Lucian, who had been looking at Violet with an unfathomable smile, gently ended the conversation.

“It seems our talk is over, so I’ll be going now. I don’t have much time.”

Lucian patted Violet’s head and walked past her.

Violet had words she wanted to shout at Lucian that rose up to her throat.

My naive and pitiful brother!

Her brother had already gone through difficult times trying to clear his name from the false accusation of stealing sacred artifacts. On top of that, if he found out that Lady Ferial was using him, Lucian would suffer an irreparable wound.

I have to save my brother before that happens.

“Rosemary Ferial.”

That woman.

I’ll make her clearly realize whose place she’s daring to covet.

***

I stared at the article featured prominently in the newspaper.

[Shocking revelation as embezzlement allegations against Count Renel, vassal of Marquis Greyt, proven true…]

“Wow…”

And I marveled.

“Taro’s power is really amazing.”

The Count Renel family was the family of the nobleman who was caught speaking ill of me at the recent imperial banquet.

Among them, he was the one who had said the worst things about me, right?

It was highly likely that the embezzlement was revealed because of the curse Taro had placed.

“This is why they say you should live kindly… Huh?”

As I was snickering at them, I tilted my head at the content of the following article.

“The young Count Renel, who came to the imperial palace to prove his father’s innocence, had a face that was in a complete mess?”

What, did he get into a fight somewhere after badmouthing someone again?

Since he was the type of person who would do that, no other thoughts came to mind.

Anyway, he got what he deserved.

“Master, why are you laughing? Kekeke.”

While I was chuckling with the newspaper in hand, Wit entered the room through the window.

It seemed he had already finished planting tomatoes in the Count’s garden as he had said he would.

“No, just something funny happened.”

“What is it, Master? Wit wants to know too! Tell me! Tell me!”

“It’s nothing special.”

I didn’t want to involve Wit in something Taro had already taken care of.

Before Wit could get upset, I took out the invitation I had received in the morning and changed the subject.

“Ta-da~ Wit, do you know what this is?”

“Brown envelope with a purple seal! Wit knows what that is! It’s an invitation, right, Master? It’s the letter humans send when they hold parties!”

I smiled and opened the envelope.

“That’s correct.”

“Correct! Wit got the correct answer, Master! Kekek!”

Purple seal.

It was a letter from none other than the Berto Marquis family.

So I naturally thought it was from Lucian, but…

“A letter from Violet…”

Contrary to my expectations, Violet’s name was written on the letter.

Why on earth would Violet send me an invitation?

The contents inside were roughly like this.

“After glaring at me like that at the banquet, now she says she wants to be friends with me.”

She must think I’m a fool.

I couldn’t even laugh at such an obvious ploy.

When I first received this letter, I was about to throw the invitation into the fireplace, but a sudden thought made me grasp the invitation again.

Prince Deus, was sacrificing people to make a contract with the devil.

Among them were children.

If I didn’t know this fact, I might have ignored it, but now that I knew, it bothered me too much to pretend I didn’t.

Maybe I should attend the tea party and find out about Deus.

In the original story, Violet becomes the Empress’s lady-in-waiting at the beginning of the novel, so she probably doesn’t know much about Deus yet.

But since it’s a tea party held at the Marquis’s residence, I thought I might be able to gather information about Prince Deus from other nobles.

***

A week later, I headed to the Berto Marquis residence as stated in the invitation.

“I will escort you to where Lady Violet is.”

I followed the servant’s guidance to where the tea party was prepared and looked around the Marquis’s residence.

So this is the garden of the family said to be richer than the Emperor.

The inside of the greenhouse was decorated with plants by section. Among them were flowers that were worth their weight in gold and strange trees rarely seen in the empire.

“Thank you for accepting the invitation, Lady Ferial.”

Violet, who spotted me walking from afar, greeted me warmly.

Seeing that other ladies were already seated, it seemed the tea party had already begun.

“I should be the one thanking you for inviting me.”

I returned the greeting out of courtesy and was about to sit in the designated seat.

“…!”

Then I suddenly raised my head again.

Looking at the child sitting next to Violet, I unconsciously muttered.

“Echo?”

At that, Echo, who had been silently looking down at the table, raised her head.

The moment I met Echo’s reddish-purple eyes, I realized my mistake.

Until now, I had met Echo as the owner of the ‘Red Thread Information Guild.’

In other words, to Echo, who had never seen my real appearance, I was practically a stranger.

“Lady Ferial, why are you looking at my sister like that? Are you perhaps already acquainted with Echo?”

Violet frowned with one eye as if finding it strange, since it couldn’t possibly be the case, and asked me.

“Echo hasn’t even had her debutante yet, so she shouldn’t have had any connection with you. How do you know my sister?”

Violet looked at me with suspicious eyes.

I found her reaction a bit strange.

I mean, it’s possible to know someone without… why be so guarded about it?

Anyway, what should I do?

I’ve already acted like I know Echo, so I need to say something.

I was contemplating what to answer when—

“Sister Violet…”

Echo called Violet in a small voice.

“I happened to go to the central street and exchanged greetings with Lady Ferial…”

At Echo’s words, I blinked blankly.

Central street? What does that mean?

Is she saying he met Rosemary before I was reincarnated into her?

But until just a moment ago, Echo had the face of someone seeing me for the first time.

Could it be that he realized I was in a difficult situation and decided to help me?

While I was blinking in confusion, Violet asked with puzzlement.

“The central street? What business would you have in the central street?”

“Well, sister… there was something I wanted to buy at an antique shop…”

Violet still looked at Echo as if her questions weren’t answered.

Then suddenly she gasped and muttered to herself.

“Could it be that all this time you’ve been quietly disappearing to see Lady Ferial…?”

Violet’s expression suddenly froze coldly.

However, noticing the attention from the other ladies focused on her, she quickly returned to her original smiling face.

“I, I see… So that happened.”

Though she couldn’t quite hide her slightly trembling lips.

Anyway, Violet, with her usual smile like a sunny spring day, invited me to sit down.

“It seems Lady Ferial has deep connections with my family. Not only my brother but now Echo too…”

For a moment, if I felt Violet’s expression turn cold, it wasn’t my imagination.

I thought she was only like this with Lucian. Does Violet also have an obsession with Echo?

In the original novel, only Deus’s obsession and possessiveness toward Violet were emphasized, so I didn’t know, but now it seems Violet might be just as bad.

Just look at those sharp eyes.

While she smiled lovingly at the other ladies, the occasional glances directed at me were extremely sharp.

Well, unfortunately, they had no effect on me.

I inwardly smirked and greeted everyone.

“It’s been a while since the imperial banquet, hasn’t it? I was disappointed we had such little time to talk that day, so I’m glad to see you all again.”

When I greeted them with the brightest smile I could manage, the honey-colored haired lady sitting next to me showed an excessively delighted expression.

“I’m truly happy to see Lady Ferial again. I really wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

To my question, the lady blushed and replied.

“I greatly benefited from the Red Thread Information Guild you told me about that day.”