Chapter 27
The knight hurriedly dropped to his knees, sweat pouring down his face as he reported.
“Th-that… I’m sorry. Truly sorry, Duchess. The truth is, I felt sorry for the thing you discarded not long ago… so I shamelessly picked it up and gave it to my lover! It’s my fault! I’m truly sorry!”
As I listened to him, I fiddled with the hairpin. It was so ridiculous I nearly let out a hollow laugh.
Unbelievable. Picked it up? Picked up what?
Charlize was the type to tire of luxuries quickly, just as much as she indulged in them, and she did discard things that no longer pleased her, as the knight claimed.
If it had truly been Charlize in this body, she probably would have let it slide.
My eyes darkened deeply at the blatant lie.
From somewhere deep inside me came strange whispers: ‘Just kill him,’ ‘Should I sever his tendons?’
But I couldn’t act on my anger however I pleased.
My grandfather’s near-command to show a changed demeanor in this very moment flashed through my mind.
I had no choice but to cause a scene at the ball, so did I really need to lose my temper before then?
Just as I was suppressing it with all my might, my gaze met that of my brother.
Roxidian, who had been watching the spectacle, grinned and made a money gesture with his fingers—a circle, a gold coin.
‘Earn your keep.’
Even his mocking lip movements. Because of that bastard, the rage I’d barely held back exploded.
Thwack!
Not a slap, but a solid thwack. My tightly clenched fist had struck the knight’s cheek.
My wrist ached as if it were sprained, but that was one thing.
This bastard had stolen the hairpin I’d given to that child?
Because of him, one child had cried all night searching for it and even fallen ill.
Yun Ji-hu, the office worker, had been an ordinary person who didn’t know how to properly lose her temper, but strangely, right now, what I needed to do was crystal clear in my mind.
“This is the one and only pin in the entire empire, and you thought I wouldn’t recognize it?”
“D-Duchess…”
“I remember tossing it to a poor child in Remute Territory not long ago, and now you’re treating me like an idiot?”
Ignoring the pain in my wrist, I swung at the knight’s cheek again with full force.
Had Charlize really hit people before? Her body remembered a perfect swing. Seeing the knight staring, I hit him once more.
Only then did the knight tremble violently, adjusting his knees as he begged.
His fear wasn’t from the pain I’d inflicted, but from the punishment awaiting him afterward—no doubt about it.
“Ah, ah, I-I’m sorry. Please, just spare my life, Duchess! The truth is… th-this woman ordered me to steal one of your items, so I had no choice…!”
What standards had Grandfather used to select his knights?
When cornered, the knight’s response was to throw his lover under the bus.
“Huh? Martin, what the hell are you saying!”
The maid screamed, forgetting her surroundings.
Her face was pale, filled with injustice and outrage—anyone could see it.
I narrowed my eyes at the two of them.
“Tell me your side.”
* * *
Libella, the maid of the imperial capital, was already a veteran of over four years.
The daughter of a baronet, she had barely passed the imperial maid exam and considered her career her greatest pride.
Maid service was also a job that led to good marriages, so she wanted to enjoy romance to her heart’s content before settling down—and that was when she met Martin.
He too was the second son of a baronet family and, impressively, a knight of House Altsbeit.
A man with a bright future ahead and handsome looks to boot.
“I can’t stand the sight of her. That woman! Ugh, if she weren’t so pretty, even Duke Altsbeit would have tossed her aside!”
One flaw: she viciously badmouthed the lady she served.
But since that lady was the notoriously vicious Duchess Altsbeit, it was understandable enough.
“…She really is pretty, though. Her head’s empty, that’s all. Ugh, if only she’d been born to some ordinary noble or commoner family, I’d…”
Her occasional crude curses felt off sometimes, but Libella brushed them aside.
In any case, her devoted lover one day gifted her what looked like an incredibly expensive hairpin.
It was astonishingly beautiful and valuable-looking.
As the daughter of nobility, Libella recognized the gem right away. A hairpin embedded with a ruby like this?
“Where’d you get this? It looks insanely expensive.”
“I saved up to buy it for my Libella. Like it?”
“Martin, do you think I’m a fool? Don’t lie—tell me the truth. You didn’t… steal it from the duchess’s room, did you?”
