CHAPTER 09
“?”
Who?
Me?
“What’s with that clueless look? Didn’t you hear me? Bow your head immediately!”
The voice was directed at me.
“Who do you think barged into someone else’s house? You’re the one talking nonsense.”
“Banji, stop it. She might not know. You shouldn’t humiliate someone in front of others.”
It was the woman named Adelaine who stopped the butler.
“Oh, Miss. I’m terribly sorry. I was out of line.”
“As expected of Lady Adelaine…!”
Their self-congratulatory display was ridiculous.
“I apologize. My butler was in a hurry and made a mistake. I hope that’s okay?”
She acted like I would, of course, understand. Adelaine smiled as she took my hand without permission.
“That’s not okay. Please apologize.”
“Pardon?”
Adelaine flinched.
“How dare you speak like that to Lady Adelaine?”
“Such vulgar language. Her with Dale? If Dale’s been kidnapped, we should wave carrots to bring him back.”
Adelaine looked around and smirked.
Her eyes narrowed as she smiled.
“Then let me apologize on his behalf. Sorry.”
“…”
“You seem upset. Are you hurt?”
Adelaine batted her eyelashes with fake innocence.
‘Something’s off about her.’
As murmurs around us grew louder, Adelaine’s eyes grew sad and pitiful.
She fidgeted with her fingers and looked at me.
“Actually, I came by to invite our new neighbor to a gathering, but this happened.”
Neighbor?
Strictly speaking, as the Lady of Kidland, she wasn’t a neighbor.
The Kidland estate only began far beyond the boundary line.
“Oh… Miss Anne, you must not know, being from outside?”
Adelaine closed her mouth and smiled sweetly.
‘Ah…’
I hadn’t been out in society in ages, so I’d almost forgotten.
My maid Emma had told me so many stories. One of them was about noble etiquette — the so-called “backhanded compliments.”
“You must not know, being from outside?” — was clearly a rejection.
Adelaine flicked her golden hair over her shoulder like an angel.
“Grunwald and Kidland have always had a close relationship. We often interact. I love the nature here in Grunwald, so I’m staying at the lord’s castle.”
“Lady Adelaine is the Grunwald lord’s relative. Practically his granddaughter.”
Her butler — Banji or Panji or something — added the explanation.
“Miss Anne is an outsider, but you’ll be living here from now on… won’t you?”
I thought I heard teeth grinding.
Did I hear that right?
“So I want to include you in my—”
Adelaine stopped mid-sentence, ran her tongue over her lips, and smiled again.
“I want to invite you to a tea party. It may be hard to adjust as an outsider, but I’ll help you. You are an outsider, after all.”
Adelaine smiled gently. She really did look like a kind and beautiful noblewoman.
But she kept repeating one word — “outsider.”
‘Adelaine Kidland.’
Kidland, Kidland…
I looked at her quietly, deep in thought.
“Would it be too much to ask?”
Her voice brought me back to reality.
Behind her, her little entourage was giggling.
“As if she could compare with Lady Adelaine’s perfect etiquette.”
“Would she really just accept the invitation like that?”
Adelaine Kidland. She said she was staying at the lord’s castle, didn’t she?
‘The lord’s castle… That’s Grunwald’s lord’s castle, right?’
The one no one approaches because of rumors the lord is cursed.
“If my invitation is a burden…”
“I’ll go.”
I nodded without hesitation.
“Oh! Really?”
Adelaine smiled with narrowed eyes, her green eyes twinkling.
“Thank you for inviting me. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot.”
I quickly accepted the invitation with a smile.
And made sure to say it loud and clear:
“Dale is also an outsider, you know.”
“……”
* * *
After getting out of the carriage, Adelaine stomped her feet furiously.
“Aaaaah! So annoying!!”
Bang!
A loud thud echoed as she kicked a carriage wheel, then she hopped on one leg, clutching her swollen foot.
“So annoying! I’m so pissed off I could scream!”
“My lady!”
