When Odette interrupted. Paula was taken aback.
"That's right. Until yesterday, I would have been anxious to look good to my mother and close friend, Paula."
How much pleasure must it have been for Paula to harass and rule over the noble Young lady?
As she guessed what her complex was, a natural sneer flowed from Odette's mouth.
"You dare to tell me now..."
"If you want to discipline, you have to set an example. How can you discipline someone if you don't even knock, which is the most basic of basics?"
Paula's face distorted at Odette's remark.
"And look at that. The emotion sh lows on your face, Paula."
"Miss."
"What can I learn from a disciplinary maid who can't even keep her composure and reveals the depth of her emotions?"
When she abandoned her high, childish tone of voice, a clean, powerful, and natural voice emerged.
Just by not desperately wanting to be loved, so much changes.
What changed more than her voice and speech was her vision. The Paula she had been afraid of had become so ridiculous and insignificant.
"Have you come here to teach me how to act rudely and without any sense of place, Paula?"
Paula's face immediately turned red at Odette's cold laughter.
***
'What, what is it?'
Paula couldn't help but feel embarrassed, because Odette really did seem like a perfect aristocrat.
It wasn't just because of Odette's impeccable manners. The higher-ups, including Paula, even found it ridiculous that Odette behaved according to perfect manners.
She knew that it was not the manners she had learned as a noble child of a noble family, but rather the manners she had learned through being bullied.
The madam quite enjoyed excommunicating Odette and then bringing her back in after nitpicking on the old-fashioned etiquette in the book.
The sight of her trying to follow etiquette perfectly and obstinately looked both stubborn and ridiculous. An obsession with etiquette born of fear and terror. Isn't that ridiculous?
But today, even though it was the same gesture as usual, it felt like she was the ruler.
Paula tried to remain calm.
'That woman is at best Odette.'
If she brought up the topic of Madam, it was clear that she would start to groan immediately.
"If you act so arrogantly, I'll tell Madam!"
But Odette only smiled gently, exuding a cold and noble aura that seemed to be crushing Paula.
'And what's that voice?'
A flute-like voice, elegant enough to captivate people. Paula trembled faintly without realizing it.
It was as if I was seeing right before her eyes the voice of the ideal nobleman that Paula had been trying so hard to imitate.
"Young lady, get on your knees right now. You were locked in the attic as punishment for pretending to be sick while taking medicine yesterday! Have you forgotten your master's orders?"
Paula couldn't back down. She had a gut feeling that if she continued to be pushed back, she would never be able to reign over Odette again.
I'm the one who should have been in that position! How dare that orphan girl!
Then how was I to resolve my long-standing anger?
At this moment, when she felt superior to Odette, Paula could never give up on this in her life.
"Have you forgotten the young lady's humble origins? Should I tell the maid to have you excommunicated immediately?"
She will never let Odette talk back to her again. She felt her blood boil with that determination. Putting aside her high-minded speech, Paula urged Odette on.
It was then that a cold hand slapped her fevered face with a slap!
"What, what is this..."
Paula was taken aback. Odette's hand was sharper than she had expected. It was a strength she could not have expected from such thin arms.
Paula's eyes were dizzy. It was clear that Odette had great skill in striking.
"You're rude, Paula. If you taught me manners, I'd be laughed at in society."
While her hands were weakened in surprise, Odette took the whip from Paula's hand as if she were taking it away. It was a graceful and gentle gesture, but Paula couldn't stop it in the middle.
Like the tricks of a skilled pickpocket.
'How on earth are your hands so fast?'
As Paula stared blankly at the magical handwork, the whip struck her back.
"Ahh!"
Paula fell to the floor in a pain she had never experienced before.
"Haven't you always said that there's nothing like a whip to correct bad habits?"
'Oh, how can it hurt like this?'
In the 12 years she's been using it to hit Odette, this was the first time she's been hit.
The pain from the horsewhip was beyond imagination. Her body trembled and Paula lost her will to fight.
"Get on your knees. I have to discipline you today."
Have turquoise eyes ever been this cool?
Paula, who couldn't come to her senses even after just one blow, fell to her knees in a hurry. Cold sweat flowed down her face from the pain she didn't want to feel again.
Her head was filled with humiliation and she wanted to confront it right away, but the pain she was experiencing for the first time in her life forced her body to surrender.
"A maid who threatens her master. I think you need some education."
Odette gently lifted the horsewhip and brought it down on Paula's back once more.
"Whoa!"
Although she had only been hit twice, Paula was left trembling and crying.
"Oh, Miss."
"Don't forget to count out loud how many times you get hit. It's a law that says you should reflect on the same number of hits you get."
"Count out loud how many times you get hit, young lady! It's a law that says you should reflect on the number of times you get hit."
Odette spoke softly and lowly, imitating Paula's manner of speaking.
'I won't let you off easy if I tell Madam. Do you think I can get over this humiliation?'
Paula, who believed in the Countess's favor, gritted her teeth, but the pain from the horsewhip was so overwhelming that it made her resolve to fly away.
"Hey, hey!"
Paula gritted her teeth as she felt the palms of her hands growing excited as she lay face down on the floor.
***
Odette looked down at Paula, who had fainted after only five minutes, with cold eyes.
'It's ridiculous that you fainted over something like this.'
It wasn't even half as strong as what she's been hit with. Unlike her, who'd bleed three times. Paula's skin wasn't even swollen.
'You kept nagging me when I was so young, that I had to get hit in my thirties as a basic rule.'
As Odette was crying in pain, Paula said that she was being too harsh and added a few dozen more.
How can you be so cruel to others, yet so comically generous to yourself?
'If only I had had enough time, I would have waited for her to wake up and re-educated her properly...'
Unfortunately, she didn't have time.
'Paula is unconscious, so it'll take a while to tell my mother.'
Paula, who was lying on the floor, fit in well with the attic. For some reason, she was always treated too well for a maid.
"I wasted precious time because of you."
Odette hummed to her while she was unconscious and left the room. Of course, she didn't forget to lock the attic from the outside.
"My time is not cheap like yours."
Then she moved towards her original purpose.
Odette came out of the attic where she had been locked up and headed to her room.
Second floor. Her own bedroom. It's like the room where the Royal Mistress stays next to the Emperor's room.
"Don't you know our son? Of course, I knew that you had feelings for him as you grew up. How dare you... That's an unpleasant tone. Isn't it an honor for you?"
As if to show off that the Count's family viewed him as Ferdinand's plaything.
"You're so cheeky. You're adopted as Ferdinand's plaything, but you don't know your place."
The voice of her mother who laughed at her while she was locked up in prison. What on earth could possibly go through her head to raise such a beastly son?
It's so regrettable that she's spent her whole life trying to become a family with this kind of people.
She grabbed the doorknob of her room with a very cold face.
Then, a man, who was inside the room, looked back at Odette.
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment