“‘Isn’t this like a last supper?’”
Aria looked down at the note telling her to leave once she got better.
No matter how she thought about it, it seemed like a considerate gesture—if she were chased out, she wouldn’t even get to taste the desserts, so she was being told to enjoy them to her heart’s content while she could.
“If you want to try all the desserts, you’ll have to get better quickly,”
Dana immediately offered her a pill.
Aria gulped it down without thinking.
“You take your medicine well, how admirable.”
Dana handed a small bottle into Aria’s lap.
‘…What is this?’
Inside the bottle were small, pointed, colorful beads.
They sparkled like jewels. Their translucency made them look like raw gems before being cut.
“Do you like rock candy?”
Rock candy? Is this candy?
Aria peered into the bottle suspiciously, then opened the cork and chewed one.
The intensely sweet taste lingered on her tongue.
‘I want another one.’
It wasn’t sweet enough to hurt her tongue.
But it melted quickly, leaving a sweetness so delightful that she wanted more.
Aria adjusted her taste and decided to carefully store the bottle in a drawer.
It looked too much like jewels to eat.
‘Like a squirrel hiding acorns…’
The gathered servants bit their lips desperately. The urge to say “cute” was almost unbearable.
But only the head maid had been allowed to touch her hair.
‘We mustn’t startle the young lady.’
Otherwise, she might sulk and hand over the “Not a Baby” card again.
The servants stole glances at the adorable little girl, hoping that someday it would be their turn to get that privilege.
Every time the servants visited Aria, they brought her flowers.
“This one’s called Dahlia.”
“This one’s a Primula.”
“This is a Muscari. Its flower language is…”
Before long, the guest room where Aria stayed was filled with vases and pots of flowers.
The scent of flowers filled the entire room.
‘Flowers I’ve never seen before.’
So many varieties of spring blossoms.
Aria craned her neck like a meerkat, looking around. Dana placed a bouquet into her arms.
“Please don’t stand by the window for a while. Enjoy these instead.”
Aria nodded obediently.
“And starting today, we have knights here to temporarily protect you.”
The knights greeted her in turn.
Because Aria had collapsed wandering in the rain alone, Dana had informed her superiors and hurriedly arranged for her protection.
Almost all the knights were polite toward Aria, but one had a displeased expression.
‘Was he Lord Anjou?’
Maybe he resented being dragged from his duties.
His face was full of discontent.
As she scrutinized him,
her nose suddenly tickled.
“…Achoo.”
Everyone turned, puzzled, toward the sound.
“Achoo!”
“…”
“…Achoo!”
After sneezing, Aria sniffled slightly. It wasn’t an allergy, but sometimes strong scents caused this.
Her cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment.
“Ah, head maid!”
Betty rushed over, holding a small booklet titled “Visitation Etiquette”.
“Look at this! Outside flowers are prohibited for visits!”
“What? Why is that?”
“They said it’s a risk for allergies or infections.”
“What!”
Outside?
Aria rubbed her ticklish nose with her sleeve and looked up.
Dana and Betty whispered to each other.
“But the mistress herself is from outside, isn’t she? I change her flowers every morning.”
“Even within the estate, some people are weak and some are strong.”
“Wait, does that mean the young lady is even weaker than the mistress…?”
“Remove the flowers immediately.”
Dana’s command rang out. The maids hurriedly carried all the flowers out of the room.
As Aria watched her bouquets taken away, Dana exhaled in relief.
“Phew… that could have been a disaster. I’ve never cared for a young guest from outside the estate, so I made a mistake.”
[Outside the estate?]
She had heard the term a few times before.
This time, Aria had to ask what it meant.
“It refers to outside the Valentine estate. The ‘boundary’ is the Ingo Mountain Range surrounding Valentine.”
[Am I really that weak?]
Dana smiled and gently explained.
“People from the Grand Duchy are strong. They’re healthy and robust.”
It made sense when she thought about it.
Even the wolves she saw here were monstrously large.
Humans wouldn’t be ordinary either.
‘Everyone has remarkable physical abilities.’
Aria, fragile in body but with heightened senses, was the complete opposite.
She looked ordinary at first glance. Aria looked at Dana with amazement.
“Well, no matter how much I move, I still can’t compare to the true heirs of Valentine.”
Dana’s eyes briefly showed awe. She shivered and brushed the back of her neck, then looked at Aria with concern.
