(tl/n: The novel seems to stick mainly to 3rd person pov, so it’ll be like that unless mentioned otherwise.)

After Jenny was crying and running away, Sophia went out in search of her stepmother, the Countess.

The mansion had several buildings for the Countess.

Manicured gardens, exotic trees, ornate buildings, shiny roofs, gold ornaments.

‘To give her daughter an annex attic in such a spacious place.’

Sophia looked around the mansion as if she was displeased. She, who was not yet familiar with the geography of the mansion, entered the large building in the middle.

As Sophia swung the main building door wide open, she caught the attention of those in the lobby.

A reaction as if a pierrot doll had jumped out of the surprise box.

However, the surprise in their eyes soon disappeared and there was annoyance.

“What are you doing here?”

A maid frowned at her like a worm.

But Sophia didn’t mind her cold attitude and asked.

“Mother, where are you?”

“Mother? Your mother is dead, isn’t she?”

There was a clear light of contempt in the eyes of the maids. But even this was such a common development that Sophia was not impressed.

“Not my deceased mother, but the current Countess.”

“Hey..”

“Sophia!”

Then a sharp voice was heard from behind.

At the same time, the maids, who were standing with equal momentum, lined up against the wall and bowed their heads.

That alone gave me a sense of who the new person was.

‘The appearance of Lucifer in Satan’s mansion..’

Recalling a famous line from a certain drama, Sophia looked back. A gorgeous dress with rose-red hair and golden-yellow colors. She was a beautiful woman in her early to mid thirties.

‘That is Countess Rubisella Frauss.’

The stepmother Jenny spoke of.

And according to the diary, she was the one who kicked Sophia into the attic.

If she hadn’t raised her eyebrows and stared at Sophia, she would have admired her amazing beauty.

While Sophia was admiring the Countess whom she had never seen before, Jenny was behind her.

‘Did you tell her?”

A somewhat unemotional gaze on cheeks full of dissatisfaction.

‘I don’t like a tattletale, but thanks to you, it saved me a lot of trouble.’

She found the Countess without having to run through this huge mansion.

While Sophia was immersed in her thoughts, the Countess opened her red lips.

“Aren’t you too sick to be walking around well?”

Rubisella, the Countess, approached with a proud step. She had her long eyelashes down.

Wearing high heels, she was a little taller than Sophia.

“Did you pour soup on Jenny?”

“It was more of a food waste than a soup.”

“Food waste? Are you talking about my kindness in that way?”

“Kindness.. I think the word is wrong. It would be better if you correct it as ‘f*ck you’.”

Rubisella’s lips trembled at Sophia’s profanity.

“And it is true that I was sick. How could a human body be healthy if that’s the type of food being eaten?”

“What?!”

“Ah, mixing bugs with soup is something that would never happen in this elegant mansion. Isn’t that right?”

Sophia said lamentably.

“Anyone who tarnishes the name of the family in a senseless way should be punished. Maybe you brought Jenny here with the intention of scolding her?”

Sophia went on to say something brazen. Then she wrinkled the face of the elegant and beautiful lady.

“How dare you..”

Ah, that ‘how dare you;.

Sophia looked at the contorted countess’ face and took a deep breath as if it was bothersome.

The pattern of the villain in the beginning is obvious.

“Aren’t you going to slap me on the cheek in the name of education?”

Sophia’s gaze was on the hand of the Countess.

Then her hand, which was about to raise, twitched and stopped.

‘The villains..’

Sophia shook her head.

She could see the Countess’ hands trembling. She felt helpless when her only way to express her anger was blocked.

Sophia, who moderately pressed her, came up with the subject again.

She had another reason to come to the main house to find the Countess.

“Oh, and I’m thinking of changing that room, because the romance in the attic is gone. It’s hot in summer and cold in winter, and there’s a lot of noise.”

Sophia calmly stood in the lobby and looked around the mansion.

“Fortunately, the house is quite spacious. There must be at least one of the rooms among them.”

Then the countess twisted her lips and glared.

“You must’ve gained a lot of confidence from your engagement with Duke Rivelon.”

A lot of confidence?

“A person from ‘Frauss’ wants to use a room in the Frauss Mansion. Shouldn’t that be normal..? If you look at it, it’s the Countess who doesn’t have the blood of ‘Frauss’.”

