At first, the dresses Delma brought were adorned with diamonds, sapphires, pearls, and floor lace known as the fiber of the heavens.

I felt sorry for Delma, but I couldn’t choose any of those dresses that I wanted.

“Delma, I want to wear this.”

“No, you should dress up glamorously on a day like this!”

Today’s outing was known to others as a routine excursion. That’s why they were trying to make a big deal out of my first outing.

After several arguments, I was able to wear the most modest and comfortable clothes I had.

“This isn’t right… It’s the young lady’s first family outing… You should wear the most suitable clothes…”

Delma kept expressing regret, but I was satisfied with my appearance in the mirror.

‘Even the clothes I chose now can’t be called cheap.’

Compared to other clothes, the ones I’m wearing now looked plenty fancy to me.

Although it didn’t have accessories attached, it used the same high-quality fabric as the other clothes, and it was a custom-fit tailored to my body, not ready-made.

“It’s fine, I like this.”

“But this is the outfit the young master bought for you…”

Delma seemed to want me to wear the clothes Clemens had chosen. I shook my head.

‘It would be too cumbersome.’

If I were really going out as a noble lady, I would have chosen clothes without considering mobility. But now, I couldn’t choose clothes based on glamour alone.

‘Oh, and the bag!’

I put on the backpack placed by the bedside. Delma looked puzzled seeing that.

“Why the bag? Isn’t all the luggage loaded in the carriage?”

“Yes, but I’m taking it because it’s my favorite bag.”

“Oh, I see. That bag was your favorite?”

I made up a childish excuse, but there was a real reason for bringing the bag.

‘If there really is a silver snake there, I’ll hide it in here and bring it back.’

It was the bag where the silver snake always hid its appearance even when we were at the duke’s mansion.

I desperately hope the white snake of the rumors isn’t the silver snake…

‘If it is real, I have to bring it back.’

I must prevent my divine beast from becoming snake soup no matter what.

With firm resolve, I stepped outside. Delma wrapped a scarf tightly around me, saying the outside air might be cold.

“Have a fun trip, young lady. Be careful. Lady Sophia, have a good trip too.”

“Alright, I’ll be back, Delma.”

I held hands with Sophia beside me and moved to the main entrance.

“I’m glad Sophia is coming along.”

“Yes, I’m glad too, young lady.”

I really didn’t know Sophia would be coming along.

According to Philen, only two servants could be brought to the auction house.

One of those spots was naturally for my guard, Yan. After that, I was curious who would fill the remaining spot, and when I asked Philen, he said it was decided to be Sophia.

It was a bit unexpected. Sophia going to the auction house together.

Every time we met, Philen emphasized the dangers of the auction house several times. Naturally, I thought the other person would be from the Reviche Knights as well.

Of course, Sophia was a very capable person as a nanny. But it was true that it seemed a bit dangerous to go to such a place unarmed.

‘Sophia is just an ordinary person, and while Yan will protect me, I’m not sure if he can protect Sophia too…’

If Sophia was coming along, I would be really, really happy. She was one of the few people I felt comfortable with at the duke’s mansion.

After worrying for days, I finally asked her quietly when Delma wasn’t around.

No matter how I thought about it, it seemed like Philen had chosen Sophia without considering her safety, just thinking of her as someone to attend to me.

When I did, Sophia answered with her usual smile.

‘I’ll be fine, young lady. Just as I have until now, I’ll keep both myself and you safe, so don’t worry.’

If Sophia had shown even a little bit of concern, I would have told Philen, but she showed no such signs.

Rather, her eyes dripped with honey as she looked at me for worrying about her.

‘Or maybe Philen is just overly worried.’

Perhaps the auction house wasn’t as dangerous as Philen was concerned about.

With various thoughts, I went down to the main entrance and the first thing that caught my eye was an unfamiliar carriage.

It was a deep chestnut-colored carriage, the kind that wouldn’t easily catch attention.

The kind that would be hard to spot if left on the street in the evening when shadows of buildings disappeared and moonlight was gone.

‘Are we riding in this?’

Looking closer, the intricately decorated patterns caught my eye.

It was less extravagant than the carriage the duke always rode, but if not compared to that, this carriage would also look quite luxurious.

At that moment, a brown-haired pretty boy who seemed to have come out first approached me cheerfully.

“Clemens?”

“Yes, did the baby come?”

Clemens, whose eyes met mine, smiled gently. I said with a bewildered feeling.

“Your hair is brown.”

“Yes, you have good observation skills, baby.”

‘I don’t think that has anything to do with observation skills…’

Originally, Clemens was a boy with bright blonde hair. In stark contrast to the black-haired duke.

“Did you change it with magic?”

“No, there’s a potion that changes hair color. I used that.”

Hearing those words, I was reminded of the hair dyes people used in my previous life.

‘Back then, people could change their hair color freely with bleaching or dyeing.’

Unlike my previous life, people here didn’t have much concept of changing hair color.

Having remembered my past life belatedly, the culture from my previous life felt very awkward.

