Chapter 21: A Tense Atmosphere
“Well, that’s true. They say the master and madam had a love marriage, but something about them still feels… distant.”
As soon as someone took the bait, Rosaline eagerly pushed the narrative forward.
“Maybe the madam never liked him in the first place?”
“No way. Why would she marry him then?”
“The master is a famous knight from the Vandermir Duchy. Even if she divorces him, Madam wouldn’t lose anything…”
Rosaline spoke softly, her voice as smooth as a fox’s tail swaying in the wind.
To some, it sowed hostility.
To others, it planted doubt.
And to a few, it sparked unease.
“So… is she just going to leave us eventually?”
“Who knows? But it’s clear she doesn’t care much about the estate or us.”
Having planted the first crack, Rosaline ended the conversation at just the right moment.
If she pushed too far, it might feel forced.
Instead, she lowered her head, feigning a gloomy expression.
Even after she fell silent, the maids continued murmuring among themselves.
The main topic?
“If Madam is only here temporarily, why should we bother serving her loyally?”
“Perfect. Now, I just need to provoke her—make her widen the crack herself.”
Sitting in the center of the gossiping circle, Rosaline’s eyes gleamed darkly.
The Spilled Tea Incident
Aracila never skipped breakfast—a habit ingrained since childhood.
The Hugo family strictly upheld morning meals.
Even if she had lunch or dinner elsewhere, skipping breakfast was not an option.
Thus, every morning, she dined in the Vandermir estate’s grand dining hall.
As the maids busily moved between the kitchen and the dining area, the incident occurred.
“Kyah! Madam, are you alright?”
Rosaline, while serving tea, spilled a few drops on Aracila’s dress.
The entire room turned toward them.
A shocked Audrey rushed over to check on Aracila, while Rosaline dropped to the floor, trembling.
“I’m so sorry, Madam! Please, forgive me just this once!”
Her body pressed flat against the floor, Rosaline looked terrified—at least, to the others.
But in reality?
She was grinning inside.
Nobles were notoriously harsh over even the smallest mistakes.
And that’s exactly what Rosaline was counting on.
In truth, the spill wasn’t an accident.
She had done it on purpose to anger Aracila.
“Even if it’s my fault, if Madam loses her temper, the maids will instinctively sympathize with me.”
And after the meal?
She planned to shed a few more tears—securing their loyalty and making Aracila look unreasonable.
It would shatter her already fragile reputation.
“It was a mistake! I know I messed up, but please, have mercy on me!”
She bowed her head even lower, over-apologizing in a way that would naturally frustrate Aracila.
“Apologies can be infuriating when they’re overdone.”
She waited eagerly for Aracila to explode.
And then—
Screech.
The chair scraped against the floor as Aracila slowly stood up.
She stepped forward and placed a hand on Rosaline’s shoulder.
“Rosaline, you…”
Her expression was completely unreadable.
Was she mad?
Just as Rosaline braced herself, Aracila spoke.
“You spilled it while sneaking glances at my face, didn’t you?”
“…Pardon?”
What the hell was she talking about?
Aracila’s lips curved mischievously.
Rosaline blinked in confusion.
Instead of scolding her, Madam looked completely unbothered.
“You’ve been staring at me a lot since day one, Rosaline. Just look openly next time. I’m used to it, so I don’t mind.”
With a dramatic sweep, Aracila tucked her lavender hair behind her ear, then helped Rosaline to her feet.
Still dazed, Rosaline stammered.
“B-But…?”
“And since you’re my maid, I won’t even charge you. Feel free to look all you want.”
She smiled sweetly, her expression utterly shameless—but with looks like hers, who could argue?
“Just don’t let it happen again, alright?”
“…Ah, y-yes. Thank you, Madam.”
Rosaline lowered her head in frustration.
This had backfired completely.
Her plan was to be seen as a poor, mistreated servant—not just a clumsy fool.
Instead, Aracila came out looking magnanimous and witty.
“Damn it. This is harder than I thought.”
Standing near the wall, Rosaline bit the inside of her cheek.
If Aracila had just gotten a little mad, she could have escalated things into a real conflict.
But acting so relaxed left Rosaline completely powerless.
Switching Targets
From then on, every attempt to provoke Aracila failed miserably.
No matter what mistake she made, no matter what comment she threw, Aracila never reacted.
If she kept pushing, it would only make her look bad.
“Now what?”
Just as she was rethinking her approach, her gaze landed on Audrey.
“Rosaline, you’ve been making too many mistakes lately. Be more mindful when serving Madam.”
With a stern face, Audrey scolded her before walking away.
Rosaline felt a flash of irritation—but then, an idea struck her.
“This is it.”
The problem?
Aracila was rarely around.
It was hard to spread rumors when the target was barely present.
Even if she talked behind her back, it would just seem like petty gossip.
“But Audrey is here all the time.”
Instead of attacking Aracila directly, she would target her closest maid.
And so, she immediately set her plan into motion.
“Audrey, I’ll handle the cleaning today.”
“Huh? But that’s too much for you alone. Let’s just do it together, Rosaline.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve made a lot of mistakes recently, so I want to make up for it and improve.”
“Oh… Well, if you insist. Just don’t overwork yourself.”
Rosaline flashed an innocent smile, nodded, then hurried off.
As soon as she reached the other maids, her expression darkened, and she let out a heavy sigh.
“Rosaline, where are you going?”
