Chapter 31 The Contributors To The Information War
"Haah, I worked hard today too! I'm so tired."
Halesia Jouteau said as she returned to her room, collapsing onto the sofa with a big sigh. At that moment, the maids quickly gathered around and began to massage her shoulders and feet. The royal maids were all exceptional and well-trained.
(Seriously, my maids are really amazing...)
Halesia sighed again, but this time it was not from fatigue; it was a sigh of admiration.
Lately, Halesia and her maids had been quite busy.
However, it wasn't in a public way; rather, it was more like covert operations.
All of this was to save her dear friend, Rhiannon Mimi Clahsen, from a doom flag.
"Could you quietly spread rumors about Lady Rhiannon throughout the palace? Rumors that praise her like a saintly ruler."
This request came from Kaine, Rhiannon's butler, in the middle of last month.
The request was to spread rumors that would enhance Rhiannon's reputation.
Despite her strikingly beautiful face, sharp eyes, and haughty laugh, Rhiannon often unintentionally gave off a tough impression, even though she didn't want to.
If she stayed silent, rumors of her being a "villainess" or "mean woman" would spread on their own.
It was Halesia and her maids' role to deny those bad rumors wherever they appeared.
For her important friend and cherished companion, Halesia readily accepted the task.
"It's not right that someone with such an incredibly beautiful face has only bad rumors surrounding her. I want as many people as possible to know the real Lady Rhiannon... No, I will make sure that everyone knows how wonderful Lady Rhiannon truly is, no matter what methods I have to use!"
Halesia was resolutely determined.
She was the type who wanted to spread the goodness of her favorite person to as many people as possible.
However, it was not convincing for Halesia alone to lift Rhiannon up.
Humans are creatures that tend to rely on the opinions of third parties the most.
It was meaningless unless various sources spoke about how beautiful, charming, and full of gaps Rhiannon was.
So, Halesia disguised herself as various noble ladies day and night, spreading the word about Rhiannon's merits throughout the palace.
Fortunately (?), Halesia usually hid her eyes behind long bangs and lived a somewhat secretive life as a member of the royal family, so the people in the palace did not recognize her face well.
Because of this, simply lifting her bangs was enough to disguise herself.
Moreover, even though Halesia was shy and disliked people, she could talk endlessly about her favorite topic, Rhiannon, even with strangers.
Kaine's request itself was not too burdensome for her.
However, there was one major problem.
The "good rumors" Halesia tried to spread were not believed at all.
The image of Rhiannon as a mean noble lady had already taken root among the nobility.
It was likely the work of that Sarah Belts.
There were plenty of people willing to cooperate with that woman, who only cared about appearances.
Realizing that her efforts alone were insufficient, Halesia quickly changed her strategy.
"This has to be done by sheer numbers!"
With that, she suddenly included her maids in the plan.
As mentioned earlier, Halesia's maids were exceptionally capable.
After a brief explanation, without asking too many questions, they quickly scattered and spread the rumors about Rhiannon in no time.
It seemed there was a ne2rk of maids spread throughout the palace.
They cleverly utilized that ne2rk.
Although Halesia was constantly apologizing, saying, "I'm sorry for troubling you," the maids were surprisingly enthusiastic, saying, "Lady Halesia trusts us!".
Halesia, who usually kept to herself and could manage most things around her, made her overly capable maids feel a bit anxious.
After a long time, the maids were given a rewarding job, and they were all fired up to make the most of it.
They spread rumors about Rhiannon with such enthusiasm that it quickly overshadowed the bad reputation spread by Sarah Belts.
As a result, the reputation of Rhiannon, Mimi, and Clahsen has skyrocketed throughout the palace.
Moreover, Rhiannon, who had not been seen in high society for a while, started attending balls, which increased the attention on her even more.
According to whispers, she is said to be incredibly beautiful.
Rhiannon quickly became the talk of the nobles.
By the way, Halesia had been stopped by Kaine from attending the ball, so she was managing to cope with her stalking by getting Rhiannon's promotional photos instead.
"Still, it's really exciting to see my favorite become famous, but it's a bit lonely, isn't it..."
Halesia's casual remark, while being pampered by the maids, made them pause for a moment and exchange glances.
Then, as if wanting to say something, the blonde maid, who seemed to be the leader, stepped forward and spoke up.
"Since we're at it, I must say this. Lady Rhiannon is indeed a wonderful young lady and deserves to be properly recognized, so spreading various rumors about her is not a problem at all."
"Uh, what's with the sudden seriousness...?"
Halesia tilted her head at the maid who had suddenly started speaking in a serious tone.
The blonde maid took a breath, clenched her fist tightly, and excitedly continued.
"It's not just Lady Rhiannon; we actually want to spread a lot of rumors about Lady Halesia too! We are all huge fans of Lady Halesia!"
"Wait, huge... fans...?"
"Lady Halesia is truly the one worthy of being the next queen!!"
With a strong declaration from the blonde maid, the other maids nodded in agreement, all kneeling at Halesia's feet and sending her passionate gazes, as if they were knights pledging their loyalty to a queen.
Lady Halesia is a wonderful person.
She is always humble and kind, and she strives to live a simple life...
"She's much smarter than those spineless princes..."
"She is noble and beautiful, and on top of that, she is intelligent and skilled in strategy!"
"They say a capable hawk hides its talons, but Lady Halesia is truly hiding her beautiful and noble talons. And we know that she is the one fit to be the next queen."
Seizing the moment, the maids blushed deeply as they praised Halesia.
"Eh, eh, eh..."
Caught off guard by the unexpected turn of events, Halesia felt confused.
She hadn't thought of that.
The maids, still kneeling at her feet, stared at her with eager eyes.
"With the power of our rumors, it would be easy to make Lady Halesia the queen...?"
The maids' eyes sparkled with a strange light.
Halesia panicked.
"Please don't! Stop it! I don't want to be a queen!"
"But, Lady Halesia! If you become queen, this country will be safe!"
"I don't want to stand out! I want to live my life secretly chasing after Lady Rhiannon!"
"That would be a significant loss for this country! Lady Halesia, you can do it if you try!"
"Wow, the pressure is intense!"
Halesia trembled, her eyes welling up with tears.
She never imagined the maids thought of her this way.
Moreover, she knew all too well that manipulating rumors was a piece of cake for the maids.
She realized something from this incident: the ones who truly held the power of rumors in the palace were not the noble ladies or the ministers, but the maids.
After all, as soon as she enlisted the help of her maids, the bad reputation of Rhiannon spread by Sarah Belts vanished in no time, and now Rhiannon's reputation was completely different from what it was a month ago──.
(Well, you definitely shouldn't make enemies of these people!)
Halesia had been sweating nervously for a while now.
At this rate, she might accidentally end up on the throne due to the maids' manipulation of public opinion.
Desperate to prevent that from happening, Halesia fidgeted with her hands.
"J-just calm down! Please stop acting rashly!"
"...Is that an order?"
"It's an order, an order!!"
At Halesia's urgent words, the maids all exchanged glances of discontent.
Each of them seemed to silently plead, "You are the only one who can be the next queen." However, Halesia's resolve was firm.
She had no interest in the throne.
Not at all.
After a silent battle of glances between Halesia and the maids, they reluctantly returned to their posts.
(Th-thank goodness...)
Halesia let out a sigh of relief, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someone among the maids had whispered, "We will never give up.".
Still, Halesia decided to convince herself it was just her imagination.
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