TSTRP 09

Chapter 9

“F-finally! I’m done!”

When I looked at the empty tray with eyes that had gone hollow from being tormented by letters all day, I was overwhelmed with emotion.

I had actually finished all of them in a single day!

I had never cared much about pride or appearances in the first place, but apparently, elites born into prestigious families and trained at the Academy had come here to become secretaries and do this kind of work.

“This must be incredibly soul-crushing. No wonder everyone keeps refusing to work as the First Prince’s secretary.”

Wasn’t it possible that Lyenel hadn’t actually killed his secretaries?

Maybe they just ran away?

I had been secretly nervous that Lyenel might kill me as soon as I arrived at work, but he didn’t seem particularly interested in me.

Considering that he wouldn’t even see me to receive my greeting, it seemed he really couldn’t care less.

Being Lyenel’s secretary was actually a better job than I had expected.

It was stable, I wasn’t micromanaged, I had my own office, and I had no competitors.

Although there’s no future.

Knock, knock.

Just then, the attendant who had visited earlier came back in.

“Secretary, Viscount Serga asked me to tell you that your allowance for maintaining your dignity has been issued. He said you should come collect it.”

An allowance for maintaining my dignity on top of my salary?!

I sprang to my feet, then looked down at what I was wearing.

Because of everything that had happened that morning, the dress that had originally been fairly neat was now half-tattered.

My old shoes looked as though they were about to fall apart at any moment.

I hardly looked like a noble lady, let alone a secretary to a member of the Imperial Family.

The allowance probably wasn’t normally issued this quickly.

Apparently, my appearance had been too painful to look at.

Well, whose fault was it for dropping me off in front of that forest of vines…

As I left the office, I stuck close to the attendant guiding me and whispered,

“How much is the dignity allowance?”

“I don’t know your exact salary, Secretary, but it’s about thirty percent of your salary.”

T-thirty percent?!

An additional thirty percent every month!

This is what it means to be a royal secretary!

Oh, please. I could go through that forest of vines ten more times.

It was a noble ceremony I had to endure to officially become part of the Imperial Palace.

Yes, of course I was willing to do it!

All the hardships I had gone through since morning were instantly forgotten.

The atmosphere at the Albre mansion was different when I returned in the Imperial carriage.

In the morning, there had been some curiosity toward the Imperial carriage, but something must have happened in the meantime because the atmosphere was now extremely gloomy.

The flowers blooming in the mansion’s courtyard even seemed wilted.

The servants walking around were so tense that they looked as though they were afraid someone might find fault with them, and the way they looked at me was hardly friendly.

Well, that part is normal.

After living in the Albre mansion for so long, my instincts told me that something had definitely happened.

But there was absolutely no reason for me to get swept up in that atmosphere.

I was no longer the person who had simply answered, “Yes, yes,” and obediently accepted everything my uncle said after my marriage had been called off.

I hummed to myself shamelessly as I walked past the servants, pretending I knew nothing.

I faintly heard someone sigh behind me, but once again, it had nothing to do with me.

Ah, if only I could crack open a cold can of beer right now…

This miserable world didn’t even have beer, let alone refrigerators.

There were things called iceboxes here, but they were extremely expensive.

The Albre family had sold off most of its territory and was drowning in debt, so there was no way they could afford one.

There definitely used to be an icebox when I was young, though.

I remembered the cook making shaved ice for me using ice taken from the icebox.

Although I had memories from my previous life, when I was young, my mind seemed to have been heavily influenced by my physical body, so my mental age had been somewhat younger.

Like any child, I used to beg for shaved ice every single day.

Maintaining an icebox was expensive, but my parents had gladly continued paying for the costly appliance because their young daughter wanted it.

Of course, there was no way that nostalgic icebox was still in the mansion now.

After my uncle took control of the Albre family, he had sold it long ago when he needed money.

What did he sell after that?

…

Did he sell my parents’ belongings?

I was heading upstairs to my room to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the mansion when I heard loud laughter near the stairs.

A few maids who worked in the mansion were apparently whispering among themselves.

“Did you see that old Mary’s face earlier?”

“Hehe, she really is stupid. I can’t believe she’s still sticking with Lady Solana. If it were me, I’d get on my knees and beg Lady Alice to take me in.”

Their gossip was annoying enough that I couldn’t simply ignore it.

Mary wasn’t just my maid.

