Before heading to the dining room, she went to the kitchen to hear the full story from the people there.

The kitchen staff said they had been wondering if they should tell their Miss about this and began explaining what happened. 

 “Well…… she suddenly brought Mylene in, pushed her into the kitchen and said ‘Do the dishes here.'”

“Honestly, the kitchen wasn’t that busy then, so we even told Madam Mollin directly that we didn’t need Mylene’s help, but Madam Mollin threatened us saying if we didn’t have enough work, she should create some for us.”

“So we were just going to ask for simple kitchen cleaning, but Madam Mollin wouldn’t leave the kitchen and made Mylene do dishes…… she only left quite a while after Mylene started washing.” 

 She asked one of them if they could testify about this to everyone in the dining room.

Though they all said they would definitely testify, she couldn’t help but return their goodwill.

She gave them expensive snacks she received from the Imperial Palace and promised to assign whoever testified under Mylene with a chance to work in the main building. 

 After all, getting marked by Mollin would be inevitable after testifying, and the kitchen had no one who could protect them from Mollin’s harassment.

So the maid who had worked longest in the kitchen after the chef was recommended by others to testify in the dining room. 

 “That child……” 

 Mollin frowned as if feeling guilty about something.

Father raised his head at the appearance of the new person. 

 “I am Bellua who works in the kitchen. Miss Rowenloa asked about what happened in the kitchen earlier, so I came despite my rudeness to answer about that.” 

 Hearing Bellua’s words, Father slammed the table once with a bang.

Everyone’s startled gazes focused on him. 

 “If you speak falsely, you will not be able to set foot not only in House Masipacius, but anywhere in the Gellions Empire.” 

 Though Bellua bowed her head deeply as if frightened by Father’s words, she soon raised her head again, met Father’s eyes and nodded.

Then she told Father exactly what I had heard in the kitchen. 

 Father asked her again if those words were true, and Bellua nodded.

At the end of her answer, Father sighed.

Given the circumstances he should scold Leila and Mollin, but scolding Leila didn’t seem easy. 

 You scolded me just fine though. 

 Finally, she stood up and spoke to Father. 

 “Father, I don’t think this has anything to do with Leila.” 

 At those words, Father and everyone in the dining room looked at her.

With expressions saying ‘What’s gotten into you?’ 

 “Leila hasn’t been in the mansion very long. Would Leila have known that Mylene would be resting during the time I went to the Imperial Palace?” 

 Hearing those words, the brothers nodded as if it made sense.

Leila looked at her with an extremely touched expression. 

 ……Don’t look at me like that, I’m not doing this for you. 

 “I don’t want this incident to get bigger. The reason I brought this up was because I thought something like this shouldn’t happen again in the future.” 

 Hearing those words, Father went “Hmm……” while looking back and forth between Leila and her before nodding.

It meant he somewhat understood her words. 

 “However, if we let someone who dared challenge noble honor go without punishment, there’s no guarantee this won’t happen again.” 

 At those words, Mollin’s expression began to waver anxiously.

Leila could only hold Mollin’s hand tightly, unable to do anything else.

After all, the clear victims in this incident were her and Mylene. 

 “I want Mollin dismissed from her position as head maid.” 

 Hearing her words, Mollin took rough breaths before collapsing in her seat.

Father made an expression as if something didn’t make sense after hearing her words. 

 “If you just say you don’t want to see Mollin in the mansion anymore, we could throw her out.” 

 Mollin began crying at Father’s words. 

 “Are you sure it’s alright to end this with just dismissing Mollin as head maid?” 

 She nodded. 

 In her previous life, Mollin had also greatly disrespected her once.

Even knowing she was unwell, Mollin didn’t call a doctor because she was busy preparing Leila’s ball dress, causing her to lose consciousness. 

 Even Father who didn’t like her tried to fire Mollin then, saying it disrespected noble honor.

However, Leila cried like a child saying Mollin was like a mother to her and begged Father to change his mind about the firing, and finally Father ended the incident by just dismissing Mollin from her position as head maid. 

 Thus, Leila became known as the kind miss who sobbed and clung to Father to prevent her maid from being fired, while she became branded as the miss who should be avoided since getting involved with her meant getting fired. 

 It was the same this time.

Even if she had insisted on firing Mollin, Father would have ended the punishment with just dismissing Mollin as head maid due to Leila’s tearful persuasion.

There was no need to insist on something that wouldn’t happen while making herself the bad person. 

 “Mollin has worked in our mansion for a long time. If she gets fired from our mansion over this, it will be hard for her to work at other noble houses.” 

 Mollin still glared at her while crying.

Though her expression said ‘Giving medicine after causing illness?’, she ignored it and picked up a handkerchief to approach Mollin.

Then she matched eye level with the collapsed woman and wiped her tears while whispering in her ear quietly enough that only Mollin could hear. 

 “You’d better lose that look while being grateful for my generosity.” 

 Hearing her words, Mollin jerked away in shock, but she just smiled watching her.

Having delivered her message to Mollin somewhat satisfactorily, she smiled and stood up to speak to everyone.

Just removing Mollin from the position of head maid would make her life in the mansion much easier. It was incomprehensible that she had been uncomfortable because of servants in the first place……

And as a bonus, Father would have to consider her opinion when deciding the next head maid.

So she smiled brightly. 

 “I’m sorry. I’ve taken up meal time. Shall we start eating now?” 

 Thus the meal began in silence, and ended in silence. 

 ***

 After the meal, Father called her to his office. 

 During their meal, what happened in the dining room seemed to have quickly spread as rumors.

And according to her plan, the servants’ gazes toward her seemed to have softened a bit. 

 “I heard the Marquis tried to fire Madam Mollin but Miss Rowenloa stopped him?”

“They say she stopped it saying it would be hard for Madam Mollin to start working elsewhere if she was driven out like this.”

“But still, no one compares to Miss Leila right? I heard Miss Leila took the blame for Madam Mollin’s mistake!” 

 Listening to their whispers while heading to Father’s office, she naturally received questions about what happened at the Imperial Palace. 

 “His Highness the Crown Prince said he really wanted to meet with me.”

“……With you?”

“Yes. Because I can speak the ancient demon race’s language.” 

 Father tilted his head as if not understanding her words. 

 “So…… you’re saying you’re studying the ancient demon race’s language?”

“No. I can speak the ancient demon race’s language.”

“……What do you mean you can speak it?” 

 So she approached his bookshelf, unable to make Father understand her words, and began reading a book written in the ancient demon race’s language.

It was the only book written in the ancient demon race’s language even in this household that was wealthy enough to say most things could be bought with money. 

 Then Father looked at her with surprised eyes before getting up from his chair and snatching the book she was holding. 

 “How can you…… this language that many nobles can’t master even with professional teachers studying for years…!” 

 She smiled brightly at such a Father. 

 “Well, I am quite smart.” 

 Looking at Father’s blank face at her answer, she inwardly cheered.

Now Father would never be able to ignore her existence. 

 In her previous life, since she was just a fool who was only good at studying, she had no use to Father and was eventually abandoned by the family, but now it’s different.

A genius girl who was called to the Imperial Palace for her abilities and mastered the ancient demon race’s language that even adult mages struggle with, all by herself.

People’s gazes toward her would clearly be completely different. 

 Father wouldn’t throw away such a good title. 

 She plans to be thoroughly hated by them in this life.

If so, she needed to make it so they could never abandon her even while hating her. 

 She thought the best way for that was to make her excellence known to important people.

And her thoughts hit the mark completely.