"I told you already! I don't know anything about her death!" Aefia shouted at Elenor's face while abruptly standing up. "Stop forcing the blame at me!" Her fingers wrapped around the broken porcelain cup as blood escaped her fingers while staining against the white surface of the debris, rolling down to later stain the white tablecloth.
"Liar! I know you killed her!" Lady Elanor stayed seated on the ground while holding her cheek and sobbing. "You were her friend! You even hated her! You bullied her! You know you did!" She shouted back, matching the same volume of voice at Aefia. Inwardly, this was just a sick joke for the both of them to get the maids curious.
"Lady Elanor!" One of them rushed in due to the commotion, running towards the blonde haired woman's side. "Who are you stranger?! What gets you the ability to hit the daughter of the Count with that manner?" The maid shouted at her with a loud voice while walking up and grabbing onto her dark hair with the silvering ends. "I will have to kick you out."
Just as a smile downed on the maid's face, lady Elanor stood up from behind her while telling the other maids a command. "Lock the door!" With the words hanging in the air, the heavy oak doors shut the guest hall with a dull thud, and a hand was placed onto the maid's shoulder to keep her at a stop.
"My my! You had the audacity to lay your hand on someone you said you wanted to help." She added while pulling her back, and letting her grip on the Aefia's hair drop to her sides. "You said you had every information about the palace. I want you to spill the truth to her."
"What is this pesky kid going to do?" The maid made an irritated face at the girl as she stepped back. "At the least, she can only concentrate on trying to look good. I can see why she would murder Lady Stephany like you had said. By hearing this... I want to kill her myself! Die you rascal!" She shouted at her face.
"A rascal?" Aefia asked with shadowed eyes as she took her steps forward, while watching Elanor take her grip off the maid's shoulder. "Yes a rascal! You good for nothing child who managed to kill a precious member of the family! How could you do such a thing?! You spoilt brat! Now you are back at trying to murder another member!"
A smile fell onto her face as Aefia raised a hand and striked the maid's face with precision, as her eyes caught the sight of the woman falling to the ground with a dull thud and looking with a shocked face back at her. "You think you are probably flying to say such a thing... It's almost intriguing. I like that... I like that coming from someone who was said to be helping me..."
"What? My lady you aren't going to say anything about this?" The maid looked up at the blonde haired person standing at her left side, with the same evil face as the girl who just slapped her. "What did you expect me to say? Try figuring out who she is? And I will see whether to give you a raise with your monthly salary." Elanor spoke while folding her arms in front of her, with a smile that sent chills down the poor maid's spine. "Maybe if you manage to figure out who she is, you will also learn your lesson."
That instant, the maid's eyes diverted directly at the girl's features. The light from the windows were framing her enough to send distant features into the shadow. "Well... I don't have all day you know. My time is expensive and I had to buy it when coming here. But maybe this nice Lady can have you answer this question another time honestly... I just want to know for now... How did you learn about the duchess and her plots?" Aefia finally spoke while taking a sit, followed by Elanor on the opposite side who still had her tea untouched in her cup.
"Give her five more seconds. She needs a hint too you know." The woman spoke while starring with pitiful eyes at the maid.
"Then what kind of information gathering has she done instead of stealing them?" The girl replied. "There definitely seems to be a huge dip in IQ when I first heard that she was the person who broke the news to you... That the Imperial family has a fourth sibling. And that the sibling is a daughter, just a teenager and simply an intelligent person."
"Are you trying to brag? I mean... The last part sounded like it." The blonde haired woman laughed while looking at her with furrowed eyebrows.
"What can I say? I was in fact so smart that not much people still knows me. And not much people can tell whether I am naive or straight-up serious in business." She smiled back at the woman while fixing her hair.
A wire snapped inside the maid's mind as she took a closer look at the girl's hair. A jolt of fear went up her arms as her eyes widened and her weak figure trembled. "Oh... She found it out..." The girl looked at the weak person on the ground, who was trying to backup. "And she is regretting her choices of words."
She is... Intelligent like what the fired maid had said... What have I done?! The maid got to her knees and knelt forward with her forehead impacting the marble ground with a loud thud that echoed against the entire hall. "I am sorry! I didn't mean it! I couldn't figure out who you were! I was blinded by rage due to the Lady's safety! Please understand!" The maid trembled with watery eyes as she looked up at the approaching shadow.
Aefia extended her hand out to the maid's chin and lifted it up softly. "Do you mean it?" She asked with a calm and expressionless face. "Then who am I?" Her chiling voice left the back of her throat with a harshness that promised a signed death warrant. The maid staggered for a long time before she opened her mouth out of pure determination and courage. "Aefia... Seraphina Smod." She spoke while trying to keep herself from tearing up again.
A smile flashed onto her face as she let go of the maid's chin and mumbled a few words before raising her other hand. "You missed something... Poor wrench." Her palm striked square at the maid's cheek with a splat as the maid spit blood to the ground, which was caused by the sharp graze of her teeth with the inner walls of her mouth. "Say it again... But properly this time. Who am I? You have forgotten the most important detail of them all. One that comes before the 'Smod'."
