Chapter : 7
When she looked toward the sound, she saw a wooden storage box rolling on the floor.
It had been dropped so hard that the joints were warped.
“What on earth…!”
If the box was damaged this badly, then the music-box jewelry case inside must be even worse.
Rosetta’s face drained of color.
At that moment, someone let out a little gasp— Oh my.
“I’m so sorry. I slipped while trying to move the water bowl.”
It was that maid.
The same maid who had broken a cup in the dining room.
“I’m sorry. You’ll forgive me, won’t you?”
The corners of her lips curled up as she smiled. Rosetta was dumbfounded.
She did that on purpose, didn’t she?
Rosetta looked toward Mrs. Cryill in disbelief, but the woman was staring at her pocket watch.
A clear sign she had no intention of intervening.
The head housekeeper is pretending she didn’t witness her subordinate’s rudeness right in front of her? She’s really set on this.
You avoid filth not because you fear it, but because it’s filthy. Rosetta swallowed a sigh and asked:
“What’s your name?”
“…Pardon?”
“I asked for your name.”
“…Yuri Laurent.”
“Miss Laurent, is it.”
Smiling sweetly, Rosetta grabbed the handle of the water tray on the vanity.
— Splash!
“Kyaaa!”
Water soaked the floor and Yuri Laurent. In an instant, she looked like a drenched rat, her face turning bright red.
Clatter!
“Oh dear.”
Rosetta looked straight at the flushed Yuri Laurent and, making a show of shaking her hand, said:
“Just as you said, Miss Laurent—it really is easy to slip.”
“……”
“Hurry and clean it up. Ah, and don’t let anyone else touch it.”
With Rosetta smiling at her, Yuri Laurent’s body trembled with fury.
How… how can she be this vulgar…!
Rike is a god.
A living god of Solarium.
Anyone chosen as Rike’s partner should be absolutely flawless. Any member of Solarium would agree.
If she were a princess, or at least a marquis’s daughter, that might have somewhat befit his glory.
But that woman—Rosetta Fabineux—was just a count’s daughter.
And on top of that, she dragged around all sorts of rumors like a string of tags, yet now she was sitting at Rike’s side.
She doesn’t even know her place!
Yuri Laurent clenched her fists and snapped in a quivering voice:
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Hm?”
“You did it on purpose! Otherwise, how would it land perfectly on me like that?!”
“Hm?”
Rosetta’s feigned ignorance made Yuri’s face redden further.
Rosetta chuckled and picked up the half-ruined wooden box.
“That’s quite an interesting accusation. Do you have any proof I did it on purpose?”
“Well, I also did it on purp—!”
Realizing what she was about to say, Yuri Laurent hurriedly shut her mouth.
She’d nearly confessed it was she who had intentionally broken something. That would ruin her plan to put Rosetta in her place.
Rosetta spoke to the gritting Yuri Laurent with a look of disappointment.
“So you’re admitting you intentionally damaged my belongings?”
“…No? I don’t know where that thing was rolling around before it got broken—how can you insist it’s my fault?”
Well, well.
She looked Rosetta straight in the eyes and claimed she didn’t know “where that thing had been rolling around.”
“Ha.”
Rosetta gave a short laugh and looked toward Mrs. Cryill.
“How exactly have you been managing your subordinates, Mrs. Cryill?”
“……”
“Your maid’s manners are absolutely atrocious.”
At Rosetta’s scolding tone, Mrs. Cryill tightened her grip on her pocket watch.
So she’s not a sheltered greenhouse flower after all… her temper is something else.
Mrs. Cryill and Yuri Laurent were related by marriage. She knew better than anyone how sly Yuri was.
Yuri had pushed around even long-serving Solarium staff.
Mrs. Cryill had thought Rosetta would be crushed easily by that cunning girl.
“Answer me, Mrs. Cryill.”
Rosetta pressed the silent woman again.
“Aren’t the servants under your care as housekeeper?”
“……”
Stung by the accusation that she wasn’t managing properly, Mrs. Cryill bit her lip. No one had ever reprimanded her like this.
“Madam.”
