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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: The Curse-User's Plight
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She couldn't even cry out loud, afraid someone would catch her.
I momentarily set aside my plan to ask about Cheshire's whereabouts.
I placed my handkerchief on the maid's lap and said,
“Take a short break. I'll keep watch for you!”
I was being serious, but the maid let out a small laugh even as she cried.
She roughly wiped her eyes and said,
“I’m alright now, Your Ladyship. It’s just been a difficult day. I might have felt better if my wages had at least come in on time…”
It was a lament, almost to herself. But it struck a chord somewhere deep inside me.
“The Marquis isn’t paying you?!”
What is this? I suddenly feel awful.
The maid looked to be about Mera’s age.
She seemed to have just become an adult.
I grew angry, as if I’d had a past life where I, too, was young, worked all day, and didn’t get paid on time.
Perhaps in my second life, the one I can’t remember aside from the novel’s plot, I was in a similar situation.
The maid flinched when she looked into my eyes.
“O-Other servants are in the same boat. The work has always been hard, but our wages were never delayed until it suddenly started a year ago… When I asked the head maid, she just told me to quit if I had a problem! Lady Sabrina also told me not to even mention it to her! *Hic!*”
She poured out the words in a rush, as if terrified or under a truth spell.
…She didn't have to say all that in one breath.
Did my eyes change strangely again?
Rose once said my eyes sometimes glow strangely.
I rubbed my eyes.
In that short time, the maid, having calmed down a bit, offered my handkerchief back to me.
“I should return this. It’s too fine an item for me to receive.”
Was it because the ducal crest was so magnificently embroidered on it?
I meekly took the handkerchief back.
The maid looked at me with her reddened eyes.
“Um… My name is Rebecca. If there is anything you find inconvenient during your stay, please be sure to find me. I will attend to you with the utmost sincerity, Your Ladyship.”
*Cough.*
I couldn't help but be inwardly stunned.
Rebecca is the name of the curse-user from ?!
N-No, it could just be someone with the same name, right?
“Is there anyone else in the castle with the name Rebecca?”
Rebecca didn't have to think long before shaking her head.
“My name isn’t very common. It doesn’t have a particularly good meaning, either.”
Gah!
So this maid is the one who’s going to blackmail Sabrina, get into a contract with her, kidnap my sister, and kill Marquis Ingram?
But she’s being so kind to me. Why?
D-Don't tell me… did she become twisted because of the delayed wages…?
Unaware of my thoughts, Rebecca said,
“This may be presumptuous of me, but I’d like to give you something in return for the chocolate. Would you allow me?”
Not wanting to get on the curse-user’s bad side, I quickly nodded my head.
Rebecca handed me a palm-sized plush doll.
“This is my friend… Please, accept it! It might be of some… small help to you, Your Ladyship. Really!”
“Is this perhaps a…”
The question of whether it was a curse doll nearly slipped out, but I barely managed to hold it back.
Rebecca blinked.
“Pardon?”
“Oh, nothing. Thank you.”
I hesitantly accepted the doll.
At that, a wide smile bloomed on Rebecca’s face.
Rebecca rose from her seat. Only then did I remember why I had sought her out in the first place.
“Ah, right. I’m looking for a certain servant. He has black hair, a lip piercing…”
“The handsome one whose favorite word is ‘divorce’?”
“…That’s probably him.”
“I think I saw him heading toward the garden. He seems new. Was he rude to you, Your Ladyship? Shall I escort you?”
“Just telling me is more than enough. Thank you.”
“I’m glad I could be of help!”
Rebecca bowed deeply and withdrew.
Left all alone, I looked down at the plush doll with a sour expression.
“…”
It looked like a cat, and it was kind of cute…
* * *
Rebecca, with a flushed face, panted for breath.
She was dazed, as if she'd been pulled from a blissful dream and doused with cold water.
“Why did I do that? I told her everything so honestly! She’s going to think I’m so strange!”
