The central staircase was dizzingly high.

Arabella didn’t care about the height at all, and didn’t slow down her pace at all, as if it didn’t matter as long as she could push Ariadne down.

However, there was inevitably a difference in weight class between fifteen and ten years old. No matter how much force Arabella put into her run, she couldn’t beat Ariadne.

Ariadne lightly stepped aside.

But as luck would have it, Isabella was standing diagonally next to Ariadne.

With Ariadne clearing the way, Arabella’s path stretched straight towards her eldest sister, Isabella.

“Uh, uhh?”

“Huh?!”

Isabella couldn’t dodge Arabella in time and collided head-on with her blood sister before tumbling down the stairs.

– Crash! Bang!

“Kyaa!”

“Ahh!”

Arabella, having charged straight ahead, managed to grab the railing near the stairs and barely stopped herself.

But Isabella, who had been standing with her back to the stairs, had nothing to hold onto and no support to absorb the impact. She tumbled down about one floor’s height to the middle landing, collapsing in the narrow space between the stairs.

– Thud!

She had fallen so hard that she couldn’t even get up on her own.

“Ouch…”

The central staircase of Cardinal De Mare’s residence was strangely high and narrow. The steep slope and narrow width of the stairs looked truly dangerous.

Due to the high ceiling, the screams echoed loudly. As Isabella let out her death cry, the door to Cardinal De Mare’s reception room burst open.

“What’s this noise!”

Cardinal De Mare, who had rushed out of his private reception room at the commotion, looked outside.

He scanned around, eyeing the terrified Arabella and the composed Ariadne, before discovering Isabella collapsed on the landing below and roaring.

“What happened here!”

He gestured to a maid to help Isabella up. Maids who had rushed from all over began to lift Isabella into a sitting position and started applying ice packs brought from the kitchen.

Isabella, who had injured her ankle, couldn’t stand properly, and seeing Isabella sitting on the landing, Cardinal De Mare roared.

“Who did this!”

Isabella, wisely, bowed her head and said nothing. Telling would only damage her reputation.

When Isabella remained silent, Cardinal De Mare alternately glared at Ariadne and Arabella, interrogating them.

“Which one of you two did this?”

Arabella, pale as a sheet, stammered out an attempt at an excuse.

Ariadne thought that a ten-year-old might burst into tears in front of such an intimidating father, but seeing Arabella speak coherently, she thought Arabella was quite impressive.

“Father, it wasn’t me… Ariadne, Ariadne…!”

However, being impressive and saying impressive things that one wants to hear are separate matters.

Arabella’s effort to shift the target was perfectly registered by Cardinal De Mare.

“Ariadne! How many days has it been since you returned from the Bergamo estate, and you’re already causing such accidents!”

Arabella sighed in relief that a scapegoat had been found, and the maids gathered on the landing looked at Ariadne as if she were a strange foreigner.

It had only been a day since she returned to San Carlo Castle from the countryside farm, yet she had injured Lucrezia’s precious eldest daughter and incurred Cardinal De Mare’s wrath. This young lady’s future would not be easy.

But Ariadne, without showing any signs of fear, began to speak as if regretful, as if there had been a misunderstanding. Her attitude was both demure and composed at the same time.

“Father, I deeply regret causing such a commotion in the house so soon after returning from the estate. Moreover, Sister Isabella was only hurt while trying to help me…”

‘Help?’

Isabella, who had been hanging her head, looked at Ariadne with suspicious eyes.

‘What is she plotting?’

Arabella frowned and glared at Ariadne. Ariadne continued speaking, unperturbed by her sisters’ visual attacks.

“Sister Isabella is truly kind, as I heard many stories about her even when I was in the countryside. She is indeed the most renowned lady in San Carlo Castle. I had just arrived, but I am sincerely grateful to Sister Isabella for reaching out to help me. However…”

Ariadne glanced at Arabella.

“Arabella needs to be more careful with her behavior. Arabella was playing around and pushed me, causing Sister Isabella to fall down the stairs while trying to help me. At ten years old, she’s no longer a child and should behave properly as a young lady.”

Arabella’s face turned bright red from her ears.

She had been relieved, thinking that a naive country girl who had just come up from the countryside couldn’t possibly speak properly in front of the fearsome Cardinal De Mare, but Ariadne spoke fluently as if her tongue had been oiled, fearlessly spilling the details in front of the Cardinal.

“No! That’s not true!”

Arabella screamed desperately. She knew well what her father was capable of when angry. She couldn’t become the youngest daughter who had injured her eldest sister, who was loved by her father.

“Sister Isabella wasn’t trying to help her, she was just standing nearby when she pushed me towards Sister Isabella! She’s the one who hurt Sister Isabella!”

Ariadne didn’t even raise an eyebrow at Arabella’s bold lie, and lowered her head with a hurt expression.

After all, there was no objective evidence, only one witness.

