“Oh my, Lady Caitlin, please calm down. We’ve told Miss Anette many times that she has plenty of nice clothes, so she should wear her own. But Miss Anette said she liked Lady Caitlin’s clothes and coveted them, what can we do?”

Lies flowed smoothly from the nanny’s mouth.

Now that the mandatory dinner with the Grand Duke was over, the nanny had nothing to fear. She calmly told lies to the influential Caitlin.

“Nanny, no matter how much my sister insists, really. Have you only worked in this mansion for a day or two?”

“That’s right, it’s all this nanny’s fault that Miss Anette is behaving so impertinently.”

While the two like-minded individuals played off each other, I changed into my loungewear.

Flutter, the thin muslin undergarment billowed in my hand.

You want this back? If you want it so badly, then…

Riiip.

With an unpleasant tearing sound, Caitlin’s muslin undergarment split into two pieces at once.

“Kyaaah! What are you doing? My clothes!”

“Didn’t you tell me to take them off? I took them off as you asked. How I remove them is up to me.”

“How dare you tear someone else’s clothes! Are you crazy?”

“Oh, I damaged your clothes that I borrowed. I’ll pay for them. That’s fine, right?”

“You, you!”

“Weren’t you going to burn them anyway?”

“What?”

“You always throw away things I’ve touched because they disgust you. I thought this would be the same, so I took care of it first. Was my action too much?”

Caitlin turned pale, looking as if she might collapse at any moment, gasping for breath. It was the first time Anette, who had been living submissively until now, had retaliated against her with such a strong reaction.

“I’ve been reading my old diaries lately, and there’s a lot of interesting content. It seems you ‘borrowed’ quite a few things from me when we were younger?”

“D-diaries?”

“That muslin undergarment was nothing. If you’re going to borrow, you should borrow something nice. Meanwhile, the maids, being wary of you, lent you the oldest and most worn-out undergarment.”

If it weren’t for the fact that I would have missed dinner with the Grand Duke had I delayed even a little longer, I wouldn’t have worn the muslin undergarment I just tore.

So my action of tearing the muslin undergarment just now wasn’t a waste of resources. It was simply returning an already worn-out garment to nature.

“I’ll gladly pay for one set of old muslin clothes. In exchange, I should get back the valuable items you’ve borrowed but never returned over the years.”

Memories of Anette being bullied and my own memories of being tormented by my new family in my past life alternated in my mind. Though this was a possessed body, the situation was familiar to me as well.

People who only approach as family when they need something, worse than strangers.

Step-siblings who, despite being the closest relations, looked down on me as a motherless child.

Complete strangers would be better.

It wasn’t something to be dismissed as toys borrowed by a child. The items Anette originally possessed as the eldest daughter of the Porche Viscount family were all precious and expensive. Caitlin, and the servants, had taken them one by one.

‘I’m not the original Anette who just endured silently without saying a word.’

“This works out well. Those pearl earrings you’re wearing right now were originally mine, weren’t they? You took them from me on the first day you came to our house, asking for them as a memento of becoming sisters. I’ll take those back first.”

Caitlin reflexively covered her ears. White pearl earrings dangled from both earlobes. They were treasured heirlooms said to have been gifted to the Porche Viscount family by the previous queen.

“What are you saying all of a sudden? Are you nitpicking over just one muslin garment? In our viscount family?”

“You were the one who brought up the muslin clothes first.”

Caitlin’s face turned red at my cold words.

A muslin undergarment versus pearl earrings. Caitlin must have thought she had picked the wrong fight with me.

“I won’t quibble over small matters. But you know that those pearl earrings are rare and precious, don’t you?”

Ignoring the restless Caitlin, I continued speaking deliberately.

“Besides the pearl earrings, there’s also the emerald bracelet you borrowed, ah, and the mare my younger brother Simons took. And also…”

As I continued speaking, Caitlin’s face grew paler. She hadn’t expected me to remember all those items.

Her anxious face seemed to express shock, as if thinking, ‘That girl who always bowed her head and said nothing whenever things were taken from her was keeping such calculations inside?’

Until now, Anette had been a pushover stepsister who would be trampled if stepped on and roll if kicked. She must have been flustered to see such a person suddenly holding her head high and confronting her firmly.

Cornered, Caitlin chose to get angry instead.

“You think you’re something just because you’re marrying into the Grand Duke’s family? You’re marrying into the North where you can’t even survive winter without our family’s help!”

