CH 110

After I sent out Charlotte and the Duchess, I stood alone in front of the mirror and caught my breath.

“It’s all right.” 

As if the end of the sentence was a question, it raised in intonation and then declined. A girl with pink hair like pale cotton candy followed me and smiled weakly. 

‘Is it really all right?’

No matter how much I reiterated that they were not my family, facing the family of the Duke of Euclid was mentally difficult. 

They were treating Charlotte kindly, who shared not even a single drop of blood with them, that every time I remembered that I had been thrown away, I felt like the was some flaw in me. 

‘Even though I really don’t care about Charl.’

Compare to the days I had lived while holding my breath in fear of Derek Lagrange, dealing with Charlotte, who was a socialite in the South, felt funny. 

Their ridicule and Charlotte’s innocuous nuisance didn’t really feel like it was hitting home at all, so I had no particular memory of being truly angry at her. 

However, Dona Euclid was different. 

I wanted to turn away from that jet-black aura that tried to use her own biological child for her own benefit.

“Anissa.”

Standing by the window along the hallway, someone grabbed my clenched fist. 

“What’s wrong.”

My cold hand was covered by an even colder hand. Nevertheless, strangely, my heart felt warmer so I smiled and opened my mouth. 

“It’s nothing.”

“I heard Dona Euclid came to call.” 

“So what if that person visited? She has nothing to do with me.”

Dietrich still didn’t know that I’m a Euclid. On the contrary, I wondered if his eyes, as black as the veil in the night, were filled with worry. 

“Didn’t she torment you in the North?”

“Dietrich, I can’t even call that torment. What Derek did to you was torment.” 

I shrugged at his concerns.

“What about the meeting of the elders? Is it over?”

“This is a list of nobles who opposed the distribution of food to the people of the territory.”

“Hm. Thank you.” 

I took the documents he handed me and held them in my arms.

“Are you going to open another warehouse again?”

When we returned from the capital, the first thing I did was open a charity. As soon as winter came, I opened Lagrange’s food warehouse and distributed every sack of wheat. 

“Yeah. You said we didn’t have money, right? Then, we should at least release some food.”

In fact, Lagrange was a place where food was more precious than money. 

At my words, Dietrich moved his lips as if he had something to say. I narrowed my eyes and observed his expression. 

“Even if we don’t have cash, we still have a lot of jewels. The number of orphanages we have right now is insufficient. We’ll have to build two more to accommodate them all.”

“All right.” 

I looked at Dietrich nodded his head indifferently and opened my mouth hesitantly.

“Why do you always say ‘all right’ to everything?” 

“What?” 

“Whatever I do, you always just say yes. You never say the opposite.” 

‘Don’t tell me the thing with us having no money is a lie?’

He had never once stopped me from insisting on giving away to the people in the territory all the money that we didn’t have.

“Do we really have no money?”

“Yeah. That’s right.” 

Dietrich uncharacteristically nodded his head firmly at my question. I tilted my head, checking his unwavering gray aura. 

“Then, why aren’t you stopping me? Lagrange originally doesn’t do charity or things like that.” 

The great nobles of the South worked on the welfare of the people in their territories in order to set an example, and Lagrange, to live in accordance to their name as the villainous family, never carried out such a business. 

‘Though of course, I have my reasons.’

I was going to tell him one by one if he had asked, but he had never protested against me so the speech I had prepared had become useless.

“If my title can’t even let you do whatever you want, then it doesn’t mean much to me.” 

The words he uttered with his expressionless face sounded as if he was sitting in the Grand Duke’s position because of me. 

‘I feel like I’ve heard that before.’

I passed off Dietrich’s words as him speaking his lines. 

However, not long after that, he would soon find the day when he regrets it and would say ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’ 

────── 〔✿〕──────

“Marilyn, I want to hold a tea party based on this list.”

“Tea party? Not a dinner party?”

“Yes, a tea party.” 

In the North, a banquet was only an unconditionally rigid dinner party. Tea parties were only enjoyed in the South where social activities were active. 

“Because they’ll be curious so they will come.” 

‘People who also oppose Dietrich wouldn’t come so easily.’

Reforming the image of the North was something Lagrange couldn’t do alone. 

‘We need to change the mindset of the entire northern nobility.’

The southern society was a society that was terribly conscious of the eyes of others.

