“You can’t come in until we confirm you’re clean, as you might have caught a dirty disease!”

– Clank.

Lucrezia and Isabella kept their boastful promise to the letter. Under the pretext of quarantine, they confined Ariadne to the stable outside the mansion as soon as she returned from the Rambouillet Almshouse.

The funny thing was that while they used isolation as an excuse to confine Ariadne, they immediately took Maletta and Sancha.

“What is this child?”

Lucrezia’s sharp voice echoed through the corridor when she first encountered Sancha. Ariadne calmly replied.

“A child I brought from the almshouse.”

“Are you out of your mind or not? Who do you think you are to bring in people from outside as you please?”

Lucrezia seemed genuinely upset.

“You’re really audacious. You say you’re sorry and that you’ve done wrong, but how can you be so self-willed with every step you take?”

She shouted at Sancha, who was standing with her head bowed low, gesturing with her chin.

“I can’t keep this beggar. Who knows what diseases she might have, throw her out at once!”

Just as the servants were about to approach to drag Sancha away, Ariadne took a handkerchief from her bosom and presented it to Lucrezia.

“Mother, please look at this.”

“What is this?”

Lucrezia scrutinized the handkerchief with suspicious eyes, without even touching it. The material of the handkerchief was fine cotton gauze with lace trimming on the edges. It was too luxurious for something belonging to Ariadne.

“Don’t tell me you stole it?”

“Of course not!”

When Lucrezia still refused to take the handkerchief, Ariadne held out the side with the gold embroidery that read ‘AFC’ for Lucrezia to see.

“It belongs to Prince Alfonso de Carlo.”

Lucrezia’s eyebrows shot up immediately. Isabella’s gaze also changed.

“I happened to meet the prince at the almshouse. I was planning to nurse this child only while at the almshouse, but the prince praised Cardinal De Mare’s great virtue in taking in the poor.”

Ariadne continued, watching Lucrezia’s reaction.

“Prince Alfonso seemed to think I was taking this child to give her a job. I couldn’t bring myself to say otherwise… Wouldn’t it tarnish the name of His Eminence the Cardinal?”

Lucrezia had no intention of tolerating any more of Ariadne’s schemes, whether she was using Prince Alfonso or Cardinal De Mare.

Cardinal De Mare was still looking into Lucrezia’s account books over the incident where she had been siphoning money from her family under the pretext of hiring tutors.

The thought of having to present an account book with unnecessary additional expenses to Cardinal De Mare because of Ariadne, and facing the Cardinal’s anger because of Ariadne, brought on a headache and a sudden surge of irritation.

“You’re all talk! You speak so well! Both of you get out! Go to the almshouse hand in hand! Who do you think I am for you to act so willfully?”

What resolved this situation of Lucrezia’s rising anger was Isabella’s greed.

“Prince Alfonso…? How did you meet him?”

Isabella’s purple eyes were shining with avarice. Ariadne carefully chose her words to avoid provoking Isabella as much as possible.

“Since the Rambouillet Almshouse is an institution overseen by Her Majesty the Queen, he must have come for an inspection. Prince Alfonso was present for the entire meal distribution at the almshouse.”

Upon hearing this, Isabella immediately turned to look at Lucrezia and started wheedling.

“Mom! I want to go to the Rambouillet Almshouse next week too!”

“Isabella! How can you go to such a place!”

Lucrezia slapped Isabella’s shoulder.

“If you want to see the prince, there are High Masses and tea parties! Not the almshouse!”

Isabella seemed a bit angry, but she took a deep breath, composed her expression, and smiled sweetly at Lucrezia.

“Mom, then I won’t go to the almshouse, but in return, please take in that beggar child.”

“Now even you’re doing as you please? Am I really that easy to push around?!”

“Oh, come on, Mom. If I meet the prince at a tea party, I should have something to talk about, right?”

Isabella scolded Lucrezia, getting angry instead.

“Since Dad doesn’t do anything to connect me with Prince Alfonso, I’m having to use my brain like this! Instead of helping!”

While Lucrezia was taken aback by Isabella’s unreasonable tantrum, Isabella approached Ariadne and pulled at the handkerchief.

“I’ll keep this.”

Ariadne unconsciously tightened her grip on the handkerchief out of an instinctive aversion, but having no way to keep it, she resisted slightly before giving it up.

Isabella, holding Prince Alfonso’s handkerchief in her hand, looked at Ariadne and smiled brightly. Her small features shone like a fairy as her flaxen hair swayed gently.

“Well done.”

Ariadne gritted her teeth and managed her expression at Isabella’s tone, which sounded like she was ordering a servant around. Playing the role of Isabella’s maid. Still the same in this life as in the previous one.

“It’s nothing, elder sister.”

Lucrezia ordered Ariadne to be taken to the outer stable and went inside with Isabella and the rest of the household. Maletta and Sancha followed awkwardly at the end of the group.

As Lucrezia turned her back and the rest of the household followed her, causing a commotion, Sancha took the opportunity to approach Ariadne briefly.

The small, thin girl whispered quietly.

“Thank you so much for saving me, young lady. I will definitely repay this kindness.”

On a bright day transitioning from spring to summer, Ariadne, who had been living in the stable with rough planks for walls and straw for a mattress, received an unexpected message.

“Young Lady Ariadne, the Madam says to come out, wash up, and get ready.”

It was Maletta who came with Sancha, still an apprentice, to announce the end of the confinement.

It was the tenth day of confinement.

“I was prepared for a month, what’s going on?”

Before Maletta could answer, the sharp-witted Sancha blurted out the reply first.

“A carriage came from the palace! They said to specially escort Young Lady Ariadne!”

Ariadne grinned. It was an unexpected opportunity to repay Lucrezia for the ten days in the stable.

