Episode 4
The maid standing nearby was so startled that she muttered without thinking.
“What? Why is she so skilled?”
Then she quickly covered her mouth, shocked by her own words.
‘Of course I’m used to serving tea.’
Before I returned, I had worked as a maid in the imperial palace.
Back then, I had handled all kinds of high-quality teas.
I measured out the exact amount of tea leaves, poured hot water into the warmed teapot, and then poured the tea at exactly the right time.
A beautiful reddish tea filled the porcelain cup.
“Huh? We didn’t even give her an hourglass…”
I heard one of the maids mutter in confusion.
‘Even without that, I can tell by feel!’
The tea I brewed had been praised even in the imperial palace.
I hated giving something that good to someone like Tiseriel.
‘But avoiding having hot tea thrown in my face comes first.’
I stepped back politely.
“It’s done, my lady.”
“….”
The irritation on Tiseriel’s face deepened.
At first, she probably hadn’t planned to actually drink it.
But the rich fragrance and ruby-colored tea were too appealing to ignore.
In my previous life, even the royal I served had praised my tea highly.
When Tiseriel took a sip, her eyes widened.
“!”
The hand holding the teacup trembled slightly.
She was clearly conflicted.
Originally, she had probably planned to use “you ruined the tea” as an excuse to throw the hot tea at me.
‘Looks like she doesn’t want to waste it.’
Everyone looked surprised when Tiseriel, instead of pouring the tea over my head the moment she touched the cup, kept drinking it.
In the end, she drank all the tea I had brewed.
Then she told me to brew another pot, and she drank that too.
She didn’t even offer a taste to the people around her.
But she still didn’t say a single word of praise—not that it was good, not that I had done well.
‘I knew it. I wasn’t expecting praise anyway.’
Actually, hearing something like that from her would have made me feel worse.
Then the order I had been waiting for finally came out of Tiseriel’s mouth.
“You. Tomorrow, serve me at the tea party.”
“What? But that’s supposed to be our job—”
“Just keep her beside me and have her brew tea.”
That was basically proof that she had really liked the tea I made.
“Yes, my lady.”
Tiseriel stared at me with the corner of her mouth twisted, then suddenly said,
“…You may go now.”
What was this? She was ending the torment here? That didn’t sound like Tiseriel.
When I lifted my head, our eyes met.
Her dark blue eyes looked down at me with a mocking smile.
“Oh, and since tomorrow evening’s tea party will be held in the sunroom, clean every window there until they shine like mirrors. Once you’re done, you may go to your room and rest.”
“….”
“And don’t forget to wake up early and get ready. You have to serve at the tea party tomorrow.”
The sunroom was made of hundreds of glass windows.
Even staying up all night wouldn’t be enough to clean them all.
There it was.
Tiseriel’s filthy personality hadn’t gone anywhere.
Right now, I was Tiseriel’s toy.
No one would protect me.
And the only way out was death.
But—
‘Even better!’
With my head deeply lowered, I smiled in satisfaction.
This was exactly why I had deliberately shown off my tea-making skills.
‘At last, you’re taking me somewhere in front of a lot of people!’
I had been waiting for this moment for the past month.
If Tiseriel hadn’t ordered it herself, I would have had to sneak into the sunroom somehow.
This was much better.
All this time, I hadn’t just been barely surviving Tiseriel’s bullying.
I had been planning and preparing many things.
I had entered this place with a bigger goal in mind, and using my memories and information from before I returned, I hadn’t wasted even a single detail.
‘Good! That person… and this, and that…!’
Without even changing out of the clothes still damp from the vase water, I busily moved around.
Careful not to attract attention, I went here and there and finished all my preparations.
Actually carrying out the things I had only planned until now made me feel almost excited.
After finishing the groundwork, I finally went to the sunroom, just as Tiseriel had ordered.
By the time I got there, the sun had already set.
Without resting, I immediately began scrubbing the sunroom windows until they squeaked.
Maybe because my clothes still weren’t fully dry and I had been working too hard, I started coughing halfway through.
“Cough, cough!”
But I didn’t rest, and I didn’t stop.
Of course I skipped dinner, and coughing all night, I cleaned every glass window in the sunroom until it shone like a mirror.
The nearly hundred magic lamps decorating the room for the tea party were just a bonus.
By the time the sun rose, I was looking up proudly at the sunroom, glittering like a hall of mirrors.
‘Now the preparations are complete!’
The preparations to give Tiseriel a long, sweet taste of payback.
