Lucrezia, who had rushed to Ariadne’s study, had no idea why her husband had summoned her to the study of his illegitimate daughter. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t good news.

She carefully knocked on the door of the room of her husband’s second daughter, whom he had brought from outside, and entered the room after hearing her husband’s voice inside.

“Lucrezia. Take a look at this.”

Cardinal De Mare waved a double-entry bookkeeping ledger with debit and credit sides divided in front of Lucrezia’s eyes. Lucrezia looked at the paper doubtfully, wondering what this was all about.

Why on earth did he write the same thing twice, once on the left and once on the right?

“This child managed the debutante ball with only 138 ducats.”

“What?”

Only then did Lucrezia become surprised.

“Is that possible?”

“It’s possible, that’s why there are only 12 ducats left in my hands now!”

Cardinal De Mare shook a pouch containing twelve gold coins in front of Lucrezia’s eyes, expressing his anger.

“How much did you spend last time when you threw a farewell party for Ippolito? The number of guests was only half compared to this time, but you spent 536 ducats!”

At Cardinal De Mare’s interrogation, Lucrezia lowered her head, feeling cornered, and only looked down at the floor.

“This time, it cost Ariadne 138 ducats (approximately 138 million won) to arrange the entire ball. That amount includes her own dress-up cost of 20 ducats. But what about Isabella? Isabella alone spent 50 ducats (approximately 50 million won) on her own dress!”

Cardinal De Mare looked as if he would tear Lucrezia to pieces with the account book if he could.

“In addition to that, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, and even perfume, the total amount Isabella alone spent on dressing up is 68 ducats (approximately 68 million won)! Do you think this makes any sense?”

Lucrezia had nothing to say even if she had ten mouths. It was Lucrezia herself who had allowed Isabella’s luxurious dress.

She had also secretly ordered one of her own gold items while arranging Isabella’s accessories. Since she had shared in it, she could not blame her daughter.

“From now on, I will directly give Ariadne her spending money! And make sure Isabella doesn’t spend more money than Ariadne does!”

“What?! Yes, sir!”

Lucrezia’s face turned pale upon hearing that some of the household budgeting authority would be transferred to her illegitimate daughter.

Lucrezia had her own family members to feed. It was obvious that once she fell behind, she would continue to fall behind.

She could not back down here. Lucrezia drew up her boiling anger from her stomach and lashed out at Cardinal De Mare.

“If you do this, what will become of me! As a stepmother, my words will have no effect on that child!”

“Then you should have acted like a proper stepmother!”

However, Cardinal De Mare seemed to have no intention of yielding today.

“What did I say on the day ‘The Heart of the Deep Blue Sea’ arrived! Didn’t I say I would take measures soon?!”

He was referring to the times when it had been exposed several times in the San Carlo social circle that Ariadne had been mistreated and not properly fed or clothed.

Lucrezia had thought her husband had quieted down after that and forgotten about it, but now that he was attacking her remembering even the ducat units, she felt miserable and resentful beyond words.

“It’s been over 20 years since I started serving you! How can you do this to me?!”

“Exactly 22 years. If you had cleanly managed the household accounts even once during those 22 years, I wouldn’t say anything. I don’t know about other things, but I have never made you miserable financially. Then you should have reciprocated my trust! I will not accept any objections regarding this matter. Keep that in mind! Get out!”

Her husband, who was always cold but always yielded a step to Lucrezia, was nowhere to be found.

The issue of money, which is sensitive to everyone but especially sensitive to Cardinal De Mare, and the accumulated distrust due to Lucrezia’s family members gathered, and Lucrezia was driven out by her husband in front of Ariadne’s nose, having sold out both the ones who were there and those who were not.

After driving Lucrezia out, Cardinal De Mare felt unpleasant and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Hmm. Hmm. Anyway. The ledger for this ball was very well managed. Come to think of it, I heard there was an incident at the ball?”

He was referring to the incident where Ariadne’s costume had torn.

