Chapter 1 - Prologue
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Seria folded her arms and looked at the cutlery being removed.
It was then.
“Seria! What are you doing right now?”
Seria didn’t turn around, but waited for the owner of the voice to walk up to her. It was not a polite thing to do, but there was no voice to blame. Seria’s character was not too good to be blamed for that.
‘Seria is such an easy-going character, isn’t she? She can just do whatever she wants.’
Seria lifted her gaze as the owner of the voice came forward.
‘They’re finally here.’
It was Cassius and Nissos Kellyden. Cassius kept quiet because he and Seria had already interacted. It wasn’t a good experience whatsoever. Nissos, however, was sarcastic as soon as his gaze met Seria’s.
“You just come home after a long time and immediately start making trouble?”
‘I can’t?’
Seria pointed with her chin at Olivia, who was faltering.
“Olivia was kind enough to tell me to finish my meal alone and leave. So I asked them to put away the extra cutlery.”
“…What?”
“I’m not a maidservant and there’s no reason for me to eat with empty plates on the table.”
“…”
Perhaps they were all smart aristocrats, they understood Seria’s implications. Cassius frowned and looked at Olivia.
“Lady Mensla.”
“That’s not what I meant when I said…!”
“Let’s go out and talk.”
Cassius spoke stiffly. Pale, Olivia walked out of the dining room with him.
‘I kind of wanted to know what they were going to talk about, but oh well…’
There were certainly not a few people here. The nobles stopped eating there and looking this way. It must have been the remaining power in the original Seria’s body that allowed her to say whatever she wanted despite all this attention.
While she was thinking, Seria felt a sudden stare. It was obvious who it belonged to. Nissos Kellyden, Seria’s second brother.
‘What is he staring at? I’m not afraid a bit.’
Nissos’ face was distorted when Seria stared back at him. In the original, his eyes were referred to as angelic sky blue eyes.
“Butler, don’t put them away. Leave it alone.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
The chief butler replied politely and immediately started setting the cutlery on the table again.
‘When I told him to put it away, he said this and that. Isn’t it discrimination?’
Nissos sat down in the seat next to Seria.
“You’re quieter than I thought. After hearing what Olivia Mensla said, I thought you’d be furious and quickly pull down the tablecloth and break all the plates.”
“What do you think I’m up to? Is it because I’m not a good person that Olivia was so mean to me? She must have heard a lot of things here.”
“…What?”
“Everyone here hates me, so I guess she thought she should, too. Is it her fault? No, I’m not going to blame it on her, even if she made a mistake.”
“…”
Nissos looked at Seria in silence.
‘Well, I have no choice, since anything I say would only bring shame to myself. It’s a good thing Seria has a way with words.’
Seria spread the neatly folded napkin and placed it on her lap. She hoped the funeral would be over soon so she could inherit the estate and go back to Berg.
It would be nice to go to the main castle and check out the garden with Linon. She thought about making the green topiary in the shape of a soldier and a rabbit. After that, she would go to the green manor and eat the warm stew and sweet treats that Martha would make for her. Then all her tiredness would go away.
‘I hadn’t noticed it before, but Berg feels like heaven to me.’
A place where that cold man stayed. Suddenly, Seria thought of Lesche, and she almost laughed.
“Do you want me to declare war on the Kellyden?”
‘Perhaps I should ask him how I could declare war on them when I go back.’
“Why are you sulking? It’s annoying.”
Seria frowned at Nissos, who was suddenly picking a fight with her.
‘He’s older than Seria, so why is he being so childish? He even sounded cute when I read the original, but actually, when I became Seria, he just made me angry.’
“Even if you didn’t pick a fight, I’ll still leave right after the funeral.”
“…What?”
“I understand that you don’t want to see me, but I too was told to come by your father, so I had no choice but to come. So would you stop picking a fight?”
Nissos’s blue eyes went wide.
“You… What did you just say to me?”
“Are you deaf? Why can’t you understand what I’m saying at once?”
Despite his feistiness, Nissos didn’t complain any more. As expected, everyone seemed to be quieter if she became rough.
“Ha. Your temper is really ….”
“When will this table be filled?”
She came down early to avoid the nobles, but it was a vain effort.
However, Nissos answered surprisingly honestly.
“Father and mother will be here soon. More nobles have visited us here than we expected. The whole family has come late to greet our guests.”
“The whole family?”
Seria asked back, and Nissos huffed.
“Why? Are you going to take it out on them for not telling you ahead?”
