Blanche couldn't bring herself to do much more than to stare at her face in the mirror. Until yesterday her life had been completely normal, and now she was supposed to accept the fact that she was the villainess in a romance novel? The person whose lover would be taken away by the heroine? That wasn't fair. Surely she wasn't a good person. But did she really deserve to be abandoned and executed?

Maybe. That depended on whether she would be able to keep her plans in mind. She had to change the novel's ending, that much was clear. So she had to stay away from the main characters and the antagonists while staying under the emperor's protection. Hopefully that would help.

A knock on the door ripped her from her thoughts, and she turned her head to face the entrance.

The mahogany door opened and a young, ginger-haired woman with a ponytail and a maid attire tiptoed into the room. She carefully pushed a cart, which was carrying a few turned-over silver bowls, in front of her and was seemingly focused on not creating the slightest disturbance. She only looked up after she let go of the cart and froze when she saw the other woman. Of course, it would appear strange to the maid that Blanche still pressed her hands against the mirror.

The concubine quickly retracted her arms and took a step back. When she had fully turned around, the other party had already wiped the surprise off her face.

Stella seemed to be almost scared now. She bowed deeply before speaking up in a small voice. “Good morning, My Lady. I sincerely apologize for being late. I will accept any punishment that you deem appropriate.”

At first, Blanche frowned a little at how nervous the maid was, but then she quickly remembered their previous interaction. Hadn't there been a small disagreement yesterday? And that fight hadn't even been the beginning of the problems between them.

The woman in front of her was Stella, who had been her personal servant ever since Blanche had entered the palace. Thus, the maid's only task was following her mistress around and listening to her orders.

As she went through her memories, Blanche quickly realized that she hadn't exactly been nice to the maid in the past. She had used the poor woman as an excuse not to do anything herself and ordered the servant around while criticizing everything Stella did. No matter how hard the maid had worked, the reward had often been being reprimanded and being asked to leave in a harsh tone. When dressing up, Blanche would complain about the servant being unable to put on clothes. When brushing Blanche's hair, the concubine would whine about it hurting too much. All in all, Stella had always been forced to endure her mistress' whims.

After hearing this everyone would believe that Blanche hated Stella, but that wasn't the case. As stupid as it sounded, most conflicts had developed because of misunderstandings. During their first meeting, the concubine had been a bit too harsh, and ever since then, Stella had acted as if her mistress would punish her at any second. Blanche had been annoyed by that but been too uncertain on how to address the issue again. Talking to people she wasn't close with had never been her strength. But now she would have to do something about this. After all, she couldn't allow the future to resemble the one she had foreseen.

In the novel, Blanche had used her maid to carry out her schemes. From stealing the empress' jewelry to putting strange herbs into Seraphina's tea or smuggling letters into and out of the palace, Stella had to do it all. When the maid had been sent to destroy an accessory in the heroine's room, she had dropped a vase and was noticed. Of course the empress had confronted the other woman. Stella had admitted to acting on her mistress' orders out of fear that Blanche would punish her if the empress didn't protect her. Then Seraphina had forgiven her and took in the woman as her own maid. At this point in time, Theodore had still believed in his lover's innocence and accused the servant of lying until the empress intervened.

If Blanche had stopped trying to harm others at that point, she might have survived. But she had continued her plotting and Stella's testimony ended up being one of the many nails in the villainess' coffin. Obviously, Blanche didn't intend to let the story follow the same path.

Right now she had the opportunity to start changing the outcome. She wanted to transform her image from being the emperor's bratty lover to being a well-behaved woman at Theodore's side. She didn't want to attract much attention. If she wished to reach that goal, she would have to get along with many people. The main characters, the most influential nobles and also the servants should at least have a neutral opinion on her. Stella seemed like a nice person so improving their relationship should be easy as long as Blanche was kind to her. They didn't have to become best friends but if Stella started to like her mistress, the concubine would gain a loyal servant. That could only be beneficial for the both of them.

Blanche scanned Stella for a while which caused the maid to become nervous.

Most likely Stella was already questioning what she had done to offend her mistress. “My Lady?” The servant spoke with a slight tremble in her voice and almost seemed prepared to back off.

This made Blanche wonder why the maid was so scared of her. Surely she had been rude to Stella, but she had never hurt the servant. But she didn't have much time to think about that. The other's words had reminded Blanche that the maid had addressed her a while ago without receiving a response. After blinking a few times and trying to remember what the person in front of her had said, Blanche had to admit defeat. “I'm sorry, what did you say?” Her voice cracked more at that than it should have.

Immediately the maid lowered her head and bowed again before responding. “I apologized for arriving only after My Lady had woken up. Please forgive my insolence.” Stella seemed to be prepared to add another sentence, but Blanche cut her off.

