I Thought a Villainess' Divorce Would Be Easy

“No, what is this?”

“It can’t be. I’ll bring you some tea.”

As Rosa was about to answer, the head butler blocked her with his body and even pushed her away. The butler seemed to know that the relationship between Rosa and Anthea was not good and was trying to mediate.

Although the head butler took Anthea’s side, he was anxious to keep an eye on Rosa.

As she watched the head butler, who seemed to be nearing retirement, having such a hard time, she was able to guess how unruly Rosa must have been on a regular basis. She felt sorry for the hard-working head butler, but Anthea had no intention of getting along with Rosa.

“Rosa, I don’t want to punish you for having to say hello or for giving me disrespectful looks.”

“Ma, ma’am.”

In fact, Rosa was standing up straight as if she didn’t care, but the head butler seemed embarrassed and even broke into a cold sweat.

“Because I am a duchess who is generous to those under me. If Rosa acts like a chief maid, I have no intention of interfering with Rosa’s authority.”

When Rosa was told that she was a subordinate, she even twitched her eyebrows and expressed her displeasure. There were harsher expressions, but Anthea refrained from saying them in front of the head butler. It was obvious that Rosa was feeling so uncomfortable.

“I guess you want to play hostess, but you are the only one who can threaten my position. So, if you’re here to make some stupid threat, I’m a bit busy so please get out of the way.”

“Rosa! How can you say that to our lady?”

Uh huh. The head of the house was going to hit her like that.

She decided to keep talking.

“Isn’t it supposed to be the most skilled maid who helps the Duchess?”

“I was already planning to send you some candidates for dedicated maids. There is also a daughter from a baronial family, so it will be easy to become friends with her.”

It seemed that Anthea had deliberately saved a daughter of the same level as her original family. Seeing Rosa making every effort to make Anthea even the slightest bit uncomfortable made her even start to gain respect.

“I don’t like other nobles. You know Rosa, they can look at me in a bad way.”

“You can only become a formal hostess if you can handle small things like that on your own.”

“I said I don’t like it. Who would I trust other than Rosa? Rosa knows everything about the dukedom, right?”

Rosa furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at Anthea’s sly refusal and request. Even the head butler was restless and carefully tried to persuade Anthea.

“Madam, since the chief maid has a lot of work to do, I think she will not be able to serve you, Madam.”

“Huh? It’s not enough. There is no way Rosa is lacking. Rather, I’m probably lacking. Right, Rosa?”

Although she knew that the head butler meant that there was not enough time, Anthea pretended not to understand and looked at Rosa. Anthea smiled brightly at Rosa, who twitched her lips as if she wanted to agree right away, but was unable to answer.

“Rosa would do anything for the duke. Isn’t it very important to take care of a mistress who is lacking?”

“If you know that you are lacking, at least learn basic etiquette. I will appoint a suitable daughter as your maid.”

“No. Rosa tell me.”

“I am busy. Even now, time is running out to make sure the mansion is running properly.”

“Then I can follow Rosa around. Where are you going?”

As she approached the bewildered Rosa, she turned around with a hard, displeased look on her face. Anthea slowly followed Rosa and naturally opened her mouth.

“Rosa, does it look like there’s dust on the picture frame here?”

“I will leave that to another maid.”

“I see. Rosa, take your time.

“It’s so fast I can’t keep up with it.”

“It’s okay if you don’t chase me.”

“Rosa is my dedicated maid and she must always be with me. If not I will keep going first and ask the knight to hug me. Then Rosa will come to the Duke again, right? Saying things like ‘She’s a frivolous, light-assed duchess’.”

Rosa’s cheeks were trembling as she frowned to the point where she thought she might scream at any moment. Rosa, barely able to hold herself back by chewing her lip, walked ahead, walking slightly slower than before.

Anthea’s steps, humming after her, were light.

‘I will disturb you no matter what happens today.’

If she bothered her, Rosa would explode.

In the fight between the head maid who has devoted herself to the duchy for several years and the immature duchess who has just married, the servants will naturally take Rosa’s side. The bad rumors about the duchess that would start like that would gradually grow in size as time went by, and that was exactly what Anthea wanted. It was an easy plan because it was simple.

Anthea began to find fault with everything that seemed to her at random.

