The Villainess's Exclusive Maid Is Too Good at Her Job - Chapter 52

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 52

“Ha, haha. It’s been a while, Janet.”
Janet’s expression turned cold the moment she stepped into the reception room.
“Indeed. It has been quite some time, brother.”
Simon responded to Janet’s greeting with an oblivious laugh and a wave of his hand.
And beside him.
Earl Graham and his wife sat side by side, their sharp eyes fixed upon Janet with unmistakable hostility.
“What brings you here?”
“Ha. What brings you here?”
The Countess Graham echoed Janet’s words with a scornful laugh, then shot to her feet and cried out.
“You deceived your parents and fled—and now you dare speak like that?!”
“Please, madam. If word of this conversation spreads, it will be most troublesome.”
“But that insolent creature—!”
The Earl shook his head at his wife’s outburst. Janet forced herself to suppress a bitter smile.
‘They truly haven’t changed.’
Shameless, without conscience, yet affecting propriety all the while.
“It seems the work of a lady’s maidservant suits you well.”
“Yes. It suits me very well indeed.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
The Earl answered leisurely and smiled.
“I confess, I was somewhat surprised. That you—whose bloodline may carry some base strain—became a maidservant to the Ludwig family.”
“….”
“Though I suppose Julietta Ludwig is no ordinary person either. Perhaps you two are well-matched after all.”
Janet’s brow twitched slightly at the Earl’s words.
“My lord.”
“Yes?”
“You may insult me as you wish, but I cannot permit you to mock my lady.”
The Earl’s face hardened at her cold, clipped tone.
“And if you cannot permit it, what will you do?”
“This is Ludwig. Summoning a few people to cast out an unwelcome guest would be no trouble at all.”
“….”
The Earl fell silent at her sharp words. But only for a moment.
“Haha. How amusing.”
He burst into laughter, his eyes sweeping over Janet with contempt.
“You seem to have forgotten something, Janet. That you too are of Graham.”
If she were to summon people here and expose the guest’s wrongdoing, that accusation would turn upon Janet as well.
For everyone present was bound together as Graham.
“Whether you like it or not, we are family.”
“Yet you have never regarded me as family, and still you speak such words.”
“How dare you be so insolent…!”
The Earl caught his wife as she grew agitated again, calming her down.
“That’s right. I never considered you family. And that remains true even now. However.”
He let out a soft laugh and leaned back leisurely against the sofa.
“I still hold the authority over your marriage. Why? Because I am your father on the family register, and you are my daughter on it.”
“…”
“That is precisely the proof that we are family. Isn’t it?”
The Earl posed the question with elegance as he sipped his tea. Simon, quietly observing his father’s lead from beside him, followed suit and took a sip of his own.
“I have already secured Count Berdin’s understanding.”
“You secured his understanding?”
“Indeed. I told him that since my daughter has become a maidservant to the Ludwig Family, her market value has only increased.”
Market value?
At such blunt terminology, Janet let out a hollow laugh.
“So you’re not even bothering to hide the fact that you were trying to sell me off.”
“As a father, I was merely finding you a suitable match.”
“That’s hardly what I’d call an explanation…”
“But your temperament seems to have changed quite a bit, hasn’t it?”
At the Earl’s words, Janet’s eyes widened.
Changed? Her temperament?
Now that he mentioned it, it did seem true.
Of course, the influence of remembering my past life was significant, but even comparing then to now, my personality felt distinctly different.
‘In a way, it’s only natural.’
Until now, my world had consisted solely of the Orphanage and Earl Graham’s Residence.
But after meeting Theo and becoming Julietta Ludwig’s maidservant, so much had changed.
I came to realize that things I had always taken for granted were not, in fact, inevitable.
Within a life filled with only misfortune, I discovered dazzling strokes of fortune.
As vibrant colors were woven into my exhausted, monochromatic existence, my temperament could not help but transform.
Theo often said that after meeting me, Julietta’s condition had improved considerably, but perhaps the opposite was true.
