Chapter 87.1

At the time, Lydia and her father were visiting a store in the downtown area to look at jewelry.

The father, who was escorting Lydia into the store with a smile asking her to buy everything she wanted, saw a boy inside and muttered an incomprehensible word.

She didn’t know what that unfamiliar word was then, but now she does.

‘Blessed.’

The whole Empire was interested and making noise, so she couldn’t help but notice.

The Marquis then grabbed him by the shoulder and asked in an excited voice if he would like to learn magic. When the boy politely refused and left the store, her father followed him. As if Lydia had been completely forgotten.

Lydia watched in bewilderment as her father left. The nanny took her back to the carriage. And then from the carriage, Lydia saw the same Yurina. Even from a distance, she stood out with white skin and elaborate features.

After talking with the unknown boy and Yurina for a while, her father returned and smiled at Lydia. But it was at that moment that Lydia felt for the first time that her father’s eyes were furious.

That’s where it all started.

Her father began to show undisguised hostility towards the Carthia family. Not only that, at every opportunity, he whispered to Lydia that she was should become an Empress.

That Crown Prince Curtis would choose the wrong Yurina, but Lydia. The Marquis kept repeating it endlessly, as if he wanted to brainwash his own daughter.

She was terrifying at times.

Once she even became curious, and therefore Lydia asked her father:

“Father, why did you hate Carthia so much?”

Hearing the question, he changed in the face and replied that they had a certain debt to him.

And what debt did they undertake to repay?

No matter how she looks at it, she couldn’t understand it. Lydia wondered how her father had butted heads with Carthia. So she asked her mother or the people around her, but they didn’t hear anything like that.

“Lydia.”

The sudden call snapped Lydia out of her thoughts.

“Yes, father.”

“Do you remember what I told you?”

He said a lot of things to her. But Lydia knew exactly what he meant now.

“You said you should become the Empress.”

“That’s right. You should become the Empress, not that fox Carthia.”

“…”

“That’s the only way we’ll all survive, Lydia.”

“…”

“This bitch is fake from head to toe. You’re the only one who has the right to become the Empress. Understood?”

Again and again the same words.

Father always called Yurina Carthia a ‘fake’. Lydia couldn’t find any justification for this choice of names. As well as the fact that she ironically should become the Empress.

“…Father.”

Instead of answering, he looked at Lydia, as if he wanted to tell her something. Those golden eyes in front of her seemed to hint to Lydia – hatred for Carthia was stronger than affection for her daughter.

Lydia felt threatened and swallowed what she really wanted to say.

“Your ink has spilled. Fortunately, I don’t think it’s broken.”

“Okay.”

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll leave.”

And when Lydia turned towards the exit with an inkwell in her hands, the voice of the Marquis stopped her.

“We will soon be returning to the capital. So get ready.”

“Really?”

Lydia asked in a slightly agitated voice. She hasn’t been to the capital since she arrived at this estate a few years ago. The reason for this was father’s order.

He kept saying that he would take her to the capital when she was 18, when she would officially debut in the social world.

But to go to the capital right now? Could it be that her father understood her longing for life in the capital?

Lydia looked back at the Marquis, but he only crumpled the paper with a stern expression, and didn’t even look at his daughter.

“Okay then. A grand party will soon be held at the Imperial Palace. You will go there too.”

“But, father. I’m still seventeen…”

“Surely the fox from the Carthia house will also be there. And she will bring that boy, who named Blessed. I won’t leave it like this. She’ll show off the child she has been raising with great care in Carthia.”

“So that means…”

“I can’t see the whole Empire supporting Carthia. Lydia, that girl debuted a year early, so there’s no way you can’t do it. You have to prepare properly and be the main character that evening.”

After all, this Yurina Carthia again? Lydia clenched her fists. Her father was madly chasing a distant and unsteady dream.

Yurina Carthia, Yurina Carthia, Yurina Carthia.

What the hell is this girl?

‘Calm down. There is nothing wrong with Lady Carthia.’

Lydia tried her best to smile. But it didn’t come out too sincerely.