Filina, who was quietly sipping tea in her bedroom, had to take tiresome steps at the loud call.
As she walked down the long corridor and down the stairs, she saw the servants and maids gathered in front of the door.
“What’s going on?”
As Filina approached, the noisy crowd parted.
Then she saw Amy and Ariel talking to each other, looking at the basket of flowers on the table.
“What are the flowers for?”
She asked with a curious look as she approached Amy, and Amy held out the card from the flower basket to Filina.
“You took the man your mother introduced to your sister?”
Amy said pathetically and shook her head.
Then she gently stroked Ariel’s creamy hair, who was slumped down next to her with a sullen face.
“You don’t have to be disappointed by this, Ariel. Eddie is not the only man out there. I will introduce you to a better man at the next party.”
“Mother…. Lord Eddie looks better with sister then with me.”
Ariel smiled with an angelic face, her white cheeks flushed red.
Filina, who had been staring blankly at the scene, turned and read the card Amy gave her.
[I still remember your ruby jewel-like eyes. I’m sending you these flowers in anticipation of our next meeting. Eddie.]
It was from the son of Marquis Edwards who first spoke to Filina at the banquet.
She held up a basket of flowers on the table.
There were only all kinds of red flowers.
“It’s tacky.”
The servants and maids who had been watching her opened their mouths at Filina’s casual comment.
“Any other Young Ladies would have accepted the basket of flowers and blushed, calling it romantic.”
But with an indifferent expression, Filina turned away and called for the nearest servant. She held out the flower basket and said with a cold voice.
“Send it back.”
A puzzled look came over the servant’s face.
Everyone was staring at Filina with surprised faces.
Lord Eddie was not only young, but also good looking, so he was well-known among the noble young children.
“He might be young and doesn’t have much of a masculine vibe now, but surely if he matures later, people will fight to marry him. Our Young Lady will have a hard time.”
Various words were exchanged between the servants.
How could she send back a present? It clearly meant to reject him. It would be better not to respond at all.
If she were to change her mind later, she could say that she forgot to reply.
Amy, who was watching her from the side, snorted and spat out bluntly.
“Because you’re so arrogant, you haven’t been able to entice the Crown Prince yet.”
Amy, who had been trying so hard to force Filina to be with Prince Ian since she was a little girl, looked at her with a look of discontent.
Filina, who was facing her mother with such a calm face, turned her face away from the glancing gaze she felt.
Ariel was staring at her with sparkling eyes.
Filina folded her eyes, smiled prettily, and held out the flower basket to Ariel.
“Would you like it?”
“……What?”
“I think you’ve been wanting it for a while now.”
Filina said, forcing it into Ariel’s chest and quickly turning around.
Ariel’s eyes sank dry as she inadvertently received the basket of flowers. The smell of flowers hovering around the tip of the nose was very fragrant, but the things abandoned by the owner were just trash. In the end, it was like disposing of garbage to Ariel.
“What is with that temper?”
Amy frowned as she looked at the already vanished back of Filina. However, Ariel wasn’t aware that she, herself, had naturally raised her lips to a faint smile as Filina moved away.
The servants and maids who had gathered in the doorway slowly dispersed. Ariel was the only one left in the empty place.
***
An invitation arrived from Cecilia to have tea time.
Filina still hadn’t had a proper conversation with her.
She had met Cecilia so many times in her previous life, but now she was barely at the beginning of the novel.
Therefore, it was only right that the meeting with Cecilia should not take place unless it was a special occasion.
In the original story, Celilia did not ask Filina to have tea time with her.
Rather, Filina invited Cecilia to teatime to annoy her.
The story went awry anyway. The first time she noticed it was when she overheard the conversation between Crown Prince Ian and Cecilia.
“The successor does not have to be your child.”
There should have been no such content in the scene seen in the garden. Before, she thought everything was going well with the novel, but she felt like she was hit by a strange bolt of lightning. She got goosebumps on her arms when Ian brought her lost rose corsage to his lips.
So she ran away from there, and it was only a few days ago………..
Perhaps Cecilia’s invitation to her was prompted by a curious encounter she had run into while leaving the banquet hall.
There was no particular reason to refuse her invitation.
The more she got on bad terms with the female protagonist, the more the damage was done to Filina.
*At the meeting*
“My Lady, what is that on your wrist?”
Cecilia’s green eyes reached for Filina’s slender wrist. It was wrapped round with a gray bandage that somehow seemed to have weight to it.
“I’ve been exercising a lot lately.”
Filina smiled and opened her mouth.
Cecilia tilted her head curiously, as if she did not understand what Filina was saying.
These days, when Filina woke up in the morning, she changed into comfortable clothes and started her physical training.
She strapped her homemade sand bags to her arms and legs and endured the practice.
“Lady Debussy is very different from what I thought.”
Cecilia cut a piece of pie from her plate into a suitable size and then brought it to her mouth. The white whipped cream on the pie sticking to the side of her lips.
“Really?”
Filina took a napkin from one side of the table and held it out to Cecilia.
When she finally noticed the cream on her lips, she blushed a little in embarrassment.