Episode 9

Reuden, who had opened the door and come in, was dressed differently than usual—in attire that was both splendid and restrained.

A black jacket, gold tassels on both shoulders. Gold ornaments were set into it in a dizzying array, and on his chest was even a brooch bearing the Blair family crest.

That wasn’t all. His hair, which he usually wore hanging carelessly down, had been swept back halfway, revealing a glimpse of his neat forehead.

What’s with that outfit?

He opened his mouth indifferently.

“You’re not throwing anything today?”

“Huh?”

“Whenever I came into your room, you always threw things at me like you wanted to kill me.”

“……Huh?”

“Forget it. More importantly, don’t even think about coming.”

“What are you talking about? Since earlier.”

“Why are you pretending not to know?”

It was then.

Ding—a familiar sound pierced my ears, and an opaque window appeared before my eyes.

Today’s Second Mission

‘Today is the banquet celebrating the Hugo Knights’ safe return! We weren’t invited, but let’s barge in!’

Accept / Decline

The Hugo Knights? A celebration banquet?

I blinked at those two phrases, then slowly opened my mouth.

“A ba-banquet?”

“See? You do know.”

“Today is the Hugo Knights’ celebration banquet?”

“……But how do you know about the Hugo Knights?”

Regardless of what Reuden was saying, I repeated the name Hugo Knights over and over in my mouth.

The Hugo Knights.

A name I’d seen in some report a week ago.

And the banquet…….

‘Ah……!’

I finally remembered. The Hugo Knights were an order of knights that subjugated dragons sleeping or running rampant all over the world.

They had originally been a small order, but as their influence gradually grew, the king set his sights on them. I think the story had gone on at length explaining that the royal family was throwing some grand celebration banquet to bring them under its command.

Good heavens. How could I have forgotten?

A chill ran through me, as if all the blood had drained from my body.

The reason was simple.

Because Rene Blair died at that celebration banquet!

‘That was today?’

In the original, it seemed Rene had gone to the banquet because of this mission and died there.

‘Well, I just won’t go.’

With a movement subtle enough that Reuden wouldn’t find it strange, I brought my finger toward Decline.

But before I could press it, Reuden spoke to me.

“I asked how you know about the Hugo Knights.”

“Why? Am I not allowed to know about the Hugo Knights?”

“You’re not interested in things like that.”

“Even if I’m not, what am I supposed to do when rumors reach my ears? And don’t worry, I’m not going to the banquet.”

Reuden looked at me with suspicious eyes.

Ugh, he’s like that even when I say I won’t go.

To show him I had not the slightest interest in things like banquets, I sat down in my chair.

As if I were about to start working at any moment.

At that, his gaze moved to the documents arranged on my desk, then returned to me.

“Don’t cause trouble.”

“I haven’t caused any trouble recently, you know?”

“And don’t hurt yourself.”

He said it as if in passing.

Surprised by the unexpected words, I widened my eyes and looked at him. Reuden continued with his usual cold expression.

“Why, did you think I wouldn’t know?”

“…….”

“It’s good that you stopped the violence you used to wield against others at every turn.”

Before I knew it, he had come right up to the desk and carefully reached his hand toward my cheek.

The cool aura of his hand hovered near my cheek.

What situation is this? The moment I unconsciously held my breath at the inexplicable tension, he clicked his tongue.

“But that didn’t mean you should turn that violence on yourself.”

“……You said you weren’t worried.”

“It’s different when the assailant is none other than yourself. Self-harm? You’d have to have something wrong with your head.”

What?

I thought he was purely worried about me, but it was because he thought my head wasn’t normal?

Embarrassed that I had gotten nervous without realizing it, I swatted his hand away. At the same time, my hand thumped against the mission window nearby.

“There’s nothing wrong with my head!”

“I’m sure.”

Reuden fiddled with the hand I’d pushed away and turned his back. I opened my mouth to argue further, then closed it.

Because the expression I glimpsed as he turned away made my mind go blank, and I forgot what I was going to say.

Maybe I was mistaken…….

No, I must have been.

It looked like Reuden was smiling.

* * *

If someone asked me whether Reuden had originally been the type of character who smiled often, I could say with certainty that he wasn’t.

To begin with, the reason I hadn’t liked Reuden as a male lead candidate was that he was always so blunt.

But someone like him had……. smiled? At his own younger sister, whom he had given up on for being too much of a delinquent?

“I must have seen wrong, after all.”

As I muttered to myself in the room where I was left alone after Reuden had gone out, I finally remembered the existence of the mission.

Right, I have to hurry and decline it.

I quickly turned my head to press Decline, but strangely, the window that should have been in my line of sight was nowhere to be seen.

Huh?

Why…… is it gone?

At that moment, something flashed through my mind. It was the moment just now when I had swatted Reuden’s hand away.

My hand did bump into the window then. Don’t tell me I pressed it at that moment……?

Then what did I press?

If I pressed Decline, the third mission would appear before long.

But if I pressed Accept…….

“Mission.”

Praying it wasn’t true, I called up the mission as if clutching at straws—

Ding.

Mission in Progress

‘Today is the banquet celebrating the Hugo Knights’ safe return! We weren’t invited, but let’s barge in!’

Aaaaaaah, please!

Because of the window that brazenly appeared before my eyes, I grabbed my head without realizing it.

Can’t I cancel this? Can’t I give up midway?

There was no cancel option anywhere. In despair, I covered my face with both hands.

It seemed I was doomed.

If I couldn’t cancel it, then I had no choice but to go to the banquet. What if I went and really ended up dead?

No, what if I just refused to do it outright?

I’d still receive a penalty.

Just the fact that I’d accepted the mission made me feel as if I’d aged ten years.

If only it weren’t for Reuden.

