episode_0039

“Riding a horse?!”

Lea asked me again, surprised.

“Yes, I’m going to ride a horse. I don’t like carriages, they’re too stuffy.”

I packed the dress I would change into in the trunk and tied my hair back.

“But how are you going to ride a horse…”

“I’ve ridden horses ten times more than I’ve ridden carriages so far.”

With my hair tied back and the trunk and sword in hand, I walked out of the room.

“Milady! Milady! How are you going to wear the dress by yourself?!”

As I walked out in a hurry, Lea followed me, asking worriedly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll ask the palace maids for help.”

As Lea called out to me, the other maids came out one by one, wondering what was going on.

“What are you all doing? Quickly, don’t let Milady pass!”

“Yes…!”

At Lea’s command, the maids stepped forward and blocked my way.

“Lea, want to see something fun?”

“What?”

I looked at the maids blocking my way and shifted my right foot back slightly.

I threw the trunk behind the maids and ran, swiftly slipping through the maids.

“See? Take good care of the house.”

I casually caught the falling trunk with my hand and waved to Lea.

At the entrance, Laurent had prepared two horses and was waiting for me.

“I thought you were joking, but you really are going to the royal palace on horseback.”

“Of course, after riding in a carriage with the Flanders princess, I realized that riding a horse is the best.”

“Didn’t you often ride in Aramis’s carriage?”

“Well, if he doesn’t say anything, I have to ride something.”

I placed the trunk containing the dress on the horse and mounted the horse.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

“Understood.”

“Let’s go! Hyah!”

Hee-haw~~!

As Laurent mounted the horse, I flicked the reins, and the horse neighed and started running.

Closer and closer

The sound of hooves echoed around us as we raced through the streets of Paris.

On the right side of the road leading to the palace, carriages were lined up to enter the palace.

“Laurent, do you see that?”

“Yes, the line is enormous.”

Laurent grimaced at the long line of carriages.

“Do you understand why I wanted to ride a horse now?”

“But is it appropriate for nobility to do this?”

“Whether it’s you or me, we’re both savages, so what does it matter!”

At my words, Laurent looked troubled.

“Why the long face?”

“It seems no one would be pleased to hear that we lack refinement.”

“Haha! Well, that’s true.”

We leaned out of the window and looked at the nobles watching us as we quickly entered the palace.

“Halt!”

The soldier guarding the entrance raised his halberd towards us.

“Who goes there!”

“I am here by the invitation of Her Highness Ange 14.”

I showed the invitation to the soldiers.

They looked at the invitation and then stared at me with widened eyes.

“My name is Marie de Roanne, and this is Laurent de Bastanu, my escort.”

“Ro… Roanne?! Bastanu?!!! Ah… I see! You may pass!”

The soldiers, upon hearing our names, suddenly stood at attention and cleared the way.

Indeed, the value of Roanne’s name was shining once again.

The invitation must have had Roanne’s name on it. Even if they didn’t want to let us through, they had no choice.

“Thank you.”

I patted the soldiers on the shoulder and quickly mounted the horse again and entered the palace.

Since we couldn’t ride horses inside the palace, we left the horses at the stable and headed towards the palace.

“We will need to check the invitation.”

The heavily armored paladins inside the palace were bustling around.

“Here it is.”

“Hmm…”

A paladin who checked the invitation handed it back to me.

“I’ve confirmed it.”

“By the way, do you know where I can change my clothes?”

In response to my question, the paladin called over a maid passing by in the palace.

“Please guide this person to the dressing room.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Thank you.”

The paladin nodded in response to my words.

When we arrived at the dressing room, the maid looked at Laurent with a cold gaze.

“Oh, I’ll wait outside.”

Laurent understood the message not to come in from the maid’s eyes and stood outside the door, waiting for me to enter.

As I opened the trunk, a blue dress and a red dress were neatly folded inside.

“Wow…”

The maid couldn’t help but admire my dress.

“I’ll be wearing the blue one, can you help me?”

“Oh… You didn’t bring any maids with you.”

“The dress is simple enough that one person can help me put it on.”

“Then I’ll assist you.”

I changed into the dress after taking off my clothes.

It seemed like Armand knew my personality well, as the dress he gifted me was simple enough to wear with just the back buttons fastened.

“Wow… It’s a very beautiful dress.”

The maid standing next to me admired my reflection in the mirror.

“Thank you.”

I had a lot of thoughts when I received the two dresses at first.

I wondered which one to wear, but as expected, it was best to be comfortable.

I also liked that the dress Armand gave me was not overly elaborate.

