“Have you awakened, Lady Yusten? We will soon arrive at Plima Castle!”

“Ah, yes! Thank you for letting me know!”

I replied as such while putting on the hood I had taken off. Soon, the carriage arrived at Plima Castle. In front of the main gate of the castle, a small number of merchants and residents, countable on one hand, were waiting for the drawbridge to open. The duke parked the carriage at the corner of the thick castle wall to avoid being noticed by them. I opened the door of the carriage and said to him,

“Thank you for bringing me here, Duke. I’ll be heading back now.”

“Shall I not escort you inside the castle?”

“No, it’s alright. When the drawbridge opens, my maid will come out to greet me.”

The duke nodded in understanding. I stopped him as he stood up to escort me, then jumped out of the carriage. After exchanging eye greetings with Gwen and Roger on the coachman’s seat, I spoke to the duke who was watching me from inside the carriage.

“Then I’ll see you in the capital, Duke.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

The duke said, fixing his gaze on me.

I responded with a nod and turned away without hesitation. Soon, the carriage carrying him departed. As I slowly walked towards the drawbridge, I followed the departing carriage with my eyes. Somehow, I felt a bit regretful watching his carriage leave like this. To think that I, who hadn’t even completed my revenge, would harbor such emotions.

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

I smiled bitterly in self-mockery.

Just then, with the first bell toll announcing the arrival of morning, the drawbridge of Plima Castle slowly descended. People lined up in a single file to pass through the main gate. I stood at the very end of that line, waiting for someone to come and greet me.

“…Young lady. You’ve returned safely.”

At that moment, I felt a hand gently tapping my shoulder along with a voice calling me. It was Kayla, who had disguised herself as me the previous day to buy time. I spoke affectionately to her, who was dressed in the same robe as me.

“Yes. It’s all thanks to you, Kayla.”

Kayla smiled back at me and said,

“Now, let’s go, young lady. This morning, the administrator of Plima Castle requested through a maid to have breakfast with you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It seems that last night, he received a letter from the Yusten ducal family asking him to confirm if you really came to Plima Castle. To avoid being discovered by him, we need to return to your bedroom as soon as possible.”

“Alright. I understand.”

I grasped the hand she extended. After showing the gatekeeper the fake identification we had prepared in advance, we quickly made our way to the mansion of Plima Castle.

* * *

At that time.

Baron Thompson, the administrator of Plima Castle, was hurriedly walking towards the main building.

Unable to sleep soundly the night before, he kept yawning widely. He grumbled softly, recalling the letter that had disturbed his sleep.

“…Damn it. When I saw the seal of the Yusten ducal family prominently stamped on the letter, I thought it was going to tell me to come up to the capital. But it was just asking to ‘confirm if Lady Christine Sapiel Yusten has arrived there safely’? …Well, well. They must be quite close cousins, indeed.”

He kept sneering, puffing up his mischievous cheeks. They say the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Perhaps because he had prepared a grand dinner banquet yesterday afternoon to impress Lady Christine Sapiel Yusten who visited this castle, only to have it all go to waste when she announced she was ‘tired and would rest’, his disappointment was doubled.

‘Tsk, it’s annoying, but there’s nothing I can do. If I want to enter the capital somehow, I need to make a good impression on the Yusten ducal family people.’

Seeing how yesterday’s dinner was rejected, it seems trying to flatter Lady Christine Yusten is completely misguided, so I should just follow Lady Danae Yusten’s instructions well and try to impress her instead.

Thinking thus, the baron quickly passed through the main entrance of the main building. After swiftly climbing the stairs, he knocked on the closed bedroom door and called out,

“Ahem! Are you there?”

Soon the door opened, and Annie, Lady Christine Yusten’s maid, came out.

Holding the doorknob and poking only her head out, she looked the baron up and down with a wary gaze and said,

“What brings you here at this early hour, Baron?”

“Ho ho, what do you mean? Last night, I already mentioned that I would like to have breakfast with the young lady. So I’ve come to escort Lady Yusten to the dining room where the banquet is prepared.”

“…It seems our lady is still sleeping, as she hasn’t fully recovered from her travel fatigue. So, Baron, I’m sorry, but it would be better to postpone the breakfast banquet until tomorrow. Or perhaps you could have lunch together.”

