Chapter 29

The next day, I had made up my mind. I finished my morning work, had lunch with Adel, and then left my office. Just like with Adel, I thought I would try to get closer to Roana. So, as soon as the afternoon came, I was about to charge into her room.

“Um, I’m sorry. The young lady hasn’t gotten up yet…”

The door to Roana’s room was tightly closed, and only her close attendant, Vivi, was guarding it with a look of anxiety. She looked like she was about to cry as she saw me approaching.

‘Well, I kind of expected that.’

It wasn’t surprising that Roana was sleeping until noon. Even if she was a knight with a regular life in the past, she was just an alcoholic troublemaker now. But unlike me, who quickly understood the situation, Annie looked bewildered.

“Then why don’t you just go in and wake her up?”

‘Hmm, that’s a good point.’

“Tha, that’s…”

‘But that’s how you get yourself killed.’

I let out a bitter laugh as I remembered my father, who was an alcoholic in my previous life. He would also throw a tantrum if I woke him up when he was drunk and asleep.

‘Roana is probably similar.’

Vivi, who was fidgeting in front of the door and looked terrified, looked pitiful, like my past self. I motioned for Annie to step back and patted Vivi on the shoulder.

“It’s okay.”

“Lady Chacha…”

My show of understanding made her eyes brim with tears.

But, unfortunately for her, what I did next shattered the sentiment instantly.

Slam!

“Lady Roana! How about a cup of tea?”

I threw open the door to Roana’s room before Vivi could stop me. It wasn’t a polite thing for a noble to do, but I did it because I knew that even if I asked for permission first, I wouldn’t get it.

“You, you shouldn’t be doing this, Lady Chacha!”

Vivi was flustered and followed me immediately as I opened the door and walked in confidently. I could feel her fidgeting right behind me.

“Lady Roana.”

As I got closer to the bed, the bulging blanket flinched. I opened my mouth again.

“Lady Roana. Please wake up.”

The blanket wiggled a lot, and soon Roana’s face was revealed. Roana, expressing her low mood with her whole body, slowly got up. Her expression was full of annoyance.

“…Damn it.”

As soon as she woke up, she spewed a vulgar curse that was not befitting a noble. Roana threw off the blanket and grabbed her head as if she had a hangover.

“Ugh.”

She was moaning in pain from a headache and walked sluggishly in front of me with her clothes still messy.

“Who are you?”

Roana, who was standing crookedly and looking down at me with her tall stature, reeked of alcohol. She was so much like my father from my previous life, whose face I could barely remember now.

I calmly read her eyes. If she was a young lady who was used to social circles, it would have been difficult to read her because she would be good at controlling her expression, eyes, and gestures, but Roana was far from that kind of noble lady’s life.

The emotions she couldn’t hide in her eyes were clearly contempt, anger, and annoyance.

Roana was truly looking at me with the same eyes as my father from my previous life. The fear that was imprinted in me slowly crept up, but I managed to swallow that fear and clenched my hands. Pretending to be okay and smiling was one of the things I had been good at since then.

“Did you sleep well? The sun is already high in the sky, so wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to get up and have a meal?”

“Get lost.”

Roana had been treating me this way from the start. So I thought she was just an unfriendly person who treated others poorly. She always picked fights, and because of that, accidents would happen.

‘But…’

I looked at Vivi. Vivi was a close attendant who had been serving Roana for a long time. I saw Vivi often after I started managing the household, but she had never appeared with a bruise or a scratch. Even though she was serving someone as violent as Roana.

Even in this situation, Roana didn’t even send a sharp glance, let alone get angry, at Vivi who had let me in. Instead, there was no emotion in her eyes as she scanned her. Not just Vivi, but even Annie.

This meant that Roana wasn’t so broken that she would lash out at just anyone indiscriminately.

‘I expected that.’

And how much she disliked me.

I had already guessed what she had heard about me from the hostility she had shown so far. There was no need to be shaken by a fact I had already guessed. I smiled as brightly as possible, remembering my original purpose.

“What do you think about having tea together after you eat?”

“I said get lost!”

She shouted as if she was dumbfounded and once again ordered me to leave in a cold voice.

“La-Lady Chacha…!”

Vivi’s voice was filled with fear as she tried to stop me. But I stood firm and faced Roana.

