“I, I really didn’t mean to!”
“Yes, you didn’t mean to intercept the Duke’s letter. You only meant to steal Lirel’s weakness from my hands. Right?”
“Yes, yes! I was just told to find the letter!”
In a panic, Juna couldn’t even deny that she was Lirel’s spy.
Selina watched the bewildered Juna, then pointed the corner of the letter up like a sword and placed it around her neck.
Juna froze as if a real blade was on her neck.
“Actually, I knew it for a long time. That you are a spy sent by Lirel.”
“….!”
“Do you know how long I waited for a moment like this to happen? You highly recommended Lirel’s tea party, and you deliberately put on the dress incorrectly. It was a sight to behold.”
“Th, th, th, th, that…!”
“Yes, I guess you did what you were told. How will you be? Unless you’re really mean enough to kill her, there’s no way you can frame Irelle with your own will and put her in a corner, right?”
Whether it was true or not was irrelevant. It doesn’t change that Juna is involved in all of that.
“R-rig, right. I just do what I say.”
“So, what did Lirel get you to do?”
Juna closed her mouth, realizing that saying this could blow her neck away. But whether Juna’s neck will be blown away or not was none of Selina’s business.
“Are you more afraid to die at the hands of Lirel and not at the hands of the Duke?”
No matter how, Kalcion is scarier than Lirel. Still, Selina turned to Juna, who shut her mouth one more time, and threw away the last card, which she didn’t want to take out until the end.
“It sounds like the only thing you can do is pay off interest with the money you get from Lirel every month.”
“Gasp!”
“You are a slave for life. Debtors, once attached, cannot come off so easily.”
Juna, who was trembling, finally couldn’t overcome her fear and collapsed to the floor.
Selina looked down at Juna with cold eyes.
The day she confirmed Juna’s link with Lirel, Selina immediately requested a background investigation of Juna.
The answer that came to her was a spectacle. She worked as Lirel’s maid, lavishing on selling stolen jewelry, and she was in debt so much that she didn’t have even enough. It was only because of luxury.
She then was caught putting her hand on Lirel’s thing. She thought she would be beaten and thrown in jail, but she was ordered to do what was told rather than to pay money, and she was immediately put into the Renbird faimly.
Just in time for Rosalyn to start using her hands, a stupid maid like Juna gets caught up. It, too, would have been a delight. The time came together so well.
In any case, there was no room for sympathy for Juna. It was all a result of her actions.
Knowing that Selina knew everything about her, Juna excused herself with Lirel instead of grabbing onto herself.
“I really don’t know anything! I recommended the tea party, dressed, and just did what I was told!”
“Is it nothing really? When you first came to the capital, didn’t you do what you were told to go to which store?”
“Th, that…”
It’s as if she has already expressed her affirmation as she muttered
“I want to settle things peacefully with words if possible. Just brush it off. Or, how many times do I have to call the debtors for you to be able to speak?”
Selina was not an ordinary person in the first place. She was one to really do it. Even if she didn’t go up using Kalcion, she could crush her.
Juna, who was completely crushed, opened her mouth in resignation.
“What you said is correct… The shop, the tea party, the dress.”
“Why?”
“I really don’t know why! It’s true.”
It didn’t sound like a lie to see her tears flowing while putting her hands together and begging.
“Then what were you planning to do next?”
It’s easy to tell what happened in the past, but it’s not easy to divulge what’s going to happen. Her trembling lips opened as Selina waited for her.
“I would have taken you and the men to the meeting place so that it would be a natural meeting.”
“Ha! How amazing. Where were you going to take me?”
“I was only told to make sure to come to this hunting contest. The maids also follow the hunting contest, so I’ll deliver the details there…”
Juna hesitated and sighed.
The invitation to the hunting contest hasn’t arrived yet. A maid who gets all the news in the world faster than the duke. She couldn’t even laugh.
“Did you do these things to Irell too?”
“Yes…”
“You were the one who drove Irell to get involved with men, but you cursed at me like a crazy person?”
Selina’s voice rose.
“Yes, it was too much. I took her around, but if she’s going to become a Duchess, she should have to be careful. If someone says they like it, she’ll take it right away. For real. Caring about this. It’s pathetic.”
