At the voice that came from beside her, Leciel turned her gaze in that direction.

There, she saw a lovely young girl wearing an elegant dress, her hair cutely tied into two pigtails.

Judging by her appearance, she seemed to be a noble lady.

‘It’s my first time seeing a noble lady.’

Especially one around her own age.

But her curiosity was short-lived as Leciel’s face showed a troubled expression.

Of all things, the dress that the young girl had chosen was the same as the one Leciel had picked.

“I chose it first.”

Taking the place of the staff who was flustered and unsure of whom to side with, Leciel stepped forward.

“So?”

The young girl’s response left Leciel dumbfounded.

What? <So what?>

Was she saying that because she didn’t understand what she meant? Or did she know exactly what she meant and was just pretending?

Judging by her attitude, it seemed to be the latter.

However, not wanting to cause a scene here, Leciel regretfully decided to give up on the dress she had chosen.

It was disappointing since she had carefully selected it after much deliberation, but it wasn’t the only dress in the store.

After yet another round of careful consideration, Leciel picked out a new dress.

“This one….”

“I’ll take that one too.”

‘What…’

Once again, Leciel found herself in the awkward position of having her choice overlap with the young girl’s.

‘Well, up to two times…’

It could just be a coincidence that they had similar tastes.

After all, she had come in a good mood, and she didn’t want to ruin it over a single dress.

But unfortunately, the choices of Leciel and the young girl continued to clash.

At first, Leciel had been willing to yield, but as it happened repeatedly, she could no longer do so.

Quite a bit of time had passed since she entered the store, but she hadn’t been able to buy a single dress because she kept giving in.

“I’ll take this one, please.”

This time, Leciel made it clear that she wouldn’t back down.

“Uh… shall I?”

The staff glanced nervously at the young girl, who had found it easy to get her way earlier thanks to Leciel’s concessions. But now that Leciel wasn’t yielding, the young girl’s reaction was bound to be problematic.

It was understandable since Leciel was an important customer, but the young girl was also not someone they could easily ignore.

“Are you seriously going to sell the dress I picked to that girl?”

The young girl’s sharp voice made it clear that she didn’t like the staff member’s hesitation.

“But she picked it first….”

“Hey, you. You give up.”

The young girl cut off the staff’s words and brazenly demanded Leciel to step aside.

Leciel was taken aback.

She had thought the girl was quite brazen from the start, but she didn’t expect her to be this shameless.

After all the times she had yielded, one would think the girl might feel guilty enough to let her have this one.

What made her so confident that Leciel should be the one to give up?

“This time, I can’t.”

Not wanting to escalate the situation, Leciel hid her irritation and spoke as politely as possible.

“So what?”

‘Huh?’

So what, again.

No matter how young she was, Leciel couldn’t believe someone could be so completely lacking in manners, acting as if her opinions didn’t matter at all.

“I like this dress.”

“Which family are you from?”

The girl asked sharply in response to Leciel’s words.

“Well, that’s….”

Leciel hesitated to answer. It seemed like the girl was asking which noble family she belonged to.

While she was under the protection of the Grand Duke, he was just her guardian and not truly her family, so she couldn’t claim to be a noble lady from the Grand Duchy.

“Are you so stupid that you don’t even know your own family’s name?”

Seeing Leciel’s attire, the girl couldn’t imagine that she was a commoner, so she spoke with a disdainful expression.

“… if you’re asking if I’m a noble lady, I’m not.”

Even if she tried to claim she was part of the Grand Duchy, everyone knew that the Grand Duke didn’t have a daughter, so lying wouldn’t help.

With no other choice, Leciel answered truthfully.

“So, you’re a commoner?”

“… yes.”

“When did this store’s standards fall so low?”

The young girl spoke in an exasperated tone, as if now that Leciel had confessed, there was nothing left to hold back.

From the beginning, she never thought that there was someone above her as the duke’s daughter, but to find out she was not a noble lady at all but a commoner? That was shocking.

She couldn’t stand how the girl held her head high in front of her, nor how she claimed ownership of the dress, saying she picked it first.

“Ah, my lady, please calm down…”

“Do I look like I can calm down? Wasn’t this place supposed to be only for families of count rank or higher? Then why is some commoner girl of unknown origin here?”

The girl was greatly agitated, as if her pride had been deeply wounded by this alone.

The staff, flustered by her words, tried to soothe her. The staff, who had assumed Leciel was just the daughter of a lesser noble family related to the Grand Duke, was shocked to learn that she was a commoner. However, since the person she came with was the Grand Duke himself, they couldn’t treat her poorly.

“The person who brought her here…”

“Are you stupid? How can you refer to a commoner girl as <this person>? No wonder this store has gone downhill; it’s because the staff here are this incompetent.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

Not wanting to further anger the girl, the staff quickly apologized without making excuses.

But the girl was not someone to be easily appeased.