“Although I have come up from the countryside estate, I do not lie.”

Ariadne pointed to Isabella lying on the lower floor.

“If you can’t believe me because I lack learning and am unfamiliar, ask Sister Isabella herself!”

Arabella was confused.

‘What kind of trick is this?’

On the other hand, Isabella, who had been a villainess who shook the Etruscan royal court in her past life, showed promise even as a sapling.

Isabella gathered her wits in the time it took to take one breath, and immediately put on a pitiful expression, dramatically lowering her head.

“Father…”

Isabella’s decision was clear.

“I was just trying to help Ariadne when…”

Isabella didn’t miss the opportunity to be seen as a good person. She didn’t forget to act pitifully until the end.

“Arabella was just playing around, Father. Please don’t scold her too much.”

Arabella, who had suddenly become a naughty child bullying her kind stepsister, unlike her affectionate eldest sister, gaped at Isabella.

Isabella lowered her head shyly, and Ariadne swallowed a sigh of relief inwardly.

‘Nothing has changed. Just like you, Isabella.’

Whether it was her blood sister or not, Isabella was not the type to miss out on her own benefit.

* * *

“Arabella! You are to stay in your room for 2 weeks, eating only dry bread and water while praying!”

“Father! I really didn’t do it!”

“Call me Your Excellency! How dare you call me Father so rudely! If you’ve been caught lying, you should at least show some remorse. What? You really didn’t? For talking back, one more week! Pray for 3 weeks!”

Arabella trembled and stared at the floor. Isabella kept rubbing her ankle, avoiding eye contact with her sister.

“Call a doctor for Isabella. Where is that woman Lucrezia! How on earth did she raise her child!”

The house was in utter chaos. Ariadne, who had sown seeds of discord in Cardinal De Mare’s residence on her first day back, smiled alone.

‘Well… This works?’

Except for Ariadne, all the household members stared at the floor without making a sound amidst the loud noises echoing through the landing. Cardinal De Mare, seemingly displeased even with that, stomped his foot.

“What is there to see, all of you standing in a line and watching! I don’t like any of this, aish!”

He shook the hem of his white robe and slammed the door of the reception room shut as he went in.

Isabella, despite exchanging her ankle injury for the opportunity to appear kind in front of people, seemed quite satisfied as she entered her room on the second floor of the mansion, supported by maids with a gentle expression.

Arabella, just before being dragged away by the head maid, glared at Ariadne with vicious eyes and gritted her teeth.

“Don’t think this is over!”

Ariadne just smiled faintly.

“You poor thing.”

“What?”

“Father and Mother only like Sister Isabella.”

Arabella trembled with her face bright red.

“What would you know! You don’t know anything!”

“Young miss, let’s go. If you make a big fuss here, you’ll get another earful from His Excellency the Cardinal.”

At the head maid Giada’s restraint, Arabella couldn’t resist and was dragged away. Various insults like “lowborn,” “ugly,” and “bumpkin” that Arabella shouted as she was being dragged away echoed through the corridor.

Ariadne patted down her dress hem, readjusting her posture. In the place where everyone had left, only nameless maids busily cleaning up and the red-haired maid Maletta, who had been standing at attention in front of the Cardinal’s reception room door, remained.

Ariadne looked at Maletta, whose attitude had become even more respectful than before, and smiled brightly.

“Well, shall we go?”

* * *

Cardinal De Mare ordered that Ariadne be given the same education as his other two daughters, but Isabella was bedridden with a sprained ankle, and Arabella was confined for 3 weeks, so Ariadne was the only child left to study.

Lucrezia, seemingly reluctant to spend money on a tutor for Ariadne, told the usual tutor to take a month’s vacation and brought in a different one.

This hadn’t happened in her previous life. It seemed the cause and effect had changed due to Isabella’s injury and Arabella’s punishment.

Back then, she had sat blankly through incomprehensible lessons, squeezed into classes with the other two.

“This is Teacher Giovanni. He will teach Latin and arithmetic. Be obedient.”

Teacher Giovanni was a man in his 30s who looked a bit unhealthy. His strawberry nose with prominent pores suggested he lived soaked in wine. The smell of a drunkard assaulted the nose.

Ariadne looked at Teacher Giovanni with suspicion. He clearly didn’t seem like a proper teacher. Moreover, why introduce him by his first name rather than his surname?

“Mother, how could I dare address the teacher by his first name? What is Teacher Giovanni’s surname?”

Lucrezia flew into a rage.

“Stop talking nonsense and just study! If it’s Giovanni, then it’s Giovanni, why so many questions!”

Lucrezia reacted sensitively to the innocuous question, as if something was pricking her conscience. This man called Teacher Giovanni looked even more suspicious with his sly grin.

He just nodded his head without showing any displeasure at being told not to raise his title and to use his name comfortably.

‘Something smells fishy here.’