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Chapter 5
“What… What do you think you’re doing?!”
The young lady who had been splashed with the cocktail let out a shrill scream and glared at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth merely smiled calmly and tilted her head slightly.
“I just can’t ignore people who act one way in front of others and another behind their backs.”
“Two-faced? Are you introducing yourself right now?”
“Do you remember what you said to me at the last tea party?”
Elizabeth removed the brooch pinned to her chest.
The young lady who had been splashed visibly flinched.
“You said you wanted this brooch. Said it was beautiful.”
“That was—!”
“Would you like it?”
The unexpected question left the young lady momentarily speechless.
In that brief moment, Elizabeth tossed the brooch onto the floor at her feet.
Instinctively, the young lady bent her knees to pick it up, but quickly regained her senses and straightened herself.
Unfortunately for her, everyone had already seen it.
The crowd stared in shock.
Elizabeth laughed.
“The same young lady who never stopped praising everything I wore is suddenly calling my dress unfashionable today.”
She smiled as if she found it amusing.
“Do your eyes have neither personal taste nor conviction?”
“Young Lady, watch your tongue!”
“Even if I do, it won’t change the fact that you used to shower my dresses with compliments. Everyone here knows that.”
The girl splashed with the cocktail immediately fell silent.
Because it was true.
A flush of embarrassment spread across her face.
“I can understand insulting me for being an illegitimate child. But isn’t saying one thing and then the exact opposite later a little embarrassing?”
“Young Lady, are you mocking me?”
“Of course not. I’m simply suggesting you be consistent. Unless you want to become a laughingstock to everyone who knows your past behavior.”
Elizabeth shrugged and let her words sweep over everyone gathered there.
Several people who had once desperately sought her favor visibly flinched.
Elizabeth looked at them with open disdain before speaking again.
“Keep the brooch or throw it away. Either way, I don’t want to wear something praised by someone as spineless as you.”
With that, Elizabeth turned sharply and resumed walking.
Behind her, the cocktail-soaked young lady let out another bizarre shriek.
The sound echoed through the hall like part of an orchestra.
***
Elizabeth headed straight into town.
Her dress was soaked, and there was no way she could return to the estate wearing it.
I’ll postpone telling everyone that Father never knew about my origins.
Even if she revealed it now, nobody would believe her.
They would call it a pathetic excuse.
Worse, people might suspect that the Marquis was sacrificing her to avoid criticism himself.
It might actually be easier to convince people if they laugh at Father for being deceived by me.
If that happened, public sympathy might even swing toward Marquis Rionette.
As his daughter, this was probably the last thing she could do for the man who had raised her.
…Even if he had never truly loved her.
She would bear all the insults.
But she was leaving anyway.
Once Father disowns me, I’ll go to Baslatia.
Baslatia was a famous resort region that welcomed people with divine powers like hers.
Working there as a civil servant for the rest of her life didn’t sound bad.
Or perhaps she’d make other plans.
In the end, things turned out exactly the way that woman wanted.
Yet Elizabeth didn’t hate Sibylla.
If anything, she felt grateful.
For ten years she had lived as if sitting on a bed of nails.
Every night she dreamed of her secret being exposed.
She had spent her life caring only about how others viewed her.
Not anymore.
I’m done worrying about what others think.
From now on, I’ll live the way I want to live.
Firmly resolved, Elizabeth entered a clothing shop and changed into a new dress.
As she was about to return to the estate, a street stall selling accessories caught her eye.
“…Wow.”
Normally, Bailey would never even allow her to look at such things, insisting that doing so would reveal her “vulgar nature.”
Drawn in, Elizabeth began browsing the accessories.
Compared to the luxury goods she’d grown up seeing, they were undeniably cheap and crude.
Yet to Elizabeth, they looked beautiful.
They weren’t merely inexpensive trinkets.
They were symbols of freedom.
Just then, she overheard a conversation between the stall owner and another customer.
“How much is this?”
“One hundred yaks.”
“That seems… expensive.”
“It’s made of gold. It’s not expensive at all.”
Elizabeth doubted her ears.
What? One hundred yaks? That’s ridiculous.
If it were real gold, the price wouldn’t be unreasonable.
But gold was far too valuable to be sold at a street stall.
It was almost certainly gold-plated.
Isn’t this a scam?
Turning her head, she noticed a man holding a necklace with a golden cameo, looking troubled.
He’s… incredibly tall.
Elizabeth came from the Rionette family, where all the men were over 190 centimeters tall.
Because of that, she rarely considered anyone tall.
Yet the man before her was so tall that even compared to the Rionette men, he wouldn’t seem small.
Dressed entirely in black, he looked almost like an enormous, elongated shadow.
After staring at him blankly for a moment, Elizabeth noticed him reluctantly reaching for his wallet and stepped in.
“Wait. One hundred yaks is an absurd price.”
Both the man and the stall owner turned toward her.
At the same moment, Elizabeth unconsciously held her breath.
It was as though the man had been born from the darkness that existed before creation itself.
His slightly curly hair, the clothes he wore, his round glasses, even the eyes behind them—
Everything about him was black.
A darkness that seemed capable of swallowing all colors.
In contrast, his skin was almost unnaturally pale.
But more importantly—
He was unbelievably handsome.
The Rionette family had been renowned for producing breathtaking beauties for generations.
Elizabeth, accustomed to seeing extraordinary faces every day, was rarely impressed by appearances.
Yet this felt different.
After staring at him for a moment, she quickly shifted her gaze back to the necklace.
“Expensive? Miss, this is real gold.”
“May I see it for a moment?”
The man handed it over without objection.
Elizabeth examined it carefully before holding it up for the owner to see.
“Look here. The plating has peeled off.”
“W-Well, that’s…!”
The stall owner’s face turned red and blue after being caught in his lie.
Elizabeth wasn’t finished.
“And there are scratches all over it. Selling a used gold-plated necklace for one hundred yaks seems excessive.”
At that moment, she seriously questioned the man’s identity.
A nobleman?
But she didn’t know of any noble in the capital who looked like this.
Then again, even if he were a nobleman, how could he be this ignorant about prices?
“Ten yaks would be more than enough. I was willing to ignore it, but charging ten times its value is a bit much.”
“Here.”
At that moment, a long arm extended toward the stall owner with a coin.
Elizabeth looked at the man in surprise.
“Ten yaks.”
“…You’re still buying it? Why not choose one without scratches?”
“I need this one.”
He pointed to the necklace in Elizabeth’s hand.
Still stunned, she handed it over.
Meanwhile, the stall owner was already making excuses about how he was giving a special discount because he was in a good mood.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I got it cheaply.”
“Uh…”
“Have a nice day.”
What a strange man.
Elizabeth watched him bow politely and disappear into the crowd.
***
By the time Elizabeth returned to the Rionette estate, all thoughts of the handsome, mysterious man had vanished.
“Back so early? Did you even explain things properly?”
Because of this.
Elizabeth stared silently at Bailey, who had spent the last ten years being consistently rude and disrespectful toward her.
Someone she no longer needed to tolerate.
“Did you properly explain Marquis Rionette’s innocence or—”
“Since we’re never going to see each other again, I’ll just say it.”
The words that followed made Bailey, who had been glaring at her with narrowed eyes, freeze.
“You’ve always been far too arrogant toward me.”
Elizabeth’s gaze turned cold.
“Far more arrogant than your place ever warranted.”
