Was She Originally Like This?
Was she originally like this?
“Where did you come from, a beggar stealing food to the kitchen, huh?”
Hemes approached Esika with a vicious expression, knife in hand.
Esika extended her hand.
Hemes' eyebrows furrowed as Esika caught the knife between her index and middle fingers.
Thinking she was mocking him, Hemes became furious.
“What kind of mouse is making such a fuss...!”
Esika tried to pull the knife from Hemes' hand, but it wouldn't move.
It felt as if it was stuck between two massive rocks.
Hemes moved his eyebrows.
He tried again with more force.
“...Huh?”
The knife didn't budge, even though it was in the hands of a delicate maid.
He didn't know that just a little strength was enough to break it.
“This... Let go of this!”
“Having such a vicious thing in hand, and the way you act is utterly shameless.”
A cold voice flowed from the maid's beautiful lips.
“Even a maid dares!”
Esika looked at the bald chef who was struggling to pull the knife from her hand, and put a little more strength in her hand.
There was a "tang" sound, and the kitchen knife split in half.
Hemes saw the knife pieces falling to the floor, his eyes wide open as he took several steps back.
Fear and shock filled his eyes.
“You... who are you!”
It was already strange that he could casually catch a knife between two fingers, but this sight made it clear she wasn't an ordinary maid.
“Who sent you here? Is it an assassin sent by the Herald? I... I can pay back the debt... just give me a little more time...”
Esika narrowed her eyes.
Hemes must have mistaken her for an assassin trying to get money from her.
Everyone has weaknesses, and she was skilled at seeing through others' weaknesses.
Hemes' weakness was 'money'.
It was one of the easiest to control.
“I am Esika Klaus. How can someone who works in the Duke's kitchen not even recognize my face?”
Hemes was startled by the surname 'Klaus' that came out of Esika's mouth.
After staring at her for a long time, Hemes frowned and asked belatedly.
“Could it be... the Duchess?”
Esika lifted her chin slightly and nodded.
Because of her high-pressure and dangerous atmosphere, she couldn't imagine that she was the Duchess.
But if she was the Duchess, the story would change.
Hemes, who had swept back his hairless head, said to Esika with an expression of great trouble.
“Why did the lady come here? Wearing even the maid uniform.”
Naturally, Hemes underestimated the powerless Duchess.
There was no one among the Duke's servants who didn't harass the Duchess.
If they tried to help her, they would be noticed by the head maid's servants and beaten.
“I came because I needed your help.”
When Hemes heard the word 'help', he let out a snort.
He had no intention of helping a Duchess weaker than a scarecrow.
“Stop saying nonsense and go back quickly. If the head maid finds out that the lady is wandering around, she'll get angry again. And I'm very busy.”
How did she do that technique just now?
Hemes, grumbling and bending down to pick up the fallen knife, Esika took a few steps closer.
“Then...”
And at that moment, something sparkling fell in front of Hemes.
There were more than ten high-quality pearls that she had received from Sella before.
“What do you think? It's not like I don't have time to pick these up because I'm busy.”
Hemes, whose eyes changed as he looked up at her, Esika said.
“I need your kitchen and your help.”
“If that's the case, then I have no choice... .”
Hemes reached out to the fallen pearls and gave a signal.
Ignoring the nonsense of the foolish Duchess who didn't know anything, and picking up the pearls.
“Ah!”
But his hand reaching for the pearls was immediately stepped on by Esika's foot.
And Esika bent her upper body and met eyes with Hemes, whose eyebrows were furrowed.
Hemes, facing Esika's cool eyes, felt his heart drop for a moment.
Earlier, when he caught the knife with two fingers, he thought she had just practiced some technique.
But the Duchess in front of him now...
“Hemes.”
Her eyes were filled with sharp killing intent, and her lips naturally smiled.
It wasn't a cold expression she had made once or twice, and she couldn't imitate it.
When she saw such an expression from the woman who followed the head maid, it gave her goosebumps... but there was a deeper abyss facing her.
“Registering these pearls as stolen goods will be difficult.”