The northerners ridicule the southern charade as a sham but experiencing it myself, I didn’t think it wasn’t unnecessary nonsense. 

‘I also know that common people think that the war is also Lagrange’s fault.” 

The rose war was a civil war between the two families that lasted long enough to even accompany the history of the empire. Although nothing had destabilized the empire as much as the civil war, the southern people considered Lagrange as the public enemy. 

‘As if Lagrange is the only reason why there’s a rose war.’

Euclid, the opposing family, even pretends to be the guardian of peace!

People were naturally easily misled by what they see. Euclid actually believes that they’re righteous heroes. 

‘Is there a law that says we can’t also do that?’

I snorted and picked up the outdoor dress that Marilyn picked out for me. 

“About this list, all of them are from families who are opposing Lagrange due to the issue of opening the warehouse. Will they really come?”

Vanessa, who was choosing a hair ornament next to Marilyn, tilted her head.

“Then, we just have to make them come.” 

“Ah! Are you going to release the demons?” 

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh at her flushed cheeks, looking subtly excited. 

“What? No.” 

It’s easy to control people with power and authority, but in that way, we would never be able to break the formula of ‘Lagrange is a villain.’ 

You need flowers to attract bees. And it’s embarrassing, but the flower had to be me.

────── 〔✿〕──────

I collected my breath in front of the door of an old-fashioned but secluded salon. 

“Princess, you’d like to have your tea party dress from here?’

“Yeah.”

“But isn’t this a southerner’s shop?” 

“I know.” 

Lucy looked around and grunted as if worried.

“This shop is a place noble ladies rarely go to…”

The signboard that read 'Celine's Salon' was decorated with gold leaf based on the luxurious ebony, and it was so pretty that you could feel the designer's sense just by looking at the signboard.

‘There’s only one reason why someone with this kind of sense is being ignored.’ 

Because she’s a southerner. 

Madame Celine was a romanticist of the century and a designer who led the fashion of the southern society, however, she fell in love and came to the North to get married. 

Tinkle. 

The bird-shaped bell hanging on the door rings with a clear sound. Dust was piling up on top of the sofa that was laid out so anyone looking around would have thought that it was a shop that went bankrupt.

‘Is there anyone here?’

Soon, however, a middle-aged woman began to rush down from the upper floor with a loud noise. She looked between me and Vanessa with a slightly surprised look on her face. 

“Oh, uh, are you customers?” 

I looked around her salon, where not a person nor even an ant could be seen and opened my mouth.

“Yes. I need a dress.”

“Are you saying you’ll get fitted by me?”

“Isn’t this a dress shop?”

“T-that's right. Perhaps you came to the wrong door and were looking for Madame Lellin next door?” 

Celine hurriedly picked up the feather duster as if she was embarrassed by the dust sitting on the sofa. I watched her cluttered behavior and answered her leisurely. 

“I want to get fitted by Madame Celine for my dress.” 

“If you’re asking me to take my name off the dress and replace it with Lellin’s name, then I can’t do that. It’s my last pride, miss.” 

“It’s Madame Celine’s dress so why is there a need to lie that it’s Lellin’s design?”

Celine abruptly closed her mouth in disbelief at my words. 

‘Is she going to cry?’

I lived my life taking care of the children of Lagrange but because they were children who didn’t know how to cry, I didn’t know how to comfort people either. 

I watched as her aura, tinged with green – feeling extremely moved – undulated like waves. 

“Heuk, huuk!”

“Don’t cry, Madame.”

“My goodness! Heup! It’s been more than ten years since I opened this store! Hic! Heuk! No one had ever asked me to fit a dress–!”

“That has nothing to with your skills.” 

I wiped her face dripping with tears, comforting the middle-aged madame. 

“I will prepare the most beautiful dress in the world even if you are a commoner.” 

A designer from a noble background never makes a dress for commoners. I smiled contentedly at the fact that her heart was burdened that much. 

“My name is Anissa Lagrange, Madame.”

“La-Lagrange?”

“I need a dress for a tea party. I want something that’s more beautiful than the southern design and at the same time a remarkably practical dress.”

The fashion in the North was always one step behind the South.

‘To reverse that, I need the sense of a fashion leader.’

If we wanted to win, then, we definitely have to win in every way.