[CHAPTER 71]
Bertona Aldebaron had not been in a good mood lately.
It was not unusual for her, whose capriciousness and spite were well known in high society, to be in a foul mood, but this time it was particularly severe.
That was because Dianu Ortensa had been doing exceptionally well.
Bertona disliked Dianu.
She had felt that way ever since Dianu was first summoned by Countess Ornin and visited Oak Palace.
The first thing that caught her eye was Dianu’s figure, which could not be concealed even by her plain attire.
Bertona, like most ladies of the Catalos Empire, paid close attention to maintaining her figure, but Dianu’s physique was of a kind that could not be imitated through diet control or expensive corsets.
It would be a lie to say she had not felt a flicker of jealousy.
However, Bertona was neither idle enough nor lacking in confidence to hate someone merely for being beautiful.
If she were, she would never have been able to serve Princess Elpenlira Catalos at such close range.
The real problem was the series of events that unfolded after Dianu forced her way into Oak Palace.
After the death of Sir Edric Loisen, while Elpenlira wandered in grief, the situation of the maids only worsened.
Instead of spending her time accompanying the princess through high society to seek a suitable groom, Bertona wasted her days sorting through the letters that arrived at Oak Palace.
When even the existing maids were being neglected, the idea of appointing a new governess was absurd.
And in reality, Dianu merely loitered about, pretending to wait for Elpenlira in the study.
At her side was Sir Marek Loisen, one of the finest prospective grooms even within the Imperial Palace.
That alone might have been tolerable.
But Bertona was even mocked by Dianu for not knowing the Arasas language.
At that moment, Dianu was promoted in Bertona’s mind from an irritating foreigner to an enemy worthy of revenge.
There had been women like Dianu before.
Though the reasons differed, all of them had earned Bertona’s hatred and paid the price by being ostracized among their peers or publicly humiliated.
But unlike those women, who had been no more than annoying flies buzzing near her ears, Dianu Ortensa was a true calamity.
Because of her, Bertona could not even attend the Founding Anniversary Banquet she had waited an entire year for.
On the day she received her confinement order from Countess Ornin, Bertona clutched the dress she had planned to wear to the banquet and wept uncontrollably.
It was a dress made by pestering her parents and turning the boutique upside down.
She had even lavishly used lace from Arasas that her father claimed to have received as a gift from someone.
She had been meant to be the star of the Founding Anniversary Banquet in that dress.
All of it had been ruined.
By Dianu Ortensa.
While Bertona shut herself away at home, shedding tears, Dianu attended the Founding Anniversary Banquet and left impressions on countless young men.
There were rumors that she had been attacked by a servant during the banquet, but Bertona felt she would rather be stabbed by a blade if only she could have attended the event herself.
So many gentlemen must have flirted with her at the banquet that gifts poured into Oak Palace addressed to Dianu.
That alone was enough to drive Bertona mad with resentment, yet Countess Ornin even assigned Bertona and the other maids to organize those gifts.
I am a maid to the princess, so why do I have to do such menial work, and for that woman of all people?
Though she fumed inwardly, Bertona did as she was told.
Even Bertona Aldebaron, who feared nothing in the world, was afraid of Countess Ornin.
That was not the only thing that grated on her nerves.
Luicilla, who had received the same confinement order as Bertona and had also missed the Founding Anniversary Banquet, began to take Dianu’s side.
The defection of Luicilla, whom she had considered her closest ally, was a shock.
Bertona swallowed her pride and tried to win her back, but Luicilla merely spoke with a look of regret.
“Can’t you tell just by the way Her Highness treats Miss Ortensa?”
“How long do you think Miss Ortensa will remain merely a governess?”
“She will become a noblewoman who gains the trust of Her Highness the Princess, and even His Majesty the Emperor.”
“She will surely marry before we do.”
“There is nothing to lose by getting close to her.”
She even added,
“Miss Ortensa is a generous lady, so even if the first button was fastened wrongly, she will surely forgive you.”
In other words, she was telling Bertona to set aside all the accumulated hostility and flatter Dianu instead.
Bertona had long known that Luicilla was the type to cling wherever it benefited her most, like a bat flitting from place to place.
That was precisely why the betrayal cut even deeper.
To Luicilla, Bertona Aldebaron had become a weaker string than Dianu Ortensa.
To think I would be cast aside for some provincial woman no one in the capital’s social circle has even heard of.
Yet regardless of Bertona’s fury, Luicilla’s prediction proved accurate.
Ganid Vallich, a groom coveted by all, showed interest in Dianu.
An unmarried noble lady had no way to harm a noblewoman already established in society.
Before that hateful woman completely slipped from her grasp, Bertona had to take decisive action.
She spent the entire day racking her brain until she came up with a good plan.
To carry out the plan, she needed to bribe one of the maids attending Dianu.
But it was no easy task.
In particular, Cora, who was treated as Dianu’s close attendant, would not budge no matter how large a sum was offered.
In the end, she managed to make use of a maid named Nellie or perhaps Nella, though even that process was unsavory.
“Lady Dianu is a good person.”
“I cannot do anything that would put her in trouble.”
Trembling as she said this, Nellie, or Nella, was the sixth maid Bertona had attempted to bribe.
With her anger reaching its limit after repeated failures, Bertona finally played her trump card of threats.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you secretly taking the candies placed in the guest rooms, one by one?”
Nellie turned pale and begged, saying she only took them occasionally to bring to her younger siblings, but Bertona was unmoved.
“If you don’t do as I say, I will tell everything to the head maid.”
“If that happens, you will be thrown out without a letter of recommendation, and your entire family will end up on the streets.”
Reluctantly, Nellie agreed to ruin Dianu’s clothes.
For days, Bertona was in a splendid mood as she imagined Dianu reduced to her undergarments in a place where she could not avoid the gaze of high society, especially the gaze of Lord Vallich.
It would be a truly delightful scandal.
She imagined Dianu seated in the grand cathedral’s balcony, so distracted watching for the moment her clothes would be stripped away that she would forget even the music being played.
