After a tiring day preparing for the gathering, Helene returned to her room and brushed her long hair that reached her waist.
“Hello.”
She wasn’t surprised to see the unannounced guest in the middle of the night.
Capitano handed Helene a bouquet.
“This is supposed to be a Princess’s room, but there wasn’t a single flower in a vase.”
Helene felt strange watching him put the flowers in a vase himself, and she shook her head as if to shake off the distracting thoughts.
These weren’t the kind of feelings she should be having for a man whose real name she didn’t even know.
“Did you prepare this for me? How kind of you.”
Capitano pointed to the refreshments prepared on the table.
Helene shook her head again, denying it.
“No, I put those out for myself.”
“Then let’s eat together.”
She sat across from him, watching his eye smile.
“I hear the products the Princess recently released are responsible for the Duke’s Commerce Guild’s sales?”
Capitano showered her with praise for her actions.
He always said such pleasant things. Whether it was sincere or not, she thought it wasn’t so bad to have someone say those things to her.
After finishing his compliments and well-wishes, he brought up the main topic.
“Have you met Lady Eleanor?”
“Yes, she’s like a wicked snake.”
Capitano stared intently at Helene, then muttered softly.
“I happen to like venomous people.”
“Are you perhaps into older women?”
Helene, unaware that she had the face of a pretty snake, asked with a displeased expression before bringing up what she originally wanted to say.
“I heard Count Vicente has a lot of gambling problems. This time, he’s in debt to the organization and is about to get himself killed.”
“The old man borrowed money from our organization, of all places. We can’t bear to let him die.”
It was Capitano who made Count Vicente incur gambling debts and intentionally had Lady Eleanor come to this gathering.
He knew that Masera hated the Count and Countess Vicente, who had adopted him.
As soon as he made a name for himself as a war hero, they acted like his parents and demanded money. Just looking at how he gave them money and then seized all their assets and title under the guise of debt repayment was enough to tell.
“They’ll probably act like good foster parents and approach Princess Cynthia, asking her to help reconcile with their son.”
Capitano moved two gingerbread cookies with his hands, as if putting on a puppet show.
“If things go well, we’ll get a scene where she urges reconciliation with his enemies. But Princess Cynthia doesn’t seem ordinary.”
Despite Capitano’s concerns, a smile spread across Helene’s face.
She knew that the meddlesome Cynthia would definitely try to reconcile them.
“I told you, destruction begins with a small crack.”
Capitano said as he drank his milk tea.
“We are beings who create nearby tragedies and enjoy them from afar.”
Even if Cynthia realized it late and tried to respond, Masera would eventually have to face a past he wanted to forget.
“They say he ran away. How could they send even a noble to such an insane person….”
He was remembering the image of a boy with bandages on his face and a cast on his arm in the past.
‘Even if a precious person who understands his cracks appears.’
The gingerbread cookie in his right hand snapped in half.
‘If that precious person breaks, he will break as well.’
* * *
Helene greeted the Dowager Duchess and the Aunts, who had returned from Medea.
The Duke’s maternal relatives, whom she had seen at the wedding, were also present.
Count Queensguard and Edford, the Carlos couple, and Cynthia also arrived in time for the family gathering.
“Our war hero said he has work and will come to the next party? What a shame.”
Those who wanted to see Masera looked disappointed.
The Dowager Duchess and her Aunts chatted happily with Cynthia. Some of the ladies whispered, noticing the completely different attitude they had compared to when they treated Helene, their daughter-in-law.
[“You wouldn’t know who the daughter-in-law is.”]
Then, seeing Helene approaching them, they smiled nonchalantly.
[“Helene, I heard you’re studying Medeian. The more languages you know, the more noble you are.”]
[“I’m still lacking. It’s fun as I learn.”]
True to her stubborn nature, Helene replied with excellent pronunciation.
[“You’re good. Did you learn it before you got married?”]
At that moment, the Dowager Duchess, holding a champagne glass, approached and spoke for Helene.
[“She started learning after the wedding. Isn’t she good for such a short period? Our Helene is very bright.”]
[“Our daughter-in-law speaks five languages, but that’s because she was educated by her family from a young age. Helene will be able to do it soon too.”]
Cynthia watched the subtle war of nerves between the ladies and smiled innocently, pretending not to know anything.
After the Dowager Duchess left, one of the ladies, thinking Cynthia couldn’t understand, asked Helene a secret question.