“Isn’t the hall only used for events?

“Why are there so many people cleaning when they aren’t even using it?”

“A craftsman must always be perfect.”

“Rather than waxing the hallway, it’s nice and warm to put down a carpet in the winter, too.”

“Do you think there’s a store with enough stock to fill the hallways of this large mansion?”

“You can just make it to order. With the Duke’s budget, that shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“You don’t know how hard it is to sweep and dust carpets every day, so you’re trying to take the job lightly.”

“I’m hungry. Don’t you eat snacks? It’s so hard just to walk.”

She scolded her and ran after her, interrupting her mid-sentence. Anthea did not stop interfering with Rosa’s every step. Each time, Rosa responded by saying that it was a duke’s tradition, that it was up to her to manage the employees, and that it was difficult to meddle without knowing anything, but Anthea smiled and continued to say more.

The moment Rosa was about to give the five or six maids who were carrying laundry baskets a new task, Anthea intercepted her first.

“You guys, go to the kitchen and get some snacks.”

“These kids have work to do.

“Have you even listened to what I’ve said so far?”

“Huh. I understand that you are wasting manpower in vain. You need to rest when you need to rest.”

“Our duke family’s system is perfect. Of course, I accomplish the tasks assigned to me in the given time.”

“Huh. Then, starting today, change it to once every two days. You can do the areas in turns. Instead, it would be nice if the employees would have time to rest, right?”

When employees had time to rest, they talked behind their superiors’ backs.

Just a snack, service.

It was clear that the snack time would only be sweet for a short time, but that it would become more difficult as a result because the work of the Duke family, which had been carefully designed, would be disrupted. It’s only for a moment to be happy about snacks. The evaluation of the immature duchess who takes the lead as the head maid will fall sharply. Troubling Rosa, who had evil intentions toward Anthea, was a side pleasure.

“Ma’am, I think it would be better to take a break for today.”

“Your complexion is so bad. Let me hold you on your back.”

Julie and Ellie, who followed in silence all day, showed no signs of fatigue. As expected, Anthea realized that her physical strength was lacking.

Even though it was still early, she desperately wanted to lie down in bed. Anthea, who refused two people who offered to carry her on her back and staggered back to her room because her legs were sore, eventually developed a fever. Just chasing Rosa around had made her legs swollen, so Julie and Ellie took turns massaging them, and the doctor went over to check them out. Fortunately, because it was a mild fever, the fever went down quickly.

Anthea sighed heavily while receiving a massage while lying limply on the soft bed.

‘Then yes. This wretched body has come to the North! There is no way it will get better. I even took some crappy medicine. Isn’t that too much?’

 

I skipped dinner because I was lying down from early in the morning, and some employees stopped by and left me ice water or snacks.

Anthea was taken aback as she felt pity and goodwill at first glance through the crack in the door. She thought she would hate me for meddling and interfering with their work, but instead, her eyes were full of kindness.

‘What is it, guys? Could it be that you were hooked on snacks? Oh, don’t tell me about snacks. No, but we still have to eat something to chat and talk behind our backs. Ha… really… What did I try to do?’

No matter how hard she tried, all she did was follow Rosa around and find fault with her. Still, because of that, her fever rose and she ended up locking herself in her room, which was a disappointing result.

‘I can’t help it.’

Anthea, quickly giving up her heart, fell limp, leaving herself to her bed and the hands of her dedicated maids.

* * *

Fortunately, thanks to their efforts, Anthea regained some of her stamina the next day and quickly got ready to go out.

“I’m going to go get my dress tailored, so hurry up and get ready to go out.”

“Oh, if it’s a dress, how about calling the most famous designer in the estate?”

“That’s later. I want to see the actual dress in person.”

“Ma’am, you couldn’t get up for a long time yesterday too… I’ll ask the designer to bring me the dress.”

“No, I’m going to make an impulse purchase today. Hurry up and get ready.”

She wanted to spend her money extravagantly rather than do something clumsy and bad, so she decided to put it into action right away. Although she failed before, she would somehow spend the money to hold an autograph session today.

Julie and Ellie followed behind, looking at Anthea, who was full of enthusiasm, with concern.

 

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Translator Note:

Next week I won’t be able to release chapters of this story, sorry. See you the week after that!