***

***

Keng! Bang!

The sound of something breaking was constantly echoing from Sharchen’s room. Sharchen with her shower robe still on constantly throwing things. The time she spent polishing her delicate skin in the rose-filled bathtub was overshadowed. She was about to tear off every dress the dressmaker had been making all night.

“Absolutely unacceptable! Eliana Rose and I will wear the same clothes? No! No!”

“Lady Sharchen! Calm down. Lady Sharchen..!”

“I can’t calm down! No!”

Sharchen took the hairdressing scissors that had been taken out to trim her hair and tore her pearl-colored dress to shreds. Beautiful swans lavishly embroidered with gold thread were torn to pieces by the scissors.

Sharchen cried until her pretty face was a mess and sat down on her seat. Karman was changing. She believed that he was clearly moved by Eliana’s eccentricity. He must have liked her voluminous breasts and urban face. Since he was also a man, he might have been attracted to Eliana in that direction.

But that shouldn’t be happening. Because Sharchen and Karman had been in a relationship since a long time ago.

Love began the moment he rescued her from being left alone on the street. He had never had a change of heart before. So the position of the Baroness was hers. That was the reason why Karman did not abandon Sharchen even though Karman’s father, Jerich Hunter, was hard on him.

It didn’t matter if it was compassion or sympathy. Because there was only one woman who received such love from Karman. But now that feeling was about to split in two. It was for a poor woman who was no better than herself.

“May.”

“Yes, Lady Sharchen.”

“Go and tell Pepe. Sharchen, exhausted from crying, collapsed and fell asleep. She said that the party means nothing to this Sharchen Hunter unless the Baron chooses a dress together!”

“Yes. I will tell him that.”

“It’s all because of that foxy Eliana Rose! All her tears are a show! How dare a witch who won’t bleed if stabbed shake us up?!”

Sharchen couldn’t contain her anger. She couldn’t stand the fact that her relationship with Karman, which was strong no matter what woman came, was overturned by the wicked stepmother. It was unforgivable.

“Aaaah!!! I won’t let it go. I won’t let it go! Never let a dresser come into her room. Never!”

“Yes, Lady Sharchen.”

Maid May bowed her head and glanced at Lujan in the corner. Before the sparks fell, Lujan quickly left Sharchen’s room.

After the new Baroness arrived, there had been no quiet day in the house. Poor Lujan’s own life was the same. But maybe victory was already leaning towards Eliana? The moment Baron Karman’s favors ended, Sharchen was in a lowly status no different from Lujan. Sharchen herself seemed to have forgotten that fact too long ago.

However, all the maids of Sharchen looked up to her, but they had such a feeling in their hearts. If Karman loved someone else, Sharchen’s position would be no different than a maid. If the master, Jerich Hunter, was a little more strict, Sharchen should have been with them doing the laundry piled up in the Baron’s house.

‘Once this happens, I have no choice but to earn the trust of Eliana Rose and survive. Now Sharchen is like a string that has fallen off.’

Lujan, quick-witted and calculating, headed to Eliana’s room with that in mind.

***

Eliana laughed when she heard of the commotion that occurred while she was reading a book in her room. She couldn’t stop laughing. What kind of fool’s march is this?

Lujan was bewildered by the way the Baroness, who had been weeping until the previous day, was revived today and smiled. But Eliana continued, wiping her laughing tears as if she didn’t really care.

“Thanks for making me laugh out loud. Thank you, Lujan.”

“Ah, Madam..”

“But unfortunately, the Baron’s heart hasn’t changed. Have you seen the Baron treat me? He just wants to use me to calm his pathetic, young lover. How long do you think Jerich Hunter will keep an eye on this strange Baron?”

“The Lord?”

“He will be keeping an eye on her. If Sharchen doesn’t show her development, he’ll get rid of her somehow. Karman used his brain.”

