Chapter 3 – Know Your Place ②
The revenge drama slowly begins.
The servants, brought in by the stepmother as her henchmen, trembled with fear.
On the other hand, the long-time servants calmly accepted this situation as “only natural”.
The difference in their power was obvious.
The stepmother and stepsister continued to tremble as the golden lightning still wrapped around my hand.
“I’ve remained silent until now, so I suppose you thought today would be the same… but you are sorely mistaken. You’ve done so much to me, so I must give back an equal amount in return.”
Those words were tantamount to a death sentence, but the stepsister defiantly glared at Lunaria.
Then, as if inspired by her, the butler assigned to the stepmother stepped forward.
“With all due respect, Miss Lunaria…”
“Oh yes, quite rude of you. Silence.”
Smiling, I weakened the lightning’s power, clenched my fist and punched the butler across the cheek with all my might.
A dull thud echoed, but there was no damage done to Lunaria’s body, as she had long ago superimposed physical strengthening magic on herself. The struck butler, however, was sent flying sideways and fell unceremoniously to the floor.
“Ugh?!”
“Did I permit you to speak, fake butler? And as for someone calling me a fake Duchess… where then is the real one? My seal is quite visible.”
A crimson rose crest glowed on the back of my right hand.
The symbol of the head of the Duke family, passed down through generations. The Scarlet Rose.
“Ah… I should adjust my magic aura to red. How careless of me.”
“B, bu, but I have it too!! The Scarlet Rose!!”
“Then show me? Oh, right!”
“……?”
“If it’s just a tattoo, we can’t have that… shall I erase it for you with a healing spell~?”
I curled the corners of my mouth into a smile, and the stepsister’s face turned from blue to white.
“Come on, show me.”
“I… ah…”
“Quickly.”
After taking one step, the stepsister hurriedly moved away from the stepmother and put some distance between us, but it was too late. I took another big step, and the maid screamed as I grabbed the stepsister by her hair and forced to stand.
“Kyaaaah!!”
“Young lady!!”
“Oh my, you call this girl a young lady? A former prostitute’s daughter who hasn’t even been recognized as the adopted daughter of the duke’s family?”
Forcing her to stand, I quickly grabbed her chin, and brought her face so close that our noses were almost touching, deepening my smile.
Ah, this child has never seen Lunaria this enraged before, so she is shaken, confused and frightened, and terrified, thinking this isn’t supposed to happen.
But in a sense, this current form is the true “Lunaria”.
When I played the game, she was terrifying, especially as an enemy.
As if mocking, I adjusted my magic, stopping just short of breaking their spirit, giving them something that might be called hope, helping them recover just a little, prolonging the final moment as long as possible, and then snip, severing the thread with surgical precision.
The final blow I deliver is pure terror.
And when “Lunaria” revealed the truth, the maids looked skeptical, but the truth is the truth.
It seemed that damned father was trying to arrange for his stepmother and stepsister to be adopted into the duke’s family, but Lunaria had properly stopped that.
The remarriage was approved, but they were never officially recognized as members of the Duke’s Family.
And that damned father still hasn’t noticed. Because it was Lunaria who processed the paperwork.
She had put up with it for so long.
After her mother passed away, the father behaved tyrannically as the acting head of the household, but she thought that one day he would return to his kind self.
She had also hoped that her brother would stop doting on his stepsister and return to being the strict yet kind brother he used to be.
All such hopes were in vain.
The stepmother had completely seduced the father with her body, and before she knew it, the stepsister had also seduced the brother with hers, just like the stepmother.
Lunaria cried and cried and cried and, in the end, she despaired and gave up on everything regarding her family.
The result is what we have now.
The stepmother, seeing Lunaria’s anger, seemed to lose her resolve, her face turning pale as she trembled, unable to help her beloved daughter. The beloved daughter’s slightest glare caused her to tremble so much that she couldn’t speak, her teeth chattering in fear.