“That’s the woman Dale chose? Are you kidding me? Did I see that right? That Dale?!”
Gone was her calm demeanor. Her face now twisted in rage.
Adelaine bit her nails furiously.
“He must be insane!”
“My lady, please calm down.”
“I’ll calm down on my own! Shut up!”
She couldn’t suppress her fury.
“Our Dale? Hah! Did you hear her say our Dale?”
“Sister!”
A girl approached Adelaine with wide, worried eyes.
She had a skinny frame and brown hair — hard to tell if she was in her teens or twenties.
“Y-You’re back?”
“Yes. In a terrible mood.”
Yurta, the lord’s aide, frowned quietly, but Adelaine didn’t care.
She threw her fan.
“D-Don’t worry! I’ll get it!”
The brown-haired girl rushed over and picked it up.
“I need to throw a proper party.”
“Oh… okay! I’ll prepare it just like you said last time.”
But the girl seemed hesitant and glanced nervously at Adelaine.
“Um… where are you going to hold it? It’s not going to be here, is it?”
She fiddled with her hair, clearly afraid of upsetting Adelaine.
“Sister, I hope it’s not at the castle. Grandfather is very ill.”
“What?”
“You know… maybe we could have it outside? Like a picnic—”
“What are you talking about?”
Adelaine shoved the girl.
“We?”
“You’re not going to do it with me?”
“Me? With you? Are you kidding?”
“N-No?”
“Hah… Don’t say ridiculous things! I want to host a tea party — I never said I wanted to play with you.”
“But still…”
“No more excuses. Just open up the greenhouse. Sofia!”
“The greenhouse is… n-no, sister. That’s being preserved for Grandfather’s treatment…”
Flinch.
Sofia bowed quickly under Adelaine’s piercing gaze.
“I-I’m sorry. But since Grandfather is bedridden, we can’t have a party. C-Couldn’t you understand, just this once? I’ll even give you the earrings that belonged to Mother—”
“I don’t need them!”
Smack!
Adelaine swatted her arm away and accidentally slapped her cheek.
“…!”
“Ah…”
“I-I didn’t mean to. It’s just… You were in the way! Are you trying to make me look like the bad guy?!”
Adelaine acted shamelessly, completely oblivious to how she had been throwing a tantrum all along.
Sofia held back tears.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Finally, aide Yurta stepped in to stop Adelaine.
“The lord is sick. Please don’t cause a scene.”
“As if I don’t know?”
Adelaine scowled viciously.
“You like having me as a sister, don’t you? Can’t you do this one thing for me? Did I ask for a castle? For money? I just want to have people over in this lonely, boring place. Is that too much?”
“Sister…”
“And you say you care about me? While you won’t even let me do what I want?”
“Th-that’s not it…”
“You’re going to disappoint me? After everything I’ve done for you? And you can’t even do this one thing?!”
“Sister…”
“Was it a huge favor I asked? I said please! I even gave you my old dresses! Taught you not to act like some country girl! Ugh, and you didn’t even tell me Dale was getting married!”
“He only talks to the aide and Grandfather…”
“Shut up!”
Sofia flinched and bowed her head.
“…Fine. Do what you want, Sister.”
Only then did Adelaine relax, her face shifting from malicious to angelic.
“Thanks. I knew you’d say yes.”
She patted Sofia’s brown bob as if nothing happened, glared at Yurta with a “hmph!” and went upstairs.
“Banji, you know what day that is, right?”
“The tea party day? Of course, my lady. A very important day.”
“Heheh, that’s right.”
Adelaine bit her nails, picturing Anne’s face in her mind.
That smug, confident expression was so irritating.
“She’s pretty — and that’s annoying.”
“But you’re much prettier, my lady.”
“I know.”
Adelaine had always been told she was the most beautiful.
“Invite a bunch of people to the tea party. Only the ones who flatter me best.”
“Understood.”
As Adelaine ascended the stairs, she grinned wickedly.
She looked absolutely delighted.
“I’ll break that little outsider before she climbs over a noble.”
