The Crown Prince seemed to be conversing with someone hidden from Amy’s view. He often fidgeted angrily, shaking his head or rubbing his chin.

“……”

Amy, who had been staring at him intently, approached another window, leaned out her upper body, and looked down. Only then could she visually confirm the Crown Prince’s conversation partner, who had been hidden by the tower.

‘It’s that person who came to meet the Crown Prince in his office. Was it Baron Pierson?’

The reason for meeting in such a remote place was obvious. They must have a topic to discuss in secret.

‘It seems they don’t want to be seen by the Crown Prince’s other attendants in the outer castle either.’

There was something else strange. The baron’s behavior seemed relaxed, while the Crown Prince appeared to be holding something back or sometimes losing his composure.

‘What’s this, did he get some leverage?’

As she watched them with her arms crossed, a maid emerged from the end of the path where they were standing and urgently gestured to them. The Crown Prince and the baron hurriedly moved towards her and soon disappeared.

“Hmm……”

Amy swallowed as she traced her memory.

‘She looks like a newly hired maid. At least she’s not originally from the Grand Duke’s castle staff.’

After closing the window, Amy neatly organized the memo and left the tower.

“We have completed all the preparations for the banquet like this.”

Amy stared quietly at Mrs. Weaver, who had finished her report. With her taking the lead, Amy’s workload had considerably decreased. Butler Melvin was also pleased to be completely relieved of duties related to the inner castle and maids. Moreover, Mrs. Weaver was a person with clear boundaries, making her easy to deal with. All one had to do was follow the principles.

“Mrs. Weaver. Are you familiar with all the maids’ personal information?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I see….”

Amy had thought about bringing up the maid she had seen in the memo, but seeing Mrs. Weaver’s confidence made her want to wait and see. Despite the need for extra caution with outsiders flooding in, somehow there was a belief that Mrs. Weaver could handle it.

Amy cheerfully stamped the seal. Then, as she handed over the documents, she casually said,

“If you have any difficulties, feel free to talk about them anytime.”

“To you, Lady Chamberlain?”

“No, to the butler. I’ll be busy for a while.”

“Understood.”

Mrs. Weaver bowed and left the office. Amy got up from her seat and walked to the window. As she was looking at the scenery outside for a moment, Mrs. Weaver, who had come down the stairs, appeared in the courtyard.

A maid who had been loitering outside quickly approached her and whispered something. After listening, Mrs. Weaver gave some instructions, and the maid quickly ran off somewhere.

At the end of the direction she was heading, the suspicious maid Amy had seen in the memo was walking briskly with a basket in her hands.

A smile spread across Amy’s face.

‘Nothing to worry about, I guess.’

She turned around without hesitation and approached the desk. Then she sat down again, spread out a map of the Black Mountains, and began to study it intently.

On the day of the coronation and the first day of the banquet, the servants who had perfectly completed their preparations rushed to the break room as soon as they had a moment to spare. It was to groom themselves.

“This is the powder that’s popular in the capital. They say if you apply this, your skin becomes rosy like a baby’s.”

As Mary held up a cylindrical metal case proudly, a long line quickly formed in front of her.

“Mary, me too.”

“Put a little on my face too.”

“You should have shared something like that earlier.”

“Hey, back off. Do you know how expensive this is?”

As Mary hid the powder case behind her back and waved her hands as if shooing away dogs, Cecil smiled ominously.

“No matter how expensive it is, it can’t be worth more than your life, right?”

“……I meant to line up properly. Abby, why are you cutting in line?”

Mary, intimidated by Cecil’s aura, opened the powder case with a sullen expression. Then she started thumping the soft fur puff loaded with powder onto the maids’ faces as if stamping them.

The maids had powder slapped onto their faces as if they were receiving rations in a line. The problem was that Mary and the other maids were using this type of powder for the first time.

“Doesn’t my face look a bit red?”

Abby tilted her head as she looked in the mirror. Other maids began to agree one by one.

“You look like you’re standing in front of Sir Dwayne.”

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t you know? Your face always burns up when you see Sir Dwayne.”

The maids next to her giggled and teased.

“Fire! Fire!”

“Shut up.”

As Abby was grumbling, the door opened and Amy, who had finished her simple grooming, entered the break room. After a moment of silence, the maids let out shrill screams.

“Lady Chamberlain!”

“Are you all preparing well?”

Amy walked among the maids, straightening crooked clothes and smoothing disheveled hair. The maids waited quietly with shy expressions for her touch.

When she finally stood in front of Cecil, one of Amy’s eyebrows raised. Cecil, unaware of this, gazed at Amy in rapture.

‘Lady Chamberlain didn’t even dress up like us, but she’s dazzling.’

Feeling like a candle before the sun, Cecil bowed her head in embarrassment. At that moment, Amy’s voice was heard.

“Raise your head.”

“?”

“You should look at me. Cecil.”

Amy called her name softly, as if coaxing her.

“……Yes?”

The moment Cecil reflexively raised her head, Amy grabbed her chin and brought her face close. The maids, whose hearts sank at the suggestive position, silently clutched their chests. Amy carefully examined Cecil’s face and tapped her cheek with her finger to brush off the powder. Then she smiled.

