Lady Misfortune: Daddy, I'll Be A Righteous Villainess!

For the rest of the evening, Lady continues to mope around.

She stayed inside her bedroom the whole time, refusing to be seen by everyone. That's until she hears one of the maids calling for her a couple of hours later. She first heard a knock on the door, which was followed by her saying, "Young Miss? Are you still awake?"

"Unfortunately," she responded listlessly. 

"Please, don't be like that, my lady. It's a good thing you're still awake. Someone's here to see you." 

"Huh? Someone is?"

Now, that got Lady perking up from beneath the heap of pillows.

Apart from her grandparents, nobody really pays her a visit. But they only come during the day because they usually work at night. So, that calls the question, "Who is it?"

"You should go out and see for yourself, Young Miss."

"Hmmm… Suspicious. Could Father be pranking me?" 

"Come again?"

"Nothing! I said I'm coming!"

It's not like Maximilian to pull a prank. Thus, Lady just goes with it.

He's very strict when it comes to accepting visitors, which is why she's reluctant to believe that she has a guest other than her grandparents. It's not like there's a lot who wants to see her, anyway. She doubts that her uncles and aunts will even go all this way to do so.

'Who might this be, then?'

The maid who called for her was appalled to find her wearing the same dress she wore the whole day. She's most probably expecting that she already changed into something else by now. Following the family's dress code, she asked her to do just that to at least look presentable in front of the visitor, but she really wanted to know who it was by that point, so she only ignored her.

"Please, my lady, your father might get angry if he sees you," the maid kept telling her, but even when they finally reached the stairs towards the lounge, she just continued to pay her no mind.

From the top of the flight of steps, Lady has already caught sight of who the guest is. She brightens up in pleasant surprise the moment she sees Fallon staring back up at her.

"Yo," he greeted with a small hand wave.

She was speechless and unmoving for a few good seconds, still taking in his presence before her. He's wearing some sort of formal attire – kind of like a uniform with a black checkered necktie, a white long-sleeves polo, a red blazer, and a black pair of pants. The outfit makes him appear somewhat mature, or perhaps she's just forgotten how he's supposed to appear most of the time. It hasn't even been a month yet, but it feels almost as if it's been a long time since she last saw him. 

With a small cry, Lady finally moved from that spot, rushing all the way down the stairs and pouncing on Fallon. 

"H-Hey, wait, you idiot-"

"I missed you, Fallon!!!"

She didn't hesitate to hug him right then, looking so much elated to see him. Too caught off guard by her intimate way of greeting, he ended up letting out a yelp and staggering backward - with her arms wrapped all over him in an embrace. His eyes went wide just like his mouth. He couldn't believe he really fell on his butt while others were watching.

Indeed, some of the house workers have been watching the whole thing since the beginning. However, what he failed to notice was that they found the scene anything but mortifying – in fact, it came out adorable to them. They are all grinning as they think so. 

"Y-You moron…" Fallon groaned out loud, blushing in embarrassment.

"Couldn't you have just said 'Hello' or something-"

"I really missed you…" Lady repeated, looking too happy to think about anything else. 

"We did not talk in a while, and I thought you forgot about me." 

On any other day, he would have been feeling too grumpy to care. But ever since this cousin of his saved him from a life-and-death situation, he seemed to have developed quite a soft spot. Now, he can't even afford to push her off of him. He just eventually lets her be.

"Oh, come on, it's not like you're lonely or anything. I've heard that Grandfather and Grandmother would come to see you almost every day," he said, using one of his hands to remain in balance while the other held her waist to keep her from crushing him.

"They're different, though! You're different!" she bolted out, taking him aback yet again.

"What do you mean?"

"While I love spending time with Grandpa and Granny, I also love to have Fallon with me. You're unlike any other. Around here, you're the only one who can truly understand me."

Fallon comes to a still upon hearing that. Lady had it wrong.

He couldn't understand her at all. For the past days, he had tried to. He tried to know who she really is and why she's the way she is. Yet, in the end, he realized that there's something about her that he could just never comprehend no matter how hard he tried to. 

"Huh? You want to conduct a background check on your cousin? Seriously. Just what's with this obsession?"

Calixtus was the first to know of Fallon's sudden interest in Lady.

He could still exactly picture the astonished face that he showed him when he asked if he could take a look at some documents about her history – without letting her father or any other of their relatives know, of course. This is a personal mission. Since everyone's attention has been on her lately, he can't afford to draw more suspicions on her true origins by letting them find out that even he himself is doing some background check on her.

However, just as expected of the ever discreet and fastidious Maximilian, the research that Fallon made had the same results as those that had already been revealed.

'It says that the reason behind her late introduction to the Mireille family is because of the mother. Apparently, she wanted her existence to be hidden 'cause she knew she'd have to be taken away from her. But where exactly and who exactly was the mother…?' he had pondered for some time since yet to no use, but fortunately, he found something else. 

'Aside from that information, there were those testimonies from their house workers and her caretakers, saying that she had made a huge character change within a short span of time.'

It just so happened that Fallon got his hands on quite an interesting detail. While he failed to learn anything new about Lady's historical background, he did learn that she used to act differently from the way she's seen behaving lately. 

'Timid, quiet, enigmatic, distant, a little hard to get along with – they said that these were how she was usually described by those around her before that mysterious character change took place. What's more, they mentioned that she rarely ever smiled…' Fallon recalled silently while staring at Lady who began to make a questioning look.

'What caused her to change in just one day, then-'

"Hey, Fallon to Earth! What got you lookin' like that?" 

At her call, he finally snapped out of his thoughts.

This is no good. She might think that he's her stalker if she gets to have the slightest clue. Still, if he wants to discover the whole truth, he needs to ask her directly.

If it wasn't for that incident with Xavier, he wouldn't have gone all through this trouble. After Lady revealed the main purpose of the abduction, he started to get very curious about her. Fallon couldn't just believe that she simply predicted that whole thing – there must be a reason why she knew and why she hasn't told anyone else about it until now.

He wanted to learn more about their kidnapper's side too, but his father would not let him. All he said was that he's already in jail. He bet that's what his uncle said to her as well. 

"Say, can we talk?" Fallon asked after a brief moment of silence.

"Sure! Let's take a seat over there!" Lady answered cheerfully, finally leaning away and standing back up.

"I'd prefer it if it's just the two of us."

"Okay, then! I'll ask for some milk and cookies!"

He'd be fine even without having those, but she already spun around to place her order. She was about to talk to the maids but suddenly stopped when she remembered something. Seconds later, he and the others saw her putting on a haughty expression out of nowhere. She puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips, her chin held up proud and high.

Then, with a snap of her fingers, she demanded with a condescending tone, "Give us milk and cookies right this instant, you peasants!"

There was a short pause. Nobody seems to know what is up with her this time. 

But as soon as her attempt to appear bossy sinks in, they all scurry away and make haste to carry out her order, playing along.

Fallon isn't sure what's going on anymore, especially upon seeing Lady's smug expression.