Beautiful Isabella would never have taken Maletta’s side if she knew what she was talking about. However, Maletta cut out what she didi and only told Isabella, ‘Miss Araidne hit me.’ Lucrezia,who had been waiting for Ariadne because of the tutor incident the other day, said she was right and stormed to Ariadne’s room with Maletta at the fore. The hallway leading to Ariadne’s little corner attic on the third floor was agitated by the thumping footsteps of half a dozen menacingly, and the old oak door slammed open.
“How can a girl carelessly raise her hand at others without being careful about her appearances!”
It was Lucrezia, wearing a tight dress that was too revealing, and accompanied by Isabella and Maletta, accompanied by the maids she always took with her. Maletta showed her swollen cheeks in front of Lucrezia and complained about her injustice.
“I was arranging the clothes for the lady to wear, and suddenly, Lady Araidne hit me without warning.”
Lucrezia shook her head at Maletta’s words and screamed. .
“It is the role of the superior to rule the subordinates with virtue, but you have a tyrannical disposition and it is a big deal!”
What is to come has come. Ariadne politely bowed her head.
“Mother, the superior is responsible for guiding the inferior. SInce Maletta insulted my father and my mother, I had no choice but to do so.”
“What?”
“Maletta said that since my father knows no shame and raises all his illegitimate children like children of nobles, there is no need to be polite to me as an illegitimate child.”
Maletta’s face turned white. She looked at Isabella and pleaded with her eyes to do something. Isabella was just dumbfounded by her fisheye. No, I brought her mother to take her side because Ariadne was beaten because she was vicious. How did I know that maletta would make such a bombastic remark about Cardinal de Mare! Lucrezia looked at Maletta, her complexion pale.
“is this true?”
“No! No! On the contrary, I said that Miss Isabella and Miss Arabella are noble people, so Ariadne shouldn’t be equal to them!”
Ariadne threw another bait. Lying in the small attic in the corner of the third floor, she had simulated over ten times what Maletta would say to Lucrezia and what to argue against.
“To be precise, she said that father’s blood is low and only mother’s blood is precious, so Isabella and Arabella, who are born with mother’s blood, are precious, but she doesn't need to treat me politely as my mother is just a maid like her.”
These were words that Lucrezia and Isabella might have been deeply pleased with, but they could never be publicly affirmed. The fact that Cardinal de Mare was originally from an orphaned child whose father and mother were unknown, and that he started as s priest without a chance to choose a job at the palace, where he picked up and raised him as a child, was a Cardinal de Mare’s misfortuned. If these words reached the ears of the Cardinal, it must have been very condescending. Ariadne threw a move of conversation she had been saving in front of the bluish Lucrezia.
“She also said that if she had a child with father, the child would have the same social status as me, so she would not have to be polite to me.”
Suddenly, sparks exploded in Lucrezia’s eyes. This was a different story.
“What?”
Only then didi Maletta realize that she was in a serious problem, and her limbs trembled like aspen trees. Lucrezia turned her head and glared at Maletta, as proud as a leopard. It wasn't a long time, but it felt like an eternity as the eyes slowly moved to her, so Maletta fell to her knees on the floor.
“No, madam! How could I! Ariadne is telling a pure lie!”
Lucrezia looked Maletta up and down to decide which one to trust: Ariadne or Maletta. Maletta was a maid. She could hardly be called a beauty, but she had a plump and voluptuous figure. The most notable part of Maletta was her torsi, her breast and forearms were generally fleshy and voluptuous, and her waist was tucked in so that despite her short, thick limbs and plain face, she managed to catch the eye. It stood out.
‘What will my husband think when he sees this maid?”
Maletta herself was well aware of her strengths, so she had mended the maid’s uniform to fit her body. It was similar to the dress Lucrezia was wearing, and the apron. Realizing this, Lucrezia’s eyes brightened and shone, and she let out a roar.
“Where is this lowly woman aiming for someone else’s husband!”
After turning her head, she shouted at the maid who was standing behind her.
“ten whips for this wild bitch!”
It was a very heavy punishment for a slip of the tongue. In their twenties, the older servants often died.
“Yes, Madam!”
“Ah! No! It’s all lies! Save me, Madam!”
The head maid and two or three more maids under Lucrezia’s direct charge rushed at Maletta, dragged the struggling Maletta by force, and quickly descended into the space on the third floor where the servants lived. Maletta was Isabella’s direct maid in the past, but Isabella didn't help a word. It seemed that this was over, but Lucrezia could not let Ariadne go smoothly. This was a matter of dignity as the hostess.
“And you! If that had happened, you should have come to me and asked what to do with her, what if you hit your maid for nothing1”
LLucrezia opened her eyes fiercely and scolded Ariadne.
“Violence is not allowed no matter what!”
‘No violence under any circumstances!’
The words I heard from Cesare in the past life after the tea party hair incident rang in my ears. Ariadne laughed grimly. It is not that violence is not allowed under any circumstances, but that those who do not have the power to justify violence should not use it. If so, isn't the violence committed by the soldiers of the Count, whom Cesare dragged and driven to the capital, violence? Is Cesare, who killed Prince Alfonso and hung him on the wall, pure as pure white? Is this Lucrezia’s chaste? Is there a fundamental difference between an fist that is wielded directly and a whip that is struck by raising the maid? from Maletta’s point of view, wouldn't Ariadne’s few slaps be better than ten lashes tied up in the cellar? But Ariadne politely bowed her head and knelt on the floor.
