There were four maids in the room. One of them was Karla, and the other three were maids I had seen in passing. Head maid Pertra was nowhere to be seen.

“Y, young madam.”

“What brings you to such a humble place?”

“I simply came because I asked Karla to do something for me and it seemed to be taking a while.”

“I, is that so? Karla, go and help her quickly.”

“Y, yes.”

Karla, who had been wearing a flustered expression, approached me with a startled look. But it would be a shame to back down quietly like this.

“Before that. Have you not yet heard that I dismissed the handmaids, or did you hear and simply ignore it?”

“W, was there such news?”

“There certainly was.”

“We are mere maids, so we were not well informed of it. Young madam.”

“Is that so? Since you seem not to know, I’ll tell you kindly just this once. I intend to replace the whole lot in this marquis’s estate.”

“What?”

In an instant, the three maids looked up at me in surprise.

“Keep that in mind. If you want to stay here, you’d better make yourselves very small.”

I turned around slowly, wearing the most gracious smile I could manage.

“Oh. And you’re all aware that Mother will be thrown out soon, aren’t you? You should see her off without the slightest inconvenience. That’s what it means to be a maid of the marquis’s estate, isn’t it?”

Back when I had trusted my husband, not a single person in the marquis’s estate had taken my side. Not even the maids standing before me now.

‘Still, they only did what they were ordered to do.’

They had openly spoken ill of me to my face, but in Evian’s life, being insulted by others was as common as waking up in the morning, so I had no real desire to punish them. That said, I had no intention of letting it go entirely either.

I looked at the maids. Every one of their faces had gone pale.

“So think carefully from now on. About what choice is right for your own future.”

With those words, I turned and walked out. Karla, who followed me out a step behind, trailed after me with a far calmer expression than before.

“Y, young madam.”

“Yes?”

“Are, are you perhaps angry?”

Karla’s unexpected question caught me off guard instead.

“Angry?”

“Oh, no… I just asked on the off chance. Never mind.”

I had no intention of growing attached to Karla. In the worst case, I would have to drive her out of this place. So I didn’t add anything to her words. I simply hoped she would keep her distance from me, like everyone else.

In the meantime, we stopped by the kitchen and gathered a portable tea set.

It was the first time since entering the marquis’s estate that I had ever gathered a tea set myself. I had never had the leisure to sit and enjoy a quiet tea time. Of course, before the marriage, I had shared tea a few times under my mother-in-law’s lead, but that was the extent of it.

“You’re going to the garden?”

“Yes.”

That was all. Fortunately, Karla did not show me the same warmth as before. Instead, she simply led me along like someone in a hurry.

Thanks to that, we arrived at the garden before long. With my mother-in-law confined to her room, the garden was perfectly still. The moment I sat down at the elegantly gold-trimmed tea table, Karla began preparing the tea with trembling hands.

“I, I’m so sorry. I, I’m still not very g, good at this.”

“You don’t need to tremble.”

“B, but… will you throw me out too if I make a mistake…?”

“Hm?”

“Countier… you said you’d replace everyone… Oh, never mind. I spoke out of turn.”

I watched her quickly seal her lips and shifted my gaze to the pale, weak tea.

I wished I had real power. The kind of power to protect the people I cared about, the kind to carry out my own revenge.

But what I currently had was only the power that came from the title of marchioness Dertosse had given me, and the temporary power I might gain by helping Lord Isen with the little knowledge I had of the future. Somehow, even the tea tasted bitter to me.

‘But that revenge has to be done by my own hand.’

I steadied myself once more.

Just then, someone came rushing over.

“There you are.”

At the unfamiliar male voice, I slowly turned my gaze. It was the marquis’s estate’s butler. But once I confirmed who it was, I turned my head away.

“Young madam.”

“……”

“Young madam. Are you ignoring me? Do you have any idea what you have done?”

“So I am the young madam after all.”

“Pardon?”

“I was being spoken to so sharply that for a moment I thought I was a student being lectured.”

The butler’s eyes wavered for an instant.

“So then, who are you?”

“What do you mean…”

“I’m asking what gives you the right to interrupt my tea time.”

