Chapter 6

- Bang! Ariadne stomped her foot. The insolent maid was taken aback by Ariadne's presence.

“Didn’t I ask where you belong?”

The maid, intimidated by the low, commanding tone and the air of authority from the fifteen-year-old girl, looked at Ariadne nervously.

“N-no, that’s not it. I thought there was no need for you, Miss, to know the lowly status of someone like me...”

“Status.”

The maid finally mumbled in a barely audible voice.

“I am a second-floor maid assigned to Miss Isabella...”

Ariadne sized up the maid. She had fiery red hair, was short and plump, and looked a year or two older than the current Ariadne.

“Name.”

“Miss...”

The red-haired maid made a pained expression. But under Ariadne’s fierce gaze, she bowed her head and gave her name.

“My name is Malleta...”

“I’ll keep an eye on you.”

To the red-haired maid who had bowed her head deeply, Ariadne added one more word.

“Straighten up.”

Hearing this, the maid Malleta, still with her head bowed, hastily bowed deeply and fled the room.

* * *

Ariadne changed from her tattered clothes into a simple indoor dress and followed the maid to Cardinal de Mare’s quarters.

The place Ariadne was summoned to was not Cardinal de Mare’s study but his private reception room. While he did not allow anyone into his study, family members were occasionally permitted into the reception room.

- Knock knock.

"Your Eminence, Miss Ariadne has arrived."

The maid knocked on the door with exaggerated politeness and announced Ariadne’s arrival to the cardinal.

She remembered from her previous life standing in this spot, making eye contact with the cherubim painted in gold and feeling terrified.

Back then, she had been intimidated just by looking at them, but this time, Ariadne did not flinch. After nine years of being the socialite, she had grown tired of luxury.

Ariadne entered confidently when the servant opened the door. She gracefully entered, maintaining perfect court etiquette, and bowed.

“May Your Eminence be in good health? It is a great pleasure to see you after so long, Your Eminence.”

Cardinal de Mare looked at Ariadne with a raised eyebrow, surprised.

He was a small-framed man in his fifties.

He had a somewhat rat-like appearance, with delicate features, a thin build, and narrow shoulders, which resembled Isabella’s. However, the fifty-year-old man with feminine features was more unremarkable than handsome.

Instead, his bright emerald eyes spoke of his formidable nature.

“I’m glad you’ve grown well despite the long journey. You must not have had many opportunities to study in the Bergamo territory, but I’m proud of how you’ve grown.”

‘I’m grateful that you at least pretend to care.’

Ariadne hid her true feelings and replied brightly.

“I will study harder and bring honor to our family, so I won’t be a disgrace to my parents and siblings...”

“Indeed, you must not be a disgrace.”

A noblewoman in her forties cut off Ariadne’s words. It was Lucrezia.

“A woman’s virtue lies not in learning but in serving her parents and brothers in her youth and her husband in her old age.”

Unlike Isabella’s mother, she had high cheekbones and a long face. However, her golden hair and sapphire eyes were identical to her daughter’s. Her expression was somewhat nervous.

She glared at Ariadne with raised eyes and gave a warning lecture.

“Don’t be loud and act like a proper young lady.”

She was dressed in a Republic of Porto-style dress, revealing most of her chest, which was only thinly covered by a layer of lace.

Her pale, trembling skin was sensuous despite her age, but she did not look like a model mistress of a grand mansion.

‘There was a time when I thought being like that woman was the ideal of a proper noble.’

After accumulating all kinds of social experience and traveling back in time for over a decade, she met her again... She was so vulgar that it was embarrassing to call her a noble.

‘What should I call the state of mind of someone who lectures on modesty while wearing such a dress?’

Ariadne smiled as innocently as possible to hide her thoughts.

“Yes, Madam. I will try my best to be a good child as you say.”

Cardinal de Mare raised an eyebrow.

“Madam?”

But his raised eyebrow was directed at Lucrezia, not Ariadne.

In the Etruscan Kingdom, illegitimate children were supposed to treat their biological mother as a mistress and refer to the legitimate wife as their mother out of respect.

It was a virtue for illegitimate children to be as filial as legitimate children, and for a virtuous noblewoman to treat illegitimate children the same as her own.

However, an illegitimate child could not call the legitimate wife ‘mother’ without permission.

Lucrezia forced a smile to please her husband and accepted Ariadne’s greeting.

“Call me mother, not madam. We can do that, can’t we?”

Despite the obvious displeasure, the new child and the old husband paid no attention.

“Thank you, Mother.”

“You look good.”

Ariadne smiled like a picture, and Cardinal de Mare praised them both with a full smile. Lucrezia had no choice but to force a smile and nod at Ariadne.

At that moment, a high, clear voice like a skylark’s flew in.

“Welcome back to the family. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.”

The most beautiful, small, and lovely fairy of San Carlo.

It was Isabella.

