After not being able to perfectly prep Ella’s hair at the last party, Smila was obsessed with presenting Ella with perfection. Pressed for time, she checked her watch multiple times and looked outside the window, feeling that the short distance was actually long.

Ella felt nervous as well. As soon as the carriage arrived at the mansion, she jumped off and began running to her room.

“Milady!” Smila yelled.

“I’ll go first!” declared Ella.

There was no reason for a lady to run. Smila was terrible at running, but Ella, who spent her youth playing with her brothers, showed her skills and ran across the mansion. She promised not to run within the mansion ever since she began training to become the crown princess, but today was an exception. Every household staff was surprised by Ella running, which they hadn’t seen in years, and quickly cleared the way by sticking themselves to the wall.

“Milady?!”

Surprised, Joanne, who had been nervously waiting for Ella’s return, watched her running in like a wild horse. Then, she quickly followed Ella into her room. Maylin began to lecture Ella for charging into the room.

“Good lord, milady! Did you just run here? A lady should not-”

“OKAY! Stop the lecture, alright? You don’t have the right to give me a lecture today, Maylin. You’re not allowed to lecture me for a day. Even if you want to, keep it to yourself. That’s my punishment for you. And you’re not allowed to lecture me tomorrow on what you wanted to say today.”

At Ella’s orders, Maylin had to close her mouth without a protest. Comparing Ella’s commands and her actions today, what she did was much worse. Although Ella called it a punishment, it was more of a light restriction, so it wasn’t even worthy of being called a punishment.

“But you shouldn’t run anymore today, milady,” said Maylin.

“Maylin, I said no lectures today,” commanded Ella.

“Yes, yes. This is the last one.”

“Alright. Joanne, get done with it.”

Maylin’s eyebrow raised at Ella’s unsophisticated way with words but came back down. Ella giggled at Maylin and turned to Joanne, who was standing while almost on the verge of tears. A face that experienced the world’s end would look just like that.

“What is it?” asked Ella.

“Milady, why did you have to run? Your hair. Your hair’s all messed up. I put so much work into that hair, and it’s.. AH!”

Ugh. Maylin’s lecture was better. With tearful eyes, Joanne began undoing Ella’s hair, which was barely hanging on. It was understandable as Ella, who went out with the look of a perfect lady, returned in a state where it looked like she had rolled on the ground three times.

“I didn’t think my hair would end up like this just by running. How can I dance if my hair is so weak like this? It’s going to get messed up with just one dance.”

Ella made an excuse while glancing at Joanne. But those excuses didn’t work on her at all. It only brought longer lectures from her.

“That’s because only the basics were done. We promised to finish it up after you returned. It would have been better if you made them wait and finish preparing before you go,” said Joanne.

“Then my parents will find out that I met with them.”

“Don’t you think they will find out after running in the house?”

“Oh,” gasped Ella.

Joanne shook her head slightly at Ella’s gasp and asked, “Why did you have to run?”

“Smila was so nervous with the time. It got me nervous too.”

“But you didn’t have to run.”

“Yeah, I suppose. That wasn’t like me.”

It wasn’t like Ella at all. “Run because you’re late” was what Ranhee would do. Her body moved before she could think it could cause a problem.

‘Body! My body?’

Until now, her body had stopped her from acting out. But today, her actions had made it through without being stopped many times.

Ella saw herself through the mirror. Was Luciella’s will no longer inside her? No. It was still inside her. There were a few mistakes, but most actions were still filtered by Luciella before they came out to the world. What she had been thinking of as the novel’s setting was a part of Luciella’s soul and her will.