The End Of The Special Contract Marriage - Chapter 21

“Well, that’s true. They say she had a love marriage with the master, but there’s a subtle sense of coldness between them.”

As someone took the bait, Rosalyn pressed on.

“Could it be that she doesn’t really like the master but married him anyway?”

“No way. Why would the madam do that?”

“The master is a famous knight from the Vandermir ducal family. Even if they divorce, the madam wouldn’t lose anything…”

Rosalyn whispered in a very secretive tone. Her voice, swaying like a fox’s tail, had an excellent talent for instilling hostility in some, doubt in others, and anxiety in yet others.

“Then… is the madam someone who will leave us soon?”

“We don’t know that yet, but it’s clear she has little interest in the mansion’s housekeeping or us.”

Rosalyn wrapped up the conversation at an appropriate point. Pushing further might have seemed excessive.

Even after she closed her mouth with a gloomy face, the maids continued to murmur and exchange words with each other.

The main content was that if Arasila was really just a passing wind, there was no real reason for them to serve her with true loyalty.

‘Good. I’ve created a crack, now the next step is to stimulate the madam to widen this crack.’

Amidst the whispering maids, Rosalyn’s eyes, sitting in the very center, glinted maliciously.

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Arasila tended not to skip breakfast. This was a habit formed since childhood. The Hugo Marquis family never skipped breakfast.

While lunch or dinner could be eaten outside, it was difficult to do so for breakfast. So every morning, she visited the dining hall of the Vandermir mansion.

The maids bustled between the kitchen and the hall to attend to the madam’s meal.

That’s when the incident occurred.

“Eek! Madam, are you alright?”

Rosalyn, who was bringing tea for after the meal, accidentally spilled a little on Arasila’s clothes.

All the maids present turned their attention to the scene. As a surprised Audrey rushed over to check on Arasila, Rosalyn prostrated herself on the floor, trembling.

“I’m sorry, Madam! Please forgive me just this once!”

While she appeared terrified to others as she bowed deeply, in reality, she was laughing inside.

Originally, nobles were beings who would get greatly angered even at a maid’s small mistake. Rosalyn was counting on this.

In fact, spilling the tea wasn’t a real mistake, but a deliberate act to provoke Arasila and make her angry.

‘Even if it’s my mistake, if the madam gets angry, the maids are bound to empathize with me.’

If she showed a few tears after this scene, they would take her side even more and think Arasila was being too harsh.

Then, Arasila’s reputation, which had been somewhat maintained, would quickly crumble.

“It was truly a mistake! I made a big mistake, but please show mercy!”

Rosalyn apologized again excessively, as if about to bang her forehead on the floor. This way, she’d look more pitiful in the eyes of the other maids, while subtly irritating Arasila and making her more likely to get angry.

‘Excessive apologies are actually annoying.’

She eagerly waited for the madam to get angry. And finally. There was the sound of a chair being pushed back.

Slowly rising from her seat, Arasila bent down and placed her hand on Rosalyn’s shoulder.

“Rosalyn, you…”

Arasila’s expressionless face was difficult to read emotions from.

Is she really angry?

While Rosalyn was inwardly uncertain, outwardly she continued to tremble even more. That’s when it happened.

“You were sneaking glances at my face, weren’t you?”

“…Pardon?”

What is this suddenly?

The corners of Arasila’s mouth turned up playfully. Rosalyn unknowingly stared at her with a dumb expression.

The madam, who was expected to be angry, seemed unfazed by the maid’s mistake.

“You’ve been stealing glances at my face from the beginning. Rosalyn, just look openly. I’m used to it, I won’t get angry.”

Arasila brushed back her lavender hair that flowed down richly as she helped Rosalyn to her feet.

Rosalyn blinked, feeling dazed as she stood up. Usually, this would have resulted in anger…

“Besides, you’re my maid, so I won’t charge you separately. Look as much as you want.”

Arasila gave a melting eye smile. With such looks, she could say such brazen things without being challenged.

“Just don’t make such mistakes next time.”

“…Ah, yes. I understand. Thank you, Madam.”

Rosalyn bowed her head in greeting, but inwardly felt dismayed. This made her look like the only one who had foolishly made a mistake.

The original plan was to be scolded excessively for the mistake and become a pitiful and miserable maid.

Now, only Arasila came off as a generous and witty madam.

‘Damn, this is not as easy as it looks.’

As she moved to stand by the wall, Rosalyn bit the soft flesh inside her mouth. If Arasila had shown even a little anger, she would have provoked her further to turn it into a big fire.

With this response, Rosalyn could do nothing.

After that, provocations against Arasila continued to fail.

No matter what mistake Rosalyn made or what she said, Arasila brushed it off without much reaction. If she pushed any further, it seemed like only her own image would become strange.

What should I do now? As Rosalyn was pondering, her eyes fell on Audrey.

“Rosalyn, aren’t you making too many mistakes lately? Focus properly on serving the madam.”

When Audrey admonished her with a stern face and left, Rosalyn felt unpleasant but at the same time thought, ‘This is it!’

In fact, Arasila spent little time at the mansion, making her harder to slander than expected. Slander is usually more effective when the person is somewhat visible.

Just badmouthing someone who hasn’t done anything was mere gossip.

‘But that Audrey is almost always in the mansion.’

Rosalyn changed her plan from attacking Arasila to attacking Audrey, her personal maid.

And she immediately began her underground work.

“Audrey, I’ll do all the cleaning.”

“Huh? Isn’t that too much for you alone? Let’s just do it together, Rosalyn.”

“No, I’ve made many mistakes recently. I want to reflect and learn more work.”

“Is that so…? Well, if that’s what you want. Just don’t overdo it.”