“No way. I know that the Kellyden doesn’t think of me as family. I understand.”
“…?”
Nissos’s face stiffened slightly.
“What is it?”
“What?”
“Why did you change so much?”
“What do you mean, changed? I’ve always been this way. You just didn’t know because you weren’t interested in me.”
Seria had changed completely, by all accounts. She was just trying to cover her true feelings, but surprisingly Nissos was quiet.
‘Isn’t it easy to be quiet?’
It was when some time had passed.
Gradually, more and more people began to arrive in the dining room, and it began to buzz.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Kellyden, the masters of this castle, entered.
It was not a ball, and not everyone who was eating would stop and get up, but all eyes were on them.
Be that as it may, the Marquis and his wife walked over to the top table where Nissos and Seria were sitting. After all, it seemed that the shamelessness to ignore spilled gazes was an essential attribute of high-ranking aristocrats.
“Father, mother. You’re here.”
Nissos, who had been fighting with Seria without rest until just now, greeted them politely. The Marquis just nodded lightly.
The Marquis took the top seat, and his wife took the seat next to him. They all looked exactly the same as they did in Seria’s memory.
‘Cassius looks just like the Marquis.’
Blue hair and blue eyes. Cassius would likely turn into the Marquis when he got older.
There was a fortunate fact in that. When Seria saw the Marquis and his wife, her hands didn’t shake like they had earlier.
‘Why is it that when I saw Cassius, my hands went cold and my whole body froze, but now I have no such reaction? I’m not sure what it is. ….but it seems that something happened between Seria and Cassius.’
Seria pondered over her thoughts. Come to think of it, Seria also saw Cassius at a social party she attended shortly after possessing Seria. Her hands shook too, and she was in a hurry to get away at that time. ….
‘What happened between the two of them?’
It wasn’t known right now. Seria’s memories and feelings remain in the body, and in Cassius’ case, there was only a strange vague sense of anger.
Seria opened her mouth.
“Hello, you two. It’s been a while since I’ve said hello to you.”
They both looked at Seria as she said her greetings, which were polite in her own way. First, she looked at the Marchioness, the hostess of the castle. Although Seria had expected it, the Marchioness had a strange look on her face. She stared at Seria and opened her mouth.
“It’s been a really long time, Seria. Or should I call you Grand Duchess Berg?”
Her voice was faintly sarcastic.
‘Oh, my…Somehow I could understand the Marchioness’s feelings. Suddenly one day, her husband brought his illegitimate child into the family, so of course she would hate Seria.’
However, what she should have done was when she married and had children, she could pass a law that gives the death penalty to anyone who had illegitimate children…..only then would there be no such tragedy in the family.
‘But apart from these ideas, I wasn’t going to just agree with her cold treatment. That was not very Seria-like.’
‘And if you’re going to bully me, I want you to bully the Marquis first, not me.
Me, of all people. They weren’t that scary…..In fact, what was the reason I fell into this novel and bowed so much to Charis?
Wasn’t it because I was certain that he was going to brutally murder me?’
The Marchioness saw my lack of answer and gave a subtle sneer.
“Shall I continue to call you ‘Grand Duchess’ from now on?”
The idea of the implications of her words, the Marquise, was sarcastically suggesting that Seria didn’t become Grand Duchess Berg in the usual way. It was almost as if she foresaw her returning to Seria Stern shortly after her divorce. Seria became serious.
Lesche said that he asked the Marquis to reply to his marriage vow.
‘My relationship with Lesche is strange, but he has treated me well enough as a Grand Duchess during my time in Berg. That’s probably why he even requested a response to our marriage vows, which he didn’t have to.
The Marquis should have accepted the marriage vows, but his attitude of assuming we will divorce with such certainty was not well understood.
Do they really think Seria will get kicked out soon because of her personality?
I understand if that’s the case. Damn it…
I don’t think I’ll live a thousand years with Lesche either. But I believed he would be polite to me until the day we divorce. I helped the green manor, too. Our relationship is not as fragile as others think.’
There was also a trust that came from Lesche from being a reigning monarch whose rewards and punishments were certain.
Seria turned her gaze away for a moment. Then she looked at the Marquis, who had bright blue eyes just like Cassius’s. His gaze was very sharp.
‘Guess who is not in power in the West…I’ll ask him next time.’
There were many other nobles here, so this wasn’t the appropriate place to ask what was bothering her right now.
“Seria.”
Seria raised one eyebrow when she heard the Marchioness calling her name again.