Chapter 31
31. A Bet
Janet offered a warm smile, gesturing towards the soup placed on the table.
“Eat up and get better soon.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“How can your recovery be so slow? It’s been a week, not just a day or two.”
“…It’s hard for a stab wound to heal in just a day or two. Thanks for your concern.”
Liana replied indifferently to Janet, whose tone was laced with sarcasm.
However, Janet didn’t leave but stood beside her.
She could have just left after setting down the meal, but Janet’s eyes unconsciously kept darting back to the soup.
Liana followed her gaze and looked at the soup as well.
Steam was rising from the white cauliflower soup.
The intention behind her insistence on watching her eat was clear…
“I appreciate you preparing it so diligently, but I don’t have much of an appetite today.”
She must have tampered with the food.
Liana smiled gently at Janet, pretending not to know anything.
She knew very well how the Lester household servants saw her.
They still didn’t like the new maid.
They had heard that Liana Serpens was injured while saving Your Excellency the Duke, but well, it was impossible to know if that was true.
Frankly, that scrawny little thing saved Your Excellency the Duke, who is called the undefeated hero?
‘She must have just been standing there dumbly next to the master, getting in the way and getting hurt.’
It was easier to believe that.
Therefore, few servants were friendly to Liana.
Janet was no exception.
Liana looked at Janet, who was crossing her arms haughtily.
‘She’s so bad at hiding her expressions…’
Unsettled gaze, eyes full of other thoughts, a twitching corner of her lips.
Trying to pull off such a clumsy prank with that face, she must have underestimated Liana.
Or did she think it didn’t matter even if she knew?
Liana, confined to her sickbed, could only eat the food she brought.
Liana was in a position where she would starve if she refused the food Janet brought.
“No appetite? You haven’t eaten a single meal since last night, have you?”
Janet dragged out her words, sounding worried.
Yes, Janet hadn’t brought her dinner last night.
Liana didn’t bother to question it.
But Janet, who had done wrong, seemed to have something weighing on her mind.
“We’re so short-handed that I was busy working and forgot.”
Because you’re resting so comfortably, we’re short-handed and everyone else is working themselves to death.
“But I’m so disappointed that you won’t eat what I painstakingly brought.”
We’re already so busy, and we even take the trouble to bring you your meals, so how can you have the nerve to refuse?
“How about taking a bite for our sake?”
So, stop being picky and just eat what we bring you.
The thorns in Janet’s words were clear.
“Haa…”
Liana sighed and finally picked up the spoon on the tray.
“Okay. I need to eat to get better quickly.”
A smile spread across Janet’s face.
Liana quietly stirred the soup in front of her.
Then, a cockroach the size of a thumbnail was caught on the spoon.
Liana lifted the black lump on the spoon and looked up at Janet.
“Sorry. I don’t like cockroach soup.”
Liana held the spoon with the cockroach on it towards Janet’s face.
“I’ll give it to you. Want a bite?”
Janet’s face turned red at Liana’s brazen question.
“How can you say such a thing over a bug that accidentally fell in…!”
“Ah, it was an accident.”
Liana calmly put down the spoon and nodded.
An accident? That couldn’t be.
The chef who serves the Duke didn’t notice such a large cockroach in the soup?
The probability of such a large bug accidentally falling into the soup in the kitchen of a noble family that serves the Duke and his guests is extremely low.
Especially if it’s food brought with such a sinister expression, the probability of it being an accident is zero.
But.
“It’s a relief. That you didn’t make a mistake with the soup that could have gone to Your Excellency the Duke.”
Liana smiled brightly.
Then Janet’s face stiffened, and she turned and walked out.
Liana closed her eyes slightly and opened them again at the sound of the door slamming shut.
Her head was ringing.
“Since you’re leaving anyway, you could have taken the bowl too.”
The soup bowl was left alone in front of her.
The soft scent of cauliflower soup wafted faintly from the bowl.
It was a familiar, nostalgic scent that would have been nice if it hadn’t been contaminated with a bug.
‘I used to eat it often when I was little.’
In her childhood, her father always made her eat cauliflower soup after she had been sick.
Because it was easy to digest, soft, and also Luise Ideana’s favorite food.
‘What a waste.’
She would have at least tasted it if it weren’t for the bug.
Liana pushed the bowl aside and thought.
‘Even if there hadn’t been a bug, it was food I couldn’t have eaten properly anyway.’
Even if Janet hadn’t mixed in a bug, she wouldn’t have been able to eat it.
Dietrich’s Divine Power had swept through every corner of her body, causing severe internal injuries.
Injuries caused by Divine Power were even harder to recover from than the abdominal wound.
Thanks to that, she hadn’t even been able to put the food Janet brought into her mouth for days.