Her fingers grabbed onto the maid's chin again, as she craddled it against her palm and raising the other hand to signal a second blow. Her smile widened, and seeing that there was no hesitation at her movements, the maid stuttered against her grasp. "Princess Aefia Seraphina Smod." As soon as the words left her mouth, Aefia retracted her hand and went over to sit on the chair opposite to Elanor.
"Now... Is she willing to say who sold her the information? Because based on what I can see... She definitely isn't the person who found out about this and wanted to warn me." Aefia spoke while picking up a biscuit from the plate in front of her. "I hope she doesn't plan on just staying on the floor all day and tell me nonsense she knows I will never believe..."
"Well I was honestly suspecting the same thing when she just happened to tell me that she had some information about the Imperial palace and that she had collected and calculated it all by herself." Elanor as replied while taking a sip from her cup of tea, then pausing for a while with a smirk on her face. "It's cold... I don't like my drink if it's not my preference." She spoke while throwing the cup in front of the maid's place. The porcelain cup shattered instantly, with the liquid flowing around in a small mess.
"Spill the truth... While fenching a cloth and a few plasters for the Princess. You don't want to get yourself a bad reputation like this... Do you?" The lady spoke while crossing her legs and picking out a muffin from the tray in front of them. The maid stood up while scammering behind the plants and came out a few seconds later with the cloth and band-aids. The entire time, the poor maid was shocked still and silent, which was just a test by the two of them to identify how much of a boundary the maid was ready to cross at times.
"I hate her... Shall we execute her? This traumatized doll doesn't entertain me enough." Aefia spoke while placing a hand underneath her head while the maid wiped off the blood at her fingertips and placed the band-aids. Just when, the fragile person in front of the girl, started speaking out of frantic desire to live. "You were right that I didn't get the information. It was someone else who told me, which I told to Lady Elanor in hopes of getting a raise. That maid used to work for the palace before the Imperial family fired her for disobedience."
Stepping back, she had her head bowed the whole time while she used the back of her hand to wipe the places the girl had striked her with bloodied fingers. "She told me that she was only trying to mess with the young Princess's mind thinking she was probably broken and naive... But then you overreacted and broke a glass at her face, and it didn't go unseen to the Duchess's eyes."
"She had high hopes that seeing the adoptive daughter reacting like that, the duchess might stand for her, but instead, she was fired and sent out to the streets with her belongings." The maid spoke while looking down at the ground she was standing. "I happened to be outside around that time when I moved past her, because she was a childhood friend of mine. I just wanted to say hello, but she was in a bad mood, so we ended up spending a long time talking about her problems."
"She told me about how she had seen the contract between the Princess and the Duchess and spoke about everything including her relatives death and how she wanted to go to the asylum. Around that time, I asked for more answers curiously and I ended up getting some more valuable then gold. The next day, I told two people in this estate about this..."
"That is me and the Count... I know that." Lady Elanor spoke while folding her arms in front of her. "You know how much trouble you have put the Count into right now thanks to your talkative habits. He is lined up for execution already... How are you going to stop that now?" Her smile lingered against her face with the look of a harsh adult.
"Out of my twenty years of life, I have never met a servant as clumsy as you... So I wonder what I should do to you... Now that you have spoken the truth. I would have said execution before this... But since you spoke about it yourself... Maybe I should just cut off half of your yearly supply of food." The woman spoke with a shadowed grin as her eyes fell towards the person sitting opposite to her. "What about your deduction Princess Seraphina?"
"I would want to slaughter the maid who we had fired... But I want to do it secretly." She answered while placing her finger at her chin. "However, thinking back... I completely remember that time she said we fired her... It's been some time now and I don't know where I can find her. Honestly... If that maid tells me where her hometown is... I may be able to trace her out easily."
"Are you sure? You might not find her there too. Maybe you should check the few files inside the Duchess's drawers or anywhere she keeps her employment papers." The woman replied with the soft curls of her blonde hair falling to frame her face by a bit. "If you want... I can help you find her."
"Sure thing... But how do you want me to pay back for that work then?" Aefia leaned her elbow against the table. "Maybe a small sneaky visit to the cell my father is kept in. I have a few questions to ask him. And that needs to be done tonight..." The woman replied.
"Hmm... Well it shortly alligns with my important tasks... But sure. Let's say we will be occupied for an entire night, at least it would be sleep's worth. You have got yourself a deal." She replied while holding out her hand in a handshake.
"Deal." Elanor took her hand, leaving the maid as a witness to their transaction.
"Alright then... I guess it's almost time for me to leave because otherwise... My family is going to start hunting me." Aefia spoke while getting up and stepping forward towards the heavy oak doors, clicking open the mechanism to the lock. "One more thing... Don't you think we should have a final speech about this servant of 'my' estate? I would definitely not allow her to stay here for long. Our safety and privacy matters too you know."
"Hmm... Yeah... Even I don't care about her survival anymore. Let her stay here until she has decided what she wants to do with her life." She replied while stepping out without a backward glance at her new ally. I guess that was a smart indecisive move by me back then... Thanks to that, I have finally found out the lore to the duchess's 'contract-based' relation to me.
A smile settled onto her face as she took her steps outside of the estate. Her transport was already there, as she stepped inside with her own servant. "You seem radiant today... Young Master." Brittany spoke while looking at her smiling face.
"Because I am about to solve a lot of mysteries." Aefia replied while narrowing her eyes into a calm state at her personal servant.