“What?”

“Even though there’s a two-rank difference in titles, it’s still a shabby Grand Duke’s family marrying you to gain support from our family. I wonder if there’s even anything to eat in that cold place… Ack!”

Slap.

Caitlin’s cheek turned. It was my hand that had struck her.

“Apologize.”

Anette, she hit me? That downtrodden girl slapped my cheek?

Caitlin looked at me in disbelief.

There was no way a viscount’s daughter who had lived a sheltered life would have ever been slapped before.

But there was no need to tolerate a stupid supporting character who insults the male lead any longer.

“Apologize right now.”

“What do you think you’re doing!”

“You insulting me is a family matter. But you just insulted the North where I’m marrying into. I can’t forgive that, if nothing else.”

“What did I say wrong! Aagh! Let go!”

You’re wrong. I can’t forgive you insulting the protagonist of this novel.

The world of a possessed person revolves around the protagonist, you fool.

“I won’t let go until you apologize for what you said.”

I spoke in a chilling voice. Frightened by this, Caitlin could only struggle, unable to respond properly. Even the maids who should have intervened were standing helplessly, stunned by the sudden turn of events.

My body, fueled by anger, and Caitlin’s became entangled.

Thump, thump. Footsteps were heard.

“It seems Miss Anette’s tolerance doesn’t extend to her sister.”

Suddenly, a strong force separated me and Caitlin.

“Aaah!”

Startled by the force, Caitlin stumbled backward, tripped over her own feet, and rolled on the floor.

I was very stably held in someone’s arms.

“Your Grace?”

My mouth fell open. A silver mask covering the face, an unpleasant voice. It was unmistakably him. But why was he here?

‘Didn’t you say you weren’t coming!’

“I apologize for entering a lady’s room without permission, regardless of the reason.”

He bowed politely.

“But it would be better to fight behind closed doors, even within the mansion. Otherwise, people will gather like this.”

“It seems you suddenly found some free time.”

I looked back and forth between the wide-open door and the Grand Duke, at a loss for words. As my anger subsided, I wondered if my reaction to Caitlin had been too extreme even by my own standards.

‘If I had known the Grand Duke was coming, I wouldn’t have pulled Caitlin’s hair so roughly… Wait, wouldn’t being on the side that’s beating someone up still look better?’

If I were a true romance novel heroine, I would have beaten her elegantly and gracefully with words, but being a short-lived extra, I got impatient and my body moved first.

“I was walking aimlessly and found myself here before I knew it.”

His grating voice reached my ears. Despite the modulated voice, it somehow felt even more affectionate.

It seems the Grand Duke prefers wilder women than I thought. I should remember this.

“It seems I was thinking about Miss Anette more deeply than I realized.”

“Shall I prepare some tea then?”

I asked shamelessly, ignoring the presence of Caitlin who was still lying face down on the floor, sobbing.

“I’d like to, but I have a guest who arrived first today.”

Unfortunately, the duke was not as shameless as I am, able to leisurely enjoy a cup of tea with a crying younger sister in the background.

“If the lady would spare me some of her precious time, I’ll come back with a precise appointment time.”

“Yes, of course!”

I quickly nodded.

“Miss Anette is…”

For a moment, the Grand Duke seemed to hesitate, as if about to comment on me. What? Miss Anette is calm? Very attractive despite meeting for the first time today? Bold? Why did you stop mid-sentence, making me curious!

‘What is it, what were you going to say, Your Grace!’

“By the way, Lady Caitlin.”

“Yes?”

Instead of talking about me, the Grand Duke called out to Caitlin, who was still sobbing in a corner.

“The North is cold. So luxurious food like in the South is not common. But I hope you haven’t forgotten that this peace in the South comes from us guarding the northern wall.”

His tone was as cold as if frost had settled on his voice. Caitlin’s shoulders trembled.

“I, I…”

‘He heard.’

Caitlin, who had barely managed to stand up leaning on Daniel, sat back down as if her strength had left her.

“And Miss Anette, in the North, we don’t receive apologies through force.”

He whispered softly, in a voice that seemed meant only for me to hear.

If not for the silver mask, it was a tone friendly enough that I might have felt he was joking with me.

Until the Grand Duke left the room, Caitlin couldn’t even properly meet his eyes. The red strands of hair I had pulled out were falling one by one onto Caitlin’s lap as she bowed her head.