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Chapter 65
4th Floor Hallway.
Riana was running happily toward her destination.
But suddenly, Deborah appeared right around the corner.
At the same moment—there was a broom lying on the floor.
Riana’s foot caught on the broomstick, and she tripped. Very slowly.
‘No…!’
The two boxes she was carrying flew high into the air in front of her.
She instinctively reached her hands out to catch them, but at the last moment her grip slipped. Instead of grabbing them, she accidentally knocked them aside.
“Uh—oh?!”
The maid in charge of cleaning the hallway let out a panicked voice.
And then—the sound everyone expected.
Crash!
The boxes had no lids. Glass bottles tumbled out, rolling everywhere. The corks popped loose, and the liquid inside sprayed out.
Some of it splashed onto Deborah.
The bottles clattered and rolled across the floor, luckily not breaking.
The poor cleaning maid went pale with fear, her face almost green. She thought it was all her fault.
“…Are you alright?”
Riana asked without thinking—then immediately wanted to smack herself.
“Are you alright?” Really? Would anyone be alright after this?!
If the liquid had been dangerous, this could have been attempted murder.
She had wanted a “villainess flag,” but not one on this criminal scale!
“….”
Instead of replying, Deborah quietly lifted her hand and brushed back her damp golden hair.
Riana froze, watching, holding her breath as Deborah calmly fixed each wet strand.
The longer Deborah stayed silent, the more sweat gathered in Riana’s palms.
‘Still… since she’s reacting like this, at least the liquid wasn’t poison.’
Just when Riana started to relax a little, Deborah finally spoke:
“Bring me a towel and a change of clothes, please.”
She was talking to the cleaning maid.
Riana glanced toward her—and recognized the familiar face. It was Cece, the maid from Gisamo.
Cece quickly ran off on the errand. Only then did Deborah turn her violet eyes to Riana.
Startled, Riana blurted out:
“I’m sor—”
“It was my fault.”
“…Huh?” Riana’s brows shot up.
To be fair, she kind of agreed.
Deborah really had popped out of nowhere.
It wasn’t a normal hallway accident where two people just bumped into each other. No, Deborah had appeared out of thin air.
“I used teleportation magic to appear in front of you because I wanted to talk.”
“…Why go that far?”
“Because if I approached normally, you would’ve run away.”
Teleportation.
Riana knew—it was a rare talent. Some magic wasn’t learned through effort, but only given to people born with the gift. Teleportation was one of them.
(Like Kim’s telepathy magic, Riana thought. Kim could communicate just by thought—that was why he had been chosen as Killian’s secretary, since the Duke often lived in isolation. Special gifts like that used massive mana and couldn’t be used often.)
So Deborah had used such a powerful ability… just to catch her?
Riana felt both flattered and terrified. Terrified a little more, honestly. Especially since she really had stolen from Deborah’s storeroom before.
“…What did you want to talk about so badly?”
“Do you remember that day?”
“…What day?”
“The day with the flowers, when you—”
Deborah’s face twisted in pain, and she stopped speaking. Riana gave an awkward smile.
“Which time? You’ll have to be specific.”
Because Riana had attacked her with flowers twice. She could only pray Deborah wasn’t talking about the day she got caught stealing.
But of course—
“The second time. In the broom closet.”
Well, maybe this wasn’t so bad.
At least she could use this as a chance to figure out whether Deborah knew about the missing Love Potion or not.
“I’m sorry about that. I was just startled.”
Another apology. She had lost count of how many times she’d apologized to Deborah already.
But Deborah’s face stayed blank. No grudge, no forgiveness—just calm indifference.
“…Maybe you actually saved many people that day. Thanks to that, I created the cure for pollen allergies.”
“…You invented it?”
“Yes. That very night. So in the future, flowers won’t work on me anymore.”
“…Uh, congratulations on the invention. And thanks for the advice?”
Riana blinked, confused by Deborah’s emotionless tone.
“Anyway,” Deborah continued, “I wanted to talk about the fact that you saw me there.”
Riana squinted.
Wait… she saw Deborah? Not that Deborah caught her?
That phrasing suggested Deborah didn’t know anything had gone missing.
And to prove it, Deborah added:
“I trust you won’t tell anyone that you saw me there.”
“…Not like I really have anyone to tell.”
So… she really didn’t know the Love Potion was gone?
Deborah’s eyes stayed unreadable as she continued,
“You’re practically the Duke’s close aide, aren’t you? You could cause me trouble by reporting it to him.”
Technically, she was one of the Isolation Tower maids, which meant she lived close to the Duke. But socially, no one respected that position.
Riana shrugged lightly.
“Thanks for calling me a close aide, but you know it’s not really an influential job. Even if I talked, nobody would believe me. And honestly, is it really shocking for you to be in the broom closet? There’s no rule that says only maids can enter.”
“…Since you feel the same way, I’ll be honest.”
“…About what?”
“That place is my private research spot. The potions you saw there were all made with ingredients I secretly stole from the company.”
“…You’re just going to admit that so easily?”
Riana was too stunned to reply.
Deborah, perfectly calm, kept confessing:
“The pollen cure too—I made it with stolen materials.”
“Uh… you don’t really have to be that honest with me.”
“I also know you took something from there that day.”
“…What?”
So… they were both thieves? Was this supposed to make them feel like partners in crime?
“Whatever you took, I don’t think you knew what it was. But either way, it had no real value. Unauthorized potions are basically trash. So it doesn’t matter to me.”
Her voice softened slightly, almost awkward.
“What I’m trying to say is—you don’t need to feel uncomfortable around me.”
Riana blinked.
This was the second time recently a noble had told her, “Don’t feel uncomfortable.” And it was even more bizarre this time.
“…Honestly, I thought you would be the one uncomfortable around me.”
Surely Deborah hadn’t forgotten everything Riana had done to her.
But Deborah’s face remained calm as she said evenly,
“Well… the person I love, loves someone else. That makes you less of an enemy and more of a… difficult rival.”
Riana’s heart jumped.
She knew instantly who Deborah meant.
Gray.
I need to explain I’m not involved with him at all.
Her instincts screamed at her to deny it. But when she saw the sadness in Deborah’s violet eyes—the pain of unrequited love—her words died.
Deborah quickly smoothed her expression again and changed the subject.
“…Next time you steal something, go for silver candlesticks or flower vases like Daniel does. Those are easy to sell and fetch a good price.”
“…Sorry, what?”
That was such a shocking twist that Riana forgot everything else.
“Among maids in places like this, kleptomania isn’t rare.”
“…You’re saying I’m a thief?”
Deborah just spoke casually, as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“I know you earn a good wage, but even rich people can have nasty little hobbies. I’ve seen it before.”
Riana was left speechless. Because technically… Deborah had caught her stealing before.
