Chapter 12

Because Annie and Laura were my personal ladies-in-waiting, their top priority was attending to me. Unlike maids who could be commoners, ladies-in-waiting were of a higher status, being the daughters of lower-ranking nobles or hired through noble recommendations.

But when I couldn’t find Annie for a moment and went looking for her, she was performing tasks that maids should be doing. The servants who had been disrespectful to me had changed their target and started tormenting Annie instead.

Anger surged up, but I barely managed to suppress it, thinking coldly. This might not be the first time Annie was being harassed. Knowing Annie, she might have been hiding it because she didn’t want to upset me.

“Annie, be honest with me. Have things like this been happening a lot?”

Annie, who had been standing there fidgeting since I caught her, bit her lower lip. Having known each other since we were children, I knew her habits just as she knew mine. Annie would bite her lower lip like that when something unfair happened, or when there was something difficult and awkward to talk about.

“Annie.”

I spoke softly again to calm her down. I gently unclasped her hands from her skirt and held them in my own, patting the back of her hand quietly.

“I know you don’t want to worry me. But if you really care about me, please tell me the truth.”

“Lady Chacha…”

With my gentle coaxing, Annie’s face crumpled. Finally, she began to tell me honestly what had happened.

“Actually, the maids wouldn’t listen to me… At first, I thought they were just uncomfortable because I came from a different household.”

Once she started talking, Annie poured out everything that had happened. My heart ached to see her getting teary, as if she had been through a lot of emotional hardship alone.

“But as time went on, they started ignoring me and not even doing the work they were assigned! They’d clean shoddily, and they were careless with your valuables, Lady Chacha! Look!”

Annie immediately brought over my jewelry box from the vanity. She showed me my favorite light-green peridot necklace, and just as she said, there was a scratch on the gemstone.

“They’d either do what I asked for much later or forget and not do it at all! They’d pretend they didn’t hear me when I spoke to them…”

Annie’s voice, which had been indignant, was now filled with a sense of injustice at the end. I gently hugged Annie, whose shoulders were trembling with frustration, and stroked her back.

“Annie. From now on, you have to tell me about these things right away. Don’t suffer alone, okay?”

“Yes, my lady…”

I was grateful and so sorry for Annie, who had been enduring this alone so as not to hurt my feelings. I gave Annie some time to rest and returned to my room.

Laura was already in the room. She looked at my face and said, surprised, “Lady Chacha! You don’t look well. Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I was about to send Laura away to rest as well but had a sudden thought and spoke.

“Laura. Has anything happened to you recently?”

“Me? What do you mean?”

“…It’s nothing. I want to be alone for a bit, so you should go and rest too, Laura.”

There was no need to ask further. Although I didn’t get a clear answer, the look on her face, which seemed to have no idea what I was even talking about, was easy to read.

‘Is it because she was originally from Eclipse?’

In any case, it was a relief that at least one of them was not being harassed.

Suddenly, a mirror placed in a corner of the room caught my eye. My reflection in the mirror, just as Laura had said, didn’t look well.

“…”

No, I felt like I had always looked this way since coming to the north. I sank my tired body into the plush sofa and rubbed my face.

‘How foolish of me.’

I had anticipated that the servants’ attitude towards me would change, but I hadn’t thought they would go as far as to harass Annie. Maybe things would have been different if I had foreseen it and been more careful.

But I immediately shook my head, dismissing that thought.

‘No. It wouldn’t have been different.’

Even if I had known in advance, there was nothing I could have done for Annie, just as there was nothing I could do now. There was nothing I could do for Annie, even though I knew about it now.

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped me. Thinking about Annie, I wanted to call the servants and scold them right away. But I couldn’t do that at the moment.

‘There’s not enough justification to punish them.’

Considering only the results, the damage I had suffered was minimal. It was too ambiguous to pinpoint and punish them for. At most, it might result in a wage reduction for slacking off.

‘Besides, my standing in the castle is already lacking.’

Since I was also in the master’s bad graces, I had to be as careful as possible and couldn’t cause a fuss over this. Just as Annie hadn’t told me out of care for me, I also cared for Annie, who I had grown up with. But I felt heavy-hearted, as if I couldn’t protect her and was only causing her to suffer unnecessarily because of me.

I stood there for a long time, arms crossed, agonizing over what to do, and then sighed again.

“Is the only option to endure it?”

I couldn’t come to a satisfying conclusion. Exhausted, I ended up forgoing dinner and going to bed early.

***

The next day, I woke up as usual and got ready with Annie’s help.

“My lady, how would you like your hair today?”

“Hmm, just tie it up simply. Something that doesn’t take long.”

“Yes!”

After confiding in me, Annie seemed a little relieved. A smile was on her face as reflected in the mirror. I smiled back at her, but inside, my heart grew heavier for not being able to do anything to help her. This was especially true because I knew Annie was acting more cheerful than usual to make me feel better.

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

It was already time for breakfast. A maid opened the door and wheeled in a tray. I checked my tied-up hair in the mirror once and then moved to the table for my meal.

‘Huh? The maid has changed?’

Now that I looked closely, it wasn’t the maid who usually brought my meals. I looked at the new maid with a questioning gaze. At the same time, I couldn’t help but admire her inwardly.

‘Wow, what a great beauty!’

Her pale skin, characteristic of the north, was beautiful at a glance. Her jet-black hair swayed and shimmered in the light, like a galaxy. It was black hair like Nine’s, but with a completely different charm. Furthermore, she had delicate features, a slender figure, and a tear mole, all of which were uncharacteristic of northerners. It was hard to explain, but she had a charm that captivated the eyes of those around her.

‘Was there a maid like this? If I had seen her, I wouldn’t have forgotten. Did she just get hired?’

At that moment, our eyes met. I gave her a friendly smile to show a sign of goodwill.

“…”

But the maid just gave a curt nod of her head with an insolent attitude.

‘Oh?’

I had a bad feeling, but knowing that I had been overly sensitive recently, I tried to change my mindset.

‘Hmm, maybe she was just recently hired and lacks proper training.’

However, my positive thinking was short-lived. The maid immediately began to look me up and down. She didn’t even try to hide her gaze. I thought maybe she was just curious about my appearance, which was rare in the north, but her attitude was too unpleasant. Her gaze felt more like an appraisal than curiosity.

Pfft.

After she finished looking me over, the maid let out a scoff. I tried to regain my composure and thought about what had just happened.

‘What? Did she just scoff at me?’

Her attitude was so unbelievably rude that I was confused about whether I had really heard that. But Annie’s face showed such blatant disbelief that it seemed I hadn’t misheard. Annie, who had been staring at the maid, met my eyes.

I gave her a slight nod. It was a signal that it was okay for her to do something.

Understanding my intention, Annie immediately confronted the maid.

“Hey, what was that?”

Since her relationship with the castle servants was already strained, she had nothing to lose.

“What? What do you mean?”

The maid looked at Annie with a truly annoying expression and shrugged her shoulders. Then she came right up to me and slammed the tray with my breakfast down, making the plates rattle. At that, Annie’s face became stern, and I couldn’t help but twitch my eyebrow.

“You!”

“If you have nothing more for me to do, I’ll take my leave. The master has a private matter for me to attend to.”

The maid cut Annie off and said only what she wanted to say before turning away sharply. She also didn’t forget to mutter to herself as if to make sure we heard.

“What a disappointment, she’s not even pretty.”

She said that and then left my room with a brazen attitude.