There was still some time before the hunting festival to start.
The forest would only be opened in earnest after the emperor would appear on that empty platform and give a short opening speech.
Right now, neither hide nor hair of the emperor could be seen anywhere.
The nobles, meanwhile, chatted amongst themselves with light refreshments in hand.
This hunting festival was a large-scale event in the empire as it was a gathering of aristocrats living all across the east, west, north and south ends of the empire, and this included high-ranking nobles like the members of the three duchies.
There's no better place than this where people could greet each other face-to-face after such a long while, or expand their connections with new people they were meeting for the first time.
The household heads greeted the other household heads.
The successors greeted the other successors.
Besides them, the young ladies and young lords who were nearing their coming-of-age also gathered and talked amongst themselves.
Here, there were four such young ladies who had grouped together.
Young ladies who would be coming-of-age next year, and whose families were magic households connected to House Carter.
In the group, there was Julie, Pia and Melissa.
"Will the ducal ladies of House Valentine come today?"
"We can finally see their faces."
"What haughty ducal ladies they are. As far removed as they are from the world, they've never even once shown their faces."
Despite those sharp remarks, the lips that uttered those words had soft smiles.
It wasn't very polite of them to speak as such, but the other nobles were each absorbed in their own conversations, so they did not attract anyone's attention.
As busy as they were talking about other people, they couldn't be bothered about the other groups around them.
However, there was one person.
In that group of four, there was one person who couldn't join the conversation. She instead smiled awkwardly.
Evelyn Riddle.
She was Count Riddle's only daughter.
'How could they thoughtlessly talk about other people's business like this…'
Evelyn's heels tapped the ground in her discomfort.
Still, the heaviness of her heart could not be alleviated.
In fact, it wasn't the first time that Melissa, Julie and Pia had spoken ill of others.
The four of them met during their childhood, for the sake of their families building connections.
Even since that time, they often brought up other people's business as their conversation topics.
Whether or not they knew about how uncomfortable Evelyn was about this.
The mouths of these three young ladies did not stop.
"I heard that a nanny in House Valentine had been executed because of the abuse she had done. Did you hear about that?"
"Of course I heard about it. What kind of audacity does that nanny have that she dared to do such a thing."
"That's what I'm saying. His Grace the Duke was very generous. If I was him, I would have tortured that woman instead of just killing her immediately. Right?"
"Yes, I can't believe that all she faced was execution. As expected, the rumors were true."
Melissa tapped her fingers, the end of her long nails touching the surface.
She seemed indifferent to the matter, but she was straight to the point.
"What rumors?"
"What rumors though?"
Julie and Pia looked sideways at Evelyn, then hurriedly asked.
Melissa looked at their surroundings with a smile.
She opened her lips to speak only after confirming that there was no one looking at them.
"Word goes that Duke Valentine isn't fond of his children. Especially his two daughters."
"Truly? Was there a rumor like that?"
Seemingly shocked by Melissa's words, Julie asked back with wide eyes.
And with a nonchalant nod, Melissa answered.
"Indeed. The first ducal lady is the daughter of a sinner, isn't she? She's not even wanted, how embarrassing."
Two others nodded as though they agreed, then Pia responded.
"Then perhaps… He knew about the abuse that was going on, but he just let it go?"
"Or maybe the ducal ladies deserve to be beaten."
"Certainly. It's expensive maintaining them, but couldn't they have been a bit more polite in front of their nanny?"
"If they weren't, then… It's only natural that she wanted to hit them."
Ahahaha, that's too much!
Their laughter rang throughout the space around them.
It was a scene that would make anyone else smile because their smiles looked so natural.
They were just young ladies of the same age who had gathered and were laughing together.
Others would not know how cruel they truly were.
Evelyn couldn't bear to laugh out loud like them. All she could do was mumble back in response and force her lips to twist up into a smile.
She didn't have the courage to step up and disagree with them, and so she just hid her true feelings behind that smile.
But despite her efforts, people who were good at lying were also good at spotting lies.
Even if she smiled like that, sooner or later, they would see through that half-hearted smile.
True enough, after laughing for a while, Melissa cocked her head to the side when she noticed Evelyn smiling awkwardly.
When Melissa stopped laughing, Pia and Julie stopped laughing as well. They looked around.
Soon, they figured out the situation. They also turned their mocking gazes towards Evelyn.
At the end of three piercing gazes now, Evelyn gulped.
She felt her hands going cold, numb. She had a sinking feeling that she had become a cornered mouse.
As if there were three giant snakes flapping their forked tongues at her, Evelyn froze right in front of them.
"Evelyn."
"Y…Yeah?"
At Melissa's hushed call, Evelyn blinked.
