Chapter 21

I spent time interacting with various nobles alongside Father and Mother.

Merely offering greetings brought remarks like “What a lovely young lady you are,” though those words felt laced with more than a little irony.

In response, Father delivered such sharp, unexpected comebacks that most of the nobles were left speechless and forced into strained smiles.

The noble children were all gathered in one section of the banquet hall, so we didn’t even cross paths. Father had asked if I wanted to go over, but both Will and I shook our heads.

Will was antisocial and hated crowds. As for me, I simply didn’t want anyone shouting out the pure, childish truth: What on earth do you mean by an absolute beauty?!

At least the subtle, quiet irony of the nobles was a hundred times easier to deal with. Being told something so bluntly stood out too much and was utterly embarrassing.

Thinking that, I stayed close to my parents, but there was one child who, just like us, was standing right beside her parents.

“This child is my daughter.”

The heavily made-up lady pushed forward a girl who was the very definition of an undisputed beauty. She was an unimaginably adorable angel. It was terrifying. No one would ever believe such a breathtaking girl could exist in this world.

People often claimed everyone was born equal, but that was a blatant lie.

The girl standing before me was so gorgeous that I wanted to drop to my knees and apologize just for existing in the same room while being called a beauty.

Her silky, loosely-waving butter-blonde hair, long eyelashes framing chocolate-like eyes with a melancholic gaze, porcelain-white skin, and lips tinted with a faint pink and red. She wore the very same frilly lolita fashion I had originally been scheduled to wear, pulling it off to absolute perfection.

Thank goodness! I was so glad I didn’t wear that dress!! Comparing myself to a beauty like this would be entirely too humiliating.

Even Will was glued to the spot, staring at the beautiful girl with a faint blush on his cheeks. When I flashed him a knowing grin, he glared at me, silently telling me not to look his way. Youth. Oh, youth!

An instant later, a chilling shudder ran down my spine, and as I turned back to the front, the heavily made-up lady━━presumably the beautiful girl’s mother━━was glaring at me with a terrifying expression. It was far beyond the look of a vengeful demon.

“To call a child like you a beauty… Well, I suppose she’s cute enough in her own way, but my Ciel is far more lovely. Shouldn’t you put a bit more effort into her makeup?”

Hearing the lady’s venomous words, the girl who had been standing like a doll lifted her downcast gaze and took me in.

S-She moved…!? No, wait! She was too cute! The sheer power of simply making eye contact felt like it pierced straight through my heart. It was too dazzling to look at…! My eyes were going to blind!!

Stepping forward to shield me from that glare was Mother, who had maintained a serene smile until just moments ago.

“My, my, if it isn’t Lady Rosea. It’s been quite some time. Your daughter is exceptionally lovely, unlike her mother. I am positively green with envy.”

Mother dropped her own venom with equal nonchalance, causing veins to bulge on the forehead of the lady addressed as Rosea.

“Your sharp tongue hasn’t changed a bit!”

“And your bitter disposition has grown quite severe indeed!”

Sparks flew between the two women in a clash utterly unsuited for an elegant party.

“I will never forget how you stole my dear Sieg away from me!”

“Oh? Wasn’t that rather the result of your own haughty attitude?”

As it turned out, Father’s former fiancée happened to be this very lady. When I stole a sideways glance at Father, he was just standing there with an oblivious, cheerful smile. Was he thick-skinned, or just completely oblivious to a woman’s heart…?

He could at least pretend to look concerned or slightly guilty.

Meanwhile, the beautiful girl was still staring right at me. Will was still staring fixedly at her as well, making this corner of the room far too chaotic.

I felt entirely exhausted, as though my life force had been completely sucked dry just from standing here.

The gardens of the royal palace were remarkably vast. If you played tag here, you’d probably get lost. Trying to walk from one end of the palace grounds to the other would undoubtedly be impossible without a carriage, and even then, it would take quite a while.

