Chapter 79

It wasn’t the first time Nerys had been mocked at a party. She was nearly certain that the anonymous ticket had to be someone’s cruel joke.

And yet, part of her hoped—foolishly—that it might have been from Nellusion.

In the end, Nerys never found out who had sent the ticket.

It was probably Megara or Valentin—one of the two. They had seemed the most delighted to see her arrive, almost like they had been waiting for her.

Unlike now, Nerys couldn’t afford a dress that fit her properly. She didn’t know how to do makeup, and of course, had no jewelry.

For the nobles of Bistor, the graduation ball was practically a social debut. Especially for the graduating class, there was no honor greater than being chosen as the ball’s king or queen.

So, amidst the elegantly adorned and stylish students, Nerys stood out—for all the wrong reasons.

Wretched. Pathetic. Back then, she didn’t even have a shred of self-confidence.

Nerys spent the entire ball standing in a corner, sinking into herself. She had no idea why she’d forced herself to come at all and could only blame herself for it.

And when someone “accidentally” bumped into her as a joke, their jewelry caught on her dress and tore it—she tried to leave. That was the plan, at least.

Until she got doused with lake water just outside the ballroom doors.

It was a familiar smell. Nerys immediately understood that someone had drawn water from the lake and waited there. And that all her classmates had been waiting for that exact moment.

Because they all laughed as if on cue.

The official theme of the graduation ball was creating a final memory for the graduates. In a twisted sense, that theme was perfectly upheld that night.

After all, hadn’t her classmates’ favorite pastime throughout school been using Nerys Truydd as a toy?

She’d been treated as less than human for so long that she couldn’t even feel angry anymore. All she felt was endless sorrow.

Why do I have to live just to go through things like this? It’s probably my fault too.

Back then, she had no one beside her. And nothing she could change with her own power.

‘But.’

Now, things were different. Ever since the age of twelve, when she first entered the Academy, Nerys had been changing everything with her own hands.

She would never allow anything like that graduation ball at nineteen to happen again.

In truth, she hadn’t planned to attend the ball at all. For Nerys, any event her classmates enjoyed with laughter was bound to be miserable.

She was afraid.

So she had planned to avoid it altogether… but Diane had wanted it so badly that she had no choice.

Diane picked up a makeup brush and opened a ceramic jar filled with powdered blue gemstone. Just then, someone came running frantically outside the powder room.

One of Diane’s maids shouted urgently.

“Miss Diane! Miss Nerys! Something terrible has happened!”

“Huh?”

Diane blinked and put down the ceramic lid. Betty, who had been helping the two girls, cracked the door open and spoke to the maid. The two young ladies were still in their underclothes, after all.

“The young ladies are busy right now. What is it?”

There was only one kind of news that could make a maid dash over in such a panic at this time. Nerys raised her fine, dark eyebrows and looked toward the door.

And sure enough, the maid delivered the news, looking both shocked and remorseful.

“The dress Miss Nerys ordered… it arrived completely torn! It’s in tatters. There’s no way she can wear it today!”

“What?”

Diane shrieked, mouth agape.

“Then what are we going to do?!”

“There’s nothing to do.”

Nerys smiled coldly, her teeth barely visible.

“Who brought it?”

The maid looked simultaneously guilty and frightened as she answered.

“Um, a man who said he was from the boutique… he just dropped it off and left.”

Suspicion rose in Diane’s eyes. Certainty rose in Nerys’s.

Nerys had ordered her dress from Madam Crois’ boutique a month ago. A few days after that, she’d returned for measurements, and then again a couple of weeks later for a fitting.

She knew for a fact that there were no male staff at that boutique—only a woman who served as both maid and assistant.

The dress hadn’t been swapped. It hadn’t been poorly made. It had been shredded. That took intent, real malice.

And not many people would know what kind of dress Nerys had ordered there.

“What do we do? What do we do? How could they mess this up so badly?!”

Diane dropped her makeup brush and panicked. Betty quickly started going through Diane’s older outfits in her head to see if anything could work—Diane’s current clothes would be too big for Nerys.

And yet, the person most at ease about the whole thing was Nerys herself.

“The ball doesn’t have a strict dress code. I can just wear something simple and go.”

She spoke calmly. Internally, she was more annoyed than upset. ‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve picked a cheaper fabric.’

“No!”

Diane was horrified by that unbelievable statement.

Nerys was born late in the year and had just barely missed the age cut-off for last year’s graduation ball. Diane could have attended then but chose not to—she didn’t see the point in going alone with just a partner.

And Nerys’s early graduation had been confirmed just recently. Which meant this was also Diane’s one and only chance to attend this important event.

This was their only debut into high society.

Tonight’s ball held that kind of weight. Everything had to be perfect.

‘Of course, even if Riz doesn’t wear a beautiful dress, that doesn’t mean tonight won’t be perfect!’

Diane’s friendship wasn’t so easily shaken. She could even walk beside Nerys to the ball if she were wearing nothing but her underclothes and still feel no shame.

But since Nerys herself seemed to have so little expectation for the ball, Diane wanted to make sure she had an amazing time—especially because she was the one dragging her there in the first place.

It was a serious situation. While Diane and Betty were both groaning in distress, the sound of someone else running approached again.

“Young Miss!”

This time it was a male voice—a servant working in the household. Betty gasped and quickly shut the door, shouting so loudly it could be heard even outside.

“How dare a man come near the powder room!”

“Eek! I’m sorry!”

The servant seemed to realize his mistake only after being yelled at and quickly apologized, then called out loud enough for them to hear inside.

