The Duchess' 50 Tea Recipes - Ch. 24

[MangaDex]

 

[amaranthia]

aww... so the two maids are innocent, ofc it's her again.
yeah, you wont be the one to fall, the head maid will be the only one who will get her karma even worse!!
a trip to knight's place? more fanboys time

 

[Serkket]

Honestly, I would have fired the headmaid and all the other 3 maids as well.
It's better to dispose of traitors while you have the chance. Once a backstabber, forever a backstabber.

 

[Svelandria]

@Serkket She's giving them a second chance, and the two that are left know what happens if they push their luck. Just so happens the first one that got fired didn't actually do anything. I doubt she'll rehire the maid she fired, but I would like her to at least apologize for putting the blame on her when she was genuinely innocent and maybe find her a good house to work at if she hasn't yet gotten a new job somewhere.

I ain't saying their harassment in the past should be forgotten or easily forgiven, just that they shouldn't be blamed and punished for things they haven't done in the present.

Edit: Also, she mentioned a couple chapters back that she didn't have the authority to fire them when she wanted to, but now that she has been given full financial control she thus has more authority and thus has the right to fire people if need be. Of course, she already indirectly told those three maids that she'd give them a second chance, so suddenly firing them just because she now has the authority is a bit of a dick move and I'm pretty sure she knows this as well.

 

[MrFunplace]

I think it was stupid that she didn't question the messenger just because he doesn't have motives. Even if he is not the culprit, or let us say in the story he wasn't bribed, he might witness something or had some kind of clue from something that usually gets overlooked. But anyway, it's nice to see the knights again.

 

[Xeredge]

So she just made assumptions without a proper investigation and assumed she was in the right. She's kind of a bitch.

I'm not saying the others aren't. Majority of the characters are pretty bad people.

 

[sinkingship]

Whenever that evil maid is like "I can't let the MC rise above me!" in her internal monologues (like she did again this chapter) I just sort of scratch my head. Like... she's a duchess. You're a maid. It's waaay too late to "stop her from rising above you". That ship sailed a long long time ago lol

 

[WhimsiCat]

@Svelandria: I think the proper thing plot wise is to hire that girl back once the truth come out.

while Chloe probably won't/can't apologize openly (both because she had legitimate reason to doubt the girl and because of her position), just bringing her back would imply as much
and while Colline might think Chloe's reputation will drop because of it, if anything I think it'll make her be seen as a fair master who can recognize her own mistake and do something about it

 

[Qelix]

Well, she was innocent on this on, but after all what she did, she was in a really weak position. In doubt and with all the evidence pointing at her, she had it coming. Though MC should have investigated it a bit further. Well, I guess she thought a bit about it, before deciding to fire her. We only saw the lay off talk.

On the matter of the other two maids: That long haired one is stupid. She knows how bad her own standing is. That mistake (of somebody else) could cost her her job and worse, it might have cost her her own health or even life. And judging from the head maids previous behavior, that personal maid should easily arrive at the conclusion, that this was a calculated move and that she herself would also have been sacrificed, as the head maid didn't gave her any warning. There is no reason to keep quiet or even talk with the head maid afterwards.

About firing all 3 personal maids. She couldn't without management rights and if she would have asked the head butler, he would have talked with all persons involved, who in turn would have denied everything. Nothing would have happened, but it would have shown the maids, that MC touch was still limited. Keeping them in terror was much better until she won the rights back.

And I guess, it all amounts to, that her image IS really important. At first I also thought, why didn't she just tell the head butler, that arsehat, about the sabotage? But this was right before he transferred the rights back to her. There would have been a chance, he would have reconsidered it. But this way he didn't even know something went wrong, as the kitchen maids didn't tell anyone about it and she bought the goods and compensated with her own (secret) money. Also this way next to nobody knows about her secret funds. Keeping up the image was a wise move.
The only thing I'm pondering about is, why the head maid kept her mouth shut. It was her plan. I guess she wanted to wait until things blow up, but afterwards, why did she bring that "blunder" to light? She is the head maid. One inspection of the kitchen at the right timing, she would have "noticed" that the wrong things have been delivered and could have told that the butler. Even if MC did manage to pull a saving move, it would have come tumbling down. How did she manage to buy the needed commodities? Did she sell something? At that point her secret funds wouldn't have been secret anymore. (Though MC's excellent deal might have boosted her reputation further.) Also her inability to create a grocery shopping list would have been shown, which was her goal from the beginning.

