🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 60
“Ivi, is this the right place?”
[Yes, it is! I swear!]
Jaquet peeked out from the bushes.
The banquet hall was on the first floor, but since she couldn’t participate, she just wanted to sneak a look.
She tiptoed and strained to see inside, determined to get a glimpse after sneaking away from Mari and Letty.
She felt like she was almost there.
Just when she was about to see inside, some trouble appeared.
“Hey! Who are you?!”
They were children dressed in pretty decent clothes.
“This isn’t a place for dirty brats like you to be hanging around!”
Jaquet glanced at the children but quickly lost interest.
They weren’t what she wanted to see.
But she didn’t realize that her indifferent attitude only provoked them.
“Hey!”
When she finally turned her head at the sound of someone approaching, it was already too late.
With a strong shove, Jaquet was sent tumbling to the ground.
“Ah!”
At least she landed on the soft grass, which was somewhat fortunate.
Still, her hands scraped against the ground, and her body ached from hitting the soil.
“Why, why did you push me…!”
“Because you dared to ignore us!”
“You started picking a fight, and now you’re blaming me for ignoring you?”
“What?”
“You’re a lowly commoner! You can’t dare ignore us nobles!”
Jaquet furrowed her brow, got to her feet, and brushed the dirt off her clothes.
She was frustrated at the stain left by the grass.
Grass stains were hard to remove.
“Worried you’ll get scolded because your clothes are dirty? Clothes like that, you can just buy more.”
Jaquet didn’t want to waste time arguing over such ridiculous arrogance.
Pulling her hood tightly over her head, she let out a deep sigh.
All she wanted was to see the banquet and her busy parents, whom she hadn’t seen today.
Those kids had ruined it.
She glared at them, then turned to move away.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“……”
“I said, where are you going?!”
At that moment, the hood she was wearing got grabbed and yanked by the neck.
“Ugh!”
She struggled to breathe and quickly fumbled to free her hood.
“Ouch!”
The boy who had pulled it fell backward from the force.
“You just pushed me down? A lowly commoner?!”
“Did I push you? No. You tripped yourself while tugging on my hood. And this whole ‘lowly commoner’ thing—why do you think that makes you noble? From what I see, you’re not. By your actions, you look lower than the livestock on the street.”
The other kids just stood there, mouths agape, unable to respond to Jaquet’s rapid-fire words.
Jaquet hadn’t only been surrounded by loving people like Daphne.
At the orphanage, she had been nothing more than a laborer, a scapegoat for the director and the other children.
And children learn quickly—whether it’s good or bad.
“That’s enough. There’s no point talking to losers like you! I’m leaving, so don’t touch me!”
Jaquet, who had never been angry in her life, clenched her teeth as if she had swallowed a fireball, and turned her body.
She didn’t know how to handle her anger yet, nor did she want to.
[Good! You dodged the filth! Now dodge the dirt!]
Iverno, who had been watching from above, landed on Jaquet’s shoulder and flapped his wings.
“That’s right, Ivi. Let’s hurry back to the room.”
Just as Jaquet moved to return, a sudden pain shot through her scalp.
“Ah!!”
She felt around her head and realized what had happened.
“Are you done talking?!”
A boy had grabbed her hair and yanked it.
Iverno, still perched on her shoulder, flew in front of the boy, flapping his wings and pecking his face. The boy’s grip loosened.
Seizing the moment, Jaquet quickly twisted away and stared at the children.
“I told you to leave me alone!”
“You think you’ll get away?! You insulted nobles and dared to hurt them?!”
“Well, I just stood there. You tripped all by yourself and made a fuss!”
Recently, Jaquet had been learning language from Blake, and her vocabulary had grown remarkably.
Add to that the time she had spent with Michael, and the synergy boosted her confidence.
“You just pushed me down!”
“Wow.”
Jaquet was dumbfounded by the boy’s claim.
[What is that brat saying?]
Iverno was equally incredulous.
She glanced at the group. Some of the children were reluctantly following along.
The boy ranting about being insulted seemed to be their leader.
Jaquet remembered a lesson from the orphanage:
‘Always hit the leader. Once the leader falls, the rest can’t do anything.’
The girl who taught her that had been adopted quickly, but she was the only one who had given Jaquet any advice.
So Jaquet decided to trust that rule for the first time.
She figured there was no harm in trying.
“You’re the leader, huh?”
“What?”
The other children stared, stunned.
Jaquet lifted her head proudly and glared fiercely, as if ready to bite. The boy flinched back.
Seeing this, Jaquet smiled triumphantly.
Even if she lacked strength, sheer will could be enough.
“What, what? No way!”
But Jaquet didn’t realize that provoking the wrong way could actually paralyze the opponent’s reasoning and encourage them.
Still, she wasn’t about to back down.
Her own reasoning was equally paralyzed.
“Then come at me!”
For the first time, Jaquet waved her fingers in a challenging gesture.
What followed was a real fight.
“Ugh! Just all attack at once!”
It truly became a free-for-all.
It was a muddy, messy battle.
No orphanage held formal duels here.
They threw dirt, poked eyes, bit, and tangled together, pulling hair and biting.
“Stop!”
At the familiar voice, Jaquet released the hands she was holding and the teeth she had sunk into flesh.
She turned her head and saw adults everywhere, with her parents standing among them, looking utterly shocked.
