– Thump!

Ariadne stomped her foot. The insolent maid flinched at Ariadne’s forceful manner.

“Did I not ask where you belong?”

The maid cowered under Ariadne’s gaze, intimidated by the low voice and dignified attitude unbefitting a fifteen-year-old girl.

“Ah, no, it’s not that. I just didn’t think the young miss needed to know my lowly position…”

“Your position.”

Only then did the maid recite in a timid voice:

“I’m a second-floor maid in charge of Miss Isabella…”

Ariadne looked the maid up and down. She had flaming red hair, was short and plump, and appeared to be a year or two older than Ariadne’s current self.

“Name.”

“Young miss…”

The red-haired maid made a pitiful face. But under Ariadne’s sharp gaze, she soon bowed her head and gave her name.

“My name is Maletta…”

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Ariadne added one more thing to the red-haired maid who had lowered her head like a turtle:

“Mind your attitude.”

Hearing those words, the maid Maletta, still bowing, hurriedly bent her waist deeply in a bow and then rushed out of the room.

* * *

Ariadne changed from her rags into a modest indoor dress and followed the maid to Cardinal De Mare’s quarters.

The place Ariadne was summoned to was not the Cardinal De Mare’s study, but his private reception room. Although he never allowed anyone into his study, family members were occasionally permitted in the reception room.

– Knock knock.

“Your Eminence. I have brought Miss Ariadne.”

The maid knocked on the door with exaggerated politeness and announced Ariadne’s arrival to the Cardinal.

Ariadne remembered standing in this spot in her previous life, making eye contact with the cherub painted in golden glaze and turning pale with fear.

Back then, just looking at it had made her feel intimidated, but in this life, Ariadne didn’t bat an eye. After 9 years of living as the top socialite, she was sick of seeing luxury items.

Ariadne entered confidently through the door opened by the servant. She gracefully entered, bowing her waist in perfect court etiquette.

“How has Your Eminence’s health been? This unworthy child is overjoyed to see Your Eminence after so long.”

Cardinal De Mare looked at Ariadne with a surprised expression, raising his left eyebrow.

He was a small-built man in his 50s.

He had a somewhat mousy appearance. His delicate features, thin frame, and narrow shoulders resembled Isabella greatly, but these feminine characteristics on a man in his 50s made him look plain rather than handsome.

Instead, his bright emerald green eyes spoke to the fact that he was not a man to be trifled with.

“You’ve had a long journey. I’m pleased that you’ve grown up well despite having little opportunity for education while raised in the Bergamo estate.”

‘I’m so grateful that you at least pretend to care with your words.’

Hiding her true thoughts, Ariadne answered in a clear voice:

“I will study and learn harder to bring honor to our family name and not disappoint my parents and siblings…”

“Yes. You must not be a disappointment.”

A noblewoman in her 40s cut off Ariadne’s words. It was Lucrezia.

“A woman’s virtue lies not in studying and learning, but in serving and caring well for her parents and siblings when young, and her husband when older.”

Unlike Isabella’s mother, she had high cheekbones and a long face. But her amber hair and amethyst eyes were identical to her daughter’s. Her expression was somewhat neurotic.

She glared at Ariadne with upturned eyes and gave a warning lecture:

“Don’t stand out. Behave modestly like a proper girl.”

She was wearing a dress in the style of the Porto Republic. It was a daring style that exposed most of her chest, with only a thin layer of lace covering it.

Her soft, fair skin was quite sensual for her age, but she looked more like an excellent mistress than an exemplary mistress of a great house.

‘There was a time when I thought becoming like that woman was the proper model of nobility.’

After gaining all sorts of social experiences and traveling back over 10 years, meeting her again… She was too vulgar to even be called a noble.

‘What should I call the state of mind that wears such a dress and lectures others to behave modestly?’

Ariadne smiled as childishly as possible, trying not to let the thoughts rolling around in her head show.

“Yes, madam. I will do my best to be a good child and follow your words.”

Cardinal De Mare raised the end of his eyebrow.

“Madam?”

But that raised gaze was directed not at Ariadne, but at Lucrezia.

In the Kingdom of Etruria, it was customary for illegitimate children to treat their father’s legal wife as if she were their own mother, unless a separate family register was created for them.

It was virtuous for illegitimate children to show filial piety no less than legitimate children, and it was also virtuous for a noble lady to treat illegitimate children no differently from her own children.

However, an illegitimate child could not call their stepmother “mother” without permission.

Lucrezia, to please her husband, forced a smile by barely lifting the corners of her mouth to accept Ariadne’s greeting.

“Don’t call me madam, call me mother. We’ll get along well.”

Her dislike was evident, but neither the new child nor the old husband seemed to care.

“Thank you, mother.”

“That’s good to see.”

Ariadne smiled like a picture, and Cardinal De Mare praised the two with a broad smile on his face. Lucrezia had no choice but to wear a forced smile and nod to Ariadne.

At that moment, a high, clear nightingale-like voice flew in.

“Welcome back to the family. If there’s anything you don’t know, feel free to ask me anytime.”

A beautiful, small and pretty fairy of San Carlo.

It was Isabella.

She looked about fourteen years younger than when Ariadne had last seen her in her early 30s.

Unlike her past self who had been as gloriously beautiful as a fully bloomed rose, the small-bodied girl Isabella truly looked like a fairy that had suddenly popped out from an old tale.

