The knight knelt in a scramble, sweat slicking his brow as he stammered out his confession.
“T-that is……. I am sorry. I am truly sorry, Your Grace. It felt like such a waste to see you discard it, so… I dared to pick it up and give it to my lover! It is my fault! Please, I am truly sorry!”
I stroked the hairpin while listening, a cynical laugh hovering on my lips. How utterly ridiculous.
Picked it up? What a load of nonsense.
Charlize had a personality as fickle as her spending habits; as the knight claimed, she did indeed discard things that no longer caught her eye. Perhaps the real Charlize might have let it slide. But I was not her.
My eyes darkened at his blatant, crimson lie.
Deep inside, strange whispers began to surface. *Just kill him.* *Should I snap the tendons in his arms and legs?* The violent impulse was visceral.
However, I couldn’t simply act on my bloodlust. I recalled my grandfather’s instruction—a demand, really—that I present a different side of myself during this time. I would have to play the villain at the banquet anyway; was there any need to lose my temper before it even began?
Just as I prepared to smother my fury, I caught the gaze of my brother.
Loxidian had been watching, and now he grinned, shaping his fingers into a circle. A gold coin.
*Earn your keep.*
The way his lips curled, mocking me, was the last straw. The rage I had barely managed to contain shattered.
*Thwack!*
It wasn’t a slap, but a dull, heavy thud. My clenched fist had smashed straight into the knight’s cheek. My wrist ached, as if it had been dislocated, but that was irrelevant.
This bastard had stolen a hairpin I had gifted to a child? Because of his greed, the child had spent the entire night weeping and searching for it until she fell ill.
Yoon Ji-Hoo, the office worker who had never known how to properly express her rage, suddenly found her purpose with crystal clarity.
“This is the only hairpin of its kind in the Empire. Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize it?”
“Y-Your Grace…….”
“I remember tossing it to a poor child in the Remut territory not long ago. Do you take me for a fool?”
Ignoring the throbbing in my wrist, I struck his cheek again with a heavy blow.
Had the original Charlize made a habit of hitting people? The movement was muscle memory, sharp and excellent. I struck him once more, just to savor the terror contorting his face.
Only then did the knight tremble, scrambling on his knees to beg. It wasn’t the pain that broke him, but the looming shadow of the punishment to follow.
“A-ah, s-sorry. Please, just let me live, Your Grace! Actually…… s-she is the one who ordered me to take it!”
What kind of standards did my grandfather use to select his knights? When faced with a crisis, his immediate reaction was to drag his lover into the mud to save his own skin.
“Ha? Martin, what are you saying!”
The maid shouted, forgetting exactly where she stood. She had turned deathly pale, her expression twisted with a mixture of betrayal and profound injustice.
I narrowed my eyes at the two of them.
“Go on. Explain yourself.”
* * *
Ribella, a maid of the Imperial Palace, was a veteran of over four years.
As the daughter of a Baron, she had barely managed to pass the Imperial maid examinations, a feat she considered the crowning pride of her life. Since service could lead to a prestigious marriage, she had intended to enjoy a bit of romance before settling down—and that was when she met Martin.
He was the second son of a Baron’s family and a knight in the Alzbeit household.
He was a man with a bright future and a handsome enough face.
“I hate her so much I could die. That woman! Ha, if not for her looks, Duke Alzbeit would have surely discarded her too!”
If Ribella had one flaw, it was her tendency to ruthlessly curse the master she served. But given that her master was the infamous, wicked Duchess-to-be of Alzbeit, her spite was almost understandable.
“……She is truly beautiful, I’ll give her that. But her head is empty. If only she had been born into a normal noble family or as a commoner, I would have really….”
Sometimes the venom of her own insults left Ribella feeling uneasy, but she always pushed those feelings aside.
One day, her lover, a man who had always been faithful to her, gifted her a hairpin. It was an object of such astonishing beauty and wealth that, even as a daughter of a noble house, Ribella recognized its value immediately. How could he possibly afford something set with rubies like this?
“Where did you get this? It looks awfully expensive.”
“I saved up my pay to buy it for my Ribella. Do you like it?”
“Martin, do you take me for a fool? Stop spouting nonsense and be honest. Did you… steal this from the Duchess-to-be’s room?”
Though Martin was a knight of Alzbeit, Ribella’s suspicions were well-founded; a knight’s salary could never cover such a lavish piece. Martin jumped in indignation.
