Chapter 2
“Cough, cough.”
Startled, I spat out the tea I had been drinking while coughing and stared blankly at Duke Pomerne.
Dia was the nickname my nanny had called me since I was young. But the duke had just called me by that familiar nickname.
“Lady, are you alright?”
“I-I’m fine, Nanny. Ahem, ahem.”
My nanny wiped the wet stains from my dress with a pleased expression, while I stared intently at the duke.
“Are you alright?”
Those eyes looked like he was genuinely worried about me. Duke Pomerne’s actions, his gentle tone, and his expression were all so unfamiliar that I could not understand them.
I briefly wondered if the characters’ personalities had changed because the game had been updated. But after looking at Emma and my nanny, I realized that was probably not the case.
I did not know what the duke was thinking, but since his current behavior was so different from before, I was not entirely happy about it. So I changed the subject.
“As you said, Duke, I will reduce my coffee intake from now on.”
“Good. You made the right choice.”
I had said I would stop drinking coffee as he wanted, but the duke slightly frowned as if something still bothered him.
“Then, I have plans, so I will leave first.”
“What is your schedule today?”
Just as I was about to stand up, I saw the duke looking at me with an uneasy expression.
But regardless of how he felt, all I wanted was to escape this suffocating place.
“Ha…… I am planning to go look at dresses.”
Dresses? That was a lie. I had planned to return to my room and catch up on the sleep I had missed.
Maybe it was because I had not slept enough, maybe because I could no longer drink coffee, or maybe because I was slowly getting annoyed by this unfamiliar duke who kept talking to me.
“Therefore, please give me some money, Duke.”
Without realizing it, I sighed toward Duke Pomerne and spoke in an annoyed tone—something I would never have done before.
“Alright.”
“As expected, he won’t—…… What?”
“If there is anything you want, buy everything you like.”
At this point, I began to seriously wonder if the duke had some kind of fatal illness.
“Duke, are you perhaps feeling unwell?”
When people become seriously ill, their minds become confused, and they sometimes say strange things.
The duke had never been sick even once in his entire life, but if I had to explain this situation, then Duke Pomerne being sick was the only answer.
“……”
At my question, the duke’s expression stiffened. As if thinking deeply about something, he silently stared at me.
If he was not sick, then I might have just made a huge mistake.
The only thing I liked about this game—the setting of being a wealthy noble daughter—could disappear.
“Duke……?”
Worried that he might think I had challenged him and throw me out, I quietly called his name and looked at him.
“……Dad.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not Duke. Dad.”
Dad?
I thought I had heard wrong.
‘Did I not sleep enough and start hearing things?’
“Goodness, have I not woken up yet?”
My nanny, who had been fixing my dress beside me, also seemed to think she had misheard him. Her voice carried the same confusion as mine.
My nanny and I looked at each other before turning our heads back toward Duke Pomerne.
The duke was staring at me with a serious expression, as if this was an extremely important matter.
“Suddenly calling you Da…… Da……?”
The word “Dad” simply would not come out of my mouth, so I awkwardly mumbled and avoided saying it.
“Because I am your father.”
With his beautiful face that looked similar to mine, Duke Pomerne looked completely confident and firm, as if telling me to hurry and call him that.
No matter how much I thought about it, I could not understand him.
Since entering this game and going through countless regressions, I had never once lived as a daughter who was close with her father.
I did try to get along with the duke at the beginning, though I do not remember exactly when.
But the relationship between Diana and the duke had already become completely broken, making it impossible to repair.
He had always ignored me whenever I asked for help, so seeing him suddenly act this way even made me feel uncomfortable.
“Duke.”
“……”
“I am more comfortable calling you Duke.”
Duke Pomerne looked at me with a bitter expression after I firmly rejected him. I could see him muttering something quietly, too softly for me to hear.
“I will leave now.”
“Alright.”
With that, I hurriedly left the dining room.
“Welcome.”
When I entered the dress shop, the employees immediately bowed toward me.
“Lady, it is an honor to have you visit our store.”
Madam Levelang, who was famous throughout the Imperial Capital, seemed to recognize who I was immediately despite my miserable appearance.
Even though I was wearing a dress stained with tea because I had no other clothes to wear.
‘Coming here was the right choice.’
Since I had told Duke Pomerne that I was going to look at dresses, I ended up visiting the dress shop one day earlier than planned.
This was both a gift to myself after living modestly and serving others for so long, and an attempt to change Diana’s image.
Until now, I felt like I was being forced to be a kind-hearted saintly lady, as if there was a rule that the female protagonist had to be good.
It felt as if someone was controlling me.
