Aria was taken aback by Clea’s sudden action.

Her mind told her she needed to remove the hands choking her neck, but her body couldn’t move.

In that state, Aria stared directly into Clea’s eyes. Clea’s eyes were shining coldly. She looked as if she might kill her at any moment.

Aria shuddered at that fierce appearance.

“You’re still the same.”

Seeing Aria frozen, Clea laughed. It was clearly a sneer.

Her appearance was still the same.

Without releasing her choking grip, Clea whispered in Aria’s ear.

“Was it during our academy days? I’m sure I warned you like this back then too.”

Back then, she hadn’t cared about the original story.

Clea didn’t care what Aria did.

Whether she made Lloyd hers or not, whether she made herself the villainess to win people’s favor or not.

At that time, Clea was only thinking about how to survive.

Suddenly possessing this body, she couldn’t help but worry about how to live in a place where not a single person liked her.

Meanwhile, Aria kept testing her patience.

So she had threatened Aria once like this as a warning. Her reaction was quite a sight.

“You brought this upon yourself, Aria Hersher.”

“P-please spare me!”

Clea laughed at Aria’s words and shifted her gaze.

My, even her words were exactly the same as back then.

But what was different from then was that this was now the Odoi mansion.

The servants around were peeking and watching.

But no one approached or helped. For them, this was merely enemies fighting each other.

If they had intended to help Aria, they should have come and stopped her from the moment Clea pushed her against the door.

Yet even now as she choked her, no one was stopping her.

They just sent unpleasant glances.

‘Back then too, people who heard your words misunderstood and called me a murderer.’

It was truly ridiculous and absurd at the same time.

Despite being the one who had tormented her relentlessly, people pointed fingers at her and cursed.

“When you show this side of yourself, I find it absurd.”

Aria’s body was now free from the curse.

No longer terminally ill, yet still clinging to life like this – Clea found it absurd.

That she showed the exact same behavior despite passing that curse onto her.

‘Should I leave a mark on her neck?’

At the academy too, that warning seemed to work as she stayed quiet as a mouse for a while.

And afterwards she didn’t approach Clea alone.

Of course, she had no trouble facing Clea again after starting to stick to Admund like glue, but now even that Admund was no longer by her side.

Clea thought.

Normally, young ladies were sensitive about their appearance. Especially Aria, who held a high position in society.

Thinking she might become quiet again like before if she became conscious of the marks on her neck every time she looked in a mirror, she pondered for a moment.

And soon the result of her deliberation came.

“Haa, haa.”

Clea released her grip on Aria’s neck.

If she had applied just a bit more force, marks would have surely remained, but she didn’t.

She thought it wasn’t even worth the effort.

And Aria might become noisy again if she went back.

She didn’t want to create evidence to support her words and increase troublesome matters.

Aria immediately collapsed to the floor as if sprawling out.

Though she clearly hadn’t gripped that hard, it was disgusting how she exaggeratedly gasped for breath.

“So what’s the reason the young lady came all the way here?”

“Kugh.”

Coming to her senses at Clea’s following words, Aria glared at her again with fierce eyes.

But it wasn’t as fierce as before. There was still fear remaining in the eyes facing Clea.

Clea was satisfied with Aria’s slightly humbled attitude.

“Do you think you’ll be fine after doing this?”

“What can you do about it?”

“I’ll tell people what happened today.”

“Go ahead, tell them.”

Aria felt irritated by Clea’s confident reply. Her displayed confidence was very grating.

In the past, when Aria said such things, she couldn’t even react and was helplessly at her mercy.

Today she was countering head-on instead of ignoring it.

Meanwhile, Clea knew well what Aria was thinking.

“Go ahead and tell people like you did at the academy. But I wonder, will people curse at me and try to help you this time too?”

Novels and reality were very different.

In novels, there’s always a protagonist buff of sorts.

It was understandable that people would try to help her since she was the beloved female lead.

But now that the situation had completely changed with Clea’s possession, would people still try to help Aria?

