She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

Seeing that they had brought her this far, there must have been something they wanted to talk about. However, May couldn’t ignore the princess’s request. She sent a look to Stella, asking for her understanding.

“Really?”

Stella was quite reluctant, but she didn’t want to make May uncomfortable, so she sighed and reluctantly nodded.

“Thank you, Stella. Let’s play together, Princess.”

“Yay!”

The princess happily skipped ahead.

“Let’s go to the second floor!”

May followed the princess up the stairs.

The Crystal Hall on the second floor had a corridor-style structure with an open space in the middle. When they held onto the railing and looked down, they could see the first floor below.

They chatted there.

“What have you been up to lately, Lord May? I’ve been playing hide-and-seek with my big and little brothers.”

Diego, taking good care of his younger sister.

May recalled when he spilled whiskey on her head, wondering if he might have a split personality or something.

“I’ve been doing well too. I recently took a good rest. I finally became a sworn guardian and also rescued zYoung Lord Nazret.”

“I heard. You got third place at the Arcus tournament! So, I prepared a gift to congratulate you.”

“A gift?”

Isabella received a small box that she had previously entrusted to her escort knight and handed it to Mei. It was a palm-sized black velvet box.

“Open it.”

When May opened the box, there was a sunflower-shaped brooch resting on a black cushion. Each yellow leaf of the brooch sparkled with lemon quartz.

“This is a brooch made by a famous brooch artisan from the Kalesha Empire. I personally designed it, so it’s a one-of-a-kind brooch in the world.”

“You designed it, Princess?”

“Yes. If you look closely, my name and Lord May’s name are written here.”

Upon closer inspection, ‘Isabella’ and ‘May’ were written at the center of the brooch. When May saw the heart drawn in the middle, she couldn’t help but smile.

“How is it? Pretty, isn’t it?”

“It’s beautiful. Thank you, Princess.”

“Since the final day of the founding festival is a masquerade, please wear this brooch that day.”

“Sure, I’ll definitely wear it.”

They had various conversations. Then the princess informed May about the superstitions surrounding the Crystal Hall.

Isabella reached out between the railing and pointed to something. She couldn’t reach over the railing with her hand due to her short stature.

“Do you see the third terrace over there?”

May looked at the place Isabella’s small finger was pointing to. It was the third terrace from the right out of the total of six terraces.

“If you go in there with your loved one and kiss, your love will come true.”

A kiss? The word ‘kiss’ sounded cute coming from Isabella’s mouth.

“Conversely, if you go in there with someone and come out without kissing, the two of you can never be in love.”

Upon hearing this, May’s heart began to race. It seemed she might have found a way to end this one-sided love. Regardless of whether the result would be favorable or unfavorable.

May looked down at Jed on the first floor. His appearance was distinct compared to others, making him easy to spot even in the grand ballroom. While looking at him, May made up her mind.

‘…Let’s give it a try.’

When she made up her mind to use the superstition to confirm Jed’s feelings and end her one-sided love, Isabella changed the topic.

“By the way, May, has my brother done something wrong again? He seems to keep looking at you.”

“Huh…?”

When the gaze that had been focused solely on Jed shifted to the side, Diego’s eyes met with hers.

Diego immediately looked away, pretending he hadn’t seen anything, and started talking with Moore.

“That look he gives, he does it when he feels sorry. Sometimes when he says something harsh, and I get upset and don’t say anything, he looks at me like that and eventually apologizes.”

“…Is that so.”

“I guess he felt bad for the last time he made you angry, May.”

Well, who knows. May thought that Diego was not the type to feel sorry for others as much as she did. If he was the kind of person who could feel that emotion, he wouldn’t have even thought of bothering her in the first place.

And if Isabella’s words were correct, that made her even more annoyed.

After causing so much trouble, now he feels sorry? He has no conscience. Who is he to apologize to her?

* * *

Clovin pulled Clara’s wrist and led her outside the ballroom. It was getting late at night outside.

“Let go!”

Clara shook off Clovin’s hand roughly and expressed her irritation in a loud voice.

