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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: A New Home
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Typically, aristocratic women bring their maids from their birth families when they marry.
However, Aracilla didn't. There was a high probability of divorce within a few years, and she didn't want the hassle of dragging people around.
‘Aracilla, for the new mistress of a mansion, it’s important how many people of your own you have.’
Despite her mother's worried advice, Aracilla entered the Vandermir mansion with only Audrey. Demian respected her wishes.
The Head Maid took it upon herself to find maids specifically assigned to Aracilla within the mansion.
The Vandermir Ducal Family initially seemed to pick a fight over this, but at some point, they lost interest and stopped interfering.
The Head Maid assigned half of the existing maids and half of the new maids to Aracilla. Then, she gathered the servants to introduce them to her.
Soon, Aracilla appeared, wearing a black dress with elaborate lace embroidery, with Audrey trailing behind her.
“Good morning, Madam.”
When the Head Maid bowed first to greet her, the younger maids followed suit, repeating the greeting.
Aracilla nodded lightly to acknowledge their greetings, then sat in a chair and straightened her back.
“These young ladies here will be the maids attending to you from now on, Madam. The newly hired ones have also been trained, so please don’t worry.”
“Thank you, Head Maid.”
Aracilla slowly scanned the maids. They were all ordinary people, nothing particularly striking, but one of them stood out.
It was the blonde maid, who kept peeking at her while bowing her head.
“You there, do you have something to say to me?”
“Yes, yes? No, Madam.”
The blonde maid, suddenly singled out, flustered and bowed her head even lower.
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Rosalyn, Madam.”
“Right, Rosalyn. Are you sure you don’t have anything to say? You’ve been staring at me since I walked in.”
Rosalyn shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. The Head Maid, sensing the situation, interjected.
“Rosalyn was newly hired this time, and as she’s not yet accustomed to the work, she might have made a mistake. My apologies, Madam.”
“No, there’s no need to apologize. I was just curious because she was staring so intently.”
Still, the atmosphere remained awkward, so Audrey, who was standing behind Aracilla, made a joke.
“It seems she was captivated by Madam’s beauty. Our Madam truly has a striking appearance when one first sees her.”
“Oh, Audrey, you’re too much. You really can’t say anything but the truth, can you?”
As the two of them giggled, the expressions of the other maids relaxed. In the much more peaceful atmosphere, Aracilla greeted them.
“I’m not a demanding mistress, so I won’t be difficult to serve. And I’m busy with Magic Tower work, so you won’t have much to do either. Please take care of me from now on.”
“Yes, Madam.”
The maids answered in unison, bowing at the waist. Aracilla rose from her chair, placed a hand on Audrey’s shoulder, and said,
“Audrey here is my most cherished maid. Please all get along well. If anything comes up, you can tell her, and she’ll relay it to me.”
She said this out of consideration, meaning that if there was anything difficult to tell her directly, they could use Audrey as an intermediary. It would be more comfortable for the maids that way.
However, Aracilla would later realize that good intentions can sometimes be exploited.
* * *
Even with a new home, life didn't change much.
Only the house she returned to after work was different; Aracilla lived much the same as she had during her single days.
To complete her research on Floating Stones, which was nearing its final stages, she still repeated the routine of leaving early in the morning and returning late at night.
Even if she occasionally left work early in the evening, she chose to dine with her original family at the Hugo Marquisate. Just as if she hadn't married.
“Sister!”
Thanks to this, Adrian was overjoyed. His sister, who had seemed to disappear to a faraway land after marriage, now visited at least once a week to eat with him, and he couldn't help but be happy.
“Adrian, have you been listening to Mother, Father, and Sister while I was gone?”
“Of course! Look at this, my tutor wrote a letter praising me to Mother and Father.”
“Oh, really? Let me see.”
Aracilla read the letter containing her brother’s private tutoring report card with a pleased smile.
Hmm, but my Adrian is better at swordsmanship than magic?
She was about to feel a slight tinge of displeasure, but Iris spoke, drawing her attention.
“Arri, you’re here?”
“Yes, Sister. Where are Mother and Father?”
“They’re waiting in the dining hall.”
The three siblings went to the dining hall together, where the Marquis and Marchioness greeted them.
They began their meal in a scene much like before the marriage.
“Aracilla, you have a new home now, can you really come here so often?”
The Marchioness asked with some concern. Aracilla shrugged.
“My husband isn’t even home, anyway.”
It wasn’t as if Aracilla was arbitrarily visiting her birth family while her husband waited for her at the mansion.
Demian was just as busy as she was, so even though they were newlyweds, they rarely saw each other. It had been ages since they last had a meal together.
That’s why Aracilla ended up going to her parents’ house on days Demian wasn’t home.
“Have you two already fought?”
“No, we get along well.”
“Then why isn’t your husband home? He’s not out gallivanting, is he?”
“You’re worrying too much, Mother. Demian is just busy. He only works even when he’s home.”
Indeed, whenever Demian returned home early, he would seclude himself in his study, engrossed in paperwork. Leading a knight order at a young age, he certainly would have a lot of work.
Good. He needs to work hard like that to quickly inherit the Duke’s title.
Aracilla, eager for a divorce, wholeheartedly supported Demian’s overtime work. Thanks to it, she’d had their marital bedroom all to herself since their wedding night.
