Maya smiled—a cold, cruel smile. "We’ll find out her secrets. Everyone has secrets. And when we discover hers, we’ll expose them in the most damaging way possible."

She looked out the window toward Samuel and Heena’s quarters.

"You think you’ve won, little servant girl? You have no idea what you’ve walked into. This household will destroy you, just like it’s destroyed everyone else who didn’t know their place."

But Maya didn’t know—couldn’t know—that she was up against someone who had survived multiple worlds, toppled empires, and outmaneuvered opponents far more dangerous than one jealous merchant’s wife.

The game was just beginning.

And Heena was playing to win.

And so began Maya’s secret plan to discover Heena’s weaknesses and destroy her reputation.

It would have sounded really strategic and impressive—like a hunter carefully stalking their prey—if the execution hadn’t been so absolutely, embarrassingly terrible.

---

’’[Morning - The Pond]’’

Heena was sitting near the small ornamental pond in the household’s modest garden area, eating nuts. Chestnuts, specifically—roasted chestnuts that she’d managed to procure from the kitchen.

She was sitting cross-legged on a small wooden stool, looking at the pond thoughtfully.

She would have preferred to lie down and relax properly, but there were several problems with that: First, the pond was quite small, so there wasn’t much space around it. Second, there was literally nothing comfortable to lie down on—no cushions, no mats, nothing.

In a normal wealthy household, the pond would be connected to a proper deck with a small pavilion where people could sit comfortably and enjoy tea and snacks while watching the fish. But here? In this declining merchant household? There was just a small pond with a tiny dirt path around it and one sad wooden stool.

Heena had attempted to tie her hair into a neat bun that morning. It was now completely useless—she’d tried to fix it seven times already, and it kept falling loose.

Every single time, the bun would start sliding apart, strands escaping, the whole thing threatening to collapse.

’Come on,’ she thought with frustration. ’It’s not like I’m trying to create some elaborate hairstyle. This is supposed to be simple!’

But the truth—the embarrassing, shameful truth—was that Heena genuinely did not know how to properly tie her hair.

She only knew four hairstyles total: First, a messy bun that would inevitably fall apart. Second, a simple ponytail. Third, basic braiding. And fourth, just leaving it completely loose and open.

That was literally the extent of her hairstyling knowledge.

Of course, when she’d been in the body of a professional hairstylist in a previous world, she’d known dozens of complex styles—her hands had moved automatically with that body’s muscle memory. But right now, she was in the body of a servant who’d never learned fancy hairstyling, and Heena’s own knowledge was pathetically limited.

So yes, it was completely accurate to say that Heena absolutely did not know how to properly tie her hair in the elegant styles expected of a young mistress.

The System appeared beside her and said quietly, "Um, Host... you’re being followed."

Hearing that, Heena looked at him with a disgusted expression and said out loud, "Followed? Really? They should just come out directly. It would be much better than following me around like incompetent idiots."

---

’’[Behind the Bushes]’’ 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Maya and the servant girl Meili were crouched behind some decorative bushes about twenty feet away, supposedly "secretly" observing Heena.

Hearing Heena talking to herself, they exchanged confused looks.

Meili whispered, "What do you think she’s talking about? And who is she talking to?"

Maya frowned, straining to hear. "I don’t know. Keep watching."

Meili said uncertainly, "Um... Mistress, I think she might be talking to the fish?"

Hearing that ridiculous suggestion, Maya looked at her servant with utter disbelief. "Are you CRAZY? Why the hell would she talk to fish?!"

Meili looked defensive. "But Mistress, there’s no one else around! So except for the fish, who could she possibly be talking to?"

Maya looked at her servant with barely controlled anger and said through gritted teeth, "Are you an idiot? Maybe she’s talking to HERSELF! Devising plans, or thinking out loud, or... I don’t know, but it’s definitely not the FISH!"

Hearing that explanation, Meili paused and looked at Heena more carefully.

The young mistress was calmly eating roasted chestnuts while mumbling something to thin air. Her facial expression looked like she’d just encountered something disgusting or frustrating.

"But Mistress," Meili said slowly, "she doesn’t really look like someone making evil plans. She just looks... annoyed about something."

Maya grabbed her servant’s arm and hissed, "Just keep watching! We’ll figure out what she’s hiding eventually!"

---

’’[Late Morning - The Kitchen]’’

Heena moved on to her next activity: attempting to get some proper food from the kitchen.

Maya and Meili followed at what they thought was a discreet distance.

It was not discreet.

They were literally hiding behind a thin wooden post that didn’t even fully conceal Maya’s body, let alone both of them together.

Heena walked into the kitchen, glanced back at the "hidden" spies, sighed deeply, and proceeded to negotiate with the cook for some leftover rice and vegetables.

The cook—an older woman who’d actually always been kind to Seera when she was a servant—smiled at Heena and gave her a generous portion.

"Congratulations on your marriage, young mistress," the cook said warmly. "We’re all happy for you."

"Thank you, Auntie," Heena said sincerely. "I appreciate your kindness."

Behind the post, Maya was frantically whispering to Meili: "Write this down! She’s fraternizing with the servants! Acting inappropriately familiar with them!"

Meili pulled out a small piece of paper and a charcoal stick and began writing notes with an extremely confused expression.

"Mistress," she whispered back, "isn’t it normal for a young mistress to be polite to household staff?"

"It’s SUSPICIOUS!" Maya hissed. "Just write it down!"

Heena, hearing this whispered conversation clearly because they were terrible at being quiet, rolled her eyes and accepted her food from the cook.

As she left the kitchen, she walked directly past the post where Maya and Meili were "hiding."

She didn’t even look at them.

She just walked by eating her rice, her expression completely neutral, as if two grown women crouching behind a thin post were totally invisible.

---

’’[Afternoon - The Garden]’’

In the afternoon, Heena decided to take a walk through the small household garden.

Maya and Meili followed.

This time, they attempted to hide behind a decorative stone lantern that was maybe two feet wide.

Both of them.

Trying to hide behind a two-foot-wide stone lantern.

It was genuinely impressive how bad they were at this.

Heena walked along the garden path, occasionally stopping to look at flowers or plants. She was actually checking which herbs might be useful for medicine or cooking, but to an outside observer, she just looked like a young woman enjoying the garden.

Maya, pressed against the stone lantern with Meili practically on top of her, whispered urgently, "Why is she looking at those plants? What is she planning?"

Meili, struggling to maintain balance, whispered back, "Maybe... she likes flowers?"

"Nobody just LIKES flowers!" Maya insisted. "She’s obviously planning something! Maybe poison! Write it down—’suspicious interest in plants, possibly planning to poison someone!’"

Heena, who could hear every word of this ridiculous conversation, had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud.