“Madam.......”

“A maid getting pregnant with the child of a ducal house, and that child becoming the heir?”

“Madam, please....... This has nothing to do with that.......”

“Do you think we don’t know Ray Lavendal? As if he’d take responsibility for a maid’s bastard!”

Anais shouted, filled with rage.

‘No, what the hell is this public image of Ray......’

I clicked my tongue internally. Because Linna had said exactly the same thing.

It was clear now—everyone saw Ray as “a slippery bastard who only moves for his own gain.”

No one believed Ray would ever take responsibility for a maid’s child out of genuine affection.

“He’ll smuggle it away before the Temple takes it and have some woman he marries for politics raise it!”

I was sincerely glad Ray wasn’t here to hear this conversation.

Because they were painting him as utter garbage.

What kind of trash—trash that couldn’t even be recycled—would do something like that?

“And this still isn’t your business? Huh? You think this doesn’t concern you?!”

Anais screamed at the top of her lungs.

“You saw with your own eyes what that bastard Duke of Idra did to me just because I couldn’t get pregnant! You saw him raging, yelling that he’d been conned by our Naj Kingdom because he needed an heir! Did you forget that?!”

“Madam, please calm down.......”

“In the end, he got my maid pregnant and told her to raise it as my child. You saw that whole disgraceful mess, and you—you say something like this? Huh?!”

Good god.

My jaw slowly fell open.

‘That trash that couldn’t even be recycled was the Duke of Idra?’

Suddenly, every puzzle piece began falling into place.

[But she was always weak, so Lady Linna gave birth while staying in the Naj Kingdom for recuperation.

Afterward, before Lady Linna and Lady Anais returned to the Empire, the Idra Duchy dismissed most of their servants.]

No one in the Empire had witnessed Anais giving birth to Linna. Because they claimed she delivered in the Naj Kingdom.

‘Being weak meant... she couldn’t conceive at all. They covered it up, married her off in the Naj Kingdom, and the Duke of Idra raged that he’d been tricked......’

And then, he got Anais’s maid pregnant and made that child the official heir......

Anais must have gone to the Naj Kingdom with the maid.

The Naj Kingdom likely helped conceal Anais’s infertility and cooperated in presenting Linna as Anais’s daughter.

And then, out of fear the truth might leak, they began running the duchy like a locked box.

‘What the hell is this......’

My hands, pressed to the floor, started to tremble.

‘Linna wasn’t her real daughter....... So that’s why she acted like that.’

There was a reason Celia had stopped Linna when she wanted to call a doctor to examine both me and Anais at the villa. Anais had never been pregnant in the first place.

I now understood why she so firmly banned Linna when she tried to live properly and take care of her health.

She had never loved Linna. Not even once.

No—in fact, she seemed to hate her.

And that fury when I said I was pregnant with Ray’s child......

It must have reminded her of that maid—and Linna.

“Just looking at that child disgusts me. Did you forget? I came here because of her! I got locked up in this place by that Duke of Idra bastard because I kept hitting her!”

“Madam, please calm down.......”

“And now you want me to watch again, with my own eyes, a lowborn being treated like nobility? Huh?!”

Again, a shattering sound rang out.

“It already drives me mad that someone as noble as I am has to treat that lowborn thing as a daughter!”

“Madam, it’s bad for your health to get so worked up....... Please.......”

Anais’s hysteria showed no sign of stopping.

“Ha! I guess a lowborn can’t hide her blood, can she? Like instinct, she’s found someone just like her to cling to, hasn’t she? Huh?!”

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

I couldn’t take it anymore—it hurt too much to listen.

I’d known there was some secret behind all this, but I never imagined it’d be this foul, this outrageous.

Once the shock and confusion passed, an odd sorrow settled in.

Come to think of it, I once asked Julian for something:

“If there’s anything consistent about the dates Lady Linna visits for checkups, please look into that too.”

I’d asked him just in case there was a full-moon pattern linking it to the Temple.

But when the report came back, it didn’t seem related to the full moon at all.

‘Now that I’m here, turns out most of my guesses were way off......’

But one thing I could confirm—Linna visited Anais very often.

Even though it was a hard and distant trip, she came whenever she could.

And even when she did, she wasn’t treated properly......

“You’re taking that lowborn’s side? In front of me? You?”

That one unconscious line from Anais held the answer.

She truly saw Linna, born of a maid, as a “lowborn,” and used words like “your place” without hesitation.

As my heart ached, Anais continued:

“My only joy was watching that lowborn thing tremble and collapse from guilt, unable to do anything one way or the other.......”

“Madam......”

“That Lavendal bastard’s lowborn brat won’t be someone I can twist around like that, will she?!”

The image of Linna this morning floated into my mind—how she’d dressed so carefully.

The hair she’d pinned up with effort, even accessories that didn’t match her usual tastes......

“She probably thinks groveling like that will get her into my good graces! And now you want me to watch that child be born again? Like before?!”

I slowly lifted my trembling hand from the floor and withdrew my divine power.

I seriously couldn’t take it anymore. Now that I knew the truth, I didn’t want to hear another word.

“Haa......”

I let out a deep sigh and opened my eyes.

And then, all of a sudden, I felt something strange and whipped around. My heart nearly stopped.

“......Lady Linna?”

The door, which had definitely been locked from the outside, was silently open.

And just beyond it, Linna stood there blankly.

‘No way. The latch is high up. If the door opened, I should’ve heard the ladder being set up......’

As my thoughts raced, my gaze landed on Cashie.

He was crouched between the door and the frame, peeking at me.

‘......Then Cashie?’

I looked at Linna with trembling eyes.

Even knowing the truth, I had no intention of rushing over and blurting it out. I was worried she’d be too shocked.

“Heidi.”

As I stood frozen in panic, Linna gently lifted Cashie and held him close, speaking.

Her tone, shockingly, was calm as always.

“I came to let you out. It doesn’t sit right with me, having a pregnant woman stuck here.”

I slowly stood up, unable to say a word.

‘What? Didn’t she hear anything? Did she come in just as I was withdrawing the divine power? If so, thank god......’

As I politely folded my hands, Linna continued.

“Of course, if I say I let you out just like that, Mother will be furious. She hates it when anyone’s kind to a maid.”

“Ah, right......”

“So I’ll say I sent you on an errand to get her to pretend to forgive me. Anyway, she can’t keep you locked up here forever, not with the Lavendal Duchy involved.”

Linna stepped into the attic and even reached out to take my hand.

Now the deep twilight light had reached the attic entrance.

“There’s a small village across the lake.”

Linna spoke with such composure, it made me wonder if she truly hadn’t heard anything.

“It’s a fairly big village, so there should be a physician. Go buy me some headache medicine. I’ll say I didn’t call a priest because I didn’t want to upset Mother.”

I stared at Linna, then nodded.

There was no way I could say, “Did you hear all that?” here.

She was acting so naturally, it really seemed like she hadn’t heard anything......

“Go on, then.”

As I stood there dazed, Linna pulled a gold coin from her pocket.

“You can use the leftover money to get dinner. It’s evening now. You should eat well—for the baby, too.”

And just like that, I was pushed out of the villa by Linna.