“Yes, Father. It was not a big deal.”

Ariadne bowed her head politely. Cardinal De Mare nodded.

“Yes, regarding that matter, I inquired among my social circle and heard that it passed without much damage to your reputation.”

In fact, among the things Cardinal De Mare had heard from his inquiries, there were some things he could not bear to tell his young daughter. Mainly, rumors had spread among the gentlemen that the De Mare family’s second daughter was better than the eldest daughter in some aspects.

If he were an ordinary father, it would have been a matter of great anger, but Cardinal De Mare was a very peculiar person. He thought, well, it’s good to be popular in any aspect, and brushed it off.

In total, the evaluation had risen among the gentlemen, and among the ladies, thanks to the Marquis Countess, only stories of how pitiful Ariadne was were circulating, especially among the leading ladies of public opinion, so his second commodity had lost nothing.

Cardinal De Mare was satisfied with that.

However, while one incident had been fortunately covered up, the same thing should not happen twice.

“Did you find out what caused it? Was it a problem with the dressmaker?”

Ariadne shook her head.

“No, Father. I found out that the problem with the dress occurred after it entered the house. I will look into it more and inform you.”

“Yes. Managing subordinates is also an important quality. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes, Father.”

Cardinal De Mare told Ariadne that from now on, he would directly give her 10 ducats (approximately 1 million won) per month, and left Ariadne’s study.

As Cardinal De Mare left Ariadne’s study, Sancha, who had been waiting in the outer drawing room and eavesdropping on the conversation inside the study, made a tearful face and shouted to Ariadne.

“Lady, why didn’t you reveal that the dress was Isabella’s doing!”

“Because there is no definite evidence yet.”

Without physical evidence, the fight would ultimately come down to Isabella’s word against Ariadne’s.

Despite everything Ariadne had built up after her return, she did not think at all that her father would believe her words more.

Moreover, a ‘victory’ in such a fight was insufficient with just the father believing that her words had more credibility, and had to be obtained by expelling Isabella with her words alone. Ariadne shook her head.

It was not yet time to make a bet.

After the ball ended, Ariadne closely examined the torn first debutante dress with Sancha.

The item called a ‘hook’ that Maria had brought was indeed an item that many people use these days. However, while ordinary hooks are made of iron, the hook Maria brought was made by mixing lead and silver, making it a very soft item.

Usually, lead is mixed with iron, but it was particularly unusual that silver, which is even softer than iron, was mixed in a luxurious manner. Since lead was mixed with silver, which is softer than iron, the hook Ariadne used was bound to come loose over time.

Moreover, they discovered that someone had used a knife to tear one stitch every twenty stitches on the front of the dress.

Ragione Dressmaker had sent the item stitched meticulously and firmly by hand, but there were artificial traces of the thread being cut with a sharp object. Someone had set a trap for it to tear.

Sancha vented her resentment, certain that it was Isabella’s doing, and Ariadne very much agreed, but there was no decisive evidence.

The hook, while unusual in material, looked the same as any other hook, so there was no way to find out where it was made.

The fact that Maria, who was in charge of organizing the clothes, was close with Maletta became another circumstantial evidence, but with only that level of suspicion, they could not pursue the big incident of the eldest daughter of this house, Isabella, tampering with Ariadne’s clothes.

“Oh, it’s so frustrating!”

Ariadne comforted Sancha.

“Let’s wait and see. In the end, everything will be solved in due course.”

“Lady, are you polishing a rock or something?!”

To the frustrated Sancha, Ariadne smiled and replied.

“This much is not even worth waiting for. Let’s steadily gather evidence. Evidence is like a bomb. You have to detonate it all at once when the opponent is weakened to inflict damage. If you detonate it little by little now, you’ll only hurt the skin, not the important parts.”

However, Ariadne also agreed to get rid of Maria. Ariadne gave an additional 50 florins (approximately 500,000 won) to the butler Nicolo, whom she had come to know on this occasion, and changed Maria’s position.