“I am the butler of the marquis’s estate.”

“Right. The butler.”

“More importantly, you should not be sitting here like this. What exactly have you been doing?”

Even at my firm words, the butler opened his mouth again, apparently still not having collected himself.

“For a man who calls himself the butler of this estate, you are remarkably foolish.”

“…Are you speaking to me?”

“Yes. If you’re foolish, you should at least have good instincts. If you lack instincts, you should at least have manners. You have none of either.”

“……”

“It’s almost impressive that you’ve managed to stay on as the butler of this estate.”

The butler’s face flushed in an instant, the color rising the way it does after a slap. He clearly had not expected this reaction from me, who had always quietly said yes to everything.

“……”

“I never gave you permission to interrupt my tea time. What kind of butler barges in and starts demanding answers from his master?”

“…The matter was so urgent that I could not afford such considerations. I apologize if I have offended you.”

“And what exactly is this urgent matter?”

“The handmaids of the estate…”

“That is your urgent matter? You’re here about the ones I dismissed?”

I watched him open and close his mouth and let out a quiet laugh.

“You should learn to judge the weight of matters first. A butler of this estate cannot afford not to know that much, can he?”

His face went red and then pale as his hands trembled. It was probably the first time since becoming the butler of this estate that he had ever been treated this way.

Butler Petrick. He was Mother’s man. My mother-in-law had long enjoyed a loose life with quite a few men in place of her long-deceased husband, the former marquis.

Even so, she did not seek men from outside. She mostly made do with the men already inside the house. There was nothing unusual about keeping knights or servants close to her.

‘Of course, I had caught even that.’

In the past, I had been beaten simply for having witnessed it. My mother-in-law had likely thought that was the only way to keep me from opening my mouth to Dertosse.

So I remembered it clearly. That this man standing before me, Butler Petrick, was Mother’s man. Thanks to that, he had lived in comfort and become the butler of the marquis’s estate at a young age.

‘That was why he had no sense of limits.’

He had held the marquis’s estate in the palm of his hand and done as he pleased, acting every bit the marquis himself.

Dertosse despised the fact that his mother spent nights with other men. Because of that, not long before my death, Petrick was punished by Dertosse and driven out.

“My education was more than sufficient under the head madam. So I do not believe that is something the young madam has any standing to comment on.”

“Oh. Is that so.”

So that’s how he wants to play it.

Thanks to him, I finally remembered. What I could do to take revenge on my own.

On the day I left this place, I now had a perfectly clear picture of exactly what kind of mess to fling in the faces of Dertosse and my mother-in-law.

“Yes. So if you comment on my education, I will take it as a slight against the head madam and report it accordingly.”

“Right. That’s fair. But butler, a person needs to choose the right side.”

“The right side?”

“If you respect Mother so deeply that you will follow only her word, then when Mother gets sent off to the villa, I’ll have you sent along with her.”

Only then did the butler’s lips begin to tremble.

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“……”

“I hold your loyalty to Mother in very high regard. So I should give you what you want.”

I walked up to him and gave his shoulder a light pat.

“Make sure you hold onto that devotion to Mother from now on as well.”

“…That is not it. I only wish for the marquis’s estate to continue running well. So…”

“So?”

“Please don’t send me away.”

The butler finally revealed what was truly on his mind.

“Why is that? Are you not Mother’s servant?”

“No. I am the butler of the marquis’s estate. The reason I was disrespectful to the young madam until now was because I believed it served the good of the estate. But if all of that has grated on the young madam, I apologize.”

It was quite a lengthy explanation, but I said nothing. I simply waited to see what more he would say. Then, apparently deciding that this should be enough for me to accept, he lifted his bowed head. The look on his face said it all: this much should do, what more can you do to me.

“Yes. You’re right. A butler should naturally wish for the family’s peace.”

“Yes. That is correct.”

In that case, sending you away would be the right thing to do. For Dertosse’s sake.

But since I had already resolved not to stay in this place, there was no need to dismiss the butler for Dertosse’s benefit. In fact, using him to thoroughly grate on Dertosse’s nerves would be a far better approach.

Having reached my conclusion, I turned a gracious smile toward him.