Ariadne followed the maids up to her room on the third floor.

In the small attic room, there was a neat ivory silk dress and a pure white chemise to wear underneath, befitting a noble young lady.

It wasn’t particularly expensive clothing. But it was the prettiest among the things she had touched since her regression.

However, instead of being greedy for the clothes, Ariadne turned to Sancha with a slight smile.

“Hey, let’s play dress-up and switch clothes.”

“Pardon?”

“The chemise. You wear that. I’ll wear what you’re wearing now.”

The maids were surprised as well. Additionally, when Ariadne pointed to Sancha instead of herself, Maletta’s expression twisted. Since the young lady ordered it, Sancha confusedly took off her clothes and handed them to Ariadne.

Ariadne changed the chemise she was wearing with Sancha’s and put on the dress provided by the De Mare family over it. Where the white lace of the chemise should have been visible, a yellowish cotton undergarment showed instead.

Ariadne neatly combed her hair, just barely completing the appearance of an outfit for going out, and went downstairs.

“Mom, Mom! Why did Queen Marguerite suddenly invite us to mass?”

“She must have heard our beautiful Isabella’s name and wanted to see your face!”

Inside the carriage, an excited mother and daughter were having a ‘delusion’ parade.

“The prince will come too, right? Just in case, I brought the handkerchief.”

Isabella waved the handkerchief with the initials ‘AFC’. Isabella had been keeping it clean, washed, and perfumed.

Isabella herself was dressed up like a porcelain doll.

On her lovely pink skin, she had applied rouge to give a blush, thickened her eyelashes with coal powder mixed with oil, and her flaxen hair was half-tied with the rest falling in waves, in the style popular in the Republic of Porto.

The dress she wore was the same ivory outdoor dress as Ariadne’s, but its luxury was incomparable.

The already beautiful girl, having put so much effort into her appearance, seemed to shine alone as if all the light sources around her had been extinguished.

According to the customs of the Etruscan Kingdom, young ladies who had not had their debutante ball were not allowed to use colored makeup.

The plain-faced and shabby Ariadne sat as close to the corner of the carriage as possible, keeping her mouth shut like a clam to avoid comparison with Isabella, enduring this insane mother and daughter.

– Neigh!

With the horse’s whinny, the carriage arrived at the Palazzo Carlo in the center of San Carlo. After passing the outer entrance of the palace, the carriage stopped at the inner main gate. A palace official greeted the affectionate mother and daughter, followed by Ariadne, as they got out of the carriage.

“Welcome, family of Cardinal De Mare.”

The official skillfully avoided addressing Lucrezia as ‘madam’ or using the word ‘family’ for a clergyman.

Instead, with impeccable court etiquette, he escorted the three to the outer reception room used for Queen Marguerite’s small masses. It was a modest but elegant small chapel.

At the altar of the small chapel, a priest in white vestments was just opening his mouth, and a dignified lady in her forties with a mass veil on her head was bowing her head devoutly in the front row.

Behind her, a couple of ladies-in-waiting were about to join in prayer.

The priest was conducting the mass in the language of the Kingdom of Galico.

‘It’s Queen Marguerite.’

Although Ariadne had never actually seen Queen Marguerite in her previous life, she could recognize her at a glance from her portrait.

In fact, even if she hadn’t seen the portrait, she would have recognized her immediately. The queen’s aura and attire clearly showed that she was a noble lady.

– “Oh, what should we do?”

Lucrezia, who had no experience in meeting royalty, was flustered and whispered to Isabella, not knowing what to do.

It would have been proper to greet Her Majesty the Queen first when meeting her. But it would have been a great discourtesy to speak to the Queen while she was in prayer. Isabella was equally unsure of what to do.

Ariadne glanced at the two flustered women, then calmly sat down three or four rows behind Queen Marguerite and began to follow along with the prayer.

– “Mom!”

Isabella was indeed quick-witted. She poked Lucrezia in the side to make her look at Ariadne, then quickly sat down next to Ariadne and started praying along.

Although she rolled her eyes once in annoyance that Ariadne had taken the good seat first, this was the best she could do for now.

As the elder daughter took her seat, Lucrezia also awkwardly sat down next to her and began to pray.

“−And therefore the Gon of Jesarche sacrificed himself and saved the sinners, for they are imperfect yet still his children.”

The priest’s prayer was reaching its climax.

“We can only ponder what went through Gon of Jesarche’s mind when he sacrificed himself for the immoral, selfish, dundering ones under his wings. The noble, rich, witful or spiritual ones must care for the others first before saving themselves in order to replicate Gon of Jesarche’s way of living. Amen.”

“Amen.”

The voices of the women in the small chapel resonated together.

Isabella’s ‘Amen’ was particularly loud and clear, as she was desperate to catch the Queen’s attention.

Did Isabella understand even a word of the mass content? Ariadne instinctively frowned, then realizing her own agitation, smoothed out her brow nicely.

Such forceful attempts to stand out were actually foolish. Even Isabella herself would never have done such a thing if she were just ten years older.

But the cruel nemesis who had subtly tormented Ariadne throughout her life and eventually succeeded in confining her to the western tower was now just a seventeen-year-old adolescent girl.

At the unusually loud ‘Amen’, the veiled lady turned around. Her hair was the same brilliant blonde as her son’s. The sunlight that had squeezed through the stained glass window embraced her gentle features.

The Queen’s expression was benevolent, but her gray-blue eyes were cold.

Her gaze stopped on Isabella.

Seeing the Queen’s gaze, Ariadne, sitting next to Isabella, bowed her head once more respectfully.

Realizing that the Queen’s gaze was focused on her, Isabella, following her instinctive desire for attention, opened her mouth.

“Oh my goodness…”

Everyone’s eyes suddenly turned to Isabella.