Maria, who had been living a lucky life as a close maid to the lady with good treatment, was instantly assigned as a dishwashing maid in the kitchen.

“Maria must have sufficiently received the risk of being demoted to a chore maid from Maletta. If she did it with her bare mouth without receiving anything, then Maria is stupid.”

“She does seem a bit stupid.”

“We got rid of a stupid friend and brought in a new smart girl, so isn’t that good?”

The person brought in to replace Maria was Vicenta, whom Sancha had been eyeing since her days as a maid on the third floor. Sancha had praised her so much for being clever and smart that she was brought in, and indeed, she adapted quickly.

Sancha’s grumbling was endless.

“It’s such a waste to have honestly paid 12 ducats to His Eminence! We could have used it nicely as a slush fund.”

“Instead, we will receive 10 ducats every month. It’s money that will be fully recovered in a month and a half.”

Ariadne smiled brightly.

“And I didn’t give all the remaining money to Father.”

“What?!”

“Doesn’t it seem like the clothing expenses ended up being a bit more than originally planned?”

Indeed, the clothing expenses Ariadne had initially thought of were a mere 5 ducats (approximately 500,000 won). That had swelled to 20 ducats (approximately 2 million won) in the final ledger.

“I arranged it with Mrs. Marini. In exchange for having all my clothing made at Ragione Dressmaker for the next two seasons, they will slightly inflate the billing.”

Sancha’s mouth gaped open.

“So 15 ducats (approximately 1.5 million won) is our emergency fund. Got it?”

Sancha could only nod at the ghostly skills of the young lady. Cardinal De Mare was being ripped off here and there. Ignorance was bliss.

When Cardinal De Mare was alone with Ariadne, he stopped his interrogation about the incidents that occurred at Ariadne’s debutante ball at the level of asking for the details, but that evening, when Isabella and Ariadne were together, he sternly scolded both daughters.

“Internal family matters should not go outside the house. You can fight like dogs inside the house, but when you go outside, you two are on the same side!”

When the father, who rarely raised his voice, raised his voice and scolded them, tears welled up in Isabella’s eyes. It was true that Cardinal De Mare rarely shouted, especially at Isabella as well as at Lucrezia.

“Ariadne. Even if your elder sister was wrong, you shouldn’t have pointed that out in front of others. You should have let it go in front and sorted out the rights and wrongs inside the house!”

Ariadne reset the favorability points she had accumulated for her father back to 0. How did my past life, who firmly believed in those words, turn out? As if you’ll ever be a fair judge for me!

But on the outside, she put on the always polite, respectful, and trustworthy shell and bowed her head to her father.

“I was short-sighted. I will be careful not to let it happen again.”

Satisfied with Ariadne’s concise apology, Cardinal De Mare this time turned the direction of his reprimand toward Isabella.

“What about you saying this and that about your sister’s figure? Do you have a brain or not? As a grown woman, can’t you distinguish between words you can say and words you can’t? And of all people, the target is your own sister? Do you have any concept of sibling love?”

It was the first time Isabella had seen her father get angry at her, picking on her specifically, from a very young age to this day.

Earlier, she could at least engage in some mental victory, thinking that Cardinal De Mare’s rebuke was directed at Ariadne, not at herself.

Now that the target and content were specified, whichever way she looked at it, it was correct that it was directed at Isabella herself.

“Wahhh!”

As the flower-like eldest daughter burst into tears, Cardinal De Mare became flustered. Isabella cried like a baby, not caring.

“…It’s, it’s not like that!”

Isabella truly believed she was innocent. She had to believe it. With people unanimously saying that she was wrong like this, if she acknowledged those words, it felt like ‘Isabella’ as a person would forever become a worthless and useless piece of trash.

In front of emotional immaturity, the facts were bleached in her mind and turned into a flower garden.

“It was Camelia who first said that I deliberately revealed my chest! I’m only at fault for not stopping her from the side!”

“You didn’t do it?”