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It was baffling.
Exactly what in this situation could possibly make Stella smile?
There was no way she could be happy to be alone in an isolated space with 'Evgenia Martir,' the woman who had always tormented and insulted her...
'Could Raymond be outside right now? It's absurd to think Stella would know that, but well, if we just assume she knew through the power of love...'
No, that was equally nonsensical.
It had happened in a mere flash, so there was a possibility I had misseen it.
In fact, that was the more realistic explanation.
However, for some reason, the moment I saw Stella's smile, I felt as if everything had been explained.
If my intuition wasn't wrong.
"Young Lady Aer."
"Ye—yes. Young Lady Martyr..."
"Lift your head and look at me."
Stella's trembling eyelashes fluttered slowly.
Beneath the pink lashes, raised at a pace slower than a turtle's, her blue eyes were clearly revealed.
Stella's entire body was shaking piteously, but her eyes.
Those glass-bead-like eyes did not waver in the slightest.
As if she weren't afraid of 'Evgenia' at all.
To turn my suspicion into certainty, I needed a bit of a gamble.
Very quickly, and as high as possible, I raised my right hand.
As if I were about to slap her cheek this instant.
Then,
'Ha. Is she actually laughing?'
Stella had squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of the coming pain, but she couldn't hide the way the corners of her mouth quirked up again.
I dropped my hand straight down at a right angle instead of following through with the diagonal strike.
I waited quietly, truly quietly, in front of her until Stella opened her eyes again.
Opening her eyes stealthily, Stella spoke in a daze.
"Y—Young Lady Martyr, why..."
"Why, what?"
"...That is, I mean..."
I didn't wait for the stammering Stella and cut her off.
"Ah, but it seems you've changed the nickname you used to use?"
"Yes..."
"From what I remember, you used to call Young Noble Raymond—no, Young Noble Larsen—'My Ray.' Wouldn't it be much better to use the nickname you originally used rather than the one I used? I'm sure Young Noble Larsen would want that too."
"T—that is..."
"Go to 'My Ray' and have a happy time. Don't waste precious time here. Got it?"
I gave the stunned Stella's shoulder a light pat and left the lounge.
The 'Ray-Ray' she had repeated several times before she smiled was the nickname 'Evgenia' had given Raymond.
There was no way Stella didn't know that 'Evgenia' would explode the moment anyone other than herself uttered 'Ray-Ray.'
In fact, she should know it better than anyone else in this Empire.
'And yet, she repeated it several times as if begging me to hear it...'
It couldn't have been simply to get on my nerves.
There was definitely something there.
I had a gut feeling that unless I figured out what that 'something' was, I wouldn't be able to escape this damn love triangle.
My head throbbed.
'...I need to go back to the mansion. I'll feel better if I get some sleep.'
The complicated situation was one thing, but the sleep deprivation caused by the stress of accompanying Raymond for nearly two weeks was likely the cause of my headache.
So, if I took a nap and woke up, I would surely feel much better.
My thoughts would be more organized, and then this incomprehensible reality would become logically explainable.
I turned back from the ballroom and headed toward the main gate of the mansion.
Raymond isn't a three-year-old baby, and he has Stella, his true destiny, so I can just go back without sending word.
After urging the dozing coachman and returning to the Martyr mansion, the strength drained from my body.
Like a piece of seaweed soaked in water, I was stripped, washed, and dressed by Anna's hands, and before I could even blink, I fell fast asleep.
My consciousness vanished into the distance, and my vision went completely black.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, a bright light flashed before my eyes, and a screen filled with dense black letters appeared.
In that moment, a choking sound escaped Evgenia's mouth.
It was because an excruciating pain, so severe she couldn't even scream, tore through her entire body.
The light no longer shone from her collarbone, where her treasure, the name, had been engraved.
Instead, there was only a hideous scar, mirroring Evgenia's current plight.
Imperial Princess Evgenia Martir thus vanished into history.
Leaving behind only the dishonorable mark of being the 'villainess of the century.'
—The Baron's Daughter Who Defies Fate Part 1 END
The moment I saw the last word, my eyes snapped open.
Shock? Absurdity? How should I describe this emotion?
"Part 1? It was Part 1? Everything I remembered wasn't all of it?"
Of course, I had suspected that I might not know all the information about the original work.
But that was a suspicion that I had simply missed some very detailed settings.
