‘Why on earth did she change like that?’

Ariana had to wear an outdated dress and act stubbornly, crying all through the party.

Then Rachel would blame Ariana’s lineage, and people would whisper comparisons between the polite and wellmannered Helena, Victoria, and Ariana.

There might have been some who questioned Ariana’s treatment, but their voices would have been very quiet.

It should have gone that way, but Ariana neither cried nor blushed in that situation.

‘What was the problem today?’

Victoria glared at the kneeling maids.

‘Those things are the problem. If they had done it properly, I wouldn’t have been criticized.’

Victoria ordered the maids.

“Whip them fifty times and lock them in the east tower.”

“Ah, miss! Miss, please don’t. Please forgive us.”

“We tried to do well. We will do well. Please forgive us.”

“Please spare us, miss.”

The east tower was a terrifying prison where no one guarded, and no one entered.

It was where the Bronte family left criminals who had greatly harmed them.

The maids knew that no one who entered there ever came out alive.

But Victoria entered her bedroom without hearing more, and the maids were dragged away by the servants summoned by the maid.

+++

Duke Jacob Bronte was silent after the party ended.

Jacob, with black hair and black eyes, was tall with a slender build, scholarly and looked somewhat sensitive.

When expressionless, he looked nervous, but when he smiled, wrinkles appeared around his eyes, and he took on a gentle atmosphere, a smile that Rachel had fallen for.

Knowing this fact, Jacob always smiled in front of Rachel, so seeing her husband’s stern face was a rare occurrence.

Since getting to know Jacob, she had only seen him wear such a serious expression twice before.

When she found out that Rachel had to marry the Eastern Emperor, when Rachel returned to the Western capital with Ariana, whom she had with the Eastern Emperor.

And today, Jacob looked darker than ever, not even attempting to make eye contact with Rachel.

Rachel, noticing his mood, carefully touched his arm.

“Jacob. You don’t have to take it too seriously.”

“You think I don’t have to take it seriously? Are you serious?”

Startled by the angry voice, Rachel flinched.

Born as the daughter of the Western Emperor, she had lived without fearing anything, but she was weak only towards Jacob. The first man she ever loved, and the last man she would love. She didn’t want his hatred.

“Didn’t you see the faces of everyone at the party earlier? Didn’t you hear what people said after seeing her? Rachel, it wasn’t just Western nobles there. There were nobles from the capital too. You can’t silence all of them.”

“Why would we need to silence them? Just let them be. What they blabber about is a momentary gossip. Other scandals will come along, and they will easily forget.”

Jacob sighed.

“Rachel, what happened earlier won’t be forgotten so easily. She’s not just an ordinary noble lady. She’s the princess of the Western Emperor, daughter of the Eastern Emperor, and now the adopted daughter of Duke Bronte. Don’t society women love such stories?”

“They love it, they love it, but…….”

“They may forget for a while. But every time they see us, they’ll remember it again.”

Watching Jacob nervously pace the room, Rachel felt disheartened.

What happened at the party earlier was like a nightmare. A dreadful nightmare that shouldn’t have occurred. Especially when they invited the capital’s nobles, and those who were prominent in social circles.

‘Ariana…….’

Ariana in the greenhouse seemed like a different person from the Ariana she had raised. She looked different, as if possessed by an evil spirit.
The expression, the look in her eyes, her posture and tone of voice, none of it felt like the Ariana that Rachel knew.

Thinking about it, it had been strange for the past few days.

When she had gotten sick from eating spoiled food, and even when they had encountered each other in the garden yesterday morning.

At that time, she did not take the change seriously.

She just assumed that Ariana was acting differently because she was being scolded for everything and was not being acknowledged.

After all, Rachel thought that no matter how much Ariana tried to change, as long as she was beneath her in the Bronthe family, she could not do any harm.

But Ariana had dealt a significant blow to the Bronthe family in an instant.

The nobles who attended the party today, as Jacob had said, would think of Ariana’s actions whenever the Bronthe family was mentioned.

‘It cannot go on like this.’

Her father, the Second Duke, had told Rachel to raise Ariana quietly. The Eastern Duke had also commanded her to raise his daughter Ariana out of sight and mind.

When the necessary time came, he said he would find a suitable family for her to marry into. There were already a few families in mind for Ariana’s marriage.

The most likely place was the Alprehi family.

Baron Ingo Alprehi, who had made a fortune selling weapons and bought his barony.