She was the only person in the Albre mansion who was truly on my side, and she was also my closest friend, someone I had known since childhood.

When the other maids had either left the mansion or completely submitted themselves to my uncle, Mary had refused to serve Alice and remained by my side.

But judging by what the maids were saying, something must have happened to Mary.

No wonder the atmosphere felt so strange!

I immediately ran toward my room, where I assumed Mary would be.

Without hesitation, I threw open the door.

Bang!

Unlike its usual neat and tidy state, thanks to Mary’s care, the room looked as though a burglar had broken in.

Everything was a mess.

Mary was crouched in the middle of the room, picking things up.

“Ah, M-Miss? You’re already back?”

“What happened here?!”

The drawers of the vanity had all been pulled out and were scattered across the floor.

The few clothes I owned were tangled among them, covered in dust.

There were marks on the floor as though the table and even the bed had been roughly shoved around.

Nothing was left untouched.

Mary’s eyes were bloodshot, and she stammered nervously.

“I was going to clean everything up before you came back…”

“You were planning to clean all this up and pretend nothing happened?”

“I was worried you would be shocked…”

The anger rising inside me subsided slightly at her words.

That was when I noticed something else.

“Were you hurt?”

Not only the room but Mary herself looked terrible.

Her hair was a complete mess, and her face was slightly red.

When she stood up, she limped.

She was obviously injured.

“N-no. It’s not like that.”

“Mary, don’t even think about making excuses. I have eyes and ears. Do you really think I can look at this mess and calmly pretend I don’t know anything?”

“Miss…”

“What happened? Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

Alice, my uncle Torres’s daughter, was the tyrant of the Albre mansion—the person who had taken everything away from me.

All the servants trembled around her and constantly tried to keep her happy.

But there was one person who refused to do so.

Mary.

“You’re Solana’s maid? What does she need a maid for? From today onward, you work for me.”

“No! Don’t insult my lady!”

That conversation had taken place not long after my uncle seized control of the mansion.

Because of it, Mary had earned Alice’s lasting hatred.

And she had been ostracized within the mansion ever since.

Even so, she never backed down.

She fought with the cook when he refused to give me food and brought meals to me herself.

She took cleaning tools away from servants who completely neglected the part of the mansion where my room was located and used them to clean my bedroom and bathroom.

She was even the one who caught the rats Alice had released into my room.

Thanks to Mary, I had been able to enjoy some degree of comfort in the mansion.

There was no way I could simply overlook her being injured like this.

“Tell me.”

After I kept pressing her, Mary finally began stammering out what had happened.

“A little while ago, Lady Alice’s maids came and searched your room. They rummaged through everything for quite a while, then got angry and left when they said there was nothing worth selling.”

The maids in the mansion were practically Alice’s people, so that was more or less what I had expected.

“Then why were you injured?”

“I was just trying to stop them from making such a mess. I got hurt a little while doing that.”

I narrowed my eyes and examined Mary.

Alice had always disliked Mary, but she had never resorted to this level of violence before.

If Mary had been injured this badly, there had to be something else.

Something that had particularly angered Alice.

“I told you to tell me everything. I can go ask Alice myself right now.”

Mary hesitated before glancing toward one side of the room.

It was a drawer where I kept particularly important things, which was why I often checked it.

No way…

Something suddenly occurred to me.

I rushed toward the drawer and pulled it open.

Please, don’t let it be that.

There were exactly three things inside.

A notebook where I recorded all sorts of things.

A pathetic little purse.

And…

“Mother’s necklace! The necklace is gone!”

It was the only keepsake of my mother that I had left.

I stood blankly in front of the drawer.

Mary spoke with a guilty expression.

“I’m sorry. Lady Alice brought so many maids with her that I couldn’t protect Madam’s necklace.”

At some point, I found myself violently throwing open the dining hall doors.

Bang!

The attendant standing beside the door jumped in surprise and hurriedly stepped aside.

Alice had come down to the dining hall for dinner, and when she saw me storming toward her, she grinned.

It was as though she already knew exactly why I was there.

“Alice!!”

“Oh my, what happened to you? What is that appearance? Did you roll around on the floor?”

My hair was completely disheveled, and my clothes were terribly wrinkled.

Any trace of a noble lady had disappeared.

All that remained was a face that looked more like that of a vicious bandit.

Apparently, she found it amusing.