Camilla had various ways of tormenting the mixed-blood demons.

Among them, her favorite was utilizing hot tea.

The sight of them suffering yet ultimately following her orders.

Every time she encountered that scene, Camilla felt perfect control and euphoria.

In the Empire, while some looked up to the superior abilities of mixed-blood demons, there were also groups who regarded them as hybrids and despised them regardless of social status.

Camilla was also one of them, secretly calling mixed-blood demons hybrids and despising them.

Beings that speak human language but are no different from livestock.

These negative notions about them, on the other hand, gave Camilla a subtle sense of superiority and pleasure.

She always enjoyed tormenting the mixed-blood demons to her heart’s content like this, backed by the Grand Duchess.

It was just as Camilla’s lips were subtly curling upwards.

“S-Stop it!”

Mina cried out as if she could no longer endure it.

“Even if it was in the past, now… If Her Highness finds out about this, she won’t let you off easy, Lady Camilla!”

“…What did you say?”

A faint crack appeared in Camilla’s elegant mask.

Rebecca would blame her for punishing a mixed-blood demon?

The one who enjoyed it more than anyone whenever she did this?

It wasn’t even worth a snort.

‘It was your mistress, Rebecca, who personally silenced you for fear that I might be driven out if the Grand Duke found out.’

And it was she herself who had worked hard for Rebecca to become like that.

After becoming the Grand Duchess’s lady-in-waiting, Camilla had gradually, but over a long period of time, made her aware of the fact that this lowly race was different from noble humans.

Of course, at first, Rebecca also occasionally showed signs of discomfort.

But once she started suffering from severe love deprivation and mania, she too began to fall into this hobby.

She finally opened her eyes to this secret pleasure that instantly relieved stress.

But for a mere mixed-blood demon to dare… to talk back to me?

Camilla suddenly gritted her teeth with fierce eyes.

“You’re punishing a monster for lying, and in the meantime, you’re not coming to your senses and lying again?”

Slap!

Camilla struck Mina’s cheek hard.

Then she shouted roughly in a high voice that could tear one’s ears.

“If you spew lies with that filthy and disgusting mouth, what use are you!”

Camilla continued to scream like someone possessed by an evil spirit.

“So hurry up and raise your hand, you monster! Now!”

To Mina, Camilla felt like a real monster.

How long would she have to endure such treatment?

Biting her lower lip and enduring the pain, Mina finally screamed.

“I really didn’t lie!”

“I told you to be quiet! There’s no truth in your words! Not content with bringing me to the Dark Mansion with your cunning lies, you, a mere mixed-blood demon, what?”

“…”

“…The Grand Duke’s personal maid?”

Camilla rolled her eyes wide and snorted.

“I, it’s true! Really, His Highness designated me as his personal maid!”

Mina pleaded her innocence to the end.

At that, Camilla, who had been fiercely furrowing her brow, finally let out a slow sigh as if she had no choice.

“You really… need to be thoroughly disciplined to come to your senses.”

With those final words, Camilla began to search the reception room like a madwoman.

‘The whip the Grand Duchess used to punish these creatures must be somewhere around here.’

When she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she stomped her foot irritably.

“Ugh!”

Then her gaze finally stopped by the fireplace.

‘…There it is.’

Camilla returned with the whip in hand.

Seeing this, Mina’s face turned even paler than before.

“I, it’s true! Please believe me, please!”

Mina’s claims of innocence were of no use.

No, rather, it exhausted Camilla’s patience.

“Indeed… for disgusting creatures like you, I must use the whip.”

Camilla raised the whip with eyes glinting with madness.

Whoosh!

The sound of the whip cutting through the air rang out chillingly.

Just as Mina’s body curled up like a baby.

Bang!

At the sudden loud noise, both women’s gazes turned towards the door.

Between the wide-open doors, a woman observing the situation with eyes redder than the sun.

It was Grand Duchess Rebecca.

* * *

“Your… Highness?”

Camilla let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was Rebecca who had suddenly appeared.

‘Haa… I thought it was the Grand Duke.’

If it had been someone other than Rebecca, she would surely have been in trouble.

Feeling relieved, Camilla smiled leisurely and spoke in a coquettish voice.

“You startled me, Your Highness. I thought it was someone else!”

“Someone else, who?”

Rebecca asked quietly as she closed the door.

Then she slowly looked around.

Mina’s face, a mess with tears.

The steaming teapot and reddened hand.

And the whip in Camilla’s hand.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Rebecca calmly headed for the sofa.

Finally, she sat down, crossing her legs, and raised the corners of her mouth leisurely towards Camilla.

“Of course it’s me. No one else comes here except my servants, Mrs. Dmitri.”

“What? Then could it be… what this monster said is true?”

“…Monster?”

A vein bulged on Rebecca’s fair forehead.

However, Camilla was too excited to notice it.

She knew the relationship between the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess was not good, but she never expected it to lead to a separation.

‘There won’t be a shortage of gossip in high society for a while.’

Camilla inwardly licked her lips.

Yet towards Rebecca, she lowered the corners of her mouth as if in sympathy.

“Sadly, it has come to this. It breaks my heart, Your Highness…”

“Ah, is that so?”

Camilla put down the whip and immediately went to sit next to Rebecca, linking arms with her.

“Call me Camilla as usual, Your Highness. Why create distance between us by calling me Mrs. Dmitri?”

Camilla continued speaking sweetly.

Yet for some reason, Rebecca only stared down at her silently.

‘Why is the Grand Duchess acting like this? Something’s off…’

As she was thinking this,

Rebecca withdrew her arm from Camilla and stood up from the sofa.

“You returned earlier than expected from your vacation?”