The tension and agitation she had been trying to hide now clearly rose above, evident on her rigid expression.
Melissa silently stared at her for a long time. Then, she let out a sharp laugh.
"Why are you so nervous, Evelyn?"
A pale, thin hand stretched out and tapped Evelyn on the shoulder.
All four of them were holding drinks in their hands, so every time Melissa tapped Evelyn's shoulder, the drink inside the glass fluctuated dangerously.
"Nothing, I'm just a bit nervous."
Evelyn replied with another forced smile.
Again, smirks could be seen and silent chuckles could be heard.
The hand that was tapping Evelyn's shoulder slowly moved away.
Melissa flicked her hand in the air, as if she had touched something dirty.
Then, as she was standing at the side, Julie sipped her drink then spoke up.
"Evelyn. Is hanging out with us… boring for you?"
"Oh goodness."
"That can't be."
Coming after Julie's pointed question was an exclamation followed by an exaggerated sigh.
Evelyn kept her lips shut as she trembled.
Judging from her own experience, if she were to answer back now, she would only look foolish.
"Evelyn, smile a little, hm?"
Pia kindly advised Evelyn, who was so stiff that her lips seemed to be sewn shut.
Melissa reached out as though to stop Pia.
"Come now, let it go. Ever since we were young, our dear Evelyn hasn't enjoyed these kinds of topics."
Oh, yes. Evelyn, our angel. Our poor angel. Are you perhaps the guardian angel of beggars?"
"Julie, you're so funny."
Ahaha.
Once again, a peal of laughter from them poured out.
Each barbed laughter shot out like arrows and dug into Evelyn's heart.
It has been like this for years now.
These three people's sarcasm and pointed laughter was familiar to her now, but the pain that was tearing up her chest was something she could never become familiar with.
All she wished for was to get used to all of this so that she could calmly get over the pain.
Their relationship hadn't been like this in the beginning.
In the past, the other three young ladies used to follow Evelyn.
'Evelyn, I think you're really too nice.'
'Let's be friends.'
'I like you the most, Evelyn.'
It was such a hazy past.
Right, it was like that, once upon a time.
Their attitudes began to change after her grandfather, the previous Count Riddle, had passed away and when her father became the next count.
The cause was what happened after that, to be precise.
Back when the previous Count Riddle met his demise,
House Riddle had once been a vassal of House Carter, but as soon as the young count became the household head, they were sent into dire straits.
That was eight years ago.
And back then, Evelyn had been eleven years old.
Little Evelyn couldn't understand what was happening around her.
Her ever-rich household plummeted into poverty, and the high honor and envy they once received dissipated into vapor.
Melissa, Julie and Pia.
These three girls, who had been her close friends ever since they were five years old, rapidly changed their attitudes towards her.
When Evelyn plunged to the bottom of the barrel in one snap, these three started looking down on her.
It had been a long time since she noticed their change.
The scales tilted instantaneously and they soon ganged up on her, and yet Evelyn closed her eyes to this.
The other three sarcastically comforted her, and yet she thanked them nonetheless, considering their backhanded comfort to still be comfort in the end.
Everyone else left her already, but they were still beside her. She was grateful enough by just that alone.
She chose not to see how she was merely a toy to them now.
Like a fool.
Yet those closed eyes eventually opened.
Gradually realizing the reality that was right in front of her, she accepted that they saw her merely as a toy.
How cruel their tongues were.
How sharp their gazes were.
After acknowledging the truth, Evelyn tried to separate herself from the other three.
She didn't want to be miserable anymore.
She was already miserable enough.
However, things did not go smoothly.
Her father was busy day and night trying to raise up the household that was already too far down on the decline.
He did his magic research during the night, then he would sell his products at his magic shop during the day.
There was no workplace that would dare call a nobleman a laborer, so this was the best that her father could do.
Not all efforts got their rewards.
In that small shop, only flies came in and out. And apart from that, the funds that he needed for his magic research were always scarce.
He tried to get investors, but no one was willing to help her father.
In the past, those who tried to build connections with him now looked at him with cold, brutal eyes instead, casting him away.
Even so, her father did not give up.
No matter what kind of humiliation he faced, he stood his ground firmly. For her sake.
Behind his bitter smiles, she knew the depths of his pain.
He had to endure and earn a living—to earn money so he could protect his family.
Her father was protecting their family as best as he could.
That's why Evelyn, too, wanted to protect their family.
It's true that she'd be more at ease away from these three people right now, but that would be tantamount to being cut off from this social circle.
It would only trouble her family if that were to happen.
People here were from wealthy aristocratic families who could potentially invest in her father's research.
In order to gain investors, she had to remain in this social circle.
By any means at all.
Persistently, until the end.