The Opposite Of Indifference

“You’re fired!”

Mrs. Galbraith shouted as soon as she rushed into the royal kitchen, waving a bag of fish after a delay.

“I’m sick and tired of the laziness you’re always having!”

“There was a situation today.”

 “Fine! What the hell were you doing out there?”

The other maids fled into the distance, fearing that in case they were caught on fire.

“…I saw them.”

However, someone bravely interrupted Mrs. Galbraith’s yelling. It was Jane Grant, the lady maid, white and plump as a marshmallow.

“No, to be precise, my maid saw it. She saw this maid abandoned her errands and enjoyed dessert with a man.”

“Lady Jane.”

Reluctantly, Mrs. Galbraith greeted her with a disgruntled look.

“The hat this maid wears is pretty conspicuous, because it looks like the very symbol of a dowdy ascetic.”

Jane approached. She tapped the tip of Millicent’s hat, which extended long enough to the side of her face. It was not a deeply aggressive act. Still, it was dangerous.

Millicent clenched her fists to keep from getting agitated.

“I heard the person you were with was also a 

pretty prominent man?”

Jane’s eyes grew cold as ice.

“I mean he’s as handsome as His Majesty the King.”

Millicent sensed that Jane had deliberately had her servants follow her.

But why?

Perhaps it was because Frederick had led her to the center of the stage at the banquet. The odds were high that the queen’s attendants, not Rubert, or Jadalin, would assign meaning to their futile actions.

Then again, perhaps …. Jane recognized her. Even though so many years had passed that the scale of Jane Grant was twice as large as Millicent’s memory.

“Have you come to deliver the Queen’s order?”

Mrs. Galbraith interrupted, interrupting Jane’s gaze on Millicent. At least she was a manager taking care of her employees.

“Then why did the Lady come all the way to the kitchen when she could have sent a servant?”

“Oh, no. I only came to find my father.”

She meant Baron Mariboro, the administrator of the royal estate.

“From the looks of it, he’s not here…”

Jane said, looking around.

“There’s only one maid who gets scolded.”

Her attention was once again turned to Millicent.

“Yes, you should be scolded. It was alright to dance with His Majesty and humiliated Lady Charlotte. It was funny.”

Jane said.

“But you weren’t good enough to scare Lady Adriana with your silly card game. She’s being escorted by His Majesty every day, thinking she’s a queen or something.”

She asked, her chubby cheeks twitching.

“Did you really walk around outside the court with His Majesty the King?”

Millicent wasn’t sure what to answer.

“Are you a secret spy of His Majesty? Do you secretly spy on Her Majesty the Queen and her attendants?”

Jane urged irritably.

“Or are you the Queen’s spy? Are you trying to sabotage the selection of the Royal Mistress to get her attention?”

Fortunately, Jane Grant did not recognize Millicent’s identity. She just suffered from paranoia.

Unlike Millicent’s hunt, it must have been a side effect of being immersed in the ladies’ hunt to capture the king.

“No.”

Millicent admired Jane’s amazing imagination.

“Then what’s with this weasel-like cleverness?”

But her admiration did not seem to impress Jane.

“Are you going to roll up your skirt in front of His Majesty the King like a back alley prostitute?”

“…Lady Jane!”

Mrs. Galbraith stopped Jane again.

“You must refrain from saying or doing anything that is not like a noble lady.”

“It’s the right thing to say and do for this girl.”

Jane struck back without difficulty.

“A lowly maid! The poor woman who has to earn her own money.”

Jane spoke like a woman who was accustomed to being dignified with her father’s or husband’s share, mistaking it for her own, even though she owned nothing in her own name.

“…Excuse me, Mrs. Galbraith!”

Someone interrupted again, just as the scuffle was about to drag on.

“…A message from His Majesty the King.”

They had never seen this person’a face before, but he looked like the King’s subordinate.

“His Majesty sent a maid named Millicent on an urgent errand earlier. Because of this, he said not to flog her if she should return late to the kitchen.”

The servant handed Mrs. Galbraith a big pouch.

“He said the wench Millicent is to be paid for the errands in addition to her weekly wages.”

“…His Majesty cares so much for such a mere maid?”

Even Mrs. Galbraith’s face, who blankly accepted this, showed a glimmer of suspicion like Jane’s.

“See, His Majesty the King is covering for this maid again.”

Jane said. Unlike Mrs. Galbraith, she was frank about her suspicions.

“Of all people, this maid is also the woman who danced with the king to insult Charlotte Brennan.”

Mrs. Galbraith pretended not to hear Jane’s sarcasm.

 “It must be yours if His Majesty gives it to you.”

She held out Frederick’s pouch to Millicent.

 “And Lady Jane, if you have any concerns about the King’s or the Queen’s intentions, please ask them directly. Do not blame the poor maid any longer.”

