Even though night had fallen completely, when the precious young lady was nowhere to be seen, chaos erupted at the mansion where the Elandria siblings were staying.

Although it was called a dormitory, it was quite a large mansion befitting the children of a duke’s family. It had been difficult for Valentine to bring all the luggage she wanted, but there were still about ten servants staying there.

They were all frantically searching for young lady Valentine’s whereabouts.

And soon, Valentine, who had been found and brought back by Delma, was blushing with her clothes all dirty.

“Elder brother!”

Nelrysion had been sitting seriously in the reception room, waiting for his sister’s return, who had somehow slipped out of the mansion without anyone noticing.

As soon as Valentine saw him, she burst into tears again, which had just stopped earlier, and ran to hug him.

“Valen.”

Although Katen was relatively safe, Valentine was young and her status as a duke’s daughter made her special. In the worst case, what if a political enemy had kidnapped her?

Nelrysion hugged his sister back, relieved that she had returned safely.

“Where did you go? Delma said you were in your room.”

It was now clear that statement had been a lie, since she was found and brought in from outside. Delma, receiving Nelrysion’s sharp gaze, apologized with a pale face.

“I’m sorry, young master.”

“What do you think of the young lady’s safety? You let my precious sister go out alone? And you call yourself the nanny of the Elandria family?”

The temperature in the reception room dropped by about twenty degrees at Nelrysion’s thunderous rebuke, who was usually gentle.

Delma couldn’t say anything. She judged it was better that way. Instead, Valentine looked up at her brother with fire in her eyes.

“Brother, this isn’t the time for that. Quickly bring that Neris girl here. Beat her until her legs break and lock her in the basement! She lured me out and locked me up in a dirty warehouse!”

“What?”

Beating someone and locking them in the basement was a punishment used for servants who committed serious crimes. But why was this suddenly being mentioned, and why was Neris’s name coming up here?

Nelrysion was perplexed. The hand that had been patting Valentine’s back unconsciously stopped.

Valentine intentionally burrowed deeper into her brother’s arms and made a crying sound.

“I even called her ‘elder sister’ earlier, sob, but how could she do this to me? She actually told me to come out for a bit! I was annoyed but endured it and went out because she said she wanted to be friends!”

Nelrysion’s hand fell from Valentine’s back. However, Valentine, immersed in her own act, didn’t notice this fact.

“But suddenly she locked me in a dark place! And she said she didn’t owe our family anything! How can she be so shameless? She doesn’t seem to know what gratitude is!”

Delma covered her mouth.

She was the one who had planned the details of this incident.

Having experience in dealing with all sorts of ‘insolent ones’ for Valentine’s sake, she had even planned how to cover up if this incident was discovered midway.

Originally, Valentine was supposed to slip out briefly in the evening, lock Neris Trude in that warehouse by the lake, then quickly return to pretend nothing happened and have dinner with Nelrysion.

During that time, Delma’s role was to hide Valentine’s absence.

If Delma wasn’t visible, Nelrysion would naturally suspect Valentine’s absence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let the precious young lady wander alone in this rural village.

That plan went awry when Valentine didn’t return until a much later time than expected.

Even if there was a problem midway, the biggest obstacle Valentine had originally thought of was Nelrysion discovering the plan.

In that case, she was supposed to insist that she really intended to build a friendship with Neris Trude. The expectation was that even if Nelrysion found it strange, he would let it slide once his only sister acted cute.

However, Valentine was in such a state of anger at the unexpected situation that she ended up saying too much.

Enough for Nelrysion to detect something strange, to a degree that couldn’t be ignored.

“Neris said such things?”

“Yes!”

Nelrysion grabbed his sister’s shoulders. Valentine tried to keep hugging her brother’s waist, but she couldn’t resist the firm push of the older boy.

“Valentine Elandria.”

Nelrysion scrutinized his sister’s face with a voice as sharp as walking on thin ice.

“Are you saying Neris lured you out and suddenly imprisoned you?”

“Yes!”

Valentine answered confidently at first, but then realized her brother’s eyes were cold.

“Where were you two?”

Only after seeing Nelrysion’s strict expression did Valentine realize something had gone wrong.

With a frightened look, she glanced at Delma. Before Delma could intervene, Nelrysion urged in a subdued voice.

“Valen, I just asked you. Don’t look at Delma.”

Valentine hesitated and mumbled without answering immediately. Seeing her rolling eyes, Nelrysion furrowed his brow.

Soon, a stern inquiry was directed at Delma.

“Delma, tell me straight. Where did you bring Valen from? You knew where this child was, didn’t you?”

Delma swallowed hard. She was much older than Nelrysion, but never once had she been able to treat this young master lightly.

After all, even with Valentine’s absolute favoritism, Delma was just a servant employed in the house Nelrysion would inherit.

“Young master, the young lady is still young, so there are only so many places she could go. So I looked in a few places and brought her back.”

“Th-That’s right!”

Valentine chattered, emboldened by Delma’s voice.

“I, I was at the house by the lake. It was that empty house near the pavilion you took me to last time, brother. Delma came to the lakeside and heard my voice and got me out.”

“The lakeside?”

Nelrysion’s eyes flashed coldly.

“Neris, thinking that you as a new student would know about the lake, suddenly called you out there, and you believed her and went out there during dinner time leaving Delma behind? Even though you tried to get along well, Neris suddenly found some empty house there and locked you up?”

