She got up from the bed again, pushing back the annoyance at Mylene’s words. 

 Really, why now all of a sudden? 

 After that, she let out a sigh and nodded.

Then Leila entered as the door opened. 

 “Sister!” 

 That damn ‘sister.’

I really hate hearing it. 

 “Sit down.” 

 For some reason, she made a gloomy expression at her words before pulling out a chair to sit.

She sat in front of her and asked Mylene for some simple tea and finger foods. 

 “Sister…… I’m sorry about earlier.”

“About what?”

“Earlier when the brothers spoke harshly to you…… I should have stopped them since I was right there……” 

 She stared at her with lifeless eyes.

Completely unbothered by this, she continued speaking. 

 “I don’t know why the brothers dislike you so much…… Sister. You weren’t hurt by it, were you?” 

 She just silently stared at Leila without answering her words.

This made Leila put on a gloomy expression. 

 “Still, if you could just try a little harder to get along with the brothers……” 

 She finally let out a scoff at her words. 

 “I wasn’t hurt. Miss Leila……”

“Sister, why such formality with me! Just call me Leila comfortably. And speak comfortably too……”

“I’m sorry. I’m still not comfortable with just ‘Leila.’ And if you’re worried about the distance between the brothers and me growing, there’s no need for such concern. I’ve never been close with the brothers in the first place.” 

 Hearing her words, Leila looked at her with a shocked expression. 

 “Would you leave now? I’m tired. Ah, no. Since I feel bad for Mylene, have the tea and food before you go. She prepared it with effort because of you.”

With that, she returned to her bed, leaving behind a stunned Leila.

Leila let out a shaky breath seeing her behavior before getting up and leaving the room. 

 Only then could she comfortably fall asleep on the bed. 

 ***

 After sleeping for quite a while, when she opened her eyes, the sun was already setting.

Getting up from bed with her heavy body, she munched on the cookies Leila hadn’t touched while changing clothes. 

 Since Mylene seemed very tired, sleeping in the chair, she didn’t want to wake her unnecessarily.

After finishing changing clothes, when she woke Mylene, she was startled seeing her dressed state and bowed her head. 

 “I’m sorry, Miss. I accidentally fell asleep……”

“It’s fine. But…… since I wasn’t in the mansion today, Mylene should have had relatively free time…… did something happen?”

At her question, Mylene hesitated before hanging her head low.

Sensing something strange in her behavior, she began to probe further. 

 After her persistent questioning, she finally spoke after much hesitation. 

 “Well…… after you left today, the head maid gave me other work……” 

 She tilted her head at those words.

A noble’s personal maids usually have free time when their noble is away.

It’s also a way of showing respect to that noble. 

 But…… what does it mean that she gave Mylene other work? 

 “Tell me more details.” 

 As she heard from Mylene, the head maid had called Mylene, who was resting after cleaning her room while she was away, and ordered her to do dishes.

Dish washing was work usually done by the newest junior maids in the mansion. 

 She controlled her rising anger with deep breaths. 

 Getting emotional will only hurt me.

Get a grip. 

 “If something like this happens again, tell me right away. Understood?” 

 At her subdued voice, Mylene seemed to shrink her shoulders before nodding.

She strode over to Mylene and removed the apron she was wearing.

Though Mylene was very surprised, she took her to the bed and made her lie down. 

 “Don’t move and sleep. Understood? I can go to the dining room by myself.”

“But, Miss……”

“You were supposed to rest when I wasn’t in the mansion. Since you couldn’t rest then, you’re resting now. Lie down, that’s an order.” 

 With that, she went outside the room, briefly stopped by the kitchen to relay a message to the servants, then headed to the dining room.

She could hear the servants whispering as they saw her walking alone without an attendant. 

 When she stood alone in front of the dining room, even the knights guarding the door looked at her with surprise. 

 “Open it.” 

 At her words, the knights carefully opened the dining room doors, and she entered.

People’s gazes turned toward her. 

 She stood in front of a chair and looked for head maid Mollin.

As Mollin was both the head maid and Leila’s personal maid, she was standing behind her assisting her. 

 “Mollin.” 

 People made surprised expressions at the unexpected words from her mouth. 

