Episode 11
Isabella’s firm golden eyes stared straight at me. Her calmness was almost chilling.
“Karen may be hot-tempered and make mistakes in a fit of anger, but she’s not foolish enough to openly mock someone like that.”
*‘Isn’t this a misunderstanding?’*
Seeing her defend Karen, I wondered if everything she showed earlier had just been an act.
*‘What now—will she start picking a fight and blow up at me? A declaration of war? The beginning of some villainy?’*
No matter what Isabella said next, I braced myself to respond wisely.
“Are you saying I’m lying?”
“Rather, I’m saying you’re clever and cunning. It seems like you’re skillfully twisting Karen’s slip of the tongue to make it look intentional. Isn’t that right?”
Was that a compliment or an insult? When I hesitated to answer, Isabella shrugged.
“I did think you wouldn’t be ordinary when I heard Héraïs fell for you at first sight.”
She let out a small laugh. It was the gaze of someone who could see right through others.
*‘What do I do? Is this really the start of my hardship? In the novel, Isabella was supposed to be shallow and annoying! But she’s not—she’s scary!’*
Confused or not, I had to protect myself. I slowly tensed up, clenching my fists in preparation.
But then, something completely unexpected came out of Isabella’s mouth.
“Even so, that doesn’t erase what Karen did. As her superior, I’ll apologize on her behalf.”
“…!”
“My maid did something so petty. It’s my fault for not managing those under me properly. I promise I’ll discipline her thoroughly, so I hope you can forgive this just this once.”
What kind of script was this? I never expected an apology from Isabella—let alone such a proper one. From a noble lady… to a commoner like me?
In an instant, my image of Isabella flipped.
*‘She’s apologizing for something she didn’t even do herself. It’s not easy to treat a common orphan like that.’*
Suddenly, she seemed to glow. *This*—this was what a true superior looked like.
My inner excitement bubbled up.
“Oh, no, there’s no need to apologize! As long as the misunderstanding is cleared up, that’s enough. Haha! It’s not like people die from a bit of unfairness, right?”
Ah. My mouth moved faster than my brain again.
That rare “forgiveness button” of mine—pressed maybe once in a million years—had been activated.
Her sincere voice had pierced straight through my shallow, fragile heart.
“And what His Highness the Prince said—it’s just a rumor, my lady. I’m really nothing special.”
(Translation note: basically groveling—*I’m on your side, let’s not fight.*)
“A rumor?”
Isabella raised an eyebrow slightly, as if she hadn’t expected me to deny any connection with Héraïs.
I spoke with confidence.
“You know how gossip-loving reporters make things up, right? The idea that someone destined for the throne would fall in love at first sight with an orphan like me—it sounds more like fiction than a novel.”
It felt strange denying something “novel-like” while literally being inside a novel.
“Even if, by some chance, His Highness did like me, it would just mean he thought well of me. We barely even spoke—falling in love at first sight would be weird, wouldn’t it?”
Even knowing about the “buff,” it had felt strange—so to someone unaware, it must sound even stranger.
If Isabella had heard our actual conversation, she might’ve thought Héraïs wasn’t in his right mind. What a pity.
As I denied it with all my might, Isabella looked suspicious.
“You’re denying it a bit too strongly.”
Too much denial can sound like strong affirmation. Don’t act like an amateur.
I quickly calmed myself and put on a serious face.
“If I say His Highness isn’t my type, will I get arrested?”
“My type… what?”
“I’m not even at the age to be interested in romance yet. My mental development is as slow as my physical one. What would a child like me know?”
I was a master of saying nonsense.
Anyway, it seemed my claim that I had no interest in Héraïs worked.
In the original story, Isabella had a crush on him and bullied the heroine as a rival—so if I removed myself as competition, maybe we could get along.
*‘Please ignore someone like me and go after the man you want, sister.’*
Besides, if Isabella married Héraïs instead of me, the dreadful in-law conflict arc in the story would resolve itself.
After all, Empress Iana had always intended Isabella to be her daughter-in-law.
In the original, Iana would sweetly coax Isabella, asking if she wanted to succeed her as empress.
