“Lady Ankarth, it’s not……. It’s not that…….”

Misha collapsed on her knees before Kalrin.

“I was just going to look at it and put it back! I didn’t know what to memorize, I just wanted to refer to it! It’s a misunderstanding. It’s all a misunderstanding!”

“Should we go to the dean right now? So that Miss Roar can clear up the misunderstanding?”

“Don’t do it!”

Misha crawled on her knees to Kalrin and clung to her legs, crying.

Please, don’t do this. Give me a chance, I made a mistake. Her voice came out like a child begging a scary mother.

Kalrin waited until she stopped crying. During that time, she never lost her serene smile.

Finally, when Misha looked up with wet eyes, Kalrin smiled slyly and spoke.

“I was curious about something, about your party. Why did you have it?”

“That……. ”

“You don’t want to leave the academy because of Duke Kaidel, right?”

Misha’s breath caught.

“Anka, Lady Ankarth…….”

“If I let you stay in the academy, if I let you see Duke Kaidel, what will you do for me, Miss Misha? If I just lend you my notebook.”

“……. ”

Misha realized in her confusion that a huge and cruel hope was wavering in front of her. There was no other choice but to grab it.

“What do you want? Anything!”

At that moment, Kalrin felt contempt for Misha.

She would have lent her the notebook if Misha had simply asked. Everyone knew that Misha Roar was desperate enough to borrow a notebook.

If she could gain the favor of the third Duke’s family, such kindness was nothing to Kalrin.

But Misha Roar was so dull that she didn’t even know how to use what she had.

So…….

Kalrin pulled her skirt away from Misha, looked down at her like a dog, and spoke.

“I find it inconvenient without a maid since coming to the academy.”

“……?”

Misha thought it was unbelievable. She had caught Kalrin’s hint but found it hard to believe.

It was impossible to imagine that someone as noble and blessed as her would want that.

But Kalrin’s smile clearly expressed her demand.

‘Will you be my dog, or be expelled?’

Misha stammered, opening her mouth.

“If, if I diligently serve Lady Ankarth…….”

“Of course, classmates should help each other. I’ll specially help you with your studies. You need good grades, don’t you?”

To me, I need a servant.

But Misha was an optimistic person who believed that what she wanted would naturally come to her. So she believed that this situation would eventually end smoothly.

So she answered.

“Thank you, Lady Ankarth.”

(This is a time separator.)
Empress Leora M. Tagar was a woman whose age could not be gauged. Other than the wrinkles that formed at the corners of her mouth when she laughed, there were no signs of aging, and when standing beside the imperial family, there was a joke that she looked like the stepmother of the three imperial children, not their mother.

With her light pink hair neatly rolled up and sitting in a chair neither too rigid nor languid, she looked like a beautiful woman, almost like a painting.

But there were hardly any who remembered the smile that came from her sincerity. The relationship between the emperor and empress was as dry as a desert, and her interest and passion were directed only toward the first imperial son, Orle.

She had always loved only her eldest son dearly, but her favoritism had become more vehement since he contracted a rare disease a few years ago.

However, it was hard to blame her conduct entirely.

In the imperial family, the fight for succession often involved bloodshed, and the result always led to internal division in the empire and a weakening of imperial power.

She had personally experienced the bloodshed among brothers that the emperor, who was then the crown prince, had committed during her days as the crown princess. Therefore, the public interpretation was that sorting out the ranking among the imperial children was more of a duty beyond justification for her.

The maid’s sin was not just ignorance of the importance, but also her dullness in not properly doing what she was told.

The maid of the second imperial palace was brought before the empress and was being whipped by the empress’s handmaid.