But, whether this should be considered fortunate or not, Mel hadn’t gained Genoa’s trust. Couldn’t someone in that position say this and that? Rather, it was the perfect situation to express dissatisfaction with the head maid.

“I’ll decide when to report to the Duke. It would be good for the head maid to consider showing me a repentant attitude in the meantime to delay that timing.”

Mel tried her best to look down on the head maid arrogantly. Though not visible under the hem of her dress, she was even slightly on her tiptoes.

“You, come with me. You need to attend to my dinner.”

Mel pulled the arm of the maid who was staring blankly at her. Seeing the maid suddenly raise her head, Mel smiled gently.

“I’m hungry, shall we go to the kitchen?”

Mel strode towards the kitchen, dragging the maid along.

“……!”

The maid, helplessly pulled by Mel’s hand, glanced back slightly to check on the head maid. The head maid was wiping cold sweat, her face pale.

It had been 5 years since she started working in the Ivanstein mansion. This was the first time she had seen the head maid so flustered. It was even more unfamiliar because even the butler didn’t dare touch the head maid, finding her difficult.

‘Who is this person?’

The princess of the declining Reibritton. It was hard to believe that the princess before her was the same person who had smiled weakly with a dazed look in Harttenberun. Only now did it sink in that she was originally a person of high and noble status.

Is this truly the appearance of a real princess? The maid’s heart started to pound little by little.

“……Huh, ugh, huff!”

After crossing the corridor as if running hard, she was out of breath. Having done nothing but breathe during the journey from the royal palace to the empire, her stamina had hit rock bottom.

“Is the head maid following us?”

At that question, the maid who was catching her breath together looked back.

“No.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

When the maid gave a definite answer, Mel’s face brightened.

“Haaaaaah.”

“Princess!”

The princess exhaled deeply and sat down on the floor. The surprised maid tried to support her, but the princess weakly shook her head and refused.

“That was really scary. Right?”

“Pardon?”

The maid blinked for a moment, unable to say anything. Suddenly, the atmosphere around the princess softened, and all her royal dignity flew away. The princess whined with a pure and innocent face.

“I thought I was going to die from nervousness. To touch someone from the Ivanstein ducal family, even if all the previous promises are nullified, I have nothing to say. What should I do? Ah, I think I’m ruined. What should……”

“Princess? Princess!”

“Hmm?”

“After being so bold earlier, what are you doing now?”

“……Getting scared?”

“……”

The maid’s mouth, once dropped open, couldn’t close for a while. She probably wouldn’t notice even if a bug flew in. So much for the true princess. The maid poked her eyes with two fingers, recalling how she had looked at the princess with admiring eyes.

“Where did that confident appearance from just now go!”

“The head maid was scarier than I thought! I don’t know what will happen if the Duke of Ivanstein finds out about what just happened……”

“Didn’t you have something to rely on?”

“How could I have such a thing? You saw well in Harttenberun what my situation is like.”

The princess whined and grabbed the maid’s skirt. But the maid pulled her skirt away coldly with a disgusted face. The princess’s fingers, with nowhere to go, trembled as they chased the hem of her skirt.

“First, stand up. How much would the head maid laugh if she saw you like this!”

“My legs won’t work……”

“Really, what should I do with you, Princess.”

The maid sighed deeply and grabbed both of the princess’s hands, applying force. Her body was as light as a feather, so she could lift her without much effort.

“I felt it in Harttenberun too, but you’re really strange, Princess.”

“Is that so.”

They had the same conversation in Harttenberun. Although the way she looked at the princess then and now had changed.

The maid moved her lips for a moment before speaking.

“Why did you help me? Actually, both the head maid and I disrespected you equally……”

Mel, who had been tidying up her disheveled dress hem for a moment, smiled gently at the maid.

“Did you not like me helping you?”

“It’s not that I disliked it, but I’m a person who knows about having a sense of shame.”

There’s no kindness in this world without a price. The harsher and tougher life is, the earlier one realizes this fact.

“Would you feel more at ease if there was a proper reason for helping?”

“Yes.”

The maid nodded firmly.

The maid’s family members were like newborn baby birds, mouths open, looking only at her. Until she drifted into the Ivanstein mansion, the maid had endured countless dirty humiliations. So she knew better than anyone how harsh life could be. She had treated the princess no differently from the head maid until now, so surely this wasn’t unwarranted good fortune.

“I remember the consideration you showed me in Harttenberun.”

Mel remembered the small kindness she had received from the maid in Harttenberun. In Harttenberun, the maid would have been ordered to report everything about Mel. But when Mel asked about the Duke of Ivanstein’s condition, the maid, while being cautious, said she wouldn’t report the question Mel had asked to her superiors.

If the maid had reported Mel’s question to her superiors at that time, Genoa might not have made a deal with her. He wasn’t the type to trust a princess who showed suspicious signs. Come to think of it, this maid might have been the first to realize that Mel was harmless in Harttenberun.

“You helped me in some way, so I repaid you.”

“That was such a small thing, it couldn’t even be called help.”

“Not just that, but maybe I felt you were similar to me. I also have things I want to protect.”

“Ah……”

The maid suddenly recalled what kind of situation the princess was in now. She was standing precariously on thin ice. It seemed like the ground beneath her feet could crumble at any moment, but it hadn’t.

Like her who’s trying to protect her family, was the princess enduring with all her might now to protect her kingdom? The maid thought this and bit her lip.

Seeing the maid’s complicated expression, Mel smiled gently.

“To be more honest, I’m starting to need some attendance too. Anyway, if I can at least protect the maid assigned to me, wouldn’t that make things easier for me too?”

At Mel’s playfully added words, the maid unknowingly lowered her shoulders that had been tense. Then she spoke in a worried voice.

“The head maid is someone the Duke of Ivanstein personally brought. She must have harbored ill will because of this incident, will you be alright?”

To the maid’s words, Mel smiled and asked back.

“Do you know about the temperament of nobles?”

“……What?”

The maid opened her eyes wide, not understanding the flow of the conversation. Mel smiled briefly at that face and continued.

“They are noble yet arrogant, craving honor while fearing insult.”

The power of nobles comes from various sources. Among them, the most powerful is the authority that comes from their special status. The reason why ‘I can, but you can’t’. It was the authority of nobility that made this unfair logic possible.

“What nobles fear most is someone damaging their authority.”

A noble who loses authority faces a cold and cruel reality. The head maid overlooked this inherent nature of nobility.

“I can overlook the head maid’s actions generously, but there’s one line she crossed.”

“What is that?”

“She disguised what she wanted as the Duke of Ivanstein’s will.”

“Is that such a big problem?”

“Of course. It’s exactly what nobles in high positions like the Duke are most wary of.”

That’s how the nobles she understood generally were. Mel had faced numerous nobles while acting as the princess’s double in the Reibritton royal palace. Scrutinizing the other party was a slave’s instinct for survival. Among them, Mel was the slave with the keenest instinct.

“Even a tiny thing being communicated wrongly can mess up my affairs.”

Looking at the problematic incidents, most started with subordinates adding their own opinions to their master’s intentions. In the world of nobles, the meaning changes depending on subtle tones, words, and the expression of the messenger.

Subordinates unfamiliar with this ecosystem of nobles might offend the other party by adding their own feelings to a subtle nuance, or unintentionally cause misunderstandings. So, nothing was more troublesome than a subordinate’s mistake conveying an opinion different from the master’s intention.

A great noble like Ivanstein would be even more wary of this and would have trained their subordinates rigorously. So what the head maid did couldn’t be seen as a simple mistake.