IWAP - Chapter 96

"It doesn't look like it will subside easily." 

"Are you going to go and see for yourself?" 

As I was about to get out of the carriage, Marie followed me with a troubled expression.

"Levina is here." 

"No, I'll go with you."

I did not bother to stop Levina from following me. As we got out of the carriage, Marie straightened my wrinkled skirt. Levina, who had not been accompanied by a personal maid, looked embarrassed. Marie, who had become more perceptive in the meantime, quickly straightened Levina's skirt as well.

"You’ve become quite the lady-in-waiting." 

"Hehe."

No sooner had I praised her than Marie grinned and ran her finger across the tip of her nose. It wasn't exactly the demeanor of a maid, but I decided to pretend I hadn't seen it and let it slide.

'It's worlds apart from when we first met.'

Leaving the carriage behind, I arrived at the place where the commotion was breaking out after walking only a few steps. However, the people were gathered there.

"It was not easy to get close because of them." 

It looks like the carriage won't be able to move for a while.

I don't know what happened, but it didn't look like the crowd would leave easily.

It was only natural that if this did not move, the carriage would also be unable to move.

It seemed like it would be much faster to walk to the destination than to hope they would disperse.

"It would be better to walk." 

"I think that would be better, just like Bjornne said." 

"At least it's a relief that the destination isn't far. Will you be alright?"

Louisha's shop was about a ten-minute walk away. An ordinary noble lady would never have tried to walk that distance. However, perhaps because Levina was no ordinary noble lady, she nodded immediately without the slightest hesitation.

"Of course. Even with all this weight, I'd be nothing without my health!" 

Levina patted her chest with a face full of confidence.

"That's a relief. Then I'll be going...!"

Just as I was about to turn to avoid the continuously swarming crowd, a familiar sky-blue ball of yarn caught my eye at the edge of my vision. I immediately stopped moving and stared intently at one spot.

"No matter how much you are a Duke's daughter, you cannot be this rude to me."

A sharp voice cut through the air. I gestured to Marie, and she slipped through the crowd to make a path. The people, who had been showing displeasure at Marie's intrusion, hurriedly opened the way for me and Levina upon seeing me.

“You’re rude.”

"Rude? Who are you calling rude to whom right now?"

A highly agitated voice rang out once again. Standing in the center of the crowd was the Countess of Lesliere, whom I had spoken to at the tea party. She glared at the woman talking back to her and grumbled.

"How dare you think you know who I am!"

"You are the one who knows who this person is, so why are you acting so rudely?"

“What?”

Countess Lesliere fumed, her face turning bright red. She looked so furious that she seemed ready to fall backward at the slightest provocation.

Match!

“Ah!”

Countess Lesliere could not control her anger and swung her hand at the woman. The lady-in-waiting's cheek was twisted to one side, and Lady Deisha, who was hiding behind her, screamed.

'Tsk, it looks like that woman hasn't come to her senses even after getting hit by me.'

The woman who was slapped by Countess Lesliere was the woman who had recently been dismissed from her position as a court lady for talking back to me.

Seeing that she was still staying by the side of Lady Deisha even after being expelled from the palace, it seemed she had become a lady-in-waiting of the ducal family.

"Leah, are you okay?”

Lady Deisha grabbed the woman's sleeve and teared up.

"Is Lady Deisha ignoring me right now?" 

At Countess Lesliere's scream, which revealed her viciousness, the tears that had been welling up in her eyes finally flowed down her cheeks.

“It’s bad!”

“What now...?"

"To think you hit Leah. You are a bad person, young lady!"

"..." 

Countess Lesliere gaped with a face that looked as if she were about to faint. Seeing the Countess speechless with disbelief, I was reminded of my past self.

'Tsk. I know how that feels.'

Lady Deisha was the same then as she is now. She was still ignorant and faithful only to her own feelings. Looking back now, she and I were terribly alike.

'Just as magnets repel like poles, perhaps we hated each other so much because we were so alike.'

I disliked her for being exactly the same as she was back then, yet I felt a strange sense of relief at her unchanging appearance. Even I thought it was an odd feeling.

"You are going too far, Lady Deisha." 

Someone stepped forward on behalf of the Countess of Lesliere, who was speechless from shock. Judging by the face, it was one of the people who hung out with the Countess of Lesliere.

'Was it Baron Kerion's daughter?'

"It was the Lady's attendant who first showed disrespect. Yet, to retaliate with such insults. Is the Young Lady ignoring all of us right now?" 

I almost found myself applauding her eloquence, which instantly turned Lady Deisha into a public enemy of her own group with just a single word.

However, she seemed to underestimate the Lady of Deisha.

'If I had been able to understand just this much, I wouldn't have fainted several times back then, unable to control my overflowing anger.'

Sure enough, Lady Deisha grumbled in a crying voice.

"It's just a dirty skirt. Leah is bleeding from her face."

As expected, she did not disappoint my expectations. Ignoring all context and thinking only by her own standards

That was a remark typical of her.

