Chapter 22
He didn’t think so deeply when she prepared for the tea party. It was one of the things that noble ladies had to do and could do anyway.
But the things written in this document were a series of things he could not believe at all. Chloe not only knew more about business than any man, but she was also very capable.
Even her abilities and opinions were complementary to Alphonse’s, so the two had a great collaboration.
Kiel, who felt so shocked and surprised that his heart pounded, took his eyes off the papers for a moment. Looking out the window in the distance, he thought about what had happened in the past.
‘I saw that maid do it!’
‘What… I don’t know what you are talking about. I think there is a misunderstanding, Madam. I’m just a kitchen maid.’
Kiel watched the argument between the mistress and a maid with a face full of annoyance.
Kiel wasn’t stupid. He knew that the kitchen maid wasn’t the one responsible for this. He also knew that Chloe was trying to blame someone else for her mistake.
But revealing the truth was mentally exhausting and time-consuming. It was even more so when the other person was someone of a higher status than you.
In the first place, it was not something he could scold or question the mistress. Anyway, it was impossible to recover the damage. Whoever was responsible for this matter did not matter to Kiel.
To be honest, Kiel wanted this to end easily. It wasn’t his style to do unnecessary things. The maid’s resentment of being blamed or something like that didn’t matter.
He expressed his deep condolences to the maid in his heart and then said.
‘Headmaid, take that maid away and punish her.’
‘Understood, butler.’
‘Ma, Madam! This is unfair! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me who did…’
After glancing at the maid being dragged away, Kiel turned to look at Chloe’s face. He was curious about the expression on the face of someone who didn’t want to take responsibility for their sins and instead passed them on to someone else.
Chloe… was trembling. Her face was pale. But there was no trace of regret toward the maid on her face.
‘Her only fear was that she might be held responsible.’
Kiel sneered inwardly. She was both incompetent and cowardly. Wasn’t this the worst kind of woman, worthless except for her looks?
Her endless stupidity and selfishness were nauseating.
‘Well, I’m also selfish.’
He was not the kind of person who felt empathy for such things. If anything, he was the kind of person who hated people like him.
Kiel said emotionlessly.
‘I think… 60 rounds of whipping should be enough.’
Kiel’s motto was to respect only those who were worthy of respect. In his opinion, the examples of ‘people worthy of respect’ and ‘people not worthy of respect’ were very clear. The former was Alphonse. The latter was Chloe.
As a butler in Battenberg, he had a sense of professionalism and made a conscious effort to respect and honor his mistress.
But no matter what he did, he couldn’t do it. No matter how hard he tried to force his lady into the ‘respectable person’ fence in his mind, she would always bounce off. In the end, he gave up on respecting Chloe.
Well, if he just treated her well on the outside, wouldn’t his mission as a professional be done with?
Kiel also knew that the maids and servants did not listen to Chloe’s instructions well, and on the contrary, they harassed her and laughed at her behind her back. However, he deliberately left it alone.
In some way, it was his own fault that the stupid, lazy, and even cowardly mistress was being ridiculed by her servants.
However, Kiel did not participate in such harassment. He was only businesslike and smiled brightly at Chloe as was his habit. Perhaps because of this, Chloe clung to him (as she did to Ellie, a weak-hearted maid), but he only responded insincerely.
It was like that.
At some point, the madam changed. She, who used to be so timid, now looked people in the eye and spoke clearly, and the once dull and incompetent woman not only carried out her duties with as much skill as any noblewoman, but also made tea that was truly delicious.
Moreover, she, who had been so selfish as to make other maids the scapegoats for her own mistakes, now gave everyone a warm and sincere smile. Rumors reached Kiel’s ears that Chloe shared tea leaves with the knights and made refreshing tea for the kitchen maids.
Turning his gaze back to the document he was reading, Kiel thought
‘Has the madam really changed?’
Well, we’ll see.
***
Things were taking an unexpected turn.
The news that none other than Chloe Battenberg, the mistress of the duke’s house, was involved in the business spread like wildfire. These days, whenever the servants gathered, they were all busy talking about it.
“The Madam doing business? Really?”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Won’t it go bankrupt within a month?”
“No, she might be surprisingly good at it. Think back to the tea party last time.”
“That tea party probably was mostly done with the help of the butler.”
“That can’t be true! You all saw how hard Madam worked back then, right?”
A cleaning maid said with confidence.
“To be honest, it’s true that Madam wasn’t very good at her job… but she’s different now.”
“That’s what the kitchen maids all say. Not long ago, the madam gave each of them a cup of cold tea as a thank you for their hard work.”
“What? I can’t believe it!”
“The madam came forward and said that?”
“And it was truly the most delicious drink in the world. Certainly, the madam seems to have changed. She has become more capable, affectionate, and elegant than before.”
“It looks that way to me too.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
At that time when the conversation among the servants was flowing in a direction favorable to Chloe….
“What did you say just now?”
A sharp voice, clearly filled with anger, split the gathered servants apart. When the servants turned around with startled eyes, there was Lady Coleen, approaching them with glaring eyes.
“La, Lady Coleen!”
The servants hastily bowed and greeted her. Lady Coleen rolled her eyes, which were gleaming with anger.
“Who are you? Who are those ill-mannered people who dare to speak carelessly about their masters?”
“…”
The servants, without a word, shut their mouths tightly and lowered their heads. Lady Coleen shouted with a face full of venom.
“You guys? That’s right, you guys are the ones who dared to speak ill of your master.”
Lady Coleen, who was also a noblewoman, spoke in a tone of indignation that did not match her class. The servants, who had their heads bowed, looked as if all the blood had drained from their faces and they were like blank sheets of paper.
However, even while scared, there was one question that came to their mind.
Of course, it was right that speaking carelessly about one’s master was prohibited in principle. However, up until now, the management-level officials, such as the head maid, Lady Coleen, the butler, and the head chamberlain, had secretly pretended not to know that the servants were badmouthing Chloe. It was a kind of unspoken rule.
So the servants were even more arrogant and were wagging their tongues about their mistress everywhere… Lady Coleen’s reaction today was a bit strange. It was the first time she had gotten angry at them for speaking of Chloe.
The servants’ doubts were soon resolved by the words of Lady Coleen that followed.
“I told you this last time, but you completely forgot and dare to say that the madam has changed? I can’t believe that you don’t follow what I say!”