“Think with that stupid head of yours, Aria.”

Aria turned her head, trying to avoid the gaze staring straight at her.

At this useless defiance, Clea grabbed her chin and forcibly made her meet her eyes again.

After holding her in place like that, she continued speaking.

“Even though I was an abandoned child, I was clearly a young lady like you, so why did people blindly follow only you and not me? Because you’re more beautiful than me? Because your family cherished you more?”

Was it simply because the Hersher family was pro-imperial?

That didn’t make sense. Because at that time, Clea was engaged to Lloyd Percy.

The Percy family was one of the families that had long been loyal to the imperial family.

The reason people stayed by Aria’s side and took care of her was simple.

Even if their starting points as young ladies were the same, if Aria became the crown princess and Clea became a grand duchess, Clea would naturally become Aria’s subordinate.

‘Even though grand duchess is a high position, being branded by someone who would become the crown princess…’

On top of that, her fiancé completely neglected his fiancée and only followed the future crown princess.

It was a situation where Clea clearly couldn’t have any authority in anyone’s eyes.

Since no other suitable crown princess candidate for Admund had appeared, everyone thought Aria would become the crown princess.

That’s why people followed her like that. To try to get on Aria’s good side somehow.

But now the situation had completely flipped.

“You know too. Why people followed you.”

A doll-like beautiful young lady.

It was all because of that, that she seemed to dominate the academy and take control of high society.

The closer she got to the crown princess position, the more everything flowed exactly as she wanted.

Was that why? Aria constantly tried not to give up her greed for the crown princess position.

Perhaps her fear of losing everything in an instant was great.

“That’s not true!”

As expected, Aria denied it.

It seems her pride couldn’t admit that part.

But the more she denied it, the more pleasure Clea felt.

Because the more she kept denying, the more she seemed to be realizing it herself.

Clea asked her in an indifferent voice.

“Then why did people follow you?”

“That’s…”

Aria couldn’t readily answer Clea’s question.

In fact, she also knew what Clea was trying to say. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to admit it.

That it wasn’t because she was a lovable person, but because she was going to be the crown princess.

If she admitted it, she would have to give up everything she had enjoyed until now.

She had already crossed a river she couldn’t return from.

“Why don’t you give up your pointless greed? If you keep being stubborn, the people around you will walk the path of ruin.”

Clea whispered to Aria one last time.

She didn’t want to be tired because of her anymore. She hoped she would stop here so there wouldn’t be any more annoyances in the future.

So it was a final warning, but Aria didn’t seem to want to accept it.

“If you die, none of that will happen, Clea.”

Swish, it was in an instant that Aria drew a dagger and swung it.

Drip, drip.

Blood drops fell from the dagger that grazed Clea’s side.

Clea looked at Aria with her face contorted in sharp pain.

The frightened face of Aria begging her to spare her life had disappeared without a trace.

She was just facing Clea with a hardened expression, as if devoid of any emotion.

‘So it ends up like this after all.’

Clea let out a hollow laugh.

She also had no intention of forgiving Aria, but it was still advice given for her sake one last time.

But Aria kicked even that away and crossed a line she shouldn’t have.

“Now hell will unfold before you.”

“Say whatever you want. Anyway, you’ll end up dead here, killed by your birth father.”

“Ha.”

Clea had somewhat expected the current situation.

This situation where Aria and Grit were trying to use each other to somehow kill her.

She didn’t know the stage would be the Odoi ducal house.

She didn’t know they would reveal their killing intent so blatantly. Perhaps she had mistakenly thought they were smarter people.

On the other hand, she felt it was cliché that things were going back to the scenario she had expected.

‘I was hoping for at least something unexpected to happen.’

In any case, she was aware of it herself. That she had entered the heart of enemy territory.

She looked around.

Not having expected the knife fight, the servants’ faces showed signs of bewilderment.

‘Aria, there’s one thing you’ve overlooked.’

Clea thought as she saw their expressions.

“Young lady, what on earth are you doing!”

If it was Hayden, he could turn this situation around completely.