Nora’s eyes trembled unsteadily. She hunched her shoulders and then roughly pushed Arasila away, replying fiercely.

“What exactly do you want to ask?”

“I’ve been curious from the start. This year is the first time I’ve had a proper conversation with Lady White. But I’m puzzled by how you speak as if we’ve had a connection before.”

When they met at the Vandermir mansion before the wedding, Arasila wasn’t even familiar enough with Nora to recognize her immediately.

Of course, since their families were rivals, Nora might one-sidedly recognize her, but Nora’s comments went beyond mere facial recognition.

‘Did you intentionally bump into me just now?’

‘I’m sorry, but I could barely see you from where I was standing.’

‘Tsk! Are you done talking? Always after the men I like!’

She spoke as if Arasila had stolen her man before.

For Arasila, who had never experienced dating and was married for the first time, these were incomprehensible and constantly irritating words.

“When have I ever bumped into you, my lady?”

“… Are you really not remembering, or are you just pretending not to know?”

“It’s not a matter of not remembering; I have no memories related to you at all in my head.”

At those words, Nora burst into a scornful laugh. She glared at Arasila with a face that seemed to say her pride was hurt and spoke.

“You were like this at the Academy too!”

“Me?”

“Yes!”

Nora traced back her memories of the past with eyes stained with hatred and inferiority.

During her time at the Academy, she had a male student she had been in love with for 6 years.

Peter Lupin. Someone she had fallen for at first sight when they met by chance at a tea party when they were young.

But he didn’t like Nora, who was somewhat chubby as a child. Nora wanted to get engaged to him, but the Lupin Viscount family repeatedly refused, leading to failure.

Still, she didn’t give up and desperately tried to catch Peter Lupin’s eye, grooming herself according to his tastes.

After entering the Academy together, she baked cookies for him every day as gifts and handed him heartfelt letters.

Peter Lupin casually shared her cookies with his friends and carelessly read her letters before discarding them.

Once, when she found her letter lying like trash in the schoolyard, Nora felt like she would cry but tried hard to hold it back.

Instead, from then on, she didn’t include letters with the cookies. Because Peter Lupin seemed to dislike them.

Throughout her time at the Academy, Nora had only one goal.

To get engaged to Peter Lupin by graduation and marry him before turning twenty.

But her first love and unrequited love didn’t come to fruition. This was because Peter Lupin fell head over heels for the newly enrolled freshman Arasila and coldly rejected Nora.

‘Hey, stop bothering me now. I’ve found someone I like.’

‘W-who is it? Is she better than me?’

‘I don’t know about her personality yet, but her face is incomparably prettier than yours.’

It was a statement that frustrated Nora, who had been trying her best to lose weight to catch Peter Lupin’s eye.

When Nora found out that the person he liked was Arasila Hugo, she immediately went to see her.

Seeing Arasila walking in the courtyard under the sunlight, she unconsciously muttered.

‘She’s pretty.’

Looking at the naturally beautiful features that didn’t require desperate efforts like hers, dark emotions stirred in Nora’s heart.

It was ugly jealousy and inferiority.

Still unable to easily give up on Peter Lupin, Nora clung to him pitifully.

‘What do I lack compared to Lady Hugo!’

‘What? Everything from head to toe.’

‘……’

‘To begin with, your family is inferior to the Hugo Marquis family. So isn’t it natural that I prefer Arasila over you?’

Peter Lupin’s words stuck in Nora’s heart like a dagger, leaving a lasting scar.

He patted Nora’s shoulder as she shed tears profusely and said.

‘Hey, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Lady Hugo is showing interest in me too. Knowing our feelings are mutual, how could a man not make a move?’

‘……’

‘Thanks for the cookies all this time. They were really delicious. Make them for me one last time. I’ll share them with Lady Hugo too.’

Nora foolishly baked cookies for Peter Lupin one more time.

He took Nora’s cookies and confessed to Arasila, but was openly rejected in the corridor where everyone could see.

Hearing the news, Nora felt angry rather than happy.

Everyone at the Academy knew that she liked Peter Lupin. Knowing this, yet seducing him and then rejecting him ostentatiously after he fell for her, Arasila seemed hateful and frustrating.

It didn’t help that Peter Lupin later spread rumors out of spite, publicly saying, “Arasila Hugo deliberately seduced me to keep Nora White in check.”

His words sounded like a pathetic excuse from someone whose confession was rejected, but on the other hand, given the famous rivalry between the two marquis families, it also seemed plausible.

‘Listen, Nora. You must never lose to the Hugo kids, if no one else. Losing to them is a disgrace to our family, a disgrace!’

‘Just as they try their best to beat you, you must try your hardest too! Cut back on sleep, cut back on food, okay?’

For Nora, who had grown up hearing such words from her family all her life, it sounded even more convincing.

Seven years passed with those Academy memories deeply etched in her heart.

While Arasila was engrossed in her work at the Magic Tower, Nora was educated to become an elegant and dignified noble lady.

When others were taking etiquette lessons and bride training, Nora thought Arasila was foolish and pathetic for running around outside, claiming she would become the Tower Master.

