“Gilbert! Where the hell were you?!”

It wasn’t long before I caught a glimpse of a face framed by brown hair. The man had a mole placed beneath his mouth.

His name was Kallen or something of the sorts. Kallen was also Gilbert’s best friend, though he’s not very interesting.

Kallen came up to me and stopped to talk.

“Lady Maevia.”

I gave him a blank stare.

Even though I didn’t greet him, Kallen descended from his horse and presented me with a formal and lengthy apology.

“I’m truly sorry. Please forgive my friend, who’s like family to me, for his rudeness. I’ll make sure to scold Gilbert thoroughly. Adding to that, I will make another visit in the future and apologize once more.”

Kallen grabbed Gilbert and pulled him away. He was still shocked and just followed obediently.

After placing Gilbert on the horse, Kallen looked back at me.

“Lady, your clothes….”

Kallen removed his ugly ass outer coat and attempted to give it to me.

I spoke my mind.

“Fuck off.”

“….Farewell.”

Kallen ran off with Gilbert. I felt bad for the horse, who had to carry two grown men across a long distance.

As if trying to comfort me, Alisa licked my face.

Anger filled me within. Did that asswipe seriously try to harm my horse?

“I’m sorry about the dangerous situation.”

I stroked her golden coat before climbing onto her back.

My foot ached all the way back to the Marquis’ mansion because of Gilbert’s sword. On our way back, Alisa kept turning to look at me.

Luckily, Sarah greeted me before I had the chance to change my mind and run off to murder him.

“Miissss!”

“Sarah? Why are you here?”

“Because you had me worried when you left on your own! How do you feel? Nothing happened, right?”

She whispered in a quiet tone that only I was able to hear.

“It’s nothing.”

As I came descended from the horse, my foot ached once more.

I scrunched up my nose without realizing, but Sarah was distracted by something else.

“M-Miss? What’s with this sword?”

“It’s Gilbert’s.”

“Are you serious?!”

Her jaw dropped.

“He spoke pretty informally to me, too.”

“…….Pardon?”

“Gyak! Gyaak!”

Raven fluttered over and landed next to my feet. Next to the foot that was in pain for a while.

You catch on quickly.

I handed Alisa over to one of the servants and headed to my room alongside Sarah. Sitting on the sofa, I took off my boot before discovering a bruise on my foot. It looked quite swollen too.

“Gasp!”

Sarah took a deep breath.

No matter how big of a bitch he was, Gilbert Kallakis was the top of the top when it came to swordsmanship.

I couldn’t believe the blow to my body was this bad.

I moved my foot around and said,

“Sarah, apply an ice pack.”

“We need to start with your treatment……!”

Her wavering voice made me raise my head.

“Sarah? This is nothing, so don’t cry.”

“Sob, but what about the scar on the miss’ body…….”

“Just an ice pack will be enough. If I hadn’t stopped him, Alisa would be dead right now. He was aiming for her vital point.”

Sneaky dickhead.

Sarah cried out, face red with anger.

“He’s really the worst! How dare he threaten the miss’ safety?! Should we rat him out to his excellency?”

“Revenge is no fun when someone does it in your stead.”

“Is revenge the problem now? What would you do if you get in trouble?! You know my only purpose in life is you!”

My……. my eardrums are bleeding, Sarah.

“You can help me by applying an ice pack. The ball is tomorrow, and I can’t possibly go with bandages on.”

“Huh, you’re going to attend? But you don’t have a partner.”

I sent her a playful side glance.

“If he has a conscience, he’ll come in due time. And Sarah, throw that thing away when you leave. Dump it somewhere like a shit bucket.”

I gestured towards the glittering platinum sword with jewels decorating it.

“Gyak, gyak…….”

Raven cried timidly as Sarah nodded with a sad look.

“Dumping this expensive sword in a shit bucket………. Leave it to me. I’ll make sure I do it.”

Sarah left with the sword in hand. It was only then that I wiped the smile off my face.

Due to the fact I wasn’t able to sleep well last night, I was in a bad mood this morning. But that was also because of my anger.

During my time as Maevia Morgana, I had never wanted to kill someone so badly until now.

I wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t built up a strong body for myself.

First, Alisa would be dead. Second, if I had failed in my attempt to deflect the sword, I’d be hurt badly.

It’s hard to say whether or not Gilbert would’ve brought me back to the Marquis’ mansion.

