Honey, I’m Going on Strike – Chapter 7

“Let her in.”

“M-Madam!”

Paul’s desperate voice rang out, but Cassia ignored it and rose from the bed.

Reality had been hellish enough, and now the devil herself had arrived. But Cassia was calm. It would seem this was the benefit of living a second life. She knew exactly who would stir up her life, without even having to experience it herself.

Although she had been dragged around in her previous life by the devil that was Vita for two years, she had no intention of letting that happen again. No, forget being dragged around. This time, she would completely wipe away that past life where she knew everything about Vita’s relationship with Zester but couldn’t give her a single blow because she had no evidence.

Cassia’s eyes lit up.

Vita entered the room with the same shy smile as ever. When Cassia first met Vita, she had thought, if angels were real, they’d probably look like her.

Vita had neatly braided light brown hair and soft freckles on her fair skin. Her face looked impossibly young for her age, and she always smiled brightly, winning everyone over with an innocent face. Even though she wasn’t particularly stunning or eye-catching, she was very popular with the men. Even throughout the territory, Vita was famous as the ‘kind and smiling’ young miss of the Greze Castle.

‘Right. If I were a man, I don’t see why I wouldn’t like her either.’

Even Zester who didn’t seem particularly interested in women had kept her close. Cassia was willing to admit that.

‘But that and cheating are very different things, don’t you think? The nerve to hide away your lover and marry me, you damn bastard.’

She hated Zester more than she hated Vita. Though she was smiling, a dark shadow fell over Cassia’s face.

“Madam?”

“Oh, right. Yes. You said your name is Vita?”

“Yes, Madam. Vita Berkley. I grew up with the Baron in Bohem. After my parents fell ill, I couldn’t stay there alone, but thankfully, the Baron was kind enough to let me stay at the castle.”

If your parents are ill, you should stay there and take care of them. Talking about staying alone is absolute nonsense. The sloppiness of this girl’s story was always so ridiculous no matter how many times she heard it.

Cassia forced a smile.

With innocent eyes, Vita continued, “I’ve been looking forward to the day you arrive at the Greze Castle, Madam. I’ve been bored sick without anyone my age. I just know Madam and I will become closest and sweetest friends in the castle.”

We’re the same age so we’ll be friends. For a commoner who was no different from a mere servant, she had all the nerve in the world to say that to Cassia who had lived her entire life as a noble lady.

‘Back then, I just stupidly accepted it. Seriously, Cassia.’

Cassia looked at Vita’s smiling face and returned the smile.

When Vita smiled with her eyes, there was a certain charm about it that was disarming. Cassia remembered nodding along to whatever Vita said whenever the girl smiled like this. And this time, she nodded along too.

“If the Baron is even allowing you to live in the castle, you must be very close. Isn’t that right, Paul?”

Paul hesitated to answer, sweating profusely as Cassia turned to him with a smile on her face.

Clueless as ever, Vita chimed in instead of Paul.

“We may not be related by blood, but we’re practically siblings. Please feel free to treat me comfortably, Madam.”

Hahaha. She really spews this crap like it’s nothing.

Hiding her true feelings, Cassia maintained her smile at Vita, who was smiling like an angel.

Vita Berkley.

She was by far the most insane of all the crazy people that Cassia remembered. Even if Cassia had lived longer than 27 years, she doubted she would ever meet someone more deranged. She was sure of it.

It had been foolish of her not to suspect anything between them in the first place. They claimed there were no romantic feelings, but if Zester hadn’t been made to accept Cassia as his wife along with the Baron title after becoming a war hero, he probably would’ve married Vita. Cassia laughed bitterly as she recalled Vita who was so in love with Zester that she was obsessed.

Zester had allowed his childhood friend to stay in his castle. It was an absurd situation where a woman that wasn’t even his wife, entered the castle in an ambiguous position but okay, let’s say that part is tolerable.

Zester’s mistake was failing to recognize the line between nobles and commoners. Occasionally, Vita would call him ‘Zester’ instead of ‘Baron’. When Cassia looked taken aback, she would act startled and bow her head in apology. But this apology was only to ‘Madam’ Cassia. As if Zester didn’t mind being called that, so she didn’t need to apologize to him.

No matter what their relationship was in the past, Zester had married Cassia, so Vita should’ve naturally given up on her feelings, but she did not.

There were more than a dozen maid that Vita had driven out from the Greze Castle. The reasons were all the same. This one tried to seduce Lord Zester, that one looked at him with a wicked gaze and blah, blah, blah…

Vita kept coaxing Cassia that as the Lady of the castle, she needed assert her authority and make an example of such impudent maids by ruthlessly kicking them out. Of course, to Cassia, these maids were innocent, but she couldn’t go against Vita’s will.

Why was Cassia, the person with the most authority after Zester, being dragged around by a mere commoner girl?

『Vita is one of the few people I trust. It is indeed entirely your authority to manage the servants of the castle, but Vita is not a maid who stays here so I ask that you do not treat her as such. And stop having this unnecessary suspicion.』

When she sensed that something was off and tried to send Vita away, Zester himself had stopped her. Even though Cassia had fired all those maids one after another at Vita’s behest, Zester assumed that was all done of Cassia’s will and with a look of exhaustion, he warned her: ‘Don’t touch Vita’.