Annie said in a somewhat cold voice. The baron furrowed his brow in displeasure and said,

“What, you’re going to reject my dinner invitation last night and now my breakfast invitation this morning too? This is not polite, is it?”

“Of course, I know it’s not polite. But Baron, our lady traveled by carriage for over 12 hours straight yesterday to get here. So isn’t it natural for her to be tired?”

“…Hah! Even so, this is too much!”

The baron raised his voice, glaring at Annie who firmly blocked the door. He suddenly recalled the postscript in the letter he had received from Lady Danae Yusten last night.

It said, ‘There have been recent attempts to seduce Lady Christine Yusten and extract information about the duke. She might have already fallen for such seduction and sent a stand-in to Plima Castle while going somewhere else to pass on the duke’s information.’

When he first read that letter, he thought such a thing couldn’t possibly happen.

But now, after being rejected for meals twice, he began to suspect that Lady Christine Yusten might really have deceived him and gone elsewhere, just as the postscript suggested.

As doubt grew in the baron’s mind, that was when it happened.

“It’s quite noisy outside. What’s going on, Annie?”

Along with a beautiful woman’s voice from inside the bedroom, the sound of footsteps approaching the door could be heard. Annie hurriedly turned her head back and shouted,

“Ah, my lady! You shouldn’t come out!”

At that moment, Christine appeared, her long hair wrapped in a towel and wearing a bathrobe. The baron’s eyes widened at the sight of her. Her appearance, as if she had just finished bathing, was indescribably beautiful. Christine tilted her head at him and said,

“What brings you here at this hour, Baron Thompson?”

“W-well… I thought… we might have breakfast… together…”

The baron stammered in response, his face red up to his neck. Christine smiled gently at him and said,

“I see. I’m sorry. As you can see, I haven’t finished getting ready yet. Could you wait just a little longer?”

“…Ah, yes. O-of course. I’ll wait… As long as you want… even half a day if necessary…”

“Thank you. Then I’ll see you shortly, Baron Thompson.”

After saying that, she went back into the bedroom. Annie glared sharply at the baron who was staring at her retreating figure as if mesmerized, then closed the door with a bang.

The baron muttered, staring at the closed door with a dazed expression.

“…She was in the middle of… bathing…”

Only then could the baron understand Annie’s inexplicable attitude from earlier. He nodded, his face still bright red. The doubt that had nestled in his heart had vanished without a trace. He grumbled softly, mulling over the contents of the letter sent by Lady Danae Yusten.

“Well, well. That duchess sent such an unnecessary letter! How could such a pretty and innocent lady do such a despicable thing? Tsk, they say the duke trusts and relies on his niece more than his daughter, and now I can clearly see why.”

Shaking his head, he recalled Christine’s appearance from earlier. To think he could be with such a beautiful person for the next two days. Having fallen in love at first sight upon seeing her just now, he grinned foolishly at the mere thought.

* * *

After safely obtaining the Clepiad seed, Kayla and I entered the mansion of Plima Castle through a secret passage that only my father had told me about. Just as we emerged from the secret passage, we heard the baron and Annie arguing. I immediately sent Kayla back through the secret passage, then took off the nun’s habit I was wearing and poured the bath water Annie had prepared earlier over my body. Then, pretending to have just finished bathing, I approached the door and spoke to Baron Thompson.

“It’s quite noisy outside. What’s going on, Annie?”

Seeing me like that, the baron blushed with a dazed expression. After exchanging a few words with him, I calmly returned to the bedroom. Watching him stare at me as if mesmerized, I was certain that I had successfully deceived him.

For the next two days, as I had promised the duke, I devoted myself to planting Clobia seeds in the fallow fields of Plima Castle. The farmers were reluctant at first, wondering why they should plant weeds in precious land, but after hearing my explanation, they obediently followed my instructions. Baron Thompson, the administrator, kept following me around, constantly trying to engage in conversation. I dealt with him appropriately.

I judged that it would be better to make him feel favorably towards me in order to manage the fallow fields where Clobia had been planted well.

On the morning of the day after the two days I had promised the duke, I hurried to prepare for my return to the capital. Baron Thompson bid me farewell, looking at me as if he was quite reluctant to see me go.