MFGLT 03

Chapter 03

I’m New to Being a Lady, So I’ll Cause a Little Trouble

As time passed, the day of Count Rosetti’s banquet finally arrived.

I was still far from being a perfect noble lady, but I had learned enough to fool people for a few hours.

“Don’t cause any trouble.”

“If someone you don’t know acts like they know you, just say you can’t remember them. After all, Ulpina doesn’t know anyone outside the family.”

The Viscount and his wife whispered to me in voices low enough that only I could hear.

I nodded slightly, then approached them and Count Rosetti, the host of the banquet.

“It’s been a long time, Grand-Uncle. Have you been well?”

“Oh, Sophie! Have you been doing well? Viscount Nezer, you look well, too. Every time I see her, Ulpina becomes a more splendid young lady.”

“Thank you. You look splendid yourself, Grandfather.”

I greeted him with a faint smile, just as I had been taught.

“But…”

A sense of foreboding washed over me.

In my experience, nothing good ever came after someone started a sentence with but.

“You seem to have changed somehow.”

At his weighty remark, the eyes of both the Viscount and his wife darted about frantically. Cold sweat trickled down my back.

‘I told you not to cause any trouble!’

‘I greeted him exactly the way you taught me! How is that causing trouble?!’

We silently bickered with our eyes, each blaming the other, while the person who had caused all this commotion smiled with satisfaction.

“You’re more well-behaved than you were last year. You’ve grown into a proper young lady.”

At his words, we stopped our silent quarrel and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Of course! Ulpina is an adult now, after all.”

The Viscount joked, and everyone burst into laughter tinged with relief.

You old geezer. If you pull something like that one more time, I won’t let you get away with it.

“Lady Ulpina has changed. How should I put it… She seems much calmer.”

“Does she?”

The Viscount and Viscountess Nezer had complicated feelings about the matter.

The maid who had been switched with their biological daughter had done nothing more than greet their acquaintances with a simple, “Have you been well?” Yet their friends had somehow noticed the change immediately.

And what was more, they were reacting positively to it.

The Viscount glanced sideways toward Ulpina.

Wearing a silver dress, she was chatting quite comfortably with a young relative.

The original Ulpina would have exchanged a few greetings before quietly slipping away like a shadow.

Seeing his daughter display such sociability, even if someone else was inside her, made him feel both pleased and sad.

‘I was worried she’d cause even more trouble than Ulpina usually does, but it seems I was worrying for nothing.’

However, that thought barely lasted a moment.

A shocking announcement struck his ears.

“Lady Ulpina has challenged Marquis Penri to a duel!”

After finishing our round of greetings with the Viscount and his wife—which I had treated as an opportunity to gather personal information under the guise of socializing—I discreetly slipped away.

Even someone as ignorant of high society as me knew that it wasn’t a good look for a grown woman to cling to her parents instead of mingling with others.

Unfortunately, I had no other options. I didn’t know a single person here.

I was also worried that if I carelessly joined a conversation, someone might expose me, shouting, ‘You little schemer! How dare a commoner maid impersonate a noble lady and deceive us!’

Of course, suspecting that another soul had entered a young lady’s body simply because her personality had changed would be even more bizarre.

‘Still, better safe than sorry. I should avoid doing anything that draws attention to me.’

With that resolution in mind, I picked up a glass of wine, moved to one side of the banquet hall, and pretended to enjoy the atmosphere.

But my attempt to pass the time listening to the orchestra didn’t last long.

‘This is bothering me.’

The plates that were nearly empty but weren’t being replenished bothered me.

The half-empty glasses carelessly left along the edge of the buffet table bothered me.

And the fact that fresh napkins weren’t being provided immediately bothered me so, so much—guests who had eaten petit fours were secretly wiping the food off their fingers on the tablecloth!

‘So even nobles do this kind of thing. But still, no matter how busy they are, they should be clearing things away and preparing replacements quickly! It’s not as if they’re poor. They could at least hire a few more servants.’

I felt a little melancholy.

I was wearing an expensive dress I would never have had the chance to wear if I’d remained a maid for the rest of my life, and I was enjoying the luxury of drinking costly wine. Yet the thoughts occupying my mind were unmistakably those of a maid.

