“Mmh...”

Ariel groggily opened her eyes.

The dim, gentle sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains and fell into her eyes. The world suddenly flickered, as if countless stars were colliding, and only then gradually came into focus.

Through the thin gauze, she saw that the crystal chandelier on the ceiling above was still as luxurious and noble as ever. Even the tiniest details of its patterning made it obvious at a glance that it had come from the hand of a true artist. Whether one had enough taste to appreciate it or not, anyone would instinctively let out heartfelt admiration for that kind of pure beauty.

Mm, probably worth around two hundred thousand Aimier.

After appraising the ceiling, Ariel rolled over.

Her smooth but not delicate skin rubbed against the soft silk. The texture was so wonderful it felt as if she were truly lying in the clouds. The blanket was thin and fluffy, yet incredibly warm.

Mm, probably worth around ten thousand Aimier.

Ariel’s gaze moved sideways along the blanket. The red wood grain at the edge was clear and distinct, and it even gave off a faint forest scent.

The bed, one hundred thousand Aimier.

Farther away...

The fireplace, fifty thousand Aimier.

Farther away...

The painting on the wall, one hundred fifty thousand Aimier.

Farther still...

Using those eyes of hers that could see through the value of all things, Ariel made a rough estimate. The decorations in this one room alone were worth well over a million Aimier.

Of course, it was impossible for every room here to be this luxurious, but to her, every single item was something expensive she had never enjoyed before.

...Once upon a time, Ariel never would have imagined that one day she would fall asleep in a place like this, then wake up in a place like this.

But not only had she woken up here, she felt no strangeness at all.

Because this was no longer her first time waking up here. In fact, in the foreseeable future, waking up in this room would probably happen many, many more times.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn those aristocrats! Damn you, Muen Campbell!”

Ariel wrapped herself in the blanket and rolled around on the bed in indignation.

This bed was big enough for six or seven girls to sleep on, so no matter how much she rolled, there was no danger of falling off. That only made Ariel even angrier.

Of course, calling it anger was really just one of her little moods.

For some reason, ever since yesterday, after saying those embarrassing things and doing those embarrassing things, she had suddenly found herself unable to control certain emotions.

She didn’t know what they were, and she didn’t know why she was like this. Perhaps it was because the Ariel who had suppressed her own heart for more than ten years, the Ariel who had kept her head down and marched forward all this time, the Ariel who fancied herself a master of emotions, the Ariel who for years had only read books on how to win over beautiful girls—had no idea what kind of joys and sorrows, belonging only to a girl, would rise in her heart once she herself, as a beautiful girl, had been won over.

It was also like a bud—a beautiful, emerald-green bud—slowly blooming into a flower in the depths of her heart.

“Miss Ariel, are you awake?”

A familiar voice came from outside the door. It was the little maid, Noah.

“Mmh! I...I’m awake.”

Ariel suddenly flipped over and smoothed out the blanket wrapped around her body so Noah would not notice that she had just been doing something so childish.

“Then I’m coming in.”

Noah gently pushed open the door, and more sunlight spilled into the room through the crack. Every shadow was driven away, and even the floor seemed warm.

“Since you’re awake, Miss Ariel, please get up. It’ll be dinnertime soon,” Noah said with a smile.

“Dinner?”

Ariel froze for a moment and turned to look at the clock on the wall across from her.

Tick, tick, tick. Only then did Ariel realize that it was already six in the evening.

No wonder the sunlight was so soft and dim. She had slept through the entire day!

Right, come to think of it, when exactly had she fallen asleep?

Ariel frowned and thought about it, only to discover that she had absolutely no memory of falling asleep last night. She did not even know when, or in what way, she had returned to this ducal residence.

The only thing she remembered was that back then, she and Muen had been doing this and that in the crystal palace, doing all sorts of shameless things. If she had to describe that sort of thing in detail, it had been a physical wrestling match over who would be on top and who would be underneath... At the very beginning, she had held the upper hand, but now it seemed that was only because Muen had not launched a counterattack yet.

And once she had adapted to the height of the Tower of Babylon, once the rough, towering structure was no longer in danger of brutally crushing her foundation, Muen immediately shifted from defense to offense. Relying on his abundant experience and the tremendous output of four whole kidneys, he successfully seized the initiative and beat her, a fledgling chick who had still been a blank sheet of paper before all this, into a steady retreat.