“Ah… To clean the annex.”
“By yourself?”
“Mhm. Audrey told me to do it alone. She said I’ve been making too many mistakes lately, and that Madam is getting annoyed with me…”
The maids’ eyes widened.
Within seconds, they gathered around her.
“Mhm… Audrey told me to do it alone. She said I’ve been making too many mistakes lately, and Madam seems displeased with me.”
At those words, the maids’ eyes widened as they gathered around Rosaline.
“Still, making you clean the entire annex by yourself? Isn’t that too much?”
“What mistakes did you even make? Besides, Madam didn’t seem particularly angry.”
“…Maybe that’s what she meant that day. Remember when she said we should relay things through Audrey?”
In reality, Aracila had merely suggested that the maids could communicate with her through Audrey if needed.
But as time passed, memories blurred.
So, when Rosaline twisted the context, the others unconsciously accepted it as truth.
“Wait… so Madam was actually upset?”
“Seems like it. At least she didn’t scold her publicly. That’s something, I guess.”
“Still… Let’s help you clean!”
“Yeah, we’ll do it together!”
“Really? Thank you, everyone!”
Rosaline pretended to be moved to tears.
All throughout their walk to the annex and even during the cleaning, the maids kept murmuring about how unfair Audrey was.
And when they finished, Rosaline added one final touch.
“Audrey told me to do this alone. If she finds out you helped, she might get mad… So let’s keep it a secret.”
Thanks to that, Audrey remained completely unaware of what Rosaline was doing behind her back.
And this was just the beginning.
Spreading the Narrative
Rosaline took her time, slowly shaping the atmosphere.
She spread rumors that Audrey was using her connection to Aracila to boss the other maids around.
“Audrey asked me to clean the restroom in her place. She said she had to attend to Madam.”
“What? I just saw her slacking off!”
“Apparently, she’s the one who wrote up our duty schedules. Did you see?”
“For real? No wonder she gave herself all the easy tasks. That’s messed up.”
“Girls, Audrey said we shouldn’t invite her next time. Apparently, last time wasn’t fun enough for her.”
“Excuse me? She was laughing the loudest that day! What, is she drawing a line now just because she’s Madam’s personal maid?”
Carefully moving between groups, Rosaline sowed discord.
And of course, people rarely confronted such issues openly.
And if someone did, she quickly intervened.
“Don’t start trouble with Audrey. You know how much Madam cherishes her. You’d only be hurting yourself. Let’s just endure it.”
“This is getting ridiculous! She keeps dumping her work on us while making sure we do all the hard stuff!”
“What can we do? Madam favors her. As long as that doesn’t change, we’re powerless.”
And just like that, Rosaline got the results she wanted.
Before long, negative sentiments against Aracila and Audrey spread through the Vandermir estate.
Audrey found herself isolated among the maids.
Audrey Notices Something Off
Again.
Audrey’s eyes narrowed as she watched the maids scatter the moment she appeared.
This had happened several times already.
At first, she had felt welcomed in the Vandermir household.
But suddenly, the other maids had started treating her with cold indifference.
“Why, though?”
She reflected on her actions, wondering if she had done something wrong.
But no matter how she replayed the past few weeks, nothing stood out.
The maids kept their distance for no reason—forming their own tight-knit circle while shutting her out.
And that wasn’t even the worst part.
Recently, the maids serving Aracila had started making small mistakes.
To anyone else, they might seem accidental.
But to Audrey, they felt deliberate.
And since it wasn’t just one maid but several, it was even harder to call out.
“Hey, she’s here.”
“Let’s go.”
As Audrey arrived at the laundry area, the gathered maids hurried away, just like before.
Audrey’s gaze lingered on one particular maid.
Rosaline.
There was something off about her.
Audrey had felt uneasy about her since the beginning.
Supposedly, the housekeeper had handpicked her to serve Aracila.
Yet, for some reason, the maids closest to Rosaline had an odd attitude toward Madam.
“Hah… but I have no proof. Just a gut feeling.”
Audrey let out a deep sigh, handed over the laundry basket, and turned to leave.
And as soon as she disappeared, the maids rushed back to their original spots.
“Did you see that? She just dropped the basket and walked off! It’s not like we work under her!”
“We were here first. If anything, she should be beneath us!”
In reality, as Aracila’s personal maid, Audrey wasn’t even required to handle menial tasks like laundry.
But the other maids, already biased against her, saw her behavior as arrogance.
Rosaline, who had carefully crafted this resentment, smirked.
“It’s all because Madam dotes on Audrey. Of course, she looks down on us.”
“Madam doesn’t care about anyone—not Master, not us. She only favors the maid she brought from home.”
Slowly, the resentment toward Audrey began shifting toward Aracila.
Even though, in reality, Aracila had never favored Audrey unfairly.
If anything, every noblewoman prioritized the maids from their own household.
That was normal—but Rosaline twisted it into something wrong.
“And yet, we’re supposed to serve her as our Madam?”
“Honestly… I still can’t recognize her as the real lady of the house.”
“Exactly. If we don’t acknowledge her, she’ll never truly be our Mistress. In a way, we decide who holds that title.”
Rosaline filled their heads with nonsense, inflating their egos.
At first, some of the maids had hesitated.
But slowly, they began agreeing with her.
Everything was falling into place, just as Rosaline had planned.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ✧: *. ꕥ .* :✧ﾟ. ───