“What if you comfort Lady Stella there? She started the fight over there!! Because of you, I lost in the argument. Understand?”

It was so loud that nearby guards who were supposed to be keeping watch were drowsy and nearly fell asleep.

“But isn’t it thanks to my apology that things went smoothly and didn’t get too noisy?”

“Even if you took my side and listened to me, we wouldn’t have needed to apologize.”

Clara bit her nails in frustration.

“Stella Nazret is ignoring me, isn’t she…?”

Clara bit her nails and blood started to flow. However, she laughed softly with the thought of revenge on her mind.

“That girl shouldn’t ignore me. I have Milo Nazret.”

Clara knew that the slave she often hit as a stress reliever was Heint’s lost son.

Despite knowing the truth, she continued to hit him, never even considering sending him back home. Instead, she even contemplated using him as leverage if she ever needed something in the future.

Of course, she had no idea that the Millo she was mistreating was actually a puppet that could be disposed of at any time.

Clara made up her mind and let out a sigh. Blood flowed down her palm as she withdrew her hand from her mouth.

“Alright, I’ll make sure Stella Nazret never ignores me again.”

Clara wiped the blood with a handkerchief and went back to the ballroom.

There, she found Stella Nazret surrounded by men. The men were fawning over Stella.

“Lady Nazret, would you consider coming to the park I own this weekend?”

“My Lady, it’s been a while. I know a great restaurant nearby, and I’d love to introduce it to you. When are you available?”

“I have theater tickets that are hard to come by lately. Let’s go watch it together.”

Stella showed a look of annoyance and simply sipped on her champagne, ignoring the men vying for her attention.

Clara spotted Stella and immediately approached her, pushing aside the men surrounding her to stand in front of her. Stella’s face hardened the moment she faced Clara.

“Lady Nazret, can we talk?”

Ah, what a nuisance. Just seeing Clara’s face was already unpleasant for Stella.

“Let’s talk here.”

“You shouldn’t be coming out like this, should you?”

Clara threatened Stella, leaning in close to her ear.

“Your brother is with me at Penso, serving as my slave.”

“….”

“Since you’re getting on my nerves, I’m tempted to just kill the slave he is. After all, he’s just a slave.”

Stella slammed her empty champagne glass down on the table and stared at Clara.

“Why? Don’t you believe me? Do you need to see it with your own eyes to believe it?”

It’s not that she didn’t believe her. She already knew from May.

Stella smirked with one corner of her mouth.

“I know that the Millo at Penso is just a puppet.”

Stella spoke in a loud voice, loud enough for the surrounding men to hear.

“Get lost if you’re annoying.”

The men stiffened at the harsh words coming from her angelic face. It was hard to believe, but the sharp voice kept echoing in their ears.

“Get lost if you’re annoying. Get lost.”

They broke into a cold sweat and started leaving one by one.

“Well, now that I think about it, that park was acquired by the Koutus family, right?”

“Come to think of it, all the restaurants I knew seem to have closed down. Haha…”

“Actually, I had my ticket ripped off by some gangsters on the way there….”

Clara was dumbfounded. She thought the woman in front of her had gone crazy.

“Are you in your right mind now?”

“No? I’m drunk. You don’t know if you don’t look, do you?”

Stella took another champagne glass from a waiter and drank.

“How rude…!”

“Let’s, let’s go, Clara.”

Just then, Clara, who was expressing her astonishment by wagging her finger at Stella, was pulled away by Clovin, who had followed her. His face looked pale for some reason.

“Brother, is that woman crazy? Even if Penso’s is inferior to Nazret, she shouldn’t have treated us like this.”

“I, I don’t know. I suddenly became afraid of Lady Nazret, so let’s go somewhere else.”

The image Clovin had of Stella was innocent, quiet, and never raising her voice, so seeing her true self was a shock and horror to him.

“No, what do I do if she gets scared…!”

Clovin, sensing that it was not wise to provoke her, ignored his sister’s words and quickly pulled her away.

“Now, I am  finally alone.”

Stella looked around at the empty surroundings and savored the champagne with satisfaction.