Even as a knight of House Altsbeit, no knight’s salary could afford such a hairpin, so Libella’s suspicion was reasonable. Martin jumped to his defense.
“Are you crazy? Am I a thief? These things have owners, and I took it from one who didn’t need it. Just take it!”
But Libella wouldn’t let it go and pressed him until, grumbling, Martin confessed the truth.
“For once, that woman was handing out stuff like this to beggar kids, but they don’t even need it, right? I snatched it. Happy now?”
“…You’re insane—what if the duchess finds out!”
“You know her. She has so much of this junk she won’t even remember. All she does is splurge—pretty but with an empty head.”
Libella remembered that conversation perfectly.
Ultimately, her own greed had overcome her; knowing the circumstances, she’d accepted the hairpin anyway.
Rather than thinking the duchess was stupid, as Martin said, she’d figured a rich duchess like her had sand-grain numbers of such items—so she probably wouldn’t notice.
In her greedy desire to possess it, she’d looked the other way.
And the price for pretending not to know back then was far too great.
Now, Libella glared at Martin with eyes full of resentment and injustice, trembling all the while.
“It’s true! This woman blackmailed me, begging me to steal just one of your items, so I had no choice…!”
She did bear some fault for accepting it.
But to pin all the blame on her? Unbearable!
“Duchess, I’ve been wronged.”
Her shining career was already gone.
But she couldn’t bear being saddled with all the guilt unjustly!
Libella straightened her back.
“Duchess!”
Her long years as a maid showed in the poised grace that emerged even in crisis.
“I’ve only been betrayed by this man I thought was my lover. Of course, knowing the circumstances and still accepting this hairpin was my, my mistake. It’s my fault… If I may dare to explain, you have so many rare treasures that I thought you wouldn’t notice one missing.”
In the end, Libella clasped her hands and begged desperately. It was an unavoidable instinct.
She knew Charlize’s cruelty all too well and didn’t want to die here, even if it cost her her position.
“…”
In that moment, Libella realized every word Martin had said was utter nonsense.
His habitual claims that she was pretty but useless and empty-headed were all lies.
The overwhelming pressure from the gaze looking down at her right now proved it.
Compared to her brother, Emperor Roxidian, she truly felt like his sibling—chillingly so.
Her inhumanly alluring beauty and coldly expressionless face amplified it.
“To think there was trash beneath me.”
Charlize’s brows furrowed faintly. As she clenched and unclenched her hand, Martin and Libella immediately held their breaths. How many lives had vanished by that hand…?
“Libella, was it?”
“Y-yes… Duchess…!”
“I’ll give you a chance to deal with that trash.”
Libella looked up slowly in shock.
In that instant, a bewitching smile graced Charlize’s previously blank expression.
A devilishly tempting smile from hell, irresistible, paired with a gentle voice.
“Do whatever you want with him.”
“…”
“But whatever you do has to please me.”
Libella’s eyes darted between Charlize and the hairpin in her hand before she whirled around without a second thought—her hand moving first.
Slap!
Martin stared at Libella in a daze after the slap. He tried to move, but he couldn’t.
‘H-His Majesty?’
The tyrant who’d only been watching now exuded killing intent.
So finely controlled that only Martin felt it, but to him, it poured like deadly terror. Libella gritted her teeth, channeling all her fury over her ruined life into another swing.
The sound of flesh striking flesh echoed.
By the time Libella was panting heavily, a bewitching voice came from above.
“That’s enough. Both of you, get out.”
Charlize turned away, lightly covering her mouth. Libella closed her eyes tightly as fellow maids who had once been comrades dragged her away.
Once Martin and Libella were hauled off, the fitting room fell deathly silent.
The remaining designers, assistants, and maids bowed their heads, at a loss.
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause rang through the fitting room.
It came from Roxidian, who had only watched until now.
He stood, a satisfied expression on his face, and patted his little sister’s shoulder.
“They say a person’s nature doesn’t change, right? Live however you want.”
Hurry up and cause a scene so you get chased out of House Altsbeit, little sister. I’ll pick you up soon enough.
Roxidian swallowed his inner thoughts and turned away.
Charlize simply stood there.
‘……Rumors will spread again. What a disaster.’