“You, apologize too. Right now. How dare a commoner girl…”

“… what did I do wrong?”

Leciel looked at the girl with a somewhat stiff expression.

She could tolerate being looked down on. This was a society with a strict social hierarchy, and the girl in front of her was a noble, so it couldn’t be helped.

But demanding an apology out of the blue?

That was something Leciel couldn’t easily accept.

“What did you do wrong? Just being in the same space as me, breathing the same air as me, is wrong.”

“Hah…”

Part of her wanted to say, “If you don’t like being in the same space, then leave. And if you don’t want to breathe the same air, why don’t you just hold your breath for the rest of your life?” But she couldn’t.

‘Or could I?’

After all, she had Kael, a very reliable protector, behind her.

Kael would probably overlook a mere dispute with another noble lady.

But then Leciel shook her head.

Judging by how submissive the staff was, this girl wasn’t just any noble lady but someone from a fairly high-ranking family. Picking a fight with her might cause trouble for Kael.

“Aren’t you going to apologize?”

“… fine, I’m sorry.”

No longer wanting to show any formality, Leciel muttered an insincere apology, her face expressionless.

“Is that an apology? Kneel down and apologize properly.”

‘Wow, this girl is really something else.’

Leciel looked at her with a mix of surprise and mild admiration.

She had heard there were all kinds of crazy people in the world, but facing one in person was beyond frustrating—it was infuriating.

“And that dress, is it really yours?”

“….”

Leciel remained silent.

“So, it’s not, is it? I knew it, there’s no way a commoner could pull off such an outfit. You must have stolen it from somewhere. Take it off. I’ll let it slide if you do.”

Misunderstanding Leciel’s silence as agreement, the girl smirked.

Leciel could no longer hold back.

What? Take it off? Did she even understand what she was saying?

Being a commoner didn’t mean she was without shame.

And even if the girl wasn’t going to buy her another dress, making such unreasonable demands was absurd.

Following her demands would hurt her pride, but Leciel also couldn’t do that for Kael’s sake.

If rumors spread that the Grand Duke was seen with a girl stripped of her dress, what would that do to the Grand Duke’s reputation?

Although it was unlikely that things would escalate to that extent just because she took off her dress, Leciel rationalized her decision.

“… hmph. The reason I didn’t answer is because you were spouting nonsense.”

“What? What did you just say to me?”

“You’re supposed to be a noble lady, but I guess your hearing isn’t great.”

“What did you just…!”

“This is serious. A grand noble lady with bad hearing and a mouth that only spews nonsense.”

Having decided to hold nothing back, Leciel boldly said what she wanted.

She had a sharp tongue honed from her banter with Kael; she wasn’t going to lose a verbal fight to a mere child in front of her.

“A commoner like you dares to speak to me like this…!”

“Oh dear, esteemed noble lady. I must be a commoner because I can’t understand what you’re saying. Could you speak like a proper human being?”

“How dare you!”

Enraged by Leciel’s mockery, the girl shouted at the top of her lungs.

No one had ever been so rude to her. And now, a commoner girl who shouldn’t even dare to look at her was insulting her?

At that moment, the girl’s mother, who had been selecting clothes nearby, approached after hearing her daughter’s voice.

“What’s going on, Lily?”

“Mother, this commoner girl dared to insult and mock me.”

The girl clung to her mother’s leg, her eyes filling with crocodile tears.

Yet, a cold smirk lingered on the girl’s lips.

“This wretched girl doesn’t know her place…!”

Infuriated by her daughter’s words, the woman couldn’t contain her anger and raised her hand.

The staff wanted to stop her, but they couldn’t. If they displeased the Duchess, they could face repercussions.

But ignoring it wasn’t an option either, especially with the Grand Duke, who had brought Leciel, in mind.

However, just as the staff hesitated and couldn’t make a decision, a voice interrupted.

“It would be best to stop there. If that hand touches Lessie’s body, our Grand Duchy won’t let it slide.”

Before the woman’s hand could touch Leciel’s face, Carren appeared out of nowhere, his face cold and stern.

“Y-Your Highness?”

Recognizing Carren, the Duchess asked in a trembling voice.

She couldn’t understand why Carren was intervening in this matter. And to say that the Grand Duchy wouldn’t stand by if a commoner girl was harmed?

“Lessie, come here.”

Ignoring the Duchess’s gaze, Carren extended his hand and brought Leciel to his side.

“I don’t understand. Why would you involve yourself in a trivial matter involving a commoner girl? That girl dared to insult my daughter.”

Even though the Grand Duke’s son was younger than the Duchess, she couldn’t speak too informally to him.

After all, the Little Grand Duke’s status was above that of the Duchess.

“Well, from what I see, it seems that Lessie was the one who was insulted.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“Because that ugly, harsh face was shoved in front of Lessie’s eyes which should only see pretty things.”