Unlike her mother who couldn’t quite hide her displeasure, Isabella smiled kindly with an expression that couldn’t have been more friendly.

“We’re sisters after all. I’ll help you a lot.”

Ariadne unconsciously tensed up and took a breath. Her beauty was overwhelming.

‘I mustn’t be fooled by that smiling face.’

Beautiful Isabella, who lures sacrificial lambs with her sweet smile and then stabs them in the back.

Her hands trembled involuntarily. Ariadne hid her trembling hands by tucking them into her sides on opposite sides so they wouldn’t be visible. Then Ariadne bowed slightly, putting on the most benevolent and friendly expression she could muster.

“Thank you.”

She had lived her whole life subserviently, always watching for cues and serving, wanting to get along well with this perfect older sister who smiled so sweetly. She had thought her sister was as warm and good as her smile.

But even on the day she stabbed me in the back, she was smiling just like that.

Isabella responded to Ariadne’s greeting, which had suppressed her turbulent emotions as much as possible, with her usual charming smile.

She stepped forward and forcibly pulled out the two hands Ariadne had hidden at her sides, clasping them in her own two hands.

“I’ve always wanted to do so many things if I had a sister my age. Have tea parties together, go window shopping in town… Do you like clothes or jewelry?”

“Ah, no, that’s all too much for me.”

As Isabella put her hands on Ariadne’s body, Ariadne froze like a mouse before a cat. The memory of submission since childhood seemed to control her limbs.

Ariadne gritted her teeth, praying it wouldn’t show on the outside.

“Call me sister.”

Isabella, with the air of a born ruler, smiled leisurely and warmly encouraged her.

“That doesn’t sound like ‘sister’!”

Just then, a sharp voice stabbed in from the corner.

“Why is she our sister? I don’t accept it.”

“Arabella!”

Lucrezia nervously covered the mouth of the voice’s owner.

It was a girl with amber hair who looked about ten years old.

Unlike her sister, the girl took after her father and had the same deep green eyes as Ariadne, but the low-saturation hair color and dark eyes weren’t as harmonious as her older sister’s, so her looks weren’t quite up to par with her sister’s. Her cheeks were still chubby with baby fat.

This was Arabella De Mare, Cardinal De Mare’s youngest daughter. In her past life, she had passed away at a young age due to the Black Death that swept through in 1123.

The young girl frowned with a dissatisfied expression and pointed at Ariadne.

“Does she look like us? Her hair is pitch black. She probably can’t study or play the lute either, right? Can she even speak Latin?”

At this point, Lucrezia stopped trying to verbally restrain her and, watching the head of the family’s reaction, hurriedly ran over and hugged Arabella from behind.

But without waiting for her to soothe her youngest daughter, Cardinal De Mare’s angry voice resonated through the reception room.

“Enough!”

Cardinal De Mare waved his left hand and threatened:

“Lucrezia, how have you been raising our children? Do you want me to receive a commendation from the Holy See for living in such harmony? I’m just asking for the basics, the basics!”

“I’m sorry, Your Eminence. Arabella is still young…”

“How is ten years old young! In a place like the Bergamo estate, a ten-year-old would be doing the work of a full-grown farmer!”

Arabella was glaring at Ariadne with hostility, as if she was being scolded because of Ariadne.

Isabella wore an expression of utmost regret at the situation itself, as if it had nothing to do with her. Pretending to be kind to the very end when important people were around was Isabella’s alpha and omega.

“Get out!”

At his order to leave, all family members except Cardinal De Mare backed towards the reception room door at once.

They walked without showing their backs. This was the etiquette shown by Etrurian subjects to their king.

Cardinal De Mare’s household members were closer to his subjects than his family.

“Ah, give Ariadne the same Latin teacher as Isabella and Arabella. The rest of her home education should be the same as well.”

Lucrezia couldn’t express her dissatisfaction outwardly and meekly acquiesced.

“Understood, Your Eminence.”

* * *

After withdrawing from Cardinal De Mare’s reception room, Lucrezia gritted her teeth and said one thing to Ariadne.

“Don’t cause any trouble.”

Outwardly, Ariadne bowed her head respectfully, but inwardly, she imagined herself shrugging.

‘What have I done? Your child is the one who caused trouble. I haven’t even started yet.’

With a maid standing at attention by the door, Lucrezia went into the inner room first. Only Arabella grinding her teeth, Isabella, and Ariadne standing with her eyes wide open were left in the hallway.

Arabella, unable to contain her resentment, gritted her teeth and glared.

“I don’t accept it!”

The ten-year-old girl fumed, pointing with her small finger.

“Born as a farm maid! Born to a lowly maid mother!”

Ariadne was more dumbfounded than angry. Where did a mere ten-year-old learn such words? No doubt they were words whispered to the child by her parents, or her viper of a sister.

But Ariadne had vowed not to endure in this life, so she couldn’t just laugh it off good-naturedly as a child’s stubbornness. Moreover, her innate temperament wasn’t particularly docile.

Hiding thorns behind her smile, she threw out a comment:

“From what father said, it sounds like you might be the one going to the farm?”

“What?”

“He said ten years old is plenty old enough to be a full farmer.”

“Eeeek!!”

Unable to contain her anger, Arabella shook with rage and then charged towards Ariadne. Behind her was the staircase.