Not the horrific reality that the story of the original work I remembered was merely 'Part 1'!
"No wonder Raymond seemed like such trash. There's no way someone like that could be the male lead..."
For now, the behavior Raymond and Stella had shown so far was, no matter how many times I thought about it, truly that of lovers in love.
However, whether Raymond perfectly fit the mold of a typical novel's male protagonist was another story.
The insane claim that he would leave the villainess as the legal wife in name only and wipe out her family line was a piece of nonsense that a male lead should never dare utter.
Giving a thousand concessions, cruelly executing the villainess was within an acceptable range, but this was too...
'He's the trash among trash. Far from being heart-fluttering, it's just disgusting.'
What if Raymond isn't the male lead?
What if everything I've done so far has been useless?
All sorts of questions and doubts mingled, making my head hurt even more than before I fell asleep.
Among them, the thing that confused me the most was,
"...Why on earth did this content suddenly come to mind?"
It has already been over two months since I remembered the contents of the original work.
At that time, there was at least the physical and mental shock of the name manifesting.
But all that happened yesterday was attending a party with Raymond and having a conversation with Stella.
If that was the trigger, I should have remembered the contents of this 'Part 1' the day after the name manifested.
That means there was something different from usual, a shock equivalent to the manifestation of the name.
'...Is it because I erased the name? But...'
If it were a matter of shock, shouldn't I have remembered it as soon as the name was erased—that is, as soon as the matter with Yulan ended?
About two weeks have already passed since then.
If it's not time or stimulation, then what on earth...
"...I think I have to meet Yulan again."
Fortunately, the excuse to erase the name once more was perfectly prepared.
Since he likely has ears planted everywhere, he must be well aware of my situation.
The name was erased, yet instead of breaking the engagement, I'm attending all sorts of parties and flaunting our relationship?
If nothing else, he must have noticed that my plan had gone completely awry.
As I slowly lifted my head, I felt the bright morning sunlight piercing my eyes.
I didn't have the luxury of waiting until late at night.
Rather, if I moved early in the morning, I could leave no room for my father to suspect.
History can be written in the morning as well...
"Anna, get me ready to go out. I need to get a new dress."
I couldn't remember the name of the boutique Yulan owned, but I had the ability to find it.
I asked Anna, who had entered to help me prepare, in passing.
"What was the name of the boutique with the crest of a white magnolia entangled in thorns? I think there was a nice dress in their catalog."
"A crest with a white magnolia and thorns... that would probably be the Magnolia Boutique. The crest was very sophisticated, so it stayed in my memory, but since there hasn't been much word-of-mouth, I'm a bit confused. I recall it opened quite recently. Was it two months ago...?"
"Really? Then check it, and if it's that boutique, let's go around lunchtime. Fortunately, since there's no word-of-mouth, I should claim it first."
"Oh my. To think it has grown enough to catch our Young Lady's aesthetic eye in such a short time, the Madame's skill must be extraordinary!"
"Yeah, well. It seems so. I should have a very deep discussion with Madame Magnolia about dress design. The design was very bold."
Honestly, I didn't remember anything at all, but there was no way a cold person like Yulan would open a boutique by putting forward a Madame who lacked skill.
Furthermore, as the possibility of Raymond being the male lead plummeted, Yulan's possibility was soaring high into the sky.
'There's no way the male lead's (temporary) business would fail. Indeed.'
With a slightly excited heart, I boarded the carriage, and after a considerable amount of time, the place I arrived at was...
"...Anna, is this really 'that' Magnolia Boutique? You didn't find the wrong place?"
"Yes, Young Lady. This is the only Magnolia Boutique in the capital. No matter how much the Young Lady accepts catalogs from every boutique in the capital, to think they would have pushed a catalog even to a place like this... I really must check the location of the boutiques properly before accepting them from now on. How dare they, in front of whom!"
"This makes no sense..."
A building that was the definition of shabby, a street with a faint stench, and a premonition of crime glinting in every alley.
Could this boutique, located in a street that even ordinary commoners would avoid, really be a business run by Yulan?
My confidence vanished rapidly.
Perhaps it wasn't a white magnolia, but a black magnolia, or maybe it wasn't a magnolia at all.
Anyway, I must have been mistaken about something.
The moment I was about to stealthily turn back.
"Um, are you perhaps a customer?"
