Looking for My Fiancé's Lover

Upon saying so, I pointed my finger right at the maid who was lying face down. The rotten water made me sick and almost choked me, hence, it was an assassination. As if in a seizure, the maid got up on her feet in a struggling manner, and ran to the head maid this time around, not me. She exclaimed with her head down.

“It-, it-, it is not like that. I-, I have never done anything like that! I swear I never did that, ma’am!”

“Are you saying that I’m lying now?”

At my words, the maid shoved her nose into the ground. She didn’t want to make eye contact with me or show her face.

“I don’t know where the lie is. I almost died from a blockage of my esophagus because of this rotten water, but you said that wasn’t an assassination?!”

As I fiddle with the teacup on the table and said, the shoulders of the maid who put her nose on the ground were shaking relentlessly. I wanted to scream for her to get up and face me right away, but I closed my eyes and put up with it for Caron’s sake, who was still in shock behind me.

Good. I looked just like a precocious lady.

I held out the cup of rotten water, leftover from the load thrown onto the ground, to the head maid.

“Drink it.”

Like a true veteran, the maid went straight to receive the teacup without listening to any additional explanation. The eye contact she made upon approaching close suggested that she had already noticed something. Which meant her eyes’ darkening was not because she was clueless about what was happening but because she was bracing herself for something ahead.

Soon after, the head maid poured a few drops of the liquid into her mouth. It was only natural that her expression crumpled considerably as soon as her lips closed. The woman, who had struggled to get it pass through her throat, placed the teacup on the table with both of her hands.

What is she going to say now?

I sat down in a chair and calmly waited for the maid’s response. After being silent for a while, she soon opened her mouth with a small voice.

“My apology, lady Katrina. She had just entered the castle, so she mistook the drinking water with…”

“Do you know who I am?”

It was a line that could be said by an immature aristocratic woman, but even after digging through my head, I had nothing better. Still, I could not even believe that she made old-fashioned excuses like ‘she has just entered the castle’…  At this point, I could only conclude that the Duchess had deliberately neglected Caron. Otherwise, she would have cared more about internal affairs like these.

At my question, the maid swallowed her saliva nervously.

“Your ladyship is Katrina Ezellot.”

“You must also know that I am the one and only fiancée of His Highness Prince Nezar, right?”

“… Yes.”

Actually, the fact sounded quite shocking in this circumstance. If someone were to see my appearance, they would have mistaken me for some nobility from the countryside. Were that to be the case, such shallow excuses of hers would have worked fine. But what could I do, I was the youngest lady of the famous Ezellot County.

I looked at the maid’s face and slowly touched my forehead in a dishearted way, putting up an act. Along with that, my body started staggering, on purpose of course, hand swinging aimlessly in the air.

“Haah… An assassination toward a weak lady like me, who can’t even steady her body properly… Caron, did you know? That that crazy woman wanted to kill me?”

“N-no. That’s-, that’s unbelievable.”

As if shaking her head was not enough, Caron used both hands to wave frantically to express her dismay. I looked at her and her distorted expression.

“I can’t stand it, lady Caron. If I stay here any longer, I might get a heart attack from fear and collapse!”

“Are-, are you okay? My lady, I will bring some warm tea…”

“No, I need to go see His Highness Nezar right now.”

Why are you bringing me tea when it’s the job of those maids behind us?!

I clenched my fists and stood up. Perhaps thinking I was going to hit her, the maid, who slightly raised her head in secret to get a glimpse of me, stuck her face into the ground again.

“I think I will feel a little more at ease once I meet His Highness and tell him about this terrible experience I’ve had today.”

“Lady Katrina, please wait a minute. Even if we beat this kid up…”

The head maid then took one step closer to me in a hurry. But I resolutely held out my hand to block her words.

“Be quiet and get my carriage ready.”

A dark shadow fell upon the head maid’s face. Even so, I ended the talk there with my firm attitude and tone.

Why couldn’t you have read the room from the beginning?

My first visit to Entera ended fruitlessly. The more I could not hide my anger, the paler the maids’ faces became.

“Ah! Come to think of it, I once told His Highness Nezar about lady Caron. He wanted to meet you. If you have time, I would like milady to come with me. What do you think?”

Just before getting in the carriage heading for Ezellot, I asked Caron, whose complexion was now as dark as the maid.

“M-me?”

“I hope you won’t refuse. I have come all the way to Entera, but it’s a pity that we couldn’t have a proper chat.”

There was a red crust on Caron’s lower lip. It was from the wound that made me furious back in the garden. The sight of her sheepishly stealing glances with tears as pure as morning dew back then was unbearable. Especially when her eyes touched the ones of the maids.

“What do you say? If it’s okay with you, come on up.”

I opened the door of the carriage wide before she could refuse. Impatient, I asked Caron to get on the carriage one more time, and she quickly got onto the seat opposite mine. Soon, the carriage departed with the sound of the wheels rolling. Through the window, Entera castle was gradually growing far away. I cleared my throat and opened my mouth in a feeble voice that was barely audible even to Caron.

“It was actually a lie.”

“…Pardon?”

“That I said we’re going to see His Highness Nezar. That was a lie.”