Even so, Pertra did not give up. Whether she believed her future would be brighter standing on her mother-in-law’s side, she tucked the document into her chest and walked out. She didn’t even bother to greet her on the way out.

The door closed, and she pressed down on her quill. The nib shook as though it might snap.

“Let’s see how long you can keep holding your head that high. Just dismissing you and the butler isn’t enough to satisfy me. Give me more trouble to work with.”

She rested her chin in her hand and stared at the door.

She half expected her to come back in, but Pertra did not return.

‘It would have been anticlimactic if she had. Good thing she didn’t.’

Instead, it was Mary who came into the room some time later.

“Did the meeting go well?”

“Yes. Shall I report to you, or shall I handle it at my own discretion so you don’t have to worry about it?”

“He is no match for you, Mary. So I trust you to handle it as you see fit.”

“Yes, my lady. Does this mean you trust me now?”

“I’ve trusted you from the very beginning until now. That’s why I’ve entrusted you with things I couldn’t give to anyone else. If I hadn’t trusted you, I would have had to handle it myself.”

Her mouth moved silently for a moment. Mary made no sound, as though she had something to say but was holding it back.

“Of course… I know it must seem strange. That I would place this much trust in you, someone he sent to me. But, Mary. I trust you as much as I trust him. He has never fully shown me his heart, because he is that careful, but I know that you are on my side more than anyone.”

From the very first time they met, she was someone who had felt no sense of resistance.

And as laughable as it might seem, in this razor-thin situation where her life and death hung in the balance, she had decided to trust that feeling. That Mary, at the very least, was not a bad person. That she would stand on her side. And so she looked at her and smiled brightly.

“You’re a good person, aren’t you? As much as I believe you to be?”

“I don’t know how others may see me, but I want to be a good person to you, my lady. You put on a strong front, but you remind me so much of my master.”

“You mean Isen.”

“Yes. So at the very least… I hope that not only my master, but you as well… Evian, I hope you find happiness.”

Something warm rose in her chest as she looked at her.

She had entered this place called a novel, been killed in the most senseless way, and when she came back to life, her heart had hardened cold. But as she resolved herself to revenge and began walking that path, flowers had slowly begun to bloom in her world.

She had a feeling that the end of this revenge might not be a cliff’s edge, but a warm path lined with flowers. And so she couldn’t hold back the laughter that burst out of her like a blooming bud.

“I hope everyone… finds happiness.”

For the first time, she saw Mary smile with her whole heart.

She looked at that smile and turned her gaze to the window.

‘I hope everyone… truly finds happiness. I hope revenge is not where my life ends.’

And so another day faded away.

* * *

One day, then another.

Since she had come to inhabit this place, each day felt like it was passing far too quickly.

In the past, those had been days spent without meaning. Days of being treated worse than a maid while following her mother-in-law’s every command. The household affairs she had never dared to look at in those past days, when she had naturally become a maid to the maids, were now entirely in her hands.

“How careless it all was.”

Even a cursory look at the documents would have made it impossible to miss the gaping holes throughout the household. But her mother-in-law had been reckless, and astonishingly incapable when it came to managing the household.

If things had been left as they were, it would not have been difficult for the eldest sister-in-law, Illia, to swallow the household whole.

‘The past… what would have happened in the past where I died.’

It was enough to make her genuinely curious. Back then, there had been no one to sort through all of this, and her mother-in-law would not have even known any of it existed.

‘In the end, the sister-in-law must have devoured the household…’

She almost felt a little sorry to have missed it. The household would have been in complete ruin, in a different sense. She let out a quiet laugh, then gathered the documents into a neat pile, placed them carefully in the desk drawer as always, and locked it.

“I should poke even more holes for them. In case the first plan doesn’t work…”

What was different from before was that, whereas before it had been the butler, the head maid, or the sister-in-law who had made those holes, this time she had plugged all of theirs. Instead, money would flow out through those same gaps to other people.

Quite a large sum of money would quietly disappear in ways that made it impossible to trace who received it. Money scattered like someone throwing it off a rooftop would be impossible to recover.

And foolish Dertosse would be off having his affair without a care in the world.