I realized that this uncomfortable feeling of being controlled had disappeared when I became annoyed at Duke Pomerne earlier.
Those were things the previous heroine could never have done.
‘Even feeling annoyed was something I couldn’t experience before……’
Was this also because the game had been updated?
Or did the heroine’s settings change after killing the male leads?
“Is there a design you are looking for?”
Madam, who noticed me lost in thought, handed me a catalog and looked at me with a gentle smile.
“It has been so long that I am not sure.”
After flipping through the catalog for a while, I handed it back to her.
“Choose something that suits me. And prepare several of the most glamorous dresses you have.”
“Understood. Please wait a moment.”
While Madam went to prepare the dresses, I drank the warm tea provided by the employee and waited in the private VIP room.
Ding.
At that moment, several young ladies entered Lelevelang together, laughing happily.
They immediately picked out the most extravagant and colorful dresses in the shop, their laughter never stopping.
“We specially reserved Lelevelang for you.”
“It’s okay……”
“You are grateful, so you are buying our dresses too, right?”
“Excuse me……?”
“Oh my, then we will choose your dress too.”
“How about this? It matches your ugly green eyes perfectly.”
“What about this delicate style? Ah, but with so much flesh, you won’t look fragile.”
“A mature-looking dress like this…… Oh my, it looks too vulgar.”
“Kyah! It really does look vulgar!”
At first, I thought they were close friends who came together.
But after listening for a while, it seemed like several people were bullying one young lady.
“I should tell them to be more careful about accepting customers.”
A good idea suddenly came to mind.
I quietly left the VIP room and approached the group.
“Oh my, this orange dress seems like it would highlight your freckles beautifully.”
I placed an orange dress with black droplet patterns, resembling freckles, against the freckled young lady and smiled sarcastically.
“Ah!”
The young ladies looked shocked because I had appeared behind them without warning, but I ignored them and continued speaking.
“For this lady, this dress would enhance her volume…… Ah! It might fall off because there is too little to hold it.”
“Too…… too little? That is not true at all!”
The young lady proudly showed off her figure, insisting she was not lacking at all.
I looked at her with pity and shook my head.
The group stared at me from head to toe, clearly examining me after a stranger suddenly started recommending strange dresses to them.
“Judging by your appearance, you seem like a ruined noble. I will let this go once, so return home.”
“Who is letting whom go?”
“What did you say?”
“Oh my, I only meant to think that.”
“Hey!”
The freckled young lady’s face turned red with anger. She glared at me and shouted.
“Lady, this person is the daughter of Marquis Daker. Apologize immediately.”
Marquis Daker’s family……
I knew them very well.
They were a family that started a business as commoners, became successful, bought a noble title, committed countless crimes, and eventually fell after being accused of treason.
A foolish family that always collapsed in every regression.
“Oh my, so you are the daughter of Marquis Daker.”
I looked at them with a surprised expression.
“Yes, now that you know—”
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Diana Pomerne of the Duke of Pomerne’s family.”
As soon as I finished speaking, the expressions of the young ladies in front of me changed.
Their eyes trembled.
“The saintess of the Empire?”
“I heard she is incredibly kind, enough to be called a saintess……”
“Is she really kind?”
The ladies whispered while looking at me in confusion, then quickly bowed their heads.
“I’m…… I’m sorry, Lady.”
“What happened? I was simply helping you choose dresses.”
The ladies raised their heads at my gentle voice and sighed in relief.
“That is right. Just as Lady said, we were choosing dresses.”
“Exactly. Since you seem to like the dresses I chose, I believe you will wear them when I hold a tea party next time.”
“Yes?”
I smiled and placed the dresses into their hands.
The ladies hesitated, exchanging glances.
“Why? Do you not like the dresses I chose?”
“No! Lady, we love them.”
“Good. These ladies said they would purchase these dresses.”
The employees who handled the payment looked confused because the dresses did not suit them at all.
Holding those dresses, the ladies eventually left the store.
After living as a frustrated heroine inside this game for N years……
That incident just now made me feel like a blocked part of my chest had finally opened.
I returned to my seat and was about to drink my tea, which still had some warmth left, when I felt a burning gaze from behind.
I turned my head.
A young lady with golden hair that sparkled as if sprinkled with gold dust and clear emerald eyes was staring at me with curiosity.
Clang.
I was so shocked after seeing her that the strength left my hand, and I dropped the teacup.
“Ah…… Are you alright?”
“……”
I needed to answer.
But when I saw her looking at me with a worried and innocent expression, I could not bring myself to speak.
“Lady?”
She called my name with a harmless expression, as if she knew nothing.
But I knew exactly who she was.
Because she was the villainess of this game.
