They began dividing roles, as if they were very familiar with them.
“You. Go to the Duke.”
“Yes!”
“We’ll go check on Miss Ariadeline!”
“Got it!”
Several maids grabbed their skirts and rushed up the stairs. They had to stop Ariadeline before she hurt herself again.
As they sprinted to the top-floor room, they saw one maid sitting hesitantly in front of the door. She was deathly pale as she shouted.
“Mistress! Please don’t move!”
She was so flustered that she called Ariadeline “Mistress.” The other servants, noticing the maid’s unusual reaction, cautiously peered into the room one by one.
Their faces turned equally pale blue.
“Stay right there!”
Ariadeline’s room was filled with shards of glass from who knows where. It looked like she had broken every glass object in the room.
“Miss Ariadeline!”
Blood-stained straw dolls were scattered everywhere. In the midst of them stood Ariadeline, barefoot. She held a piece of paper that said,
[Don’t come closer. You’ll get hurt too. Fetch the Duke.]
“What should we do?”
“Bring a broom!”
The maids looked at Ariadeline helplessly. Her palms were clearly covered in the blood that stained the dolls.
Ariadeline, as always, innocently widened her eyes. That alone was proof that she wasn’t in her right mind.
[Don’t, don’t come closer. You’ll be cursed, too.]
They ignored the hurriedly passed note. This wasn’t the first time such an incident had occurred.
At first, they were frightened, but they soon realized most of Ariadeline’s actions were relatively harmless.
The maids gradually became weary of her frequent mishaps.
“We need to clean this up…….”
One maid bent down and carefully moved a large glass shard aside.
Others began picking up the scattered glass pieces one by one.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, a maid exclaimed irritably. She had cut her palm on a glass shard. The maids looked at her in surprise.
“Eloi, are you okay?”
“Ugh, really!”
The maid involuntarily expressed frustration at the pain radiating from her palm. She sat down and examined her hand closely.
A small shadow loomed over her head. Startled, she looked up.
“Mistress!”
Ariadeline had approached unnoticed, blood trickling from her feet, pierced by glass shards scattered around. Her footprints were marked with deep stains of blood.
Ariadeline looked perplexed as she inspected the maid’s wound with a concerned expression.
“Mistress, your foot, your foot!”
Ariadeline seemed unconcerned about her own injuries and approached the maid, fidgeting anxiously.
The maids were too stunned to speak, their lips quivering, when Ariadeline started gesturing.
She was pointing towards the main building. Mouthing the words, ‘The healer, the healer.’
Is this the time to worry about that?
While the maids were too shocked to speak, a low, irritated voice emerged from behind.
“You’ve caused another accident.”
“Oh, Duke!”
The maids looked at him as if they had encountered a savior.
The Duke had a weary expression, indicating he neither understood nor wanted to understand Ariadeline’s erratic behavior.
Carlotian swiftly scooped up Ariadeline, who was standing unperturbed on the shards of glass.
Ariadeline, seemingly aware of the injured maid, pointed towards her as if indicating that she needed to be treated.
“You… Hah, nevermind.”
Carlothian looked at her foot. Small glass shards were embedded in her foot, causing blood to trickle down.
“You come with me.”
“Oh, yes, yes!”
Behind him was the maid with an injured hand. Ariadeline continued to gaze at the maid following behind. Her concerned eyes didn’t leave the maid’s hand.
“No, Miss Ariadeline. I’m fine.” The maid said, lowering her head.
She had momentarily expressed irritation at her injury but now felt guilty seeing Ariadeline’s concern.
Not that the mentally unstable woman would understand her thoughts.
Unaware of the maid’s inner turmoil, Ariadeline clung to Carlothian, trying to keep an eye on the maid’s wound.
“Stay still.”
Ariadeline shook her head.
“Tsk.”
Carlothian clicked his tongue, knowing Ariadeline wouldn’t listen to him anyway.
The three eventually reached where the healer was located, and Ariadeline, once again, fussed over the maid.
“Madam, no… Miss Ariadeline’s wound is deeper!”
Despite the maid’s plea, Ariadeline stubbornly insisted that the maid must be treated first.
Ariadeline showed no signs of giving in, so Carlothian gestured to the maid. The maid hesitantly showed her wound to the healer.
“It’s quite a deep cut.”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing…”
The maid was more concerned about the wounds on Ariadeline’s feet, which were still dripping blood.
After treating the maid’s injuries, the healer examined Ariadeline’s wounds. Frowning slightly, he retrieved tweezers from a desk drawer.
“There are glass shards embedded, so I’ll need to remove those first.”
