“Lady Elisabetta, you are beautiful as always.”
“You flatter me. You are beautifully dressed as well, my lady.”
Several children who looked around my age were gathered in the drawing room.
“Lucy!”
One of the noble young ladies who had been chatting cheerfully spotted me and greeted me with delight.
Elisabetta Frontal.
She was the daughter of House Frontal, a comital house that operated a major trading company in the North, and Luciana’s childhood friend who had defended her to the very end in the original story.
And now, she had latched onto me.
Yes, me—not the Luciana she adored.
‘My stomach hurts….’
It was something I had brought upon myself, but all I could do was sigh.
The Human-Skin Mask.
The tool favored by criminals in the West to conceal their identities was flawless in its performance.
With a phantom thief’s disguise technique layered on top of it to alter my voice and build as well, the deception was utterly convincing.
Pressed close to me, Elisabetta chirped like a lark.
What would happen if she learned that the Luciana she was affectionately seeking was merely a man wearing a Human-Skin Mask, humoring the duke’s daughter’s whim?
-Tsk. I entrusted it to you, and you were useless.
-You ignored my advice again and did as Lady Luciana wished. Given the gravity of the matter, I will have to report this to Duke Speda.
-I am sorry, but you are dismissed.
The imagined voices alone sent a chill down my spine.
“Let go, Liza.”
“But it’s been so long! I missed you!”
Despite my cold tone, she paid it no mind and linked arms with me as if to flaunt our closeness.
“Right, I heard about your coming-of-age ceremony. You caught a Diawolf? That’s incredible!”
How would Luciana have answered that?
Although she was breaking the rules at the moment, she was still someone with a strong sense of loyalty and belonging to her house….
“It is nothing. As a member of House Speda, it was only natural that I accomplished it.”
Fortunately, the answer I made up did not make her suspicious. She immediately turned and led me toward the group she had been speaking with.
Words poured forth. Matching Luciana’s usual reticence, I kept the conversation going by nodding or offering brief replies.
I only needed to endure another couple of hours until the social gathering ended.
“…Everyone is lavishing you with praise. I still do not understand it.”
However, nothing in life ever went quite as expected.
For some reason, a man rose abruptly from the table across from us. He stood a full head taller than his peers.
I knew who he was as well.
-Dmitri Valtrion. He is the person you must be most wary of.
He was the very person Luciana had mentioned before the disguise, the one she had said she could not stand the sight of.
Like Elisabetta, he was the scion of House Valtrion, another comital house with great influence in the North.
I searched through my memories.
-Whether in the North or any other region, there are two factions. The Imperial Faction respects the authority of the center, while the Noble Faction places importance on the interests of individuals and houses.
I recalled what I had heard during my training with Yegor. Since House Speda was engaged to the Crown Prince, it could be considered part of the Imperial Faction.
Conversely, House Valtrion belonged to the Noble Faction. Though its title was lower than House Speda’s, it was one of the few houses that could openly check House Speda.
“Whether that could truly be called a coming-of-age ceremony.”
His sharp gaze was fixed directly on me.
‘Right. This is why Luciana dreaded gatherings like this.’
They called it a social gathering, but this place was a battlefield of tongues where nobles’ schemes and stratagems ran rampant.
Even the future Luciana I had seen through the screen, though she rarely showed it, did not particularly welcome occasions where nobles gathered.
It was the same now. Great achievements always drew envy and jealousy.
Hunting a Diawolf, notorious as one of the Three Great Monsters of the North, during her coming-of-age ceremony was certainly an accomplishment to be celebrated, but the Noble Faction could not have found it welcome news.
“What are you trying to say?”
Elisabetta grew angry in my stead, while he spoke as though it were nothing of consequence.
“A good question, Frontal. A coming-of-age ceremony is a sacred rite that a Northern noble must bear alone. It is worth examining whether her achievement, made while accompanied by soldiers, truly belongs to her alone.”
One obstacle followed another.
No sooner had I made it through her childhood friend’s greeting than I had to fend off a rival’s challenge.
From the standpoint of his Noble Faction, it was only natural that he would try to undermine Luciana’s achievement as much as possible.
After considering it for a moment, I spoke.
“How unpleasant. If you have been invited to our house, observe at least the most basic courtesy. I would appreciate it if you refrained from displaying your inferiority here, Dmitri Valtrion.”
‘This is when Luciana would surely step forward without hesitation.’
She would not remain still after having herself and her house insulted.
“Inferiority?!”
“Of course. A Diawolf is more valuable prey than whatever you hunted at your coming-of-age ceremony.”
I remembered Yegor’s admiration, along with his praise that it was the first occurrence in decades.
I did not know what that bastard Dmitri had hunted, but it could not have been more impressive than Luciana’s.
“You should acknowledge your defeat and keep quiet.”
With a lady’s tool, a fan, I lightly covered my mouth and turned to the side.
The meaning was simple.
-You are not worth speaking to.
Openly mocking someone was not noble-like. Their language was to convey it indirectly, showing it while not quite showing it.
Even then, I could not help but admire it.
I had thought the shimmering feathers of the fan were unusual, and they were. They were tail feathers from a multicolored peacock in the southern jungle.
It was like holding an entire manor in my hand.
“…Your excuses are so feeble that you are changing the subject.”
The mood among the noble children murmuring around us was not particularly favorable toward Dmitri.
To turn that around, he was trying his hardest.
“The prey itself is not what matters. Do you not feel even a shred of guilt for receiving others’ help during a sacred coming-of-age ceremony and defiling its purpose?!”
Those who had begun to be persuaded started murmuring again.
‘He is getting overly emotional.’
I watched him with furrowed brows.
Though they belonged to different factions, he was still a Northern noble.
