“Oh my! Hello!”

I greeted them loudly as I walked towards the two, making sure they could hear me from afar.

The middle-aged man turned around with an irritated expression, but quickly changed his face upon seeing me.

“Hello, Miss Rischefeld. What a surprise to see you here.”

“Hello? I…”

“Dimitri. Benjamin Dimitri. And this is… Hey, you! What are you staring at? Bow your head.”

He hastily pushed down the blue-haired head, making him bow.

“Oh my, to meet my lifesaver in such a place.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve received help from him twice already.”

Dimitri looked at me and the blue-haired boy with a puzzled face.

“He-help?”

“Yes. The Duke is also very grateful.”

Hearing my words, Dimitri blinked a couple of times with a dumbfounded expression, then quickly corrected his posture and put on an artificial smile.

“Is that so? Well, Michael is indeed capable. Ha ha ha.”

“I’d like to express my gratitude for that time. Could you spare us a moment?”

“Of course. Take him.”

Dimitri said this while pushing Michael towards me and bidding farewell.

“Well then, take your time talking.”

As I watched him walk away, I turned to Michael.

“Thank you, Miss. Thanks to you, two hours of scolding has been reduced to one hour.”

Michael thanked me with a somewhat disgruntled expression.

“What did you do so wrong to be scolded like that?”

“It wasn’t my fault. I just did as I was told, but when things went wrong, he took it out on me.”

Oh dear. You have your struggles too. The woes of an employee…

“By the way, have you been well?”

“I’m always doing well.”

“…I heard you turned Porto upside down again.”

“That… Has the rumor spread that far already?”

Surprised that it was known so soon, I asked, and Michael shrugged and answered.

“If I know about it, you can assume everyone in the Imperial Palace already knows. Mages are the last to hear rumors because we’re cooped up in our labs.”

“Haha…”

What kind of life is this? I laughed awkwardly, imagining his daily life, which I could roughly picture without hearing the details.

“Miss, you seem to always be in the midst of incidents.”

“I suppose so.”

“No wonder the Duke worries about you.”

Most of that worry is simply about whether I’ll cause trouble, though.

“But where is the Duke? Are you alone?”

Michael asked, seemingly curious about why I was wandering the Imperial Palace by myself.

“Well, it’s nothing really… I just got a bit lost?”

“……”

I know I’m pathetic. Don’t look at me like that. Anyway, thanks to me, I saved you.

Thanks to Michael, I was able to safely exit the palace and arrive at the garden.

To think I had been wandering for 30 minutes for what should have taken 5 minutes. Indeed, someone with a poor sense of direction isn’t called that for nothing.

“Wow! Finally out. Thank you, Michael.”

“It’s nothing. Oh, and…”

Michael rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a necklace.

“What’s this?”

“…It’s an artifact. If you turn the center bead, you can summon me.”

“You, Michael?”

“Yes… It seems you’re always in the midst of incidents. If something happens to you, we won’t be safe either.”

“Come on, that’s not true.”

As I waved my hand with a smile, Michael seriously placed the artifact in my hand.

“No. There’s a high chance he’ll demand we find out where you are. That person over there.”

Saying this, he pointed towards the garden. Ilion was there, looking at us.

You must have suffered quite a bit because of Ilion. Oh dear… I reluctantly accepted the artifact.

“I’m sure that won’t happen, but if I ever need it, I’ll use it well.”

“I hope you never have to use it. Well then, I’ll be going now. I don’t want to talk to the Duke.”

Saying this, he hurriedly went back into the Imperial Palace as if someone was chasing him.

As I waved goodbye to him and turned around, Ilion was standing in front of me, having arrived at some point.

“Oh, did you have a good conversation?”

“What did you talk about?”

Well, was there anything worth calling a conversation?

“Just thanking him for saving me last time.”

“…I don’t recall ever hearing any words of gratitude.”

“…Pardon?”

What does he mean? I asked him back, genuinely not understanding, and Ilion added,

“Moreover, he was a mage I hired, yet he receives thanks while I don’t hear a word.”

“…Well, that’s…”

“I thought you were someone who couldn’t express gratitude, but it seems that’s not the case.”

It seems like his usual sarcasm, but there was a strangely childish aspect to it. I didn’t think he would take it to heart…

“Of course I’m grateful to you too, Your Grace.”

“For what?”

“Um, various things?”

“If I’m going to receive gratitude, I’d like to hear exactly what and how much you’re thankful for.”

What’s this? Is it revenge for ignoring his words earlier? Or is he angry because I came late?

“Um… Are you angry because I came late? Shall we go home now?”

