I Became a Tyrant’s Maid - Chapter 37

Calix watched the antics of his impudent maid, Rose Estanya.

He was astounded even as he observed.

Rose Estanya had finally gathered the maids outside the head maid’s faction to create her own group and spread strange rumors.

For instance, salacious rumors like the sordid love story between the head maid and the Duke, or the tale of a young Crown Prince betrayed by a nanny blinded by love.

While he didn’t like the content she had fabricated, the effect was remarkable.

“Your Highness! These are the criminals who attempted to assassinate you!”

Perhaps thanks to that, she now brought witnesses and presented the head maid before Calix.

And she did so by catching him as he was passing by, deliberately in front of the corridor where the Crown Prince’s servants were gathered.

Leaving no room for denial.

“Y-Your Highness, this is slander!”

Calix looked at the nanny who had been responsible for his childhood.

“There were 10 people present! Do you still insist it’s slander?”

He knew.

His nanny had long since sided with the First Prince. Yet he had been too foolish to either banish or kill her.

Why had he done that?

“Now, Rose!”

The orange-haired man who seemed to be on friendly terms with Rose Estanya presented a newly entered maid in front of her.

Rose Estanya hurriedly pushed the maid’s back and spoke forcefully as if upset.

“Hurry up and confess your relationship with the head maid!”

The corridor where he stood began to stir at this rare event.

And Rose Estanya, the protagonist of this entire situation, drove the maid towards her goal like an actor immersed in a play, seemingly excited.

“Your Highness! Please interrogate these individuals and reveal their crimes in detail! They must face the consequences for daring to insult the royal family!”

Calix quietly observed the maid who pleaded while stubbornly maintaining the strange manner of speech he had emphasized she should correct.

“The, the head maid told me, who used to work as a mercenary, that if I killed His Highness the Crown Prince, she would provide me with a potion to cure my sick mother for life!”

The new maid she had brought trembled, covering her mouth in shock at the truth she had inadvertently confessed.

At this, Rose Estanya looked at Calix with a triumphant expression.

‘Please procure some Elgan sap, Your Highness.’

‘Why do you need that?’

‘There’s a maid who was planning to kill me and take my place. I intend to secretly mix the sap into her food tray, then make her confess the truth in front of everyone.’

Indeed, things were progressing steadily according to Rose Estanya’s plan.

And Calix was very pleased with her.

To the extent that he should seriously consider how to treat Rose Estanya.

It had been a very long time since he had felt such an appreciation for a person.

To say he was pleased.

What an absurd emotion.

“Your Highness, though it may be presumptuous, as your servant, I cannot tolerate their disrespect and humbly make this request.”

His maid, Rose Estanya, bowed her waist and shouted in a loud voice.

“Please punish them!”

“Pu-punish them, we beseech you!”

It was so ridiculous that he almost laughed out loud.

The group that Rose Estanya had recruited loudly echoed her words, and the corridor of the Crown Prince’s quarters stirred more than ever.

Though they looked foolish, the effect was remarkable, just as she had said.

“No matter that the head maid was Your Highness’s nanny, is this not beyond what a human should do? How could she try to kill the very person she raised, sob…”

Though it wasn’t exactly a pleasant situation, Calix couldn’t take his eyes off Rose Estanya.

People were completely swayed by her, who was now even pretending to cry.

“Your Highness, please forgive our rudeness!”

“Please forgive us!”

For the first time in his life, Calix struggled to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.

If he had known earlier that such a maid existed, he would have placed her by his side much sooner.

“An assassin.”

The current situation Calix found himself in was hopelessly tangled and miserable, but it was more bearable than he had expected.

Thanks to Rose Estanya during the birthday celebration, he was able to clear the false accusations that the Second Prince had tried to pin on him.

Moreover, although he had been poisoned with a toxin he had no immunity to, he survived thanks to her again.

Thanks to Rose Estanya, who seemed to have fallen from the sky, he had managed to pass through major crises relatively smoothly, even if it had been close.

“I tried to overlook it for old times’ sake, but,”

Calix looked at the pitiful headmaid trembling on her knees on the cold floor of the Crown Prince’s quarters.

“It seems I have no choice now.”

At Calix’s words, the head maid dared to shed tears with a pretentious face.

“Your Highness, you can’t do this to me. How could you forget how I raised you? Don’t you remember, Your Highness?”

He remembered.

He had followed her like a mother. Believing her to be his mother, he had craved her affection, and when his real mother was killed, he had deeply relied on her.

