Neris, her cheeks flushed from bathing in the porcelain bathtub, came out and glared at the culprit as she looked at the state of the room she’d been given.

Dianne, who was giggling, shrugged her shoulders and acted coy.

“Anyway, there’s nobody to give them to in our house. Wear your dress tomorrow, and let’s try this on today, shall we?”

There were too many children’s dresses that Dianne had laid out in Neris’s room to summarize as ‘this.’ It seemed like there would be about thirty. Neris sighed.

“Um, I’m grateful. But I have clothes to wear, and I’d feel sorry if I borrowed yours.”

“Feel sorry! I want to dress you up!”

Dianne jumped up.

Neris had anticipated that Dianne would do this even before they started their carriage journey, so she resignedly scanned the dresses spread all over the room. Dianne showed Neris each dress she particularly wanted her to wear.

“This one’s lightcolored, so it’ll go well with your blonde hair, and this one’s cute with ribbons, and this one’s decorated with gold thread so it’s sparkly and pretty. This one’s shoulders are too puffy, but you’ll look like a princess.”

“Let’s go with that one.”

Neris just glanced at the ones Dianne eagerly recommended and pointed to the dark blue dress hanging on one side of the bed. Dianne wore a slightly disappointed expression.

“It’s not very flashy.”

“It’ll suit me.”

“How do you know?”

Well, having been dressed by the Duke’s grace and the crown princess, she’d tried on all kinds of styles and colors of clothing. Neris brushed her off casually.

“See, the pendant on the ribbon matches my eye color.”

“Yeah.”

As the two girls were choosing clothes, Betty, who had been watching, helped Neris change.

The dark blue dress that Dianne wore when she was young had only a black velvet ribbon and a purple pendant hanging below the neck on the top, but the skirt was quite full and had irregular black velvet frills hanging in multiple layers.

It was a dress that Dianne had tossed aside because it didn’t suit her, but both Dianne and Betty admired how it looked on Neris.

“It’s so pretty!”

“It really suits you, Miss Neris.”

Neris’s bright blonde hair always shone beautifully as she diligently applied the scented oil she sold near the curtains. When she wore the dark dress, it shone like moonlight.

And as Neris had said, the similar decoration to her eye color on the dress made a striking impression and captivated the viewer.

Standing in front of the mirror, Neris smiled a bitter smile.

She had tried on all sorts of clothes as the crown princess, but she chose clothes not based on what suited her but on what would reveal the dignity of the royal family.

How long had she been buried in illfitting clothes, mocked?

There were clothes that suited her like this.

‘…But it’s meaningless since I myself am nothing to look at.’

Feeling uncomfortable from looking at herself for too long out of habit, Neris quickly averted her eyes from the mirror.

“I’ll fix the dress for you before dinner.”

Betty marked the slightly loose sleeves and waist with chalk. It was unavoidable that the dress had to be altered since Dianne and Neris had different body shapes.

Dianne’s eyes sparkled with joy.

“Then let’s try on other things while that dress is being altered!”

While Betty took the dark blue dress to alter, Neris changed into more than five dresses, and most of them suited her well. But none were as perfect as the first dark blue dress.

“Liz knows how to choose clothes. Cool.”

Dianne, watching Neris drag the ‘princess dress’ she had strongly recommended, wore an expression that was a mixture of regret and admiration. Neris replied nonchalantly.

“I know what suits me, and you usually wear what suits you.”

“Really?”

At those words, Dianne grinned. Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Yes.”

“Yes.”
Neris and Dianne answered simultaneously. Before the answer was finished, the door swung open, and Muriel McKinnon poked her head in.

“Are you two having fun?”

“Ah, sister. Come in.”

Dianne greeted Muriel casually, as if she had forgotten the earlier incident. Muriel was accompanied by a young girl, whose stillchildish face made Neris hesitate, but she could guess who she was.

“Heather is here, too.”

At Dianne’s tremulous words, Heather Railing laughed bashfully and asked. Her expression was the same as Neris had seen before, and it amused her.

Unlike the ordinarylooking Angelo, Heather was a beautiful girl with a pleasant smile and used it as a weapon to get what she wanted.

No matter how much Angelo’s status rose, Heather was still the daughter of a commoner.

So in Neris’s previous life, Angelo had begged to use her as a maid for one of the two daughters of the Elandria family, to push his beloved daughter a little more into high society. Being a senior maid, she would meet highly esteemed people every day.

And Valentine was the one who teamed up with Heather.