Lunaria should have done this sooner, but it was her final act of kindness, her final gamble for her family. But it all shattered so easily.
That’s why I decided to show no mercy whatsoever.
I will take back everything that has been stolen from Lunaria, and I will never again allow them the decadent days that they have taken for granted.
But first, there’s something that needs to be done.
“Speaking of which… you keep chirping ‘Sister’ this and ‘Sister’ that. Also, that former whore on the floor over there dares address me by my first name without even an honorific, but…”
Smiling, I released the stepsister’s chin and pushed her toward the stepmother with all my might.
Her dress felt stiff, and it was heavy, but I didn’t feel it much thanks to my physical strengthening.
I stared at the stepsister, who fell on the floor with an unsightly thud, then with a smile on my face, I spoke.
“Stepmother, and stepsister… I realize I’ve never bothered to learn your names… care to enlighten me? By the way, if this is what you call a ‘family’ … I may need to redefine the term.”
The servants on the stepmother’s side became even more agitated.
Now that I think about it, I’ve never heard Lunaria call the stepmother or stepsister by their names.
“What does she mean?”
“No, she just said that Madam and the Young Miss are not members of the Duke’s family…”
“Wait, could it be…”
The new servants, pale-faced, whispered among themselves, while the long-serving servants mocked them with a single glance, saying “Serves you right”.
They had no idea how terrifying the person they had scorned was, or that what they had mistaken for weakness was actually mercy.
By the time they realized it, it was already too late.
“These people are not recognized members of my Ducal Family. And you, who serve them, have been serving commoners of unknown origin, right? How… pathetic.”
The servants stood frozen, utterly speechless at my cheerful declaration.
“As for me. Of course, my servants, the ones standing behind me, are properly compensated by the Duke of Solfege Household, but… where do your salaries come from?”
“She made us work without pay!?”
“I never signed an employment contract with you, did I?”
The stepmother’s butler lunged at her where she sat.
“Hey! How long are you going to stare blankly, Madam? What about our salaries?! How are you going to pay us?!”
“I… I am the wife of the Duke of Solfege! The Duke’s wife!! Clearly, the Ducal House … they have to pay you…!?!”
The stepmother looked up stunned at me as I nonchalantly told her…
“As I said, you hold no recognized position within the Solfege Dukedom. My father never completed the procedure, and the House of Lords never ratified your status. To put it… bluntly—”
Hmm, I paused.
Tapping a finger against my chin and thought for a moment, before clapping my hands together with a radiant smile.
“I’ve always thought of you two as nothing more than prostitutes who seduced my father and brother and are now living off our family, so I never bothered to learn your names nor do I care to. And as for these servants you hired? They’re not listed on our household’s staff roster. Naturally.”
Understanding what I was saying, the maids and other servants collapsed to their knees on the floor and hung their heads.
There was no truth to the fact that they ever served the venerable Duke of Solfege Household. What remained was the despair of being manipulated into a situation where they didn’t know if they would be paid, or how they would ever find work in the future.
“Now then, everyone! Kindly remove yourselves from my sight. You’re utterly unnecessary in my world.”
“Mercy…! I beg y— “
Hearing the words barely spoken by the stepmother’s butler, I tilted my head.
“Why? You all delighted in tormenting me. Some maid… ah yes, there she is, the brunette maid with tear-stains… doused me with bucket after bucket of water. And oh, so much more, should I recount each and every humiliation? And after all that, you dare to beg me for mercy?”
I exposed their misdeeds one after another.
Speaking in such a detached tone.
It’s not a question of whether to forgive or not, because Lunaria never cared for the stepmother’s side of the family in the first place.
So I really don’t care if they live or die alone in some ditch after this.
“You’re begging the wrong person for forgiveness, and to think you could even beg for forgiveness is nothing but arrogance…”
The smile I had kept on all this time suddenly vanished, and I delivered the final blow in a low voice.
“You all should… Know. Your. Place.”
Sads Translates 