Chapter 2 (1/2)

My giggles chimed through the garden. I couldn’t help myself from acting playful in front of Rose. It’s understandable, since she was the only one who loved and accepted me for who I was.

‘She’s the only person I love!’

Her cheerful laugh finally came into a stop, “I have missed Lize as well,” she said, kindly.

“Really?”

My eyes widened at her words.

Sister Rose’s eyes met mine. Her smile blossomed at my probing gaze, finding my scepticism amusing.

“Of course, I want to meet Lize every day.”

“… tsk, you’re lying.”

I pouted, betraying the happiness that’s pouring out of my heart after hearing her sincere words.

‘If it weren’t for her encouragement, would I have survived through this harsh imperial life?’

We both laid under the big tree, shading ourselves from the bright sun whilst gazing at the sky. Then,Sister Rose broke the peaceful silence.

“Lize, have you had any trouble these days?”

As soon as I heard the question, my mind flashed back to the fireplace incident I had with Becky.

I shook my head in a hurry to dispel the bad memories. It’s been a while since I’ve met my sister, and I don’t want to worry her..

“Um, no…”

“Really? Didn’t you say other maids were bothering Lize before?”

Her dark green eyes pierced deeply into me, trying to find the truth reflected from my eyes..

Seeing her serious expression, I gulped nervously..

One of the problems I had with Sister Rose was her sharp intuition..

Not only did she have a beautiful face, but she was also blessed with a brilliant mind. She would see through my lies if I wasn’t cautious and desperate.I tried every trick in the book to hide my guilty expression from her.

I simply didn’t want her to worry too much about me.

It was a slip of tongue that led to this issue. In our previous meeting, I accidentally let out my silly complaints.

That day, I had told her how the other maids kept ordering me around.

I was a new maid in training and we each divided our chores. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.

The other maids kept picking on me. They think of me as an easy target, since I was the youngest of the bunch. Therefore, they would give me extra duties that I wasn’t assigned for.

“Lize, take this to the laundromat.”

“Lize, go to the utility room, and tell them to wash all of this.”

“Lize, get the clean laundry from the utility room.”

“Lize!”

“… Lize!”

“…… Lize!”

‘Lize this… Lize that’

The orders were never ending. My energy was spent on completing the other maid’s responsibilities.

Me and Sister Rose had arranged a meeting that afternoon. After finishing the chores, I immediately headed out to our meeting spot. Unfortunately, I was pent up with anger and frustration. So when I met her, I couldn’t help but vented out my aggravation. That day, I cried and clung to her until my tears dried up.

Sister was so kind, she was the only one who would listen to my story. She didn’t consider my problem as a joke and listened to them attentively.

That time, my sister patted the back of my hand gently and said, “Don’t worry, Lize. It’ll only get better in the future.”

My sister’s encouragement somehow gave me the motivation I didn’t know I needed. I was able to gain back my strength and continue on working hard.

Later, when I went back, I was surprised to find out that the head maid came and distributed the work fairly.

The head maid had told us with a stern face.

“Bullying is not tolerable. I will be monitoring your duties from now on. So you’d better not try to shift your responsibility to others.”

Ever since the head maid’s warning, my workload had lessened. With her supervising us all, most of the maids that used to give me a hard time didn’t dare to do so anymore.

After that incident, I was transferred to this place, away from the utility room. Only after my transfer, did I hear that the utility room was one of the hardest places to work in the imperial palace.

Thank goodness, I was relocated.

To be frank, I was lucky the head maid came to my rescue. Unfortunately, as a result, some of them resented me even more and one of them was Becky. Henceforth, she had been harassing me behind the head maid’s back.

Just like earlier, she would order me to clean up the fireplace. However, I didn’t want to cause any more trouble to Rose, so I put up with her behaviour.

… although, as expected, it’s a bit hard. I wanted to vent my anger and complained about Becky, but…

‘Sister Rose cares so much about me.’

If I complained to Rose, the head maid would step in and solve my difficult situation.

I would be a fool, if I had thought the previous incident was a sheer coincidence.

‘Maybe Rose is a high-ranking maid who can influence the head maid?’1

‘Well, that’s a reasonable guess.’ I nodded. ‘However, no matter how much Rose can influence the head maid, I don’t want to see her overdoing it. I should be as careful as I can from now on.’

“Lize, what do you think?” Rose suddenly asked, breaking me away from my thoughts.

“Yes?”