Ariadne mustered all her strength to put on a scared and agonized expression. She was not a good enough actress to produce tears, but she was able to make it seem as if she was on the brink of tears.

“Big sister! How could you speak about my body in such a way…?”

This was a battle of momentum. The outcome depended on who could claim the position of the more pitiable one.

“I really hate such talk… You know I’m scared of such things. Even if it’s a compliment, I hate it. I wish it wasn’t mentioned at all…”

Isabella had no idea that Ariadne hated such talk. Of course, she didn’t. After all, it was in a previous life, and a future event, where Isabella tormented Ariadne with talk about breast size.

By Isabella’s standards, she hadn’t really tormented Ariadne yet.

But there was no need to acknowledge Isabella’s feeble sense of injustice. Ariadne dramatically covered her chest with both arms and added in a voice that sounded as if she were about to cry.

“I really hate it when people look at me with strange eyes…!”

Ariadne was retreating, step by step, from Isabella with a wounded expression. The people of San Carlo were enjoying the riveting spectacle.

“Oh, it seems like there were a lot of people looking at her like animals, poor thing…”

“Where in San Carlo would you find such uncouth people! Gentlemen of San Carlo wouldn’t do that!”

“Didn’t they say she came up from growing up on a farm as a child? If they’re uneducated farm boys, they could do that.”

“Hmm. If that’s the case, they could.”

“But her own sister is like that? Even if she’s a halfsister, that’s too bad.”

As it stood, Isabella, who had been commenting on her traumatized halfsister’s breasts and figure, looked confused and reached out a hand in embarrassment.

“Ari, Ariad… That’s not what I…”

Ariadne delivered a decisive blow to the faltering Isabella.

“Do you even care about me? I’m not ‘Aria’, I’m ‘Ari’!”

Isabella, lost for words, opened her mouth in shock. She seemed to be wondering what to say in defense. Ariadne did not give Isabella time to escape and pressed on immediately.

“Even if I’m your newly born halfsister, this is really too much. I’ve done my best to become a good sister to you.”

After throwing the fatal blow, Ariadne, with a wounded face, fought her way through the crowd and ran out.

Isabella had become a cruel, heartless, discriminatory figure, objectifying her sister, not even knowing her sister’s nickname, and exploiting her sister’s trauma.

Not wanting to be stuck in the crowd as the perpetrator, Isabella made a show of comforting her sister and fled the stage.

“Aria! Aria! It’s a misunderstanding! Wait!”

Stubbornly insisting on her original nickname, she couldn’t forget. She had to be innocent. She could not tolerate any flaws.

Where Ariadne and Isabella had run out, the remaining guests all became noisy at once. Despite everyone whispering, the simultaneous opening of everyone’s mouths made the volume feel like it had gone up a notch.

“You wore a white dress because you like innocence? That’s a total lie, isn’t it?”

“Did you know that Isabella was the first one to speak up earlier? She said her sister seemed to enjoy attention and purposely opened her dress! Oh, I’ve been suspicious from then on!”

“Her character is really appalling!”

For a while, the social circle of San Carlo seemed anything but boring.

Isabella, who chased after Ariadne who ran out, caught up with Ariadne going upstairs from the central entrance connected to the stairs.

“Hey! You stop there!”

Ariadne was not a fool to stop just because she was told to, but Isabella came running with superhuman strength and caught Ariadne’s sleeve, forcing Ariadne to be caught at the beginning of the stairs.

“What? You know I hate talking about breasts? Hey, you wicked woman! When did you say such things!”

The staircase where Isabella caught Ariadne was the very staircase where, on the first day Ariadne arrived, Arabella pushed Isabella down and was startled. This central staircase was strangely high and narrow.

Isabella cornered Ariadne hard in that narrow staircase.

“You’re really good at pinning things on people, aren’t you?”

Ariadne held her ground without a word as Isabella charged at her with her body. Seeing Ariadne not resisting actively, an even more frustrated Isabella attacked Ariadne’s hair as if she wanted to pull all of it out.

“You insignificant girl! Daring to crawl up just because I pampered you!”

Unable to control her anger, the jumping Isabella suddenly raised her hand to slap Ariadne.

“Do you think I can’t bury you in San Carlo’s society?!”

As Isabella tried to take a full swing, her wrist suddenly didn’t move, and she twisted her body. Ariadne, who was half a head taller than Isabella, was holding Isabella’s wrist tightly.

“Let go of this! You Xlike woman!”

But Ariadne’s hand, with all her strength, didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go of Isabella.

With her hand holding Isabella’s wrist high above her head, Ariadne whispered into Isabella’s ear.

“You Xlike XX, I’ll dunk you.”

Isabella stood still, frozen. She never imagined she would hear such harsh words from someone she never thought could stand up to her…!

Ariadne quickly warned Isabella in a low voice.

“Do you think only you can curse?”

Ariadne shook off Isabella’s wrist as if she were slapping it. Isabella, physically overwhelmed, retreated even further, flinching from the pain in her wrist.

Isabella took a step back. In the narrow staircase, the cornered Isabella seemed to be dangerously hanging on the high stairs.

Ariadne stuck her face right in front of Isabella’s nose and glared at her as if she were a predator eyeing her prey.

“Be careful when you sleep at night. Don’t forget we live in the same house. Your room is just across a single wooden plank in the hallway.”

Ariadne, who spat out those words, turned around and left the shocked Isabella behind. She felt it was a waste of time to deal with a person like Isabella.

It was time to show who was the real owner of the party room, which would be empty with the two main characters gone.