“This daughter’s thoughts were short-lived. I don't want to put pressure on my mother, so I took care of it myself, and I was wrong.”
Bowing her head again, Ariadne pleaded guilty.
“With a sense of self-reflection, I will go to the Rambouillet Relief Center. I will serve for three days and three nights and repent of my mistaked.”
The Rambouillet Relief Center was a notorious place. It was built by Margaret, the Queen of Leo III, to help the poor of San Carlo. Although the intention was good, the Queen’s budget was absurdly insufficient to feed and shelter all the poor of San Carlo. When the poor went in, they often came out dead.
“Maletta is also to blame for misguided guidance due to my immorality, so I want to take her and encourage her faith.”
Lucrezia looked a little surprised. Rambouillet Relief Center. Going to the hell of blood and pus flowing with her own feet? But at her side, Isabella interjected.
“Wouldn't 5 days be better?”
She had an angelic smile on her face.
“Wouldn't there be a better result if we strictly followed the example of the Holy Book?”
Ariadne knew best that Isabella did not have a drip of faith. What is the success of the person who had her blood on her hands in order to steal her sister’s man? Isabella was doing this purely to annoy Ariadne. But she said, whether it was 3 or 5 days, it didn't make much a difference to Ariadne. She was good at enduring dirty, cold and dangerous things.
“My sister is right. I will reflect on it for five days and come back.”
Isabella whispered in Lucrezia’s ears. In front of her mother, she took off her mask.
‘Mom! When they return from a relief center, people say they might have fleas or scabies, so just lock them in a small room for a month.
‘If I imprison Ariadne for a month, will his Eminence not say anything?’
‘I’m afraid I might have brought the disease from Rambouillet Relied Center, so I'm going to isolate myself until I'm clean. What would father say?’
San Carlo was plagued with periodic outbreaks of plague and cholera. The Rambouillet Relief Center was the place where the poorest and sick people in SAn Carlo went. Isabella added a word.
‘This child pretends to be compliant, but strangely i don't like it. It needs to be tamed. Let's take this opportunity to properly show who’s on top.’
Lucrezia nodded her head at the words of her eldest daughter. Ariadne packed up her party’s clothes that evening and headed for the Rambouillet Relief Center early in the next morning.
***
On the way to the Relief Center, the de Mare family’s carriage was simple, painted black. There was a fancy silver carriage that the Cardinal usually rode, but he never thought she would ride it. I wouldn't give it up, and even if i did, i would have declined. In one corner of the narrow wagon saw Maletta, a maid, disfigured by whipping, staring at her. Ariadne smiled and floated her rhymes. She needed a servant maid. A maid who became her one person, unaffected by Lucrezia and Isabella.
“Malette, for five days now, it's just you and me.”
< p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">“...”
“In the meantime, Isabella can't protect you. What should I do?”
Maletta’s shoulders began to tremble.
“No, will Isabella take care of you? Didn't you see when her mother cried out the whips? If she had only said one word to her, you wouldn't have been flogged.”
Theodosius, a general of the ancient Latin Empire, said that men could be ruled either by fear or by love. Neither Ariadne in her previous life was successful. She was ridiculed and unloved by those around her and her subordinates. This time, I was about to try the fear first.
“Even at home, you spend most of your day with me, not Isabella.”
Ariadne leaned her upper body toward Maletta. Her tall height and straight shoulders approached imposingly and pressed the round and chubby Maletta.
“You can make a mistake at first. You could be wrong. But if you find out you've done something wrong, shouldn't you change your attitude quickly?”
Maletta drew in a breath.
“I am a generous host. You can forget about the past.”
Then, suddenly, the carriage jolted loudly.
Hee Hee!
“We’re here.”
Fortunately for Maletta, the carriage arrived at the Relief Center just in time. Ariadne clicked her tongue briefly as she got off the carriage. The Rambouillet Relief Center was a poor relief facility by the state rather than the palace, which is rare in the entire continent. Ariadne unpacked her luggage in a cold room, guided by the Queen’s official, and asked the royal officials, who had no idea how to treat the Cardinal’s illegitimate daughter, to take care of the work comfortably, as she was just a young girl who came to do volunteer work.
‘I have to go to the place where the poor are gathered. The reason why I came all the way here with Maletta is because of that.’
***
“Get in line! One bowl per person!”
Ariadne was placed in the food line serving soup. It may be a long way from the soup bowl, but lapping it close to 500 times a day made my arm hurt as if it would fall off. When neither the first day nor the second day saw the person she was looking for, Ariadne asked a low-ranking official working with her.
“I know that the poor in the Relief Center have much more than this, so why are these the only people receiving food?
“People who are very ill don't even have the energy to stand in the food line.”
It was said that they were starving because there was no separate manpower to bring food and feed the severely ill.
‘The child must be there.’
Ariadne decides to go looking for her. Up to this point, Ariadne had never imagined that she would meet someone more important than the person she was looking for here.
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