“As expected, our miss is the most beautiful!”

Sarah shouted to the air.

I stared at the lady in the body-length mirror. White skin and pure, glistening eyes. At first glance, she looked like an innocent person, unaware of her surroundings. But the smile on her face was ridden with confidence.

“How is it? Huh? Huh? Please tell us your opinion!”

I turned around with ease. The silver dress was decorated with diamonds and went well with my hair.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“Hiing, what does that mean?!”

Sarah had tears in her eyes. Nevertheless, she wasn’t able to keep up the dramatics for longer than a minute before she let out a bubbly remark.

“Miss, isn’t it a bit cold today?”

It was indeed windy. It made an unusual tapping sound against the window, rendering Raven unable to leave. That was because Raven was the youngest and weakest familiar out of the Grand Duke’s bunch.

“A storm is coming. I hope this year’s rainy season won’t last too long.”

Sarah continued to chatter on even when I didn’t reply. She was conscious of my feelings and tried to comfort me.

This was the maid who went against Gilbert to protect Maevia when she was being abused in the novel.

But I had no need to think over what would happen to Sarah when that time came.

Because that time wouldn’t come.

“Sarah.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.”

“Ay, it’s nothing! Even if you hadn’t dressed up, you would still be the most beautiful woman in the world!”

I wasn’t talking about that. Though she was sulking a while ago, Sarah just forgot all about it and offered me a wide and lovable smile.

It was almost time to leave with the carriage. Just as I left my room, I caught sight of my father climbing up the stairs.

He looked like he had business with me. Normally, he would’ve just stared at me, but this time he opened his mouth,

“Maevia.”

“Yes, father.”

“I’ve heard you weren’t able to find a partner.”

Straight to the point. He only had one child, yet only never really knew how to talk to her.

“I guess it ended up like that.”

I didn’t bother to explain the whole story. I need to beat Gilbert with a bat later, so it was best not to have anyone who could snitch.

Well, so far.

He stared at me with an indifferent expression before saying,

“We’ll be departing in an hour. You should come too.”

In short, he meant we should depart together so that people wouldn’t realize I hadn’t come with a partner.

What’s with you? I’m not the type of person to get criticized if I were to ever enter without a partner.

Surprisingly, I readily nodded.

“Thank you for your consideration.”

That wasn’t the end of the strange line of events. Soon after I entered the carriage with my parents, my mother, who was like my father and wasn’t interested in my affairs, asked me how I was doing.

“Is everything all right these days?”

My mother didn’t eat anything weird, did she?

“I’m as good as always.”

“You shouldn’t think about it too deeply.”

“Don’t bottle yourself up too much.”

I blinked automatically.

Don’t bottle yourself up. If other members of my family had heard this, they would froth from the mouth. There’s no one here who lives like I do.

Seeing my confused expression, my mother nudged me.

“Our family isn’t so weak that we can’t even deal with the concerns of our adult daughter.”

Marchioness Morgana never said this in the novel. Because they were the weakest of the top three families at the time.

Though of course, since I’m Maevia Morgana now, we’re doing great.

No matter how indifferent I was towards my parents, I wasn’t just going to let them make investment failures and watch them crumble down.

My mother looked at me for answers. Aha. It seems like Sarah told her what happened yesterday.

“So you also believe I’ve been acting too nice towards the young master.”

With a slight smile, my mother spoke about another story.

“Do you remember? At age six, you used to lay on the ground to prevent us from leaving.”

Obviously I remembered. At that time, my parents were about to go sign an investment contract that would later cost them more than half of their entire fortune.

As a kid, there wasn’t really any way of logically explaining why that contract should never be signed.

And so, I stubbornly stopped them.

I sprawled out in front of the front gate and thrashed around.

“That’s because I was a kid.”

When I told her I wasn’t that six-year old noble child anymore, she let out a laugh.

“You’re still a child in my eyes. A hot-headed, fully grown child.”

“……”

“Wouldn’t any parent worry if their child was forced into doing something?”

Even if we’d never spoken about the weather affectionately to one another, family was still family nonetheless.

Hearing my mother’s words, I let a smile appear on my face.

“Well, nineteen is still considered young. Though, you’re old enough to get in trouble too.”

“I see.”

I waved my fan around lightly and stared at my father.

He was silently staring out the window, it looked as if our conversation fell upon deaf ears.

“I’m looking forward to today’s party.”

I felt like humming.