As I was about to fall into narcissism while looking at my reflection in the mirror, I sensed a commotion outside.

“Laurent, what’s going on?”

I opened the door and peeked outside.

“Hey, get out!”

Suddenly, a woman shouted at me.

“…?”

I blinked at the woman who shouted at me.

“This is where I always used to come, why are you using… it…?”

She looked at my face and continued to stare at me as if possessed by something.

‘But I feel like I’ve seen this rude woman somewhere before… Who is she…?’

I carefully examined her face, trying to recall where I had seen her before.

With platinum blonde hair like mine, blue eyes, freckles visible under the makeup… where have I seen her…

‘Wait… Penny?!’

She used to be a little brat when she ran away from home ten years ago, but now she had grown so much that I couldn’t recognize her.

Although it was nice to see her, I had already abandoned the name of the Lisdang family, so now we were no different from strangers.

“Who are you to come here and claim that this dressing room is yours?”

“Ugh…!”

Penny tightly bit her lip at my words.

“Do you have something hidden in the palace?”

“There’s no way!”

“Then why are you insisting on this dressing room?”

“Well… that’s… um…”

“Miss, I’ll handle this.”

A knight from the Lisdang family who was escorting Penny approached me.

“If you’re done changing, please leave.”

He growled at me as if threatening me with his sword.

Seeing Laurent’s face turn pale, he glanced at me and tried to calm me down.

“Listen, I won’t say anything bad. If you want to live, just step back.”

“Get lost.”

Laurent tried to calm me down in any way possible, but he didn’t listen.

Laurent shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn’t know what to do.

“What if I don’t?”

“Is the name of the Viscount of the Lisdang family intimidating to you?”

Lisdang? Where the hell does that fucking name think it’s scary? Honestly, I have the confidence to break into the Lisdang family mansion alone, kill everyone without a scratch, and come out.

“Hmph!”

Unintentionally, a laugh burst out of me.

The knight blushed at my mockery and tried to grab me, but

Crack!

“What?!”

In an instant, his arm grotesquely twisted, distorting his original form beyond recognition.

“Ahhhh!”

He grabbed his arm and rolled on the ground in agony.

My younger sister, Penia, looked at me with eyes full of fear.

“What… I’ve changed my clothes, so I can use this dressing room now.”

“Oh… no. I’ll just use a different room.”

As I scratched my head and spoke, Penia shook her head vigorously.

“Looks like the knight is useless now.”

Thud!

“Ugh…!!!”

When I kicked his broken arm, he let out a pained groan.

“What are you doing lying here? Follow your lady.”

“Ugh…!”

He stumbled to his feet, holding his limp arm, and ran after Penia.

“Even though it’s a palace, it seems like we’ve caused quite a commotion.”

Laurent seemed concerned about me, who had just dismissed a knight from the Lisdang family.

“If they get kicked out, so be it.”

I looked coldly at Penia and the knight as they walked away.

“Well, since we’ve changed our clothes, let’s go in now. You’ve worked hard too.”

“Thank you.”

The maid bowed her head and left.

We headed straight to the banquet hall.

Beyond the red curtains adorned with gold thread, music could be heard.

“May I have your names?”

The usher guarding the entrance to the banquet hall asked for our names.

“Marie de Roanne.”

“Laurent de Bastogne.”

“Marie de Roanne Yeongae and Laurent de Bastogne Yeongsik have arrived!”

As the usher called out our names, the curtains were drawn back on both sides.

“After you.”

“Yes.”

Laurent followed behind me at my words.

In the banquet hall, upon hearing the name ‘Roanne’ of the adult Armand Chugikyeong, everyone turned to look at us.

“It seems that woman is the new adopted daughter of Chugikyeong.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“There must have been a reason for Chugikyeong to bring her in.”

“Bastogne? Isn’t that a village in the south?”

“Her bone structure is quite impressive…”

Everyone murmured a word or two as they looked at us.

“Laurent, ignore them.”

Laurent’s body stiffened as he was overwhelmed by the many gazes.

“Yes… yes, of course!”

Due to Roanne’s name value, I could feel various gazes – friendly, hostile, curious, and more.

But I descended the stairs without a care, as if all the gazes in the world didn’t matter to me.

I walked straight to the table with food and picked up two glasses of wine.

“Here.”

“Oh… thank you.”

Laurent took the wine I handed him with a bewildered expression.

Clang!

I clinked my glass against Laurent’s and downed it in one gulp.

“Miss?”

“You should drink too… you won’t be able to bear it without drinking.”

I looked at the crowd of young ladies approaching us from afar.

I had no idea what kind of trash would spill out of their mouths.