Empress of Otherverse

Chapter 42

 

Crash!

Beautifully decorated porcelain cup smashed with a sharp noise.

What a waste. This was the fourth cup already. My face crumpled in displeasure.

Samantha and Agnes’s expressions were more vicious. The Loventis sisters looked downright hostile.

Luis finally couldn’t stand it. Luis was known to be a stickler even to her own sister.

She yelled sharply, “Lady Lisbeth!”

Lisbeth’s large blue eyes filled with tears.

“I, I’m… so… sorr…”

Her voice trembled so wretchedly she couldn’t finish her sentence. However, no one felt sorry for her in this room.

It had been four days since Lisbeth became my maid. In those four days, she destroyed countless plates and decorations.

Four cups, five to six plates, and a large glass vase. She even damaged a couple of my jewelry.

They all belonged to the royal family and, therefore, were of the highest qualities. They were such priceless items I felt like we should charge the Duke of Aeal.

I sighed loudly. The principle maid in waiting and the other maids’ eyes sharpened. I could understand why they would be frustrated.

As the maids of the royal family, their work was never physical or hard. They all came from influential noble families and, therefore, weren’t expected to slave away.

Real works like laundry, cleaning, and dishes were done by servants who were born commoners. The maids only had to serve what the servants prepared to me. The servants worked under the maids themselves.

For example, the servants would clean the dishes and arrange the food on the plates. All the maids had to do was bring the plate to me and sit with me while I ate.

Sometimes maids brewed the teas themselves, but as the newest member, Lisbeth was given the easiest of the duties. For the last four days, all she had to do was hand the items to Agnes or Samantha. However, she couldn’t even do that. She kept dropping fragile things on the floor.

Every time she made a mistake, she would just cry. None of the maids had any sympathy for her stupidity and uselessness.

Luis frowned and yelled, “Just spit it out!”

“I, I… I’m…!”

Lisbeth’s voice trembled violently. In fact, her entire body was shaking.

I remembered how things were when I was in Aeal colony. Lisbeth was the precious princess of the Bonafit family. As the only daughter, she was spoiled rotten. She had never known any kind of hardship in her life.

However, this wasn’t Aeal colony, and her people did not surround Lisbeth.

Luis’ voice was cold as ice.

“Wipe your tears first! As her highness’s maid, your duties are very easy! All you have to do is to hand her highness cups and plates then help her get dressed! A five-year-old should be able to do this! How is it that you are failing at such simple tasks!? And why do you keep crying!”

“… I, I’m… so…”

Lisbeth’s blue eyes were now filled with tears. She could barely speak at all.

Suddenly, someone jumped into Lisbeth’s rescue as if Lisbeth was a cub and she was her mother lion.

It was Orlean who glared at me and screamed, “Lady Lisbeth is the only daughter of the Duke of Aeal. She was raised as a proper lady and so it is natural she doesn’t know how to do things like this!”

Orlean hugged Lisbeth and glared at Luis and I.

“You are indebted to the Bonafit family, so how could you treat Lady Lisbeth like this!?”

Lisbeth, by now, was engulfed by Orlean and weeping.

I grinned at Orlean wickedly. I was now used to dealing with people like the dowager empress and the emperor. Someone like Orlean or Lisbeth was no match for me. This was downright boring.

I replied to her, “I have already paid back in full when I was sent here instead of Lisbeth.”

“That’s nonsense! How can you ever repay them when they saved your life and educated you…!?”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I stood up and walked towards them slowly.

Orlean flinched and backed away as if I was going to hit her. It was too funny.

How silly. I had never touched a hair on either of them. Well, it was partly because I had no chance to do so. I did dream of hurting them, but when I saw how pathetic Lisbeth was, all I could do was drop a sigh.

I stood in front of them.

“What are you accusing me of doing?”

“You…!”

Orlean couldn’t finish her sentence because I really didn’t do anything to Lisbeth. All I did was have a meeting with the Duke of Aeal and request to have Lisbeth as one of my maids.

It was an honor to become a maid of any royal family members. Maids weren’t servants at all; they were more like friends and political allies. Maids always came from powerful noble families. A maid was one of the very few who could physically touch a royal family member.

All I did was to give Lisbeth the honor of becoming my maid. I also only gave her the simplest responsibilities.

I hadn’t realized how useless Lisbeth was, but this made my plan simpler. I had been worrying about how to bully her publicly so that the dowager empress becomes interested in Lisbeth. Now, I didn’t have to come up with anything. She was making it too easy.

On top of being a horrible maid, her servant, Orlean, was being incredibly rude to me in Lisbeth’s stead.

I said to her quietly, “What are you accusing me of doing? I just don’t understand why you are so angry at me. Just as you said, the Duke help me in the past, so I was just repaying my debt by honoring his daughter with a maid position. Was that such a horrible thing? Luis, Elza, is it so terrible to be my maids?”

Luis bowed deeply and denied it, “There is no way anyone would feel that way, your highness. You are the only wife to the emperor. You have been gifted with the honorable name ‘le Cransia.’ You are the most esteemed woman in this kingdom.”

Elza added, “That is true, your highness. When we first heard the news that we were to become your maids, our parents couldn’t be happier. They were grateful.”

I nodded lightly. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. I would never want anyone to be uncomfortable around me. So if serving me is so horrific, then I would never force you to stay. You are always free to go back to Aeal, Lisbeth. You aren’t my slave.”

I turned to Lisbeth and smiled brightly. I tried to mimic the smiles of the kind movie heroines from my world. I hoped it looked generous and caring.

I continued, “I don’t want you to do things you aren’t comfortable with. So please let me know if you want to leave. All I did was try to help your father, the Duke.”

Lisbeth turned red. Like magic, she stopped crying and trembling.

She shook her head firmly and replied, “N, no…! Sist… I mean, your highness…”

She tried to call me her sister but changed quickly when she saw Samantha glaring at her.

On her first day, Lisbeth called me “sister” and was harshly reprimanded by Samantha and Agnes. They reminded her how the Duke unadopted me publicly and legally.

They then laughed at Lisbeth’s face.

I didn’t stop their mistreatment of her. I just watched from afar because what they were saying was all true. I didn’t care if I was being petty.

It didn’t make sense but being unadopted hurt me deeply. Perhaps it was because, at one point, I trusted him with my life.

I smiled at her. “Really? I’m glad to hear it.”

I walked towards the mirror to change and I asked Lisbeth for help, “It’s almost time and I should get ready. Could you help me?”

“Y, yes…!”

Lisbeth was, at first, successful in helping me take my outer gown off, but as she tried to hand it to the servant, she stepped on Elza’s dress and fell on the ground. As she fell, she also knocked off a vase filled with water. The water spilled onto my new dress I was supposed to wear this morning.

It was a glamorous red dress and it was completely soaked. Agnes couldn’t control her anger anymore.

She screamed, “Lady Lisbeth!”

… perhaps it was a mistake to bring Lisbeth here. I was starting to regret my decision.