‘It doesn’t matter since I won’t die from starving…’
The hunger that felt like her stomach was tearing apart was a little painful, but this body maintains its immortality even without eating.
She decided to think of the curse as a ‘blessing’ for now.
***
“So, did you deliver it well?”
When Janet returned to the kitchen, the other maids flocked to her.
“Did she eat it? Did you see her eat it?”
“I don’t know!”
Janet, who had returned to the kitchen, ignored the maids who were crowding around her and made a sulky face.
“Why? Did you leave without watching? I wonder if an empty plate will come out later?”
“Isn’t it funny? Sitting obediently in bed like a princess and being served cockroach soup.”
The maids giggled quietly.
Then, Mary, a maid who was passing by, clicked her tongue.
“Don’t go too far. What if the master finds out?”
“Can’t we even do this much? She’s so annoying. Look at how the master is personally taking care of her meal menu!”
Janet narrowed her eyes in dissatisfaction.
Shed had directly ordered the kitchen maids to take care of Liana’s diet immediately after Liana woke up.
Thanks to Your Excellency the Duke’s personal orders, they had to make cauliflower soup, which was not even on the schedule, which was a nuisance.
‘We could have just made some simple oatmeal porridge… Why cauliflower soup of all things.’
After Liana woke up, Shed didn’t bother to visit her or stay by her side, but he meticulously instructed and checked on matters concerning her from behind.
“Did you see that Eclaus, the Young Count, and Dietrich High Priest are also showing interest in her?”
“Honestly, isn’t she not that pretty?”
At the maids’ words, the male servants shrugged their shoulders.
“It’s a matter of taste. If you like soft and innocent women, well… there’s no one like Liana.”
One servant scratched his head and smiled tactlessly, and Janet glared at him.
“O-Of course, I like healthy, sexy, and glamorous women. Like you, Janet.”
“Hah, who wants to receive such compliments from someone like you?”
Janet cut off the servant’s foolish smile like a knife.
Mary looked at them with pity and said.
“I’m telling you to be careful because the master is taking care of her. Don’t you remember what happened to Caroline, the head maid?”
“Mary, you’re so careful and cautious. Can you even sleep soundly at night? And how much have we bullied her?”
Janet smiled with a relaxed face.
She knew that Mary was a coward.
Mary was afraid of Your Excellency the Duke. Afraid of ending up like Caroline, the head maid.
“What if she really snags the position of mistress?”
“Oh my! Our master, who can’t even properly hold his fiancée’s hand, a mistress? Then that would be a blessing for this family!”
Janet laughed.
The thought of that wooden Duke having a mistress was unimaginable.
With rumors circulating that his lower body wasn’t functioning properly, a mistress?
“Anything is possible. You can’t trust men.”
Janet laughed as Mary narrowed her eyes and warned her.
“Then, shall we make a bet?”
“A bet?”
“Which will come first, her leaving this place, or her getting into the master’s bed?”
Whether she’s kicked out or leaves on her own, if Liana leaves the Lester household first, Janet wins.
If Liana shares a bed with Shed first, Mary wins.
At Janet’s betting proposal, even the servants who were eavesdropping from afar rushed over with shining eyes.
Everyone was excited about the fact that a thrilling pastime had been created in their gloomy Paradel life.
“Isn’t the ending obvious? How can they possibly share a bed when the master is said to be like that?”
A servant who believed the rumor that the Duke couldn’t perform his duties as a man chimed in.
“Even putting that aside, with Giselle High Priest here, with that girl? It’s impossible.”
One servant mentioned the Duke’s fiancée, Giselle Marlehein, and said it was impossible.
To look at another woman with such a perfect fiancée was an act of impiety that deserved to be punished by God.
“Still, he hasn’t actually married the High Priest yet, so he might be able to enjoy himself freely until then…?”
“You’re saying Liana Serpens makes it possible?”
“The way things are going these days isn’t ordinary.”
Janet turned her eyes to Mary as she watched the maids and servants whispering and discussing.
“So, are you going to bet or not?”
At Janet’s provocation, Mary crossed her arms and pouted her lips with a reluctant expression.
But.
“Okay. The winner gets three months’ salary from the loser.”
Mary readily accepted Janet’s bet.
***
Knock, knock. At the sound of the knock, Eclaus, who was sitting at his desk, raised his head.
“Come in.”
At the brief permission, Bannon, a retainer of the Vittel family, entered with refined steps.
“Young Master. Here are the additional materials you requested.”
Bannon placed a thick file in front of Eclaus.
The following letters were written on the front of the file.
―Liana Serpens
“As a result of the investigation, no one seems to know about Liana Serpens’ childhood.”
Bannon reported in a concise tone.
Eclaus, who was skimming through the secret information brought by the birds, raised the corner of his lips with a smirk.
His prediction was correct.