Carlothian frowned, then sat Ariadeline down on the bed in the healer’s room. Ariadeline gripped tightly onto Carlothian’s arm.
Each time the tweezers extracted a glass shard, Ariadeline flinched. Carlothian sighed as he watched.
It’s not like she can’t feel pain, so why does she keep doing this?
He couldn’t understand why she showed concern for others’ wounds while ignoring her own.
He let Ariadeline cling to his arm as he observed her treatment.
ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚
Ouch! It hurts!
Once again today, I swallowed back tears as I looked at the glass shards being removed one by one.
‘What more do I have to do?’
After that bloody incident, I had been busily trying to deceive Carlothian.
Creating geometric patterns and digging in the garden, my nails were all turned over.
Then I covered the walls with bloody writing. I became anemic.
Finally, today! I created a cursed doll using straw and made a mess of the floor with glass shards and blood!
But hurting others wasn’t part of the plan. Damn it.
I looked at the collection of ominous symbols I’d picked up from somewhere, but Carlothian gave me his usual blank look and clicked his tongue.
‘Is there really no other way?’
To get Carlothian to actively try to kill me, I would need black magic. Feeling a stinging sensation, I pondered deeply.
“It’s all done.” The healer, who had just finished removing all the glass shards, spoke.
“You’ve done well.”
“No, it’s Miss Ariadeline who I’m worried about. She’s always getting hurt like this…”
At those words, I sheepishly turned my head. Today, because of me, the maid got hurt, and hearing the healer say that made me feel like a complete burden.
In fact, the servants had refilled the garden I had dug up and repainted the walls I had stained with blood.
‘Wait, what? I’ve really been a burden, haven’t I?’
That realization brought me to my senses. Should I change direction?
‘Should I change course to avoid being a burden to the servants’
However, no matter how hard I thought, I kept coming to the conclusion that the scale needed to be bigger for Carlothian to even glance at it once.
‘Maybe I should lay low for a while.’
If the servants resent me, they might not give me proper meals. They already seem to really dislike me.
Whenever I sneak out of my room and wander around, the servants’ gazes feel burning on my back.
‘Ah, so that’s why they’re glaring at me so much—it’s because I’ve been a nuisance after all.’
I didn’t want to make a mess every time. Now that I’m a sinner and not a mistress, I’m sure I must be a huge bother. Feeling dejected, I slumped down.
“Phew…”
Seeing me like that, Carlothian asked.
“Is this the end of your mishaps today?”
‘Well, if you kill me, it’ll all be over, won’t it?’
I showed him the paper I’d shown him every time I caused an accident.
[Kill me.]
And he ignored it, as always.
“Should I tie you in your room?”
No way! How frustrating!
I’m already bored to death with nothing to do right now. If they tie me up, I’ll really go crazy from boredom.
As I slunk back cautiously, he looked at me with a pitying gaze.
“Then just stay quietly.”
“…….”
I immediately feigned indifference. Carlothian snorted dismissively, as if he had expected as much.
“Well, then I’ll go clean Miss Ariadeline’s room.”
‘Oh, right, the glass shards!’
I belatedly remembered and grabbed her sleeve. Then I started gesturing wildly to show that I would take care of it.
I hoped this would ease her anger. But the maid was surprised and refused.
“No! It’s okay. What if you hurt yourself again?”
The maid disappeared in a flash. She seemed quite uncomfortable.
I sighed deeply to myself and left the healer’s room in a daze.
Carlothian followed me out and said,
“The servants and I can’t focus on our work because of all this.”
“…….”
Wow, hearing it directly like this is shocking. So why don’t you just kill me and be done with it?
As I stared blankly at the floor without answering, Carlothian had nothing more to say.
He went back to his office, and I walked barefoot back to the annex.
As I returned to my room, the clean space welcomed me as if nothing had happened. At this rate, the servants will really…
I’m starting to feel bad about it…
‘Since guests are coming tomorrow, please, please! Just stay quiet. Okay?’
Suddenly, I remembered a maid who earnestly said this to me last night.
‘Yeah, guests are coming tomorrow, so I should stay quiet.’
Operation ‘be quiet’ for a while. Quiet!
ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚
And I’m a woman of few words!
But since they’re busy because of the guests, ‘the plan’ can be executed!
I held my breath and waited in front of the door. As far as I remember, it’s time for the maids guarding the door to change shifts.
3.
2.
1.
It’s time!
Click.
I opened the door and cautiously peeked out.
‘Is anyone there?’
*whistle* 🧍🧎♂️🙇♂️