The nanny spoke in such a spiteful tone.

She raised her hand again with an expression I had never seen before.

“D-Did you just hit me? H-How dare you? To me?”

“How dare I? Call me head maid. I’m in charge of managing you now that you are a maid.”

“Are you crazy?”

The always warm and gentle nanny slapped her again without changing her expression.

“It looks like you haven’t come to your senses.”

“H-Hah? Who do you think you are to hit me?!”

“You’ll have to start again from the basics anyway. However, I didn’t expect you to have such a foul mouth.”

“Hey, Leona! Did you see her hit me?”

The nanny threw me off guard by doing something in my stead, but I quickly regained my composure when my sister screamed at me.

“Leona!”

“Ah. I’m used to people calling me madam or duchess everyday, so I must have forgotten my name for a moment.”

“…What?”

“By the way, Jane Lotis. Are you even serious about becoming a maid?”

“Ha? What are you saying?”

“Why are you throwing a fit like this? If you still want to work here, you need to do more than just grovel at my feet. You’ve just been hired as this family’s maid. Have you forgotten already?”

I looked at my sister with a smirk.

“Why? Did I say something wrong?”

But my sister was not someone who could be brought to her senses by words alone.

“I’m your sister before I’m a maid!”

“No. You are a maid before my sister. You submitted an application here under the name Jane Lotis, a name unrelated to me in any way. My maiden name was Leona Selen.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Having dealt with neglect for most of my life, I had no idea how fun it was to humiliate others.

I felt another level of joy when I did this to the person who was responsible for Leona’s unhappy childhood.

“And I guess you must’ve thought that a maid is some sort of amazing figure…yet look at you. You’re not even my family, you have a foul mouth, and you don’t even know anything about tea. There’s not a single thing you’re good at. How can someone who has no talents work as a maid?”

“Y-You! W-What did you say…!”

“A lowly subject like you shouldn’t be too greedy.”

Jane’s hand shook as she held her cheek.

“What do you want me to do, huh?”

“Most maid tasks are not particularly difficult. But it’s not like I could assign that work to my ignorant sister, is it? However, it’s good that the duchy has taken steps to provide this maid with a special education.”

Just as the nanny who abused Rere in the past had assigned the current nanny to all the laborious tasks.

“D-Don’t be ridiculous. Why should I do such a thing?”

“Are you asking, why? Didn’t you want to be a maid so badly? I even asked you again, and you said you wanted to do it.”

“..T-That’s! I surely said…huh!”

“You said you needed money. I will give you money, clothes and food. What’s so hard about it?”

Her eyes shook ferociously.

“But you can’t treat me like this! That bitch slapped me! Yeah! Punish her now!”

“Stop being a crybaby. I think the nanny did a great job. If you’re making light of your master, you’re bound to be educated.”

I smiled at the nanny who seemed worried that what she had done might harm me. Only then did the maids around her look relieved.

“Sure. Please take good care of me from now on, new maid Jane Lotis.”

Even after I said all that, Jane rushed at me and grabbed my arms. It seemed she hadn’t come to her senses yet.

“I-I won’t do it.”

“What?”

“If you’re going to treat me this way, I swear I won’t do it! And I’ll make a rumor about how nasty you are! That you are only a duchess who will soon be evicted…!”

“How stupid.”

“W-What? How dare you talk to me like that, Leona?”

“Yes, Jane. I’m doing this to you. You agreed on paper that you wouldn’t mind to compensate for any damages if word of what happened here were to get out……did you forget that? It seems you really need a new head.”

I clicked my tongue at Jane who still gripped me by the arm.

“W-What? Y-You think I’ll be scared by that? I’m not the type to be scared by such words!”

“That’s a relief. If you say you won’t be scared, you’ll compensate me for the damage, right?”

“Yeah. I agreed to anything aside from material compensation.”

“Right. I get it. You’ll have to continue to work as a maid to compensate me.”

