The next morning.

Karina went for a walk in the Grand Duke’s garden, accompanied by Mikhail.

The northern garden, covered in pure white snow, was quiet.

The roughly yet beautifully shaped rocks and elegant statues blended subtly.

Though lacking the colorful splendor of the capital’s rear gardens, the winter flowers that withstood the cold had an elegant and noble beauty.

Karina and Mikhail walked along the neatly laid stone path in the garden.

“Yawn. It’s really leisurely.”

Mikhail yawned as he looked at the clear sky without a single cloud.

“Being leisurely is a good thing.”

Karina decided to speak casually to Mikhail after he was hired as her guard.

It would be strange for the Grand Duchess to speak formally to her own guard.

“I thought someone in such a high position as the Grand Duchess would be busy all day without a moment’s rest.”

Mikhail turned to Karina and asked again.

“Is it really okay to wander around so idly like this?”

Since becoming a guard, expecting a busy and strict watch, all he had done was leisurely follow the Grand Duchess as she enjoyed rest and walks.

Karina asked back with a blank expression in a flat tone.

“Why? Do I look like I’m just loafing around with nothing to do?”

“Yes.”

‘This… honest fellow.’

Karina glanced at him once in response to his immediate answer.

“I guess you didn’t think to answer ‘no’ even as empty words?”

“Uh… Should I have said no?”

“Forget it.”

She declined to poke his side to get an apology.

‘But it’s not wrong either.’

Normally, Karina should have been so busy as the Grand Duchess that even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough, overseeing all sorts of internal and external events including the household affairs of the mansion.

But in reality, Karina’s daily life had a big disconnect from such a life of a Grand Duchess.

This was because Caroline held tight to all the authority of the Grand Duchess and wouldn’t hand it over.

The important thing was that Karina herself had no particular interest in those rights.

‘Is there any need to take them back forcibly? I’m going to leave here anyway. It would only be troublesome if I took them.’

Karina planned to just stay comfortably until she left the Grand Duke’s household.

‘By the way.’

Karina turned to Mikhail with a serious expression.

“You haven’t forgotten what you said you’d tell me later, right?”

Now that it came up, she intended to hear exactly what happened in this place.

“Mikhail. What’s your true identity? And what’s your relationship with the Magic Tower?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure where to start or how to explain.”

Mikhail scratched his head and hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

“First, since you asked about my identity, to put it simply, I’m an ‘apprentice’.”

Mikhail emphasized the word apprentice.

“Apprentice?”

Karina was perplexed by the completely unexpected words that came out of his mouth.

“I still have many deficiencies. Enough that my master kicked me out of the Magic Tower to go study the world outside a bit more.”

Mikhail sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

“In such a position, if I revealed my affiliation with the Magic Tower and received treatment as a wizard, I’d get scolded terribly by my master. That’s why I didn’t disclose my affiliation from the beginning.”

Mikhail asked back with a gentle smile.

“Has your suspicion of me eased a little now?”

“Well, for now.”

Mikhail’s explanation wasn’t nonsensical.

But Karina couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still hiding something.

That’s when it happened.

“Karina.”

A high voice that sounded like it would fly away called her.

“…!”

Karina’s expression changed as if she’d eaten something rotten, immediately recognizing whose voice it was.

After composing her expression and turning around, she saw Caroline approaching with a crowd of maids.

“The Grand Duke’s daughter. What brings you here?”

Her words weren’t polite due to Caroline’s behavior of calling her by name as if she were her subordinate.

Caroline’s maids also imitated their mistress, arrogantly holding their heads high.

“I always tour the garden at this time. Touring the garden every day is part of my daily routine.”

“Ah, yes. You’re diligent.”

Karina responded halfheartedly to Caroline’s chatter.

“I’d like to rest too, but there are so many things to do. Even this garden, though it looks unchanged on the surface, becomes difficult to maintain neatly if I neglect it for just one day.”

“…Is that so?”

The gardeners take care of the garden on their own.