With no choice but to agree, Cassia continued to suffer in Vita’s hands. The fact that she suffered for nearly two years, unable to suppress a single commoner, was all Zester’s fault.

‘I can just remember her voice going ‘Zester, Zester’ and it’s making my head hurt.’

As it happens, whenever the three of them were together, Cassia couldn’t tell if she was the lady of the house or if Vita was.

Cassia, the real madam of the castle, always respectfully addressed her husband, who was seven years older as ‘Lord’ or ‘Baron’, while his mere childhood friend, Vita, often feigned ignorance and called him ‘Zester’ in an affectionate manner.

As these so-called slip ups continued to happen, the hierarchy within the castle began to get jumbled. It goes without saying that servants in the house also had a hard time.

Only Vita dared to speak to Zester, the highest authority in Greze, without politeness. She always claimed it was an accident, but seeing as she never bothered to fix that habit, one could only imagine how bad it was when Zester and Vita were alone.

Cassia absolutely hated Zester for failing to draw a line with Vita. He just stood by and watched a commoner girl, who was no different in status from a servant, try to stand on equal terms with his wife, who was a noblewoman. That carefree attitude of his only hurt the people around him who were bewildered by the collapsed hierarchy.

However, in the early days of her marriage, Cassia had been too timid to say anything.

Clearly asking, ‘Can you draw a proper line with Vita?’ was something she couldn’t even imagine. Whenever she ran into her husband, she would just quickly bow her head and make an exit.

At the time, she had convinced herself not to interfere with her husband’s decisions. He had known Vita his whole life, so she didn’t think she had the right to tell him what to do when she had only been in the castle for barely a year.

But not this time. If left alone, Vita would just turn into someone that brought disruption into the castle. It would take a whole day to list out all the atrocities she had committed.

As the 2 years of nightmares suffered under Vita’s hands played out in her head, Cassia unconsciously grit her teeth. Seeing Vita’s face was just as unpleasant as meeting Zester in bed.

“Ah!”

“…Madam?”

“I’m still tired from the long journey yesterday. Let’s resume our greetings another time. Could you leave for now?”

Cassia gave a gentle smile as she spoke, and Vita nodded awkwardly. Paul and Vita bowed and left Cassia’s room.

Only then did Cassia let out a long sigh and her tense body relaxed.

In the end, that nightmare with Vita only lasted two years. During the early stages of her pregnancy with Rael, her body was weak, and the doctor warned that she might miscarry at this rate because of stress. Cassia then earnestly talked to Zester to dismiss Vita as she was the source of her stress. Eventually, Vita was sent packing. It was a rather anticlimactic ending to a long reign of terror.

Zester was probably reluctant at the time, but he had no choice. His pregnant wife was worrying about miscarrying due to stress and claimed Vita was the cause so how could justify taking Vita’s side when everyone was watching.

‘I should have caught them red-handed that day. This time, I won’t let it go. I’ll gather everyone in the castle and make sure they are humiliated.’

She recalled that night. She couldn’t even remember why she had gone to Zester’s room that night, but she heard Vita’s voice from inside.

『Zester, I really…』

『How much longer do I have to endure this?』

It was unfortunately that she had to remember these awful memories of Vita, but Cassia decided not to confront Vita just yet. Since Zester decided to brazenly bring his lover into the castle, she was going to smear shit all over his face.

* * *

A week had passed since Cassia arrived at the Greze Castle.

On the promised day of Zester’s sex education, Lady Fleurette came to visit the Greze Castle, and she was currently sitting across from him in his study, letting out heavy sighs.

Where do I even begin…

Running her hand through her crimson hair, she glanced at Paul, who stood guard by the door of the study. This was a betrayal. He was practically asking her to solve a problem that had no answer.

“Lady Fleurette?”

Zester called, and Fleurette quickly turned back to face him.

“Yes, Baron?”

“Is something wrong? Your expression looks…”

“I apologize. I guess I’m just so surprised as it’s my first meeting someone like you, Lord Baron.”

Her bluntness made Zester frown.

After explaining everything about their first night in detail, Fleurette’s reaction made him feel embarrassed. Her expression looked like she was saying, ‘Now how am I supposed to teach this fool?’.

Of course, he was exactly right. That was exactly what Fleurette was thinking.

“So you’re saying…you didn’t use your hands during intercouse? Or your mouth?”

“I-I told you. I felt a bit, you know, touching my wife. My wife is just too, I mean…wait, why would I use my mouth?”

“Haa…”

Fleurette sighed into the air and looked back at Paul.

“Paul.”

“Yes, Lady Fleurette?”

“Can I please smoke a cigarette?”

“I understand your frustration, but please refrain from doing so…”

“Haaah…”

She sighed again, this time, with genuine sympathy for the Madam of the Greze Castle that she hadn’t even met.

‘Stay strong, Madam.’