🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 02
There were easily dozens of applicants for the position of maid in the Imperial Palace.
Apparently, the temptation of a salary three times higher than that of an ordinary servant was sweeter than the fear of having one’s head chopped off at a tyrant’s whim.
Death was far away, while hunger was right in front of them.
Among that long, endless line stood Elysia.
“Those applying for the position of maid, please enter the interview room when your number is called.”
Ignoring the guide’s words, Elysia stole a glance toward the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace.
Kaiel was right over there.
She had encountered Kaiel a couple of times when Alix’s marriage to him was being arranged. He almost never attended family gatherings, and whenever she happened to run into him, he would stare at Elysia with an extremely cold expression.
……I’m sorry. My younger brother is just a little taciturn.
Back then, Alix had awkwardly offered that excuse while watching Kaiel’s back as he promptly left the gathering.
Although Alix didn’t love her, since their marriage was nothing more than a political arrangement, he was a kind and gentle person.
In any case, Kaiel had always been an utterly inscrutable man.
But at the time, she hadn’t cared.
She was going to marry Alix and become the Empress of this country anyway, so she had thought there was no reason to bother with a brother-in-law who didn’t even know the meaning of manners.
She shouldn’t have thought that way.
She should have found out more about that bastard.
Elysia shifted her gaze toward the interview room and made a vow once again.
She would show Kaiel such a miserable hell that even simply being allowed to breathe would become a punishment.
By the time the sun was slowly sinking toward the west, the line along the palace walls was still long.
“Next. Number 74.”
The sharp voice of Jillonne, the head maid in charge of selecting the new servants, rang out.
She had already weeded out dozens of applicants as casually as if she were taking out the trash.
When it was Elysia’s turn, Jillonne narrowed her eyes.
“Name.”
“……Lisea.”
Having waited for so long, Elysia’s voice cracked horribly as she gave the false name.
“Experience?”
“I worked odd jobs at a village laundry for several months.”
She had once been a young lady of the Lotner family, one of the most prestigious houses in the Empire, with dozens of maids at her command.
Now, she was nothing more than a lowly commoner whom even the lowest of places would refuse to welcome.
“A village laundry?”
As expected, Jillonne’s expression immediately turned sour.
“You call washing a few pieces of clothing in some tiny little place experience?”
Jillonne snorted and irritably flipped through the documents, quickly looking over Elysia’s shabby clothes and dirt-covered shoes.
Her wrist, visible beneath the worn and frayed sleeve, was unnaturally thin, while her pale, bloodless complexion made her look as though she might collapse at any moment.
“I’ll do anything you ask—”
“This isn’t a charity.”
Jillonne cut her off.
“In the Imperial Palace laundry, we wash tens of kilograms of clothing every day just from the garments and bedding of the important people. Someone as weak as you would probably drop dead after carrying five or six laundry baskets.”
“But—”
“Being useless is a sin. Especially in this palace. Next!”
Jillonne spoke in a firm voice and waved Elysia away.
Her attitude was as though she were shooing away an annoying insect.
“What are you standing there for? Get out. There are plenty of people waiting in line to get in here besides you. Don’t get in the way. Scram!”
The words were deliberately humiliating.
As Elysia stared at the tips of her worn-out shoes, her violet eyes grew cold.
Enduring this kind of humiliation was not difficult.
What was truly unbearable was the helplessness of being unable even to cross the threshold of revenge because of a single word from some mere head maid.
“…Understood.”
Elysia lowered her head slightly before leaving the interview room.
She had waited for about two hours for the interview, yet she hadn’t even spent two minutes inside.
That bastard was right beyond those walls.
There were people visible in the inner courtyard garden of the Imperial Palace.
Perhaps Kaiel was out there enjoying his evening walk.
“……”
Instead of leaving with the people still standing in line, Elysia slipped behind the outer wall of the Imperial Palace and hid herself.
Of course, she had no intention of retreating like this.
Eventually, the sun disappeared completely.
Jillonne, having finished the interviews, walked out of the interview room with a tired look on her face.
A young maid followed behind her, carrying a large bundle of documents containing the interview results.
“Head Maid, shall we finalize it as it is?”
“There isn’t much point in holding interviews when the person who’s going to get the position has already been decided anyway. What a nuisance……”
“You said the person selected this time is the daughter of one of your distant relatives, didn’t you?”
“Shh! If you ever say something like that out loud where someone can hear you, you won’t be able to keep your life.”
“I-I apologize!”
The young maid bowed her head repeatedly, trembling with fear.
“Get lost. And watch your mouth!”
Jillonne irritably brushed back her hair and sent the young maid away first.
Then, just as she turned toward the dark outer wall—
“Head Maid.”
A thin voice pierced Jillonne’s back.
“How many times do I have to tell you? I said get lost!”
Thinking it was the young maid calling her, Jillonne spun around with an annoyed expression.
But instead of the young maid, Elysia was standing there.
“You, you’re still here……!”
Jillonne’s mouth froze in the middle of her shout.
The eyes of Elysia, resembling the Milky Way, were strangely shimmering.
“What are you doing? I’ll call the guards.”
“Go ahead. I don’t care. But I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
“Guards! Guards! There’s an intruder in the Imperial Palace!”
Even as Jillonne screamed like a madwoman, Elysia calmly took another step forward.
At that moment, Jillonne’s vision began to twist grotesquely.
“You said earlier that being useless was a sin.”
Elysia smiled faintly.
“Well, I happen to have one very useful ability.”
“What?! Eek!”
“The Lotner family has a special ability that has been passed down through generations. And it’s an especially unique ability that is inherited only by the women of the family.”
“Lotner? You mean that family that was wiped out for treason?”
“There is one last surviving descendant of that family. Its only daughter who inherited the ability.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? That family didn’t have a daughter. And even if there had been one, she would obviously have been executed!”
Jillonne frantically rubbed her eyes as her vision continued to distort.
By now, the skin around her eyes had become red and swollen.
“Believe me or don’t. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Go ahead and get yourself arrested by the guards and thrown into prison!”
“Should I?”
“Ugh, why are my eyes like this……”
“But, Head Maid.”
Elysia tilted her head.
“It’s surprising. You seem to be especially afraid of bugs.”
“W-What? Eek! A-Aaaah!”
When Elysia gave her a sinister smile, a terrified scream erupted from Jillonne.
Because what she was seeing was no longer Elysia.
Thousands upon thousands of pitch-black cockroaches and hairy centipedes were crawling up from beneath her feet, writhing over one another like maggots.
The insects instantly climbed up Jillonne’s shoes and crawled beneath the hem of her skirt.
Thousands of tiny legs crawling over her skin.
The scraping sounds grating against her eardrums.
The sensation was so vivid that Jillonne frantically brushed at her body before rolling around on the ground.
“Help me! Get them off! Get them off me!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t see anything.”
Just as Elysia said, there was nothing crawling over Jillonne’s body as she rolled around on the dirt.
“Aaaah! Eeeek!! Please, get rid of the bugs! Get them off me! I hate bugs!”
Elysia gracefully knelt down in front of Jillonne, who was crawling desperately across the ground.
“Hire me as a maid in the Imperial Palace.”
Elysia smiled.
“Then these bugs will disappear.”
She paused.
“Or……you can spend the rest of your life feeling them until you go insane.”
