Chapter 11
Seeing how the woman’s complexion had changed noticeably after two weeks, she seemed to be eating and living well. Her crisp retorts also seemed more spirited than before.
*’Is she trying to make a point to me now?’*
Setting aside her reputation, perhaps she was deliberately showing off like this because he had given her such menial work as being a maid.
Just as he was thinking that, the Head Maid, who had hurried over at the Duke’s summons, also discovered Flora precariously hanging outside the window and gasped.
But she was experienced enough not to forget that she had to greet the Duke first.
“Master, I heard you called for me.”
“While I was away, it seems maids have taken to doing their cleaning like that.”
At his sarcastic remark, as if telling her to look at that sight if she had eyes, the Head Maid’s face showed clear embarrassment.
“Madame Melady. Did you order this?”
The Duke, who usually used polite speech to the elderly Madame Melady, was brief.
Madame Melady frowned and quickly shook her head.
“How could that be? There seems to have been some mistake.”
“You heard her. Come down immediately.”
Having grasped the situation to some extent with the Head Maid’s appearance, Flora nimbly climbed over the window and entered the office.
Her movements stepping down from the window sill were clean, and her landing on the floor was feather-light. She moved as lightly as a squirrel climbing a tree. However, Claude, who had meant for her to come down via the roof, was once again dumbfounded.
“Didn’t you say it was the Head Maid’s order?”
“Salin directly told me it was the Head Maid’s command.”
Flora answered clearly, with a face that seemed to hold no lie.
The Head Maid, who had wondered if Flora was holding a grudge from being scolded earlier, saw Salin’s face, who led the ostracism, flash before her eyes in that moment.
She immediately grasped the situation. After quickly calculating the severity in her head, she bowed her head.
“It appears my words to another maid were distorted in the transmission. I will be more careful.”
But despite the Head Maid’s acknowledgment, Claude still seemed displeased.
“Improper transmission of orders can cost lives. The Head Maid couldn’t possibly not know that… Am I wrong?”
The Duke, whom she had known since childhood, was a master who would trust her and let it go if she apologized sincerely, but today was different. For some reason, in front of the Duke who was taking the young maid’s side, Madame Melady swallowed her humiliation and bowed her head deeply.
“I apologize for causing you concern. I will ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future.”
Until the summoned Head Maid had endured his reprimand and left, Flora merely blinked her clueless eyes.
The Duke, still strangely frowning, stared intently at her. Just as Flora was about to apologize as well, the Duke was faster.
“Don’t just blindly do everything you’re told. Think first. If an order is unreasonable, you don’t have to follow it. That’s your position now.”
“…Yes.”
Her eyes naturally lowered to the floor. She had worked hard in her own way, but honestly, she found it hard to understand why the Head Maid had been called. It sounded like she was being told she had overstepped her bounds as a maid, and she felt a little deflated.
The Duke, about to tell her to leave, said quietly, almost like a sigh, with a slightly weakened voice.
“Learn some tricks like the other maids, slack off a bit. I’m the only one here who would say anything even if you did.”
Although he had advised her calmly, Claude didn’t think Flora had properly understood what he meant.
Watching her back as she bowed her head and left, he shook his head and walked to the window.
His office was on the fifth floor, and right above was a railing connected to the roof. He had no idea what kind of mindset one had to have to even think of climbing up there.
The truth was, Claude didn’t want to see anyone die in front of him, even after the war. Because it would ultimately lead to bad dreams.
Then, realizing that there was no way she would fall and get hurt from a place like this, Claude groaned low.
“I said something uncharacteristic and useless.”
He chuckled, wondering whom he had been worried about for that brief moment.
—
“So I said it jokingly, but for her to actually do it like that… She did this on purpose to make us look bad, didn’t she?”
“Hey, Salin. Are you okay?”
“Don’t touch me!”
Salin, irritated by the maids’ cautious, concerned glances, covered her slapped cheek with her hand.
The Duke had been unusually angry over Flora cleaning the window in a dangerously precarious position. Seeing a person suddenly appear beyond the fifth-floor window would be startling and unpleasant, so it was understandable, but to Salin, it seemed excessive.
It was as if he was protecting that lowest-ranking maid.
Because of that, the Head Maid, who had become the main culprit in the incident, had just unleashed her anger and left.
*’How dare you use my name like that?’*
Recalling the earlier situation, she gulped down the cold water another maid had brought her. She was on the verge of losing her mind with anger.
*’There’s no generous master who takes a maid’s side. That woman must have slept with him.’*
Her premonition had been correct. Salin, eyes wide, biting her nails fiercely, looked out the window where darkness was falling and lifted the corners of her mouth.
*It would be better to show her directly and clearly.*
After all, for a maid who couldn’t understand words, a beating was the answer.
