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New Hierarchy (4)
She’d been a maid who worked for her second husband’s family. Lily was certain. And now, she was a classy prostitute under the Isles’ employ.
Why are you two here, and at the same time…?
Hans hastily stopped Lily from following her unconsciously “Wow, it’s too dangerous here. Madam. We might die.”
Lily hurriedly looked over Hans’s shoulder, but they had already disappeared. “Hans. Did you see the same thing as me?  What the hell….”
He was strangely impatient, as if on the verge of being discovered doing something immoral. “That, um. Prostitution is… Do you think it is difficult to eradicate? The lord punishes people who commit those crimes as much as he can, and that’s….” he stuttered, rolling his awkward gaze to and fro. “I’ll take care of it with the magistrate, uh… How about you leave now?”
Hans’s lowered voice awakened Lily.
[The lord slices their heads himself.]
Lily shuddered at the thought of their heads hanging on the outer wall of Cadis.
Don’t panic. The first thing to do is to understand the situation and how it came to be.
“Okay. I will meet the chief security officer in person. We meet later at the fortress…”
“N-no. I will do it. Therefore….”
A huge shadow fell on them as they engaged in a strange quarrel. The two looked at each other in amazement at the same time.
The man with gloomy eyes looked at Lily. It was the chief of security. “If you are thinking of entering this alley, please reconsider. It’s too dangerous. Madam.”
Lily nodded slightly.
This was not a story worth talking about here.
“Yes. I was just about to go back. Then…”
“Sister Lily!” An unwelcome, cheerful voice pierced through the barely-quiet air.
Dandelion’s milky-silver curls, visible from the boulevard staring at them, reflected the shimmering sunlight. He had come out to the grocery store, and there was a long baguette stuck in a paper bag.
“Isn’t that my sister? It’s my sister’s voice!”
Cadis security guards and Hans, who hid themselves everywhere, spit out sighs at the same time.
Dandelion was putting a band-aid on his red, swollen cheeks, and that figure drew more attention.
The crowd passing by the boulevard slowly stopped and murmured.
“Hey, isn’t that the duchess’ brother? The one who goes all over the place.”
“He must have injured his face. What’s going on?  Shall we go and ask? If you ask me, I don’t think he will answer anything.”
“By the way, didn’t you just call her sister? After all, the lady over there…”
Cold sweat ran down Lily’s back as she turned her back on the side road.
At that moment, a wind so loud that it hurt her ears shook Lily’s hood. Brilliant silver hair flew like a waterfall of starlight. The voice that sounded like a swarm slowly subsided.
“Green eyes, silver hair…”
The clear sunlight that embraced her particularly lit up around her.
Perfectly tousled hair and eyes filled with the color of freshly sprouted buds. Her cheeks blushed peach due to the cold.
They had hallucinations that her shabby gray robes looked like satin cloth. Even the bare leather shoes looked shiny like velvet.
An eternity of silence passed in the wide alley.
Thoughts bounced countless times in Lily’s head. In the meantime, trying to hide her nervousness, she swallowed her dry saliva and struggled to calm herself.
Don’t panic. Now, if you make a mistake like that… But, I guess it’s too late to turn around now…?
The security chief, who was observing the atmosphere, took off the mask that covered half of his face as if he had no choice but to do so.
“That’s Duchess de Winter. Show your respect.” Through the quiet alley where even the sound of rolling dust could be heard, the magistrate’s low command rang out.
As if waiting, the crowd on the boulevard began to kneel.
Even the person at the far end of the square slowly lowered their body . Thousands of people were performing at the same time, and there was a loud swaying sound.
“We greet the Duchess.”
Commoners knelt, and those who held even small positions bowed their body.
The security guards who wore robes and hid themselves everywhere, and Hans who stood next to her.
She straightened her back as she was to the noblest woman in Arcadia.
There was only one person who was stuck in the ground upright.
Dandelion was enchanted like an idiot seeing the sight for the first time.
“Sister. This….”
The crowds all the way to the entrance to the round square kneel for only his one sister.
A paper bag slipped from his weak hand. With a rumble, bread and fruit were spread across the boulevard.
The bright red apple rolled over and stopped at Lily’s feet.
Using that feeling as a signal, Lily slowly looked around the street.
There were many faces.
An old man in a cylindrical fur hat, a woman with a baguette over her shoulder in her paper bag. A girl with freckles sniffing her nose while holding her mother’s skirt.
The people she has to take care of, only facing her within close proximity.
Lily opened her mouth to them.
A clean and elegant voice resounded quietly in the wide alley.