Unlike male students, female students had another option besides the Royal Academy: Saint Rose’s School for Girls.

When it came to choosing a path that would shape her future, Julia did not hesitate for a single second.

A coeducational academy full of both boys and girls seemed far less suited to a peaceful life than Saint Rose, where only girls attended.

Deeply disappointed by the grim reality of her engagement, Julia spent her time escapingly reading this and that.

Among those, fragments of knowledge from novels and weekly papers gave her something to look forward to.

Her heart swelled with dreams of dormitory life at a girls’ school, where friendship, warmth, and romance coexisted.

‘A place where you can make friends for life.’

In general opinion, girls’ schools were mostly plain and strictly regimented, but the small joys and bonds that bloomed from communal life with peers felt unfamiliar yet appealing.

For Julia, raised over the years at Pearl Springs caring for Vincent alongside private tutors and teachers of every subject, dormitory life with peers was a new world, an uncharted frontier.

She grew curious about the intimate whispers of friendship at night, the excitement of going out together, the giddy atmosphere of picnics, cooking clubs, embroidery clubs, bazaar clubs, and all the little gatherings and independent activities.

‘They say the cooking club starts with baking cookies. Nutty almond and butter cookies are recommended because they have a high success rate. Oh, I can’t wait!’

Everything she never experienced before came to her as romantic imagination and excitement.

Since love and romance with Henry seemed like something she would have to give up, at least she could look forward to friendship with peers.

The warm memories of her closeness with Lou from childhood still lingered as a faint, tender nostalgia, gently tickling a corner of Julia’s heart.

‘Lou.’

Julia murmured the name she missed.

The childhood friend who filled the hollow, empty days when her parents, consumed with Vincent, left her to her own devices.

The two of them met every single day and spent happy times together.

They went everywhere hand in hand.

Like family. Like sisters¹Again, Julia at this point still thinks that Louis is a girl..

Lou led the way, and Julia followed, but Lou always waited ahead without effort, and when Julia grew tired, they rested together.

Lou spoke little, but there was always a quiet, gentle consideration.

Being beside Lou felt warm and cozy, like spring sunlight.

Warm enough to make Julia want to close her eyes, like a bright yellow chick basking in the spring sun.

But the parting from that dear childhood friend came without warning.

Caught off guard by the sudden farewell, Julia stood frozen and stared blankly at the retreating figure as it left.

For a long, long time.

And so, that day, Lou left.

The neighbor, the older sister, the friend of the same age, the companion to talk to, the one person outside her family she grew close to. Lou left the resort and went to the capital.

‘I wanted to tell her not to go….’

Julia stared blankly at the empty open-air hot spring grounds with wide, scarlet eyes.

The armchair that was always there, the steam and rippling water of the hot spring, all remained just as they were in the place where that small presence vanished. But Lou was gone.

The sense of loss that followed was beyond words.

Her first friend, and she was gone.

She missed her terribly, wanted to be with her always, and yet she couldn’t.

It was so very sad.

She threw herself into one thing after another to forget the grief, but the hollow hole in her heart never filled.

After that, time flowed on like an indifferent river, and in that current, young Julia gradually shed her girlish shape and became a young lady.

Now she was even engaged, but the warmth of her closeness with Lou remained a fond memory, always casting small ripples of longing in her heart.

If she could find that kind of connection again at a girls’ school, how wonderful that would be.

‘I want to meet a friend I can keep for life.’

With those sweet imaginings, Julia carefully expressed her intention to enroll at Saint Rose’s School for Girls, and both families agreed without hesitation.

“It’s a shame it isn’t the Academy, but Saint Rose has a fine reputation for lady’s education, and it’s fully residential, so that’s reassuring.”

In the meantime, before she entered a formal institution, both families encouraged Julia to visit Rodev manor freely and build the proper refinements expected of the future marchioness.

In other words, it was an irresistible order dressed in the form of encouragement.