All Caroline does is point out unsatisfactory aspects and give instructions about flowers she wants planted in the future.

Even that was often unreasonable due to her lack of basic knowledge about garden trees, like instructing seasonal flowers that don’t match or demanding tropical trees that can’t withstand the severe cold.

On days when the gardeners shook their heads saying it was impossible, a harsh reprimand would inevitably fall.

After venting her anger like that, she would often pass it off to the head maid with the excuse that it was bothersome.

‘This isn’t even funny.’

Karina inwardly laughed.

To Karina, who already knew all this, it just sounded like ridiculous nonsense.

“Speaking of Karina, what brings you to the garden at this hour… Oh my.”

Caroline’s eyes lit up as she discovered Mikhail.

“Is this the wizard who was at the center of that commotion yesterday?”

“He’s a wizard who’s now working as my guard.”

As Karina introduced him, Mikhail only nodded his head slightly in greeting.

“I’m Mikhail.”

Caroline’s maids frowned at his impolite behavior.

But Caroline didn’t seem to notice Mikhail’s rudeness.

Rumors about Mikhail, who had defeated one of the top fighters in the knighthood to become Karina’s guard, were already known to everyone in the mansion.

But Caroline, who was actually meeting him in person, was distracted by something other than his skills.

‘I was curious about the young wizard who defeated a candidate for the Knight Commander, but I didn’t expect him to be such a beautiful man.’

The beauty Caroline saw in Mikhail was not just young and handsome.

Even she, whose standards for men had become infinitely high due to having a handsome younger brother, could not close her gaping mouth at Mikhail’s extraordinary beauty.

“Hmm, truly excellent.”

After looking Mikhail up and down as if appraising an object, she raised her chin with an arrogant expression.

“The Grand Duchess has quite a refined taste.”

Caroline gave Karina a strange smile.

‘…What’s this?’

Karina, feeling uncomfortable, had no intention of continuing to face Caroline.

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll excuse myself now.”

Karina nodded to Mikhail to follow her and tried to quickly pass by Caroline.

But Caroline grabbed Karina’s arm and spoke.

“Karina. The incident at the banquet was a misunderstanding.”

One of Karina’s eyebrows raised diagonally.

“Pardon?”

“I did my best to help prepare for the banquet. I hope you don’t misinterpret my sincerity due to a trivial misunderstanding.”

“…”

‘I wondered what she was suddenly saying, but.’

Karina was at a loss for words at Caroline’s confident behavior.

‘Does she think I still don’t know anything even after what happened at the banquet?’

She was purely curious how much Caroline must look down on her to act like this.

“You know? Everything was done for your sake. Things went a bit awry because that merchant did strange things without being asked, but I knew nothing about it.”

‘Ah, she really hasn’t changed.’

Hearing the same words she had heard in the past, irritation welled up.

Caroline placed all the blame on Abdul, who had been a merchant, while claiming her own innocence.

“If I had known he was such a con artist, I would never have sent him to you.”

Her expression of wrongful accusation and the delicate voice she squeezed out were detestable.

“Even now, my hands tremble thinking of that time. How flustered I was.”

Caroline went further, touching the corners of her eyes as if wiping away tears.

‘She’s really going all out.’

Though she clearly knew it was intentional, seeing her insist she didn’t know made Karina want to burst out laughing.

Karina stared blankly at Caroline.

She wanted to see how far she would go.

“But Karina. You were too rash as well.”

“…”

Perhaps mistaking Karina’s lack of reaction for feeling sorry, Caroline began to blame Karina in a slightly raised voice.

“If you were worried about what clothes to wear, you should have come to me instead. How could the Grand Duke’s family save face if you barge into a formal banquet hall like that and cause a big incident?”

Karina frowned at those words.

Caroline despised Karina and openly avoided her.

Nevertheless, she pretended to care for and think of her on the surface, acting hypocritically.

In the past before her regression, Karina was completely fooled by that appearance.

‘Back then, I really thought Caroline was on my side.’

But later she found out that Caroline was actually doing nasty things behind her back, leading the maids to bully Karina.

