This was not because Lily particularly intended to deceive Charlotte, but simply because she was overwhelmed with irrepressible joy. It was a ruthlessly selfish side of her, completely oblivious to the plight of the person right in front of her. Through the mirror, Charlotte watched such a Lily and merely curved her lips slightly.
“By the way, Lily.”
“Yes, My Lady! Please speak!”
“The brooch that the young master of Cosmo gifted me last year.”
As soon as those words were uttered, Lily’s chattering mouth stiffened abruptly. The distorted smile was as vivid as if the feelings she had locked away in her flesh had finally pierced through her skin and seeped out.
However, watching Lily’s expression change, Charlotte continued speaking nonchalantly.
“Two pearls attached to the brooch fell off, and I simply cannot find them. Since they were brought in all the way from the Helonde Empire, they must be quite costly.”
“That, that is…”
“Have you never seen them? Surely you would know.”
Lily, meaning Lily who had stolen the pearls attached to the brooch gifted to Charlotte and already squandered them on drinking money, trembled her lower lip violently.
She knew that Charlotte had changed compared to before, but she had thought that Charlotte still could not have changed all that much from the foolish, naive, and peerlessly stupid image she had always seen. The reason was simple.
By nature, humans are not creatures that change easily.
Even if someone resolves to change starting tomorrow, human nature dictates that by tomorrow afternoon they grow lax, and by evening they completely forget that resolution. No matter how much a person vows to live earnestly, pledging over and over and hardening their resolve, once the table is set, they are the type of person to shout “just this once” and reach straight for the cards.
Such is human nature.
Therefore, she had judged that no matter how much a naive and foolish woman like Charlotte faced the winds of change, it would not last long. Before long, she would cower and return to her original appearance, to her true nature. But looking at Charlotte right now, this very appearance seemed to be her true nature.
The foolish sides she had shown previously were all false, and this sharp appearance, honed like a well-forged blade, was her true self.
“Ah, My Lady.”
With a gulp, Lily instinctively swallowed her dry saliva out of tension and rolled her eyes frantically. Then, in an instant, she rushed over to the front of Charlotte and dropped to her knees.
“My father is ailing. If I do not manage to get the money for his medicine, he will die soon. Is that all? If I am fired from here, I won’t even be able to properly hold a funeral with my father’s corpse waiting! Please, please forgive me just this once. Won’t you?”
The pathetic sight of Lily rubbing her palms together and repeatedly begging for forgiveness looked quite sincere.
Of course, that would only be true if one did not know the fact that Lily was an alcoholic who wallowed in alcohol abuse and ultimately squandered even her own father’s medicine money. However, Charlotte had not the slightest intention of faulting or punishing Lily right now. Lily was simply human.
A thoroughly human person, greedier, more selfish, and less visionary than most others. Therefore, instead of punishing her, Charlotte chose to use her.
“Lily. I have never blamed you.”
Charlotte gently caressed the cheek of Lily, who was still rubbing her palms together, and lowered the ends of her eyebrows.
“You may keep this as well.”
“Ah, My Lady.”
“And think of me every time you look at it. Remember who saved your life, and who truly forgave you. And…”
Pausing for a moment, Charlotte took a jewelry box from the dressing table and placed a sapphire ring right into Lily’s palm.
“How you should act from now on.”
Lily alternately stared at the blue sapphire resting in her palm and Charlotte’s two eyes, which were as beautiful and sparkling as the gemstone. Then, wearing an expression as if she had finally made up her decision, she curled the corners of her mouth into a grin.
“What would you like me to do?”
At the thoroughly calculated answer that clearly delivered her choice, Charlotte smiled seductively and stroked Lily’s cheek once more.
“Find out when Marlene is coming back.”
At last, Charlotte had acquired a proper pawn.
Clatter.
Setting down her teacup slowly with the utmost elegance, Charlotte turned her head to the right.
Unlike the world where winter raged, the inside of the greenhouse was warm and cozy. She gazed at the flowers boasting their freshness and emitting a fragrant scent, as if spring had been transplanted right here. Having nothing to do with the fierce winter wind pounding against the greenhouse glass walls, it felt quite surreal.
