Those Who Do Not Forget Grace (2)
I let out a low hum.
Their skill at hiding stolen goods was sloppy.
I shrugged and snatched the long, dangling necklace chain.
I hadn’t wasted my time just to find something like this.
I turned lightly on my heel.
All that remained now was the desk.
This must be it.
As I rummaged through the desk, I noticed something odd.
What’s this?
The four desk drawers on either side were all shut tightly with no visible gaps. All except for one.
The top-right drawer protruded ever so slightly compared to the others, as if something behind it was catching.
I pulled the protruding drawer open and reached inside.
Just as I expected, something was lodged in the empty space behind the drawer.
Found it.
A satisfied smile curved my lips as I pulled the object free.
It was a rather thick notebook bound in black leather.
Inside were pages crammed with names and numbers.
It was a ledger.
“Well, well.”
Looking at the densely packed figures, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I thought only their hiding technique was pathetic, but even their sleight of hand is amateurish.”
I had already suspected as much, and now I had physical evidence. It was settled.
I tapped the documents lightly while scanning the head maid’s office.
“As expected, when someone possesses things beyond their station, it always shows.”
The bookshelves and display cabinets were filled with expensive ornaments and rare books—items far too costly to purchase on a head maid’s salary.
“Evidence collection is complete. Time to go.”
I tore out several pages from the notebook and slipped them into my pocket.
Now it was time to return the favor I had received.
“Where on earth did it go?”
Distress was written all over the head maid of the Third Prince’s Palace.
Something that must not disappear had vanished.
The ledger that recorded the source of every coin she had pocketed over the years.
Specifically, the five most crucial pages.
Those exact five pages had disappeared without a trace.
They were both her ambition and her lifeline.
She could neither lose them nor allow them to fall into anyone else’s hands.
“No, it has to be here. It must be here!”
Cold sweat trickled down the head maid’s forehead.
She flipped each desk drawer upside down, then swept every book off the shelves.
“Why isn’t it here—!”
Her shrill scream echoed through the room.
“H-Head Maid!”
“I told you not to enter without knocking!”
“Eek!”
Thud!
The book the head maid had hurled in irritation clattered to the floor.
“Oh dear.”
A woman stood behind the knight who had blocked the flying book.
It was none other than Countess Paylin Katrina, known in high society as the Flower of the Social World.
“No matter how angry you are, you must maintain the dignity befitting a noble, Head Maid.”
Why is she here?
For a moment, the head maid’s eyes filled with terror.
She had once offered this woman her sincere loyalty, but that time had passed.
From the beginning, their connection had been nothing more than a bridge to reach the Second Consort.
Once she gained the status to speak directly with the Second Consort, they had stopped communicating entirely.
So why had this woman come to see her in person?
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Head Maid?”
“C-Countess, I greet you.”
Meanwhile, Countess Paylin’s scarlet eyes blazed with fury.
Yet her lips remained curved in a perfect smile—truly befitting the Flower of the Social World.
“What are you searching for so desperately? Won’t you tell me as well?”
“I… I lost an important document and was looking for it…”
“Is that so? Surely the important document you lost isn’t this, is it?”
The head maid, who had been staring at her own feet, slowly lifted her gaze at the ominous feeling.
Between Paylin’s pale, slender fingers fluttered several sheets of paper.
They were the missing pages from the secret ledger she had been searching for so frantically.
“H-How did you…!”
The head maid’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
Paylin’s lips curled up at one corner as she watched the woman’s reaction.
“A very righteous maid sent them to me anonymously.”
What? A maid sent them?
The head maid’s pupils trembled violently with shock.
She was overwhelmed by betrayal and confusion.
“Head Maid, you really should have managed your subordinates better.”
Paylin clicked her tongue and scanned the contents of the documents.
100 crates of carrots, 100 crates of onions, 200 sacks of beans, 50 sacks of turnips.
“Yes, of course a palace with only twenty maids would need a hundred crates of carrots every single day. Isn’t that right?”
At Paylin’s pointed remark, the head maid’s face flushed bright red.
“But what I’m most curious about is this part.”
The countess pointed to one item on the list.
“Why is there an entry for three hundred gold set aside as a return gift for the Katrina County?”
All color drained from the head maid’s flushed face.
“I don’t recall doing anything that would warrant receiving a return gift from you, Head Maid.”