“You don't need to apologize. Why should you have to be here before I wake up?” The maid wanted to refute but was stopped by her mistress' vague hand gesture. “Really, it's fine. Also, you don't need to bow to me in the future.” Blanche's throat was a bit itchy and with each word it got worse. She coughed quietly, but that didn't make it better.

The maid met the other's gaze warily. “But My Lady said that I should do this to show more respect.” She fiddled with her hands while cautiously awaiting the other party's reaction.

Only now Blanche realized that her sudden change of heart would confuse others. Her previous behavior had already greatly influenced her relationship with the people surrounding her. This would cause many problems now. Great. She pinched her nose for a moment while deciding on her answer. “I did say that, didn't I?” At least she could vaguely remember such an occurrence, even though her memories were a bit hazy right now.

Some servants weren't really keen on serving a random, bratty commoner girl and Blanche had wanted to change that. She had thought that her own maid bowing to her would at least signal that she deserved some kind of respect. But in the end that had proven to do nothing at all. The only reason that she hadn't told her maid to stop was that she hadn't known how to address it. So she had just watched it for the past month or so despite hating it when people bowed to her. It was good that she could end that now.

Blanche cleared her throat and rubbed over her aching neck before speaking up again. “Honestly, it would probably be for the best if you forget everything I told you until now. You can stop bowing, and you also don't need to talk so formally.” She hadn't even said that much, but she was already at her limit. Her throat burned so much that she began to cough.

Stella looked perplexed at that and seemingly needed a few seconds to properly process these words but hurried to her mistress' side to hand her a cup of water anyway.

Blanche happily gulped down the cool liquid. This was enough to make her throat way less sore.

“Are you feeling better now, My Lady?” The maid took the cup back and filled it up again.

With a nod, the concubine emptied another cup. Luckily this seemed to reduce the itchy feeling in her throat. By now it was endurable again.

Stella remained quiet for a moment before she lowered her gaze. “I will make sure that the kitchen staff pays more attention to their ingredients in the future. I reminded them of your allergy often enough, so they won't forget again. There won't be any trace of cherries in your food anymore, I promise.”

Actually, Blanche was convinced that all servants had gotten informed about her allergy. She had reminded them of that often enough in a rather unfriendly tone. That might have been why they had stopped listening to her too, and now she had paid the price for that.

After eating a cake that seemed to have contained cherries, her throat had been swollen so much that it hurt. This had lasted for the past two days and hadn't been life-threatening but still uncomfortable, and at times painful. Her inability to speak without suffering from a coughing fit for the following minutes had been pretty frustrating. Having constricted airways had made breathing difficult and feeling like she had drunken acid hadn't been pleasant either. So she truly was a bit annoyed.

But her maid hadn't made the mistake, so Blanche wouldn't blame her. “It wasn't your fault. Thank you for the water.” She gave the other woman a smile.

Stella blinked at her in response before replying. “Gladly, My Lady.”

Blanche gave the cup back before she scanned her maid's expression. If the servant was so surprised by a little kindness, couldn't she use this opportunity to improve Stella's opinion on her? She laid out a sentence in her head and rebuilt it a few times until she was content with its politeness. “Can we start to get ready then? I would like to ask you to brush my hair. If you don't mind it, of course.” She had probably overdone it with her courtesy since she was still talking to a servant, but she was satisfied with Stella's baffled expression.

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“Of course, My Lady.” The maid walked over to the white dressing table on the other side of the room. She opened one of the drawers to take out a brush and pulled the chair back so that her mistress could sit on it.

Blanche followed her and took a seat on the chair before looking into the mirror in front of her. It was big enough to allow her to view her whole upper body. She saw how Stella had begun to comb through her hair and focused on her own reflection. Her eyes were reddened and puffy and underlined with dark circles, which weren't obvious at first glance but still visible if one cared to look more closely. One short glimpse at herself was enough to notice how tired she looked.

Remembering that her life took place in a novel and finding out that her lover would leave and execute her seemed like a good excuse to be exhausted to Blanche though.

She wasn't even interested in staring at herself anymore which she had previously done quite often while dressing up for her lover. She had always wanted to impress Theodore with her appearance, but that might not be part of her daily life much longer.

At the thought of her lover, she felt her heart clench in a way that physically hurt. In all honesty, it wasn't surprising that Theodore left her after finding out about her real personality and her malicious deeds. Being executed for trying to kill a member of the royal family wasn't unusual as well. Still being deserted and killed by one's lover was one of the cruelest ways to die. And that wasn't even everything.

While Blanche was telling herself that changing her own fate was possible, the rest of the story would most likely progress like it was intended to. This meant that Theodore would fall in love with the heroine.