“Yes, by a few days. There’s still quite some time left until the day I was supposed to return, but how could I bear being away from Your Highness…”

Camilla stood up from the sofa, trying to shake off the strange feeling.

And again, with a smile in her eyes, she continued speaking gently.

“We’re as good as sisters, aren’t we?”

Rebecca was a woman starved for affection.

Such a woman had left the South where she was born and raised to stay in a foreign land.

Camilla had been using this point to manipulate Rebecca, the Grand Duchess, to her liking until now.

‘It seems she’s upset about something… But if I say things like I missed her or that we’re like sisters, she’ll surely get over it quickly?’

Just as Camilla was curling up the corners of her mouth, hiding her cunning intentions.

Rebecca, who had been silent all this time, slowly parted her lips.

“…That precious vacation with only a few days left.”

“…”

“It would have been better for both of us if you had rested at home.”

Surprised, Camilla blinked her eyes.

“Pardon…?”

“And no matter how much you’re my lady-in-waiting, visiting the Grand Duchess’s quarters without notice seems like a great discourtesy.”

Rebecca’s red eyes were clearly reproaching Camilla’s rudeness.

‘What’s going on? Something’s really… off here.’

Realizing that the situation wasn’t going according to her wishes, Camilla hurriedly changed the subject.

“Ju-just now when I arrived, this child was lying! So I was in the middle of punishing her.”

“Ah…”

Rebecca nodded her head low.

Camilla took this as a sign of listening.

‘Indeed. There’s nothing better than presenting a common enemy to escape a difficult situation.’

Camilla’s voice became more confident.

“I told her to leave because I didn’t want to be in the same space, but she kept insisting on this nonsense about being Your Highness’s personal maid.”

“Lady Camilla, I…”

“Look at her even now! She’s been talking back with that vulgar mouth of hers all this time! That vicious monster!”

Mina wailed.

At the same time, Rebecca’s eyes, looking at Mina, became even fiercer than before.

‘…Now’s the time.’

For a brief moment, Camilla’s eyes glinted maliciously.

She immediately began to moan.

“I, Camilla Dmitri, am so proud to be Your Highness’s lady-in-waiting… But even so, it’s too hard to endure such ordeals from those disgusting hybrids!”

“…”

“If I have to witness these monsters acting so impudently, I’ll have no choice but to give up my position as lady-in-waiting!”

It was an ultimatum.

Surely now, the foolish Grand Duchess would immediately punish that disgusting monster.

She might even torment that monster in a more terrible way to prove her friendship.

Camilla confidently waited for Rebecca’s next move.

Sure enough, Rebecca immediately asked back.

“Do you… really mean that?”

Camilla nodded her head with a pitiful expression, trying hard to suppress the corners of her mouth from rising.

“…I guess it can’t be helped.”

Rebecca, who had spoken as if muttering, calmly approached Mina.

It seemed the time had finally come to properly punish the monster.

Rebecca stared down at Mina for a while without saying anything or showing any expression.

And finally, her tone when she spoke was calm without any change in pitch.

“Did you enjoy it?”

A voice that felt slow yet intensely angry like lava.

Camilla smoothly curled up one corner of her mouth and approached Rebecca’s side.

And she began to reproach Mina in an even louder voice than before.

“You! You! Hurry up and answer Her Highness! She’s asking if you enjoyed lying to me!”

Just as a thrilling euphoria was rising in Camilla’s chest.

Rebecca’s face slowly turned towards Camilla beside her.

“No.”

“…?”

“…I’m talking to you.”

At that moment, the smile faded from Camilla’s lips.

Red eyes clearly revealing hostility.

They were certainly…

Directed at Camilla herself.

“Your… Highness?”

As Rebecca approached closer and closer, a slight trembling appeared on the lips of the surprised Camilla.

“Answer me.”

Finally, when they were close enough to hear each other’s breaths.

Camilla unconsciously gasped at Rebecca’s chilling voice that was heard again.

“While I was away, carelessly damaging what’s mine…”

“…”

“Did you, enjoy it?”

Camilla shook her shoulders with an expression of disbelief.

“Yo-Your Highness, come on. Wh-what kind of joke is this…!”

Rebecca turned her head as if ignoring such a Camilla.

And she ordered the maids outside the door.

“Come in.”

The situation was unfolding completely differently from expectations.

Just as Camilla was anxiously rolling her eyes.

“Make Mrs. Dmitri kneel before me immediately.”

Rebecca coldly ordered the maids who had entered.

At that, the maids rushed to Camilla without hesitation and strongly grabbed her shoulders.

“Wh-what are you doing! Even if you’re Her Highness, you can’t do this to me…!”

She shouted angrily for a moment.

Camilla frowned fiercely as if the maids’ touch was dirty.

However, it was not enough for her, a human, to overcome the strength of the mixed-blood demons.

Shameful as it was, Camilla had no choice but to kneel in front of the mixed-blood demons.

“I… I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but if you don’t stop right now, I’ll make this known to the whole world!”

Camilla screamed as if making a last struggle as her pride was cracked.

‘Even if she’s the Grand Duchess, she can’t treat me, Camilla, carelessly! Not if she doesn’t want to be isolated from Northern high society!’

Camilla reassured herself like that.

But for some reason, Rebecca still looked relaxed.

“That’s right, Camilla. You can make this known to the whole world.”

“…”

“…If you can leave this place alive.”

Finally, Camilla’s jaw, which had turned pale, began to tremble.

“I-I’ll… I’ll scream!”

At those words, Rebecca suddenly burst into laughter.

After a while, Rebecca, who had finally stopped laughing, slowly bent down towards Camilla.

The corners of Rebecca’s red lips smoothly curled up as she met Camilla’s gaze up close.

“Camilla, I told you earlier, didn’t I? Other than my servants…”

“…”

“No one comes here, you know?”