"It's mine!"
I ignored the child with a cold smile despite its pitiful sobbing.
"Do you own these streets? The person who picked it up first will be the keeper."
I picked up the bread quickly after the child accidentally dropped it when he fell. Then I shook off the dust-stained bread and bit it in a handful. A dull, dry texture swam inside my mouth. I was starving for a few days and even this hard stale bread tasted delicious.
After relieving my hunger, I could see the child was still chasing after me. Crying with all the sorrow in the world, chasing me with those little feet. I probably took away the child's only meal, so I understood why he chased me all the way.
But that's it.
Guilt? Pssh! Survival was too intense in this wretched place to even feel that sort of useless emotion.
"Gasp!"
I woke up from my dream with heavy breathing. The child's sobbing still lingered in my ears. It wasn't a nightmare. It was just a dream that showed what happened in the past.
I felt strange though. Did I have this dream because I took it out on my pillow last night?
I thought I had just gained freedom after I died, but now that I have returned to the past, my anger has not been relieved.
I acted so hastily as soon as I returned. It was perhaps because I immediately saw Cecilia, my archenemy, after coming back to the past. Not only that, I had almost messed up Leo's sole livelihood because of my recklessness.
I was completely out of control last night. One pillow and one broken glass resolved my anger. It was a pretty mild reaction.
However, my hand was bleeding because I squeezed the piece of glass too hard yesterday. I punched and tore my pillow with that bleeding hand over and over again.
Thanks to this, the wound burst, and the white pillow almost dyed red all over. But was that all? I looked around and the room was quite a mess. The broken pieces of the glass bottle were scattered, and the torn pillow's cotton landed on the floor as if the room had been invaded by a burglar. Naturally, dirt was everywhere. After meeting Leo, I came straight into the room and only shook off the dirt right on the floor.
Contrary to the chaotic surroundings, the morning sun was shining peacefully through the windows.
I had never enjoyed the sunlight properly while living homeless. All I did was go around all day and beg with an empty stomach. I hated the sunlight at that time.
While dazed in the sun with half-opened eyes, the maid Jamie came in. The grey-haired maid greeted me with a surprised look on her face when she saw me wake up.
I wondered why, but then I realized at this moment that I always wake up in the afternoon.
Jamie looked at me for a moment, fidgeting, and then looked expressionless again.
Come to think of it, in the past, this maid had taken great care of me until Cecilia came. After Cecilia came, little by little, she started neglecting her duties and mistreated me.
Originally, if one is an exclusive maid, there are things that you need to do without the owner telling you. About the things that the owner needs and wants, depending on the situation.
Jamie had done such things tactfully before Cecilia came, but since she came, Jamie had only done what I've told her to do.
I was vaguely aware of the difference, but at the time all my attention was on Cecilia and I just let Jamie's disrespect towards me passed. After coming into the house, Cecilia alone was emotionally challenging for me.
But with my impassiveness, I lost people around me day by day. It was unmistakable that Jamie was the starting point. I don't know when exactly Jamie went under Cecilia, but at this time, it's clear that she wasn't mine anymore.
Cecilia's attitude showed such a difference, even though it's only been a day since she moved in with us. Seeing Jaime sneak into her master's bedroom like a thieving cat without even knocking made my blood boil.
Even though she was a maid from a duchy, she looked around the room and put on an annoyed face. A high-class maid should have had to take care of her expression anytime, anywhere.
"... Jamie, I woke up from a nightmare. Could you clean up the room? I broke the glass bottle yesterday morning, but it was too late to call someone, so I wiped it with a pillow and it turned out like this.”
It was a clumsy lie, but she bowed her head in response. She looked at my messy room and said nothing. Instead, she began to clean up with an irritated face.
I didn't mean to go back to sleep, but I had to pretend to sleep in front of her. After a long yawn, I lay down under the covers again.
I could feel Jamie looking at me, but I closed my eyes and breathed quietly as if I were fast asleep. Like the old me slept like a log until the afternoon.
Soon the door was closed quietly and outside, the sound of her footsteps was fading away.
Jamie went out, but I didn't open my eyes yet. She will be back again. And it will be the time when I was in deep sleep.
In the past, my jewelries have been missing since the day Cecilia came.
At first, I didn't notice the jewels gradually disappearing. I just found out one day that my jewelries that I didn't usually wear had disappeared.
They were also some that I didn't use at all, and before I knew it, my favorite jewelries and adornments began to disappear.
I talked to my parents and they said that I might have lost it somewhere. It was a natural answer because I have been seen as a child who couldn't even control her emotions.