At this point in time, the spouses hadn't formed any connection in the slightest. In the eleven months after their wedding and Seraphina's coronation, they had only met to discuss political topics. Generally, they didn't spend time with each other unless they attended an event together. Theodore still visited Blanche whenever he could and without a doubt favored her. But this didn't mean anything. It had also been like this in the novel.

The story began at the main characters' wedding ceremony and a time skip followed after the prologue. The first chapter played out when the couple started to develop feelings for each other which had happened about a year after they had married.

Which would be around now.

Blanche almost gasped at that realization. The romance between the protagonists was closer than she had thought it to be. If one believed in the novel's timeline, the main characters would soon begin to appreciate each other's company and spend more time together. Eventually, they would fall in love and while the readers had rooted for them, Blanche could barely stand the thought of losing Theodore to Seraphina. She had never truly hated the heroine from the bottom of her heart, but now she was close to it. She had always been jealous of that woman because Seraphina had the one thing Blanche truly wanted. The chance of being Theodore's wife.

Now the concubine only wished to survive but the selfish part of her didn't want to let her lover become Seraphina's. If Theodore started to fall for his wife Blanche might really begin to wish death upon the other woman.

But she couldn't afford to despise the heroine since it would just emphasize her role as the villainess. To continue living she would have to let the story progress and allow the couple to get together, even if the jealousy ate her alive. That thought made Blanche feel sick, and she clenched her fists in an attempt to calm down. She could only tell herself that Theodore would become happy this way. He was the main character after all. He was bound to reach his happy end with the heroine by his side. This would protect him from all possible conflicts and intrigues that were plotted against him and secure his reign.

Still, it hurt to know that Blanche wouldn't be with him when he celebrated his victory.

To distract herself, she returned her focus back to the real world and noticed that Stella still continued to brush Blanche's hair. That was a bit confusing. While she knew that having long hair resulted in taking longer to comb it, it shouldn't take this much time. Even if her hair was wavy instead of straight and thus hard to brush. As she viewed the servant's movements in the mirror, she quickly understood why the maid needed an eternity to finish though.

Stella carefully combed through every streak while maintaining a very slow and even pace. It looked as if she feared that she would hurt her mistress otherwise.

Blanche did remember scolding the servant for causing her pain and ordering the maid to be more careful once. In retrospect, it hadn't actually hurt much, and she had simply overreacted because she had been in a bad mood back then. But when the concubine thought about it more, she realized that she had done this quite often. There had been many times at which she had created difficulties for others with that attitude. She would have to apologize to many people to make up for it. This would be a crucial step towards the kinder image, which she wanted to create and needed to survive. The big issue she needed to go against was the following one. In the novel she had been disliked by almost all characters around her and, in all honesty, she understood why.

The memories of the book allowed her to have an outsider's view of herself. On how she acted and treated others, on how she spoke and on how little she cared for other people except Theodore and herself. Even her devotion to her lover hadn't been apparent to the readers. She really seemed like an antagonist and a truly awful person.

Surprisingly, Blanche had never seen herself like this. But now reflecting on her past behavior made her extremely uncomfortable. Apologizing would not only increase her chances of survival but also allow her to change herself. The novel's knowledge could help her become a better person. Talking to her maid seemed like a good opportunity to start.

Blanche turned her gaze to Stella's reflection in the mirror and observed it. While she had previously thought that the maid was average-looking, Stella was actually quite adorable. Especially the other woman's light green eyes drew attention to them and her freckles only made her look even cuter.

Apparently, Stella had noticed her mistress' stare quickly. She glanced in Blanche's direction before averting her eyes. After that, she brushed even more carefully and had a nervous expression on her face.

The concubine didn't want to scare the maid even more, so she cleared her throat and then addressed the woman behind her. “You aren't hurting me. So...it's alright if you move a little faster.”

Stella seemed surprised but quickly nodded and sped up her pace.

At the same time, Blanche thought about how to phrase an apology to the servant. She didn't know how to start and which words to use. She just wasn't good at approaching others. But to improve the relationship with the maid she needed to speak up. It would be best if she could do it without making her overnight change of personality even more obvious too. “I, uhm...” She began in a quiet voice which caused Stella to pause her movements and lift her head to meet her mistress' gaze in the mirror. Blanche swallowed and quickly used that chance to be direct. “I wanted to apologize.”

For a short but unpleasant moment, both women stayed silent. Blanche watched her maid's expression change quickly. At first, the servant seemed surprised with widened eyes and a slightly opened mouth before she furrowed her brows like she was suspicious of the other woman.

Finally, Stella ended the silence by answering. “My Lady hasn't done anything wrong. Besides, I could never accept an apology by my mistress.” It was easy to see that the servant tried to calm Blanche by emphasizing her obedience and her lower rank. Most likely because she feared that an emotional outbreak of the other party might follow.