From that point on, Julia’s life began to run on the Rodev family’s schedule, not the Wilroy family’s.

***

From the time she began her training as the future marchioness, Julia was busy without a moment to breathe.

Staying at the Wilroy townhouse in the capital while keeping up a suffocating schedule of constant visits to Rodev manor slowly gnawed away at Julia’s spirit.

She missed the days at Pearl Springs with a deep ache: the gentle sunlight, the warm steam, the clear harmonies of the piano, and the quiet breeze that lingered between them.

The grand, massive stone building of Rodev manor was so heavy it seemed to swallow even the breath of living things, and the tutors prepared for Julia were of an entirely different caliber from the kind and gentle private tutors she knew before.

Their strict faces, bearing the mark of professional research institutes, held nothing but cold, evaluating gazes in place of warmth, and the education they delivered was a relentless succession of merciless rote instruction aimed solely at the acquisition of knowledge.

“Hm, she already possesses excellent qualities. With such good soil, the results should be fine no matter what is planted.”

A brief preliminary test proved Julia already had a strong foundation, and the lenient grace period vanished. Intensive training began in earnest.

As a result, the vast body of knowledge required of the future marchioness crashed over Julia like a wave.

“Pardon? I must learn all of this?”

“Of course. As Marchioness Rodev, you must not only lead society with refined culture and smooth conversation, but also move freely through the court, build harmonious relationships with the royal family, communicate with the retainers as the family matriarch, and attend to matters inside and outside the domain and the family.”

The volume of study was staggering.

General etiquette, court etiquette, financial management, accounting knowledge for ledger-keeping, understanding of agriculture, livestock, commerce, and industry for domain management, personnel management skills, logistics and resource management, the complex rivalries and histories among the kingdom’s nobles, and everything concerning the royal family.

It had no end in sight.

In particular, all of this education proceeded under the tacit assumption that Henry, the future marquis, would be unable to fulfill his duties.

In effect, his share was dumped entirely onto Julia.

Because of Henry’s incompetence, Julia was to be shaped, without a single day’s rest, into the Rodev Marquisate’s ‘perfect future marchioness,’ like a raw stone cut and polished into a gem.

“When lifting a teacup at a royal tea party, the wrist must bend softly. If the entire hand tenses, it loses elegance. Keep the little finger gently raised, and maintain the elbow at precisely one hundred and ten degrees. The smile should be no more than a slight tilt at the corners of the mouth. Emotions must not show.”

“Keep the back elegant yet straight, and let the shoulders drop naturally without tension. The gaze must remain soft, yet carry within it the intelligence to read the other person’s intentions.”

“The toes point slightly inward, and the ideal step grazes the floor without a sound. In particular, one must never walk ahead of a member of the royal family or make any hurried movements in their presence.”

The advanced etiquette and protocols for dealing with the royal family as a high-ranking noble, on an entirely different level from the general manners she learned before, were engraved into Julia’s body until they became instinct.

Every variety of knowledge, but also handwriting, manner of speech, gait, and even how to breathe.

“Again. Again, Lady Wilroy.”

“That will not do. Again!”

Act, be corrected, adjust, act again, be corrected again. That was the daily routine.

Through it all, Julia silently absorbed everything she was taught.

Late at night, her spirit worn to nothing after a full day of grueling instruction.

Julia leaned against the window on one side of her room and looked quietly outside.

Far in the distance, the lights of the capital spread faintly through the night fog.

‘Could Lou be somewhere among all those lights?’

Lou said the capital was home, so she was surely living somewhere in this city.

The grand estate where Lou stayed at Pearl Springs was the Klaus duchy’s villa.

Since there were no women in the direct line of the Klaus duchy, Lou was likely a collateral relative or someone from another family connected to the duchy.

‘If we could meet….’

She wanted to see Lou again, even just once.

But it was so long ago that she couldn’t even be certain Lou would remember her.