“No! She did that on her own!”

“She did it on her own, right? You didn’t do anything, did you?”

“Don’t you trust me?! Ugh, why would I come to my mother for such trivial things… Fine, I won’t say anything to you again!”

“Why is this girl causing unnecessary trouble! Your mother is upset right now! Don’t bother me! You didn’t do anything, right?”

“I didn’t!”

“Then get out!”

‘Ugh…’

The world was blurry. Arabella blinked her cloudy eyes. Objects were melting and flowing like soup.

“Miss Arabella? Miss, you’ve woken up!”

Someone’s piercing voice cut through the air. Her hearing wasn’t clear enough to distinguish whose voice it was. Arabella just wanted to cover her ears because her head felt like it was going to explode.

The owner of the screaming voice, when Arabella blinked her eyelids after not coming to her senses for several hours, was Arabella’s dedicated maid who had been watching her side.

She ran like the wind to deliver the joyous news to Arabella’s mother, Lady Lucrezia.

“Madam! Madam! Miss Arabella has woken up.”

“Why are you making such a fuss?”

However, Lucrezia, who should have been pleased at her daughter’s safety, spat out her annoyance. Isabella, who was curled up on the sofa inside Lucrezia’s room like a cat, also lifted her head in surprise.

Lucrezia was already debating whether she should have called a doctor, feeling guilty.

But she had already missed the timing to call the doctor and the more she worried, the more she felt like a bad person. Lucrezia’s mood only got worse.

It was a great relief that Arabella had woken up in the midst of all this, but Lucrezia did not even want to see the result of her mistake.

However, even the foolish Lucrezia could predict what she would hear if she did not even go to see Arabella here.

“Don’t make such a fuss without any reason!”

After venting her anger at the poor maid, she moved her heavy hips towards Arabella’s second floor room.

Even Isabella, who was afraid of the result of her own actions, followed her mother upstairs with small steps.

Slam!

The loud noise was not at all helpful for the daughter with a head injury. But Lucrezia prioritized her feelings. Seeing her youngest daughter lying on the bed with a pale face, her mood worsened even more.

“You! I knew something like this would happen with the way you behave.”

Arabella’s vision was blurry, her ears were ringing, and even her thoughts were fuzzy.

Lucrezia’s words did not register clearly in Arabella’s mind. She blinked heavily, trying to understand what her mother was saying.

“Who argued with your sister? You reap what you sow, you reap what you sow!”

Sister, reap what you sow…

“I knew this day would come ever since you started talking back to your sister!”

Briefly, I saw my sister who had the same hair and eye color as our mother behind Lucrezia. She was my elder sister who was loved no matter what she did, and always followed behind our mother like a duckling following its mother duck.

“You do nothing well and only cause trouble! Why did I even give birth to you? It’s so infuriating!”

Tears streamed from Arabella’s cloudy green eyes.

“My life would have been better without you! Even just a bit!”

My vision started to darken.

The last scene Arabella saw in this life was her angry mother and her sister clinging behind their mother.

First thing Ariadne did upon arriving at the San Ercole Cathedral was to deliver the salary bags to Cardinal de Mare who had been dispatched. Then, she had some personal business to take care of. She requested a meeting with the nun in charge of music education.

The conversation with the nun in charge, including small talk and pleasantries, took about an hour.

The nun smiled widely and said “Accepted!” to Ariadne who asked about the entrance exam results. The nun told her that the name ‘Arabella de Mare’ was second on the list of applicants she had received from Padua for administrative support.

The nun hinted that a personal admission notice would be sent out in a day or two.

Once her meeting was over, Ariadne couldn’t wait to return home and share the good news with Arabella. Arabella, you’ve been accepted second! You’re also the youngest entrant!

However, Ariadne felt something different, a disorderly atmosphere, from the moment her carriage passed through the main gate of the mansion on her way home. First of all, the gatekeeper’s rhythm was off.

“What happened?”

With a foreboding feeling, Ariadne asked the domestico who received her traveling cloak as soon as she stepped in the front door.

“Is something wrong at home?”

“Miss Arabella… Please hurry to the main hall, miss.”

The sense of foreboding crept closer. Cardinal de Mare returned home before Ariadne, which was unusual.

As Ariadne approached the main hall, she saw Cardinal de Mare in his red uniform at a distance. Servants were hurrying back and forth, filling the main hall with white flowers.

“White flowers? Out of nowhere?”