Chapter 10. A New Meeting, Part II

‘It was thanks to you that I was able to see Mielle’s distorted face.’

The little girl’s joyful smile was enough to make Sarah blush.

If Aria had just been a cute child in the past, she was now a little girl of elegance and grace. She had become very dignified, and all of that had happened within a few months.

Sarah, who stared briefly at Aria drinking tea gracefully, asked again about a subject she had mentioned previously, “I’m planning to host a tea party in a few days. It’ll be a very small tea party where only my acquaintances will be invited.”

“I see.”

“My father received a valuable tea set as a present and gave it to me.” Sarah smiled softly as she continued, “So, if Miss Aria were to be free, why don’t you come and participate?”

Aria pretended to be surprised and opened her eyes wide.

“How could I?” Aria covered her mouth with both hands and shook her head, causing Sarah to try and persuade the little, poor Aria by saying that she was more than qualified.

“I want to boast about the lovely Miss Aria to my acquaintances.”

Aria knew why Sarah was so insistent on having her come to the tea party. It was probably due to all of the baseless rumors that had spread, which she knew very well since they were rumors that had accompanied her in the past and up to now.

The whore’s daughter was so jealous of the count’s daughter, and she was behaving evilly every day. She smelled bad and had the bad temper of her mother. That thief-like bitch was trying to ruin the family of Count Roscent. Due to those reasons, poor Mielle would spend her nights in tears.

Those were the rumors. In fact, they had been close to reality since that had been her condition before she had returned to the past.

Except for the part about Mielle, Aria couldn’t deny any of the other rumors. Since all of those were acts that only the witch who had pushed Mielle down the stairs and put poison in her tea could do.

Now, she had no intention of committing such acts of first-degree evil, not unless she were to pretend to be noble and honorable on the outside while using underhanded methods like Mielle. No, she meant to do it, but it was necessary that she put those rumors to rest at this point, before the evil woman wearing the saint’s mask could inflate the rumors any further.

“Well… It’s a bit embarrassing, but can I join?”

Sarah rejoiced at Aria’s shy reply, and her cheeks blushed. In fact, it wasn’t necessary for her to participate in Sarah’s tea party to quell the rumors since Sarah’s personal connections weren’t much to look at, nor did her acquaintances have much influence to begin with.

However, it was better to make a lot of good memories with Sarah before she became the marquise since she needed to be much closer to her. She was also curious about how young noble ladies played.

“Of course! I’m certain that everyone will sincerely welcome the pretty Lady Aria.”

“Thank you, Lady Sarah.”

Sarah, thinking that she should start introducing her new friend to the other young ladies, went back flushed with excitement.

‘How could she be so kind and naive? There is a degree to what one could believe. “There is no smoke without fire.”‘

Sarah was completely denying the rumors and entirely believing Aria herself.

‘It is questionable whether Sarah will be able to retain the seat of the Marquise in the future. Of course, she has become very easy prey for me.’

Aria had to purchase a new dress in order to attend Sarah’s tea party. She had plenty of dresses, but they were all colorful and childish. The colorful dresses with huge ribbons looked more like a doll’s clothes than proper dresses. She started to have cold sweats as she confronted her past preferences.

“… Why on Earth did they make such dresses?”

If they hadn’t made them, she would not have bought them. They were so childish that she wanted to burn them all.

It wasn’t just the dresses, but all of her clothes. She hadn’t realized it since her dressing gowns weren’t very adorned, but she noticed that she had picked out some very strange clothes after recollecting her memories. Of course, she still understood why she had chosen those clothes with so many colors and strange decorations on them. The more colors and decorations that they had had, the more satisfaction she had felt.

When she had lived as a commoner, she had had to wear the same clothes for months or even years since she had had no money. Therefore, all of the colors faded, and the patterns were unthinkably dull. So, when she was able, she ended up choosing clothes that were so dazzling that they would hurt her eyes.

‘I can’t wait to get these out of my sight. I’m having a headache just looking at them.’

Aria called for her maid, Jessie, and ordered her to throw all of those clothes away. Jessie also seemed to think that they should be thrown out, so she took all of the clothes out of the dressing room without a word.

Since the pile of clothes was too large for her to move it all by herself, she brought a large cart and took it all out that way. Jessie emptied the dressing room and reported that she had completed Aria’s previous orders before leaving the room.

“Really?! Do you mean to say that the hourglass has been fixed whole?”

“Yes, shall I go and bring it over?”

It was the broken hourglass that she had found beside her bed on the first day of her return.

Aria had picked up all the pieces of the hourglass and ordered Jessie to fix it. Fortunately, it hadn’t broken into too many pieces, so she had received word that it would take some time, but that it was definitely possible to fix it, and at last, it seemed to have been fixed.

It was definitely not an ordinary hourglass. It could be that all of its power was spent on reverting Aria’s time, but it was a precious hourglass that had allowed her to start her life anew, so she wanted to keep it intact.

“No, I want to go out and buy a dress anyway, so I’ll go and see it myself. Get ready.”

Besides, she had to deal with it carefully since she was unaware of what might happen if it were to break again. For that reason, she felt more comfortable getting it herself. When Aria urged her to hurry and prepare to go out, Jessie bowed her head somewhat regretfully.

“Miss. Well, I…”

But Aria sent her a gaze asking why she was still lingering by the door and not acting on her instruction. Aria was different now, but not long ago, it was Jessie who had suffered and been humiliated the most by Aria’s wickedness, and that was the reason why Jessie was hesitant and still afraid to speak up.

With this, Aria smiled and reassured her not to be afraid, so Jessie reminded that the lady she served had recently changed and said cautiously, “If you throw all of those clothes out, you won’t have any outdoor clothes… and the one-piece dress worn indoors is not suitable for going out…”

For commoners, those indoor clothes might all be grand, valuable ones, but for the nobility, things were different. It was strictly taught that she needed to wear different clothes for indoors and outdoors, and if she were to head out in the middle of a day while accidentally wearing an indoor dress, it would cause rumors of her shamelessness to spread quickly. As she clicked her tongue, Aria thought that it was a really annoying world.

‘What shall I do?’ Aria realized that the dresses that she had were no longer beautiful, and she had no confidence walking around downtown with those clothes.

After pondering for a minute, she looked for a way to not wear those dresses or be humiliated. And then suddenly, an idea came to mind.

‘Ah, yes! There’s that!’

There was a way. In the mansion, there were plenty of beautiful and luxurious clothes suitable for going out without her having to buy new ones. Not only that, it was obvious that the sizes would fit perfectly.