“Now I can see your pretty face properly.”

“……”

Leaving Cecil standing there with her mouth agape in shock, Amy turned around.

“Come out when you’re done preparing.”

With those words, she left the break room without lingering. The maids muttered as they stared blankly at where she had disappeared.

“Lady Chamberlain… such a sinful person……”

Cecil shook her head to clear her mind and cupped her cheeks with both hands. It still felt like the Lady Chamberlain’s warmth remained. Whoa, to be captivated by another woman….

At that moment, Lucy tilted her head and said,

“It seems Lady Chamberlain doesn’t know how beautiful she is.”

Abby chimed in agreement.

“Right. When I said something like that to her before, she casually replied, ‘In my eyes, you girls are prettier!'”

The maids screamed, slapping each other’s backs and stomping their feet. Cecil recalled a memory from the past.

‘If I looked like Lady Chamberlain, I would have toured the North every year.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘It’s a kind of benevolence. For the welfare of the territory’s people, you could say.’

As Cecil puffed out her chest and exhaled through her nose, Amy made a deflating sound.

‘Are you saying I’m pretty?’

‘Yes!’

Amy chuckled.

‘Cecil likes me too much. I’m not that great.’

‘No way.’

‘There are really flower-like young ladies in the Empire. If Cecil went to the Imperial Palace once, you wouldn’t say such things.’

Cecil was truly curious whether the women in the Imperial Palace were that beautiful, or if the Lady Chamberlain didn’t know something.

While His Grace the Grand Duke’s appearance was like a masterpiece completed by an artisan after drawing, erasing, and redrawing many times, the Lady Chamberlain’s beauty was as if stamped out at once, clean and without any unnecessary elements.

Moreover, while she looked like a cold doll standing in the shadows when expressionless, her atmosphere changed completely when she smiled or showed expression. It became vivid, as if sunlight was shining or colors were being added, and the contrast made one’s heart drop.

She wasn’t the only one thinking this way, as other maids said similar things.

“Look at His Highness the Crown Prince. He follows our Lady Chamberlain around, trying to catch her eye even once more.”

“Really without any dignity… But on the other hand, I can understand.”

Cecil nodded solemnly. If there were many flower-like beauties in the Imperial Palace as the Lady Chamberlain said, why would His Highness the Crown Prince, who must have seen them the most, be so fixated on the Lady Chamberlain?

Then she suddenly became curious. How did the Grand Duke, who had lived in the Imperial Palace like the Crown Prince and seen many beauties, view the Lady Chamberlain?

“It’s almost time.”

Amy said as she entered the Grand Duke’s inner chamber. Mrs. Weaver, Rita, and Mary, who had been helping with the Grand Duke’s preparations, stepped back and bowed their heads.

“Lady Chamberlain. We’ve just finished.”

“Good work. You two go and get ready too.”

Amy gave Rita and Mary an eye smile and nodded for them to go. Rita and Mary looked proudly at the Grand Duke’s appearance they had worked so hard to perfect, then turned and left the inner chamber.

“Wait a moment, Amy.”

Noah spoke without taking his eyes off the stack of papers he was holding. He seemed to be memorizing the draft of the speech to announce the start of the banquet for the last time. Amy said she understood and then pulled Mrs. Weaver to a corner of the inner chamber.

“Is there any new information?”

At Amy’s words, Mrs. Weaver lowered her eyes once before speaking.

“As you may already know, there’s a rat bastard in the Grand Duke’s castle.”

“……”

Amy was momentarily speechless at the harsh expression that seemed unbelievable coming from the refined lady. Mrs. Weaver continued her story.

“She’s a maid who was hired before I came. She was bribed by none other than an Imperial baron.”

“When did you find out about this?”

“I knew as soon as I started working. There were suspicious aspects in various ways. So I assigned maid Jorin to watch her from the beginning.”

From the beginning! Admiration spread across Amy’s face.

The most important quality for a head maid is managing employees, and she had spotted a spy at first glance. Amy felt proud of her own insight in recruiting Mrs. Weaver.

Mrs. Weaver, maintaining her expressionless face, leaned slightly towards Amy and lowered her voice.

“There’s something I found out that you should know before entering the banquet.”

“What is it?”

Amy also lowered her voice in response. Glancing over, Noah was still focused on reading his draft. Mrs. Weaver spoke carefully.

“When the Imperial Baron Pierson, who serves as an attendant to His Highness the Crown Prince, was heavily drunk, he boasted that lowly beings like you would not even be able to look at him straight in the future.”

“Is that so?”

Although it was vulgar behavior, it wasn’t particularly strange. Being an attendant to the Crown Prince meant he had properly secured his position. But something didn’t feel right.

The Crown Prince didn’t have what could be called his own faction yet. He only knew the nobles chosen and appointed by the Empress, or those he knew through connections. At least that was the case when she was in the Imperial Palace, but had it changed now?

‘The Empress is not someone who would easily change the system she created.’

Moreover, the strange relationship between the baron and the Crown Prince that she had seen in the memo bothered her. Not ignoring the uneasy feeling, Amy finally placed this Baron Pierson at the top of her list of people to watch out for.