So did that mean... she had passed out in the middle of it?

Ariel’s pretty face flushed red. N-no way... how could that be... She was Ariel Bugaard, after all. A fierce woman who had conquered countless powerful ruins alone, a strong one who could cut down hundreds of villains without even blinking. Passing out from that would just be too...

“I’m getting up.”

To show that she was in perfectly fine shape, Ariel directly threw off the blanket and got out of bed.

However, the moment her feet touched the floor, she felt a strange ache from her lower body, along with a numbness in both legs... as if those long legs of hers had been forced into odd positions for far too long last night, to the point that even her sturdy constitution had not fully recovered after a single night.

As a result, Ariel staggered and nearly lost her footing.

“Ah...”

Noah blinked, as though she had just seen something that made her heart race and her face heat up, then hurriedly covered her little face.

“Th-that is, it looks like Miss Ariel doesn’t need my help after all, so please hurry and get dressed on your own, then come to the dining room for dinner. I’ll be leaving first.”

“Huh?”

“Please make sure you come quickly. Tonight’s meal was personally cooked by the head maid.”

After leaving behind that shy but considerate reminder, the little maid hurried out of the room as if fleeing for her life.

But before leaving, she still could not help taking in Ariel’s current “miserable” state through the gaps between her fingers.

Setting aside the fact that Miss Ariel was naked right now in such a shameful way, there were so many strawberries on her body, and there were even strawberries in that kind of place... Last night’s intensity had far exceeded imagination!

It seemed the head maid’s mission of having her come scout the enemy situation was impossible after all, because how could an innocent novice like her possibly probe a forbidden field she had never even stepped into herself?

“...”

With a bang, the door shut.

Only then did Ariel seem to come back to her senses. When she realized why Noah had fled in such flustered embarrassment, a red even more vivid than the sunset outside the window slowly rose across her little face, and in the blink of an eye, the face that had already grown much more dewy after one night ripened completely.

“Damn you, Muen Campbell...”

Ariel could not help pounding the floor in grief and indignation once more.

“To make me suffer this kind of humiliation again!”

Little birds hopped outside the window, chirping noisily, just like the first time Ariel had been in this room, tilting their heads and watching her with curiosity.

At this moment, the floor was not cold at all. It was not just the sunlight—a special insulation magic array had also been laid over it, so even stepping on it barefoot felt warm.

“Just you wait. The first time was because I was careless, but sooner or later I’m going to get revenge for this!”

Muttering to herself, Ariel got to her feet and rubbed her lower abdomen.

The faint ache was still there, accompanied by a certain strange feeling.

She lifted her head and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her hair was a mess. She was completely naked. From her neck all the way to the tops of her thighs, faint kiss marks covered her body... No wonder Noah had run away in shy panic. Looking like this, she had clearly been ravaged by a whole violent storm. She looked no different from the kind of wanton woman in cheap roadside stories who would corrupt children.

How awful...

Who would ever have thought that she would look like this one day?

Ariel stretched out a hand and traced those marks.

In truth, whether it was these kiss marks or the pain in a certain place, they were both things she could resolve with ease.

But strangely enough, she did not want to get rid of them directly at all. Instead, she wanted to wait for them to disappear on their own.

Perhaps, to her, this was a mark of humiliation, urging her not to forget that one day she absolutely had to stand above that hateful blond bastard.

But faintly, deep inside, there was another interpretation—one she did not want to admit, but one that was even sweeter.

For example, that these counted as marks of love...

“No, no, no, how could that be! What I should be thinking about right now is how to return every bit of this humiliation to him. Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—never bully a young girl. Just you wait, Muen Campbell!”

Ariel clenched her fist, cleared away the distracting thoughts, and blazing fire reignited in her eyes.

She had never been someone who lost to others. How could she possibly be conquered this time?

But...

“Huh? Didn’t I say that last night too?” Ariel scratched her head, suddenly struck by a weird sense of déjà vu.

...

After that round of mental preparation, Ariel’s thoughts temporarily shifted away from how she was going to conquer that damned blond all over again.

