“I understand. Of course I do.”

“Thank you for your generous understanding, young madam.”

Those were his words, but the butler’s eyes blazed with fury, full of rage. His eyes said it all: how dare someone like you humiliate me like this.

“Well then, let’s set the matter of the butler aside for now, and it’s a good thing you came.”

Apparently deciding there was no point in talking to me any further, the butler moved to leave at once. But I was not the kind of person to let him go that easily.

“Is there something you wish to say to me?”

“Of course there is. That’s why I was actually a little glad when the butler came looking for me.”

I smiled pleasantly and took a sip of tea.

“You’ve heard that all the handmaids were dismissed today, haven’t you?”

“…Yes. That is precisely what I came about. Just what on earth…”

“Just what on earth?”

“Oh, never mind. So what do you intend to do about those handmaids? It’s absolute chaos right now.”

“Is there anything to be chaotic about? They’re simply getting back exactly what they gave.”

His deep sighs came one after another.

He seemed to be sinking into quite a deep worry about what on earth this woman was doing and what he was supposed to do about it.

“Young madam. Even so, if you dismiss everyone like this, their families will surely…”

“Shh. Since when could a mere butler speak so freely to the head of the family? Are you the head of this family?”

“No.”

He couldn’t show it openly, but he ground his teeth.

Only after a long moment did he open his mouth.

“You seem like an entirely different person.”

“I’ve finally come to my senses.”

If I pushed him this far, the butler would surely go running straight to my mother-in-law and report everything. That was exactly what I wanted. Every time I treated him harshly, the bond between those two would only grow stronger.

That was what I was after.

‘How devastated will Dertosse be when he finds out that Mother and the butler have that kind of relationship?’

One of the things Dertosse held in the highest regard about his mother was precisely that. Even after his father had passed away long ago, she had lived faithfully. In this wretched noble society, that was considered quite an honorable thing.

Regardless of whether you were a man or a woman. So Dertosse had always spoken with pride about his mother living alone.

‘That’s exactly what makes it so satisfying.’

I would set everything off in sequence, like steps on a staircase, or like dominoes falling one by one. How delightful it would be to watch it all unravel in front of Dertosse, one after another, without giving him even a moment to recover.

“Young madam.”

Just then, the butler opened his mouth, cutting into my pleasant daydream.

“Oh, right. This is no time for that. Butler, go and bring me the full list of everyone who was a handmaid.”

“Ha… Young madam. That would be…”

“Why? Are you going to refuse again?”

“…No. But if you do this, you will surely end up regretting it.”

“Regretting it, you say.”

“Are you not afraid of the head madam? Oh, of course, I say this with the young madam’s best interests in mind.”

How far would he take this? The butler was sizing me up, watching my reaction the way someone does when they’re trying to casually talk a troublesome child into giving up.

“How kind of you to say it’s for my sake. But I have no intention of changing my mind. Dismiss the handmaids and bring me their list. Every family they belong to, every name. Leave nothing out.”

“…However, the majority of them are refusing to leave.”

For them, becoming a handmaid to a noble family in the capital was an opportunity. It gave them a chance to attend parties in the capital and get their faces known.

So most of them set their sights on a ducal house or the imperial palace, but not everyone had the chance for that. A marquis’s estate was still considered a high-ranking household. If word got out that they had been dismissed, their chances of ever becoming handmaids to a ducal house or the imperial palace would naturally dwindle.

So that kind of reaction was, in a way, only to be expected.

“If they refuse to leave, drag them out by force. I’ll handle the consequences.”

“Young madam.”

“Are you their butler, or the butler of this estate?”

“I am the butler of this estate.”

“Then follow my orders.”

Only then did he bow his head, displeasure written all over his face.

“I… will obey.”

I said nothing. I simply watched him.

At that, the butler let out a deep sigh and turned to leave. And yet, for some reason deeply dissatisfied, he stood staring at Karla, who had been keeping a step away from us, for quite a long moment.

“What is your name?”

“K, Karla.”

“…I see. Come find me later.”

“Pardon?”

“Understood?”

“Yes…”

The butler, who had been needlessly directing his displeasure at Karla, finally walked away after getting his answer.

‘Is he trying to probe Karla?’

He was probably planning to ask her anything and everything about me.