But what was the result?

Realizing early on that a Crown Prince in name only, the son of a traitor, had no value, hadn’t she cleverly attached herself to the First Prince?

And then, she betrayed the one she had raised like her own child and even tried to kill him.

“I know. Because I know, I tried all the more to let it slide.”

Calix tried to remain calm.

It was a familiar task. Traitors are simply to be killed.

That’s what he must do to survive.

“Even I cannot keep someone by my side who tries to kill me for long, Nanny.”

Calix mercilessly drew his sword.

Then he pointed it at his betrayer, now so distant that he rarely had the chance to see her.

“Your Highness, it’s me. Don’t you remember? I always read books to you when you were young.”

Of course, he remembered.

The problem was that the memory was too vivid.

She looked much older than the nanny in his memories.

Over time, her face seemed to be caked with desire and grime.

He didn’t want to see her anymore.

The more the past overlapped with the present, the harder it seemed to breathe.

So it would be better to kill her now…

“Your Highness! You must not!”

For a moment, it was as if pink threads were fluttering before his eyes.

Thwack! His hand holding the sword was caught by Rose Estanya’s soft touch.

Calix, with wide eyes, looked at the impertinent maid who dared to appear before him.

In her clear blue eyes, the reflection of Calix’s severely distorted face was visible.

* * *

For a very brief moment, I forgot what kind of guy the male lead was.

I held the male lead’s arm tightly with both hands and, panting, spouted nonsense.

“Your Highness, we cannot stain your noble hands with the blood of a filthy criminal.”

There were already people all around, and realistically, there was nothing to gain by showing the male lead’s violent side here.

“Perhaps it would be better to entrust this to Sir Ruel, Your Highness.”

“Perhaps it would be better to entrust this to Sir Ruel, Your Highness.”

Is the Knight Commander in charge of managing criminals or something?

I wasn’t sure, but I just blurted out whatever came to mind.

As a result, Ruel, who was nearby, wrinkled his face as if to say ‘What nonsense,’ but that’s not my problem.

Realistically speaking, and based on the original work, I had no reason to stop the male lead.

In the original work, the male lead is a tyrant.

Therefore, for him, killing his nanny was a natural, unremarkable act.

So why did I stop him?

Just for my own life?

Because I’d be safe if he becomes the emperor?

“You’re right.”

The male lead smiled gently at me.

“Take care of it.”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

The silver-haired head looked at me with an expression like he’d eaten something foul.

‘What are you going to do about it if you look at me like that?’

In the end, he grabbed the head maid and the new maid by the scruff of their necks and ordered the soldiers.

“Take them away.”

“Yes!”

The knights following behind made clanking noises as they took them away and disappeared.

Only then did I let out a sigh of relief.

And I secretly gave a thumbs up to Aaron and Milla who had helped me.

Good job.

It was good instigation.

Now if we could just deal with the Duke…

‘Wait a minute, if we get rid of the Duke, the female lead won’t be able to make her appearance!’

I gaped at the marble floor.

It was a bad habit I’d had since childhood. When I deeply focused on something, I completely forgot about everything else.

‘I worked too hard. I forgot this was inside a novel.’

I was amazed at my own crazed professional spirit, determined to root out dissidents and make the male lead the emperor.

First, I quickly racked my brain.

What I had done was very right in the long term.

The head maid, who shouldn’t have been from another faction in the Crown Prince’s palace, the male lead’s home ground, should have been dealt with at some point anyway.

‘Then what about the Duke?’

Considering various circumstances, there was a high possibility that the Duke would switch sides when the male lead grew stronger and started taking out the princes one by one.

Among the four princes, the male lead was by far the most capable.

Plus, he’s the protagonist.

‘Of course, I should hold onto the crown prince coin to live long. ‘

That’s why in the original story, he tries to make his daughter the Empress, but the male lead ends up falling for the illegitimate female lead who just tagged along with her sister.

I decided to believe in the fatalistic worldview Aaron had mentioned.

Of course, it’s truly nonsensical to expect things to flow naturally as in the original story, given that I’ve been stirring up the imperial palace left and right to save my own skin.

But what can I do?

‘All roads lead to Rome.’

They are destined for each other, as written in the original story.

Theoretically, the male lead will fall in love with the female lead as soon as they meet.

After all, the original story begins with the male lead falling in love with the female lead at first sight.

I just need to set up the initial conditions for the story to begin.

So the male lead must become the emperor no matter what. Because they must meet at his coronation banquet.