For three years of high school, Valliere had never once given a side glance to escape her inferiority complex, so she ultimately didn’t know how to seduce a man.

Of course, there was no internet here, which would have been a great help.

It wounded her pride to ask the maids, and she was afraid of word leaking if she asked Ermedillin’s servants.

So, she ended up in front of a general bookstore.

Switching to a modest carriage midway, she had pulled the hood of her cloak down to hide her face.

Valliere, too embarrassed to ask the bookstore owner anything, overheard a whispering voice while scanning through the books in a corner.

“Buy this one. This novel is really fun.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s a typical love triangle. But the protagonists look exactly like the Emperor and the Empress.”

“What?”

“It’s about that royal feast where the Empress saved a child.”

“Yeah, I heard about it.”

“They were a perfect match that day, like something out of a painting.”

“Did you see it?”

“Yes! I went with my father. It seemed as if they weren’t of this world. The novel’s description is exactly the same, so it’s fun imagining the protagonists.”

“Does that woman appear, too? The concubine?”

The word ‘concubine’ coming from the mouth of a stranger made Valliere bite her lower lip hard.

“No, she doesn’t. The author must have thought it would endanger his life if he went that far.”

They began to laugh.

“What did that woman look like that day?”

“Well, she’s famous for being lovely. But if the Empress overwhelms, that woman was, well…”

“What was she like?”

Silently listening, Valliere stood before them and removed her hood.

“What was I like? Am I not as overwhelming as the Empress?”

Startled, the two women showed a look of contempt.

“You don’t know who I am, or what the situation is?”

Expecting them to bow at her presence, they instead looked at Valliere coldly.

“What’s the situation? We didn’t speak ill of the Emperor or Empress.”

“What?”

“We just said they were a good match, and about you, just that you were pretty. What’s the problem?”

“You?”

Hearing her referred to so informally, Valliere’s face flushed.

“How dare you call me ‘you?’ Do you even know who I am!”

At Valliere’s outburst, the two women burst into laughter.

“You’re laughing? Now?”

After a moment of laughter, they calmly asked,

“So, who are you?”

“I, I am…”

Valliere couldn’t answer.

What could she say other than that she was the illegitimate daughter of an author and the concubine of the Emperor?

That she was no longer the granddaughter of the founder of a huge corporation.

Thud!!

“Ah!!”

Valliere hurled a thick book between the two women.

Her habit of throwing things when she couldn’t express her anger had manifested again.

And one of the women got hit on the head by the book Valliere threw.

“What the hell are you doing!”

Though the large hat protected her from severe injury, she yelled even louder than Valliere in a sense of humiliation.

“What?”

This felt worse than the word ‘commoner’ she’d heard from Pellio a while ago.
At that time, Pellio didn’t think lightly of Balliere’s status, but these women were belittling Balliere for his social standing.

“Belittle me? When I become a count at the upcoming founding festival, will you still be able to belittle me? You two will not be spared. I’ll stake everything and bring you both down!”

The woman who was struck by Balliere’s declaration raised her head stiffly and looked down on Balliere imposingly.

“Very well. I, Bellest Elenian, and Liena Bianst, will not forget this.”

Both women, trembling with disdain, left the bookstore, casting scornful glances at Balliere.

‘Elenian?’

Bianst was a somewhat familiar name but not precisely remembered.

However, Elenian was unmistakable. Wasn’t it a noble family of significant influence?

Although Balliere had only met Ermedillin’s maid Biella, there was actually another daughter in the count’s house who had gone abroad at a young age and returned after her husband’s death.

Though he acted impulsively due to his anger, Balliere began to calmly evaluate the situation upon hearing the name Elenian.

‘Could anything really happen? It was merely a brush, not a serious injury…’

He tried to forget it, but the name Elenian gradually enlarged his sense of unease. He knew all too well from past experience how this cursed world ran strictly on social class.

Balliere picked up a book that had fallen to the ground with a grim face.

On the book cover was blatantly written, ‘The Art of Seducing Men.’

How fortunate that the two women hadn’t seen the cover of this book.

‘That’s right. Just get pregnant. Carry the heir to the Emperor. I will not spare any of those who looked down on me!’

The founding festival was indeed drawing near.

Count François, who had been in seclusion all this while, was now waiting near the capital to make his daughter pay for her betrayal.

‘The orphanage land is already polluted. All I need to do now is be nearby on the day.’