Chapter 105
It seemed she had finally realized it — that she had dared to mention a “fake lady” inside the Imperial Palace itself.
“……H-Hah.”
And along with that, she must have realized that if the Count ever found out about her blunder, he would never forgive her.
“L-Lady, please calm down! Close the door first and let’s talk!”
Mrs. Becker quickly spoke up, clearly conscious of the imperial maids watching nearby.
‘How ridiculous. She’s trying to stop me, not Dolly?’
All Odette had done was open the door — yet Mrs. Becker spoke as though Odette had thrown a tantrum.
‘Oh? So you planned to interfere with me, Mrs. Becker.’
Odette could see the determination in Mrs. Becker’s eyes — a resolve to interfere no matter what.
It looked like she had finally made up her mind not to be used anymore after today’s incident.
‘How troublesome.’
But Mrs. Becker wasn’t important right now.
“Say it proudly, Dolly. You said you had something you wanted to shout to everyone outside?”
Odette smiled at Dolly. The maid was fuming with rage, but that was all — she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
Odette watched her with an inward sneer.
The angrier Dolly became, the smoother Odette’s plan progressed.
‘That girl — every time she felt even slightly humiliated by me, she always retaliated by causing an even bigger problem.’
Among the senior servants, Dolly was the boldest — she loved stirring up trouble behind her master’s back.
Recently, she had calmed down a little after Courtney’s death, but her nature hadn’t changed.
‘For my plan to work, Dolly has to make the same mistake she did in my previous life.’
And for that, Dolly needed to lose her sense of fear again.
‘I’ll have to provoke her properly — make her furious.’
“Dolly? If you can’t bring yourself to say it, shall I say it for you?”
At Odette’s provocation, Dolly’s face went pale. She lowered her head and whispered softly,
“Please close the door, my lady.”
“You must have something to say before that?”
“I’m sorry. Please close the door, my lady.”
Her jaw was tense and protruding — she was grinding her teeth in anger.
“Well done, Dolly.”
Odette patted her bowed head as if praising a dog. A few of the palace maids snickered quietly.
Dolly trembled in humiliation, her whole body shaking — Odette could feel the determination radiating from her. The maid was already planning revenge, determined to get back at Odette somehow.
Because of her own slip of the tongue, she couldn’t even report this to the Count. Dolly must have been burning inside.
Odette looked at her in satisfaction and finally closed the door.
* * *
Dolly, who had been watching me like a hawk with fiery eyes, finally collapsed from exhaustion as midnight approached.
She left Mrs. Becker behind to take turns keeping watch and went to her room.
Smiling faintly at Mrs. Becker, who remained in the chamber, I said,
“You look disappointed. You must’ve really enjoyed seeing Dolly try to torment me, didn’t you?”
All day long, Dolly had found fault with everything I did, making my life miserable.
And each time, Mrs. Becker had looked secretly delighted.
Startled by my words, Mrs. Becker protested,
“Wh-When did I ever look disappointed? That’s just your paranoia, my lady.”
I ignored her sharp tone and gave a command.
“Go rest too, Mrs. Becker. You don’t need to stay up all night beside me. Sleep in the break room and come back before Dolly returns for her shift.”
“No, I’ll follow the rules as usual.”
But she refused, clearly afraid to leave me alone.
‘Looks like she’s still shaken by seeing Father wear that red thread bracelet.’
Well, since things were already like this, I might as well make use of her.
“Then fill the tub with warm water first.”
At my order, Mrs. Becker obediently filled the bathtub and made bubbles.
It seemed she wanted to disrupt my plans for revenge — but she was still too afraid to go against me openly.
‘Pathetic. If she truly wanted to oppose me, she should’ve been ready to lose both hands.’
While being dutifully attended to by Mrs. Becker, I silently called forth the status window in my mind.
‘Open inventory.’
[ Activating inventory! ]
Before my eyes appeared the inventory window — inside were a pistol and silver bullets, neatly stored.
‘Activate vault function.’
As soon as I thought it, a small square on the far left of the inventory began to glow white.
[ Activating vault function… ]
As expected, it worked just like in Danguwon. Even the inventory had the same vault feature.
[ Vault balance: 0 Atasha ]
‘Show me how much cash I can store in the vault.’
