“That’s absurd! How… how could the members of the traditional Gels Council change so easily?”

Upon hearing my words, Pelena stood up abruptly from her chair, hitting the table with an expression of disbelief.

Pelena took great pride in the fact that her family was a member of the Gels Council.

There was no way she wouldn’t relay this story to her father, Marquis Clevan.

“Um… excuse me for a moment.”

Pelena didn’t sit back down but turned around and disappeared from the tea party.

She seemed to be going to her father.

And I leisurely sipped my tea while watching her back.

“Hmm, this tea is really delicious, isn’t it?”

Today, the tea seemed more fragrant and delicious than usual.

From the evening of the day I attended the tea party, strange rumors began to circulate within the empire.

Rumors that Marquis Masipacius might become a member of the Gels Council.

“Damn it! Where did the information leak from! This is why I spoke directly to His Majesty the Emperor!”

Father’s angry voice echoed from his office, and I stuck my tongue out at his office before returning to my room.

“Miss, did something good happen? You seem to have had a good time at the tea party.”

Mylene asked me, perhaps because I had been in a good mood all day since returning.

I flashed a bright smile at Mylene.

“Just— I think I’ll sleep well tonight.”

So I washed myself thoroughly and lay down in bed.

Just as I was about to fall asleep anticipating the commotion tomorrow, I sensed someone’s presence in my room.

“……Mylene?”

I called Mylene’s name, but whoever was in my room didn’t answer.

“Brother Rubert?”

Again, there was no response.

With a growing sense of anxiety and fear, I got up from the bed holding a thick book that was placed beside me.

“Who… who’s there?”

As moonlight entered the room, I saw the silhouette of someone hiding inside.

“It’s been a while?”

The moment I heard that voice, my legs gave way, and I had no choice but to collapse onto the floor.

The man in the cloak saw me and hurriedly ran toward me.

“If… if I startled you……”

I was so upset that I unintentionally let out a loud shriek.

“How could I not be startled! What are you doing sneaking into someone’s room when everyone is about to sleep!”

Hearing my words, the man scratched his head as if embarrassed, then carefully supported my shoulders and helped me up.

“I just… had something I wanted to give you, and I felt I had to give it today… sorry for startling you.”

I glared at him once and then gulped down the water from a glass bottle placed on the table.

“By the way… no, come to think of it, you know my name, but I don’t know yours. What’s your name?”

The man looked at me with a troubled expression.

“Um… my name……”

For some reason, the man hesitated for a while before saying his name, then reached into his cloak and took something out.

“Oh, by the way… you said you work at the imperial palace too, right?”

The man firmly gripped something in his hand and nodded.

“I’ve been invited to His Highness the Crown Prince’s coming-of-age ceremony. Will I be able to see you if I go?”

The man flinched as if surprised, then put whatever he was holding back into his pocket.

Wasn’t he going to give that to me?

“How did you… get invited to the crown prince’s coming-of-age ceremony? No, whose invitation did you receive?”

“His Majesty the Emperor gave me an invitation. When I went to the imperial palace last time.”

The man made a sound like “tsk” as if something displeased him.

“My name is Kresen.”

Ah, right.

I just asked him his name.

“Okay, Kresen.”

I extended my hand toward him.

Kresen looked alternately at me and my palm as if he didn’t understand the meaning.

“You said you came because you had something you wanted to give me.”

“I had it until a moment ago, but now I don’t……”

What is he talking about?

I sat down on the bed where the blanket was disheveled from getting up in a hurry.

“From now on, don’t come like this at night. If someone sees us, it would be troublesome for both of us… and I get startled too.”

Kresen nodded as if he had no objection.

“By the way… when will I be able to see your face without the cloak? Or will I never be able to see it?”

Kresen shrugged his shoulders upon hearing that.

“I don’t know. Perhaps it might be easier to talk if you continue not knowing my face like this.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but I just nodded.