Hearing the continuous string of words, even Valentine’s overly excited mind began to see the flaws in what she had said.

“Valen, do I look like a fool to you?”

At Nelrysion’s icy question, Valentine tightly shut her mouth and Delma didn’t know what to do.

“Um, young master…”

“Shut your mouth, Delma. If Valen didn’t cherish you so excessively like now, you would have already been kicked out.”

Everyone present could tell he meant those words sincerely. Delma shrank her shoulders under Nelrysion’s sharp gaze.

Valentine suddenly felt anger rising and argued.

“Brother, who’s more important, me or her? Your sister was unfairly locked up in a dirty and dark place and just got out, but you’re taking her side?”

“Valentine Elandria, you’re my sister and I always protect you. That’s an undeniable fact.”

Valentine was about to voice more of her anger with “Well,” but swallowed her words at Nelrysion’s chilly expressionless face. Nelrysion warned his sister, looking down at her with cold eyes.

“If you can’t get along with Neris, I won’t force you. I know you’re not good at pretending. But Neris has value to be used. Don’t touch her.”

That could be heard differently as “You’re stupid so stay quiet,” but Valentine didn’t argue back and just closed her mouth sullenly.

Nelrysion’s gaze poured down, filled with the will not to end this situation without hearing an answer. Valentine had no choice but to give an unwilling response.

“…I understand.”

“Good.”

Nelrysion replied with satisfaction. The gentle smile as always returned to his face.

“You had a hard day, right? Valen. Go wash up and eat something. Or just wash up and go straight to bed. We have classes from the morning tomorrow, so you shouldn’t be too tired, right?”

Valentine obediently nodded. As Nelrysion left the reception room, Delma quickly approached her mistress and made a fuss.

“Oh my, young lady. You must have been upset, right? The young master, really. Our precious young lady suffered so much, yet he didn’t even comfort you.”

“Hmph.”

Valentine sat upright on the reception room sofa while Delma bustled about telling the maid to bring hot water and towels. And she gritted her teeth with an upset face.

“That nasty girl, she played me! Just wait, I’ll make sure her true colors are exposed in front of my brother!”

When Neris woke up in the morning, she went to the window enjoying the clear sunlight. And to ventilate and let light into the room, she opened the small window and checked inside the room.

Every corner of the room, which had been somewhat disorganized because the owner arrived just before the semester, was clean. It was a trace of Isabel sweeping, wiping, and dusting until late last night.

Last evening, when Isabel saw Neris return soon after locking Valentine in the warehouse, she was startled as if seeing a ghost.

Thanks to that, Neris was sure that Isabel also knew about Valentine’s plan.

She hadn’t expected much moral sense from this master and servant anyway. Neris assigned Isabel to clean the room in addition to laundry, and Isabel was only able to leave this building after midnight.

So Valentine’s plan failure must have been known quite late.

Valentine had just been locked up. If Isabel immediately reported to Delma that Neris’s quick return was strange, it wouldn’t be fun if the rescue happened too quickly.

Nelrysion’s interrogation wasn’t scary. He would soon know that his sister was the cause of all this incident, and at a time like now when he wants to look good to Neris, he would rather scold Valentine.

Neris’s gaze suddenly stopped in front of the room door. She didn’t receive any more letters from Cledwin while staying at Parishier. So she thought maybe more letters would come at school.

If he hadn’t returned even after the semester started, that would have been a topic of conversation in its own right, so he must have attended classes yesterday.

‘It’s not like we’re chatting partners anyway.’

Neris ‘objectively’ evaluated the situation like that. It’s not like she and Cledwin casually converse, and there’s no reason to exchange letters when there’s no business, right? They’re both busy people.

‘Business…’

There is some, gradually.

Neris mumbled seriously to herself.

She had already heard through Betty’s letter that Rob, Betty’s younger brother, had arrived safely and was taking care of the field on the land received from Cledwin.

However, since Betty only knew Neris as the ‘introducer’, she didn’t convey the specific circumstances.

Stinging nettle pouches needed to be grown on that land starting next year. As there was a need to check the situation directly, Neris planned to visit Sedona this weekend.

But if a young girl visited alone, Rob would be suspicious.

Rob and Betty, as well as the people of Sedona, know that the person who bought the land and hired workers is an adult nobleman from Maindlant.

‘People… will be many.’

If it were Cledwin, he could probably arrange suitable personnel to visit the place with Neris and look around. Neris got a bit annoyed when she thought that far.

This tiresome child’s body. There’s so much to do, but it’s still years before becoming an adult.

Of course, thanks to that, she can prepare everything slowly.

‘When I become an adult…’

When she becomes an adult. At that moment, Neris will no longer have the opportunity to prepare leisurely and steadily like now. That’s when she’ll clash with her enemies with all her might until one of them dies.

And Neris had no intention of playing the role of the loser.

Chirp chirp. Tweet.

Neris woke from her thoughts at the sound of birds. She sighed and poured water into the basin on the dormitory room table.

Last night, Isabel had filled the water container in the room before leaving. Probably while cursing Neris in her mind.

Still, the fact that she filled the water before leaving was the best treatment Neris had received from Isabel throughout her previous life and this life.

Splashing the water that had cooled sufficiently overnight on her face and wiping it with a towel, her mind gradually cleared. Neris, with deep purple eyes sparkling over her cheeks that had become fresh and fluffy, thought and decided.

If he doesn’t send a letter first, she can go to meet him.