/
“Wow, does that mean you two are my escort guards now?”
I smiled while looking back and forth between Rahu and Taimon.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I feel safe.”
These men did not respond to any of my attempts to improve the atmosphere.
In the end, I decided to get to the point.
“But you two
 Why were you fighting on the roof?”
Taimon flinched at my question.
Rahu frowned even more, as if in a bad mood. He spoke up first.
Of course. He must have felt wronged.
I had a general understanding of the circumstances, so I felt awful for him.
“That is what I want to know since this jerk attacked me for no reason while I was on top of the palace.”
Mm. I had nothing to say. I really tried to act startled so he wouldn’t know I was feeling that way.
Taimon frowned, as if he had been wronged, before opening his mouth.
“His Majesty told me to protect Miss Silver Lily, but there was a suspicious man with a sword on top of Lily Palace, so how could I just stand there and watch that happen? I just followed His Majesty’s command loyally.”
“What’s wrong with that? If you had just asked me, this wouldn’t have happened. Huh? Who was it who came at me with a sword first, without even asking who I was
?!”
“I don’t talk to suspicious people.”
“Just what about me is suspicious?!”
Ah. At this rate, they might go for a second round.
I couldn’t let them go any further, so I stood up.
The gaze of the two knights turned to me.
“I apologize, you two. I was about to officially request for His Majesty to make Sir Rahu my escort guard. It’s understandable for you to misunderstand, Sir Taimon.”
“N-No, Miss Silver Lily.”
“And I should’ve let you know that His Majesty had assigned a separate escort guard to me, Sir Rahu. This is all my mistake!”
I bowed my head.
Then, a brief silence filled the air.
They must not have expected the woman who had received the Emperor’s favor to bow her head like this, because they simply blinked, unable to comprehend the situation.
After a little period of flailing, they both simultaneously dissuaded me.
“N-No! It was my fault
!”
“Yes, I was bad! Get up, Miss Silver Lily!”
Ah. It finally ended.
* * *
“Father!”
Lepea rapidly opened the door to Viscount Melliot’s office.
Viscount Melliot, who was frowning while looking at his papers, put down his papers.
“How noisy. When will you grow up?”
“Father! You must have heard! The rumors about that classless bitch who went in as Queen!”
“Hoo
 Lepea.”
Viscount Melliot’s head throbbed. Even if she was his daughter, she was too stupid and noisy.
He was lucky she had a pretty face and that he could use her for the marriage business; otherwise, he would have gotten rid of her sooner.
“Just what woman is it for her to receive the Emperor’s favor?! Father, you must have seen her at her appointment ceremony. How was she? Pretty?”
She definitely was pretty. However, there was a more important thing.
Because of this, Viscount Melliot was annoyed. Who would have imagined that Duke Valkirino would have such a secret gem?
“Father!”
“Don’t hurry me, Lepea. Your father is thinking.”
“How was she?!”
“She had silver hair and silver eyes. And with a very natural color, too.”
“W-W-What?”
At Viscount Meliot’s words, Lepea’s silver eyes widened.
Although they were silver, the colour wasn’t natural; it was dyed, and as time went on, it returned to the original colour.
Some of the color had already faded, and it had changed into a murky silver.
“N-No way. How could that be?!”
Lepea was screaming that this couldn’t be true, and Viscount Meliot shared their sentiment.
Silver hair and silver eyes were not a common combination.
The de Ach family was most famous for those colors.
It was very rare for nobles to have silver hair and eyes.
“Apparently she is a distant relative of the de Ach family.”
Griiiind.
Lepea was grinding her teeth ferociously.
“That bothersome de Ach family! How dare those meaningless things take my spot!”
Lepea angrily ripped the necklace off her neck, shouting.
Seeing the necklace made of expensive gems disassembled on the floor, Viscount Melliot’s face hardened.
“What were you thinking, Father, to not have dealt with those pathetic things- gasp!”
Lepea, angry as ever, couldn’t help but gasp at the sight of Viscount Melliot’s cold face looking down at her.
Then, she felt chills of fear go down her body.
“Lepea, my daughter.”