The concubine held back a sigh at that. “That's not true. We both know that I acted inappropriately countless times. My general behavior has been unacceptable, and I treated you unfairly despite you always handling your tasks well. I wanted to apologize for not noticing this before and not understanding that I should be happy to have you as my maid. I know that my words now don't change the fact that I wronged you in the past. Still, I promise to behave differently from this day on and show you the respect that you deserve.” At the end of her speech, Blanche realized that she had certainly overdone it this time. If her previous words hadn't revealed that she had completely changed overnight, these surely had.

Judging by Stella's expression, the maid had also become aware of this. Until now, she had undoubtedly looked surprised but at this moment she acted like she had met a family member that had been believed to be dead for decades. She wasn't even able to voice an answer and just stared at her mistress. Stella lowered her hand, which was still holding the brush, while opening and closing her mouth a few times without actually saying anything. She then simply observed Blanche and awaited another explanation that would help her understand why her mistress suddenly behaved this way.

But nothing came.

After staying quiet for a short while Stella replied in an uncertain tone. “This... My Lady. I don't know what to...”

As expected, Blanche's words alone wouldn't be enough. She made eye contact with the servant and hoped that her sincerity would reach the other woman this. Her facial expressions had always been like an open book to others around her. Normally that was an issue but here it could help. She took a deep breath before adding another bit. “I don't expect you to forgive and trust me immediately after how I treated you for the past year. But I hope that you can give me another chance to start our relationship from the beginning.” She almost didn't expect a positive reaction but was pleasantly surprised.

Stella's confused face lit up, and she beamed at the other woman. “Gladly!” She even replied in a chirpy voice before continuing to comb Blanche's hair again. This time she still worked carefully but slightly faster and as expected it didn't hurt at all. To Blanche's surprise and satisfaction Stella grinned the whole time.

Blanche was very content with this result and at the same time, this also made her feel even worse about her prior treatment of the maid. Only a few kind words were enough to convince Stella to forgive her mistress' terrible behavior and genuinely make her happy. Why had the concubine been so spiteful towards such a sweet person? Maybe because she had believed that Stella looked down on her like many other servants did.

In retrospect, that also was Blanche's fault. It should have been logical that many servants wouldn't be happy about her sudden appearance in the palace. Instead of holding back to not strengthen that dislike, Blanche had been harsh with them and quickly built up the image of an arrogant woman, even if she didn't actually dislike the servants.

If one looked at it from a distance, it was obvious that she was bound to lose her status if she continued to act this recklessly. Especially since her only accomplishment was being the emperor's lover, which was a position she could easily lose in an instant. If Blanche followed the novel's original story, she would fall from grace and be left behind by him in just a year.

But she was currently working on preventing that and could only pray that it would work.

Stella finished combing Blanche's hair and left it open, as her mistress preferred it. She put the brush back into the drawer and walked over to the entrance, where the cart still stood. She brought it to the small round table, which was covered in a white cloth, and began putting the plates onto it.

That wasn't unusual. Blanche always ate alone in her room when she wasn't accompanied by Theodore. At first, she had eaten in the dining room even when she was on her own but at some point, she had become annoyed with walking there every day only to sit by herself. So she had ordered for the food to be brought to her which was much more comfortable. Today would be no different. She sat down on the chair and watched as Stella lifted the covers to reveal the dishes.

Unsurprisingly, all the food looked delicious. The cooks in the palace were probably the most skilled and experienced in the country, so it was normal for them to prepare meals commoners could only dream about. The food was always an astonishing sight and the taste made Blanche feel like she was in heaven. She couldn't help but get hungry after one look at the dishes. She noticed a bowl filled with different kinds of berries with a spoonful of yogurt as well as a plate full of sliced fruits. Her favorites had to be the many pastries including small tarts and croissants though. This was served along with a glass of freshly pressed orange juice and a cup of tea.

The concubine didn't wait long before beginning to eat. She had always loved sweets and tea which meant that the breakfast meal couldn't have been chosen better. After a few bites, she began to feel unwell though. Not because the food didn't taste good. On the contrary, it was one of the best meals that she had had in her whole life.

What made her uncomfortable, aside from the fact that her life was crumbling in front of her, was the fact that she was eating alone while Stella stood directly next to the table and watched her. Naturally, she disliked the thought of someone observing her chewing and swallowing her food. It also felt wrong to sit down and eat when another person was forced to stand beside her without being able to consume anything themselves. This was quite strange, after all, it had always been that way ever since Blanche had entered the palace.

Maybe the novel's memories had led to the change of her emotions regarding this matter. She had begun to think differently about a lot of things after waking up with her new knowledge. And for some reason, she knew that she would be much more comfortable seeing that her maid ate something as well. Stella didn't look too thin so that emotion made no sense, but little did today.

Blanche wouldn't question it anymore.