As I brush my hand along the window frame, not a single speck of dust is visible.

She’s more trained than any of the maids.

To the point where I suspect being a maid might be her true calling.

The fleeting glimpse of her calloused hands crosses my mind.

Those hands symbolize that her life is at rock bottom.

They also signify how different her status is from mine.

How amusing yet delightful that the only ladder connecting us is the Villode Viscount family I’ve never even heard of.

As soon as that family was mentioned, she who always seemed so confident instantly turned pale.

I know what that white face is saying.

She wants to stay by my side, clinging to even that flimsy ladder.

No, more precisely, she covets that noble money by Blanchet’s side.

In her words, to get even a drop of it.

The essence of it has a pure white sheen of doing it for her sick mother, but I’ll set that aside for now.

It’s just better to torment her as a very impertinent girl who lies to me.

Yurisiel, whose mouth had been trembling slightly, finally spoke heavily after a moment.

“I have obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Despite lying, her eyes are very upright. Without a single tremor.

Anyone who sees her would be easily fooled into thinking she’s just another noble young lady with delicate hands who’s never done such menial work.

I wonder if she learned to lie like that from those lowly places too.

Even so, the trembling frilled sleeve caught Kassian’s eye. Inside are probably those long, calloused fingers I saw that day.

It’s quite satisfying to have one of her secrets that only I know.

For reasons I can’t explain.

She doesn’t seem to realize at all that this makes me want to tease her more.

“Really? How interesting. A young lady whose hobby is cleaning.”

My face is reflected in the well-polished mirror across from her.

The smile drawn on it is unparalleled in its malice.

I wonder if that’s how it appears to her too. It must.

Until now, no one has trembled or bowed before me. Moreover, when I make this expression, everyone bows their heads as if they’ve seen the Grim Reaper.

And yet she manages to hide her trembling well. No, more precisely, it’s amusing how she’s trying so hard to hide it.

As I raise my hands to the side in surrender, her face turns pale once again.

I gaze at that scene intently. As if asking if she can endure without trembling even now.

In response, the girl bites her lip tightly.

“I told you it’s not a hobby, but OCD.”

“Usually, noble young ladies call for a maid to do this kind of work. They don’t naturally step up to do it themselves.”

“That’s…”

Her slightly trembling shoulders are both unpleasant and pleasing to see.

It’s vexing that she’s clearly lying, but it’s amusing how desperately she’s trying to hide it.

After all, it’s the lie I carefully instructed the butler to give her. She should at least show that much effort.

The fake attendant who was brought here with nothing to do should at least provide some entertainment to her master.

Especially this impudent commoner girl right in front of me.

As I stare blankly, her tightly closed lips open as if she’s made up her mind.

“I moved because I was worried you’d be uncomfortable, young master.”

“Ah, is that so? And here I was worried. Wondering if the Villode family’s circumstances were so bad they couldn’t even hire servants.”

Her bitten lips now look like they might bleed. That sight is pleasing to see again.

Like a pervert.

“How sad the Viscount would be if he knew his only daughter was cleaning here.”

There was no inflection in Kassian’s mocking tone.

Yurisiel felt as if he was grabbing her throat and cutting off her breath. She had guessed that this young master hadn’t called her here for no reason since she entered.

She thought she was prepared, but it seems that preparation was dull.

With his sickly face, words sharp in complete contrast stabbed at her like an awl.

She had nothing to say since she was the one acting against her conscience.

But somehow she kept having the illusion that this sickly young master seemed to know everything.

Even though she knew he wasn’t the type of person to pretend not to know if he did know.

If it were revealed here that I’m not actually the Villode family’s young lady, if that young master found out…

What would happen then?

Just thinking about it made the ground seem to sink dizzyingly far below.

The one who arranged this fraud was the butler, and further the lord of Alphonse, but usually the tail end takes the blame in these matters.

If that happens, she and her mother might become exiles unable to even set foot in this town.

Furthermore, if he wanted to, they might not be able to escape death for deceiving Blanchet.

But it should be fine for now since the Alphonse family first gave her the guise of nobility to hide her identity. It has to be fine.

Yurisiel’s calloused hand, unaware of its own pain, clenched into a fist inside her maid uniform.

It wasn’t difficult to put on a smiling face with effort.

“…Of course. Father wouldn’t allow such a thing.”

“…”

“I overdid it today.”

The mouth that had to tell lies without blinking an eye spoke.

As Yurisiel’s once lively complexion turned dark, Kassian’s face brightened as if stealing that energy. Just as much as he stole.

A smile spread across Kassian’s transparent face with a snicker.

In contrast, the girl before him still retained her trembling.

She was still holding her ground, struggling to compose her staggering posture.

Her emerald pupils moved busily as if searching for something to do, clearly at a loss for how a noble young lady should entertain the young master.

I wonder if she realizes what she looks like.

She probably doesn’t know, so she’s thinking of deceiving me while covering her eyes.

Even now, that little head of hers is probably filled with thoughts of deceiving me.

Those thoughts would all be directed at me. That fact alone is quite satisfying.

No, to be precise, that’s why I lent her the Villode family name. Arbitrarily.

Now it’s time to strip away her facade. That process will be very interesting too.

Kassian casually tossed a book towards Yurisiel, who was still just blinking her eyes.

“Here, try reading this.”

It’s a book she couldn’t possibly be able to read.

Because there’s no way she could read Louvre, the language used only among nobles in this Lisetium Pantheon Empire.

It was an act of reducing the weakness I had just grasped to mere entertainment for a day.

However, I don’t intend to hold her breath for that long, so it’s also a kind of goodwill in its own way.

Until yesterday, I had intended to hold her breath until she died, no, even after that, but there was no particular meaning in releasing it now.

It’s just that Blanchet’s nobility naturally demands it.

I just haven’t been able to throw that habit away yet.

It was fortunate for her. Though she’ll probably cry a lot today.

The girl opened the book written in Louvre and once again took her seat with a trembling body.

A long sigh escaped her small face, and after a moment her bright red lips opened softly.

“Love flows without my knowing, drawing a deep boundary between us…”

She’s… reading Louvre? My insides twisted momentarily at the unexpected response.

There’s no way she could have had time to learn these letters while living such a lowly life, so how…

Has some other high-ranking noble been involved in her life besides me?

The more I speculate, the more tangled my insides become.

“You.”

“Yes?”

“You can read Louvre?”

“Ah.” A small gasp escaped the girl’s lips.

Her emerald eyes met mine and blinked slowly after a beat.

“Of course.”

It was too natural an answer. If she were truly the Villode family’s young lady.

But this commoner girl shouldn’t know Louvre. A laugh burst out at the sight of her sitting there naturally reading something so unbefitting of her station.

“Have you read this book before?”

A silly classic novel called “The Last 365 Days of Lapiron.”

A romance that has no place in Yurisiel’s busy 24-hour life.

The most she knows about books is from the bestseller lists she saw while handing out daily newspapers.

It became a habit to learn them since they were lists that needed to be copied.

This book wasn’t on those lists either.

She had never even seen a book like this that would be buried deep in a bookstore.

That probably wouldn’t be strange.

“No, I’ve never read it.”

Kassian’s gaze slid from the book up to Yurisiel.

It was a piercing gaze, as if confirming something.

The stinging sensation pricked Yurisiel’s skin.

Ah. Now I suddenly seem to understand this sickly young master’s intentions.

He was trying to test me to see if I could read Louvre.

Whether I’m a noble young lady or not.

Realizing that fact, Yurisiel felt her breath catch once again.

As if that sickly young master on the bed was pressing down on her throat.