you’ve had a persistent dry cough.”

“You’ve also been suffering frequent headaches.”

“And sometimes your vision suddenly turns white from dizziness.”

“You’ve probably even vomited despite having nothing in your stomach.”

When I finished speaking, the dormitory witch let the handkerchief fall onto her lap.

The maid beside me looked increasingly anxious, unable to understand where this conversation was headed.

“Think carefully.”

“Didn’t these symptoms start after you decorated the room with those bellflowers?”

Both women turned toward the dried bellflowers resting on the bed at the same time.

“The poisonous pollen from those flowers has probably entered your nose and mouth while you’ve been sleeping.”

“For people with allergies, prolonged exposure can cause poisoning severe enough to become fatal.”

The maid beside me turned deathly pale.

Her hands trembled violently as she stammered,

“I-I…”

Before she could continue, I interrupted.

“Surely you didn’t decorate the room with such beautiful flowers because you hated the Head Maid enough to kill her.”

“I’m certain you never planned anything that cruel.”

“It was simply an honest mistake because you didn’t know.”

I nodded seriously before finishing.

“Fortunately, I have an antidote.”

“I’ll bring it to you as soon as I return to my room.”

The color drained from the dormitory witch’s face.

Her gaze slowly shifted from me…

…to the maid beside me.

The maid collapsed to her knees as if all strength had left her body.

Frantically shaking her head, she cried out,

“N-No! I really didn’t know, Head Maid!”

My eyes drifted toward the white clouds floating outside the window.

It was a bright, clear afternoon beneath an endless blue sky.