I knew on one hand that Reuden wasn’t at fault, but I wanted to resent someone.

“Haa…….”

A desperate sigh escaped me. Then my eyes shifted to the call bell in the corner of the desk.

That was the bell used to call a maid.

For the record, I had never used that bell before. But today was different. Right now, I needed the maids’ strength and skill.

After steeling myself, I seized the bell and shook it rapidly.

* * *

“My lady, if His Excellency catches you again this time, he won’t let it pass lightly.”

Catherine said that as she stepped down from the carriage and held out her hand to me. Her expression was not good.

It seemed to be because I, having decided to carry out the mission, had come to the royal palace on my own.

I smiled brightly for no reason, took Catherine’s hand, and got down from the carriage.

“Don’t worry! I’ll just pop into the banquet hall for a moment and come right back out.”

“As I have always told you, without an invitation, you cannot enter at all.”

“And I’ve attended plenty of banquets without an invitation.”

Catherine pressed her lips shut. Yes, she couldn’t refute that.

“I know what you’re worried about, Catherine. But it’s fine. I’m going to go in more peacefully than ever.”

At my words, she stared at me with a look of disbelief, then soon relaxed her expression. Seeing that change, I smiled at her again before secretly letting out a sigh.

The truth was, I had no plan at all.

I could infer from the mission that I hadn’t received an invitation, but I didn’t understand it.

This was a banquet hosted by none other than the royal family.

And they didn’t give an invitation to the daughter of a marquis? No matter how much of a delinquent Rene Blair was, they wouldn’t invite a high-ranking noble?

‘Did someone intercept it?’

I even entertained that ridiculous thought before my face hardened.

Was not being invited the problem right now? The problem was how to get into the banquet.

Rene Blair had supposedly appeared like a phantom at any banquet even without an invitation and caused a scene, but I couldn’t do that.

When I needed to settle my reputation as soon as possible and play with Anastasia, cause a scene?

And in the very banquet hall where I had met my death in the original story?

Just imagining it gave me chills, and I shook my head. Somehow, I had to peacefully barge into the banquet hall.

Catherine, who had been speaking with the coachman for a moment, immediately escorted me.

Perhaps because my efforts over the past week had paid off, Catherine had opened her heart to me the tiiiiniest bit.

Look at her even now. She held my hand when I got down from the carriage and was escorting me.

I could take that as a positive change, right?

Just as a satisfied expression rose to my face without me realizing it, feeling as though changing my reputation was proceeding slowly but surely, Catherine spoke to me.

“But my lady, you look especially pale today.”

“Pale? Ah… That’s because I put on my makeup a bit heavily to cover the bruise.”

Hendel had gone to some trouble.

As soon as I decided to borrow the maids’ strength and skill and rang the bell, the maids had come rushing in.

There was Hendel, Laura, whom I had spoken with from time to time, and Julie and Lin, whom I hadn’t talked to but whose faces I often saw.

Absurdly enough, the head maid wasn’t there. What on earth was that woman doing? While I was being dressed up, I should have asked what on earth she was doing that kept her from being seen.

In any case, Hendel, who had grown noticeably closer to me recently, had nagged me while powdering my face when I told her I was going to a banquet and asked her to help me get ready.

‘My lady… Why do you keep slapping your cheeks these days? It makes me so upset….’

It’s not as if I can slap you, Hendel.

Those words almost slipped out. Of course, as an intellectual, I held them back.

At any rate, this was the result of Hendel nagging me while coating my face with powder. I knew it looked unnatural, and so did the maids, but there was no helping it if I wanted to cover the bruise.

After finishing my recollection, I looked down.

Plain, but not shabby attire.

Among the clothes Rene Blair owned, the only relatively subdued outfit was mourning wear, so these were clothes I had borrowed from Lin, the maid of noble birth.

She seemed worried that I might tear them up.

I understood. If it were me, I would also have thought there was no way that delinquent Rene Blair would leave someone else’s clothes intact.

Well, even so, Lin’s worries would prove unfounded.

Because I was going to come out as soon as I entered the banquet hall!

“Catherine, do I look very demure?”

I asked out of the blue.

Catherine blinked once, then answered carefully.

“You are beautiful.”

“Huh? No… Do I look demure? I don’t care if I’m pretty….”

“How could I possibly say such a thing?”

“Why couldn’t you? Hurry, tell me honestly. If I don’t look demure, it’s useless.”

At my urging, which was practically whining, Catherine answered with an unusually hesitant expression.

“Leaving aside whether you look demure, you look unwell. Your face is far too pale. It seems to be because you used a different style of makeup than usual….”

“Oh, it’s that much? I only thought I’d look strange. I didn’t realize I’d look sick.”

“I think others may misunderstand if they see you.”

Well, either way, it meant I looked different from usual, didn’t it? Then it was fine.

Feeling relieved, I looked around, and all kinds of carriages were lined up.

So among these is the carriage that brought the person who’s going to kill me….

As tension washed over me again and I took a few steps, the splendid garden I had seen on the first day of my possession spread out before my eyes.

Come to think of it, this was where I met Anastasia, wasn’t it?

That day, the moment I realized she was Anastasia, an intense rush of joy had swept over me. Was it normal to be so happy you lost your reason when you met your favorite character?

As I walked while lost in thought, I soon arrived before the doors of the banquet hall.

Guards stood watch in front of the tightly closed banquet hall doors.

‘So I have to get through there.’

Just as I was staring at them in despair, I saw familiar hair between the guards.

Reflected in the sunlight, silver hair glittered like moonlight. The person standing there with an aloof posture raised the eyes they had lowered at the sign of someone approaching.

When our eyes met, those golden eyes trembled. As if she were surprised that I was here.

“Anastasia, hello….”

Yes, it was Anastasia.