Chapter 162

Valentin’s room was close by. When Delma knocked, the Duchess’s voice sounded from within.

“Come in.”

Click. The door opened from inside.

Nerys entered and coolly swept her gaze over a room not much different from what she remembered.

Fringes glittered with woven gold thread, a table carved from a single block of jade from a distant land, frames trimmed in gold… Valentin’s room was always more than extravagantly luxurious.

The Duke was lenient about his daughter’s spending. Such extravagance did serve to display the family’s standing, but above all, the ducal funds were largely floated by the Wells family.

Since the Duchess granted her daughter whatever she wanted and brought money from her own side when it ran short, the Duke saw no need to meddle.

By the towering fireplace, as tall as a person, sat Valentin and the Duchess—mother and daughter, exchanging looks of boundless tenderness toward each other, just as in Nerys’s past life.

“You’re here.”

As the Duchess spoke, Delma closed the door behind Nerys. Nerys lifted her skirt slightly and curtsied.

“Your Grace.”

In truth, the Duchess had planned to immediately pick fault with Nerys’s etiquette and humble her. Even if the Duke had told her to leave Nerys be, she still found the girl disagreeable.

But the etiquette Nerys had just displayed was flawless, beyond any attempt to find fault. In fact, compared to Valentin—who ignored endless lessons and did as she pleased—there was no comparison.

Feeling a touch disgruntled, the Duchess beckoned.

“Come closer. My daughter says you need some court etiquette lessons. And since you’ve no proper clothes, she’ll lend you a few suitable pieces. Be grateful for her consideration and make sure you don’t bring disgrace upon our house.”

Had someone else said it, it would have been laughable to join in such a foolish lie. But Nerys knew from experience that whenever the Duchess spoke like this, she meant every word.

Even a daughter who would go to a prison to kill her stepsister remained, in her mother’s eyes, impossibly pure. With a peculiar feeling, Nerys bowed her head to the woman who had once been her own mother.

“Yes. I sincerely thank you for your kindness.”

❖ ❖ ❖

The Duchess held forth at length on her own brand of court etiquette—lessons Nerys had long since heard to the point of weariness. Noticing Nerys’s apparent lack of focus, she took offense and ordered:

“Walk for me. I’ll know by your gait whether you’ve listened or not.”

Being told to walk without a set destination, and to have every step inspected, would make anyone tense. The Duchess expected Nerys to look foolish and awkward.

That expectation was immediately betrayed. Nerys rose as if she had received such an order hundreds of times and walked with calm composure.

A steady head, strides neither too long nor too short.

Silent steps like an ideal lady stepping out of a painting.

The Duchess realized at once that even she could not walk so perfectly, so politely, and with such grace. Wariness flickered in her eyes.

“Enough. Now sit and pour the tea.”

Nerys obeyed without a word.

“Drink the tea.”

“What did you call yourself before the Archduchess?”

“If Her Majesty the Empress summons you, do you know what to do?”

One hard question after another. Nerys answered every one without a hitch.

As those easy answers flowed the very moment the Duchess finished speaking, Valentin increasingly wanted to cover her ears.

It was intolerable. Valentin had not invited Nerys to her room to watch her wear that smug face through dull questions and answers.

By the time the teapot was emptied, Valentin could stand it no longer and spoke primly:

“At this point, Mother, I don’t think there’s anything more to teach. It seems Lady Nerys won’t be making mistakes at court. I’ll bring out some clothes now, Mother.”

“Yes, do.”

The Duchess’s face, twisted when she looked at Nerys, bloomed bright when she turned to Valentin. Seeing the contrast, Nerys smiled wryly inside.

‘There was a time I wanted to get along with you. I knew you didn’t like me, but I wondered how we might both compromise.’

‘But you never even had that question.’

‘I kept thinking about it. If I’d been better, if I’d been more to your liking, maybe we could have gotten along.’

‘But for you, not disliking me was never an option.’

‘It wasn’t that you hated me because I was ignorant of etiquette, or because I spent this family’s money, or because I brought shame to the house in society.’

‘You just hated me from the start.’

Had Nerys reached that realization in her past life, it would have wounded her to the point of breathlessness. But now, she already had a mother who loved her.

‘No matter how “Valentin’s mother” behaves in this life, I feel nothing.’

Several of Valentin’s maids brought in heavy clothing chests. Delma opened the lids with a proud air.

Black, gray, and brown dresses came out in a row. Colors Valentin obviously disliked. Likely pieces forced for occasions requiring subdued tones, worn once and set aside.

Nerys even recognized a few. Back when she stayed with the Elandria Estate in her past life, they were the best of what little she had been given.

She would sooner burn the chests than wear those again. When Nerys showed no reaction, Valentin lifted her chin and looked at her with full contempt.

“I selected pieces just right for your station. You may not know this, but at court, wearing clothes above your station is something Her Majesty greatly dislikes.”