A man who called himself a marquis, too distracted elsewhere to notice where the marquisate’s lands, its mines, its assets were all going. What a joke.

She folded her hands quietly and made a wish.

“Keep being as foolish as ever.”

Just then.

The unusually quiet marquisate was suddenly filled with the unusually loud sound of horses neighing throughout the garden. She rose from her seat and looked out the window. She could clearly see a carriage pulling in from a distance.

“The timing is just right. I was getting tired of keeping up the act anyway.”

From among the organized documents, she placed the ones she had set aside for sending the butler, the head maid, and her mother-in-law to the villa on the desk in plain view. Then she gripped the small glass bottle filled with red liquid that she always kept in her pocket.

Once everything was ready, she stepped out of the room without a moment’s hesitation.

Karla, who had been waiting, followed behind her.

“I’m only going for a walk to clear my head, so just have Mary follow me. Karla, could you tidy up the room a bit? I broke the nib of my quill a few days ago.”

“Yes. I’ll have it sorted.”

“And I’m craving something refreshing. It seems the morning sickness has started early. Could you let them know to bring out some refreshing sorbet?”

“Yes!”

Karla and the maids who had gathered in front of the room stepped inside without needing to be told twice.

She had deliberately avoided leaving the room lately. She had not let anyone else tidy the room either, making it seem as though important documents were inside. With no way of knowing that the important documents had been separately gathered and locked away, they rushed toward the desk, looking to find the papers she had been writing every day.

She caught a glimpse of that scene through the slowly closing door of her room and let out a quiet laugh.

‘The sweet maids, with no way of knowing that everything in there is either fake or useless, will dutifully carry it all off to the mother-in-law, the head maid, and the butler.’

She held back the laughter that kept rising and moved her feet quickly.

“Mary.”

“Yes.”

“Bring Physician Rezef. Right now.”

“Yes.”

“And… on the way, have the coachman go fetch Dertosse. Tell him his sister has come. That should be enough.”

“I’ll use the jewels you gave me last time.”

The marquisate’s coachmen had always been greedy.

Mary, who already knew this, casually showed a glimpse of the jewel she had on her, and she gave her approval with a nod.

Mary moved away from her quickly, as though she had been given an important mission.

In the meantime, she made her way to the main hall.

Whether one came through the front entrance to see her mother-in-law or to see her, they had no choice but to pass through the manor’s main hall. From there, one had to climb the staircase that split in two directions, left and right, to reach either her mother-in-law’s room or her own.

And sure enough, just as she arrived there, Illia was storming into the manor.

“Oh my. You’ve come?”

“Ha? You’re just who I wanted to see!”

Illia snapped at her with a face no different from before. She looked at her for a moment, then fired back in kind.

“How convenient. I even came out to greet you this time.”

Before Illia could say anything, she began descending the stairs slowly. Whether she found it irritating that she was walking at a leisurely pace while holding the ornate banister befitting the marquisate’s hall, Illia came rushing toward the staircase.

“You’re still as brazen as ever, I see?”

“Of course.”

Worried that Illia might climb too far up the stairs, she picked up her pace at the last moment, and Illia ended up stopping partway up the stairs, coming face to face with her.

“Who do you think you are, looking down at me from up there!”

“Is that not allowed? I am the head of this household.”

“Ha? Head of the household. That’s rich. You, the head? Is that why you cut off all the support coming to me?”

“Yes!”

She smiled brightly and nodded.

At that, the face of the eldest sister-in-law, Illia, went completely white.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I must be, to be doing something like this. I did warn you last time, didn’t I?”

“What?”

“Oh! Right. I only warned you, I never actually said I would take it away, did I? Then I’ll say it now. I’m going to cut off every bit of support going to you.”

“You already did! Have you completely lost it! Do you think you’re actually someone important? Huh? But your arrogance ends today!”

With those words, Illia suddenly snapped her head to the side. She had been so caught up talking to her that she hadn’t noticed, but today Illia had brought an unusually large number of attendants with her. The number of attendants Illia had brought reached ten.

“Go fetch Mother right now! If anyone is blocking the way, fight through them!”

“Yes!”