As the two beautiful daughters of Cardinal de Mare stared each other down, people could not resist being drawn to them. Naturally, this was followed by an evaluation of their appearances.

“Isabella de Mare… Seems like she was overambitious. She tripped up today. Even a monkey falls from the tree, huh.”

“Why is she so excessive today, unlike her usual self? And why is she wearing white?”

“Doesn’t her younger sister, who seems dressed but not overly dressed, look better?”

These were the ladies’ impressions of Isabella, who had gone overboard with everything from her outfit to makeup and hair.

“Her figure stands out, even though she’s all covered up!”

“Why did I miss that scene earlier?!”

“The younger one is better than the eldest, isn’t she?”

These were the gentlemen’s praises for Ariadne.

A subtle tension sprang from the scene where Ariadne and Isabella faced each other. It did not look like the ‘good sisterly relationship’ Isabella had boasted about. The spectators’ gossip exploded as they watched the standoff between the two.

“Why is Isabella wearing white?”

“Apparently, because the two are close, the younger sister asked her to wear it that way.”

“Are they really close? The atmosphere is no joke.”

With the murmurs of the crowd as background noise, Ariadne asked Isabella, who was sobbing, in a low voice.

“Sister, why are you crying?”

Isabella instinctively flared up at Ariadne.

Ariadne’s expression didn’t look friendly, but Isabella felt a certain conviction rising from deep within her.

She’s weaker than me, and if I push hard, she’ll follow. And to Isabella, the eyes of the high society of San Carlo watching her from behind were much more important than Ariadne’s feelings.

“Aria! You see, the prince and the Marchioness misunderstood our relationship. They thought I was badmouthing you.”

In order to appease the expectant eyes of the people behind her, Isabella approached Ariadne with a seemingly joyful attitude, as if she was very glad to see her sister, and deliberately shook hands with her.

“I was just talking about how despite the wardrobe malfunction, or rather, because of it, you looked even more beautiful! You really have a great figure!”

Prince Alfonso blushed, flabbergasted.

“No, that’s not what I”

At that moment, Ariadne calmly took Prince Alfonso’s hand and stopped him. Her face was calm, but she was inwardly wearing a triumphant smile.

Because the moment Isabella called Ariadne ‘Aria’, a nickname she had never heard before in her life, she instantly understood what kind of game Isabella was playing.

In her past life, even throughout their childhood and after they had become adults, Isabella often pulled the same stunt.

After talking behind someone’s back, if she got caught, she would act friendly towards the victim in front of others to cover up the gossip. It was a classic Isabella move.

People, seeing that the victim and Isabella were close, assumed that the victim would forgive such talk, and moved on. This had the side effect of enhancing Isabella’s reputation as ‘frank and straightforward, but friendly with everyone’.

When they were very young, Ariadne was scared of Isabella and was unable to refute her when she played these games in front of people.

Although Isabella was extremely kind in front of others, once she was able to wrap up the situation thanks to Ariadne’s kindness, she would instantly change her attitude, ignoring Ariadne, or even framing her, rationalizing that it was Ariadne’s fault for causing the situation, and it was only right that she clean up the mess.

After being taken advantage of one too many times, Ariadne, who had become the fiancée of the crown prince, decided she could not let this go on and finally caught Isabella redhanded, causing a huge scene.

“You’re a baldfaced liar!” she cried out, and she laid out the facts of Isabella’s wrongdoings, hoping that the shame would teach her a lesson. When she woke up the next morning, she had become the wicked stepsister who had oppressed poor, pitiable Isabella with her power.

She had been punished for not knowing how to moderate her anger.

Humans, unless it involved money or power, did not use their brains. The act of grasping the facts and making rational judgments requires intellectual labor.

Because laziness is human nature, even intellectuals would judge trivial matters only by emotion and feeling, especially in matters of interest. Ariadne was now vaguely aware of how the human world worked.

After what she had suffered at Isabella’s hands in her childhood, she had lain in bed twisting her body in frustration a hundred, a thousand times, simulating ‘If I had responded differently then, would the outcome have been different?’ among the many answers she had tried out, it was time to use the answer that time had found for her.

As soon as Isabella took Ariadne’s hand, Ariadne stepped back as if startled, trembling. It was as if she was terribly afraid of Isabella.