She tapped her head against the windowpane, crying out in despair.
A maid who was tidying Sabrina’s bedroom with her muttered that she was acting crazy again, but Rebecca ignored her.
Her reflection in the glass was ordinary.
Long brown hair and a face full of freckles.
There were five other maids in this castle who looked similar to her.
—*Hello. We meet again!*
And yet, the Young Lady had recognized her immediately.
She was truly a remarkable person.
‘On the other hand, that marquis bastard who doesn’t even know my name and won’t pay me can go bald. And I hope he stubs his pinky toe on a doorframe.’
Rebecca cursed him as she wiped the window.
She missed her home in the capital with her grandmother, and she missed her life making accessories.
But the accessories Rebecca made were horribly unpopular.
There were even people who demanded refunds, claiming that ominous things happened just from wearing them.
At first, she hadn't understood why, so she just thought of them as difficult customers.
Rebecca clicked her tongue.
After experimenting on some vicious people, she found that the accessories she made really did have the power to attract small misfortunes.
Through great effort, Rebecca learned to control it. While she couldn't bring good fortune, she could create charms that would ward off bad luck.
But the only person who believed Rebecca was her grandmother.
Her grandmother, unable to just watch, tried to sell the accessories herself, but no one wanted to buy them.
Since she was on the path to being unemployed, Rebecca applied for a maid position at the Ingram estate, which was always struggling with a shortage of staff.
As expected of a place where servants fled about once a week, the difficulty level was hellish.
After the first month, her wages started being delayed.
Her only comfort was the occasional letter from her grandmother.
Recently, her grandmother had written that someone—just one person—had bought one of her accessories.
‘A cute-looking girl, she said.’
Rebecca secretly popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth.
The bittersweet taste instantly lifted her spirits.
‘I feel bad for that girl, but the Young Lady is much cuter.’
The Young Lady looked like a doll made by gathering all the softest, fluffiest things in the world, then decorating it with a handful of jewels and cream.
When she happened to flash a sweet smile, she brought to mind a fairy from a fairytale filled with small animals.
Though for a brief moment, she had felt a bizarre sensation…
Recalling that moment sent a shiver down Rebecca’s spine.
It was when she had carelessly mentioned her wages.
The Young Lady’s grape-like eyes had flickered with an eerie light.
Rebecca felt her very soul plummet, and she couldn’t breathe.
She felt an overwhelming urge to drop to her knees and beg for forgiveness.
It was enough to remind her of the legend her grandmother used to tell her instead of a lullaby—the legend of the mad god with purple hair.
But it had been all too fleeting.
As if to say it was all in her head, the Young Lady had reassured her with her harmless, down-turned eyes and a radiant smile.
‘It’s stress. Just stress. This is all because I haven’t been paid.’
Rebecca carefully tucked the remaining chocolate away in her pocket.
‘I hope whatever that marquis bastard is up to gets exposed this time.’
More and more people were starting to notice the changes.
The land was drying up, and the crops were spoiling beyond salvation.
On the other hand, incidents of monsters attacking the marquisate and causing damage had completely disappeared.
‘It’s obvious. So obvious.’
Rebecca could guess what Marquis Ingram had done.
He was the type of man who would beat and even kill his servants at the drop of a hat, yet cherished his own child above all else.
When Sabrina was nearly attacked by a monster, Marquis Ingram had held all the servants responsible.
Rebecca herself had inherited the position of Sabrina’s personal maid from the one who was harshly reprimanded at the time.
She remembered Marquis Ingram muttering that he had to do whatever it took to protect Sabrina.
He must have immediately put that ‘whatever it took’ into action.
Ultimately, the consequences of his actions were now surfacing a year later.
Rebecca ground her teeth and scrubbed the windowpane.
‘Just give me my back pay so I can quit tomorrow, you marquis bastard! If you keep this up, I’ll curse you to death!’