Washing my feverish face with cold water to cool it down, I muttered to myself,
“I wish time would pass quickly. I’m really looking forward to the tea party.”
That feeling of looking forward to the future—
before returning and after—
was something I had never once felt in this mansion.
And so, the fateful tea party began.
***
The sunroom, the pride of the Atherion mansion.
Decorated with so many magic lamps, it was truly magnificent.
The invited guests saw with their own eyes the power of Atherion, equal to the imperial family.
And as always, Lady Tiseriel stood in the center of all the attention.
The noble young ladies invited to the main table couldn’t stop praising her.
They repeated all the polished words their parents had clearly taught them.
“I’ve never seen a sunroom made of such expensive glass!”
“There are so many magic lamps…”
“This milk tea is really delicious!”
“I’ve never tasted anything this good before.”
“It tastes like something you’d drink in the imperial palace.”
“Come to think of it, my mother said one of the gifts the imperial palace sends to the ducal family every year is tea leaves. Maybe that’s why?”
Tiseriel’s mood improved somewhat from all the flattery pouring in from every direction.
She smiled softly.
“It’s nothing special.”
Then one of the young ladies immediately added more praise.
“Well, you are the one and only precious daughter of the great Atherion ducal house. Something like this is only natural.”
And then it happened.
An accident no one expected.
Crash!
“Ahh! What are you doing?!”
The young maid called Tii, who had been serving tea to the lady, made a mistake.
While mixing milk tea beside her, she knocked over a jar of honey.
Honey splashed all around the tea table, and some got on Tiseriel’s hand too, making it sticky.
“I-I’m sorry!”
The maid panicked and tried to wipe Tiseriel’s hand with her apron, but the nanny slapped her across the face.
Smack!
“How dare you touch my lady’s hand with a dirty rag!”
Then Tiseriel’s angelic voice stopped the nanny.
“Stop, Vasa. She’s just a child who doesn’t know better. Mistakes happen.”
“My lady…”
The nobles were quick to praise Tiseriel’s character.
“As expected, you’re far too kind.”
“If a maid in my house made a mistake like that, I’d never let it go.”
“You truly are worthy of becoming a saint.”
Some of them went even further, trying hard to get closer to the future saint.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’d like to lend you my handkerchief, if that’s all right, my lady. I even sprayed perfume on it.”
“It’s fine. I couldn’t possibly trouble you like that.”
After refusing with a bright smile, Tiseriel asked the nanny,
“Nanny, could you prepare for me to wash?”
“Yes, my lady. I’ll also prepare a fresh change of clothes.”
More admiration followed.
“She even speaks so kindly to her servants…”
Meanwhile, the ducal household servants, led by Tiseriel’s nanny, quickly brought a basin of hot water.
They even floated rose petals in it.
“Here, my lady.”
“As expected of you, Nanny.”
To wash her hands, Tiseriel temporarily removed the ring she was wearing and placed it on the table.
Then she let the nanny wash her hands carefully.
The young maid was still sitting on the floor, head bowed deeply.
Seeing that, Tiseriel frowned slightly when no one was looking.
But the expression quickly vanished, leaving only a gentle smile.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“…Pardon? Ah, y-yes. I’m fine.”
Receiving a glance from Tiseriel, the nanny glared fiercely.
She shoved the maid with her foot and gave an order.
This was Tiseriel’s real intention.
“Why are you still here? Get out at once.”
Normally, the young maid would have moved the moment those words were spoken.
If she was slow, she was always beaten.
But today, for some reason, she moved heavily, like a stone statue.
‘What is this?’
Just as the nanny briefly felt suspicious—
Flicker, flicker!
All the magic lamps lighting up the sunroom began to flicker at once.
“Huh?”
“What’s happening?”
They turned dark, then lit up again, repeating that five or six times—
then—
Bang!
With a popping sound, they all went out.
There was no other light source in the tea party room besides the magic lamps.
In an instant, darkness swallowed everything.
“What in the world just happened?”
“Ahhh!”
“Where are you, dear?”
“M-Mother! I’m scared!”
The confusion and panic in the dark spread like wildfire.
Soon, the Atherion servants brought lanterns and other lights to brighten the sunroom and calm the situation.
The murmuring finally stopped when the Lady of Atherion let out a second scream, this one sharp and tearing.
“My ring! My ring is gone!”
In the brief moment between the lights going out and coming back on,
the ring Tiseriel had taken off to wash her hands had completely disappeared.