 “Aren’t you going to pull out my chair?” 

 Hearing those words, Mollin frowned.

Even Leila looked at her with a rare displeased expression. 

 “Sister, what are you saying…… Mollin is my attendant……”

“I heard that your attendant Mollin took away my maid’s rest time. So my maid is now resting in my room. Since Mollin took it away, Mollin should compensate.” 

 Hearing those words, Father frowned as he looked at Mollin. 

 Father loved Leila.

However, the one thing Father absolutely could not tolerate was breaking the order of the mansion.

Father, who greatly valued ‘noble honor’ and ‘money,’ looked at Mollin, seemingly asking what this was about. 

 Mollin looked back and forth between her and Father in panic.

The one who broke the silence was not Mollin, but Leila. 

 “I did it.” 

 People looked at Leila with surprised eyes hearing those words. 

 “Everyone seemed busy…… and since Mylene seemed to have some free time, I asked if she could help with the kitchen work since they seemed busy.” 

 At that, Father frowned and made a troubled expression.

A very ridiculous expression showing he couldn’t bring himself to scold Leila. 

 She smiled and spoke to her. 

 “Then will Miss Leila pull out this chair?” 

 The atmosphere in the dining room instantly froze. 

 She knew.

That this wasn’t something Leila had initiated.

Head maid Mollin and those around her who didn’t like her had just taken out their frustrations on Mylene for no reason. 

 This was related to honor, which Father considered quite important.

The perceptive Leila wouldn’t have done such a thing.

She probably claimed responsibility to protect Mollin in her own way. 

 Leila looked at Father with a bewildered expression, but Father just watched how the situation would unfold without saying anything.

Finally, unable to watch anymore, Brother Rembro snapped at her. 

 “What kind of rudeness is this!” 

 She looked at the brothers sitting in the dining room with an expressionless face at Brother Rembro’s words. 

 “Does my behavior seem rude to you?”

“Of course! Don’t you know that speaking carelessly to or arbitrarily ordering someone else’s personal maid is an act of disrespecting that person?” 

 Both the eldest brother and Leila nodded at his words. 

 Right, Leila isn’t kind.

Look at how she quickly forgot that she arbitrarily ordered my servant but gets upset when I give orders to her maid.

The other brothers also seemed to focus only on my current behavior, quickly forgetting what Leila had done. 

 “Then, Leila and her maid Mollin who arbitrarily ordered and mistreated my maid Mylene were also very rude.” 

 Hearing her words, Mollin spoke up to Father as if upset. 

 “Mistreatment! There was no such thing, Your Grace! We simply requested help from a maid with free hands after seeing how busy the kitchen work seemed!” 

 However, even at that outcry, Father still didn’t move a muscle and just watched the situation while glancing sideways.

Finally, Leila stood up from her seat. 

 “Sister, I’m sorry. I think I was too thoughtless.” 

 The faces of the two brothers crumpled at Leila’s apology.

Their gazes toward her seemed to carry the meaning ‘why are you troubling her over something like this?’ 

 Ignoring such gazes from them, she raised her voice toward the door. 

 “Come in.” 

 As soon as her words finished, the dining room door opened and a maid who was clearly working in the kitchen entered.

She looked around before seeming to find her and making a relieved expression. 

 Strangely, the people working in the kitchen felt tremendous goodwill toward her.

It seemed to be a result of their negative feelings toward Leila combined with their perception of her as ‘a good person!’ when she had spoken politely to them.

It was really just a trivial matter. An unexpected result. 

 Most of the maids and servants who directly serve the nobles, meaning those working in the main building, feel goodwill toward Leila.

Though many were displeased at first, when the brothers started doting on her, they began approaching Leila warmly thinking they should get on her good side, and they say they truly came to like her kind personality.

At the same time, she grew increasingly distant from them as she didn’t get along well with the brothers and Father. 

 However, the servants who don’t directly deal with nobles thought differently.

They couldn’t view favorably how a commoner woman suddenly entered and quickly rose to noble status, then started ordering them to do this and that.

Since Leila’s orders were mostly delivered through the main building servants, they had no chance to experience her kind personality, so to them it just meant more work. 

 So she decided to make very good use of this situation.