And as we have shown, that her image might be from really big importance, we see why she didn't fire the 3 maids as soon as she had the rights back. She "forgave" them, before she had the authority to do so. Turning back on that would damage her reputation again. But we also saw, that as soon as there is a slight reason or doubt, they are gone. Given a few months MC can also simple fire the left two maids without any big reason. Those two maids should see to create as much space between themselves and her as possible, as then, just maybe, they might be spared, as they might not be that important/pose any danger to MC any more.

@Xeredge: Nah. I believe she welcomed the chance to get rid of a backstabbing bitch. You shouldn't forget, that MC can't trust that maid anymore anyways. Innocent or not, it's a headache less.

@WhimsiCat: Hrmrmrm....well, but only to raise her reputation further. Though I would keep her away myself and the silver in the future. Personal maid? Not going to happen anymore.

 

[Psychronia]

Hmm. Yeah, I'd say that the maid getting fired is just karma, but not exactly...justice? Like, she was officially forgiven for her transgressions up until that point, and the last straw wasn't actually her fault. More importantly, the issue wasn't as thoroughly investigated as it could've been.
She could've at least had a conversation with the messenger. For that matter, when Josephine's standing is that bad with her, you would think she'd check the letter herself before letting her send it.

That said, the reason she was fired just like that is because she has bad credibility with Chloe, so this is also a sort of natural consequence for months of abuse. I won't mind either way if she stays fired, though it might be nice if Chloe cleared the air with her and confirmed that she was innocent of that incident specifically.

Thankfully, we dodged a bullet thanks to Chloe being adored by the knights of the house. I wonder if she'll be able to lay a trap for miss head maid? At this point, this is deliberate endangerment.

 

[euls]

"We are prepared to pick up the stars in the sky if you wanted us to"
lmao the knights are so precious!!!

 

[CivilSky]

i kind of appreciate new chloe can still make real mistakes. not the type caused by sabotage after it leaves her hands, but the "genuine mistaken conclusion and actions" that happened the maid.

most characters in this position tend to act in the most efficient way to 'win' possible, so its nice change of pace.

and yeah, maid's fate was more karma than it was justice.

 

[doradora]

I don't really mind having Josephine fired despite her being innocent because even if she is forgiven for what she did that doesn't change the fact that she mistreated the old Chloe. Also, I wouldn't hope for Chloe to hire her back because that would be so shoujo-ish manga lead characteristic which I'm sick of.

 

[suchtla]

I think she mostly fired that maid to show her authority, since she disliked her anyway it wasn't a big loss.
Anyways, she's not a detective, just a tea lover / former accountant.

 

[Berdy]

Does anyone ever say “gee, it takes too much effort to be a villain”?

 

[Siquall]

Just fire this head maid, because of her someone innocent took the blame.

 

[Svelandria]

@WhimsiCat You do have a point. Her image would definitely be better in ways, such as making her out to be a fair and just master. I just thought that it was already kinda late to rehire her, especially since there was already good enough reason to fire her to begin with before this incident. Hell, there's still good enough reason to fire the other two right now on the spot, but she doesn't because she already gave them a second chance when she wasn't able to fire them and going back on that would make her out to seem worse.

...I think what I'm saying makes sense(I'm a fair bit tired right now, so can't tell. ), but simply put she can fire them now like she wanted, however she doesn't because she already decided to be merciful. Now it's a matter of them giving her the excuse to fire them, yet even then she doesn't if she realizes that the blame isn't theirs which makes her out to be a competent and gracious master. Honestly, even when she figured out it was the head maid she could have easily fired the personal maid and then went after the head maid to get rid of them both, but she let the personal maid off the hook. (Am I going in circles here? Feels like I'm going in circles. I'll stop now. @_@)

 

[TheDragonLord]

Enjoying the discourse below.

I lost respect for the character as she's good enough to create a new marketing strategy, but not check to see if she has a plant. She blamed Josephine (who in this instance was innocent), and now the Big-Bad can continue sabotaging her unmolested.

Whatever comes her way next, unfortunately, is her own damn fault for insufficient reasoning & investigation. Classic example of poor investigation work. In a trial, this would be guilt by association. Is it Josephine's handwriting? Did the messanger get paid off? She didn't bother checking & jumped to conclusions. I really lost respect.

Also, wouldn't the message be delivered by a member of her household, specifically a knight or page? If so, then why would the knights turn on her? Shouldn't she have sent the order by way of knight? 🤔 I'd have done that as it would have secured passage.

 

[Madcat6204]

The messenger let himself be bribed into delivering a false message bearing the seal of the duke's house? He's a fucking idiot. The duke could have him executed for that, and no one would think twice about it.

 

[Potato_Famine]

Imagine not questioning the messenger beacuse "he isn't someone from Vandenberg and he has no motive."
Seems more of a writing problem to continue the plot.