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Chapter 5
“M-Marie, do something about this.”
Flustered, Bartol darted his gaze around before spotting Marie and speaking.
“Lock Iris up right now…! Y-yes, right now! Say it’s because she was disrespectful to me, and don’t let anyone enter! Mother and Father are out, so…”
“Y-Yes, Young Master…”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I coldly glared at Marie as she began closing one side of the wide-open door. I saw her instinctively swallow hard.
“You seem quite loyal to your master, Marie.”
I spoke with a sneer.
At the same time, several calculations flashed through my mind.
To reclaim my family, I needed someone who would become my hands and feet. Almost all the servants in the ducal estate belonged to the Fenton family’s side, so my options were extremely limited—and I didn’t have time.
Which meant I had to win over Marie, who stood before me now.
Even if I had to use underhanded means.
“Bartol… perhaps it’s only natural, considering you grew up alongside Demeira.”
“O-Of course! I’m someone who devotes herself to the family she belongs to…”
“Not the family. Bartol.”
I cut her off sharply.
“You were stealing the family’s possessions under Bartol’s orders.”
“E-Excuse me?”
This time, Marie’s face turned deathly pale.
Bartol also had to lean against the wall to steady himself.
Only Demeira looked between the two in utter confusion.
“What? Don’t tell me it’s true?”
“How… how do you know that…? Have you been spying on me?”
“No. Bartol told me.”
I answered with a bright smile.
It wasn’t exactly a lie.
In my past two lives, Bartol had loudly spread rumors that “Marie stole things.”
Of course, he conveniently left out the part where he ordered her to do it, and how he sold those items whenever security was lax to fund his gambling.
Marie had been used like that until she was eventually thrown out of the estate and met a miserable end on the streets.
“‘Marie will do anything if you tell her to. Mother’s nagging is annoying, so an underling should risk her life to stop it. The evidence is all hidden beneath Marie’s bed, so I can just deny everything. A thief can’t refuse my orders anyway…’”
“N-No! It’s not like that, Marie!”
Bartol hurriedly shouted, trying to stop me. But Marie was already trembling violently.
“If that’s not true… then how does the young lady know about this?”
In a small yet clear voice, she asked Bartol.
He merely opened and closed his mouth without giving a proper answer.
Most likely, he really had boasted about similar things to other noble children.
“So it is true.”
Marie stared at him, her eyes shaking with betrayal and fear.
I didn’t miss that opening.
“Apparently Bartol was planning to throw you out eventually anyway, so I was thinking of moving up the schedule myself.”
“N-No!”
Marie immediately threw herself to the floor and begged.
“Please…! If I lose this job, my family will starve!”
“Then choose carefully. Think about whose orders are more beneficial for you to follow right now. Bartol may find it difficult to expose your secret to Aunt immediately, but I have nothing to lose.”
I looked down at her coldly.
Three pairs of eyes stared at me in tense shock.
For the first time—
they were afraid of me.
Which meant they were finally ready to obey my commands.
“As I said before, I will attend the ball.”
“Y-You really…!”
Bartol opened his mouth in panic, but I ignored him.
“I won’t send word to Uncle and Aunt until after we return. If they’ve gone to the Fenton territory, it’ll take at least two weeks before they come back anyway.”
“B-But if Mother and Father find out…!”
“There’s no time to prepare separately, so I’ll ride in the same carriage as you. All you siblings need to do is shut up and come along.”
Demeira’s protests received no different response.
“And Marie.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am?!”
For some reason, her answer came out almost like a soldier responding to a command. The dull hostility from earlier had vanished completely, replaced by a sharp attentiveness.
“Go to Aunt’s dressing room and bring something I can wear. In the innermost wardrobe, there should be dresses my mother used to wear.”
“Wait! Mother said she’d give those dresses to me later—!”
“Exactly! How dare you enter Mother’s room and try to steal her things—!”
Thud—
Without waiting for Demeira and Bartol to finish speaking, I grabbed two pillows from the bed and hurled them.
The pillows were firmer than they looked.
They struck both siblings squarely in the face, making them stumble back with muffled cries as they shut up instantly.
“Marie?”
“I-I’ll bring three dresses immediately!”