A sigh escaped.
That’s what happens when one doesn’t have anywhere to lean on. Selina knew very well because she had her greenhorn days with enemies all around her too. At that time, she felt how loud every word that she heard from around her was.
She clings to anyone who likes her, and she shudders for fear that the affection will grow cold. She doesn’t even have time to guess what kind of person the other person was. Because the only thing that matters is the fact that they give her love.
She used that desperate feeling to isolate and insult.
“You are a really bad person.”
Selina even cursed her own feelings.
“Did you enjoy driving me to the brink and seeing me hanging on the edge of the cliff? Do you feel like laughing at that?”
“I was wrong.”
Selina couldn’t stand her anger and looked up at the ceiling, breathing in hot breaths. Selina was even more annoyed, thinking that she would have to look further and not only say that she was wrong.
“Someone died because of you. Are you thinking of doing it again?”
“If I don’t do it, I will die too, what should I do?”
Eventually, Juna screamed and burst into tears.
Juna must have suffered by being driven by the debtors, but it was still not enough to buy sympathy. Selina couldn’t have the same sympathy for the person driven by luxury, or the one that was driven just because she was there.
She thought she wanted to hit her right now, but she still had work to do for Juna.
“Here.”
Selina put out a letter, which she was holding in front of Juna.
“Yes? What, what about this?”
Selina waved the letter into Juna’s hand, who was crouching and unable to accept the letter.
“Take it. That way you’ll be able to keep eating from both sides.”
“Ah…”
That meant becoming a double spy. Juna took the letter with trembling hands. She had no choice. She had to unconditionally.
“Don’t even think about running away. Even if you run away, do you think I can’t find you? I found your debt.”
“I, I won’t run away.”
“Don’t even think about reporting it to Lirel. I don’t know what Lirel has promised you, but will she be kind to an obsolete maid? Think about it.”
Juna’s eyes widened. She would have considered speaking to Lirel if Selina hadn’t spoken first.
But when she heard it, Selina was right. Lirel was not such a friendly master.
“At least I wasn’t involved in the death of anyone. Shall we see?”
Selina said with a smile. She looks like the villainess she promised to Kalcion from the very beginning. It seemed like it could be a nightmare for everyone involved in this now.
* * *
As Juna said, the invitation to the hunting contest came. The organizer was the Crown Prince.
“Is the Crown Prince holding a hunting contest?”
“He used to hold it often because he liked hunting.”
“Have you been there?”
“I’ve never seen a sword break or beasts cross the mountain range every time a hunting contest was held.”
In the end, it sounds like he was never there.
“Even if you don’t want to go, why don’t you go at least once?”
“For things to happen, once is enough. Wouldn’t it be too dangerous for me to hold a weapon next to him?”
“…Ah.”
In addition to Kalcion’s dangerous heart, hunting contests are the perfect environment to be framed.
An arrow that is accidentally shot away or a sword that is unintentionally swung can be charged as murdering a royal family. Knowing this, Kalcion avoided the situation of having to raise his weapon by the Crown Prince’s side as much as possible.
“But this time I have to go. It could be that he was aiming at me.”
It was clear that there was something in the hunting contest, as she saw that Juna was trying to get her to participate in the hunting contest.
“It’s good to find out before you go.”
If it wasn’t for the hunting contest, it would be work just to find a chance to meet the Crown Prince again.
Unlike an ordinary noble, the Crown Prince is not someone they can meet just by visiting. It is difficult to expect a chance to meet unexpectedly somewhere.
To participate was an unconditional decision.
“Well…”
However, unlike his head, Kalcion didn’t seem to follow his heart. Selina lay on his knees in the unpleasant silence and looked into his face.
“You don’t seem to like it very much.”
“I don’t like it. It’s literally a very dangerous place. Accidents can happen at any time, even if it is not aimed at anyone.”
Selina smiled. It doesn’t seem like he was worried about Selina’s safety because it was such a decisive factor in his matter.
There was a gap in Kalcion’s heart, where his humanity seemed to have been sealed in the seabed and coated with steel.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