Flora let out a deep sigh. Her prediction that a tiresome situation might occur had come true, so there was no reason to be lenient anymore.

“I’ll make sure to see if you can still smile with that confident face when it’s covered in hideous scars.”

The next moment, Celine’s threatening arm was raised high towards the ceiling.

The thick rope-like leather end slicing through the air and Flora suddenly grabbing and twisting the arms of the maids restraining her happened almost simultaneously.

As the maids lost their balance and were thrown to the floor, the tail end of the whip was firmly caught in Flora’s hand.

It happened with such lightning speed that it took Celine quite some time to understand the whole situation.

Celine and Flora faced off, with a taut line between them.

Celine pulled the whip with all her might, but it didn’t budge an inch, as if it was caught on a rock.

“What… what are you doing now? Can’t you let go of me?”

She had come out firmly determined to teach a lesson, but what was this situation? Celine pulled the rope as hard as she could, her palms chafing.

“Let go! I said let go!”

At that moment, Flora smiled and wrapped the rope around her palm in a big loop. One turn, two turns. Celine’s feet moved helplessly.

As Flora’s hand made big circular motions, Celine’s body was dragged along. Despite trying to resist somehow, Celine was soon pulled right in front of Flora.

Startled by Flora’s sudden change in attitude, Celine’s eyes widened. The fact that she was overwhelmed by the intimidation of a mere low-ranking maid was directly felt through her stiffened body.

As expected, Flora’s sky-blue eyes, which had looked as innocent as an unresponsive doll, were now emitting a terrifyingly intense light.

“You, are you crazy? How dare you…”

“What should I do? I have no intention of submitting to your discipline…”

Flora murmured in a flat tone devoid of any emotion.

She hadn’t reacted to each of their provocations until now simply because it was bothersome. Celine’s confrontation had no more impact on Flora than a stinging mosquito.

Even so, she never had any intention of quietly taking a beating and shedding blood.

“As long as you don’t bother me, I’ll stay quiet here.”

After giving this brief warning, Flora quickly pulled out a dagger from her pocket and cut the whip she was holding. The recoil sent Celine flying in the opposite direction, tumbling over.

Crash.

A sturdy crate filled with grain collided with Celine’s body, making a loud noise.

The maids who had gathered to witness the example began to back away one by one. They all turned pale with fear at the unexpected situation.

Forgetting that they had intended to finish the job quietly, they screamed in terror at the knife being handled like a toy in Flora’s hand.

Regardless, Flora glanced at the maids while opening and closing her palm.

What would be a better, more definitive warning to leave? As Flora pondered this, she noticed the maids looking at her as if she were a strange person.

A familiar gaze mixing fear and contempt.

Realizing that she had overreacted, a dejected sigh escaped her.

Flora strode over, flung the door wide open, and left without looking back.

Chapter 3. Confrontation

Claude stared at the woman in front of him with eyes that said he was looking at something troublesome.

He had long since given up expecting Flora to get along well with the other maids, but even he hadn’t anticipated her causing a disturbance in this way.

“If it had been just a minor quarrel among maids, I wouldn’t have requested to see you at such an early hour, Master.”

The head maid, who had brought Flora along early in the morning, requested to send her away immediately. As she recounted the entire commotion from the previous night as evidence, he looked at Flora with a perplexed expression.

For someone who had caused this trouble, she showed little expression. She remained expressionless throughout, as if she had done nothing wrong, and her posture was far from timid, but looked rather proud.

“Is it true that you hit the maids?”

“There’s no one who would endure having a knife at their throat.”

“…What did the maids do?”

He hadn’t expected her to make excuses, but the answer that came back was enough to surprise Claude. What did she mean by a knife at her throat?

“They were the ones who harmed me first.”

Her face, showing not the slightest sign of remorse, was calm as if just stating facts. Seeing Flora like this, the old lady gave an expression that seemed to say, ‘See?’