On the other hand, she was also relieved.

With her competitor dropping out on her own, Nora believed that as she grew older, she would become the victor by dominating high society.

After Arasila declared her intention to remain single, this belief became even stronger.

But suddenly, everything went awry when Arasila changed her mind and married Demian Vandermir.

Once again, Arasila had obtained everything Nora had dreamed of.

The moment she realized this, Nora couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Just like with Lupin, you deliberately approached Lord Vandermir, didn’t you?”

Based on her past memories, Nora asked with near certainty.

Arasila looked at her with a subtle expression. It seemed both sympathetic and pitying.

Letting out a light sigh, Arasila murmured softly.

“Oh, so that’s how it was.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“In the end, you’ve been hating me for years over a man, haven’t you?”

Arasila, who had secretly hoped there might be some grand circumstance behind Nora’s actions, felt deflated.

Honestly, Arasila couldn’t remember who Peter Lupin was. It had been years since she graduated from the Academy. Being a freshman at the time made it even more distant.

However, there was one thing she could say definitively.

“I never showed any interest in that Lupin fellow. Frankly, I couldn’t care less who you liked.”

“……”

“When I was at the Academy, I was so obsessed with magic that I didn’t pay attention to you or any other man.”

This meant that Peter Lupin had one-sidedly liked Arasila.

Nora’s face turned pale as she learned the truth.

She had hated Arasila for 7 years, believing only Peter Lupin’s words that Arasila had deliberately approached him.

But now to learn it was all a lie. Feeling as if a third of her life had been negated, Nora desperately shook her head.

“Don’t lie! Do you think I’ll believe your words?!”

“To begin with, our family never cared that much about the White Marquis family. We were never forced to beat your children.”

“……”

“Both your unrequited love for Demian and your hatred for me. It’s all feelings you’ve nurtured on your own, without any response from the other party.”

Feeling as if everything that had supported her all this time was crumbling, Nora slowly sank to the ground.

She was too dazed even for tears to come out.

Patting Nora’s shoulder, who seemed out of it, Arasila offered words that were neither comfort nor anything else.

“Still, my lady. Your taste in men has improved.”

“……”

“Just hearing about it, Demian sounds much better than that Lupin fellow.”

However, since neither of them had ever reciprocated her feelings, Nora’s eyes grew even more hollow.

Even until Nora’s maid, summoned by Arasila, came running to support her, Nora remained motionless in that spot for a long time.

Nora White’s public confession incident graced the front pages of the morning newspapers the next day.

Nora’s story of liking a married man and tormenting his wife drew public outrage from many people.

The success of the play had also significantly worsened the perception of those who harbored feelings for people with families.

People wanted Nora to be punished, just like the satisfying ending of the play.

“We should make it so she can’t show her face in public! She’s a terrible person who almost broke up a perfectly good family!”

“That’s right, that’s right. We need to punish her properly as an example so that people like her don’t appear again!”

“Boo, punish Nora White! The White Marquis family should take social responsibility!”

Of course, Nora’s reputation in high society hit rock bottom.

Branded as someone who liked a married man, her social gatherings dissolved, and she quickly became isolated in society.

Moreover, it was a great misfortune that the Duchess of Kiston, who had suffered from her husband’s long-term affair, was present at the public confession.

She furiously declared that she would cut ties with anyone who associated with Nora White. No one dared to go against the queen of society who was of royal descent.

The only hope for Nora was that the White Marquis family had quite a good relationship with the Leslie Duke family, but…

“The Marchioness needs to re-educate her daughter. For an unmarried young lady to already have such bad habits, tsk.”

Even the Duchess of Leslie was someone’s wife.

Emotionally, she couldn’t help but empathize more with Arasila than Nora.

In the end, with even her last lifeline cut off, Nora had nowhere to stand. Even her family harshly criticized her.

“Oh my, Nora, you’ve brought such shame to our family! How can I show my face in society now? Everyone will point at me as your mother!”

“Are you determined to ruin this household?! How obsessed with men must you be, for a girl not only to fail to mind her conduct but to shout in front of people that she likes a married man!”

Standing like a criminal in front of her crying, shouting, and fussing parents, Nora couldn’t say a word. More precisely, she had nothing to say.

It was true that she had ruined her own reputation and future, and even tarnished the family’s honor, blinded by unrequited love.

“You’re forbidden from going out for the time being! No, you’re forbidden for life! Know that you can’t leave your room until you marry the man I choose for you!”

“F-Father! No matter what, that’s…!”

“Silence! You disgrace to this family. Just how did you educate this child?!”

The Marquis of White burst out in anger and stormed out of the room, even snapping at his wife.

The Marchioness, wiping her tears with a handkerchief, glared sharply at Nora and said.

“While you’re in your room, copy ‘101 Ladylike Manners’ as a form of reflection. Understood?”

She left without waiting for her daughter’s response. Nora dropped her head with a frustrated expression.

The public confession towards Demian would remain as an eternal label on her, and the future she dreamed of as a perfect noblewoman was now out of reach.

All that remained in Nora’s life now was darkness.

A hell created by her solitary jealousy and inferiority complex awaited her.