“What??”

“As expected, you’re making me nervous. Try to work here until I tell you to stop.”

Jane’s smiling face collapsed.

My sister just sputtered as if she was shocked.

“What crazy bullshit you’re talking about!”

“This isn’t crazy bullshit. I’m dead serious. Go take her and teach her.”

“Yes, Madam.”

The maids had been grinding their teeth watching Jane’s behavior and jumped on the opportunity to drag her away.

“W-Wait! Leona! Listen to me, my sister. You can’t do this! Huh! Hey!”

However, my sister’s voice rang loudly until she left the room.

I remained in the room as she was pathetically dragged out and made eye contact with the women who were waiting for their interview.

“I’m sorry to make such a fuss.”

“It’s alright, Madam. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

The butler smiled pleasantly as he shook his head.

“You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. Please don’t worry too much.”

“Thank you. Then, I wish you all luck in your interview. I’ll be going now.”

“Yes.”

I thought it was improper for me to meddle with things that weren’t my business.

They would be plainly annoyed if their boss turned up unexpectedly as they were just about to begin. And since I had assumed the role of the boss here, I accelerated my pace and headed to my room.

“Um, Madam…”

“Yes?”

“I’m truly sorry. I’m afraid I’ve gone too far.”

As expected, the nanny who followed behind me looked downcast.

“Ah, right!”

“As if he had already anticipated everything, the duke recently ordered me to serve as the head maid as well. That’s why I…”

“No, you did well.”

“Ah…but she’s your older sister…”

As she was mumbling low, I grabbed her hand. My touch made her flinch.

“She’s indeed my sister. But to them, I’m not their daughter or sister.”

“What??”

“I wasn’t even regarded as part of the family. I was just…um…a money-making machine. That’s all I was worth to them. Rather than show me affection, they were in a hurry to steal whatever I had…it’s truly a family that is far removed from the word family.”

As I looked at her with a sad expression, the nanny curled the corner of her lips down and shouted.

“No! How could such a thing happen! I can’t believe there’s a family like that….ha…”

“I worked nonstop to provide for my family since I was young. I had to wear thin summer-weight clothing even in the dead of winter. I spent many days drinking water to fill my stomach because I had nothing to eat. But my father, mother and sister were all living in luxury, so they didn’t care about me at all.”

It was very strange.

Was it because I knew she was on my side? Or because I knew the nanny was a kindhearted person?

I had never revealed my shortcomings to anyone in my life, yet I found myself telling her Leona’s stories one by one.

‘If they find out that I’m not good enough, they will start looking down on me.’

It was the way of life of someone who had nothing in life. A pledge to not reveal any weaknesses.

“They’re not even human!”

But the nanny was more angry than I was when she heard that.

“Right. They’re not even human.”

“Anyway. I can’t let this slide. I’ll pay her back tens or hundreds of times for what you’ve suffered.”

“I like that idea.”

“By the way, Madam.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you let such a person into the duchy? Isn’t it more difficult to keep an eye on her?”

It was the one time I ever heard the nanny’s cheerful voice suddenly become quieter.

Her words hit the mark so perfectly that I was at a loss for words.

“Aah…that makes sense.”

“Do you have any other intentions?”

“It’s because there seems to be some unknown secret about me spreading out. I’m only keeping her to uncover it.”

“Ah…so that’s what you mean…”

“But thanks to her, I found a very small clue.”

I smiled at the nanny who looked a little bit confused at my remark.

“A very small clue. It’s currently very small but will soon grow significantly, allowing me to learn a secret that I had been unaware of.

A very big secret.

I never expected to find out through my sister, so I was rather excited.

“A secret…”

“It’s what I asked you before. A list of what each person brings inside or outside. Can you bring it right away?”

“Oh! Yes, Madam.”

I was certain that the culprit could be found in that list.

Someone who did more than merely spread information about the duke family to the outside world—they also brought it to the emperor.