Only after the butler had gone did Karla meet my eyes.

“Y, young madam…”

“Remember what I said earlier. That Karla should live an ordinary life. You don’t need to let yourself be beaten down like that. This place isn’t all there is to Karla’s life.”

But her eyes lit up at my firm, cool words, as though she had taken them to mean something else entirely.

“I understand your meaning, my lady!”

“…Right.”

If she had misunderstood something, I should have cleared it up, but since I had no idea where the misunderstanding had started, I couldn’t even begin to correct it. All I could do was accept that unusually heavy gaze of hers.

Just then, her business apparently finished, Mary was walking slowly toward where I was.

“Did things go well?”

“Yes. The head madam was absolutely furious. She was ready to have you dragged in on the spot.”

At those words, I swallowed the cold tea in one gulp.

‘How foolish. After everything that happened, she’s summoning me again.’

“What do you plan to do?”

“Well. I think I’ve done enough for today.”

“…Is this the kind of treatment you normally receive?”

Mary couldn’t seem to make sense of it and couldn’t quite shake the look of frustration from her face. Well, I found it frustrating too, so I could only imagine how she felt.

It wasn’t exactly ordinary for a woman holding the title of marchioness to be looked down on not just by handmaids but by common maids as well, with everyone treating it as perfectly natural.

‘What on earth was I thinking back then, accepting such unfair treatment and letting it go?’

Was it because this was inside a novel? Or was it simply because of that one line, that the new marquis and marchioness of the Chenples marquisate would live well together?

Or perhaps something else had taken hold of me.

‘Maybe I was made to act like a fool so that I could be given this life now.’

I let a quiet, lonely smile cross my face and rose from my seat.

“I’ve been outside too long. I want to go back to my room. And now that I have a maid, I’d like to get it tidied up.”

“Young madam…”

“Mary, you don’t need to worry about me. You just need to stay focused on the task I gave you. These have been my ordinary days. Letting things go whenever they act like that is just how it is. To them, I’m someone they can be rude to without consequence. So don’t trouble yourself over it.”

“……”

“You don’t need to feel sorry for me either. If even one person among them had kept to basic decency, I might have felt at least a little pity or guilt when I dismissed the handmaids, or when the maids spoke badly of me.”

I stretched out my stiff body. Whether it was age or something else, my joints cracked and popped all over every time I moved.

“Ha…”

“But I didn’t feel even a trace of that. And now I find it even less necessary. Because I’ve become someone they think it’s perfectly fine to treat that way.”

I smiled pleasantly and walked over to Karla.

“Let’s head back now.”

“Yes. Yes, my lady.”

“Oh, and this is Karla. She became my maid just a little while ago. And this is Mary. A handmaid the young lady specially sent for my sake.”

Karla quickly bowed her head, as though she already knew about Mary.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“There’s no need for pleasantries or getting along. I’m only here for a short while.”

Watching Mary draw such a clear line, Karla quickly dropped her gaze.

“Shall we head back then.”

Even though I had introduced Karla as my maid, Mary kept her guard up around Karla all the same. On top of that, she was not particularly warm toward me in front of Karla either.

Rather, Mary carried herself like a strict dormitory matron, befitting a handmaid sent by a duke’s daughter. Thanks to that, even the maids who passed by naturally treated Mary as one of my mother-in-law’s people.

The same went for the butler, who brought the list of handmaids late that night.

* * *

The following afternoon.

Having slept soundly for the first time in a long while in the warm bedroom Karla had prepared the night before, I spent the day at a leisurely pace and finished getting ready before dinnertime.

This was after I had heard that my mother-in-law was refusing to eat, meal after meal.

“Where are you going?”

“To Mother.”

It was apparently not what they expected, because Mary and Karla were both startled at the same time, but I paid them no mind and stepped outside.

The air was heavy and damp, as though rain was coming soon.

The weather seemed to mirror my feelings about going to see Mother, and I paused to look out the window for a moment. Just then, the marquis’s estate’s carriage was pulling through the gates. I realized that Dertosse, who had gone out on business, had now returned.

So I made my way to Mother’s room at an even quicker pace than before.

“Young madam.”

As if to confirm that Mother had truly been confined, the hallway before her room was packed tightly with the estate’s knights and servants.

“I wish to see Mother. Open the door.”