That adopted daughter who spoke out without knowing the subject.

‘Adopted daughter…..’

Blanche couldn’t breathe properly, choked by anger and sadness from her wounded pride.

“Adopted or not, Blanche is the daughter of Marquis Rowe, what does it matter!”

Next to her, Lirin grabbed her arm and shouted at the boy. Though she went in strong, Blanche could feel Lirin’s hand trembling as she held her arm.

“Why doesn’t it matter? When Marquis and Lady Rowe divorce, she’ll become a Boston again. You’re not so stupid that you don’t know what it means that her surname could change at any time, are you?”

“…..”

“Ah, no. If you were smart, you wouldn’t have been going around proudly pretending to be real in the first place. I overestimated you.”

The boy’s face was filled with a sense of victory. Blanche hated the sight of it and wanted to tell him right away.

“Shu Shu is…!”

That she wasn’t adopted, that she really was a ‘Rowe’. That she was her father’s daughter.

But why was it still stuck in her throat, unable to be uttered in the end?

‘If mom and dad divorce, Shu Shu won’t be a Rowe….’

It was because what the boy said wasn’t wrong.

Now, mom and dad’s relationship was good. Her father’s whisper in her ear telling her he loved her more than mom.

Mom’s peach-colored cheeks, embarrassed but secretly pleased to hear it.

But it wasn’t always like that. Until last year, dad wasn’t there, and she had to call him ‘Your Lordship’.

So it could go back to that time at any moment. Because nothing was eternal.

‘Does she know I have no affection and that’s why she doesn’t want to call me that?’

‘Jade, I know you’re shocked, but there’s no need to force yourself to think like that and draw conclusions. Blanche is-.’

‘Do I cherish and love her? Me?’

The day mom fought with dad and fell down the stairs, losing her memory.

The sound of sharp thunder tearing through the sky and the image of dad swallowing his resentment, saying it was her fault as he tried to wake unconscious mom, was vivid.

‘Does dad really love Shu Shu?’

What if mom couldn’t remember Blanche like back then, and dad came to dislike Blanche?

“From now on, act according to your station. Got it?”

The boy deliberately pushed Blanche’s shoulder hard as he passed by, knocking her down.

“Blanche!”

It was hard to stand up. Her legs had no strength and just kept shaking.

“I’m sorry, Lirin….. For making you hear such unpleasant things because of Shu Shu.”

She felt sorry for Lirin too. She made her hear things like being called a mere baroness family, a lower noble.

‘If it weren’t for Shu Shu, she wouldn’t have heard those things.’

She was willing to distance herself from Lirin if she wanted. Because if Lirin stayed with her, she would continue to hear such insults and have a hard time.

“You fool! Why are you apologizing! He’s the one who’s wrong!”

Lirin helped Blanche up and dusted off her knees.

Just then, the bell signaling the resumption of classes rang through the corridor.

“Blanche. I have outdoor class this period so I can’t go to the classroom with you.”

“…Okay.”

“If it’s too hard, tell the teaching assistant and go rest in your room. We’ll be going home in a few days. Tell the Marquis when we get there. Ask him to scold them.”

Though Romer Academy was a full boarding school, new students were allowed to return home on weekends after the first week of admission as a convenience.

Blanche liked being at the academy but she missed mom and dad, so she was counting down the days until the weekend.

As Lirin said, she could go home in just a few days.

‘Tell dad…?’

Would dad really scold that boy? Still, that boy was a collateral branch of the Rowes, and dad’s relative.

“What if dad finds it troublesome when he hears? If mom is disappointed that I can’t get along with friends…?”

“But….”

“Lirin, let’s not tell mom and dad about what happened today….”

She was scared. Mom said she should get along well with friends….

After parting with Lirin, Blanche went to the teaching assistant and said her stomach hurt.

The assistant said she didn’t look well, and offered to call her parents.

Blanche shook her head vigorously and refused. Saying she wasn’t that sick.

Moreover, dad had been busy going to the imperial palace every day lately, and mom looked tired dealing with two roles as Lady Rowe and Countess Boston.

She didn’t want to add to their worries needlessly. So Blanche returned to her room alone and curled up in bed.

It was strange. The stomachache was clearly a lie, but once she said it out loud, it really hurt.

When she squeezed her eyes shut, tears rolled down her cheeks.

After whimpering for a long time, she fell asleep, and in her dreams the horrible days of the past repeated.

The time when only Blanche was carved out of mom’s memories.

‘Your mother abandoned you.’