The Empress Nerys knew—her mother-in-law in a previous life—cared relatively little about others dressing to their station, so long as she herself wore the finest.

This way of invoking a higher-born person to dress up her words as grand advice mirrored Nellusion’s habits, though Valentin’s ploy was even more shallow.

“Is that so?”

Despite the blatant provocation, Nerys only gave a faint smile. Valentin shot her a chilling glare and jerked her chin.

“Then you may go now.”

The Duchess gave a similar jerk of the chin.

As Nerys left the room, the maids followed with the chests. They set them down by one side of Nerys’s bedroom and withdrew at once.

As Nerys had expected, someone knocked a short time later.

“Lady Nerys.”

It was one of the earlier maids. She asked cautiously:

“Our young lady’s ruby necklace seems to be missing. Did you happen to see it?”

“How would I recognize Valentin’s necklace?”

Nerys replied leisurely. The maid hesitated and retreated.

After another short while, someone knocked again.

“Come in.”

This time Delma entered, her eyes glinting slyly. Two more maids trailed behind her.

“Lady Nerys, did you perhaps take our young lady’s ruby necklace earlier?”

“No. Why would I do that?”

“If you thought the ruby necklace came together with those dresses, please say so now. It’s something the Duke bought for our young lady just a few days ago—a very important gift.”

“The dresses Valentin sent don’t have jewels on them. How could I mistake them for a set? Delma, more than that, your tone is odd. I said I didn’t bring it.”

The maids’ faces darkened. Delma smiled broadly, as if delighted by Nerys’s words.

“So you’re saying you never took the necklace? Absolutely never, not even by mistake.”

“Yes. Are your ears going already? If so, tell Valentin quickly. I imagine many would love to take your job.”

Nerys’s manner was so confidently firm as to seem aggressive—at least to those already suspicious of her.

From the maids’ point of view, when a jewel went missing, it was plausible to suspect Nerys. No one else in this house would be insane enough to touch Valentin’s things. Delma’s eyes sparkled as she answered:

“Very well, Lady Nerys. I will pass along your words to our young lady, ‘exactly’ as you said.”

Wearing the triumphant look of assured victory—just like in Nerys’s past life—Delma earned a dismissive flick of Nerys’s chin.

“Off you go.”

Delma briskly ushered her maids out.

And then, a little later—

Bang, bang. This time, the knock was an openly hostile, convinced pounding, as if to break down the door. Nerys rose and went toward it.

But before she reached it, the door swung wide. At once, several burly footmen, a few maids, and Joseph Caron—Nellusion’s right-hand man—entered.

“Lady Truydd, may we search your room? Something has gone missing in the house, and we’re checking everywhere.”

“Sir Caron.”

Nerys arched a brow at Joseph and asked:

“Are you unaware that this is a young lady’s bedchamber? No—before that, do you not know the minimum courtesy due a guest? How dare you barge in before you even receive permission to enter?”

Delma stood among the maids. She quickly stepped forward with an odious interruption.

“Lady Nerys, there’s no need to speak that way. They’re searching all the other rooms like this too. The ruby belonging to Miss Valentin is missing, and it’s so valuable that we must find it quickly.”

“You again?”

Nerys deliberately sharpened her tone.

Joseph’s face hardened. Seeing it, Nerys understood that he already disliked her quite a bit.

Why? They had attended the same school for years, and of course Nerys had encountered Joseph many times. But at least until his graduation, their relationship had been neither good nor bad.

Delma put on the face of a grievously wronged victim.

“Why are you always like this to me? What did I do? I only told you what happened, and you always seem to dislike me. Last time too, I merely mentioned the house rules, and you got angry.”

The maids Delma had brought—women most under her influence in this house—looked at Nerys strangely.

Sensing the mood turn clearly in her favor, Delma decided to lay more groundwork.

“My lady, honestly, why have you been jumping so much since earlier?”

“So then, you’re saying Sir Caron is searching every room one by one with you, like this?”

“Of course. I’m searching because it’s Miss Valentin’s possession, and Sir Caron is directing the servants.”

It was a decent excuse. But Nerys knew Delma had brought Joseph specifically to set him up as a ‘witness.’

If Nellusion’s confidant and friend testified about this incident, even he could not dismiss it lightly. Nerys looked at Delma and suddenly smiled.

That easy, crisp smile annoyed Delma, and the others in the room felt something odd—Nerys looked relaxed and confident, as if this was the very line she had been waiting to hear. But how could that be?

Gesturing toward the inner room, Nerys spoke:

“Since that’s the case, search away. Turn over even the floorboards, one by one. That’s the only way to clear your doubts completely, isn’t it? And by your own words, if no ruby turns up in my room, you’ll search every room in this house the same way, yes? I’ll tag along. If there’s a thief in this house, I’m terrified—and I must see that thief properly punished before I report today’s events to Brother Nellusion.”

(T/N: Thats what you fkcing call a REVERSE-UNO lol)