And that’s when it happened.

My door opened with a creaking sound without any warning.

“……Rowenloa?”

“……Brother Rubert?”

My brother saw Kresen in front of me and looked around with a surprised expression, then grabbed a cleaning tool that was standing in the corridor, hurriedly approached me, and hid me behind him.

Then he swung the tool at Kresen with all his might.

“Brother, wait……”

That person works at the imperial palace!

Working with spirit power at the imperial palace meant being affiliated with some knightly order….

There was no way Rubert could win against someone affiliated with an imperial knightly order.

Anticipating the mess that was about to unfold, I tightly closed my eyes, but strangely, after the sound of something being struck dully, there was no sound at all.

When I slightly opened my eyes, I saw Kresen silently blocking the broom that Rubert had swung with one arm.

Kresen met my eyes standing behind my brother, then opened the window and disappeared.

“Rowenloa, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

I nodded in response to my brother’s question, unable to take my eyes off the window where he had disappeared.

“I’m going to call Father right now……”

No!

I came to my senses at my brother’s words and hurriedly grabbed him.

“No!”

“What? What are you saying!”

I desperately shook my head at my brother.

“I think… I know that person.”

My brother tilted his head as if that was even more strange.

“……You know that person? That intruder? Then all the more reason to tell Father…!”

I shook my head again at my brother.

“I’ll, I’ll investigate a little and then tell Father. If Father starts investigating… I’ll lose my chance to investigate.”

My brother looked at me with disapproving eyes, but seeing my determined gaze, he nodded with a worried face as if he had no choice.

“But why are you in my room at this hour, brother? Without knocking?”

Hearing my words, Brother Rubert made an expression as if he just remembered his original purpose.

“Ah, about His Highness the Crown Prince’s coming-of-age ceremony. I was thinking we could wear matching outfits. Father probably won’t approve, so I thought we could coordinate and choose similar designs when we get our dress and uniform fitted.”

I tilted my head at that.

“I don’t mind… but was that such an important conversation? Important enough to come here at this hour…?”

“…Actually, there’s a strange rumor circulating in the empire lately. That the reason Father adopted Leila was… because you don’t get along with people from other marquis families.”

A bitter smile formed on my face.

Already such rumors had started to spread.

“But now Father’s dam project will be under my name. If I, who has Father’s trust, wear matching clothes with you and enter the coming-of-age ceremony together… wouldn’t that help suppress the rumors about you?”

My brother’s words made sense.

We continued our discussion late into the night about how to coordinate our outfits, and the next day we requested dresses from the boutique exactly as we had discussed and continued preparing for the coming-of-age ceremony.

My other siblings and Leila seemed to look at me with gazes mixed with half jealousy and half envy.

Then, in the days before the ceremony, they seemed determined not to see me at all, as they couldn’t be found anywhere in the residence.

* * *

And time passed quickly until the day of the crown prince’s coming-of-age ceremony.

Rubert and I met in the hall wearing our coordinated outfits.

Even on the day of the ceremony, Bershua, Rembro, and Leila did not show themselves, and Father looked at the two of us in our matching outfits with a strange gaze before seeing us off to the carriage, telling us to have a good time.

The carriage sent from the imperial palace arrived to pick us up, and we boarded it.

With excited hearts, we headed toward the imperial palace’s banquet hall where the coming-of-age ceremony would be held.

But the excitement cooled in an instant.

…Why are they there?

As soon as we entered the banquet hall, we saw Leila and Bershua smiling as if they were extremely happy.

And beside them was a figure I had never actually seen in my previous life.

A person whom neither I nor Leila nor the other Masipacius family members had ever seen was smiling next to them.

Veltune Crescent.

He was the son of Glevir Crescent, the current emperor’s older brother, and was now the knight commander of the imperial palace’s Second Knight Order.

And the moment I saw him, I could understand.

Ah, God gave me another life, and He gave Leila that man.