Chapter 46
The next day.
Lia worked hard, trying to decode the letters hidden in the correspondence.
But it wasn’t easy.
At least the ledgers were familiar from her previous world, so she could spot problems and solve them easily—but decrypting codes was different.
Maybe she would need a book for help.
She didn’t know if there was a book about this or if it would explain how to decode the letters, but it was worth checking.
So, Lia went to the library, got a book on code-breaking, and returned to her office. But something felt off.
“Laila.”
“Yes.”
Her personal maid, Laila, who had returned after a day’s rest, answered Lia’s call.
“Did you touch my desk?”
“No, Ma’am. You said never to touch your desk, so I didn’t even clean that part.”
Lia glanced at Laila. She didn’t seem to be lying.
Still, someone had definitely touched her desk. The items on top were slightly out of place.
At a glance, it looked the same, but Lia could tell the positions had changed.
She wasn’t obsessed with cleanliness, but she liked things perfectly organized. That was why she had told Laila not to touch her desk.
“Then… did someone come into my office while I was at the library?”
Laila hesitated at Lia’s question.
“Actually… I wasn’t sure, because I stepped away for a moment. At least, no one came while I was there.”
Even a personal maid couldn’t stay in one room 24 hours a day. Lia understood that.
But one thing was certain: someone had entered her office and touched her desk without permission.
To see what had been disturbed or checked, Lia carefully examined her desk. The neatly stacked documents were a little disordered.
‘Did they touch the documents? But why?’
Lia checked the papers, worried they might have been tampered with. But nothing seemed altered. It looked like someone had simply searched through them for something.
‘Wait… searched through the documents for something?’
Since they were rifling through the papers, what they were looking for was probably among them. And since nothing was missing… the letters?
The ones she had locked securely in the drawer under her desk.
‘They must have noticed.’
Freya, or the Marquis of Sarontien.
One of them must have realized that she had been checking their letters.
How they knew was unclear, but that didn’t matter. The important thing was that it could become dangerous.
What could be hidden in those letters that someone would risk entering her office in broad daylight to steal them? Lia realized that the hidden contents were definitely not trivial.
Now she needed to check the letters faster, to catch them before they could make a move.
Then Lia remembered something strange from yesterday.
Laila had been sick, and a different maid had taken her place for the day.
“Laila, you were sick yesterday?”
“…Ah? Yes.”
Laila looked a little surprised that Lia even knew, then nodded obediently.
“How did you get sick? Did I push you too hard?”
Of course, Lia knew she hadn’t overworked her. It was a trap to find out something.
“No! That’s impossible!”
“Really?”
“I’m not sure myself… I was completely fine before.”
Laila looked puzzled, as if she couldn’t understand it either.
“Why did that maid take Laila’s place yesterday?”
“Well… I was groaning from being sick, and Shira came over and said she would take over for me…”
Laila glanced at Lia, worried this might be a problem.
From her answer, Lia realized there was something about that maid. Maybe that maid was how the Marquis or Freya had learned she was checking their letters.
The maid must have reported it. Even briefly, she had looked at Lia’s desk.
Lia hadn’t planned to personally manage the maids, but now she had to organize them.
At least, she had to deal with the maid who replaced Laila yesterday.
She didn’t know how many of the Marquis’s or Freya’s agents worked in the palace, but she needed to keep them far away from herself.
Watching her actions and passing messages for them had to be stopped.
