The Villainess is a Marionette

Chapter 43

Similarly, Susan also had no experience with running a household, so she could not speak up. Finally, Vera opened her mouth to explain.

“The internal affairs’ purpose is to support His Majesty and the imperial family. One’s duties vary depending on their position and department. Miss Susan and Miss Julia are Her Highness’s exclusive senior ladies-in-waiting of the princess’s palace.”

“You’ve explained things very well, Vera,” Cayena praised. “You must be busy, but I ask that you watch over the training of our new ladies-in-waiting.”

Vera bowed her head.

“Of course, Your Highness. It is a part of my duties.”

Cayena then dismissed the court ladies.

“This is enough for now. Go and rest yourselves.”

Vera took the two ladies, bowed, and left the parlor.

As soon as the parlor door closed behind them, Julia let out a big sigh.

“Since today is your first day, take a break and get adjusted to the palace. Your junior court ladies can inform you of your duties,” Vera said.

The junior court ladies that had been waiting by the wall approached them. Among the junior ladies-in-waiting were Annie and Donna, who had been promoted.

“Then, I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Julia looked at Vera, who seemed perfectly unperturbed, and thought that she wouldn’t bleed even if she were to be stabbed with a needle.

“Excuse me.”

Susan excused herself quickly and left first with her ladies-in-waiting.

Julia had been fantasizing about the imperial palace not long ago, but now, she felt like she had been splashed with cold water. She had imagined herself wearing beautiful dresses as she accompanied Her Highness to parties, carrying a parasol…

She walked to her quarters with Donna, the junior court lady assigned to her.

“From now on, Lady Julia will be taking care of Her Highness’s diet, refreshments, and medicine,” said Donna.

“What?!”

Julia was startled.

“But I don’t know how to cook, and I know nothing about medicine! How can I do that sort of work?”

Even just hearing about it, the work seemed difficult. Julia furrowed her brows and asked, “Then what are the other ladies-in-waiting doing?”

Donna explained each of the four ladies-in-waiting’s duties.

Hearing the explanation made Julia’s mood spoil further. It was because there was something that she wanted—Olivia’s duties.

‘Hospitality and party management! A role like that would place you at the center of the capital’s society.’

Julia really wanted that assignment. Also, hospitality would be better served if the person receiving guests was someone with a distinguished beauty, such as herself.

“By any chance, can we switch duties?”

The Grace viscountcy wasn’t powerful, so it would be quick work to switch their duties if Julia’s family sent them a message.

However, Donna shook her head.

“Her Highness herself decided on the division of tasks, so they can’t be changed arbitrarily. If you want to change your assignment, you must make a request to the princess directly.”

“Haa…”

Upset, Julia sighed.

“You’ll have time to learn your duties, so you needn’t worry too much,” said Donna.

Donna’s consolation did not comfort her at all.

‘To make matters worse, Susan’s job is also better than mine. She at least gets to take care of dresses and jewelry, though I don’t care for managing the furniture and other items.’

It felt like Princess Cayena purposefully gave her the hardest and most trivial task.

The true importance of her work did not matter to Julia. She only cared about what she could show off to others.

“Then, please call me when you need me,” Donna said.

Julia nodded and entered her room.

On the other hand, Millen, the lady-in-waiting Julia had brought from her family, knew that Julia had been entrusted with a greater task than she deserved.

‘She must have been entrusted with such a responsibility because she’s from the Evans family…’

“Taking care of Her Highness’s medicine and meals is a very prestigious and difficult job, milady.”

“What’s so prestigious about cooking? I’m so upset. I thought I’d be able to meet the man of my dreams and have a marvelous relationship.”

In addition to her family and beauty, she was even the princess’s lady-in-waiting. She was the perfect bride material.

The princess’s coming-of-age celebration was happening in just a month, so Julia was looking forward to a fateful meeting there.

She especially wanted to meet with Raphael.

“Well, you may come across Prince Rezef. They say he’s very handsome.”

“I’m not interested in younger men.”

“You’re only a year older than him. He’s hardly younger.”

Julia had no interest in the prince, who was currently on probation.

‘If it’s Princess Cayena’s younger brother… He’ll definitely look outstanding.’

The image of the princess popped up in Julia’s head. It was the first time her beauty had lost to someone else. What made her pride hurt even more was that Cayena was the same age as her.

‘Why is she so different, even though we’re the same age? Is it because she’s from the imperial family?’