“How could two such similar people meet…”
The Marchioness put down her cutlery and pressed a hand to her forehead. They seemed well-suited, which was why she’d arranged the marriage, but had it been a mistake?
It felt like she was witnessing two identical people actively ruining their own household.
“Don’t be like that, May. In any case, thanks to this, we get to see our beloved daughter every week, don’t we?”
The Marquis, satisfied with seeing his daughter regularly no matter what, tried to soothe his wife.
“But if they’re like this, when will they have children?”
“We won’t be having any.”
Aracilla now said plainly what she had dared not mention before marriage for fear of opposition.
What could they do? They were already married.
“Aracilla! What do you mean you won’t have children? Will Sir Vandermir and the Ducal Family stand for that?”
“Demian and I have already agreed on that. He’ll handle it if the Ducal Family makes a fuss.”
The Marchioness, who held the old-fashioned belief that one must have children after marriage, was on the verge of fainting.
She shook off her husband’s hand, who was trying to calm her, and exclaimed,
“You’ll be called infertile if you keep this up!”
“A person can be infertile, it’s the people who criticize health issues who are wrong.”
Aracilla replied without batting an eye, then speared a shrimp with her fork and brought it to her mouth, adding,
“And Demian could be infertile too.”
Silence fell over the table. The Marquis cautiously opened his mouth.
“…Is he really infertile?”
“I don’t know.”
How could she know when they hadn’t even tried, and they had only been married for a short time?
Aracilla shrugged and continued to eat calmly. The Hugo Marquisate’s worries only deepened amidst the untimely infertility discussion.
* * *
The couple’s relationship was strained.
That was the conclusion Rosalyn had reached after working at the Vandermir mansion for several weeks.
They didn’t eat together, didn’t sleep in the same bed, showed no interest in each other, and Aracilla visited her birth family daily.
Anyone would have to conclude that there was discord between the couple.
‘Perfect, this will make things easier.’
A smile touched Rosalyn’s lips. In truth, she was a spy who had infiltrated the mansion at the behest of the Vandermir Ducal Family to disrupt the marriage.
Thanks to the Ducal Family bribing the Head Maid, she was able to become a maid despite having no particular experience.
She regularly leaked internal mansion affairs to the Ducal Family and received directives from them.
「It seems their relationship cooled rapidly after marriage; the master doesn’t look for the mistress even when she’s not at the mansion. The mistress, perhaps missing her birth family, frequently visits the Hugo Marquisate.」
She secretly wrote letters and sent them to the Ducal Family every Tuesday, pretending to go out. Replies would return two days later, on Thursday, mixed in with grocery deliveries.
「Isolate Aracilla Hugo within the mansion and make the couple’s relationship even more distant. You should seduce Demian.」
The Vandermir Ducal Family was grinding their teeth in frustration, determined to disrupt the marriage even if they couldn't prevent it.
Their plan was to use Rosalyn to drive a wedge between the two, continuously delay the designation of an heir, and then find a way to invalidate everything.
‘Isolating her and seducing him will be easy.’
Rosalyn smiled confidently. Since childhood, she had been the prettiest girl in the village. Even as an adult, she was called a beauty and was always popular with men.
Winning a man’s favor was very easy for her. Even men who acted like stones would crumble before her.
‘The Madam’s looks are formidable, but men prefer charming and endearing women like me.’
From Rosalyn’s observations, Aracilla was a beautiful and capable woman, but she didn’t seem like the type to fawn over her husband.
Someone accustomed to being looked up to by others, someone who naturally expected to be revered.
Perhaps Rosalyn was twisting things a bit, but seeing Aracilla return late at night with such a haughty posture naturally led to such thoughts.
‘Even if she acts superior, without her master’s affection, she’s nothing. Isn’t that how all noblewomen’s lives are?’
Rosalyn’s lips twisted into a sneer. Her expression became dreamy as she imagined herself acting as the mistress by Demian’s side instead of Aracilla.
Though she was a commoner and couldn’t become a noblewoman like Aracilla, becoming the master’s mistress would elevate her to a higher position than others.
‘First, I need to isolate the Madam.’
Rosalyn devised a plan to ruin Aracilla’s reputation among the maids. It was a simple task: just paint her as a bad mistress.
To do that, she had two things to accomplish. One was to improve her own image among the maids, and the other was to learn more about Aracilla.
Rosalyn started with the former.
She deliberately took over colleagues’ tasks, feigned innocence to gain favor, and earned sympathy with fabricated stories about her past.
“Rosalyn seems truly kind and gentle.”
“Didn’t your previous masters dislike you just because you were pretty? That must have been tough.”
After building friendships and establishing her standing among the maids, she casually threw out a leading question during a break when they were all chatting.
“What do you all think about the Madam?”
The unsuspecting maids offered their various opinions.
“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful in my life. Doesn’t she look like a wax doll?”
“Exactly. And her personality seems easygoing and good too. I haven’t interacted with her often, so I don’t know much, but she’s not picky.”
“That alone is something. Other noblewomen pick fights over small things and scold their maids.”
Despite frequently being absent for work, Aracilla’s reputation wasn’t bad.
Rosalyn was slightly flustered by the unexpected reactions but didn’t show it, and she threw out another bait.
“Still, isn’t she a bit too indifferent to mansion affairs? It’s good that she doesn’t pick fights, but she seems a bit neglectful…”
