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“By the way, Father, I was thinking of going into town today.”
Wiping the corner of my mouth with a napkin, I brought it up in a calm voice. I secretly ran my tongue over my lips, savoring the lingering pleasure of eating a meal as a human again after so long.
“I’ll be taking a few maids with me, of course.”
“What business do you have in town?”
“Why, to buy a gift for Lord Vincent, naturally.”
I heard Helena draw a faint, sharp breath at my words. From the tiniest sound of someone’s breathing to the slightest movement of their fingers, even the subtle emotions invisible to the naked eye, I could understand everything about another person as though it were laid out before me.
Perhaps it was a remnant of my former life as a cat, or perhaps a whimsical gift from God. Either way, this ability could prove to be a tremendous advantage. The only downside was that if I let my guard down, I might find myself grooming my hair with a clenched fist out of sheer feline habit.
“…Lord Vincent wouldn’t be happy to receive a gift from someone like you, Sister.”
“Oh? You seem to know him quite well, Helena.”
“Since you’re so cold toward him, I’m always the one who comforts him.”
Her previously displeased expression twisted into a smug grin. Her light brown eyes, a slightly different shade from Ophelia’s, glittered triumphantly, but I didn’t find her threatening in the slightest.
“Thank you, Helena. But you don’t need to worry anymore. From now on, you can focus on finding a fiancé of your own.”
“…Huh? What are you talking about?”
Apparently, Helena had had more potential fiancés than anyone could count. Greedy and selfish, she had desperately wanted her elder sister’s fiancé and seemed incapable of being satisfied with what she already had in her grasp.
Ophelia was reserved and introverted, but there wasn’t a single way in which she was inferior to Helena, either in appearance or in character. She had merely made herself appear that way on purpose. If anything, her excessively kind nature could be considered her only flaw.
To me, however, it was her greatest and most precious virtue—and the very reason I refused to give in to the urge for revenge.
I would find happiness while living as Ophelia, without bringing others down to get there. As for the supporting characters, I would simply let them fall all on their own.
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