The moment she was locked in the dusty attic.

I was in the middle of reviewing the ledger recording the cash flow for the second half of the year’s budget, and Jade was braiding my hair behind me.

“Jade. Why do you keep braiding and unbraiding over and over?”

With his hands constantly touching my hair, I couldn’t concentrate on looking at the ledger.

I occasionally flinched from the ticklish feeling of his cold hands subtly touching my nape. Jade seemed to enjoy this and deliberately massaged my neck more.

“Because I can keep doing this.”

I was speechless at his bold declaration that he would continue until I finished looking at the ledger.

“You’re not going to the imperial palace today?”

“No.”

Since he even said he was free, I couldn’t use the excuse of sending him out to take care of business.

“Larien. Do it in moderation and look at it again in the evening. It’s almost Blanche’s snack time….”

Jade stopped mid-sentence. Blanche would be at Romer Academy now.

It had already been over a week, but Jade still made this mistake sometimes.

“I can still vividly see her running around making noise. It feels like she should be playing somewhere in the mansion right now.”

Jade, sitting on the desk, wore a very empty expression.

I too had lost my appetite without Blanche, who was always with us.

‘Blanche often cries when she wakes up and I’m not there….’

I couldn’t sleep properly because I was worried about her living in the dormitory when she was still so young.

“There’s no need to worry too much, Larien. It’s a bit early, but you and I lived in dormitories at a similar age. Blanche is going to be Marquis Rowe anyway. We need to raise her to be strong from a young age-”

When I let out a long sigh, Jade deliberately spoke calmly, saying there was nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, I smirked while pointing to a part recorded in the ledger I was examining.

“Jade. Looking at the ledger, the amount of scholarship given to the academy is quite large.”

“…That’s.”

“You made a deal with the dean to have Blanche and her close friend Lirin, who are in different departments, assigned to the same room, didn’t you?”

It was clearly revealed that Jade worried about Blanche more than anyone else.

“A deal, you say. I just, expressed a little hope, that’s all.”

At that moment, the butler knocked on the door urgently and called out faintly.

“Master, Madam! We received a call from the academy, saying that young lady Blanche has collapsed with a fever…!”

Before the butler could finish speaking, Jade moved swiftly to open the door.

‘Collapsed with a fever?’

As soon as I heard she had collapsed with a fever, I was anxious that her power might have started to run wild again.

I hurriedly headed to Romer Academy with Jade.

“Blanche…!”

We arrived at Romer Academy and went to the dormitory where Blanche was staying.

“Lady Marchioness, Lord Marquis.”

As we entered the room, Lirin, who was sitting on the bed, stood up.

“Lirin, Blanche-”

In that bed was Blanche, her body all curled up.

“Mom…?”

“Blanche, mom’s here.”

A low, choked voice calling for me. No matter how I looked at it, Blanche seemed to have been crying.

“Blanche… was resting because she was sick. But when I came back after class, her body was hot so I asked the teaching assistant to contact the Rowe household….”

“I, I see. Thank you, Lirin.”

I lifted Blanche up to check her condition.

‘Jade definitely took away all of Blanche’s divine power. Today it seems she just cried too much and ended up like this….’

It didn’t seem like her divine power had run wild like before, but her body had become hot from crying.

‘Where on earth was she hurting to cry this much?’

Blanche clung to me, burying herself in my arms. Even when I asked where it hurt, she kept her lips tightly shut and gave no answer.

Before long, she fell asleep. I was going to take Blanche back home. Whatever had happened, I couldn’t leave her alone when she was this sick.

“Jade, let’s go for now. Blanche has fallen asleep too.”

I was thinking of having her examined by a doctor. But Jade approached Lirin, staring at her.

“Lirin.”

“…Yes?”

“Tell me what happened.”

Lirin lowered her head, staring at the floor. Seeing her terrified appearance, I tried to stop Jade.

Jade shook his head slightly at me and bent his knees to match Lirin’s eye level.

“I don’t know….”

“I’m not trying to scold you.”

After hesitating for a moment, Lirin raised her head.

“Then, you won’t be disappointed…?”

“What?”

“Blanche told me not to say. She said if the Marquis and Marchioness found out, they would be troubled or disappointed….”

The words that finally came out of Lirin’s mouth were truly shocking.

“Earlier, some boy… called Blanche an adopted daughter who doesn’t know her place and acts out…. He said, do you think you’ve really become one….”

“…Who was that?”

“He said he was the son of Viscount Iscal, a collateral branch of the Rowes. Eman Iscal….”