“You. What are you thinking?”
At the sharp voice piercing her ears, Charlotte finally turned her gaze to the Duchess sitting opposite her.
Charlotte maintained an unconcerned expression, as if she didn’t understand what the Duchess meant, which seemed to infuriate the Duchess even more as she distorted her face and shouted loudly.
“Just what on earth were you thinking, arbitrarily stealing and wearing Marlene’s dress!”
Watching the Duchess huff and puff as she screamed, Charlotte thought to herself.
Why on earth was I ever afraid of a woman like this?
If anyone were to ask who was the most terrifying person to Charlotte all this time, it was undoubtedly the Duchess. She was the savior who had pulled her out of the mire of the orphanage, but at the same time, she was an abuser who had cast her down into the abyss of violence.
Her beatings had continued steadily for a long time, and because of that, it had become ingrained in Charlotte’s body and mind to the point that one day, just hearing the Duchess’s voice would make her legs go weak and cause her to collapse right where she stood.
Yes. It certainly had been that way.
“Why? Why did you do it? To snatch away what belongs to my child? Daresoever you, trying to covet my child’s place? You of all people?”
A woman who put out a teacup pretending to be refined, yet drank alcohol poured into it instead. A woman from whom the sticky stench of liquor wafted every time she opened her mouth. A woman who looked down on others with a sense of superiority as an aristocrat, yet was more lacking in culture and more vulgar than anyone else.
She wasn’t that frightening anymore.
Charlotte smiled sweetly and parted her lips.
“To show it to Young Lord Cosmo.”
Before the Duchess could add anything further, Charlotte continued speaking first.
“I heard stories of him rolling around with other women, so I couldn’t help it.”
“Wh-What? How dare you use such vulgar language in front of me!”
“Then what should I call it? Should I phrase it more politely by saying he is sharing a bed with other women? Even so, that wouldn’t change the fact that he is a thoroughly filthy man.”
“I am asking you what business it is of yours whether that fellow meets other women or not!”
“Because the more the young lord roams outside, the worse rumors about the ducal family spread.”
The more a person holds nothing but sand in their hands, the more obsessed they become with the wind and waves that created that sand. In the Duchess’s case, that was her honor and reputation.
She wished to be honorable even if it killed her. On the inside, she was rotting and festering to the point where she belonged in a psychiatric hospital, yet she refused to even step outside the estate, obsessed with her reputation out of fear that someone might speak ill of her.
She was that kind of woman.
“Mother.”
Still wearing a smile, Charlotte gently placed her hand on the back of the Duchess’s hand.
“You wouldn’t want to hear people saying that you adopted an innocent, clueless child just to marry her off to a trashy young lord.”
“You!”
“It would be quite frustrating to hear such scandals now, wouldn’t it? Considering how well Mother has maintained everything up until now.”
Eventually, the Duchess’s patience snapped.
Slap!
Charlotte’s head turned to the right. A burning pain surged across her left cheek. It felt as though her skin had been scratched, likely by a fingernail or a ring.
“I’ve been coddling you all this time, and now you are crossing the line! How dare a wretch like you backtalk me step by step right to my face?”
Crash!
Sweeping everything off the table, the Duchess finally lunged at Charlotte.
In an instant, Charlotte’s hair was grabbed, and she was dragged along by the Duchess. Forcing Charlotte to her knees, the Duchess struck Charlotte’s knees down with the heel of her shoe and slapped her across the face once more.
Splatter!
This time, Charlotte knew her mouth had split. She could taste the coppery flavor of blood.
“You wicked little thing! Even if you spent your whole life apologizing and begging on your knees, it wouldn’t be enough, yet you dare show your brazen face in front of me where you have no right!”
The Duchess raised her hand once again. However, she could not bring it down. It was because Charlotte opened her mouth.
“If you hit me anymore.”
Spitting out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva, Charlotte lifted her eyes at an angle.
“You won’t be able to attend tomorrow’s imperial ball with an intact face. Are you really okay with that?”
“This… insolent little thing!”
“If you want to widely broadcast that I was an unloved ugly duckling beaten at home, then by all means, keep hitting me.”
“Aaaah!”