“What harm did they do? Did they pull your hair or something? And in return, you brandished a knife?”

Claude sarcastically remarked briefly and examined the palm-sized dagger that the head maid had placed on his desk. It was incomparably small compared to the long swords used by soldiers, but a blade was a blade.

He continued his questions without waiting for an answer.

“Where did this dagger come from in the first place?”

“It’s something I kept for self-defense. I needed something to protect myself.”

He thought her to be a dull woman without emotions, but when Flora asserted her answers to his questions, Claude felt somewhat strange.

A feeling he had never experienced even with his aide who spoke informally to him, something that seemed both willing and yet irritating, scratching at his nerves. Unable to make a judgment, Claude soon shook off that thought.

“She threatened the maids with a knife. I think it would be best to send her away immediately.”

Mrs Melady repeatedly urged to expel her as soon as possible, saying that such a dangerous maid should not be in the ducal residence.

However, as if deaf to these circumstances, Claude’s gaze remained fixed on Flora.

Come to think of it, he noticed something different from last time. One of Flora’s cheeks was particularly red.

Was it because of her hair loosely tied back, or perhaps because of a few strands of hair that had escaped near her ear, almost touching her cheek?

‘With that temperament, she couldn’t have been hit…’

Averting his gaze from the bothersome hair, he first dismissed the head maid with just a nod of his chin and then roughly opened a drawer.

“I’ll be confiscating this knife.”

“It’s just for self-defense.”

Flora visibly flinched and glared at him defiantly. It was those maids who had started the trouble first, and she had done nothing wrong. If she hadn’t used force, she would have been whipped helplessly without even knowing why.

“There’s no one here trying to take your life, so it’s unnecessary worry. And even if a dangerous moment comes, I forbid you from attacking people recklessly.”

“I don’t understand.”

It was as she said. Flora couldn’t agree with even half of what the duke was saying. However, before she could argue each reason, the fact that she might lose even that small knife made Flora anxious.

But the duke finally put the dagger into his desk drawer.

“Regardless of the circumstances, the fact is you threatened the maids.”

“Are you going to punish me?”

He twitched his eyebrow. Seeing Flora’s slightly protruding red lips move, Claude felt somewhat thirsty and lazily stroked his chin.

“I’ll pass judgment.”

Flora, feeling irritated, gave up on making excuses. Even if she told the truth, there was no way the duke would understand her. Wasn’t he the man who had gotten angry even at the head maid yesterday over something trivial?

As she was wondering whether she would be beaten or starved, a response came that made her doubt her ears.

“A pay cut.”

* * *

Even after that, Flora often caused problems.

It had been less than two months since he had brought her in. During that short period, he was curious why incidents involving her kept happening so frequently.

“One servant had two ribs broken, and another had his arm dislocated.”

As Harriet explained the details of the incident, saying it was one thing after another, Claude’s hand naturally rested on his forehead.

This time she had used force against men, and both would need to be bedridden for over a month.

At this moment, he was thinking one thing.

Did he bring her here for nothing?

At first, it was half a whimsical desire to go against the emperor, and then there was the small pleasure of seeing the woman’s reactions.

But now he felt as if he had become a guardian teaching a child. And a stubborn, disobedient child at that.

“What was the reason this time?”

“Well, some servants were cleaning the statue just ahead, and they accidentally dropped a long stick. It almost hit a woman passing by. They apologized, but she suddenly attacked them…”

“She picked a fight over such a trivial reason?”

“Yes. They say her eyes suddenly changed, and they could see killing intent in them.”

Harriet recounted the details he had heard from the head maid, adding some of his own opinions. Feeling a headache coming on, Claude closed his eyes and sank into thought.

She didn’t seem like a woman who would pick fights so rudely, could she be holding a grudge for having her knife confiscated last time? Perhaps his thought that she was making a show of it was correct.

While he was thinking this far, there was a knock on the door twice from outside.