The day after the midnight game ended, Sedilroy left for the capital at dawn.

Meiana stood quietly by the bedroom window, watching Ariante, who was sound asleep. Among the servants who had gone to see him off, she spotted Jocelyn in familiar black clothes.

He had been absent all of yesterday, claiming to be ill, but even from a distance, he looked impeccably poised.

Two weeks. Meiana mentally reiterated the number of days Sedilroy would be away from the duchy. Would it feel like this if she were to drop into the middle of a battlefield holding Ariante?

As the carriage left, the servants all straightened their bowed backs. At that moment, Jocelyn turned his head to look at Meiana. Coincidence? No, it couldn’t be.

He must have suspected that Meiana was watching. That’s why he looked at her deliberately, as if to issue a warning tinged with mockery.

“It won’t go your way…”

Muttering softly, Meiana met Jocelyn’s gaze and defiantly closed the curtain. Then, she turned and narrowed her eyes.

Without a sound or any warning, Grete was in the room. Though Ariante was asleep, it was still a breach of etiquette. However, Meiana decided not to make an issue of it. Provoking Grete right now was pointless.

Meiana said with a bright smile,

“Grete, you’re up early.”

Grete hesitated for a moment, moving her clasped hands back and forth before giving a faint smile.

“Meiana, I’m sorry. I couldn’t greet the princess yesterday. I had to go out in a hurry, and it got late… So, I…”

Cutting her off, Meiana smiled more clearly.

“It’s fine, the princess understood. The Duke will bring new maids when he returns. Until then, it’ll be just you, me, and Veinti taking care of her. It’ll be tough with just the three of us, but let’s give it our best, okay?”

Grete’s lips quivered. What she had previously thought of as simple shyness or nervousness no longer seemed that way.

Grete might have plans, but Meiana couldn’t help feeling bitter about it.

Grete said,

“Okay… But the new maids, did the Duke mention them? We already have many servants, so why…”

Meiana interrupted her briskly.

“Yes, it’s the Duke’s decision. He thinks the princess needs a new environment. You know, Grete… the servants haven’t been all that courteous to her. He’s quite concerned about that.”

One side of Grete’s lips twitched.

“Did the Duke say that to you, too?”

“I’m the one taking care of the princess, so it’s natural, isn’t it?”

Meiana deliberately put on an indifferent air. She didn’t need to keep smiling. Sometimes, a dash of bitterness was necessary.

Grete, without any suspicion or deeper thought, was falling further into Meiana’s plan, stepping forcefully into the quagmire without even realizing it.

The notion that Meiana had a close relationship with Sedilroy because she attended to Ariante added fuel to Grete’s twisted rage.

Whether Meiana and Sedilroy were close, or that their relationship was different from other servants and masters, might have been just her imagination. Still, Grete came to deeply despise Meiana.

“Grete, you look pale. Are you alright? Are you feeling ill?”

Grete shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong.”
“Alright, Bainti will be here soon. I’ll go prepare to wake up the princess for breakfast. Could you change the flowers in the vase in the living room?”

“Um, sure.”

Greta glanced at the sleeping Ariante for a moment, perhaps conscious of Meiana’s gaze, and hurriedly left the room.

‘There’s no way to know for sure if Greta really visited the village that Bridget mentioned. But if she did, she wouldn’t have returned empty-handed… for sure.’

When could that be? Meiana wondered.

When are Greta and Jocelyn planning something?

Ariante, who only found out in the morning that Sediloi had gone to the capital, had swollen cheeks from disappointment all morning.

“Princess, would you like me to read you a book?”

“No.”

“Then shall we go play catch?”

“No.”

“How about some sherbet?”

“No.”

Meiana’s head dramatically drooped. Three ‘no’s in a row! It felt like she had returned to the time when she first met Ariante.

“Then what would you like to do, Princess? You had fun playing house last night, don’t you want to do anything else?”

While gritting her teeth, Ariante swung her legs back and forth, staring at Meiana with a pouty face.

“Can I play by tearing the curtains?”

“No.”

“Can I scribble on the walls then?”

“On paper.”

“Can I spray ink on Jocelyn’s door?”

“Um, if Butler Jocelyn does something to deserve getting inked.”

Ariante’s head spun around. Her breathing started to become noticeably heavier, a prelude to a tantrum. Meiana internally counted down. 5, 4, 3…

“Why didn’t you wake me when my father left!”

Just as she expected. Meiana thought. As much as it was cute to have her reactions be so predictable, now was not the time to find it adorable.

Not satisfied with just shouting, Ariante pounded the table until her small palms turned red. She even kicked the chair across from her in continued frustration.