“Are you crazy? Am I a thief? The item was just sitting there, abandoned. I simply picked it up. Just take it!”
However, Ribella couldn’t shake her doubts. She interrogated him relentlessly until, finally, Martin confessed with a grumble.
“The woman was handing these out to poor brats for no reason. It’s not like they need them, right? I just took it. Happy now?”
“……Are you insane? What if the Duchess-to-be finds out!”
“Don’t you know her? She has so many things like this she wouldn’t even remember. She only knows how to indulge in luxury; she’s beautiful, but her head is completely empty.”
Ribella remembered that conversation clearly.
Ultimately, she was at fault for giving in to her greed and accepting the hairpin, knowing full well where it came from. She hadn’t bought into Martin’s theory that the Duchess-to-be was stupid. Instead, she had rationalized it: for a woman that wealthy, such jewels were as common as grains of sand on the beach. Would she even notice?
Driven by greed, she had played dumb.
And the price for playing dumb was far too great.
Currently, Ribella was trembling. She glared at Martin as if she wanted to kill him, her eyes filled with resentment and grievance.
“I-it’s true! That woman threatened me, demanding I steal something belonging to the Duchess-to-be, so I had no choice…!”
She knew she was at fault for accepting the gift. But for him to shift all the blame onto her? She couldn’t stand it.
“Your Grace, I am innocent.”
Her career was already ruined, but she would not be the only one to take the fall. Ribella straightened her back.
“Your Grace!”
Faced with a crisis, the poise she had cultivated during her years as a maid emerged.
“I am merely a victim, betrayed by the man I loved. Of course, I was wrong to accept this hairpin knowing the circumstances. It is my fault……. If I may offer an excuse, I thought that because you have so many precious belongings, you wouldn’t notice if one went missing.”
She bowed low, hands clasped, begging. It was an instinctual reaction to survive. She knew Charlize’s cruelty all too well; even if she lost her position, she did not want to die.
“…….”
In this moment, Ribella realized that everything Martin had said was a lie.
All those times he insisted that, apart from her beauty, she was incapable and dim-witted? It was all bullshit.
The pressure radiating from Charlize as she looked down at her was suffocating. It was bone-chilling—enough to make one truly believe she was the sibling of the Emperor, Loxidian.
Her otherworldly, alluring beauty, contrasted by a cold, expressionless face, only heightened the effect.
“To think I had such trash beneath me.”
Charlize frowned slightly. As she clenched and unclenched her hand, Martin and Ribella collectively held their breath. How many lives had been extinguished by that very hand?
“Ribella, was it?”
“Y-yes…… Your Grace……!”
“I’ll give you a chance to dispose of such trash.”
Ribella looked up, stunned.
In that moment, a seductive smile bloomed across Charlize’s previously blank face. It was a smile of irresistible temptation, like a demon risen from hell, paired with a voice as gentle as a lullaby.
“Handle it however you wish.”
“…….”
“But that solution had better be to my liking.”
Ribella, alternating her gaze between Charlize and the hairpin in her hand, whirled around. Without a second’s hesitation, her hand moved on its own.
*Slap!*
Martin, struck, stared at Ribella in a daze. He tried to move, but found he couldn’t.
‘Y-Your Majesty?’
The tyrant, watching from the sidelines, was exuding a murderous aura.
The pressure was so precise that only Martin could feel it, but to him, it was a suffocating terror. Ribella gritted her teeth, pouring all the fury of her ruined life into her hand.
The sound of the slap echoed through the room.
After a long while, as Ribella stood panting, a captivating voice drifted down from above.
“That’s enough. Both of you, get out.”
Charlize turned away, covering her mouth with a delicate hand. Ribella squeezed her eyes shut as she was dragged away by the maids who had once been her colleagues.
Once Martin and Ribella were removed, the Dress Shop fell into a deathly silence. The remaining designers, assistants, and maids bowed their heads, paralyzed by the atmosphere.
*Clap, clap, clap.*
Applause cut through the silence.
It was Loxidian, who had been watching the entire spectacle. He stood, patting his younger sister on the shoulder with a satisfied expression.
“They say a person’s true nature never changes, don’t they? Live like that—do exactly as you please.”
*Do act even more atrociously so you get kicked out of Alzbeit, dear sister. I’ll be there to scoop you up right away.*
Loxidian swallowed these thoughts and walked away without another word.
Charlize remained where she stood, motionless.
‘……There will be rumors about this again. I’m completely ruined.’