[ Calculating cash recognized as owned by Odette… ]
[ Calculation complete! ]
[ Current cash recognized as belonging to “Odette”:
▶ Goetz’s Safe (Location: Wolfgang Pawnshop) — 400,000,000 Atasha
▶ Kleist Bank (Location: Kleist Plaza) — 280,000,000 Atasha
▶ Secret Space in the Mansion (Location: Albrecht Count’s Townhouse) — 50 Atasha, 20 Selene, 15 Cooper ]
The money in Kleist Bank was the accumulated allowance meant for maintaining my noble dignity.
The funds in Goetz’s Safe, however, were what I had secretly embezzled from Ferdinand — seed money from his schemes.
Considering that part of it had been invested in my casino, it meant the Countess’s entire lifetime of hidden funds had ended up in Goetz’s Safe.
I let out a low groan.
‘I thought it would only detect the money in Kleist Bank.’
The status window might be supernatural, but it was still eerie how precisely it recognized my money.
[ Finally. At last, you… ]
Ever since I had once heard those words from it, I had felt that the status window wasn’t just a “system,” but something with its own will.
Still, I couldn’t refuse to use it — not when my survival and revenge depended on it.
‘Can I store the cash from other locations in the vault?’
[ Possible. However, it is not recommended to store money from ▶ Goetz’s Safe or ▶ Kleist Bank. ]
[ If gold suddenly disappears from those locations, it may arouse suspicion. ]
‘Then store the money from the mansion’s secret space in the vault.’
[ Vault balance: 50 Atasha, 20 Selene, 15 Cooper ]
The numbers appeared neatly in the lower-left corner of the inventory window.
‘See? Even the way it gives advice… It’s like it has a will of its own.’
What exactly was this system? I was pondering that when—
Ding!
A new window popped up before my eyes.
[ ♡ Quest Triggered ♡ ]
[ At the Summer Palace’s social gathering, completely eliminate all bad rumors about yourself. ]
[ Duration: 6 days ]
[ Reward: Restoration of the “Reputation” function in the status window ]
[ Penalty: +10 Hate from Johan and Zion each ]
[ Quest automatically accepted. ]
[ You may view details via the “Quest Check” function. ]
I had expected a quest to appear, but still—
‘…Compared to Danguwon, isn’t this one way more unreasonable? The rewards and penalties are completely unbalanced.’
A useless feature like “Reputation” as a reward, yet the penalty increases Johan’s and Zion’s hate by twenty total?
Charlotte’s quest had been:
[ At the Summer Palace’s social scene, raise your reputation higher than Odette’s. ]
[ Reward: +10 Favor each from Johan and Zion ]
[ Penalty: -10 Reputation ]
The balance between reward and penalty was absolute garbage. And since the penalty involved hatred, which could cost me my life, I couldn’t simply ignore it.
Suppressing my irritation, I checked the quest details.
[ Current Bad Reputations (including duplicates):
▶ Vicious Villainess (32 people)
▶ Selfish Purifier (15 people)
▶ Arrogant Flower of High Society (30 people) ]
‘You’ve got to be kidding me…!’
I almost shouted out loud, forgetting Mrs. Becker was still there.
‘There are barely fifty guests on Athena Island! How can there be this many bad rumors about me?!’
This was impossible — I was destined to fail!
My father’s surveillance had only tightened further, making it nearly impossible to move freely.
How was I supposed to erase all that gossip while being trapped in my room?
‘+10 hate each… a total of 20… Do they have any idea how hard I worked to lower it this far?!’
Damn this quest… I sighed in despair, leaning back against the bathtub.
Then — ding! Another notification popped up.
[ A new bad reputation about you has been created. ]
[ ▶ Empty-Headed Shell of a Noble Lady (2 people) ]
[ Source of the rumor: Dolly ]
“…Ha. As if I wasn’t tired enough already.”
At my annoyed voice, Mrs. Becker flinched and began scrubbing me more gently.
‘So instead of sleeping, she’s probably gathered a few people to cry to and gossip with, huh?’
That girl really loved her backbiting. I was about to close the window with a sour face when I noticed something odd.
‘…Wait. There’s intent behind this rumor.’
It specifically targeted my intelligence. That was a different flavor from the usual slander about me.
‘Could it be… Dolly’s trying to drag me into that event? To humiliate me publicly?’
I recalled one of the scheduled activities written on the invitation to Athena Island.
Compared to Dolly’s old tricks from my previous life, it was rather refined — but if my hunch was right…
I smiled.
‘Thanks, Dolly. Because of you…’
I might actually be able to clear this quest.