‘I guess there really is a reason people say you can only appreciate something once you’ve experienced it yourself.’

That was when it happened.

“Ulpina?”

A high-pitched voice called out from behind me.

I turned around and saw an arrogant-looking man accompanied by a prim-looking woman holding his arm.

“Oh my! What a surprise! Fancy seeing you here.”

“…Rosemay.”

I knew her face well enough.

She was the daughter of Mirinda Gordon, the Viscountess’s cousin.

She wasn’t exactly known for her good character. She frequently picked pointless fights with me, the maid assigned to Lady Ulpina, and went out of her way to humiliate me.

“I’m surprised you’re still here at the banquet. Usually, you just greet the host and disappear like the wind.”

Rosemay spoke with a cutting smile.

It was an unmistakable sneer.

“I suppose I’ve been rather preoccupied lately.”

Remembering the Viscount’s warning not to cause trouble, I answered in a flat, emotionless voice.

Apparently, my calm response didn’t please her.

‘Look at her face twisting up. Who knew a human face could wrinkle like that?’

Good grief. What a waste of a pretty face.

Perhaps because she noticed other people watching, her fierce expression quickly changed back into a smile.

“You’ve heard that I’m engaged to the Marquis, haven’t you?”

Rosemay spoke proudly, loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear, while stroking her fiancé’s arm. Every time she moved her hand, the enormous gemstone set in her engagement ring glittered.

‘Hmm. So the man beside her must be that Marquis fellow. Pen… something, wasn’t it?’

Not panties, anyway.

“Marquis Penri, this is my sixth cousin, Ulpina Nezer.”

She introduced me to her fiancé in a fawning voice.

Marquis Penri looked me up and down with a disgustingly blatant stare, as though he were inspecting a piece of pork hanging in a butcher’s shop.

“Ah, so you’re the daughter of Viscount Nezer.”

“…It’s a pleasure to meet you, Marquis. I’m Ulpina Nezer.”

It was neither a pleasure nor a pleasant experience, but I bowed politely, just as the Viscountess had taught me.

‘Even if I’m in a bad mood, I can’t exactly tell a marquis off.’

Despite my efforts, however, the nobleman in front of me showed no intention of exercising any restraint.

Keeping his eyes fixed on me, he leaned toward Rosemay and whispered something in her ear.

His eyes had narrowed into such a sly, malicious expression that I couldn’t help suspecting he wasn’t saying anything nice.

“Oh, that’s too much!”

She playfully swatted her fiancé’s arm and giggled.

“Did I say anything wrong?”

“Hehe, still!”

I was just about to leave the ill-mannered couple to their snickering when the Marquis raised his voice, clearly intending for me to hear.

“It’s true, isn’t it? Viscount Nezer is nothing more than Count Bathory’s lackey.”

Viscount Nezer served as Count Bathory’s chamberlain. The Viscount wasn’t one of the great nobles, but that hardly meant he was someone others could casually look down on.

‘And Count Bathory is the Viscountess Nezer’s mother.’

In other words, these people had insulted not only the Count’s representative but also the Count who had appointed him as chamberlain.

I remembered the Viscountess complaining about how insufferable it was that the Gordon family went around bragging to everyone about their connection to Marquis Penri, as though it were some tremendous achievement.

‘Honestly, not all marquises are created equal.’

Of course, to commoners, Marquis Penri was indeed a very important person. But among the nobility, his position was somewhat ambiguous.

Marquis Penri was a life peer who had been granted his title personally by the current emperor, meaning he couldn’t pass it down to his descendants. Although he owned private land, he didn’t possess a fief from which he could collect taxes.

Furthermore, imperial law prohibited life peers from participating in politics.

So, was he fabulously wealthy?

Not that, either. From what I’d heard, his pockets were filled solely by the pension he received from the state.

‘He isn’t even in a position to pick a fight like this, so why on earth is he acting that way?’

I salute your complete lack of pedigree.

‘Well, I can roughly guess why they’re so unjustifiably arrogant.’

But that was beside the point.

“Apologize.”

I spoke in a stiff voice.

Rosemay widened her eyes at me and butted in.

“Oh, honestly! Why are you getting so worked up over a little joke from the Marquis?”

“A joke?”