“What? What do you mean by that.”
“You already sold three of my pearls as gambling funds, didn't you?
They are among the high-quality pearls from the Brigate family. And they have very small numbers engraved on them... .”
Cold sweat ran down Hemes' back.
“Tracking who sold the item is possible.”
At those words, Hemes' spine became even colder.
“Lady... why are you doing this to me? You gave them to me as gifts and then...”
“It was not a gift, but currency entrusted to you expecting a reward. But you didn't meet my expectations.”
Hemes felt a sharp pain as if his hand was about to break.
Reward. Sella gave the recipe, and I remember making it roughly and serving it for breakfast.
Sella wasn't a maid with a back, and she was just a maid who served the Duchess. If I complained, she would just ignore me.
“I didn't want trash made with your eyes. I wanted food that produces proper efficacy with accurate measurement and proportion.”
“Du... Duchess...”
“So, you have already stolen my pearls. Moreover.”
She put more strength into her foot stepping on Hemes' hand.
“Being greedy for noble treasures even now, cutting off both wrists is not an exaggeration.”
Cold sweat continued to flow down Hemes' back.
Stealing from nobles results in severe punishment of having wrists cut off.
Previously, he would have believed in the head maid's prestige and denied it, but the changed head maid no longer even dealt with him.
'Was the Duchess originally like this?'
The Duchess he saw briefly earlier was a pure, innocent woman who didn't fit with the Klaus family.
But the woman in front of him, stepping on her foot, emitted a thick killing intent that caused confusion in her memories.
“W, what? I'm sorry. But what exactly do you want from me that you came all the way to the kitchen... .”
In the end, he asked Esika.
Esika spoke with an arrogant expression, licking her lips.
“I am not afraid of the head maid.”
“......M, impossible.”
“Whether it's possible or not is something to be tested. Anyway, if you give me true loyalty...”
When Esika removed her foot from his hand, he covered the stinging hand with the other hand.
Unlike the painful sensation, the voice was sweet like rolling an agate, and also dangerous.
“It will be better to gain more than lose.”
Pearls were rolling around in the place where her hand was moved.
It doesn't take much skill to pick up something abandoned.
“However, if you don't choose anything, cutting off the wrists of a cook who lost his string is not a difficult task for me.”
The ends of her lips were slightly raised in a cruel shape.
***
“Carefully monitor whether Esika's food is coming out properly.”
Leona, who was having a maid polish her nails on the balcony, said to another maid.
The other maid bowed her head in response.
“Yes, I understand. Head maid.”
It is said that Esika's complexion is gradually improving according to the maids' words.
She was supposed to eat only rotten bread, so how could her complexion improve.
It was impossible unless someone pitied her and helped her.
If there was anyone who dared to disobey her orders within the mansion, she wouldn't let them go.
After the maid received the order and left, Leona gave orders to another maid.
“Annie.”
“Yes, head maid. What is your command.”
“Have the musician play a song. Since I recalled an unpleasant face... .”
Leona's fine forehead was furrowed.
“I need to relax my heart with song.”
The maid immediately bowed her head and replied.
“I understand. Head maid.”
The maid went out again.
It was to call the musician who was brought with expensive money recently.
A short while later, a sweet melody began to be heard from below the balcony.
Leona closed her eyes and listened to the music.
The heart that was very irritated because the face of a cheap merchant's daughter who had sneaked into the Duke's house came to mind, the fine melody seemed to blow warm steam.
“Prepare the dress. I need to choose clothes that suit tomorrow's tea time.”
“I understand. Head maid.”
The maid who was polishing her nails answered.
***
Leona's gaze was fixed on the white butterfly on the lake.
Waves rising over the lake, fluttering eyelids, swaying hair.
And a dream that lasted for a very long time.
From the day she first met her in the painful childhood, she had been searching for the back view in her dreams for a long time.
At some point, she didn't know whether she existed in the world or not.
“Crown Prince.”
A subordinate who was assigned to investigate reported.
“I have completed the investigation on Duchess Esika Klaus.”