The Lady of Deisha had no concept of the etiquette or norms that any member of society is expected to observe. She distinguished everything as good or evil based on her own judgment.

She believed that what she knew was unconditionally right. And she forced what she believed to be right upon others.

'Exactly, just like now.'

"W-What do you mean!"

The young lady's patience was as thin as a sheet of paper as she had to deal with the Duke's daughter, Deisha, who was stubbornly insisting on her point of view like a tantrum. Being young and inexperienced, it seemed as though she was encountering something like this for the first time. The young lady, who had been speaking coherently just moments ago, instantly flushed.

"Apologize to Leah." 

Large eyes glistened with tears and pressured the young ladies.

“Violence is bad.”

At Lady Deisha's cry, not only Countess Lesliere but also the other young ladies gathered around her trembled with humiliation.

They are aristocrats to the core. Believing themselves to be superior to commoners, even if their fault is clear.

Even if they did everything, they never bowed their head to a commoner.

Moreover, apologizing to a commoner who talked back to them was unimaginable for them, who were so tightly bound by pride.

It was something I couldn't do.

'I'm getting the gist of it.'

Seeing the conversations going back and forth, the man lying on the floor, and the dirty hem of Countess Lesliere's skirt, I could roughly guess what had happened.

'So you blindly defended the servant who made a mistake.'

It appears that Lady Deisha shielded the attendant who soiled Countess Lesliere's skirt.

It is not a good idea to unconditionally cover up a servant's mistakes. This is especially true if the person involved is a noble.

As the master, I had to politely apologize to the noble who was harmed and punish the servant who made the mistake to the extent that the noble would accept it.

However, Lady Deisha did not have such a concept. In her eyes, Countess Lesliere was nothing more and nothing less than a villain who tormented her people.

"Who are you telling whom to apologize to right now!"

Countess Lesliere let out a scream, as if she could no longer bear it. Startled, Lady Deisha quickly hid behind her lady-in-waiting.

Perhaps even more angered by Lady Deisha's behavior, Countess Lesliere eventually called her knights.

"Drag that bastard out right now. I will hold her personally accountable for her disrespect to me!"

Countess Lesliere gritted her teeth and pointed her finger at the man lying face down on the floor.

Punishing a servant who had a master without the master's permission, and moreover, right in front of the master, was an extremely rude thing to do.

No matter how dim-witted the Duke Deisha's daughter may seem, she is the Duke's only daughter. Punishing her attendant right in front of her eyes was no different from directly challenging the Deisha ducal family.

However, to Countess Lesliere, whose eyes were already rolled back in rage, such rules seemed to be of no concern whatsoever.

'Or maybe they have a hidden ulterior motive.'

“What are you doing!”

The knights, who had hesitated for a moment, moved as if they had no choice when the order was given again.

"No!"

Lady Deisha blocked the knights' path. The knights guarding her rear also moved to protect her.

As the atmosphere grew increasingly hostile, the onlookers began to leave one by one. They were concerned that they might get caught up in the nobles' fight and suffer unnecessary harm.

No matter how entertaining a fight might be—just like watching a fire—it wouldn't be more important than their own lives.

"Miss."

“Bjornne.”

Marie and Levina looked at me at the same time with anxious expressions. It was not that I didn't understand their desire to get out of here quickly, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to leave.

"If you come any closer, I will scream."

"..." 

'Pfft, threatening me when I’ve already become a spectacle.'

The behavior of Lady Deisha, who was spreading her arms wide as if to shield the attendant's body and speaking as if she were being solemn, was laughable. As if I wasn't the only one who thought so, Countess Lesliere snorted.

"Go ahead and give it a shot. The Count of Lesliere is a prestigious family that rivals even the Duke of Deisha's family. Besides, my mother is the daughter of His Imperial Majesty. Let's see who wins until the very end."

'As expected, she had something on her side.'

Although a Duke was much higher in rank than a Count, there were many ambiguous aspects when determining the hierarchy of power based solely on titles.

Duke Deisha had lived only within his own territory until now. Naturally, he had no support base in the capital. Although the aristocratic faction was hovering around the Duke, there had been no significant connection between them so far.

On the other hand, the Count of Lesliere, like the Marquis of Elliot, was one of the founding families of the Empire. Moreover, according to the words of the Countess of Lesliere, she would effectively be the Emperor's granddaughter in private.

The Emperor had many children. In particular, his daughters numbered in the double digits, including the First Princess. It was unknown whether the Emperor remembered all of his many daughters, but it was certain that even the Duke of Deisha could not treat the Count of Lesliere lightly.

"S-Serious... No, if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince finds out the truth, he will absolutely not sit idly by."

"Ha!"

'I'm suddenly getting annoyed.'

I just watched as it had absolutely nothing to do with me, but the moment Lady Deisha mentioned Sis's name, I couldn't help but feel a surge of irritation.

"Why won't His Royal Highness the Crown Prince stay quiet?"

The thought of ignoring them and going my own way had long since vanished. I joined their fight. Those who had been glaring at each other in a standoff all looked at me at once.

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