Gabrielle, who is sincere in her interest in men, interjected.

“Count Cesare, he looked really handsome up close!”

“Who does Ariadne prefer between the two?”

“Right, the prince or Count Cesare!”

“No, it’s not like that. Somehow…”

“Ariadne, are you going to back down after coming this far? Tell us the story!”

“I choose the prince!”

The exemplary Cornelia, who lives a textbook life, chose Alfonso.

“I choose Count Cesare!”

Gabrielle, who values a man’s face above all else, chose Cesare.

“Do you think you could live just by consuming his face? If he looked at me with those blue eyes, I think I’d be able to let go of all my anger!”

“Eek!”

“He’s really handsome.”

“He’s a pretty man. Sometimes he seems more slender and beautiful than a woman.”

“Do you mind standing next to him?”

When the girls thought about their faces being compared standing next to Cesare, they all cringed together. Some shook their heads and some screamed.

“I also think I like the prince. He’s a neat handsome man!”

“Me too, me too, the prince! Broad shoulders, big size, body thickness! I like the thick parts the best!”

“No way, Felicitate, you also noticed the prince’s body thickness?”

“As if you haven’t seen it! Let him who is without sight cast the first stone at me!”

The reception room seemed about to explode with their clamorous chatter. The close contest between the Alfonso party and the Cesare party was slightly in favor of the Alfonso party due to a setback in the Cesare fandom.

“Anyway, the prince is better. Count Cesare is said to tamper with married women. Recently, he has been hanging out with a widow named Madame Lagusa!”

“Goodness, a widow? A married woman? How can you meet a man like that?”

“Why is Count Cesare, who looks so pretty, like that?”

The only supporter left for Gabrielle was Julia, who is sincere about faces.

“But, he really is handsome. He’s living off his looks. I wouldn’t want to marry him, but I’d like to flirt with him once.”

“Tsk! You’ll become Madame Lagusa!”

“No, I mean in words!”

The girls laughed together.

Eek.

Just then, the reception room door opened quietly, and Camellia, who had gone out for a while, came back. Julia was surprised and looked at the door, then let out a sigh of relief.

When someone new came, the girls who had been looking at the reception room door now included Camellia and started to chatter noisily.

“Giggle!”

“Ah, that’s ridiculous!”

“I choose the left! I choose the left!”

Ariadne couldn’t even remember when was the last time she had laughed and played with her peers like this. It might be the first time.

The seat that Camellia chose when she came back from the restroom was next to Ariadne. She started talking to Ariadne with an apologetic face, with traces of tears.

“Miss Isabella said something unpleasant at the debutante ball of Miss de Mare.”

“Huh? What….”

“The prince was here so she purposely ripped her dress or something like that…”

Ariadne felt a rush of blood to her head.

‘Isabella, you dreadful creature!’

Camellia was speaking nonsense by her side, something like ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t stop her back then,’ but it sounded like a mere hum to Ariadne.

Ariadne was furious with Isabella, but she didn’t feel any better towards Camellia in front of her. The person who conveys the slander to the victim is as bad as the one who slanders directly.

However, all things could be utilized somehow, and Ariadne was not the type to miss an opportunity.

“Countess of Castilion.”

“Please call me Camellia.”

To Camellia, who smiled gently, Ariadne responded with an identical smile.

“Well then, Camellia. But was it not Camellia who first started spreading those rumors about Isabella?”

“What?!”

Camellia was utterly shocked. That wretched Isabella, first she tried to cover it up by saying that I fancied a common servant, now to what extent has she been selling my name!

“It seems your father, who inquired, was told that Camellia was the first to spread such talks. She claimed to be only guilty of not being able to stop it…”

When the other ladies discovered a redfaced Camellia, they asked what was going on, and Camellia, with an expression on the verge of tears, recounted the story she heard from Ariadne.

“Oh my, what on earth!”

“It’s true, Isabella was the one who brought up the story first.”

“That’s right, something about a diamond on her chest…”

“How could Camellia know whether Ariadne’s debutante dress was made in some atelier… I mean, how could she know which tailor made it.”

The other ladies present confirmed that it was indeed Isabella who first brought up these stories, and today’s conclusion was unanimous among the ladies.

‘Isabella de Mare, what a nasty person!’

The reason why such a conversation could happen today was half due to the ideal composition of the attendees.

If Camellia hadn’t been invited because she didn’t completely cut ties with Isabella, they wouldn’t have heard all these stories, but if there had been other people close to Isabella, they wouldn’t have been able to talk about this at all.