Deciding to explore only within the range where the lights from the main hall were visible so I wouldn’t get lost, I slipped away. When I told Father and Mother that I felt a bit unwell and wanted to catch some night air before greeting the crown prince, they both readily agreed. Mother seemed genuinely remorseful about staging that confrontation with the heavily made-up lady right in front of the children. Whatever the case, good job to me.

Resting on a bench beneath a large tree, I spotted a dome-like structure through the trees in the distance. It was probably a greenhouse.

As I stood up to go look at the flowers, I felt a gentle tug on the hem of my dress. Turning around on reflex, I saw the beautiful girl from earlier, bathed in moonlight and letting her cream-colored hair flutter as she caught her breath, looking straight at me.

After staring at each other in surprise for a few moments, the girl’s red lips finally trembled.

“I’m Ciel.”

Her voice wasn’t as high-pitched as I expected, carrying a clear, pleasant tone.

Gathering my wits from my frozen state, I hastily introduced myself in return.

“I am Bertia.”

Once our introductions were finished, the silence threatened to return, but Ciel broke the atmosphere.

“There is something I want to say to you.”

Her chocolate-colored eyes stared intently at me.

“What might that be?” I replied, keeping up my best young lady facade.

“I hate you.”

My brain completely abandoned thought at the shocking declaration, leaving me utterly unable to process what Ciel had just said.

“…Eh?”

The voice I managed to squeeze out was terribly faint, vanishing into the air.

With just that, Ciel turned on her heel, and I hurriedly scrambled to intercept her.

“W-Wait! What do you mean by that? I don’t remember ever doing anything to you!”

In fact, this was literally the first time we had ever spoken.

The sheer impact of being told “I hate you” by a beauty was immense, and the damage hit me just as hard as the initial desire I’d had to become friends with her.

Stopping dead in her tracks, Ciel glared at me with an expressionless face. The intensity of her stare made me realize she genuinely, truly despised me. Ah, I felt like crying.

“Everyone always compares me to you.”

“…Eh?”

Compare whom?

Who on earth was comparing me and Ciel?

“Mother always tells me to be more beautiful than you. She’s constantly competing with your mother. Never once caring about how I feel.”

Though her face didn’t change, she was unmistakably angry. At her own mother.

Did that mean this had nothing to do with me?

“Because of you, I have to do all of this. I don’t want to wear clothes like this. I don’t want to grow my hair out, either.”

Moisture began to well up in her chocolate eyes. They looked on the verge of spilling over, trembling every time Ciel’s body shook.

“…That’s why I hate you. Because it’s all your fault.”

“……”

This was complete collateral damage!!

Because of Ciel’s mother, I was the one Ciel hated. What a disaster!

Still, taking out frustrations she couldn’t direct at her own mother on me was hardly fair. Surely she hadn’t forgotten that I was a young lady of the Tybus family, right?

Right now, I had every right to scold her and get angry. Yet, seeing a fragile girl driven to the point of tears by her pent-up emotions made it impossible to harbor any real urge to lecture her.

With a sigh, I pulled out my own handkerchief and offered it to the girl in front of me.

Ciel took it and blew her nose with a force loud enough to defy any notions of being a proper young lady. Despite her appearance, she might actually turn out to be quite sloppy.

“Bawling out insults at a lady of higher status isn’t something I’d recommend.”

Ciel stayed silent, merely clutching the handkerchief tightly in her hands. I had no intention of lecturing her right here and now, but she really ought to take a bit more responsibility for her words and actions.

I let out a mental sigh as I looked down at Ciel, who stood there quietly with reddened eyes.

I really wanted to be friends with her, too…

“…I’m sorry.”

Murmuring those words abruptly, Ciel turned and bolted back toward the party venue. I figured running was a bad look for a young lady, but she had been out of breath even when she first approached me.

Overwhelmed by this unexpected, tomboyish beauty, I offered a wry smile. Then, I resumed my original course toward the greenhouse.