Exactly what in this situation could possibly make Stella smile?
There was no way she could be happy to be alone in an isolated space with 'Evgenia Martir,' the woman who had always tormented and insulted her...
'Could Raymond be outside right now? It's absurd to think Stella would know that, but well, if we just assume she knew through the power of love...'
No, that was equally nonsensical.
It had happened in a mere flash, so there was a possibility I had misseen it.
In fact, that was the more realistic explanation.
However, for some reason, the moment I saw Stella's smile, I felt as if everything had been explained.
If my intuition wasn't wrong.
"Young Lady Aer."
"Ye—yes. Young Lady Martyr..."
"Lift your head and look at me."
Stella's trembling eyelashes fluttered slowly.
Beneath the pink lashes, raised at a pace slower than a turtle's, her blue eyes were clearly revealed.
Stella's entire body was shaking piteously, but her eyes.
Those glass-bead-like eyes did not waver in the slightest.
As if she weren't afraid of 'Evgenia' at all.
To turn my suspicion into certainty, I needed a bit of a gamble.
Very quickly, and as high as possible, I raised my right hand.
As if I were about to slap her cheek this instant.
Then,
'Ha. Is she actually laughing?'
Stella had squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of the coming pain, but she couldn't hide the way the corners of her mouth quirked up again.
I dropped my hand straight down at a right angle instead of following through with the diagonal strike.
I waited quietly, truly quietly, in front of her until Stella opened her eyes again.
Opening her eyes stealthily, Stella spoke in a daze.
"Y—Young Lady Martyr, why..."
"Why, what?"
"...That is, I mean..."
I didn't wait for the stammering Stella and cut her off.
"Ah, but it seems you've changed the nickname you used to use?"
"Yes..."
"From what I remember, you used to call Young Noble Raymond—no, Young Noble Larsen—'My Ray.' Wouldn't it be much better to use the nickname you originally used rather than the one I used? I'm sure Young Noble Larsen would want that too."
"T—that is..."
"Go to 'My Ray' and have a happy time. Don't waste precious time here. Got it?"
I gave the stunned Stella's shoulder a light pat and left the lounge.
The 'Ray-Ray' she had repeated several times before she smiled was the nickname 'Evgenia' had given Raymond.
There was no way Stella didn't know that 'Evgenia' would explode the moment anyone other than herself uttered 'Ray-Ray.'
In fact, she should know it better than anyone else in this Empire.
'And yet, she repeated it several times as if begging me to hear it...'
It couldn't have been simply to get on my nerves.
There was definitely something there.
I had a gut feeling that unless I figured out what that 'something' was, I wouldn't be able to escape this damn love triangle.
My head throbbed.
'...I need to go back to the mansion. I'll feel better if I get some sleep.'
The complicated situation was one thing, but the sleep deprivation caused by the stress of accompanying Raymond for nearly two weeks was likely the cause of my headache.
So, if I took a nap and woke up, I would surely feel much better.
My thoughts would be more organized, and then this incomprehensible reality would become logically explainable.
I turned back from the ballroom and headed toward the main gate of the mansion.
Raymond isn't a three-year-old baby, and he has Stella, his true destiny, so I can just go back without sending word.
After urging the dozing coachman and returning to the Martyr mansion, the strength drained from my body.
Like a piece of seaweed soaked in water, I was stripped, washed, and dressed by Anna's hands, and before I could even blink, I fell fast asleep.
My consciousness vanished into the distance, and my vision went completely black.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, a bright light flashed before my eyes, and a screen filled with dense black letters appeared.
In that moment, a choking sound escaped Evgenia's mouth.
It was because an excruciating pain, so severe she couldn't even scream, tore through her entire body.
The light no longer shone from her collarbone, where her treasure, the name, had been engraved.
Instead, there was only a hideous scar, mirroring Evgenia's current plight.
Imperial Princess Evgenia Martir thus vanished into history.
Leaving behind only the dishonorable mark of being the 'villainess of the century.'
—The Baron's Daughter Who Defies Fate Part 1 END
The moment I saw the last word, my eyes snapped open.
Shock? Absurdity? How should I describe this emotion?
"Part 1? It was Part 1? Everything I remembered wasn't all of it?"
Of course, I had suspected that I might not know all the information about the original work.
But that was a suspicion that I had simply missed some very detailed settings.