At the moment, she was naked, and she had no idea how Muen had brought her back last night. In any case, even her most intimate undergarments were nowhere to be found. If this kept up, it really would become indecent exposure in broad daylight.

Fortunately, though, her body was clean. There was no strange liquid residue left behind, so apparently Muen had already bathed with her.

The moment she thought of the fact that she had actually bathed with that guy without even knowing it... Ariel’s face, which had just calmed down, could not help taking on a faint blush again.

Damn blond, damn blond, damn blond...

All he ever did was take advantage of her.

One day she would definitely take advantage of him too, hmph!

Ariel made a round in front of the dazzling array of clothes on the racks and discovered that the more androgynous outfits she often wore were still neatly arranged here as well. It was just that mixed in among all these beautiful clothes, custom-made to fit her by top-tier tailors, those things she usually wore looked rather unsightly.

Ariel hesitated for a moment, but in the end her fingers passed over those monotonous black outfits—so ugly that even she, now, felt they were ugly—and selected a plain, somewhat simple long dress.

This was not because she herself wanted to wear a dress. It was because all these clothes had been made to her exact measurements, and at her size, if she did not wear them, probably no one else could. It would be a waste.

So this was a good chance to wear a few while she did not need to fight for the moment. Frugality and thrift had been good habits she had cultivated since childhood.

Besides, that damned blond had already taken so much advantage of her. What was wrong with her wearing a few of his clothes?

“I’m going to eat your food, use your things, and squeeze you dry!”

Ariel waved a fist at her reflection in the mirror and said smugly.

But speaking of size...

She could not help lowering her head and making a measuring gesture around her chest with both hands.

“I read in a book that if you rub here, they’ll get bigger. He rubbed them so many times last night... did they get bigger?”

They probably did, right...

Ariel felt around for a while and was not quite sure.

Forget it.

Ariel quickly came to terms with it.

There was no need to rush this kind of thing. If she took it slowly, she would eventually see the difference.

Mm, slowly...

...

...

Once she stepped out of the room, the corridors of the ducal residence were also filled everywhere with luxury and grandeur.

The accumulated wealth of ten generations of the Campbell family was basically all gathered inside this manor, which was why even when Muen had been at his most desperately short of money, he had never touched this place.

Of course, even if the residence were put up for sale, no one would dare buy it. It was the residence bestowed by the Empire’s pioneering founder five hundred years ago upon the first Duke Campbell. It was a symbol of the family’s identity and status. Just like the name Campbell itself, it had long since fused with the family’s bloodline and honor.

“It still reeks of filthy rich the same way it always did, but why does it feel like there are fewer paintings on the walls?”

Ariel looked around in all directions, rubbing her chin with a strange expression.

This was not her first time visiting the ducal residence. Back then, she had even attended Muen Campbell’s coming-of-age ceremony as a representative of House Bugaard. But she clearly remembered that at the time, there had been quite a few precious portraits hanging on both sides of these corridors. Now, aside from the portraits of successive heads of House Campbell, most of the others had disappeared.

Unlike many noble houses, the Campbells had no hobby of collecting luxury goods. Instead, they liked collecting all kinds of bizarre things. That library without a single proper book in it was the product of generations of Dukes Campbell “improving their cultural literacy.”

But in the end, they were still a great noble house, and they needed something to decorate the place. So for the Dukes Campbell, whose artistic sensibilities were basically nonexistent, paintings by famous masters—simple, straightforward portraits—had become the best choice.

But now even those paintings were gone...

“Did he spend it all building that amusement park? Idiot.”

Ariel curled her lip in disdain, utterly contemptuous of that kind of wasteful spending.

But still...

“Seeing as you put at least this little bit of thought into it, I’ll temporarily stop asking you to pay back that hundred million.”

Ariel skipped along, and even her footsteps had unconsciously grown much lighter.

...

All the way there, no maid guided her. For some reason, the entire ducal residence felt especially empty today. Even so, relying on vague memories, Ariel still found the dining room.

Not the large dining hall used for receiving guests, but the smaller family dining room.

The moment Ariel pushed open the door and stepped inside, she saw candlelight already burning on the table. Fresh flowers of unknown variety stood in a vase, very obviously trimmed with care, perfectly positioned to glow tender and lush in the candlelight.