Paylin’s voice grew cold.
“You’re not about to tell me that this cheap necklace I received for my birthday is worth three hundred gold, are you?”
She pulled a pearl necklace from her bosom and hurled it to the floor.
The broken string scattered pearls in every direction.
Watching the scene, the head maid trembled from head to toe.
Paylin slowly approached the terrified woman, one deliberate step at a time.
“And three hundred gold every year, at that. Was the last gift I received from you three years ago?”
She roughly grabbed the head maid’s chin and forced it upward.
The countess’s aura changed in an instant.
“You thieving bitch.”
The countess’s beautiful face twisted like a vengeful demon.
“I pulled a wench who was nothing but a country baron’s errand girl into the imperial palace, and you dare stab me in the back?”
“N-No, that’s not— I never meant to—!”
“Did you really think a thing like you could take my place?”
“T-That’s not what I—”
“Shut your mouth.”
She cut the head maid off sharply.
“Yes, I suppose a lowly creature like you felt like you’d risen in status just because you got to exchange words with Her Highness the Second Consort.”
Paylin shoved the head maid’s chin away as if brushing off something filthy.
The head maid’s legs gave out, and she collapsed on the spot.
“You dare tarnish my name with your pathetic thievery? You ungrateful bitch.”
Paylin glared down at her with eyes full of contempt.
“Ungrateful bitches deserve punishment. I’ll decide what kind of punishment later.”
Her gaze was ice-cold.
“So for the time being, return to your hometown. If I see your face again, that neck of yours won’t stay attached.”
“M-My lady! Please wait! My lady!”
The head maid clutched the hem of the countess’s dress as she tried to leave and cried out.
“It wasn’t me, my lady! There must be some misunderstanding! I didn’t write that ledger!”
“Do you think I wouldn’t recognize your handwriting, you bitch?”
But Paylin simply shook her off and continued walking.
“My lady—!”
The head maid tried to cling to her again, but the Katrina family’s escort knight immediately blocked her.
Paylin stared down at the head maid kneeling before her and spoke once more.
“You’d better leave this palace on your own feet as soon as possible, Head Maid.”
“Countess, please, not that—!”
“Why? Can’t bear the thought of returning to that filthy gutter life now?”
The head maid bit her lip.
The memory of her own reality had resurfaced.
Her husband, who spent every day drinking and with women, would beat her whenever he felt like it.
All because he was nothing more than a rural baron, and she had received the empty title of baroness.
The head maid hung her head and clenched her fists tightly.
She had sworn loyalty to this woman, ready to lick the soles of her feet if necessary, just to escape that place.
But now it was all meaningless.
It was an opportunity she herself had thrown away, yet the head maid never realized that truth.
All she felt was resentment and fury that her plan had crumbled to nothing.
“If you don’t leave on your own, you’ll suffer something far worse.”
Paylin spoke to the head maid with a smile on her face.
“It wasn’t a position you earned with your own power anyway, so don’t cling to it.”
“My lady, please…!”
“Or perhaps you need to lose all four limbs for embezzling imperial funds before you come to your senses?”
She tore the ledger to shreds right in front of the trembling head maid.
“You should be grateful you haven’t ended up in even worse shape.”
The moment the countess turned to leave, the head maid’s eyes met someone standing in the doorway.
It was her. The new nanny, Rachel Brown.
Rachel was watching the head maid with a perfectly calm expression, as if she were merely observing a fire across the river.
Just then, the countess, who was stepping out the door, greeted Rachel.
“Thank you for the kind guidance, Lady Brown.”
“Safe travels, my lady.”
Rachel bowed deeply and respectfully to the countess. Once the woman had disappeared, she straightened up.
She gazed indifferently at the head maid sitting crumpled in the middle of the office.
Of all people, she had to see me like this.
As the head maid lowered her face, burning with humiliation—
“Why did you do it?”
At the cool, flat voice, the head maid doubted her own ears.
She slowly raised her head.
The nanny, Rachel, was looking down at her with cold eyes.
“You said lying was wrong, didn’t you?”
The head maid stared blankly at Rachel.
In that moment, she saw it clearly.
The mocking smile playing at the nanny’s lips.
With a dazed expression, the head maid staggered to her feet.
It was certain.
She had no reason, no evidence, yet she knew.
The misfortune that had befallen her was undoubtedly the work of the woman standing before her.