‘If I was going to back down easily, I wouldn’t have started in the first place.’

When it seemed like I wasn’t going to back down obediently, Roana picked up a bottle of alcohol that was rolling near the bed. Then she popped the cork stopper with her mouth.

“…”

The bottle wasn’t empty? No, more than that, how long had she been up to be drinking straight from the bottle already? Roana drank the alcohol as if it were water.

“Ugh!”

Then she scrunched up her face, which was flushed with alcohol, and threw the bottle she was holding towards me.

“Are you not leaving?!”

Crash!

“Ahh!”

Vivi, who must not have expected her to throw a fit at the Duchess, screamed in surprise.

“What’s going on!”

At Vivi’s scream, two knights who were patrolling the castle and a few servants rushed over.

“Lady Chacha, are you alright?”

“…Annie.”

I was fine. Annie had instantly stepped forward, blocked the space between me and Roana, and hugged me to protect me.

“I’m fine. Are you?”

“I’m fine too, Lady Chacha. No shards hit me.”

I looked down, and the alcohol was staining the floor and Annie’s skirt red like blood. Fortunately, no one seemed to have been hurt by the broken shards.

“Still not leaving?”

Even after doing something so dangerous, Roana picked up another bottle of alcohol that was rolling nearby. Instead of feeling scared in this threatening situation, my stomach was boiling with anger. But it seemed difficult to stop Roana right away. The first time might have been a warning, but I didn’t know how she would throw the second one.

Regardless of my purpose, people’s safety was important. The knights knew they had to stop her, but they didn’t know what to do because they couldn’t treat Roana, a member of the Duke’s family, carelessly. The servants’ faces were pale as a sheet, afraid that something bigger would happen. If I really got hurt here, things would get even bigger just as they thought.

I quickly said.

“Yes, I understand, Lady Roana. I’ll go now, so please drink that as it is.”

I raised both hands to show that I had no intention of approaching and slowly backed away. Vivi took that opportunity to carefully try to take the bottle from Roana, and I gave a knowing glance to the knights before taking Annie and leaving for the hallway.

Roana’s rough voice was faintly heard from inside the closed door. It seemed like those who remained inside would have a hard time trying to calm her down.

“Sigh…”

Leaving the faint commotion behind, a deep sigh escaped me. Something seemed to be welling up inside me. It was a mix of indignation, injustice, frustration, and many other emotions, and in the end, this was what I thought.

‘Alright. Let’s see who wins!’

I became even more determined and began to devise ways to stick to Roana. It was Roana’s misfortune that her opponent was as stubborn as Helena.

***

“Lady Roana, would you like to go for a walk?”

“Is that vodka again today? I don’t really like it because it’s too strong! Do people here drink that much?”

“It’s not good for your health to drink like that. How about trying something fragrant? Just have one cup of tea with me.”

“Are you still not going to bed? If you drink all that and don’t sleep now, you’ll be suffering from a hangover tomorrow, you know?”

“Did you hear that, Lady Roana? Huh? I didn’t even say anything yet, and you’re just leaving!”

“Lady Roana~! I won’t bother you, so let’s just talk a little~!”

No matter how coldly Roana chased me away and how rudely she acted, I persistently went to where she was. As I chased her relentlessly, Roana, who had initially threatened to kick me out, seemed to think she had run into a crazy person and started avoiding me.

‘But that’s not going to happen.’

Roana looked disgusted, as if she didn’t know how I found her every time, but it was all thanks to the Duke’s servants.

“Lady Roana? She often sleeps in an empty room on the first floor at this time. She might be there.”

“I just saw her heading to the liquor cellar!”

“Please, keep it a secret that I told you. Lady Roana just…”

The people who had witnessed Adel’s change were now sending me a look of expectation and secretly reporting Roana’s location to me. They weren’t saying it with words, but their eyes were already saying this.

‘You can do it!’

Even though I thought it was strange that I got along so well with them in a strange way, I gratefully used the information to chase after Roana. It would be a lie to say that this was not tiring, but it was also rewarding.

Since I was chasing her all day, there was a positive side effect of finding and stopping Roana before she caused trouble.

And after about a week of chasing her like that, a furious Roana finally yelled at me.

“Just leave me alone! Damn it! Don’t you have any conscience or guts?!”