‘To think you can change hair color with potions, not magic.’

Fascinated, I stared at Clemens’ brown hair, and Clemens chuckled.

“When you’re a bit older, you can do it too, but not yet because you’re still young.”

“Okay, but why did you change your hair color?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

I nodded. After waiting a bit, the duke appeared in the distance with a similar hair color change.

“The duke changed his hair color too.”

“Yes.”

The duke answered briefly. The duke who came close to me, touching my hair, said.

“It seems like it will stand out.”

“I brought a suitable cloak for the young lady.”

As if he had expected this, Philen held up an arm with a cloak draped over it.

Clemens and the duke were both wearing black suits.

It was noticeably less fancy than the tailcoats they wore at the last party, without any accessories attached.

“You’ve dressed appropriately.”

“Yes!”

Those words from the duke sounded like praise to me. When I answered energetically, the duke smiled slightly.

‘The duke has been smiling a lot lately.’

When I first came to the duke’s mansion, he often had a cold, expressionless face, but lately I could see relaxed smiles like that occasionally.

Liking that sight, I grinned back at him.

“Let’s depart now.”

I tried to get into the carriage at the back, holding Sophia’s hand. That’s when the duke stopped me.

“You should ride here.”

Feeling my heart flutter for no reason, I pressed my chest and followed him.

The carriage departed without delay. Clemens sat next to me, and the duke sat across from me.

Watching us pass through the main gate outside the window, I suddenly realized.

‘Come to think of it, this is my first outing since entering the duke’s mansion.’

Coming outside, a memory I had momentarily forgotten raised its head.

‘Rebecca.’

Actually, I didn’t know my mother would be this quiet. I thought she would come looking for me at least once.

‘Could she have forgotten about me?’

If so, that would be really good. Even if I could never eat cookies again, I’d be happy.

With anxiety filling my head, I pushed away thoughts of her.

I decided to focus on the immediate matter at hand.

There was only one purpose for coming out today after all.

‘Just to confirm whether the white snake is the silver snake or not.’

I must prevent it from becoming snake soup.

Thinking that, I was clutching my bag tightly with both hands when the duke sitting across from me stared at me intently.

Wondering what he was going to say, I stared blankly at him, but the duke kept his mouth shut.

Having no choice, I asked first this time.

“Duke, why are you looking at me like that?”

“That expression on your face right now.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“When?”

“On the day of the general recruitment.”

I rolled my eyes, avoiding the duke’s gaze. Seeming to know what the duke was talking about, I quickly composed my expression.

“It looks just like the expression before causing trouble.”

“No, duke. You’re misunderstanding.”

The duke’s brow gradually furrowed. I pointlessly fidgeted and turned to look at Clemens.

“By the way, who did Clemens bring as attendants?”

“Gordon came with me. He’s my personal assistant. A trustworthy person.”

“And who else?”

Clemens shook his head. I blinked. Why bring only one person?

“I heard you could bring up to two attendants.”

“Yes, so I decided to just bring Gordon.”

Since they can bring up to two people, it’s their choice whether to bring one or two.

But since the duke is only bringing Philen and Clemens is also only bringing one assistant, I wondered if Philen had just exaggerated unnecessarily.

“Of course, it’s right for you to have up to two guards, baby. It could still be dangerous. So you have to stay right by my side when we get there. Understand?”

Clemens held my hand tightly and urged. Now that I think about it, I’m a bit curious.

‘Is the auction house originally a dangerous place?’

I looked back and forth between the duke and Clemens and asked.

“What kind of place is it? Isn’t it just an auction house?”

“It’s not the kind of auction house you commonly see.”

“Is it that dangerous? What do they usually do there?”

“Well, you see…”

Clemens trailed off as if troubled. The one who cut off his words mercilessly was the duke.

“You’ll know when we get there.”

The duke briefly concluded.

Clemens also didn’t explain further other than saying I needed to stay close by his side.

The distance to the auction house wasn’t very far.

Before getting off, the duke handed masks to Clemens and me. His face was already covered, with only his eyes and lips visible.

“Welcome!”

As soon as we got off the carriage, the doorkeeper greeted us cheerfully.

A luxuriously decorated building welcomed us before our eyes.

I looked up to check the building.

If it had been before staying at the duke’s mansion, I might have thought it was a very large and grand building.

However, I was already a person accustomed to the duke’s mansion.

To my eyes now, this building only looked somewhat big, somewhat fancy.

“Hoho, it seems the young miss is quite impressed by our auction house.”

The doorkeeper approached with a smile, but the duke pressed my hood down further.

“Show us the way.”

“Yes, yes, this way please!”

The first thing I felt upon entering was that my eardrums might burst. That’s how many people were gathered, creating noise.

“Y-you idiot! How dare you try to cheat me out of my money?!”

“Hahaha! Bet everything you have, let’s bet it all!”

“Agh! This round is invalid!”

Amidst the commotion, a sound that made me stop in my tracks rang in my ears.

“My child, give me back my child!”