CH 9

(Renée’s POV)

Reden, who opened and entered the door, was dressed in a splendid yet understated outfit, unlike his usual clothes.

A black jacket, gold tassels on both shoulders, and gold decorations are scattered throughout, and a brooch with a Blair pattern is attached to the chest.

Not only that. His hair, which had been swept down roughly, was over half, revealing a straight forehead.

What’s with that outfit?

Then he suddenly talked indifferently.

“Aren’t you throwing things today?”

“Huh?”

“You always threw things looking like you were going to kill me whenever I enter your room.”

“……Ahhh… W-what?”

“Never mind that. Anyways, aren’t you coming?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you pretending as if you don’t know?”

At that moment.

An opaque window appeared in front of my eyes as a familiar sound pierced my ears.

Second Mission of the Day

‘Today is the day of The Knights of the Hugo’s victory celebration banquet! You weren’t invited, but let’s attend!”

Accept / Reject

The Knights of the Hugo? A Celebration banquet?

I blinked my eyes at those two words and slowly opened my mouth.

“You mean, the banquet?”

“See? You’re aware of it.”

“Is this the day of the celebration banquet dedicated to The Knights of Hugo?”

“…. But how did you know that it was for The Knights of the Hugo?”

Regardless of what Reden said or not, I continuously repeated The Knights of the Hugo inside my head over and over again.

The Knights of the Hugo.

The same name that I saw in a report a week ago.

And the banquet…

‘Ah…!’

I finally remembered now, The Knights of the Hugo are the knights that subdue dragons that are dormant or in riot around the world.

Originally, the knights were small in size, but as their power grew and the King began to pay attention to them, it seems to have been explained in the original story that a grand celebration banquet was held in order to make them a member of the royal family.

My gosh, how could I forget about it?

It felt like all the blood in my body had been drained.

The reason is simple.

Because Renée Blair died at that banquet!

‘I just can’t believe that it was today.’

In the novel, Renée seemed to have died while attending a banquet because of this mission.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

‘Well I think it would be okay if I don’t go right?’

I put my finger in front of the rejection button with a hand gesture that Reden would not find strange.

But before I pressed it, Reden suddenly spoke.

“I asked how you now know about The Knights of the Hugo.”

“Why can’t I get to know them?”

“Because you were never interested in their work.”

“Of course, I heard a lot of rumors about them even though I’m not interested. And don’t worry, I’m not going to the banquet.”

Reden looked at me with doubt.

Ugh! I said I wasn’t going but he doesn’t believe me at all.

I slowly sat down at the chair to show that I was not interested in such banquets.

And it seems to be working now.

Then his gaze turned to the papers on my desk and then back to me.

“Stop making trouble.”

“I haven’t been out of trouble lately?”

“And don’t do it to yourself as well.”

His words came in as if flowing.

Surprised by the unexpected words, I opened my eyes wide and looked at him, then Reden continued speaking with an indifferent look on his face.

“Why? You thought that I wouldn’t know?”

“……”

“It’s good that you stopped violence towards others.”

He came to the front of the desk and carefully reached out to touch my cheek.

The coldness from his hand seeped in on the corner of my cheek.

What’s happening now? The moment I inhaled an unknown tension, he clicked his tongue.

“But that doesn’t mean you should attribute the violence to yourself.”

“…….. You said that you wouldn’t worry.”

“If the assailant is none other than yourself, then it’s a different matter. Doing self-harm…..  Something’s wrong with your head.”

Wait. What?

I thought that he was genuinely worried about me, but is it actually just because he thinks that something isn’t right with my head?

I felt embarrassed and shook his hand from my cheek, my reaction gave away my disagreement. At the same time, my hand hit the nearby mission window.

“My head is perfectly fine!”

“Is that so?”

Reden looked away, fiddling with his hand that had been rejected by me. He opened his mouth to refute more and then closed it.

It may be because he had forgotten what he was about to say, since he seemed to have blanked out which showed in his expression before he turned his back.

I don’t know if I’m mistaken….

No, I really must be a mistake.

Because I thought I saw Reden smiling.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Renée’s POV)

If someone asks if Reden was originally a character who smiles well, you can say for sure that he is not.

In the first place, the reason I didn’t like Reden as a candidate for the Male lead role was because he was always blunt.

But that person… Smiled? To his younger sister who gave up just because she seems crazy?

“I may have seen it wrong, yes, that might be it.”

When Reden left and I was left alone inside my room, only then did the existence of the mission come to mind.

Well then, I have to reject it right away.

I hurriedly turned my head to press the reject button, but strangely, I couldn’t see the mission window that should have been in sight.

Huh?

Wait….. Where is it now?

At that moment, something went through my head. That was the moment when I shook off Reden’s hand a little while ago.

At that time, I bumped into the window, but maybe it was pressed then… .?

So what did I press?

If I had pressed the Reject button, the third mission would appear shortly then.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

But if I had pressed the Accept button then…..

“The Mission.”

I dreadfully hope that it’s not what I think it is, and I called the mission window full of anxiety.

Ping.

Mission in Progress .

‘Today is the day of The Knights of the Hugo’s victory celebration banquet! We weren’t invited, but let’s attend!’

Argh! Seriously!

I grabbed my head without realizing it, because of the mission window that showed in front of me.

Can I still cancel it? Can I give up in the middle?

And as I checked there’s no option to cancel it anywhere. In desperation, I covered my face with both hands.

I’m so doomed.

As long as cancellation is not possible, I have no choice but to go to the banquet. But what if I attend it and die just like in the original plot?

No, what if I don’t follow the mission and just stay here in the mansion?

I would definitely get a penalty.