Rosalyn nodded with a smile at Audrey’s words and immediately headed to where the other maids were.

As if she had never smiled, she sighed deeply and staggered with a dark face.

“Rosalyn, where are you going?”

“Ah, to clean the annex.”

“By yourself?”

“Yeah, Audrey told me to do it alone… She said I should reflect because my frequent mistakes have been upsetting the madam lately.”

At those words, the maids opened their eyes wide and gathered around Rosalyn.

“Isn’t it too much to make you clean the annex alone, no matter what?”

“What mistakes did you make? Even so, the madam didn’t seem particularly angry.”

“…So that’s what the madam meant on the first day. She said she’d communicate with us through Audrey from now on.”

Strictly speaking, she had said it was okay to say what she wanted through Audrey, but as time passed, memories had faded.

So when Rosalyn said it like that, the other maids also came to think that’s what had been said.

“What? So the madam was actually angry…?”

“I guess so. But it’s something that she didn’t scold me right away to avoid embarrassment. I’m fine.”

“But… Then we’ll help you with the cleaning!”

“Yeah, let’s do that. We’ll help too!”

“Really? Thank you all.”

Rosalyn sniffled as if deeply moved.

On the way to the annex, and throughout the cleaning, the maids kept saying how excessive Audrey was being.

After the cleaning was done, Rosalyn urged the maids:

“Since Audrey told me to do it alone, she might get angry if she finds out someone helped. So please keep this a secret, everyone.”

Thanks to this, Audrey remained completely unaware of what Rosalyn had done behind her back.

This was not the end.

Rosalyn took time to slowly create an atmosphere. That Audrey was riding on Arasila’s back and bossing around the maids.

“Audrey asked me to tell you to clean the bathroom for her. She said she has to go attend to the madam.”

“What? I just saw her playing around.”

“This schedule, I heard Audrey made it. Have you seen it?”

“Really? No wonder she’s the only one with easy tasks. This is ridiculous.”

“Girls, Audrey says we should play by ourselves. I guess she didn’t have much fun last time.”

“That’s funny, she was laughing so happily then. Is she drawing the line because she’s the madam’s close maid or what?”

Rosalyn skillfully went back and forth between Audrey and the maids, sowing discord.

After all, not many people would boldly bring up behind-the-scenes talk to someone’s face. If such a person appeared, Rosalyn quickly intervened.

“Don’t say anything to Audrey unnecessarily. Don’t you know she’s the madam’s most cherished maid? You’ll only disadvantage yourself. Let’s just endure it.”

“There’s a limit even to endurance! She’s always pushing her work onto others and giving us all the hard tasks!”

“What can we do? It’s all the madam’s will. As long as the madam favors only Audrey, there’s nothing we lowly maids can do.”

In the end, Rosalyn finally achieved the result she wanted.

Before long, negative public opinion about Arasila and Audrey formed within the Vandermir mansion, and Audrey became isolated among the maids.

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Again.

Audrey narrowed her eyes as she saw the maids scatter in all directions as soon as she appeared, as if on cue. This was already the umpteenth time she had experienced this.

At first, the Vandermir mansion maids seemed to get along well enough, but suddenly they started showing something like exclusiveness.

‘Why on earth?’

Even when she reflected on what she might have done wrong, nothing came to mind.

The maids distanced themselves from her for no reason. Then they banded together tightly among themselves and ostracized Audrey.

If only this were all. Recently, there had been many small mistakes among the maids attending to Arasila.

But somehow, to Audrey’s eyes, they all seemed intentional. However, being minor mistakes, it was awkward to point them out specifically.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one person doing it, but several taking turns, which made it even more difficult.

“Hey, she’s here.”

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

As Audrey appeared carrying a laundry basket, once again, without fail, the maids gathered at the laundry area rushed out.

Audrey took note of the blonde-haired maid at the center.

Rosalyn.

She had been an irritating maid for some inexplicable reason from before. Audrey, who had quite good intuition, felt uneasy about Rosalyn.

The head maid had said she was newly hired for Arasila, but the attitude of the maids gathered around her towards Arasila was particularly strange.

‘Hah, but I only have suspicions and no concrete evidence, so it’s awkward to confront her.’

Audrey sighed heavily as she handed over the basket to the maid in charge of laundry and turned around.

And as soon as she completely disappeared, Rosalyn’s group returned to where they had been.

“Did you see how arrogantly she just left the basket without saying anything? We’re not maids working under her.”

“We’re the ones who originally worked at the Vandermir mansion, so shouldn’t she, who just came in, be below us?”

In fact, Audrey, as Arasila’s personal maid, had no reason to do such menial tasks.

But from the perspective of the maids who already viewed her unfavorably, it was unpleasant to see a maid from outside acting like their superior.

Rosalyn, who had carefully fostered such an atmosphere and emotions, raised the corner of her mouth slightly.

“This is all because the madam favors only Audrey. Of course she would see us as beneath her, right?”

“The madam just thinks about using the master or us. Look how she only dotes on the maid she brought from her family home.”

The badmouthing of Audrey naturally led to hostility towards Arasila.

However, objectively, Arasila had never favored Audrey. Even if she had, it was common for any noble lady to make her closest confidant a maid brought from her family.

Although there was nothing wrong with this, the maids whispered as if a bad deed had been committed.

“Do we have to serve and respect such a person as our mistress?”

“Honestly, I find it difficult to acknowledge the current madam as our mistress too.”

“That’s right, if we don’t acknowledge her, the madam can never become the mistress. In fact, the qualification of being the mistress depends on us.”

Rosalyn injected nonsensical ideas among the maids.

The maids, who were hesitant at first, gradually began to agree with her words.

Everything was unfolding according to Rosalyn’s plan.