Yes, the Saintess is here too, so stop acting childish and let’s just go home. What if the Saintess loses interest in you because of this?

Fearing the Saintess might see this, I forced a smile and started walking ahead.

“I haven’t heard all of your words of gratitude yet?”

Ilion asked, following behind me. I knew he could be persistent, but today he was being unusually stubborn about the strangest things. If he had asked where I had been and why I was late, I could understand.

Why should I even thank you in the first place? If we think about it, all of this is because you wanted to have a political marriage with me!

But unfortunately, I lacked both the boldness to say such things and the status to silence Ilion.

Fine, if he wants it, I’ll give it to him. I’ll make him so sick of it that he’ll never ask for it again.

I turned around abruptly, faced Ilion, and exaggeratedly clasped my hands.

“Oh, Your Grace, how can I express my gratitude with mere words? You are the savior of my life and the master of my world! Instead of this, let’s er*ect a monument! We could even make the day you saved me a national holiday!”

“Pfft…”

Finding my antics amusing, Ilion let out a small laugh.

“Now, are you satisfied?”

“Yes.”

A laugh he couldn’t quite suppress escaped along with his answer.

Ah, life is hard.

I sighed inwardly and turned around again.

***

Early in the morning, an unexpected visitor came to the mansion.

“Mo…ther?”

The person waiting for me at the entrance was Ravenne’s mother, whom I had barely seen since coming to this world.

“Why are you so surprised? Did I come somewhere I shouldn’t?”

Setting aside the fact that my birth mother was uttering lines like a mother-in-law from a morning drama, to think she would visit so abruptly without even a letter…

Seemingly reading my thoughts from my confused expression, my brother Theo, who came along, answered instead.

“We sent a letter, but there was no reply no matter how long we waited.”

Was there a letter? I looked at Lily, who sheepishly asked if I hadn’t seen it on the desk.

Come to think of it, I remembered Lily telling me to read a letter on the day I returned from the business trip.

It was my mistake for just passing it by, distracted by trying to set up Ilion with the Saintess.

“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t…”

“I send you to a ducal household, and it seems you’ve lost your senses in luxury.”

She cut off my words and snapped at me with a sharp tone. Intimidated by her force, I flinched involuntarily.

“I’m sorry.”

“How long are you going to keep your mother standing blankly at the entrance?”

“…Ah, yes. Please come in.”

I hurriedly guided the two inside and brought out tea.

“Where is the Duke?”

“He just stepped out…”

“Is that so? When will he return?”

“Well, he didn’t tell me…”

“You’re about to become the Duchess, shouldn’t you know at least that much? What on earth have you learned here?”

Interrupting before I could finish seemed to be her specialty.

She kept cutting off my words as I spoke, and finally scolded me with a sharp voice, under which pressure I kept my mouth shut.

It was true that I came to the Duke’s household to learn, as she said, but in reality, I hadn’t learned anything.

A tutor had been visiting for a few days, but that was to learn etiquette, not anything related to the Duke’s affairs.

I didn’t plan to stay here long in the first place, but…

“Sigh, really. Your mother can’t sleep peacefully for a single day because of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, you should have been careful beforehand! You’re always like this. Can’t you stop that bad habit of trying to get by with just words?”

Ugh. What kind of treatment did Ravenne receive at home? It didn’t seem this bad during the week I stayed at the Count’s house.

Well, I didn’t see her face often then because I was unwell. She didn’t even visit unless there was business.

“By the way, you’ve been appearing in the newspapers often lately.”

“Ah, yes.”

I looked at the Countess, tense and worried about being scolded again.

“I heard you discovered land with buried magic stones?”

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t you have told your family first when you bought such land? It’s absurd that I have to learn about this news from an article rather than from your own mouth…”

“I-I’m sorry.”

As expected, it was another topic brought up to scold me. I started to have a bad feeling that I would be scolded all day long.

“I came partly because of that matter too. Even if you’re getting married, that land is clearly ours, so of course we should manage it from our side, don’t you think?”

Strictly speaking, I’m the owner of that land… I was at a loss as to how much I should nod along.

“Mother, let’s talk about that when the Duke arrives later. More importantly…”

Theo, who had been quiet until now, interrupted.

“Right, I got carried away and lost my composure. Whenever I see your sister, I can’t help but nag because it’s so frustrating…”

She muttered, wanting me to hear.

I noticed it somewhat when I first possessed this body, but it seemed Ravenne was the ugly duckling of the family.

Her treatment was so different, it was hard to believe they were siblings.

She took a sip of tea and then got to the main point.