I too was improving.
And above all else.
“You wouldn’t know, Earl, but I have a powerful backer now.”
“A backer?”
His response was one of disbelief.
Naturally, he regarded Janet’s words as a lie.
“Darling, enough of that—we need to discuss the real matter at hand!”
The Countess Graham, who had been observing the situation with her excitement subdued, interjected urgently.
“Janet, you. As the maidservant of a princess, you must be earning quite a bit of money, yes?”
“Cough, hack! Hack!”
The moment money was mentioned, Simon, who had been sipping his tea, choked and began coughing violently.
“Oh my, are you alright, Simon?”
“Y-yes, I’m fine, cough!”
“Janet! Go fetch some water at once. At this rate, our son will cough himself to death!”
At the familiar barking of orders, Janet exhaled sharply through her nose.
What infuriated me most was that I’d nearly moved to fetch water without thinking.
Janet stared fixedly at Simon, who was coughing pathetically.
And then.
“Did you know? Simon took my employment contract fee of thirty million ecus.”
“…W-what? Th-thirty million ecus?”
“Yes. He said he could triple it and took it. I wonder if it’s tripled by now.”
“Simon. Is what she’s saying true?”
“Well, that is…”
Simon, who had suddenly stopped coughing, glared at Janet with resentful eyes.
“After all the effort I put into protecting you!”
“Enough. Simon, what happened to that money? Did you already squander it?”
At the Countess’s pressing, the Earl too fixed Simon with a piercing gaze.
Simon, hunching his shoulders, answered while avoiding their eyes.
“No. This time I was truly confident. But it went slightly awry…”
“Don’t tell me. Is this the day you came home beaten up?”
The day he came home beaten?
‘I was the one who commissioned someone to take Simon’s money through gambling.’
Which meant Simon’s gambling opponent must have been someone from the Ludwig side.
Which in turn meant that Ludwig had beaten Simon senseless.
‘If I were in their position, I’d throw a punch too.’
I could confidently say that only the Earl and Countess would refrain from striking Simon upon seeing him.
“Mother, Father. What’s done is done. What matters isn’t the past but the future—”
“Ugh. You, be quiet.”
The Countess, having rebuked Simon, let out a heavy sigh. And then.
“Janet. You understand that our household has been struggling lately.”
She fixed Janet with sharp, piercing eyes. Her own son had lost the money, yet why was she glaring at me?
“If you’re going to work outside, you should think about contributing to the household. How much is your salary? How much have you saved by now? Regardless of the amount, your father’s business needs it urgently, so I’d appreciate it if you’d hand it over quickly.”
“Anyone listening would think you’d entrusted it to me.”
“And you’ve been needling me this whole time!”
Finally, the Countess shot up from her seat once more.
“Ahem. My dear.”
“No. Don’t stop me this time. She keeps acting so presumptuous and forgetting her place!”
The seething Countess rolled up her sleeves vigorously.
It was less the behavior of a noblewoman and more that of an agitated street vendor.
“Just because you work at Ludwig, you think you’ve become some sort of noble, don’t you? We took in a lowborn wretch who knows where from, clothed you, fed you—”
A vicious voice lashed out at Janet. Yet no blow landed on her.
She had heard such words far too many times already.
During my three years at Earl Graham’s Residence, I grew weary of such insults.
At first, they wounded me deeply, and I wept—but gradually, I learned to accept the abuse without flinching.
Humans are creatures of adaptation, after all.
Whether positive or negative, we adapt to our circumstances and move forward.
“She needs a good whipping and to be locked in the storage like before to knock some sense into her!”
The Countess Graham’s voice rose even higher in her agitation.
The door burst open.
Suddenly, without so much as a knock, the reception room door swung wide.
“Wait, please! There’s already another guest inside…!”
The flustered Maidservant’s protest was brief, quickly drowned out by another voice.
“How have you been, Janet!”
The middle-aged man who entered, boasting a resonant voice, was—
‘…Who is this?’
A stranger I had never seen before.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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