Page 48

When it was night and I finished dinner with my family.

I could see Sebastian who had been waiting for me in front of my room door. Seeing his body movements that seemed to be holding something. I could feel a bad feeling about what Sebastian would give me.

Sebastian noticed my footsteps and immediately looked at me with his gentle old eyes staring at my body.

"Good evening, Lily-sama. You got a party invitation letter," Sebastian said while holding out his hand that looked like it was holding a letter.

"Party invitation? Ugh…" I vented my disappointment when Sebastian gave me a party invitation letter.

"Lily-sama, I know that Lily-sama is traumatized by the terrible party incident. However, refusing an invitation from the royal family will make it difficult for Marquess Rommel—"

"I understand about that, the Marquess Rommel family will be ridiculed by other nobles if they refuse the party invitation letter, right?" I said, cutting Sebastian off.

"Yes, their ridicule will be what brings down the Marquess Rommel family’s pride in public. That would mess up our territory’s business and our political influence in the royal meeting would have little voting power."

"Ugh, that would be a hassle for my family. Thank you for bringing me the invitation letter, Sebastian."

"That is my duty as a Butler, Lily-sama," Sebastian replied with a friendly smile.

"Unm, I understand. I will try my best to attend the party invitation and fight my trauma," I replied as I entered my room and closed the door.

To be honest, I hated noble parties after experiencing that horrific incident. I understood my terrible body condition to hang around in the noble social circle that relied on beauty and elegance. My light brown skin was like a danger signal that kept me away from the crowd.

It wasn’t a big deal for me but Marquess Rommel’s judgment was determined by my presence that would ruin the party because of my light brown skin color.

"I’d rather not attend that small party and stay in my room or if I have to attend the party invitation, maybe I should escape to the balcony," I muttered softly as I walked to find a small knife to open the party invitation letter.

I opened the letter and read its contents. A neat and beautiful writing was written on soft paper covered in gold ink. This kind of luxury could only be owned by the royal family with the pretext of requiring the recipient of the party invitation letter to attend.

"Ugh... What is this? Is this letter intended to mock me?" seeing the contents of the message addressed to my full name. The main purpose of this party invitation was gratitude towards me. My body suddenly shook as if feeling something troublesome was waiting for me at the small party.

After reading the contents of the letter, I could feel the Queen’s heart who was happy after Princess Anastasia recovered from her illness thanks to the Elixir I gave her.

Um... Well... She was too happy by sending seven personal letters telling about Princess Anastasia’s condition and her longing to meet me as my pet.

I put the letter on the small table in my room and lay down on the bed.

"Haaaaah~" I let out a long breath to release the invisible burden on my shoulders.

"Master, are you okay?" asked Zoe who flew towards me from behind the shadow of my body.

"Un, I’m fine, Zoe. Just remembering a bad incident at a past party," I replied with my eyes closed.

"Master… Ah! No… That might be painful to tell me."

"Do you want to know, Zoe?"

As her Master, I could understand Zoe’s feelings of curiosity about my little trauma about a noble party.

"You could say there’s someone who hates my ugly appearance. They vent their hatred in public and keep disturbing my life. I want to kill them but the law of this kingdom… Hmm.. Ah! That’s right! Why didn’t I think of this before!"

Suddenly, I remembered the vulnerability of the Aurora Kingdom’s law that children are not bound by the law because they are considered unable to think between good and bad.

"Zoe…"

"Want to kill a human for the first time after your rebirth?" I asked Zoe with a cheerful smile.

"If that’s Master’s order, I will gladly do it," Zoe replied readily.

"Fufufu… I also remember that there is no punishment for spirits who kill someone because spirits are one of the sacred things for the Aurora Kingdom. This will be a clean kill without my sword’s interference… Ah! No! This will be too perfect a kill to outwit a kingdom law!" I said in a cheerful tone. For this one reason, my little trauma toward noble parties slowly subsided.

"Neee… Master…"

"Hmm? What’s wrong, Zoe?"

"Humans who hate Master, should we give a curse to all their descendants?"

"Curse? Very interesting idea, Zoe! Explain it now!"

"In the era of spirit life, there is a very troublesome and annoying curse. The curse is called personality correction which makes the victim have to follow the rules of the curse along with their descendants, you could say, the Master will control one family descendant if the curse is given!" said Zoe while explaining the contents of the curse.

"Personality correction? What’s that? Sounds troublesome and annoying for a curse," I could feel the great power of the curse from Zoe’s words.

"Yup! It’s very troublesome and annoying to plant on one’s bloodline."

"How does it work?" I asked in an excited tone.

"It works very simply, Master. For example, if the head of the family is cursed with the order to always seduce other people’s wives when attending noble parties, then he will carry out the habit of seducing other people’s wives for the rest of his life and pass the curse on to his bloodline who will always seduce other people’s wives when attending noble parties.

If he doesn’t have a bloodline, then the curse will end on himself. Very effective for people who hate Master, right?" Zoe exclaimed in an excited tone.