Eliana came up with a plausible hypothesis. She had a natural talent for imagining and making up stories in this way. Of course, she didn’t know why Karman suddenly became capricious, but this was necessary in front of Lujan, who had sworn loyalty to her. And for Eliana, she needed Lujan.

Simply put, it was to create an excuse for Lujan to still be attached to Sharchen. The Baron still loved Sharchen, so Lujan must be with

Sharchen, not Eliana Rose. Lujan must have rolled her head about how to speak in order to please Eliana just before she opened the door. But it was all on Eliana’s palm. Eliana continued to act as if she had given up.

“It’s pathetic of lovers to think so when they see me suffer.”

“..”

“Tell Sharchen that I’m not going to call the dressmaker. What if the Baron changed his mind and the dress didn’t arrive that day? I don’t want to be humiliated again.”

It was half sincere. Karman was an unreliable person. It wasn’t just that. Eliana had no one of her own but Benny in this house. Guard Joseph was doing his job well, but he was powerless. Eliana knew that it was time for her to curl up as much as she could to leap higher.

“Is the Baron going to be that naive?”

At Lujan’s question, Eliana turned her attention to the book. ‘You’re smart’, Eliana thought to herself. But Eliana was one step above Lujan. She continued speaking without blinking an eye.

“Everyone is naive when it comes to love games. I don’t want to be a victim. The embarrassment is enough from yesterday’s experience. Poor Baroness. They treat her like this on the inside, and call her stepmother on the outside.”

“...”

“Come on, go. You’re the only one who knows the news that Sharchen is most curious about right now.”

“Thank you, madam!”

Lujan glanced at her and quickly left Eliana’s room. Eliana still fixed her eyes on the book, and did not even look at Lujan’s back running hurriedly.

But when the door closed, Eliana closed the book. What was with Karman Hunter’s change of heart? Was it to build up his prestige, which had fallen on the show that day? That being said, it was a cheap effort. However, if he was a person who cared so much about his prestige, he would not have acted like that in the first place.

“What? Is he regretting it?”

Eliana laughed sarcastically. Karman Hunter looked cold and cold-blooded, but he was soft on the inside. So, he was possessed by Sharchen and was in trouble like this. If he had maintained the relationship with his first married family, his title would have already changed.

Marriages of nobles were common. Raise titles, inflate wealth, and increase territories. There was no such thing as a tearful love story. Marriage was a kind of transaction, a business. The fact that Karman Hunter had to do business with the Rose family, a poor aristocrat, meant that he had no talent in the marriage business.

No nobleman had ever prospered without a proper marriage business. Even after the tearful love story, even if Sharchen sat in this seat at the end, or Karman became the head of the Hunter family, the proposition would not change.

“Anyway, the rich boys were quickly killed off.”

Eliana got up from her seat as if brushing off Karman Hunter’s favor. Stretched out, she stepped into the dressing room. The dress to wear to the social party had already been decided. Design, color, and decoration.

Eliana saw a dress pictured in an old book. Forty years ago, it was the dress that marked the Duchess of Teneb’s first social debut. At that time, she was the prime minister’s daughter, and she made her debut more splendidly than anyone else by collecting the most fashionable items at the time.

Everyone knew that she had a gentle and quiet personality, but the record did not. She went quiet after marrying the conservative Duke of Teneb.

A few years ago, the Duke of Teneb passed away. But no one reached out to a woman who had never even danced with another man in over 30 years of marriage.

Eliana made her the target of this party. Although the Duchess was not at the center of power, she was the wealthiest woman in the city. Also, there were people who could only be reached by getting close to her. Eliana was looking for a way to instantly get to know the Duchess.

The first was to wear the Duchess’s dress from 40 years ago. Eliana had to show the woman she admired, remembering her most glamorous and beautiful days.

Eliana Rose hummed as she traced the embellishments of the gorgeous dress.

She knew this wouldn’t be enough. The dress only drew attention for a moment. Eliana wanted to be imprinted on her a little more explicitly. Only then would she be able to reach the Duchess’s son.