The tableware, the plates, the pure white napkins—all had already been laid out in place. The crystal liquid in the wineglass shone with an intoxicating scarlet hue.

Elegant classical music also drifted softly through the room as the gramophone turned. Under all these careful decorations, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the atmosphere of the entire dining room felt especially romantic and suggestive.

“Wow.”

Ariel let out a small gasp, not expecting that a mere dinner would be arranged so... breathtakingly beautifully.

“Where’s Muen?”

Ariel looked around a few times and found that Muen was not in the dining room.

“Young Master Muen had to step out briefly for something and will be here soon.”

Noah entered through the side door, pushing a small serving cart, and thoughtfully pulled out a cushioned chair for Ariel.

“Here, Miss Ariel, please.”

“Oh, oh.”

For a moment, Ariel was so stunned by this “upper-class” dinner style that she sat down stiffly in a daze, watching as Noah skillfully placed the first dish before her. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“Huh? I’m supposed to just start eating first?” Ariel asked in surprise.

“Yes. Young Master Muen instructed us to let you eat first on your own. You don’t need to wait for him.”

Noah gave her a teasing blink.

“He said you’re a little glutton, and since your last meal was still yesterday at noon, you shouldn’t go hungry.”

“Wh-who’s a glutton!”

Ariel lightly thumped the table in indignation.

Was she a glutton? Huh? Was she?

It was true that she was a little hungry right now, but that wasn’t because she was greedy. It was only because... because... because she had done too much exercise yesterday and burned too much energy.

That was right, it was only because of that!

“There, there. Save the complaints for after Young Master gets back and you can flirt-bicker with him in person.”

Noah lifted the silver cloche, and at once a rich aroma spilled out, immediately beginning to tease the appetite Ariel had already been struggling to hold back.

A slab of meat Ariel could not identify lay quietly on the plate, garnished here and there with a few threads of green herbs. Around the meat, the thick sauce had been swiped across the plate by the chef with bold, forceful strokes, as if revealing some profound state of mind, instantly making the dish look several times more expensive.

It was the sort of absurdly expensive, tiny-portioned aristocratic cuisine Ariel remembered, but this time the fragrance seemed exceptionally rich. It actually looked even more delicious than the dishes from yesterday at noon.

“We know Miss Ariel likes all kinds of meat, so we skipped those little appetizer courses entirely.”

Noah smiled. “Please enjoy it properly. I’ll bring the rest of the dishes one by one.”

“Thank you. You’ve worked hard, Miss Noah.”

Ariel picked up her knife and fork and rather awkwardly hovered them over the meat, as if troubled over where exactly to begin.

“No thanks needed, and it isn’t hard work. Looking after guests is simply our duty as maids.”

Noah bowed politely, then pushed the small cart out of the dining room in silence.

Elegant and composed from beginning to end, fully displaying the high caliber of the maids of the ducal residence.

But the moment she stepped out of the dining room and shut the door behind her, the expression of graceful composure on Noah’s face changed abruptly, and a heavy bitterness rose between her brows.

“Oh dear, oh dear, please don’t blame me, Miss Ariel. I don’t want to get dragged into this conflict either, but sometimes little maids like us simply can’t help ourselves.”

Pushing the cart, she broke into a little run and quickly made her way to the kitchen.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

The kitchen was filled with steam, but there was only a single figure there, holding a kitchen knife and slowly chopping something.

Thunk!

With one hard object split cleanly in two by a single stroke, the sound came to an abrupt stop.

“You’re back?”

An turned around and looked at Noah with calm eyes.

“Has dinner been served?”

“Mhm!”

Even though not a trace of dangerous aura was coming off An’s body, Noah had already shrunk into a trembling ball.

“Just as you instructed, Head Maid, the food’s been served, and Miss Ariel didn’t seem suspicious at all.”

“Good.”

The sunset sank into the earth, and the last of the sunlight fell into the room. An gave a slight nod. Half of her dignified face was shrouded in shadow, but this news did not change her expression in the slightest.

She merely ran those slender, graceful fingers of hers, as delicate as carved scallions, lightly across the blade, producing a sharp metallic scrape.

“Finally... I can start cleaning up the vermin.”