How much she trembled with anger when she realized that fact.

‘Despicable.’

While Karina was swallowing curses inwardly, Caroline came even closer to her.

“From now on, consult with me before doing anything. I’ll at least give you advice so that incidents like the banquet don’t happen again.”

Snicker.

“?”

Karina finally couldn’t hold back the sneer that escaped.

“Did you just… laugh?”

Displeasure settled in Caroline’s eyes.

‘As expected. Of course.’

Karina made an expression of utter annoyance.

At first, she blamed the merchant and said she had done nothing wrong, but in the end, she was pushing all the blame onto Karina again.

And by saying she should have consulted beforehand before making a final decision, she was acting as if she were superior to the Grand Duchess.

‘How tiresome.’

Karina summed up the current situation in one word.

“Karina. Does this situation make you laugh?”

Caroline made a stern expression.

But Karina didn’t care at all.

Rather, she met Caroline’s eyes directly and replied in a low voice.

“Caroline. You keep saying you did it for my sake at the end of every sentence.”

Karina pulled up one corner of her mouth as if amused.

“Please stop the nonsense already. It’s tiresome.”

“Wh-What did you say?”

Caroline frowned sharply at Karina’s completely unexpected counterattack.

Karina leaned her head close to Caroline so she could hear clearly.

“Don’t you know better than anyone whose fault this incident was?”

The implied meaning was that it was because of what Caroline had plotted behind her back.

Introducing Abdul, a clumsy con artist, at an important event.

Subtly ostracizing and looking down on the young and inexperienced her who had married into the Grand Duke’s family.

Even having maids and servants deliberately harm her…

Caroline.

It was all her doing.

“I simply cannot listen to the nonsense coming out of your mouth.”

Caroline’s expression hardened for a moment.

But soon she covered her mouth with her palm and made a surprised expression.

“My goodness, Karina. Do you not even know what you’ve done wrong? Well, I suppose you’re acting like this because you don’t know.”

And she continued speaking as if lecturing.

“Still, the habit of always blaming others is not good. You should know how to admit your mistakes. Didn’t they teach you such basic common sense in the Marquis’ household?”

Caroline, who had insulted the Marquis’ family as well, made a sympathetic expression towards Karina.

“To lack even such basic etiquette… How disappointed Jeremiah would be if he knew.”

Caroline even brought up Jeremiah, trying to manipulate Karina in the palm of her hand.

Karina didn’t hide her expression of ridicule.

In the past she was fooled because she didn’t know, but now she could clearly see through Caroline’s dark intentions.

“Caroline. That’s what I want to say. When a person makes a mistake, they should know how to admit it. Even when you’ve been completely exposed, acting shamelessly as if it’s not true only makes you look more foolish.”

Karina looked over the maids standing behind Caroline.

“Among all those maids, was there not a single one to tell you such a fact? How pitiful.”

At the word pitiful, Caroline’s eyes widened.

“Karina. What did you just say?”

“Oh my, did you not hear? If your hearing is already going bad at this age, that’s a big problem.”

As Karina retorted sarcastically, a maid beside Caroline shouted in a loud voice.

“Lady Karina! What rudeness is this towards the Grand Duke’s daughter! Apologize at once!”

‘Lady Karina?’

Karina’s brows furrowed sharply.

‘For the Grand Duke’s daughter’s maid to casually call my name, the Grand Duchess.’

Karina glared at Caroline’s close maid with piercing eyes.

The close maid continued speaking fearlessly even after receiving Karina’s gaze.

“If you married into the Grand Duke’s family, you should show effort to become part of the Grand Duke’s household! What vulgar…”

Slap!

“Kyaa!”

Karina slapped the maid’s cheek before she could finish speaking.

She hit her so hard that her palm stung.

‘How much effort did I put in in the past.’

Karina knew all too well how meaningless and futile those efforts had been.

That’s why she couldn’t silently listen to the maid’s nonsense.

Just then.

“What’s all this commotion?”

Jeremiah walked out from the direction of the training grounds.