I Won't Clear Up the Misunderstanding. I Don't Mind Being the Villainess. - Chapter 21

Lady Maravela, who had been glaring daggers at me, immediately started to look shifty the moment I took hold of the riding crop.
Her bloodshot eyes darted back to Holger, who stood waiting behind her.
“Holger, you worthless, ungrateful wretch!”
Lady Maravela spat the curse at the younger steward, her voice raspy and strained.
“Have you completely forgotten how I saved your skin that time you enraged the late Duke?!”
I was utterly dumbfounded by her outburst. I’ve known people like this in my past life—those who endlessly parade past favors to hold them over your head.
“…I am indebted to you for that, madam,” Holger managed to reply, struggling. Predictably, Lady Maravela wasn’t satisfied with that.
“Then get me out of here and throw this little nobody into the dungeons! Pay your debt now!”
“Honestly, that’s just pathetic, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t stand listening anymore and cut in.
“Lady Maravela, people like you are what we call insufferably self-righteous or overly demanding in England.”
“How dare you…!”
“And the only reason someone with such a foul mouth has kept their governess position this long is almost certainly thanks to Holger covering for you.”
I said, directing my gaze at Holger. He looked pained, and although it was a half-guess, it seemed to hit the mark.
(…He’s not malicious, but…)
He’s completely wrong for the role of this house’s steward. Holger looks authoritative, but he’s timid beneath the surface.
“But even Holger has reached his limit on protecting you. Do you even grasp the magnitude of the disastrous scene you made in front of the Duke?”
“You orchestrated this whole thing, didn’t you? Fawning over the children so you could cement your place in this house!”
“You can indulge in your fantasies, but I have no intention of ‘cementing my place.’ And I certainly haven’t fawned over any of the children.”
With Leo, if anything, I’ve done the opposite, managing to infuriate him and trigger several of his famous tantrums.
“I have my doubts. The only place you can play the grand Duchess is here. Back in your own family, you’re nothing but a maid’s bastard child!”
Lady Maravela snorted dismissively, and I tilted my head.
“I’ve always wondered about this, but where did you actually hear that I was a maid’s daughter?”
“When Count Olson petitioned for the exchange, he argued passionately that because you were a maid’s daughter, you’d be obedient and possess no airs. You weren’t aware?”
“…He actually said that?”
“He said it openly, right in front of the servants, so everyone in the Duke’s household knows. It seems the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, in more ways than one!”
Lady Maravela, now openly mocking Count Olson, seemed on the brink of complete despair. But I was genuinely surprised by the unexpected source of the revelation. I never imagined the Count himself would have blurted out that Erica was a maid’s daughter and then marketed it as an asset.
(…No airs and obedient, huh?)
The perfect opposite immediately sprang to mind: Lady Maravela right here, and the Countess Olson with her daughter Rose. I had a creeping suspicion that maybe the Count was just fed up with his own wife and daughter. Could that be why he became involved with a beautiful, compliant maid? Either way, it was a terrible mess for everyone else.
Lady Maravela apparently thought my quiet moment, processing my father’s words, was a sign of distress. Her eyes were burning, fixed on me with a twisted grin. I just shook my head at her total lack of observation skills.
“Lady Maravela, you seem to look down on Count Olson, too. Is that just because he dared to recommend a maid’s daughter for the Duchess position?”
“Of course! It’s absolutely scandalous to bring the bl00d of a commoner maid into the highly esteemed House of Duke Avenius!”
Lady Maravela cried out, her voice rising to a frantic, hysterical shriek. I glanced over at her, then turned my eyes to Holger.
“Scandalous, you say… Holger, do you happen to recall the origins of the seventh Duchess of Avenius?”
His eyes widened for a split second, and then he slowly spoke.
“…She was a kitchen maid. Her signature dish was the kirsch cake, which happened to be the seventh head’s favourite dessert.”
The exact same information I’d seen in the manga came from the steward’s lips. And the book I’d checked out of the library also contained a similar entry: the Cinderella story of a maid who used her beauty and superior cooking skills to rise and become the Duchess.
“Dahlia Avenius. She bore five children, one of whom inherited the Dukedom. So, the bl00d of a maid has been running through this family’s veins for a long time, hasn’t it?”
As I spoke, I subtly watched Lady Maravela’s face. She wore a completely blank expression—the closest thing to shock or utter disbelief.
“She’s famous enough to be recorded in books, so naturally you knew this, Holger?”
“…Yes, my lady.”
“As did I. If someone who claims to be a professional governess is unaware of this… well, I’d say that’s a severe case of neglecting one’s studies, wouldn’t you?”
I affected a dramatic sigh of disappointment and held up the book for Maravela to see. It was the one detailing the genealogies of royalty and the noble houses. Since Kevin is the sixteenth Duke of Avenius, the maid Dahlia became Duchess ages ago, but it’s easily verifiable. This, by the way, was itself a form of political marriage.
“When the Seventh King chose a commoner actress as his Queen, several high-ranking nobles followed suit and took commoners as wives… I assume you are at least familiar with that historical event?”
Lady Maravela kept her lips tightly sealed, refusing to say a word. She was merely trembling, ever so slightly. That silence was the most damning answer she could have given.