Apparently finished evaluating the situation, Marie answered quickly and dashed out.
Without even glancing at Bartol or Demeira—the people she had served as masters just moments ago.
Watching the dumbfounded siblings, I allowed myself a faint smile.
With this, the Fenton family had lost a maid.
And not just any maid—
one who knew the Fenton family’s secrets down to the bone.
Preparations were completed in the blink of an eye.
Barely an hour and a half later, Demeira, Bartol, and I were riding in a gold-adorned carriage toward the Imperial Palace.
“……”
The inside of the carriage was strangely quiet.
Demeira, whom I expected to protest my presence until the very end, sat meekly in silence.
Bartol merely stole glances at me—at my changed clothes and makeup—but didn’t say a word.
Did they really lose their nerve this easily?
Their sudden change in attitude was hard to believe.
So much so that I wondered whether they were planning an assassination midway through the journey.
Yet despite my suspicions, we arrived smoothly at the palace banquet hall and stepped out of the carriage.
“It’s over there. Once the attendant introduces us, that’s when we go in.”
Demeira explained as though she were the eldest sister.
“Brother Bartol will inform the head attendant first that you came with us. It’s troublesome for us too, since you suddenly forced your way in… but since we’re family, we’re graciously allowing you to enter together.”
Family?
At that irritating word—one they rarely ever used—I raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but—”
“This way.”
Before I could finish, Bartol, walking ahead of us, gestured for us to come.
Standing before him was a middle-aged attendant whose build rivaled that of a knight.
Bartol approached him first and quietly exchanged a few words.
Following Bartol’s gesture, the attendant glanced at me before nodding.
“So this is the young lady of House Aphelemeion you mentioned. I am Roy.”
“Yes. Her health has improved somewhat, and I judged that she’s finally ready to be introduced to society. One could say the time has come.”
Bartol introduced me with the smile of a benevolent older brother.
“Since you arrived as one family, you may enter together. This way, please. The other guests have already arrived. Now then… ahem.”
The attendant positioned us before the doors leading into the banquet hall and cleared his throat.
For a brief instant, Bartol and Demeira exchanged strange smiles.
At once, my instincts screamed that something was wrong.
Several phrases echoed in my ears.
Family.
One house.
The young lady of Aphelemeion.
‘I judged she was ready to be introduced.’
Don’t tell me… this bastard Bartol—
“We shall now announce your entrance!”
The attendant raised his voice loudly, and the people inside the banquet hall gradually turned toward us.
The moment Bartol and Demeira’s smiles deepened—
I realized exactly what they were trying to do.
“Aphel—”
“Wait.”
My voice cut across the attendant’s loudly enough to interrupt him.
“…Pardon? Young lady, you must enter now.”
“Tell me how you were planning to introduce me. There’s something I need to confirm first.”
I ordered coldly.
“W-Well…”
The attendant stammered in confusion while Bartol and Demeira’s faces flushed red.
People inside the hall began murmuring and looking in our direction, but I ignored them.
Something more important was at stake.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Be quiet!”
The siblings glared at me simultaneously, but I ignored them and questioned the attendant again.
“Iris Aphelemeion of the ducal House Aphelemeion, alongside Young Master Bartol Fenton and Young Lady Demeira Fenton.”
Looking him directly in the eyes, I continued:
“Isn’t that how you were planning to introduce us?”
“Uh, w-well…”
The attendant broke into a cold sweat.
But I didn’t miss the way his eyes instinctively flicked toward Bartol.
“You were appointed by His Majesty the Emperor to introduce noble guests to high society, were you not? I don’t believe this is a difficult question.”
“Since the two are usually introduced as the young master and young lady of the Fenton family… what you said is similar, yes…”
“Roy, wait.”
Bartol waved his hands frantically, trying to stop him.
But the more he interfered, the more confused the attendant became.
Looking back and forth between me and Bartol, he finally spoke.
“To be precise, following Young Master Bartol’s prior instructions, I was about to announce: ‘Young Master Bartol, Young Lady Demeira, and Young Lady Iris from House Aphelemeion.’”
Instantly, my expression turned ice-cold.
At the same time, Bartol and Demeira swallowed nervously.
