The next morning, Violetta wakes up as if there was an internal alarm clock in her head. It seems that somehow she still has habits of going to work early in the morning, as a doctor.
She gets up in the tattered room drowsily. Stepping to the side of the room, she pulls open the curtains allowing the sunlight to flow in. She squints, looking at the rising sun. Then looking down at the courtyard, she finds piles of red, orange, yellow, golden colored leaves that fell from the autumn trees. It makes a beautiful scene.
Just then, Kate comes in with a crowd of maids. She seems to be annoyed with the crowd behind her.
"Your highness, uh-" Kate starts.
She stops as she lifts her eyes from the doorway to the figure by the window, nervously. Truly, she did want to stop these arrogant maids, but didn't want to tarnish the princess's name, since they kept on saying that it's disrespectful to reject and all. Besides, there isn't any evidence that they would do something bad, even though it's written all over their faces.
The maids stop in the footsteps for a second, too, however fidgeting with whatever was in their hands.
Then, they gather to their tasks, with an evident rudeness in their eyes. Slowly, they approach the black haired girl. They pull her to the side harshly and brings over some low quality, showy, dress that would make one look like a prostitute.
Right when they were going to handle her again. Kate angrily catches one of their wrists, and Violetta slaps away another.
"Get out, now," Violetta turns away casually, not batting an eye.
The maids flinch from the authoritative deepened voice.
"C-come on, we need t-to help you w-wear these clo-" a maid steps up as she stutters.
She stretches out her stubby hand shakily, only to get a slap in the face.
Pak! The slap resounds in the room. The other maids wince as they see the red hand mark appear.
The maid slowly turns her head towards Violetta, her right hand on her swollen cheek.
'My beautiful face!' she wails in her mind.
The arrogant maid immediately couldn't take it anymore.
"How dare you! We were only helping you dress yourself! You don't have to be so unreasonable and mean! Everyone already knows how unfit you are to be an Empress. You'll definitely be kicked out now that this happened!"
As if they were wronged, she sashay out the door glaring at Violetta. The other maids follow, making ugly faces towards the two.
Kate and Violetta watch as they slam the old door.
Kate shudders and asks, "W-was that a good move? Won't they tell others and really get you dethroned? Or at the very least ruin your reputation?"
"No, don't worry. They violated my privacy and personal space. Even if they do, they must take it to court. When they do, that'll be the end of it. First, I'm the Empress and a princess of a neighboring kingdom. I'm also the one who's being wronged, so I would win in court either way. Lotus won't be as stupid to allow the maids to go reveal the mastermind anyways," Violetta explains, twirling her hair.
"They're also from Lotus?" the maid asks, confused.
"Of course, half the palace maids are."
Kate gasps in surprise, "Why?"
"A majority are there because the Emperor stays with her the most. The others were forced, or just want her treasures that she occasionally gives out."
"But won't that mean they have a chance of being caught as a thief?"
Violetta smiles, "But humans are greedy, some will do it even if they have the chance of being caught."
Kate nods in realization, as she helps Violetta with a new piece of plain clothing.
Just as Violetta had predicted, the stomping maids make their way towards Concubine Lotus's residence. Changing their moods to calm down, they lightly knock on the door where they hear Lotus's personal maid answer.
"Come in."
They open the door and bow towards the angelic looking figure sipping tea in the room.
"Empress," they greet as per orders.
The warm mood immediately drops.
Lotus glares at them.
It was obvious they failed because they were still holding the dress, but she still asks the rhetorical question.
"How was the plan?"
The maids immediately drop to their knees, tears almost bursting out of their eyes, "We're sorry, we failed!"
Lotus's eyes narrow even more as she stares with her piercing coldness.
Pushing her blonde hair behind her ear arrogantly, she stands up and walks towards the maids.
Then, she puts her dirty foot on one of their heads, stomping arrogantly.
"How dare you! You let a weak little princess like that scare you away? You all are really useless huh?"
"W-we apologize, we were wrong!"
They start crying as they're punished cruelly.
Bam, bam, bam, bam!
Concubine Lotus angrily banged their heads until they started to bleed.
She bends down to look at the bloodstained maids, "You better not fail me next time."
They nod in fear and despair.
Finally calmed down after a while, Lotus huffs and sits down.
She picks up her cup of tea, trying to remain composed.
The maids shuffle up disheveled and anxious.
"E-empress, should w-we spread rumors of h-how disrespectful and r-rude that b*tch is?" the arrogant maid brings up.
"Mm, not a bad plan…" the concubine's personal maid replies in thought
Lotus sets her teacup down with a 'tap' and huffs again, "Rejected."
Her cold blue eyes seem to pierce the air in the room. She became quite annoyed at the fact that these people are such stupid idiots.
An ignorant maid gathers up the courage to ask, "W-why?"
The concubine sneers, very irritated by these foolish maids, "You wanna get punished for slandering a Royal? If you do anything like those rumors openly, it's the Berian Kingdom coming after you!"
These words sent chills up the uneducated maids' backs.