"Fufufu… What a great curse. How do I learn it?"

"Don’t worry, Master. I’ve learned it perfectly and am ready to cast the curse at any time!"

"Good job, Zoe! I’ll be looking forward to the curse’s performance!"

"Umm… Will Master reward me for this brilliant idea?"

"Heee~ So there’s a reward?" I said while teasing Zoe.

"Umm… Can I sleep in Master’s embrace?" Zoe replied in a small tone.

Aaah... How can I answer Zoe’s question? Her small body size is too fragile to fall asleep in my body’s arms. I don’t want to refuse my spirit’s request but I can’t think of any other way to sleep with her.

Umm... It’s better to accept it than to refuse it and I have to be careful when hugging her.

"It’s okay, come here..." I replied while stretching my arms on the bed.

"Thank you, Master!!"

A dazzling light filled my room. After the light dimmed, the figure of a little girl with butterfly wings appeared in front of my body. Long silver hair, bright brown skin, and beautiful red eyes like butterflies that radiated the dominance of her power managed to imitate my form perfectly.

"Z-Zoe?" I was surprised by Zoe’s change in form that imitated my appearance.

"What about my appearance? Is it similar to my Master?" Zoe asked while flapping her butterfly wings.

"Are you imitating my appearance?" I asked back.

"Yes, Uhm... Does it look weird, Master?" Zoe said with her face lowered.

"No, I was just surprised to see my body look like this. It turns out I’m very cute too. Come here... Zoe..." I stretched my arms again to catch Zoe’s body.

"Maaasssttteeerrr..." Zoe flew towards my embrace.

I accepted Zoe’s body embrace and hugged her body tightly. Our physical body shapes were not much different and looked like twins. The night wind blowing through my bedroom window felt cold and my body was too lazy to close the bedroom window. I suddenly felt a sense of drowsiness slowly attacking and closing my eyelids while hugging Zoe’s body tightly.

"Urk... Why am I still sleepy after feeling the breeze?" I muttered softly.

"Master, won’t this be my chance to sleep together for the first time?" Zoe whispered in my ear.

"Urm... Just do it," I answered Zoe’s whisper and continued my early night’s sleep after dinner.

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The preparations for the royal family party were in full swing. All the important guests and nobles of the Aurora Kingdom had received invitation letters written personally by Princess Anastasia.

Queen Victoria Rie VII read the report about the Marquess Rommel family’s rare attendance at other noble families’ parties after the Lily incident that was ridiculed by her stupid Crown Prince. Her gaze was now focused on a small box containing a party dress with Lily’s full name on it as an apology for the incident done by her Crown Prince.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Hiieekk!! Don’t surprise me like that, Anastasia!" said Queen Victoria who was suddenly surprised by Anastasia’s presence.

"Heee... What is that? A party dress for a little girl? I didn’t know that Mom had a hobby of collecting children’s dresses like this?" asked Princess Anastasia.

"N-No! N-No! I-This is just a small gift for Lily-chan," answered Queen Victoria nervously.

"I heard rumors about Lily-chan at the previous party, wasn’t there a very bad memory at her last party? Doesn’t this party invitation hurt her bad memories of that party?"

"T-That incident? Ah... That is very unfortunate that it happened. Was my invitation conveyed well to her? Now I feel worried about it," Queen Victoria remembered Lily’s bad memories at her last party. She heard about a rumor of a girl being hit by a glass filled with red wine.

Queen Victoria ignored the rumor before finding out that the perpetrator of the attack was her Crown Prince. After the rumor spread and cornered the royal family, Queen Victoria conducted an investigation to find the identity of the perpetrator of the attack.

The result of the investigation was the future Crown Prince of the Aurora Kingdom who was seen throwing a glass at Lily along with testimony from witnesses at the scene.

The action which was far from noble ethics and looked very barbaric prompted Queen Victoria to apologize personally to the Marquess Rommel family by visiting their territory directly while bringing a marriage proposal for Lily.

As Queen of the Aurora Kingdom, the royal family’s response to the Crown Prince incident had an impact on the credibility of the royal family who would lead the kingdom in the future.

For that, she visited the Marquess Rommel territory with the Crown Prince to apologize officially. Of course, she made the same small mistake as the Crown Prince.

The ball dress was a very small payment for the mental damage Lily had suffered. It was nothing compared to Lily’s cruel plan to welcome her small party with a curse.

Without Queen Victoria realizing, the small insult that the Crown Prince will split the faction of the Aurara Kingdom into three parts, the opposition, the coalition, and the neutral led by Marquess Rommel and the gentle incitement of Lily who collapsed the power wheel of the Aurora Kingdom’s nobility that was running on the palm of her hand as a dark horse.

The party that Queen Victoria had planned to celebrate Princess Anastasia’s recovery would cause a political conflict that divided the kingdom’s nobility because of the actions of the Crown Prince of the Aurora Kingdom.