Cayena possessed an astounding grace and a profound air that made you unable to take your eyes off of her.

None of Julia’s friends had such aura. Julia had hoped to take the high society of the capital city by storm with a beauty that exceeded Princess Cayena’s… but when she saw Cayena today, it was clear that could never happen.

Julia became depressed.

***

Indifferently, time continued to pass. Cayena was paying dearly for acting so conspicuously.

‘This is like how I worked overtime every day in my last life because of team projects.’

She was an office worker back then, but here, she was a princess. Wasn’t she working too hard?

It felt a little unfair to her. Things would have been better if she were just the daughter of some other noble family.

Cayena was not so heartless as to ignore the burden that the imperial family carried. So, she was only thinking about how to build a working system.

‘I’ll think of it as working for my meals.’

Framing her work as payment for her room, board, and entertainment slightly eased her resentment about the work.

“…Do you like working?” Cayena asked while looking at Vera dumbfoundedly.

Vera had even more work than she did, but her eyes were twinkling.

Vera gave her a timid smile.

“It’s because there’s someone who acknowledges me.”

Vera had never felt more satisfied in her life. Cayena was clear about rewards and punishments. Thus, Vera was enjoying working in an environment where she knew she would be recognized so long as she did her job well.

When Cayena looked at Vera, she was reminded of her past self.

‘Was there a time when I was also like that?’

It felt nice to be recognized for your competence and be promoted. But Cayena didn’t have a good boss.

‘But am I a good boss?’

She didn’t know. Still, she seemed to receive some good reviews.

If there are corrupt people among her employees, she would naturally take them out. Then, the honest people who had been called idiots by the wrongdoers would rise up.

Cayena immediately appointed those people to take the wrongdoers’ places. And throughout the palace, people have begun to praise Cayena.

She had completely revamped the internal affairs only five days after Rezef was put on probation.

‘Rezef is being unusually quiet.’

She thought Rezef would escape from his room to visit her again.

He loathed when anybody challenged his authority.

Cayena was aware of that, but she was willing to bleed a little. If he wanted, she would give him some other advantage. Cayena still had a lot of information that could prove useful. If needed, she could cause some trouble for someone who had bothered him.

But Rezef wasn’t acting. There was a report that he may have argued with Zenon, but that was it. It was like a child who became quiet after doing something bad. For Cayena, this tranquility was uncomfortable.

‘The biggest issue is that I don’t have a proper informant in the prince’s palace.’

Should she push Zenon to gather more details?

‘If I push here, I’ll draw too much attention. I should just pretend to be quiet for a while.’

“Does it seem like everyone is adjusting well?”

Vera understood that the question was referring to the new ladies-in-waiting.

“Not at all, Your Highness.”

There seemed to be some dissatisfaction in Vera’s firm response.

“Julia, especially, talked about how unhappy with the tasks that you’ve entrusted to her.”

The previous day, Donna relayed Julia’s every complaint to Vera.

Vera had already been anxious about leaving this sensitive work to Julia, but she was even more upset by the lady’s disloyal attitude.

“Good.”

It would actually be troublesome if Julia was assigned something that suited her and did a good job. If she did, it would be more difficult to separate the Evans family from Rezef.

Vera was stunned by Cayena’s words. What other plot was she planning?

At that moment, Cayena asked another question. “What about Olivia?”

“She said she’s ready to start her training right away.”

“Please take care of her and help her adjust.”

Vera was grateful to Olivia for her help in uncovering the corruption of the central kitchen’s head chef. Also, she didn’t try to leave her behind and sought forgiveness from Her Highness alongside Vera.

Vera thought that they would be able to get along well.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

As Vera organized the letters sent to Cayena, her hand came to a stop.

She placed the letter she was holding on top of a silver tray and brought it to Cayena.

“Your Highness.”

Cayena turned to receive the tray. When she saw the letter on top, she muttered, “The imperial academy?”

The academy was one of the places to which she had no connection. But that place had sent her a letter.

When she opened the envelope, she saw a clear seal that revealed exactly who had arranged for this letter.

「We’ve received word that the Kedrey dukedom will erect a new building at the imperial academy in commemoration of Her Highness, Princess Cayena’s coming of age.

Therefore, if Her Highness could discuss and decide on the use of this building…」

Cayena was so shocked that she said something unfitting of a princess.

“He’s nuts.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Did he seriously finance a new building to have an excuse to meet with her?

‘What is this man thinking?’

Raphael was weird.

~~~