“How did you do it?”
No sooner had I arrived at the countess’s tea party than Caroline, claiming she had something to tell me, dragged me toward the pond outside the venue and demanded an answer.
When I played dumb and asked, “Hm?”, she immediately retorted with a sharp look.
“The Grand Duke’s son. You’re going to be his partner, aren’t you?”
“Ah.”
“How on earth did you manage that? Did the Young Lady help you?”
To be precise, you were the one who helped, I thought. After all, it was because *you* suggested to Theor that he take me as his hunting festival partner that he reached out to me.
“I’m asking how you managed to become the Grand Duke’s son’s partner, Ellie.”
“Well, I didn’t really do anything to make it happen.”
“It’s definitely the Young Lady’s doing. She stole my partner away from me again……”
Caroline muttered to herself, and the look on her face made it clear she truly believed it. This was getting dangerous.
“Pull yourself together, Caroline. Who exactly is stealing from whom?”
When I spoke sternly, Caroline looked at me. Seeing the bloodshot whites of her eyes, it was clear she was barely containing her rage. It seemed that after being rejected by both Lloyd and Theor, she had lost the ability to think rationally.
If this continued, it wouldn’t be strange if Caroline turned into a villainess. I spoke in a firm tone, hoping to snap her out of it.
“Neither His Highness nor the Grand Duke’s son was ever yours, Caroline.”
“…….”
Tears welled up in her bloodshot eyes. Seeing her on the verge of falling into a spiral of confusion, I instinctively grabbed her hand.
“Put your emotions aside and think clearly.”
At my words, the tears pooled in Caroline’s eyes spilled over and trailed down her cheeks. Looking down at her hand, which I was holding, she muttered as if to herself.
“I…… I don’t know.”
“Hm? Know what?”
“Because nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”
Caroline said that everything she had ever wanted had always come to her naturally. As someone born with the light attribute, possessing the power closest to that of the gods, she had been an object of envy. Even though she came from a poor viscount’s family, she had received the courtship of countless high-ranking young nobles and the kindness of young ladies.
Even when she was bullied by the Young Lady Periose after catching the Crown Prince’s eye, everyone had taken her side and pointed fingers at the Young Lady. She had no reason to feel aggrieved.
That was, until I became one of Periose’s people.
“Ever since you abandoned me and started only looking for the Young Lady, my life has changed.”
Caroline said that from the moment I stood on Periose’s side, the attitudes of those around us—and toward her—had started to shift. Furthermore, as Periose, who used to be desperate to torment her, shifted to an attitude of complete indifference, the image of the poor, pitiful viscount’s daughter being constantly victimized by the evil Young Lady began to fade. Consequently, fewer people treated her with the kindness they once had.
Ultimately, Caroline had only just realized that she had been shining brighter *because* of the villainess, Periose.
“Even the Crown Prince, who for some reason showed me excessive interest, has lost that spark.”
That wasn’t interest in *you*; it was interest in your light attribute. Since Lloyd himself has the light attribute, it was only natural for him to be interested in another. Though, after I found out that I knew about Lloyd’s attribute, his interest in me probably grew larger than his interest in the attribute itself.
“I feel like it’s all your fault. No, yours and the Young Lady’s.”
It was strange to hear Caroline blame others for the decline in attention she received. In the original story, she had been agonizingly, irritably kind—the kind of character who made you feel like you’d eaten a hundred sweet potatoes whenever a problem arose. But the Caroline before me, exposing her raw emotions, felt like a completely different person.
Then again, even the heroine is a person; it’s only natural for her to have emotions. The fragmented emotions of Caroline portrayed in the text must have only shown the heroine’s virtuous side—the one consistent with her role—to prevent readers from realizing that the heroine, too, possessed the duality present in all humans. Perhaps that was due to the rigid stereotype that a heroine must always be kind, just, and good.
“Caroline. Blaming others isn’t a good look, and it’s not like you.”
At my words, Caroline stared at me with confused eyes for a long moment before letting out a long sigh. I could feel her gaze calming down. Soon, she wore her characteristic kind and gentle smile.
“You’re right. I must have lost my mind for a moment; that’s not like me at all. Sorry for taking your time. After the Crown Prince and then the Grand Duke’s son rejected my hunting festival partner offers, I must have lost my temper.”
“Don’t you think you should start by letting go of the idea that they are obligated to accept your offers?”
At my words, Caroline’s face stiffened for an instant. But, as always, she managed her emotions well. She quickly offered a gentle smile and nodded.
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”
With that, Caroline turned and vanished back into the tea party already in progress. Watching her retreating figure, I let out a short sigh. I hadn’t intended to be harsh, but I had instinctively turned my back on her. It seems I wanted to snap her out of it, fearing she would become a corrupted villainess like the protagonists in other novels I’d read. The very fact that I so desperately wanted her to break out of her delusions proved it.
I slowly walked back toward the tea party, hoping and praying that Caroline would not become an enemy to me or Periose.
“Where did you go?”
As soon as I returned, Periose, who hadn’t known I went off to talk with Caroline, asked me as I approached our table.
“I was just looking around.”
I smiled as I sat in the empty seat next to Periose, but my gaze met Caroline’s, who was sitting at the far end of the table, and I instinctively hesitated. However, Caroline looked away first. What was that?
“You two look so lovely together.”
“Indeed. To think you could create such different moods with the same dress code.”
“It even fits your images perfectly.”
The young ladies gathered at the table began to heap praise upon our custom dresses. Some were clearly jealous, offering forced smiles just to keep up appearances, while others were genuinely enchanted, saying they, too, would match dress codes with their friends for the next tea party. I smiled at them, making sure to subtly drive home the fact that all of this was thanks to Periose’s grace.
“Oh, have you all found your partners for the hunting festival?”
“I heard the Young Lady received an offer from the Crown Prince, is that true?”
“My goodness, then the best-dressed award at this year’s festival is as good as theirs.”
As the conversation turned to the hunting festival, Caroline’s face, which had been silent, darkened for a moment. One of her followers suddenly interjected into the group fawning over Periose, loudly asking Caroline:
“I heard you were going with the heir to the Maxton Viscounty for the hunting festival, Lady Caroline?”
“Oh, Maxton? Isn’t he the future leader of the Solin Guild, one of the top three in the empire?”
Strictly speaking, the Solin Guild wasn’t one of the top three in the empire, and whether Maxton or his younger sister, Jurasian, would become the next leader was still… no one knew.
Even in the original story, it was never properly addressed, so it was never made clear whether the next head of the Viscount Solindev family would be Maxton or his sister.
However, judging by the flow of events, it was clear that Maxton would fail to become the head of the family and would have both the position of head and the leadership of the merchant guild snatched away by his younger sister, Jurasian.
And for good reason—he was quite stupid.
As Caroline’s childhood friend, he was blinded by love, willing to do anything that would please her.
Of course, Caroline inadvertently ended up using him, but thinking about it now, I began to doubt whether all the episodes that appeared in the original story were truly devoid of Caroline’s intentions.
Recalling the foolish episode Maxton committed at the hunting festival after coming of age, I hoped that in this year’s festival, he would not go to extremes to “do something for Caroline” as he did in the original.
All the while, I remained completely unaware that the episode involving Maxton from the original story would be moved up to the present, long before he had even come of age.