“Helene, did something happen? The Duke asked the Director of Intelligence to make time for him separately. He didn’t tell me the reason.”
“Thank, thank you for your help.”
Helene, who only grasped the context because she spoke quickly, stuttered slightly.
“Could it be that? Information about the Bariesa Royal Family’s remaining inheritance.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know the reason either.”
Remaining inheritance? What are they talking about?
Cynthia thought to herself, maintaining a smiling face.
The lady, seeing Cynthia, put on an apologetic expression and said,
“Oh dear, I’m sorry. The youngest Princess needs to learn Medeian quickly to join our conversation.”
“I’ll try to be as good as my sister.”
Cynthia smiled kindly at Helene.
“You’re so smart, sister. Your new products have become a hot topic again, haven’t they? I’ve always admired your unique sense since before. You used to transform ordinary ready-made dresses so creatively.”
Helene’s face stiffened slightly, then she curved her eyes into a round shape as if conscious of the surrounding gazes.
“Thank you.”
She must be putting on an act on purpose for the sake of playing family.
After the ladies, who reluctantly praised Helene’s success story, left, Cynthia whispered to Helene with a worried face.
“Sister, you seem to have lost a lot of weight. Are you eating well?”
“Why are you, of all people, worrying about me?”
Helene spat out sharp words with a smiling face.
However, Cynthia didn’t care and spoke her mind.
“But the sister I know isn’t someone who will wither in someone else’s shadow. Even if your personality is terrible, you have business talent and you’re smart.”
Perhaps because her gentle tone resembled Capitano’s, Helene felt a tingling sensation in a corner of her heart.
‘That kind of recognition from a maid is useless.’
Helene felt humiliated, as if she had become a person devoid of recognition.
And, surprisingly, Cynthia’s words were sincere.
‘Is it because she reminds me of my older sister? It bothers me that the Princess, who used to live with her own sense of self-importance, is so intimidated.’
Even if they fought as if they would never see each other again, sisters would eventually reconcile with tteokbokki or chicken, wouldn’t they?
Although Helene wasn’t her blood-related sister, Cynthia felt that if she left Helene as she was, she would become irreversibly corrupted.
If she just focused on her business with that tenacity, she would become an incredibly wealthy person. Cynthia tried her best to rehabilitate her.
“If you can converse in a foreign language in such a short period, you’re much better than a daughter-in-law who claims to speak five languages after learning them her whole life. In theory, you could speak 20 languages.”
But Helene expressed her anger in a deeply subdued voice.
“What do you want? Do you want me to get divorced and return to being a fallen royal? Are you trying to ruin my life with sweet talk?”
“You’re not happy even now that you’re the Duchess.”
“You intended to mock me with what you saw that day.”
“No.”
Cynthia shook her head wildly.
“I just thought you needed someone kind.”
Considering what she’s done to me so far, I should be dealing with her like a villain in a romance fantasy novel.
It wasn’t power, strength, or death that drove people to ruin, but someone’s kindness.
However, despite Cynthia’s efforts, Helene only glared at her with cold eyes.
“Mind your own business and know your place.”
“…Okay, I understand. I won’t bother you again. We’re strangers.”
Cynthia shook her head.
“However, if you try to trample on me or continue to use me just because you know my weaknesses, I won’t stand still then. I clearly showed you a way to rise without trampling on others.”
After Cynthia left her warning and departed.
Helene, who had been thinking it was ridiculous, suddenly felt a chill.
‘How does she know about the daughter-in-law who speaks five languages? I clearly spoke in Medeian.’
She spoke so quickly that even she couldn’t understand it properly, but she knew even that?
In fact, Helene had been learning Medeian for a year, but she was pretending that she hadn’t learned it for long to show off her intelligence. It was only now that she could barely communicate thanks to her strenuous efforts.
‘There’s no way an ordinary person could do that.’
She had felt something was strange, but she thought she was just smart for an uneducated maid.
“But Princess Cynthia doesn’t seem ordinary.”
Suddenly, Capitano’s casual words came to mind.
‘Then does she also know the traditional language and Medeian, but has been pretending not to know all this time?’
Everything she had dismissed as just her father’s help began to constrict her neck with vague fear.
‘Who the hell is she?’
Fear seeped into Helene’s eyes, who was experiencing cognitive dissonance.
* * *
Meanwhile, Cynthia, who had gone out to the garden feeling stifled, had encountered someone.
“Hello, Princess.”
It was Lady Eleanor Vicente.
