Chapter 04
“This many dresses… and you’re asking us to throw them all away just to bring new ones? What wasteful extravagance. As expected, you truly don’t understand the virtues of a noble lady.”
Ah. So this is how she’s been gaslighting Elisia all this time.
But she was no longer the same Elisia Seymour.
If anything, she was the kind of person who could do the gaslighting herself—never someone who would quietly endure it.
“Fine. Then I’ll just go see the Duke like this.”
“…Pardon?”
The head maid stared at her in shock.
Elisia was only in her undergarments.
The maids had assumed she was bluffing—but when she actually moved to open the door, both the head maid and Betty rushed forward in panic to stop her.
“M-Milady! You can’t!”
Elisia tilted her head slightly, letting her long black hair fall back in a smooth wave, and smiled sweetly.
“You’ll bring me the dress, won’t you?”
In the end, she successfully confiscated a new dress from them.
She dismissed the head maid and called Betty in alone, instructing her to prepare coffee.
Now left alone without any allies, Betty’s hands trembled violently as she worried she would be punished for just moments ago handing Elisia cold water and a rag.
She looks about a year or two younger than me… and judging by her behavior and expression, she’s pliable, easily swayed, and seems to crave belonging.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes?!”
“Did you… treat me like that even before I lost my memory?”
The blunt question struck like a hammer.
Betty paled.
“N-No, Milady. What are you talking about?”
“I’m not trying to blame you. Just tell me the truth.”
“I really didn’t! I swear!”
“Really?”
Elisia leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.
People like her don’t usually lead the bullying… but they definitely don’t resist it either.
Betty visibly shrank under Elisia’s sharp violet gaze. The faintly eerie eyes she used to ignore now felt suffocatingly intense.
No… she was someone who used to live bowing her head under the Duke’s indifference… so how did she change overnight like this?
Betty stole glances at her while preparing the coffee.
The Elisia Seymour she knew had been powerless—no matter how much the servants ignored her, she could do nothing about it. Even the Duke, the true master of the estate, had treated her with indifference.
“…What is that look?”
Betty stiffened.
Elisia wasn’t exactly glaring at her—but she wasn’t simply looking either. It was something in between, an unsettling, evaluating gaze.
It felt like a frog frozen before a snake.
“Come here.”
“…W-why?”
“Oh, just come here.”
When Elisia gestured toward the vanity, Betty hesitated like a lamb being led to slaughter and slowly approached.
“Eep—!”
The moment Betty came close, Elisia grabbed a handkerchief and rubbed her lips roughly.
“H-hey! What are you doing?!”
“You’re a warm autumn tone. This bluish-red lipstick doesn’t suit you at all!”
“Warm… tone?”
“Stay still.”
Elisia muttered to herself as she rummaged through the vanity drawer.
She pulled out five lipsticks and swatched them across her hand, comparing them carefully against Betty’s lips.
“Ah—open.”
“Ah?”
Confused but obedient, Betty opened her mouth slightly.
Elisia carefully applied a nude lipstick with a soft beige tint.
“M-mother… father…”
“Good. Blend your lips like that.”
“Huh? Mother… father…”
When Betty awkwardly repeated the words, Elisia clapped lightly, pleased.
“You look much cuter now. You’ve got red hair, so dark lipstick makes you look too harsh. Take this.”
She handed Betty the lipstick she had just used.
“Go look in the mirror. Pretty, right?”
Betty cautiously stepped toward the mirror, turning her head left and right in disbelief.
Elisia watched her with a faint smile.
“W-would you like some coffee too?”
“Me… too?”
Betty blinked in shock.
Coffee was a luxury drink even nobles rarely enjoyed often. For Betty, a poor baron’s daughter, it was something she only had once or twice a year, at best.
“I’ll show you an amazing combination.”
Elisia poured brewed coffee equally into two cups, then filled the remaining space with sugar instead of water.
“…You’re not adding water?”
“You won’t be able to go back to watery coffee after this.”
Instead of water, she added milk Betty had brought on a tray.
The black coffee turned into a rich brown blend.
Betty took a hesitant sip—and her eyes widened in shock, sparkling as if she had just seen the world anew.
“W-what is this?!”
“Mixed coffee.”
Elisia smirked.
The reason she had dismissed the head maid and kept only Betty was simple: Betty was younger, easier to sway, and therefore easier to bring to her side.
Someone who’s been in the estate for years like the head maid would take too long to convert. But someone like this? Easy.
“Betty, is it good?”
“Yes, Milady! It’s really delicious… I had no idea coffee could taste like this!”
“Then tell me something.”
Elisia’s tone shifted slightly.
“Why was the Duke so angry with me?”
“C-choke—!”
Betty nearly spat out her coffee.
“Th-that’s…”
“And it wasn’t just you, was it? The head maid orchestrated everything, right?”
Elisia, who had been gentle and almost sisterly moments ago, was gone.
Now she sat across from Betty with a soft but suffocating pressure.
“Given how everyone treated me, there’s no way it was a one-time thing. And the people above wouldn’t have turned a blind eye. So the only logical answer is that the head maid ordered it.”
Every word was accurate.
Betty stared at her in horror.
How did she know?
“Judging by your reaction, the Duke doesn’t know either.”
“…!”
“If the Duke finds out that his wife was being bullied by mere servants, he won’t stay silent.”
“M-Milady…”
Betty’s voice trembled.
In truth, Cedric only believed Elisia was being ignored—not actively mistreated.
But if rumors spread that the Duchess was being abused by servants, it would stain the Albrecht name—and the Seymour family would likely retaliate as well. They might even demand compensation under that pretext.
And Cedric, as Betty knew him, wasn’t a man driven by affection for Elisia Seymour—he was someone who would remove the troublemakers simply to avoid complications.
“I-I’m sorry… please forgive me… our family failed in business, we’re really struggling… if I get fired, my mother might even beat me to death…”
Betty collapsed, begging desperately.
Elisia silently watched her from across the table.
Then, just as Betty’s desperation peaked, Elisia gently took her trembling hands.
“Betty, it’s okay. I already knew the head maid was behind it.”
“Milady…”
“So tell me why the Duke was so angry with me. It might help me recover my memory—and help me avoid mistakes in the future.”
At her calm, soothing tone, Betty hesitated for a long time before finally speaking.
“Well… there’s a rumor…”
“That Duchess Diana was murdered… and that the culprit was from House Seymour.”
“The Duke of Albrecht suspects you as well.”
Ah.
Elisia pressed a hand to her forehead.
So that was it.
So that was why the Duke had looked at her with such fury.
If she was the daughter of a family suspected of murdering his parents… of course he would be enraged at even hearing her speak her mother’s name.
I need to meet him immediately.
Elisia made her decision.
She smiled gently at the anxious Betty.
“It’s okay. I won’t say anything about it.”
Then she added:
“But tomorrow… can you take me to the Duke’s room?”