Rosetta urged her to answer. Mrs. Cryill squeezed her eyes shut, then reached her hand toward Yuri Laurent, who was still kneeling on the floor.
“Get up, Miss Laurent.”
“Auntie…”
Yuri grasped her hand with a pitiful expression, laughing inwardly.
Of course. My aunt would never abandon me.
Her aunt had always been her reliable backing. As Yuri rose with that pitiful expression—
— Smack! —
Her head jerked to the side.
“……!”
Clutching her cheek, Yuri stammered in disbelief:
“How… how could you hit me?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“A-Auntie!”
— Smack! —
“How dare you commit such disgrace in front of me?”
“Kyaa!”
Mrs. Cryill struck the other cheek as well. Yuri collapsed to the floor—and noticed the bedroom door was open.
“…Ah.”
Sol Rike stood there, smiling pleasantly. With a bright smile, he spoke in a sing-song tone:
“I finish a nice little battle with some annoying old men… and it seems another battle’s happening here too?”
His bluish-gray eyes gleamed coldly.
“……”
“……”
No one dared speak.
With everyone glancing at one another, Sol Rike asked, irritation creeping into his voice:
“Why is no one answering me?”
That morning’s breakfast meeting with the elders had lasted four hours.
Why had he married without informing the council? Why the Fabineux family, of all people—a count’s house fallen from central power? How could he take as in-laws a family of no benefit to Iglesia, and so on and so forth.
If he’d stayed longer, they might’ve dragged him to a late luncheon as well, so he’d left abruptly.
“Did everyone smear honey on their tongues? I asked what’s going on.”
He was smiling, but no one could miss how displeased he was.
Mrs. Cryill; immediately fell to her knees.
“It’s nothing serious, Rike. It’s just… Lady Valéry didn’t seem to like the young maid and suddenly splashed her with water and hit her.”
“Huh?”
Rosetta let out a short laugh.
She was the one who slapped the girl, she had left out the maid’s wrongdoing entirely, and she blamed only Rosetta.
He won’t believe that nonsense… right?
When she glanced at Sol, he asked in a flat tone:
“Is that true?”
Rosetta’s chest tightened.
Right. He’s forgotten me.
The man who had once risked his life with her no longer existed.
Biting her lower lip, Rosetta hugged the wooden box. Sol’s bluish-gray eyes narrowed at the sight of its obvious damage.
“That girl broke something precious to me, and I was so startled I spilled the water.”
“Something precious?”
“It holds my mother’s keepsake.”
Thinking of her late mother, Rosetta’s eyes grew moist.
Yuri Laurent, still looking like a drowned rat, stared at Rosetta with her jaw dropped.
“That’s not true, Rike!”
Yuri dropped to the floor in a desperate bow.
“She soaked me even though I apologized! That wo— I mean, Lady Valéry splashed me on purpose!”
“Hm.”
“Rike, I’m innocent!”
“I see. You must feel wronged.”
Sol Rike nodded sympathetically while meeting the maid’s eyes. Her cheeks flushed.
It was her first time seeing him this close. Blushing at her beautiful master, her expression softened—Sol’s eyes curved even more gently.
“Isn’t it strange, though?”
“…Pardon?”
Sol said, sounding puzzled:
“I distinctly heard you say you didn’t know where she ‘rolled in’ from.”
Yuri wanted to protest that she hadn’t said it that badly—but couldn’t utter a word.
“So that means you’re criticizing my choice, saying I have no eye for people, right?”
He was still smiling. Yuri’s face turned pale as she shook her head.
“N-no! Never!”
“I don’t know when people started thinking they could talk back to my decisions.”
Sol murmured coldly. Mrs. Cryill quickly interjected.
“I’ll take care of it.”
At her signal, the maids moved quickly to hold Yuri down.
“N-no! Let go! Do you know what I went through to get here…! Auntie? Auntie! Please, Auntie, help me—!”
Mrs. Cryill ignored Yuri’s cries as she was dragged away.
“I’m sorry, Rike.”
She bowed deeply, nearly pressing her forehead to the floor.
End Of Chapter : 07