The feeling of what's mine disappearing one by one ate away at my spirit. My parents didn't believe me either, so there was no one to complain to.
So yesterday, when Cecilia came back to this house, I remembered all my pieces of jewelry. I needed to find out when did you took them.
I don't want to lose anything to her again. But it was surprising that it was from the day after she first came.
On the first day, a new family member came into the house, and immediately my maid tried to sneak into my room in the morning. Even when I'm still here.
Being reckless like this is truly a skill. However, I have already suffered in the past and was disillusioned.
Since when did Cecilia plan to take all of my things? I can't believe she's so bold.
I waited quietly for time to pass, holding back my boiling anger.
About an hour or two, the door opened once again. Secretly without knocking, of course.
I could feel her gaze here for a moment, but soon I heard the slight sound of tiptoeing.
When I heard that her steps were farther away, I quietly lifted myself up and followed her. She seemed to be agonizing over what to take from my various jewelry boxes. Then at the end, she decided to take the emerald ring out of the brown, gold-rimmed jewelry box.
I immediately approached Jamie on her back and snatched her hand holding the ring and pulled it.
"Jamie, what the hell is going on here?"
Jamie almost let out a scream, but her voice leaked a little as if she had barely controlled it. Her face turned ashen.
But this brazen maid soon changed her complexion and showed me the ring.
"Oh, I tried to keep the rings clean that you don't use very often.”
"I've never asked you to do anything like that.”
"It was my duty as a maid even if my lady did not ask."
"I see."
I let go of her wrist with a look of understanding. Then she caressed her wrist with a relieved look.
She's absolutely brazen. Well, it takes this much courage and wittiness to touch a nobility. Jamie tried to escape the situation with her cunning tongue, although it was quite obvious that she was stealing the ring.
I would have let it passed if I were who I was before, but I am not the same as before right now.
I looked at Jamie with a soft smile. Then Jamie looked at me with a puzzled look on her face and soon fell on the floor with a tiny scream covering her stomach.
I punched her in the gut as hard as I could. If it were another noble lady, she would be slap in the face, but this noble lady right here had lived on the streets.
I learned how to punch as a survival instinct. I never thought I'd use it again for something like this.
And if you want to maintain your reputation, it's safer to hit where no one will notice a bruise like a belly than to slapped her where the part was exposed like the face.
I won't be rumored as an evil noble lady who uses violence.
"Oh, oh, my lady...…. What, what are you doing?"
Jamie kneeled down with a frown and spoke in a reproachful voice as if she couldn't believe this was happening.
Since long ago, noble ladies would have pretended not to know even if their maids made mistakes from time to time. Because that's what a model noble lady should do.
Jamie acted as if she had done nothing wrong, perhaps she thought I'd let her go away with it again.
I quickly grabbed Jamie's hair in silence to correct her thoughts and threw her on the floor. Then hit her again by kicking her on the stomach. I only picked the part where it hurts so that she would gasp when hit.
Jamie struggled to get out of the situation and tried to block it with her hand, but was stopped by my words.
"Jamie, don't you know that the price of touching a noble's belongings will be your hands so that you can't use it to steal again? If your fine hands are cut off, who should take care of you? Aren't you curious?”
At my words, she stopped moving and shivered slightly.
"There are plenty of people to replace you. If you don't want that situation to happen, don't think about screaming."
"……No, I'm sorry. Fo, forgive me."
Jamie must have realized something had gone wrong. Tears burst out of her eyes. It was tears of sorrow and fear.
There's nothing to be sad about.
She had never imagined that a noble lady, who was just well-behaved, would change overnight and beat her up and threaten herself.
A maid who became disabled will be kicked out of the duke's residence because she was of no use anymore, and will end up working in the red light district because she wouldn't be able to work elsewhere.
Living as a duke's maid was a dream job for commoners.
If you weren't working under a perverted aristocrat, you could guarantee your chastity and find a better marriage than others. It is natural that you'll be paid a lot of money, unlike others who do the same or more difficult labor and yet get meager pay.
Even the members of House of Hailon didn't mistreat their maids and servants. For Jamie, who has lived as the maid of such a peaceful duchy, violence and intimidation will induce her with fear she has never experienced before.
"Shhh. Well, what do you think? Wasn't it something you were already prepared for with the cost of your hands?"
Jamie instantly closed her mouth after listening to me and begged, bumping her head on the floor in tears. Her form lying face down on the floor looked pretty good.
She found it hard to believe that this was the case now, but her body showed me obedience as she instinctively thought she should beg.
So I bent down and patted her shoulder.
Now it's time to give the carrot.
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