“What? Once she gets sick, she wants even more things?!”

“I know right. She should have said something before she got sick.”

“Your room is enough for an attic!”

The Countess’s roar echoed through the hallway, and the air became cold in an instant.

All of the servants who had laughed at Sophia just before shut their mouths and bowed their heads.

At the unanswered response of the Countess, Sophia let out a deep sigh.

‘Hey, it’s unreasonable to come to an agreement through a discussion with the villain.’

The Countess said she wouldn’t give Sophia a good room no matter what.

The only option left for Sophia was to force herself to get a room.

“If I come out like this, I will let people know that I am being disrespected.”

As Sophia spoke, she let the countess laugh at her pout.

“Sophia. Are you calling that a threat?”

The Countess, who had just been angry with her, regained her composure and raised her chin proudly.

Sophia was a poor young girl with no connections. Even the Countess did not properly pay for her debut under the pretext of her illness.

In contrast, the Countess was already active and influential in the social world.

No matter how much Sophia talks, she wouldn’t be above the Countess’ breath.

But Sophia looked up at the Countess with a triumphant expression.

“Do you think I can’t?”

“Try it. Go out on the street, grab a beggar and complain.”

The Countess laughed, she swore, no one would listen to the words of Sophia.

~*~

And exactly a week later, on the front page of the tabloid weekly magazine, the following articles appeared in a large font.

[Scoop! Duke Rivelon’s Fiance is the Count’s Maid?!]

It didn’t even take half a day for the rumors to spread through the social circles of the system. All Sophia did was send a letter. And that one letter spread to hundreds of articles.

A headline article on the front page of a weekly tabloid was the most subscribed to by social aristocrats.

The Countess was flooded with requests for visits from people trying to confirm if the rumors were true.

And the rumor..

“Your Excellency! In the weekly magazine..! Haha, you already got it!”

Naturally, it also reached the other party to the rumor.

The curly-haired knight who rushed into the office stopped walking when he saw Killian staring intently at the weekly magazine with his forehead wrinkled.

A man sitting in front of a desk and pressing his temple.

He was Killian Viprons Rivelon, the only Grand Duke of the Empire and the head of the military and police force, called the ‘Guardian of the Empire’ to the good and the ‘Emperor of the Imperial Family’ to the evil ones.

“Why did my name appear in a weekly magazine without me knowing, Nick?”

“It was reported anonymously by someone.”

“Anonymously?”

Killian put the weekly paper on the desk and raised his eyes.

The red eyes hidden under the long black eyelashes slowly lifted up.

Nicholas, commander of the military and also Killian’s assistant, nodded his head and smiled awkwardly.

“A report from an unknown source, so why didn’t Mrs. Chanelia come to me to check?”

“Mrs.Chanelia..likes issues and gossip.”

The Duchess of Chanelia was the socialite queen who published the weekly magazines. She also liked the gossip and rumors that circulated in social circles.

She had an instinctive intuition that the anonymous tip would turn into a hot potato that would attract public attention.

Indeed, thanks to this article, Chanelia’s weekly magazines were sold like fire.

“To publish a garbage article without knowing whether it is true or not.”

“Haha.. But after reading it, there must be evidence..”

“Evidence?”

What about this absurd nonsense?

At Killian’s question, Nicholas bit his lips.

But what Nicholas said was not entirely wrong.

If the rumors were groundless, the Duchess of Chanelia would not have let it appear in a weekly magazine.

Even if she publishes an article, it wouldn’t have been such an issue if it wasn’t valid.

But when the article was being read, it was found to be quite plausible.

[It has been our long-standing question if Count Frauss hid his first daughter so she didn’t debut in the social world.]

[My wife has actually seen Sophia, but her appearance was shabby and her eyes were unnatural.. ]

[The fact that Archduke Killian Viprons Rivelon never went to see his fiance is evidence of this.]

It wasn’t that no one remembered Sophia at all. People roughly knew that Sophia was the daughter of the Count’s ex-wife, his first daughter.

However, the Countess was not seen with her in front of the people on the pretext that Sophia was weak.

So Sophia’s existence was gradually forgotten.

A blurred presence in society.

A person who has become mysterious.