It was pretty brazen advice.

A look of regret passed over Jane’s face as soon as she saw that she had caused a ruckus by talking about the king’s  and the Queen’s secret spy.

Making a fuss at the court would only lead to scandal and ruin her reputation.

“It wouldn’t end well for you, maid, if you keep getting noticed.”

Jane bit her lip. Then she patted Millicent on the shoulder and whispered.

“… At least that wasn’t a false point, Millicent.”

Mrs. Galbraith said as Jane had stormed out of sight.

“There’s nothing good about standing out in the royal court.”

Despite Jane’s threat, hers sounded like pretty friendly advice. It was also at odds with the queen’s advice that in order to get close enough to kill a lady of the court, one had to stand out.

While Mrs. Galbraith told the other maids to tend to the herring and dried cod, which arrived late, Millicent untied the pouch.

Inside was a nice silver knife and a note.

[I think I will remember the sight of you cutting pies for the rest of the day.]

The elegant writing on it would have been Frederick’s handwriting.

Today, he had told her many secrets.

And Millicent had revealed a secret that was no less big.

How could she have made such a mistake? It must be because of Frederick.

But Frederick was probably that kind of person to begin with. A man who received people’s attention without putting much effort. A man who charmed others and revealed his true intentions with his elusive demeanor.

Millicent crumpled the note, thinking that Frederick had not remembered that any normal maids could not read cursive.

Then she hid it tightly in her pocket along with Frederick’s knife.

Jane had caused a commotion, so today she tried to keep quiet and guard only the kitchen.

But the youngest maid was bound to get all kinds of chores. While the queen was away, there was still an order to 

change the bedsheets and finish cleaning.

“Why, isn’t the queen not here?”

“I heard she went into the prayer room.”

Mrs. Galbraith urged, “Don’t ask any more questions, move quickly.”

Millicent went to the Queen’s Palace.

Jadalin was really in the prayer room. She was one of those people who prayed for a long time until her knees hurt from kneeling. She was a very faithful person.

While the queen’s attention was focused on God, the lady attendants were absorbed in their tasks.

Elizabeth was busy outside the prayer room praying as fervently as Jadalin. Ophelia took Jadalin’s wolfhound Tevi outside, while Jane sorted through the mail and gifts that had come in for the queen in the parlor across the hall.

And Adriana tended to the flowers grown in the queen’s palace.

“Water.”

Adriana waved her hand with an empty bucket.

“Me?”

“Yes, there’s no other maids here but you.”

Having no choice, Millicent pulled down the bedspread and dragged the water bucket away.

“Lady Jane told me.”

Adriana said as she dragged her broken leg.

“She said you are a spy for either His Majesty the King or Her Majesty the Queen.”

She did not care if the water she had mistakenly sprinkled dripped onto the floor.

“I don’t know what the King thinks, but —— if you’re the Queen’s secret spy, you’re probably trying to sabotage the Royal Mistress selection.”

Her tone was one of effortless casual pretense.

“Is it true?”

“I wish I was.”

Millicent replied indifferently.

“Because that would have been better than being a kitchen maid.”

“Hmph, there’s no way you would honestly admit that.”

Adriana snorted as if she had expected Millicent’s answer.

“Why does the lady want to be the Royal Mistress so badly?”

She did not expect an honest answer. Still, Millicent asked.

“I’ve said it before. For my father’s title.”

Adriana made a very different argument from Jane’s vicarious satisfaction.

“No woman in the kingdom can hold a title alone. Only a Royal Mistress can be granted an estate and a title of her own.”

Adriana murmured in a low voice.

“The disgraceful slander of being the king’s whore is worth tolerating.”

She added a lustful smile.

“No less than the glory that occupies the beauty of His Majesty the King.”

 “Still, isn’t that an honor that will be taken away from you when His Majesty’s love is over?”

It was not easy for the King’s mistress to end well.

If  the king died, the mistress’s fortune and pension were likely to be confiscated overnight, and she was likely to be expelled from the court.

If the king did not die, but his favor for her ended, it was supposed to be even more miserable. This was because he would often marry off the mistress to a suitable man, end the relationship, and then banish her from the court.

Of course, if a son she had with the king was recognized as an official child and chosen as the heir to the kingdom, that would be a different story.

“All you have to do is hold on tight so they don’t take it away from you.”

Adriana seemed to be thinking the same way.

“…The leg that Lady put the brace on is the one on the right. That’s the one I first applied the medicine to.”

Instead of daring to soil the mood, Millicent said.

“In order to keep limping all the time, you must take care of your right leg. Only then will the fact that it has already healed not be discovered.”

Adriana’s face quickly turned red as Millicent saw through her mistake.