—
After finishing her work, Flora had a simple dinner and headed to her room.
Even as she walked to the annex where the maids stayed, her head was complicated. She kept feeling strange. She wondered if the Duke had already forgotten who she was.
Maintaining her center at a height of five stories was easier for her than eating cold porridge.
Her riding skills were also excellent, and she was good at climbing trees. She had often slept in trees at night in preparation for enemy surprise attacks.
Yet he suggested she might fall and get seriously hurt. It didn’t make sense.
Her train of thought was abruptly scattered by someone blocking her path. It was Salin, with a few other maids.
“Look at me. I need to talk to you.”
“I don’t.”
Just as Flora was about to walk past, both her arms were suddenly grabbed. Salin, bringing her face right up to Flora’s bewildered face, flashed her eyes darkly.
“You think you have the right to refuse? If I say I need to see you, you come.”
Tiredness washed over her already. After a moment’s thought, recalling that today’s incident was due to Salin’s lies, Flora changed her mind and followed.
They arrived at a small storage room in the annex where the maids lived.
Those who had said they just wanted to talk briefly, as expected, turned cold once there were no witnesses.
“Confess your fault with your own mouth. Why you were dragged here.”
“It was you, Salin, who called me saying you needed to talk, not me.”
Without a trace of fear, Flora stood tall and faced Salin directly. Her words were remarkably composed, considering she was just a maid who had done all sorts of odd jobs in the military unit.
For a moment, Salin was speechless. She swallowed hard and regained her composure.
“I am here in the capacity to discipline you.”
“Salin, who is not my master, has no right to say anything to me.”
“…What?”
As Flora refuted her logically, Salin was momentarily flustered. Hadn’t this woman always bowed her head, knowing her place, no matter how much she was nagged?
Then, concluding that Flora had become arrogant because of today’s incident, Salin’s index finger poked Flora’s shoulder unpleasantly.
“That is precisely your problem. There are clearly rules here, and you are the main culprit disturbing the order we have established.”
While it was the Head Maid’s duty to manage the staff, the master had never brought anyone here before. Since everyone knew this, Flora’s existence not only caused division but also stirred jealousy.
“You don’t seem convinced, so I’m going to teach you.”
At Salin’s signal, the other maids grabbed Flora’s arms from both sides.
Flora, calmly looking at the hands touching her body, was about to shake them off immediately when the Head Maid’s face appeared through the slightly open back door.
Having stopped by because the light was on as she passed, she glanced at Flora, clearly surrounded by the maids, and said, “Go easy,” before leaving. Flora’s brow furrowed in confusion.
*Ah, so now you finally seem to understand the situation?*
Usually, a Head Maid in a noble household turns a blind eye to maids exerting unspoken territorialism. Because they old-fashionedly think that this naturally determines the hierarchy among the staff and allows them to serve the master better.
Salin, crossing her arms, lifted her chin high and lowered her gaze.
“So, this is the discipline I, your senior, must rightly show you.”
*Smack!*
Her slapped cheek stung. She had been hit somewhere wrong; her lip split, and the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth.
It was a pain she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Flora opened and closed her mouth slightly. Though this wasn’t even worth being called painful, it felt unfamiliar because it had been so long.
The maids restraining Flora’s limbs were startled by the sudden slap and rolled their eyes. Salin, with a delighted expression, sneered.
“Does it hurt? You’re getting hurt because you don’t listen to me.”
Usually, after this much, other maids would tremble and burst into tears. Salin had no doubt that soon tears like chicken droppings would fall from that pretty face.
“Yes. It hurts.”
But Flora, speaking lightly, didn’t look hurt at all. Rather, seeing the corners of her mouth slightly lifted as if she was somewhat pleased, Salin felt a chill run down her back.
“But I don’t understand why I should be the one getting hit.”
Flora smiled faintly. A strange light shone in her blue eyes, which usually only looked vague.
*She smiled?* At her expression, tinged with mockery, Salin finally exploded.
“Bring it!”
“Uh… Salin.”
The maids, frightened, called Salin hesitantly, but she, already enraged, had lost all reason.
To be mocked by a woman who had only ever dealt with men on the battlefield. For that one reason alone, the pride she had enjoyed until now cracked and shattered.
“Bring it! Bring it right now!”
Salin shouted, possessed, to bring the whip that was no longer used.
She hated her to the point of madness. The way she held her head high in front of her, despite being a maid who just used her body. The way she acted as if she were a noble lady.
What she hated most was her eyes, which remained clear even with that attitude that acted as if everything was trivial.
Among the maids who were exchanging glances, one, unable to withstand Salin’s fury, brought a long whip. Salin snatched it in an instant and waved it in front of Flora’s face.
“It’s a whip used for maids who commit grave offenses. Exactly for maids like you.”