“Something has arrived for Miss Nerys! I think it might be a dress! Someone from a boutique brought it!”

Even Nerys had no idea what this could be. Diane and Betty both turned to look at her.

Not sure what was going on, Diane wondered, ‘Did Riz secretly order something without telling me? She’s always so prepared. A genius, really.’ Without thinking further, she shouted back.

“Bring it here! Which boutique is it from?”

“Devonshire? I think it was Devonshire Boutique!”

That was the name of the boutique Megara had ordered her dress from. It had been right next to Madam Crois’ atelier.

As the item—presumably a dress—was brought to the powder room, Nerys fell into thought, trying to guess what this could mean.

The most likely explanation was that this new dress was yet another of Megara’s malicious pranks.

The dress from Madam Crois was probably delivered a few days ago.

It had likely been intercepted and kept hidden, only to be returned now in shreds—too late to find a replacement. And just in case she had something else prepared, this might be a second cruel “gift” to crush that last bit of hope…

It was exactly Megara’s style.

Something similar had happened in her past life. She couldn’t even remember which birthday it was anymore—sometime during school. An unmarked birthday gift had arrived at her dorm, and Nerys had opened it with curiosity.

Inside was a long-dead, rotting rat.

With that memory still vivid, Nerys felt no excitement as she looked at the crimson box handed to Betty at the door.

Instead, she stared at it with the wary gaze of someone looking at an explosive device.

Fortunately, neither Diane nor Betty noticed her strange reaction. They were too busy admiring the luxurious box—nearly the size of Betty’s torso.

“The box color is so pretty! We should change our boutique’s packaging design to something like this.”

“Should we, Young Miss? And look at the ribbon! It’s tied so beautifully. I wonder what’s inside?”

“Let’s open it! Riz, come on, open it!”

Diane, face lit with excitement, turned to Nerys. After a moment’s hesitation, Nerys approached the box. If it really did contain what she expected, there was no need for Diane to see something so unpleasant.

“Diane, Betty. Step back for a second.”

“Whyyy?”

At Nerys’s instruction, Betty obediently moved away, while Diane grumbled but still complied.

They had been close long enough to know that Nerys never said things without a reason. Despite their curiosity, both stepped back automatically.

Once they were safely distanced, Nerys untied the ribbon on the box.

The velvet-covered box looked expensive on its own. The deep blue ribbon was made of satin, and at the tip, ‘Devonshire’ was elegantly embroidered.

The ribbon slid to the floor. Nerys took a deep breath and opened the lid.

And what she saw inside stunned her.

A satin dress in deep violet lay within. Accompanying it was an amethyst necklace and matching violet shoes.

“My goodness!”

Diane looked as though she couldn’t believe her eyes.

The necklace was perfectly sized to sit around Nerys’s neck, composed of dazzling round diamonds with a thumb-sized amethyst pendant in the center.

In Bistor, amethyst was considered a particularly rare and precious gem—just like violet eyes. And this one had an even luster and deep hue, clearly a high-grade stone.

And the dress—what a dress it was. As Nerys lifted it out of the box, its design became unmistakably clear.

It was the exact same design she had ordered from Madam Crois. And the color? That same Tyrian purple, identical to Nerys’s own eye color.

To produce such a rich and complex shade required fabric worth its weight in gold.

“You ordered the same design again from another place? You’re seriously a genius! Wait—how did you know the green dress would get ruined?”

There was no way she could’ve known. Nerys was speechless.

Having lived as a crown princess, she had seen all the finest things the world had to offer. Just by looking, she could tell how expensive that satin and the necklace were.

The silky texture… the tight, even stitching… and even that specific shade of purple.

Megara would never send something like this as a prank. If anything, it might even surpass the dress Megara herself would wear tonight.

The dress started with a shallow boat neckline and wrapped simply around the torso. From the waist down, it flared into a bell shape, with the front center of the skirt slightly parted to reveal an underskirt.

While Nerys examined the overdress, Diane reached into the box and pulled out the satin underskirt folded inside.

Though it was technically called an “underskirt,” it wasn’t for wearing underneath but was intentionally designed to be shown through the parted overskirt as a decorative layer. The real undergarment—the petticoat—was carefully laid beneath even that.

The dazzling white, the luxurious sheen, and the brilliant golden embroidery in a series of large diamond patterns made Diane gasp in admiration once more. That was the only embellishment on the entire dress, but its restraint only enhanced the dress’s beauty.

The dress began with a shallow boat neckline and wrapped the upper body simply. From the waist down, it fell in a bell shape. The front center of the skirt parted slightly to reveal the underskirt underneath.

While Nerys examined the overdress, Diane reached deeper into the box and pulled out the satin underskirt that had been folded at the bottom.

Though called an underskirt, it was really just a term—there was a proper petticoat placed even further beneath to serve as actual undergarments. What Diane held was a decorative piece meant to be revealed through the intentional opening in the overskirt.

The brilliant white, the elegant sheen, and the radiant gold embroidery forming a chain of large diamond shapes had Diane marveling again. That was the only embroidery on the entire dress, but that simplicity played a big part in its elegance.

“It’s so beautiful!”

Nerys now grew genuinely concerned. Could this be another one of Nellusion’s unnecessary gestures?

While Diane admired the underskirt, Nerys’s hands dug into the bottom of the box, searching for any kind of clue as to who had sent it. And near the base, she found a small card.

When she pulled it out and read it, it said:

[It seemed a cruel prank was being prepared.

If you don’t find this humble gift beneath you, please accept it.

—Your employer.]

(T/N: My boy Cledwyn to the rescue!)