It seemed that being publicly branded a loser over his coming-of-age prey had wounded his pride.
‘Still, setting his emotions aside, that is a rather sharp point.’
It was a great achievement, but there was no irrefutable evidence, such as a recording crystal ball.
Moreover, everyone already knew that House Speda had set out with soldiers on the day of the coming-of-age ceremony.
No matter what I said, it would become a tedious exchange.
“Why are you not answering? Do you, too, have enough conscience as a noble to be ashamed of making excuses?”
“Ridiculous. I was merely going to ignore you because I thought you were not worth dealing with. But I will humor you this once. What do you want? Will you be satisfied if I show you proof?”
“Ha! I do not know how trustworthy the evidence you offer will be, but judging it will be entertaining enough.”
Dmitri wore a broad smile.
He was shamelessly obvious about his intention to find fault with anything I produced.
“Wait a moment. I will bring the proof you have been clamoring for.”
After easing out of Elisabetta’s grasp, I rose from my seat and headed for the door.
Every gaze that met mine wavered with a mixture of doubt and belief.
‘Why is there no quest at a time like this?’
If one appeared, that would be sweet as hell.
I forced down the corners of my mouth that were trying to curl upward.
Imagining myself snickering with Luciana’s face made it easy to regain my composure.
Incitement had to be answered with incitement.
The Korean virtue was to answer sensational information with something even more sensational—keyboard brawling… no, a Korean virtue.
“Look at this.”
When I returned to the drawing room, I held a small bundle of snowy-white fur in my arms.
“…I wondered what you had gone to fetch, only for you to bring a pet and insist that it is proof?”
“Tsk. You are making it obvious how inexperienced you are. Do you still not understand?”
I clicked my tongue and held Fride up high for everyone in the drawing room to see.
“It is a Diawolf pup. It is my hunting dog, one I could never have brought back alive if the Head Attendant and knights, who place such importance on regulations, had seen it.”
I did not know whether the knights of House Speda truly put regulations first.
And even if they did, I did not know whether they would insist on their own judgment even against the duke’s daughter’s will.
However, before something that would capture their attention at once—a Diawolf pup—such trivial concerns were of little importance.
The way they received it differed completely.
“A Diawolf pup?”
“Oho. I have seen wolf pups before, but never a Diawolf.”
There was simple curiosity.
“Is that not dangerous?”
“How could they think of bringing one of the Three Great Monsters of the North into the castle…?”
There was fear and astonishment as well. What a diverse array of people.
No one doubted that it was a Diawolf pup. Its distinctive, jewel-like white fur, tinged with silver beneath the chandelier, was enough for anyone to recognize it.
“…Can that truly be considered proof?!”
“I went as far as to accommodate you, and yet you are remarkably narrow-minded.”
Even now, Dmitri could not let go of his obsession with challenging Luciana, blinded by it alone.
In truth, he had not said anything particularly wrong. It was only circumstantial evidence, never conclusive proof.
‘But after even drawing the attention of your own faction away, you should not say something like that alone without reading the room.’
“I have given you proof as you wished. Yet what more could you want?”
There was a time for challenges as well.
When they went too far, they were bound to provoke a backlash.
Furthermore, the Luciana I had watched through the screen would never have overlooked this opening, driving him into a corner without mercy. No one could match her intuition.
“To me, you look like nothing more than someone stirring up discord through heedless criticism born of jealousy.”
“Th-That is not true! I only sought to uncover the truth!”
Even so, the gazes around him remained extremely cold.
“Let us concede a hundred times that you are right. What can you do about it?”
SNAP!
I folded the fan and revealed my bare face. I narrowed my brows slightly, making my anger plain.
“You are merely the heir to a count’s title, and you have not even inherited it yet. How could someone like you possibly affect an achievement of mine that House Speda has officially announced?”
“……”
“You cannot even lodge a proper protest, house against house. The best you can do is spread flimsy rumors at a social gathering like this. How laughable.”
At the end, I easily pressed him down with authority.
A ducal house was not a ducal house for nothing. There was no reason not to use the backing of the most influential nobles in the North.
“I do not even wish to see the sight of you any longer. If you have a complaint, prove it by the sacred method you were clamoring for. If you have no intention of dueling, know your place and get out.”
Dmitri’s choices were obvious. As a leading figure of the Noble Faction, admitting he was wrong would cost him far too much face.
But a duel over something like this?
“…Excuse me.”
He could only rise from his seat and leave without another word.
Elisabetta, who came up beside me, let out a breath of admiration. The other young ladies who had quietly followed her did the same.
“Wow…. Lucy, that was amazing! To make that musclebound slickster retreat on his own. I thought you would ignore him as usual.”
“Until now, I have done so for the harmony of all Northern nobles, but this time he went too far. I merely pressed him a little.”
“By the way, can I pet it?”
“Do as you please. But Fride may be startled, so refrain from petting it too roughly.”
Once Dmitri left, the tense atmosphere from earlier vanished as if it had been a lie, and the social gathering truly became a social gathering in the purest sense.
“Aah! So cute!”
“Even fearsome Diawolves have a pup stage like this….”
They were children who had not even reached adulthood yet. Regardless of whether they were Imperial Faction or Noble Faction, they could not help but adore something cute, like a puppy or kitten.
It was somewhat noisy, but I endured it generously.
Fride had also taken the attention directed at me, so all I had to do now was remain quiet in keeping with my persona, then leave.
After all, my goal was only compensation for this overtime work.
[Quest Conditions Complete]
[Luciana’s Affection has been updated.]
[Target Exceeded]
[NPC ‘Luciana Speda’ — Current Psychological State additionally unlocked.]
As I left Fride among them and enjoyed a moment of leisure, the System announced the quest’s completion.
Along with an unexpected bonus.