Iana was actually Isabella’s distant aunt. She wanted to strengthen her power by bringing Isabella—both family and a duke’s daughter—into the imperial family.
She planned to manipulate Ivan through Isabella, and at the same time, slip her own nephew under Ivan—who had no heir besides Isabella—to eventually take over the entire Weiss duchy.
Only Ivan suspected her true intentions. Everyone else was completely fooled by her angelic façade.
*‘Seeing Iana at the orphanage, I can understand why people are fooled.’*
If I hadn’t read the original story, I’d have been deceived too. She really did look like an angel incarnate.
*‘Well, whatever. None of this is my problem. As long as I’m not the one becoming empress in the end, that’s all that matters.’*
I did feel a bit sorry for Ivan, who had taken me out of the orphanage…
But in the end, he only brought me here to use me—and would discard me without hesitation once I lost my value.
So I decided to play matchmaker between Isabella and Héraïs.
“Besides, it seemed like His Highness was more interested in you, my lady. You’ve been close friends with the First Prince since childhood, right?”
“How did you know that?”
“I heard it from His Highness.”
A lie.
“When I said I wanted to be a painter, he mentioned harmony of colors and brought up your story.”
Also a lie. Everything from here on out? Lies.
“My story?”
“Yes. He said he has a close friend with beautiful red hair, and asked what kind of accessories would suit it.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. Then he tried a blue ribbon on my hair and said blue suits blonde, so he gave it to me casually. I never imagined people would misunderstand!”
I said it without blinking.
I might not lie often—but when I do, I go all in.
“The moment I saw you, I knew you were the friend he was talking about!”
But despite seeming slightly softened earlier, Isabella kept tilting her head.
“Héraïs said that?”
“Yes!”
“That’s strange. He practically has no sense of color…”
Huh?
She looked at me suspiciously.
“He probably doesn’t even know pink and red have different names. He might think green and blue are the same color. I can’t believe he’d have that kind of conversation.”
Wait… the male lead has *that* kind of trait for no reason?
Panic…
“His Highness can’t distinguish colors?”
“Not exactly. He’s just that uninterested. He’s not a very delicate person.”
I see. Not that I really wanted to know him that deeply anyway.
*‘But wait… doesn’t Isabella like him?’*
Her expression when talking about Héraïs wasn’t that of a girl deeply in love.
In fact, her gaze looked even drier than Ivan’s when he looked at me.
She even let out a sigh—though it was unclear what it was for.
*‘Was that… because she was thinking about Héraïs?’*
What’s going on?
Even if I didn’t remember every detail, I thought I knew the characters and plot fairly well. So why was there so much new information?
The Isabella from the heroine’s perspective was just a shallow girl who enjoyed bullying others and was obsessed with Héraïs.
But the Isabella I was seeing now was very different.
If she truly enjoyed tormenting others, she would’ve used Karen’s incident to pick on me instead of apologizing. She had both the power and status to do so.
And she didn’t seem obsessed with Héraïs either.
Isabella looked straight at me again with sharp, intelligent eyes.
“Anyway, I was planning to come find you soon. This saves me the trouble.”
So she really *wasn’t* interested in Héraïs. She changed the subject entirely.
Unaware of my confusion, she continued.
“Derrick told me to help you get what you need for daily life today. It must’ve been Father’s order.”
She didn’t bother hiding her displeasure.
“Bringing you here was entirely Father’s decision. Mother and I opposed it. So frankly, you’re not very welcome.”
I guess that meant I should behave myself.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ll stay quiet and out of sight. I can even eat in my room!”
I had neither the will nor the desire to get on Isabella’s bad side.
“And I don’t need three meals a day. If you want, I can eat just twice—or even once if the portions are big enough. That’s what I’m used to.”
Back in high school, I worked at a factory and often skipped meals. The workplace bullying made even one meal a day hard to manage.
Back then, I worked all day on an empty stomach—so being able to laze around and eat once a day now felt like a blessing.
“……”
At my words, Isabella fell silent, as if she didn’t know what to say.
