The Maid's Misunderstood Kindness
Melissa twisted her lips as she surveyed the head maid. She tilted her head slightly and spoke again, her low voice sinking even deeper, heavy with warning.
“I don’t dislike people who speak their minds. But I do hate fools. Someone in your position ought to have the brains to consider what the person you serve truly needs right now, shouldn’t you?”
After all, a parrot could be anyone at all.
At Melissa’s sneer, Sylvia’s lips had just begun to move when an impossible-to-ignore voice drifted out from inside the room.
“M…om……”
At the perfectly disastrous moment, the head maid turned her head toward the inner chamber.
The newest member of the ducal family was staring in their direction with her mouth clamped stubbornly shut.
She was breathing so hard it would have been no surprise if she collapsed on the spot, yet she had persistently sought out Melissa.
“Idel!”
Melissa did not miss the brief instant when the head maid froze.
She shoved the woman aside with one hand and ran to pull the child into her arms.
Upon seeing the two figures with matching red hair, Sylvia shifted her gaze to confirm her own mistress’s state.
The duchess stood clutching her skirt, quietly watching the scene with the same expression of restrained endurance she had worn the day these two first arrived at the ducal house.
…She must be terribly upset. I should have prevented them from ever setting foot on the second floor.
It was her own failure. Swallowing the accompanying surge of displeasure, Sylvia closed the door with a firm click.
Meanwhile, Melissa, still embracing Idel, let tears glisten in her eyes as she slowly ran her hands over the child’s body.
Since the girl had committed an “impulsive act” without any order from her, she needed to verify that the restriction remained intact.
“Idel, when I heard you’d left the annex and collapsed, I thought my heart would drop. Why would you do such a thing? Why?”
Despite the tone drenched in worry, a sharp blade lay hidden beneath Melissa’s words.
She drew the child away from her chest, cupped her cheek, and carefully wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Melissa’s purple eyes probed Idel’s gaze with relentless intensity.
“…I was wrong. I just……”
The trembling voice, the unfocused eyes.
Idel was still afraid of her. Afraid of her very existence, and of being abandoned by her.
Having confirmed the most crucial point, Melissa quietly issued the command in her mind.
Enough. Close your eyes and collapse right there.
The child could not even part her lips before she crumpled.
After confirming the curse was still perfectly functional, Melissa caught Idel and cried out.
“Idel? Idel! Open your eyes, Idel!”
“Sister, calm down. I already called for Doctor Aiman, so he’ll be here any—”
“Calm down? Did you just tell me to calm down? Would you be this composed if it were your own daughter?”
Tears shimmering in her eyes, Melissa snapped at her with biting sharpness.
The sight of her wounded younger sister stirred a strange emotion in her.
Setting aside thoughts of Rowena until the day her plan came to fruition, she turned to the duke and spat out her next words.
“Your Grace is too cruel! I heard you scolded the child in front of everyone. How mentally cornered must she have been to collapse so suddenly?”
“……”
At Melissa’s accusation, Vincent’s expression grew complicated.
The image of the child screaming and charging at him rose vividly before his eyes.
I hate it all! I hate Your Grace, I hate the duchess, I hate her too, and I hate all the people who only say no! I hate this place! I hate it here!
I’m going home…! This isn’t my home…! I want to see my friends who actually miss me!
Every word the child had hurled at him.
His head began to throb unbearably.
Was what I did nothing more than rationalizing punishment under the name of discipline?
He had not thought so. Idel had continued to commit even worse acts, as if his discipline were laughable.
That was why he had tried to teach her where the line was.
But……
Watching the feverish, collapsed child, that boundary began to blur. Vincent spoke, his voice sinking lower and lower.
“…Discipline was necessary because she did wrong. Idel crossed the line.”
“Wrong? Crossed the line? Because she spilled soup at the dinner table and rolled around with Jiana? Your Grace, Idel is a child. Was her little tantrum so grave that she deserved to be abandoned alone for days?”
“Do not distort the facts. The things Idel has done cannot be dismissed so lightly. Among the servants of this house, those who have been harmed by Idel—”
“Servants.”
Melissa cut Vincent’s words short and let out a brief, hollow laugh.
It was partly an act born of necessity, but watching the duke speak as if defending Rowena made sarcasm spill from her unbidden.
So you can still endure it? Why—because Rowena generously understands this mess?
Swallowing her twisted inner thoughts behind a gentle smile, Melissa flicked her gaze briefly toward the corridor beyond the door.
Then she deliberately raised her voice loud enough to carry outside.
“Yes, they are servants. Mere servants! What’s the problem with that?”
“Watch your tongue, madam. They are my people.”
“Then is Idel someone else’s child?”
Feeling the atmosphere in the room grow heavy, Melissa steadied her breathing.
“…It seems my emotions ran high because Idel is ill. Any more and we will only hurt each other, so I will take my leave first.”
“……”
“However, Your Grace, no matter how much you may dislike me, you must remember whose blood flows in Idel’s veins. She is your child, just like Jiana, isn’t she?”
With those final words, she crossed the room, pulled her lips into a cold line, and opened the door.
“No, this is too—”
“Hey. Shh. The door’s open!”
“……”
As expected, it had taken properly. Melissa had used this incident to set two pieces in motion.
One was for her plan. The other was to once again imprint Idel’s own situation upon her.
Brainwashing that relied solely on the curse was less effective than expected. That was why she had granted the child some autonomy along with the warnings, yet……
Is it because she’s a child? I thought she had understood my warning rather well, but she forgot it so easily.
Reflecting on Idel’s impulsive behavior, Melissa habitually rubbed her own throat.
Well, I can simply use the servants’ hostility to isolate her.
The child was quick-witted; she would surely recall the warning Melissa had given. And then she would realize it—her world consisted solely of “Melissa Lopez.”
Before leaving the room, Melissa turned her head and let her gaze rest for a moment on Idel, who lay with her eyes closed.
Chapped lips and a forehead beaded with cold sweat.
Even though the child’s appearance would have moved any stranger to pity, Melissa did not blink once.
Instead, she approached a maid among the servants—the one Idel supposedly called for often, named Diane—and spoke.
“I hear Idel is fond of you?”
“Pardon? Y-yes?”
“I will keep an eye on you as well. Please take good care of her.”
The low, sticky voice slithered over Diane like a snake.
It was not spoken out of pity for the sick child, but because the maid seemed like a useful piece she might employ later.
There is nothing more painful than being hated by the person to whom you have given your heart.
Melissa left, anticipating the day Idel, having realized her mistake, would come to her of her own accord.
She hoped the child would understand her place quickly—before she was forced to do something even harsher.
Even after Melissa departed, the servants who had stood rigidly at attention only relaxed once her presence had completely vanished.
Those who had been running all over the estate in search of Idel finally let out sighs mixed with complaint while standing atop the board Melissa had prepared.
“Seriously, what kind of lightning bolt is this all of a sudden?”
“Exactly. She suddenly disappears from the mansion, we search until we’re half-dead, and now she’s even collapsing?”
“Thanks to her, we can’t even rest and have to stay on standby. And did you all hear what the former countess said?”
“That bit about us being mere servants?”
The servants’ faces twisted with displeasure.
No matter that they were servants, they were not just any rabble—they were people of the ducal house.
Individuals who had met every strict qualification before entering service.
They had worked with a certain pride, and that pride had now been shattered. Perhaps that was why.
From among the gathered crowd, a rather dangerous speculation slipped out.
“Hey, this couldn’t possibly all be fake, could it? His Grace might take pity on Lady Idel and withdraw the punishment he imposed.”