“F-Father
 I-I apologize. I was too emotiona-”
At the flooding sensation of fear, Lepea swallowed her anger and began admitting her wrongs.
Slap!
She apologized out of fear, but Viscount Melliot slapped the girl anyhow.
“F-Father
!”
I decorated you so nicely because I thought you would be useful to me. But if you continue to be a piece of garbage who can’t control your emotions like this, I’ll have to throw you away.”
At her father’s cold eyes, Lepea froze.
“It can’t be that you want to return to the basement, can it?”
“I-I was
 I was wrong! Please
!”
“Please become useful, Lepea. I only deal with those who are useful to me.”
The quirks of the Viscount’s lips distorted upwards.
Lepea took a step backwards as she chewed on her lower lip.
As she walked out of the office, her mind was filled with fear and the thought that she couldn’t be thrown away like this.
She couldn’t return to that miserable lifestyle.
“I have to do it
 somehow.”
Anything.
Whatever she could.
* * *
“Hadel. When did you come?”
Whenever I opened my eyes, Hadel was in front of me.
I assumed it would only be while I was sick, but that appears to have been my misjudgment.
Hadel hadn’t been there when I fell asleep last night after I’d sent the two escort guards away, but what did I see when I opened my eyes this morning? Hadel.
“I came at night. You were sleeping, so I didn’t wake you.”
Hadel smiled before raising my hand to his lips.
“Asha. I’m considering moving my bedroom here.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Never mind, I’ll just bring you to the Sun Palace
”
“No, no. Stop. It’s not the time to be thinking that right now.”
I cut off Hadel before he could make things even bigger and got up.
I had to talk to him about the condition of the Head Maid I’d seen yesterday.
And what I’d talked about with Duke Valkirino.
Fortunately, Rahu, the Duke’s inside man, was so on guard against Taimon that he wouldn’t be able to hear what was happening in the bedroom, the most secluded area of Lily Palace..
Speaking as softly as I could, I began to tell him what had happened yesterday.
* * *
Lepea Melliot’s arrival at the Lily Palace occurred immediately after I was finally able to send Hadel, who had refused to leave my side, to the Sun Palace.
“Miss Silver Lily. A lady from the Melliot Viscounty has come
”
This was the report I received from Dovea shortly after finishing lunch and while drinking tea.
However, it was odd to see her pause before telling me.
“A lady from the Melliot Viscounty? But what’s up with your nervous expression?”
“So
”
Dovea was about to open her mouth to speak when

“What are you doing? I’ve arrived, but why aren’t you leading the way and making me wait?”
A woman’s piercing voice rang out through the air.
With that alone, I was able to guess what was going on. She must be a noble lady with a shitty personality.
“Dovea. Guide her to the sitting room for now.”
Argh. I’d wanted some peace and quiet to enjoy my afternoon tea before making some plans for the future.
There go my plans.
A lady from the Melliot Viscounty?
I felt like I’d heard that name somewhere before.
While I’d worked at Count Tremain’s place, I’d heard this was a person the young lady of that family met often.
But did she come from a household with enough power to see the Emperor’s Queen without notice?
I had the register of nobles memorized to an extent.
The Melliot Viscounty was just a regular viscounty until three years ago, when they suddenly began to rise.
The door to the sitting room burst open as I was considering the information I had learned previously.
With that, a tall woman entered.
I could see long winding hair all the way to her waist and a fancy red dress.
But there was something else that drew my attention first.
Her frowning eyes and her luxurious hair. Surprisingly enough, they were of a similar silver as mine.
Of course, the feeling of their colour was slightly different, but she definitely possessed silver hair and silver eyes.
Lepea didn’t greet me as she entered the sitting room, instead widening her eyes.
And through her mouth was a single phrase.
“How
 could this be?”
She, too, must have been surprised, because her lips just floundered apart, as if her world was falling apart.
Wait, this isn’t something to be that surprised over, don’t you think?
tl & pr: youj
Youj: i got covid, which means i can’t go in to my placement/classes, but also means i have more time to translate. hopefully i can get one or two more chapters done before i get too busy. anyway, i still can’t find it within me to feel pity for lepea.