He said,

“Why are you angry? Corsets aren’t only for Ariante. Any child from a noble family…”

Meiana interrupted,

“That’s exactly the problem. It’s unfathomable why young children should be made to wear corsets in the first place. I can’t worry about children from other families. Frankly, it’s none of my business! But the princess is different. She’s the child I’m responsible for.”

Sedilroy’s expression wrinkled in an odd way. Whether it was because Ariante was shocked to see Meiana angry for the first time or because Sedilroy was present, she remained silent, her lips sealed.

Meiana continued,

“But what about you, my lord? Have you ever cared about what your daughter wears? Ever tried to understand how uncomfortable and difficult it is because of the clothes?”

“Enough!”

The shout finally came from Sedilroy. Meiana closed her mouth, but her spirit wasn’t broken. She simply looked at him as if challenging him to say more.

She didn’t rule out the possibility of being fired, of being told to quit immediately… But even so, Meiana felt no regret. She had many things she’d wanted to say to Sedilroy, and this was something that had to be said.

For a while, Sedilroy took silent breaths, calming his anger while collecting his thoughts.

However, he wasn’t angry at Meiana’s attitude… That was what confused him the most. Then what was making him so angry? What was making him so frustrated?

“…Enough, let’s go.”

It was the only word Sedilroy uttered as he held Ariante close.

In his arms, Ariante looked back at Meiana once. Her expression was a mix of sorrow and rage.

Sighing, Meiana followed the two.

The servants of the Duke, especially the maids responsible for the eastern section where Ariante stayed, were whispering about Grete all day.

From the morning, Grete had been visibly off. While other maids took advantage of Ariante and Meiana’s absence to goof off, she claimed she would clean alone. She went to Ariante’s room and returned with a drained expression.

Even at mealtime, she didn’t even think of lifting her spoon; she just sat, biting her nails with a pale face. She stopped cleaning the window frame and stared blankly out, drawing people’s attention.

“Grete, what’s wrong with you today?”

Her roommate Bridget cautiously asked. Grete looked at her with an empty gaze, like a ghost, and responded,

“It’s nothing.”

The reason she was so strange was that she found nothing in Ariante’s room. She had reluctantly cleaned the disarray and searched once more, but it was impossible to find what was never there.

‘Damn it… Where did you hide it? What did you hide?’

As lunchtime passed, Grete’s nerves grew razor-sharp.

She knew that Sedilroy, Duke Valterminster, had no wife. She also knew Ariante wasn’t his biological daughter. She had not warned Meiana because she hoped Meiana would make a critical mistake and be quickly dismissed.

After all, the position of Ariante’s dedicated maid was what Grete had originally wanted.

Of course, Grete had no love for Ariante. No affection either.
Long ago, when Ariante was younger than she is now, there had been a time when she was temporarily taken care of by a maid. The maid who used to serve Ariante couldn’t tolerate the child’s petulance and had run away in the night, leaving her belongings behind.

When Ariante pestered Grete to tell her a story, Grete enthusiastically recounted her own life. She had originally been the daughter of a noble family, but after her family fell from grace, she had no choice but to work as a maid….

But Ariante, who seemed to be quietly listening, looked at Grete and said:

From that day on, Grete began to despise Ariante. The incident involving the green pomegranate stone that Bainti had told Meianna about also added fuel to Grete’s hatred.

Although she was of noble origin, Grete’s family had been destitute even before she was born. They were nobles in name only; their lifestyle was hardly different from commoners. They could only afford to make dresses twice a year, had never had a luxurious meal, and had never hosted a grand ball.

As a result, Grete always felt inferior. The day her family completely fell apart and her relatives dispersed, leading her to work as a maid in Count’s residence, she felt a desperate misery amidst the opulence she had never even dreamed of.

Her family was nothing like the Bauterminster Duke’s family. Her life was nothing like Ariante’s.

It was only natural that she couldn’t bring herself to like Ariante. Even finding out that Ariante was not the Duke’s biological daughter, but a child his brother had left behind, made her irate.