She looked a decade younger than the last time they met, when she was in her early thirties.

Unlike her past, when she was as beautiful as a blooming rose, the small-framed Isabella looked like a fairy straight out of an old tale.

Unlike her mother, who could not hide her displeasure, Isabella smiled warmly and kindly.

“We are sisters. I will help you a lot.”

Ariadne involuntarily took a deep breath in tension. She was overwhelmingly beautiful.

‘Don’t be fooled by that smile.’

The beautiful Isabella, who lured her victims with a sweet smile and stabbed them in the back.

Her hands trembled involuntarily. Ariadne hid her trembling hands in her armpits and tried to look as kind and friendly as possible.

“Thank you.”

She had lived her life humbly and servilely, trying to get along well with that perfectly smiling sister. She thought Isabella was as warm and good as her smile.

But on the day she stabbed her in the back, Isabella was smiling just like this.

Ariadne suppressed her tumultuous emotions and greeted Isabella, who responded with her usual warm smile.

She stepped forward and forcibly pulled out Ariadne’s hands, which she had hidden in her armpits, and held them in her own.

“I’ve always wanted to have a younger sister. We can have tea parties and go shopping in the city... Do you like clothes and jewelry?”

“No, that’s too much for me.”

When Isabella touched Ariadne’s body, Ariadne stiffened like a mouse in front of a cat. The memories of submission from her childhood felt like they were controlling her limbs.

Ariadne clenched her teeth, hoping it wouldn’t be visible.

“Call me sister.”

Isabella, with her innate domineering attitude, smiled warmly and invited her.

“Sister!”

At that moment, a sharp voice pierced from the corner.

“Why is she our sister? I don’t recognize her.”

“Aurella!”

Lucrezia nervously covered the mouth of the voice’s owner.

She was a girl with golden hair, about ten years old.

Unlike her sister, she had inherited her father’s emerald eyes, the same as Ariadne’s, but the low saturation of her hair and the intensity of her eyes did not harmonize, making her less attractive than her older sister. Her cheeks were still chubby.

She was Cardinal de Mare’s youngest daughter, Aurella de Mare. In her previous life, she had died young in the Black Death that swept the country in 1123.

The young girl glared at Ariadne with a face full of resentment.

“Do we look alike? Your hair is black. You can’t even read or play the lute, can you? Do you know Latin?”

By this point, Lucrezia had stopped merely scolding with words and, looking at the head of the household, hurriedly came to embrace Aurella from behind.

But before she could calm her youngest daughter, Cardinal de Mare’s angry voice echoed through the reception room.

“Enough!”

Cardinal de Mare waved his left hand, issuing a warning.

“Lucrezia, how do you educate your children? Do you want to live in harmony and receive commendations from the Holy See? Just do the basics, just the basics!”

“I’m sorry, Your Eminence. Aurella is still young...”

“What’s young about ten? In a place like the Bergamo territory, ten is the age to do a farmer’s work!”

Aurella glared at Ariadne with full resentment, as if she were the one getting scolded.

Isabella, on the other hand, looked as if this situation had nothing to do with her, with a face full of regret over the commotion.

Pretending to be good to the end in front of important people was Isabella’s alpha and omega.

“Out!”

At his dismissal, the rest of the family, except Cardinal de Mare, took a step back towards the door.

They walked without showing their backs, a form of etiquette for subjects of the Etruscan Kingdom when facing the king.

The members of Cardinal de Mare’s household were more like his subjects than his family.

“By the way, assign the same Latin teacher to Ariadne as to Isabella and Aurella. The rest of her education should be the same.”

Lucrezia, unable to show any dissatisfaction, meekly agreed.

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

* * *

After leaving Cardinal de Mare’s reception room, Lucrezia clenched her teeth and said one last thing to Ariadne.

“Don’t cause any trouble.”

Ariadne bowed politely but imagined shrugging her shoulders in her mind.

‘What have I done? The trouble was caused by your child. I haven’t even started yet.’

With the maid standing by the door, Lucrezia went into the inner room. In the corridor, only Aurella, Isabella, and Ariadne, who stood with wide eyes, remained.

Aurella, unable to contain her resentment, gnashed her teeth and glared.

“I don’t recognize her!”

The ten-year-old girl huffed and jabbed with her small finger.

“Raised as a farm maid! Born to a lowly maid!”

Ariadne was more amused than angry. Where did a mere ten-year-old learn such words? They were surely whispered by her parents or her viper-like sister.

However, Ariadne, who had vowed not to tolerate such behavior in this life, was not about to let it slide. Besides, her innate temperament was not particularly docile.

She smiled with a hidden barb.

“From what Father said, it seems you’re the one who will be sent to the farm.”

“What?”

“You’re ten, which is old enough to be a full farmer.”

“Grrr!!”

Aurella, unable to contain her anger, trembled and lunged at Ariadne. Behind her was a staircase.