Not the horrific reality that the story of the original work I remembered was merely 'Part 1'!
"No wonder Raymond seemed like such trash. There's no way someone like that could be the male lead..."
For now, the behavior Raymond and Stella had shown so far was, no matter how many times I thought about it, truly that of lovers in love.
However, whether Raymond perfectly fit the mold of a typical novel's male protagonist was another story.
The insane claim that he would leave the villainess as the legal wife in name only and wipe out her family line was a piece of nonsense that a male lead should never dare utter.
Giving a thousand concessions, cruelly executing the villainess was within an acceptable range, but this was too...
'He's the trash among trash. Far from being heart-fluttering, it's just disgusting.'
What if Raymond isn't the male lead?
What if everything I've done so far has been useless?
All sorts of questions and doubts mingled, making my head hurt even more than before I fell asleep.
Among them, the thing that confused me the most was,
"...Why on earth did this content suddenly come to mind?"
It has already been over two months since I remembered the contents of the original work.
At that time, there was at least the physical and mental shock of the name manifesting.
But all that happened yesterday was attending a party with Raymond and having a conversation with Stella.
If that was the trigger, I should have remembered the contents of this 'Part 1' the day after the name manifested.
That means there was something different from usual, a shock equivalent to the manifestation of the name.
'...Is it because I erased the name? But...'
If it were a matter of shock, shouldn't I have remembered it as soon as the name was erased—that is, as soon as the matter with Yulan ended?
About two weeks have already passed since then.
If it's not time or stimulation, then what on earth...
"...I think I have to meet Yulan again."
Fortunately, the excuse to erase the name once more was perfectly prepared.
Since he likely has ears planted everywhere, he must be well aware of my situation.
The name was erased, yet instead of breaking the engagement, I'm attending all sorts of parties and flaunting our relationship?
If nothing else, he must have noticed that my plan had gone completely awry.
As I slowly lifted my head, I felt the bright morning sunlight piercing my eyes.
I didn't have the luxury of waiting until late at night.
Rather, if I moved early in the morning, I could leave no room for my father to suspect.
History can be written in the morning as well...
"Anna, get me ready to go out. I need to get a new dress."
I couldn't remember the name of the boutique Yulan owned, but I had the ability to find it.
I asked Anna, who had entered to help me prepare, in passing.
"What was the name of the boutique with the crest of a white magnolia entangled in thorns? I think there was a nice dress in their catalog."
"A crest with a white magnolia and thorns... that would probably be the Magnolia Boutique. The crest was very sophisticated, so it stayed in my memory, but since there hasn't been much word-of-mouth, I'm a bit confused. I recall it opened quite recently. Was it two months ago...?"
"Really? Then check it, and if it's that boutique, let's go around lunchtime. Fortunately, since there's no word-of-mouth, I should claim it first."
"Oh my. To think it has grown enough to catch our Young Lady's aesthetic eye in such a short time, the Madame's skill must be extraordinary!"
"Yeah, well. It seems so. I should have a very deep discussion with Madame Magnolia about dress design. The design was very bold."
Honestly, I didn't remember anything at all, but there was no way a cold person like Yulan would open a boutique by putting forward a Madame who lacked skill.
Furthermore, as the possibility of Raymond being the male lead plummeted, Yulan's possibility was soaring high into the sky.
'There's no way the male lead's (temporary) business would fail. Indeed.'
With a slightly excited heart, I boarded the carriage, and after a considerable amount of time, the place I arrived at was...
"...Anna, is this really 'that' Magnolia Boutique? You didn't find the wrong place?"
"Yes, Young Lady. This is the only Magnolia Boutique in the capital. No matter how much the Young Lady accepts catalogs from every boutique in the capital, to think they would have pushed a catalog even to a place like this... I really must check the location of the boutiques properly before accepting them from now on. How dare they, in front of whom!"
"This makes no sense..."
A building that was the definition of shabby, a street with a faint stench, and a premonition of crime glinting in every alley.
Could this boutique, located in a street that even ordinary commoners would avoid, really be a business run by Yulan?
My confidence vanished rapidly.
Perhaps it wasn't a white magnolia, but a black magnolia, or maybe it wasn't a magnolia at all.
Anyway, I must have been mistaken about something.
The moment I was about to stealthily turn back.
"Um, are you perhaps a customer?"
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