“But why hasn’t your fever gone down yet…”
It had only been one day.
Aria thought this inwardly, while the maids agreed with Dana and argued among themselves.
“The book says if you have a fever, cover yourself with blankets and sweat it out!”
“Do you want her fever to get worse and kill her? Of course, she should bathe in cold water!”
“Do you want her to freeze to death? Of course, the room temperature should be as high as possible…”
They debated how to lower the fever of the weak young lady from outside.
She had already taken her medicine; the fever would drop eventually.
“Miss, I brought ginger tea.”
“What if the spicy ginger upsets her stomach?”
“I hadn’t thought of that!”
It seemed she didn’t need to worry.
The maids’ imaginations were abundant.
“Hehe, I prepared this just in case.”
Betty handed over a steaming cup, holding a booklet titled “Foods Good for Colds”.
“I whisked raw eggs and honey, then mixed in milk and butter.”
She boasted it was a cold remedy from outside the estate.
A hesitant maid asked cautiously,
“But Head Maid, won’t raw eggs risk infection?”
“Infection?”
“Could cause food poisoning…”
Betty quickly withdrew the remedy.
“What should we do then? Just leave her like this?”
The maids whispered together so Aria wouldn’t hear.
Of course, with her Siren hearing, she heard everything.
“Understand? Outsiders are weak. But you, young lady, are weak even among the weak. By our standards, think of you as a newborn.”
…Not a baby, she thought.
But even being treated like a baby no longer made her want to run away in embarrassment.
She knew they were genuinely concerned about her.
‘I don’t hate it.’
The maids handled her as if she were fragile, careful as if she might break or be blown away by the wind.
‘I feel cherished.’
She was being respected as a person.
Regardless of status, regardless of Siren abilities.
Though she hadn’t intended to smile, the corners of her mouth lifted softly.
Aria grabbed Dana’s sleeve and offered the cards she had been fiddling with.
[Always grateful.]
Cards she had prepared to use someday.
She felt it was okay to show them now.
“Hmph, so weak. Outsiders really shouldn’t be like this…”
Then, through the voices of the moved servants, a strange voice reached her.
‘Lord Anjou.’
It was said by the knight temporarily assigned to protect her.
The other servants hadn’t noticed; it was almost a muttered comment.
But with her heightened fevered senses, Aria heard it clearly.
“The class difference is obvious, class. No wonder they can produce heirs.”
Aria stared at the knight.
He seemed slightly embarrassed when their eyes met.
‘He can’t possibly have heard me.’
No, that was impossible. They were too far apart.
Other knights and servants weren’t even looking at the Anjou side in the corner.
Only Aria had seen him clearly enough to shiver.
‘…What if he did hear me?’
The knight arrogantly lifted his chin.
She knew it was pointless to be angry, but he clearly resented being drafted to tend to a child.
Moreover, a child of unknown origin, no less.
‘She’s not even a Grand Duchess yet.’
She had entered the castle with the potential to be a duchess, but she was not yet.
‘No dowry, no gifts exchanged, no marriage documents signed.’
Her father had only signed a custody waiver.
That was why she was called “young lady” among the servants.
‘The Grand Duke threatened her with a sword at her neck.’
The knight glanced at the bandage on Aria’s neck and smiled leisurely.
No matter how much nobles treated marriage as business, consent was required.
Yet he threatened the neck of a fragile child as if she would collapse with a mere touch.
Clearly, she had displeased him.
‘Given how much he dislikes that girl, it’s amazing she hasn’t been thrown out yet.’
It was obvious she would be expelled without even marrying.
That explained his brazen attitude toward a prospective Grand Duchess.
‘Class.’
Aria muttered the word internally, a short sneer forming.
To rank people by class.
‘Foolish judgment.’
Whether Valentine, the emperor, or the pope, even the most powerful bleed when pricked.
If Valentine were a special, absolute being of a different class, why would the “Valentine Incident” have occurred?
‘Why did Lloyd go mad?’
Aria thought humans, herself included, were all imperfect.
No one was perfect.
No, all humans were the same.
‘Why does it matter whether I’m noble, commoner, or sewer-born slave?’
She felt deeply displeased.
It seemed that knight had thrown away the valuable hearts of the servants like trash.
Aria took out the fountain pen and paper, wrote a few cards, and beckoned the knight over. He looked uneasy but approached obediently.
“Speak. Ah, you cannot speak. How rude of me…”
She sneered openly.
