/
I raised my fork again, cherry tomato and all, and brought it to my lips. I chewed the food carefully—thinking of a good answer equally as carefully.
I can naturally postpone my answer if I keep my mouth full like this.
However, at that moment.
Crunch.
The round, firm cherry tomato slipped between my teeth, and instead of chewing on that, my molars bit down on the inside of my cheek.
‘What the heck, isn’t this crazy?!’
At that very instance, a sharp bolt of pain absolutely arrested me.
The pain brought me to tears.
“
If it’s difficult for you to talk about it, then it’s alright for you to say nothing. What’s the point of going as far as crying.”
My cheek was in such stinging pain right now, yet I couldn’t even let out a groan. Nonetheless, the duke hurriedly held out a handkerchief after saying that.
‘Hah? Aren’t you misunderstanding something
’
But whatever. There’s no need to sweat the details.
I just thought that I’ll fix this situation later, so I simply nodded and accepted the handkerchief.
“Well, I can approximately guess why you’ve given up, but, ku-hum, hm.”
I couldn’t hear what he murmured afterwards because I was already so out of it.
* * *
A few days later, daytime—
It’s the day when the new theology teacher was scheduled to come.
‘Good. I’ll definitely show the image of a model student this time.’
While inwardly vowing this, Mary spoke up as she was fixing my hair.
“Milady, what kind of hair accessory would you like to wear today?”
“Accessory?”
“Yes.”
Answering promptly, Mary showed the hair accessories that had been prepared.
And as I was faced with the rows upon rows of hair accessories, I had no choice but to doubt my eyes.
“We had
 all this here at home?”
“Ah, Milady normally chooses one that you’d like, but are these no good?”
It’s not that they’re no good, but weren’t all these too fancy-looking?
All of the accessories here in a row were just for the hair.
Gemstones, ribbons, flowers and more. First of all, it’s as if they went over a checklist of anything and everything that could be used as an accessory.
Right then, Jane came back from the closet, so many clothes in tow.
She rolled over an entire rack that was jam-packed with dresses.
“Milady, which dress would you like to wear today?” Jane asked proudly.
Yet again, I could do nothing but doubt my eyes.
Those dresses were as fancy as those hair accessories.
‘What the heck is wrong with everyone.’
Was this some kind of high-level prank or what.
If that’s the case, then everyone’s so good at it.
“What’s wrong, Milady? Do you not like any of the dresses? Oh, should I go and get more colorful ones?”
There were even fancier ones?
Snapping out of my reverie, I quickly shook my head and replied.
“No, you don’t have to. Rather than that, I think these are too flashy already.”
“But today is the day that Milady’s new teacher comes
”
“And what about it
?”
As I tilted my head to the side, perplexed, I belatedly realized why these two were doing this.
‘Ah, Roella’s intimidation tactic.’
The same moment I realized this, my head started to throb.
That’s right.
In the past, whenever a new theology teacher would come, Roella would try to scare them away.
And the first step to this tactic was to ‘get all dolled up before going to class’.
That’s the explanation behind all these flashy clothes and accessories.
‘But what was she thinking with that intimidation tactic?’
Truthfully, Roella earnestly tried to present herself as an ‘idiot who’s not a pushover’ from the get-go.
Nothing more, nothing less.
I looked back at this dark history. Though it wasn’t mine, its consequences were mine to bear.
I pursed my lips and smiled.
“Right, that’s what I did. I forgot for a moment.”
“Then, Milady, your dress
”
“Please prepare a dress that’s as normal as possible. As you all know, I’ve taken an interest in being frugal and spending as little as I can these days.”
As I answered with a strained smile, my teeth clenched together the entire time, the other two glanced at me sentimentally.
“Milady
”
Look at this. Again, again.
Since I’m somewhat used to it now, I just went with the flow and put on a sad expression as well.
Two out of three people in this room were feeling sentimental, so I inevitably decided to follow the majority.
‘If the entire world’s crazy while I’m not crazy, then I’d nonetheless be the crazy person anyhow.’
In such a sentimental atmosphere, I chose a new dress and finished getting ready.
Before I knew it, it was almost time for class.
With my books and writing instruments in my arms, I headed towards the library.
“Hmm, there’s more time left than I expected.”
There was still a considerable amount of free time left.
Actually, I didn’t really need to come out this early. I just left my room a little early to escape that weird sentimental vibe.
After checking the time, I gradually slowed down my steps.
‘By the way, who’s going to be my new teacher?’
I tried to recall for a moment, thinking that it might have been described in the original novel. No one came to mind though.
Indeed, the villainess’ side hadn’t been described in detail.
‘Eh, I guess I’ll know ‘em when I see ‘em.’
Nodding to myself, I continued walking.
However, I had to stop in the middle.
Somewhere, I could hear the glug, glug, glug of running water.