The first buds of correction had withered to a sandy hue, and the season of bitter winds had come.

Red flowers to commemorate the Resurrection Festival hung on the gaunt branches, and the students each talked about their vacation plans with excited faces.

“What shall I wear for the festival?”

The winter break given around the Resurrection Festival was short, but most children had enough time to go home. Diane had nagged Neris to spend the winter break at her house, and Neris had refused several times before finally giving in.

After all, she had no intention of returning to her hometown this winter, so it was a good opportunity to scout the social scene in advance.

“I only have one good dress to wear for the festival.”

“Then let’s get a new one! We’re going to have a festival party for a week. You can’t wear the same clothes every day, can you?”

But every time Diane said this, looking forward to the festival period during the winter break, Neris found it amusing.

When she was a princess, Neris had used expensive things to the point of boredom. So she didn’t even desire most of the things that young children use, and now that she only had a few pennies to spend, it was fortunate.

But Diane had been rich since birth, and at an age full of curiosity, she bought all kinds of things, including clothes.

“I don’t have the money for that.”

Neris just bluntly pointed out the problem. Diane’s expression was unaffected.

“How about borrowing my clothes when you go to the party? I can lend you clothes as a sign that you are welcome in our house.”

Borrowing clothes from a peer was a suggestion that might upset some, but Neris didn’t care. She thought for a moment and then spoke.

“I already have clothes, so I’ll just wear them. It’s not like I have to attend a party every day for a week, and I don’t really mind wearing the same clothes. But thanks for the offer.”

At that answer, Diane’s face fell a little. She seemed to realize how her words might have sounded.

“I didn’t mean that wearing the same clothes is bad. I’m sorry, Neris. I just wanted to see you in cute clothes. You’d look adorable in anything.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

It was a strange thing to say. What good does it do to dress someone else in cute clothes?

Neris was familiar with the instincts of the nobility to buy expensive clothes and change them whenever they could to establish authority in the social world, but Diane’s desire was hard to understand, so Neris only smirked bitterly.

‘This kid too.’

Could this child torment others so easily?

In Neris’s faint childhood memories, there were no people who had been kind to her, or rather, who hadn’t ignored her. So Diane was likely one of the targets for revenge. But then.

‘Why this kid.’

Doesn’t she still remember?

By nature, Neris was not interested in others, so the proportion of classmates in her memories from before her personality changed completely due to ostracization was low. The only clear connections were with children like Angrad and Lianne, whose impressions were strong.

But even so, she had attended classes with the same grade children for several years, so there was at least a faint impression of them, but why couldn’t she remember anything about Diane no matter how hard she thought?

Did she transfer to another school soon? Why?

Or had something changed when she came back to the past?

It was unknowable and uncomfortable. It was difficult to apply to Diane the natural hostility she felt toward the other children in the class.

“Hey, Neris. What food do you like? I’ll send a letter home to prepare. My house makes a lot of food for the festival, so let’s eat a lot of delicious things! Oh, right, I’ll make sure to have bedding in your favorite color too. Do you have a favorite fabric?”

With complex eyes, Neris replied.

“I sleep well anywhere, and I eat anything.”

During her princess days, she had slept in a pigsty on Abellus’s command, and during her school days, Megara had fed Neris things that she couldn’t even put in her mouth. She had no intention of being picky about food or sleeping arrangements now.
Before Neris had to eat where in her childhood, what would Diane’s expression be if she knew?

What attitude would she show?

(This is a time delimiter.)

“It’s the house!”

Diane let out a joyful scream, pointing to the beautiful mansion in the distance.

Neris, sitting across from Diane, raised an eyebrow. She knew the McKinnon family was affluent, but that ‘mansion’ seemed remarkably vast even from the current distance of the carriage.

The place the carriage was passing was quite a large orchard road, and seeing the stakes with the family crest painted here and there, it seemed impossible to estimate the land directly belonging to the McKinnon mansion.

The building seen in the distance as the main building had grand columns stretching beneath the hipped roof in an ancient style, shining long and pale on either side.

Behind it, three large buildings flaunted their grandeur surrounding a lake made by drawing in the river.