Chapter 02
After the brief commotion, a cautious voice spoke up.
“Big Sister Lefina is kind of… like she has a sister complex. Though I do agree that we need to protect Lottie. Rotie is delicate.”
“A sister complex? And hearing you call her Lefina sounds strange every time.”
“You don’t know what a siscon is? It means you’re really close as sisters. And as for the name… I figured I should stop using the family name.”
“Our family name is Rozena.”
“And yet it’s not Rozena Serphina. Western-style names are really hard.”
Sitting beside me and enjoying tea together was my friend, Minabel.
For reference, it seemed another person’s soul resided inside Minabel. A soul from a distant world, even from a different era.
I learned that fact in the spring when we turned fifteen.
‘Lady Cherita, why are you taking your shoes off before entering the mansion?’
‘Entering a bedroom with your shoes on… And besides, the floor is cold.’
She, who had supposedly mastered every etiquette and custom perfectly, suddenly started acting strange.
One day while we were eating together, she kept watching my mother and father instead of lifting her spoon first.
Accompanied by incomprehensible remarks like adults should eat before children.
We hadn’t originally been that close, but she was so suspicious that I had no choice but to corner her and interrogate her.
‘Who are you?’
‘Huh? Wh-what?’
‘You started acting weird at the tea party when we were fifteen.’
Minabel tried to deny it in panic, but eventually let out a sigh and confessed everything.
‘I received a power called a status window when I came into this world…’
‘And what’s that supposed to be?’
See? She admitted with her own mouth that she had “come into” this world.
‘Well, if I had to explain it, it’s like a magical… blackboard? That shows people’s feelings and conditions. I don’t know who made it. And it only appears when I say “Status Window.”’
She even explained that what she saw wasn’t parchment but something called a blackboard.
‘On the night you turn nineteen, you’ll be poisoned and killed by people who attack the estate. Your entire family will be executed after being framed as traitors. That’s why I agree with Big Sister Serphina’s plan! Th-though it is a little overprotective.’
As if she had seen everything herself, she rattled off information about the future with ease.
Back then, Minabel still hadn’t properly adapted to our culture, and she was nothing like the young lady of House Cherita whom I had heard about.
I’d heard she was calm and liked books and painting, but the real Minabel Cherita was lively and loved wandering around.
Naturally, since she came from somewhere else, she knew almost nothing about etiquette or decorum.
Most of all, whenever she had the chance, she would stare into empty air and mutter, “Status Window.”
But including Marquis Cherita’s family, not a single person noticed that her soul had changed.
Knowing these two secrets alone is already painful enough for me, but that’s still far from the end of it.
Now then, where should I even begin?
The maid who became pregnant with the Crown Prince’s child and went into hiding?
The ducal house secretly raising that imperial child?
The Third Prince concealing his abilities?
Who knows. Maybe today I’ll accidentally learn something else again.
“Tie, what are you thinking about so deeply?”
That’s why it feels like everyone in this world is hiding something except me.
And what am I hiding, you ask?
Looking at the worried Minabel, I forced a thoughtful smile.
As though I had troubles of my own.
“No, it’s just…”
I’m hiding the fact that I truly have nothing to hide.
Flotie Rozena. The second daughter of House Rozena.
I’m not joking — aside from being somewhat perceptive, I genuinely have no special talents whatsoever.
“My lady, what are you worrying about so much?”
“It’s just… I suddenly feel like I’m going against the order of the world.”
“……St-status window.”
The moment I answered Elian’s question, Minabel muttered quietly.
Her eyes widened as if she’d seen a ghost in the empty air, and her face turned pale with shock.
“Why? Are you trying to look up information about me on your ‘magic blackboard’? To see if I’ve been cursed with dark magic or something?”
I meant it as a playful joke, but her face became even whiter.
I should probably be more careful with what I say from now on.
“Wait, is it really dark magic?”
“No! No!”
Ever since childhood, I grew up feeling as though the people around me were excluding me from the world.
Because no one else noticed the painfully obvious things that made me think, How could they not see that?
Whenever I pointed out how awkwardly someone was acting, they would panic as though I had stabbed directly into a fatal weakness.
And then they would always warn me never to tell anyone.
That was what confused me all this time. Could those secrets really stay hidden just because I kept quiet?
But somehow, they really did.
“T-Tie, so…”
“No. You don’t have to explain. I’ll keep it secret.”
Why am I the only one who notices these things?
I let out a sigh before raising my hand to stop Elian, who had perked up her ears and was trying to listen to our conversation.
“Elian, don’t you have somewhere else you should be right now?”
“Huh? Where would I go?”
Elian, her chestnut hair elegantly pinned up, frowned slightly.
“I have something private to discuss with Minabel.”
“But I’m one with you, my lady.”
“No thanks. Let’s be two separate people.”
When I firmly shook my head, a subtly hurt expression crossed Elian’s face. At this rate, she’d ask to be friends next.
I deliberately put on a stern expression and lifted my teacup.
“So go back to your room.”
“My room? You mean your room, my lady?”
Why was it so hard for her to understand that I meant she should go take care of the child?
When I waved my hand impatiently, realization finally dawned on Elian’s face, which immediately flushed bright red.
Stop getting moved over every little thing like this.
“My lady, if you need me, call for me anytime. I’ll run all the way from the garden in an instant.”
“Don’t worry. If anything happens to me, my sister will probably jump through the window to get here anyway.”
Looking as though she might burst into tears at any moment, Elian finally hurried away.
“You really like that maid.”
“She’s a good girl. And loyal to me too…”
“Well, I heard you took her in when she was starving to death on the streets.”
“It’s just… I couldn’t ignore her. You would’ve done the same.”
‘My child, you carry the blood of the noblest person alive. No matter what happens, Mother will protect you.’
I wasn’t noble enough to hear words like that and simply walk away.
Elian has a child.
The result of a commoner woman falling in love with a man of extremely high status.
And that man is probably…
“I wonder how the Crown Prince is doing these days.”
“What?!”
The moment I muttered absentmindedly with my chin resting on my hand, Minabel nearly shouted.
I quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and warned her to keep quiet.
She desperately tried to say something through muffled noises, so I loosened my grip slightly, allowing her whisper to escape.
“Any other man is fine, but not the Crown Prince. To begin with, His Highness is…”
“No, I have absolutely no desire to become Crown Princess. It’s not like I’m ignorant of the situation.”
When I waved my hands in disgust, Minabel finally relaxed.
Vincent, the First Prince who had recently been appointed Crown Prince, was surrounded by countless rumors. That he was a womanizer, for example. Or a reckless degenerate.
But all of those rumors had actually been spread by the Third Prince in order to hide Vincent’s frail health.
“How do you know all this?”
“I just do.”
Not that I ever wanted to know.
‘No one must ever discover that the Crown Prince’s health is worsening.’
If I hadn’t accidentally overheard a conspiracy while merely going out to enjoy desserts.
‘They say the Third Prince is incredibly brilliant. Apparently he hides behind the Crown Prince’s bad reputation and acts like a delinquent himself? Though originally he was gentle and wise.’
‘Given his birth, it’s safer for him to act that way if he wants to survive.’
If whispers from people I assumed belonged to an information guild hadn’t just happened to reach my ears.
What an absurd coincidence.
Becoming entangled in enormous secrets out of nowhere. At some point, I simply accepted that fate.
At this stage, it’s less that I uncover secrets and more that secrets walk straight toward me on their own.
Anyway, the world always reveals secrets to me in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Like right now, for example—
When the silver-haired man beyond the wall met my gaze and changed the color of his eyes a moment too late, allowing me to realize that his original eye color was ruby red.
…Huh?