The fact that I accepted the mission seemed to have made me aged like ten years more.

If it weren’t for Reden.

On the other hand, I knew for a fact that Reden wasn’t at fault, I just wanted to blame someone.

“Sigh…”

A desperate exhale came out. Then I turned around and saw the bell in the corner of the desk.

That’s the bell that was used to call the maid.

By the way, I have never used that tool before. But today was different. I needed the strength and skills of the maids right now.

After thinking hard, I grabbed the bell and shook it quickly.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Renée’s POV)

“My lady, getting caught won’t do you any good.”

Catherine, who got out of the carriage and reached out to me while saying that. She didn’t have a good expression as she said so.

It was because I decided to carry out the mission and came to the Imperial Palace involuntarily.

I smiled brightly and took Catherine’s hand before getting off the carriage.

“Don’t worry! I’ll go into the banquet hall for a while and then leave right away.”

“But milady, you cannot enter without an invitation.”

“And I often attended banquets without invitations, right?”

Catherine closed her mouth tightly. Yeah, she can’t argue with that.

“I know what Catherine is worried about. But I assure you that I will attend this banquet and behave myself.”

She had a look of disbelief at my words, still, she let go of her anxiety. At the change, I smiled again and sighed secretly.

Actually, I have no idea what to do.

The fact that I didn’t receive the invitation could be inferred through the mission, but I still don’t know what to do.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

It is none other than a banquet hosted by the Royal family.

But they won’t give an invitation to the Young Lady of the Blair family? Although Renée Blair is a bitch, isn’t she still considered as a high-ranking aristocrat?

‘By any chance, did someone steal it?’

Eventually, after having such funny thoughts, I composed myself.

Was it a problem that I wasn’t invited? But the question now was how to enter the banquet without anyone noticing.

Renée Blair used to show up at banquets and mess it up without receiving any invitation, but I couldn’t do that.

I need to change my reputation and become friends with Anastasia.

Where exactly in the banquet hall did Renée die in the novel?

I became stressed out just by thinking about it. Somehow, I had to break into the banquet hall peacefully while preventing my own death.

After talking for a while to the carriage coachman, Catherine escorted me out.

Due to the eventful and peaceful weeks, Catherine finally opened up her heart a little bit.

Even now, she was holding my hand as she escorted me off the carriage.

Can I see that as a positive change?

Although my reputation is improving at a slow pace, the progress is steady.

Catherine talked to me again..

“My lady, how come you look so pale today?”

“Pale? Oh… I put on a little more makeup to cover up my bruises.”

Handel did a good job in covering it.

As soon as I decided to borrow the maid’s strength and skills and rang the bell, the maids came right away.

Handel, and Laura, whom I had occasional conversation with, and Julie and Lyn, whom I hadn’t talked to but often saw each their faces frequently.

Surprisingly, I couldn’t see the personal maid that was assigned to me. I wonder what she was doing? As I was getting dressed up, I thought of asking them where the hell my personal maid is since I couldn’t see her.

Anyway, Handel, who has recently gotten close to me, asked to help me in preparation for the banquet, and nagged me as she applied powder on my face.

“My Lady…. Why do you keep hitting your cheek? This is so upsetting….”

I don’t want to slap you, Handel.

I almost said those words. But of course, I swallowed them back knowing my logical thoughts.

Anyway, this was the result of Handel’s nagging and powdering my face. I knew that looked unnatural and the maids overdid it, but I had no choice as it was the only way to hide my bruise..

After my recollection, I looked down.

Dress modestly but not shabby.

Among the clothes that Renée Blair had, the mourning clothes were the only ones that were static, so I borrowed some clothes from one of my handmaids named Lyn.

She looked worried that I might rip off her only noble clothes.

I can understand how she felt. I would have thought as well that Renée Blair wouldn’t be able to leave someone else’s clothes unattended.

Well, Lyn’s worries will end in vain.

Because I’m leaving as soon as I enter the banquet hall!

“Catherine, do I look so docile?”

I suddenly asked.

Catherine blinked once before answering carefully.

“You look beautiful.”

“Huh? No… Do I look docile? I don’t care if I look pretty or not.”

“How can I say such a thing?”

“What else can’t you do? Tell me quickly and honestly. It’s useless if I don’t look modest.”

Due to my whining urge, Catherine responded with a rare hesitant expression on her face.

“Apart from being docile, you look quite ill. Because your face is so pale. It seems that you are using a different makeup method than usual, but……”

“Oh, does it look bad? I knew it would look weird, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad.”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“I think other people will be misunderstood if they see you.”

Well, you’re saying I look different from the usual, right? Then that’s okay with me..

When I looked around with peace of mind, there were all kinds of carriages that were parked outside the palace.

One of the people who’s riding from these carriages is the person who’s destined to kill me tonight.

As I took a few steps amid the tension that came again, the splendid garden that I saw on the first day of Bing unfolded in front of my eyes.

Come to think of it, this is the same place where I first met Anastasia.

On that day, when I realized that she was the ‘Anastasia’ that I adore, I was flooded with intense joy. It’s the usual happiness that everyone feels whenever they see their ultimate idol.

As I walked in thoughts, we quickly arrived at the door of the banquet hall.

A guard stood in front of the tightly closed banquet hall door.

‘I have to force myself in.’

Looking at it with a hopeless feeling, I saw a familiar hair color among the guards.

Her silver hair glistened like the moonlight as it was reflected in the sunlight. Standing in a noble position, as she raised her eyes as she chuckled.

Then our eyes met, her golden eyes shook. As if she was surprised that I would be here.

“Hello, Anastasia….”

Yes, it was Anastasia.