Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Villainess Lady Chloe (3)
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The Daern River cut through the Imperial Capital Teria. To its south lay the Central District, home to the imperial palace.
And to the west of that Central District stood an affluent neighborhood densely packed with the mansions of high-ranking ministers, nobles, and wealthy merchants.
Chloe de Atern, the daughter of the Marchioness Atern. True to her roots in the fabulously wealthy House Atern, her mansion was located here as well.
It was a colossal estate reminiscent of a small kingdom's royal palace. Chloe was bustling about inside it, hurrying from place to place.
She spoke up.
"Everything is perfectly prepared, I trust?"
"Yes, miss. We've prepared everything flawlessly, without a single shortfall."
Fear lingered in the servants' eyes. Chloe was not the sort to forgive even the slightest mistake with magnanimity.
A few days earlier, the gardener Martel had trimmed the landscaping tree branches about a centimeter deeper than usual.
The servants knew Chloe's temperament all too well. So Martel, trembling, had hastily apologized to her—thirty years his junior.
"I... I'm sorry, miss. I trimmed the upper branches deeper than usual..."
"Hmph. I see. Martel, your family has served House Atern since your father's time, generation after generation, hasn't it?"
"Yes... that's right, miss. Please forgive my mistake..."
"Of course. Everyone makes a mistake once in a while, don't they?"
Martel breathed a sigh of relief at her words, thinking himself incredibly fortunate.
But the next day, when he arrived at the mansion for work, all his belongings and gardening tools were piled up in the front yard outside.
"One mistake is just a preview of the next. You've worked hard all this time, Martel. You don't need to come to the mansion anymore. We'll settle your severance according to imperial capital customs."
And just like that, Martel was fired on the spot from House Atern, where he had toiled for thirty years.
Of course, it had been the day after Chloe suffered a grave insult from the Border Count's count—but her ruthlessness knew no bounds.
To avoid falling out of such a young lady's favor, the servants moved without a moment's pause, their feet never stopping.
Watching them, Chloe snapped her fan shut with a tak.
'Finally earning their keep. For the pay they get, those servants have been taking it too easy.'
The place where Chloe now stood was the mansion's hall.
It was a venue where the capital's nobles and ministers' wives often gathered for social events. Especially today, they were preparing the banquet with extra care—for Count Julian's sake.
'She called it a small banquet, but it's anything but casual.'
Noble attire, greetings, and the like—such etiquettes were never set in stone. In a massive city like the capital, trends shifted swiftly with the times.
Not to mention compared to some backwater northern burg like Essenmont. Especially from that town's young master, Count Julian—his standards would surely be low. And he was a wastrel to boot.
Chloe planned to exact a little revenge on the Border Count's heir through today's banquet.
'I let the carriage insult slide because of his status, but humiliating me in front of the reserve squad was crossing the line.'
She could forget favors, but never grudges. That was the way of villainess Chloe. However, with Count Julian's lofty status, she couldn't confront him openly.
So she intended to embarrass him a bit through this "small banquet" prepared in his honor.
'That idiot Count Julian knows nothing of capital etiquette.'
Chloe recalled the imperial palace's year-end ball.
Count Julian had shown up in the hall dressed in sackcloth fit for a clown. Then, he insulted the nobles who gritted their teeth and greeted him anyway.
'How dare they speak to me so casually! You pathetic freaks. Aren't you ashamed in that trashy getup?'
The one in trashy clothes was Count Julian himself—it was absurd.
And dead drunk, he had bellowed some horrific song before the Emperor himself, like a pig being slaughtered.
It was unimaginable as the work of Riel, that demonic tenor bard's son.
'At any rate, it's true the count knows nothing of banquet manners.'
That was why Chloe had prepared this banquet. The count who dared lecture her on manners and humiliate her.
She would humiliate him right back. He'd called it a small banquet, after all. He surely wouldn't prepare properly for dress codes or noble greetings.
She had said the invitations were mainly for Golden Wing squad members—but in truth, she'd invited heaps of the capital's other noble daughters.
'I'll make sure he gets properly embarrassed in front of all those nobles. And that's not all.'
Lately, the count's looks had improved strikingly. So if by some luck he dodged the trap she'd set, she had another to crush his male pride.
He was surely bewitched by her beauty.
Chloe had prepared an aphrodisiac for her own drink and an erectile dysfunction drug for the count's wine glass.
Not a treatment—literally a potion to prevent erections. As an alchemical genius, whipping that up was child's play.
All banquet preparations were complete. A servant announced the arrival of the invited guest.
"Harssen Count! Julian von Reinhardt has arrived!"
The time for revenge had come. Chloe approached him.
Out of the blue, Chloe had invited me to a "small banquet" at her mansion.
I'd attended a banquet at the Border Count's mansion right after the military parade, but parties and socials—hallmarks of nobility—were still utterly foreign to me.
'And it doesn't seem like that villainess invited me without some scheme.'
To seize the initiative, I'd openly humiliated her in front of the other cadets. Yet here she was, hosting a banquet to make up for her rudeness.
As expected from the Chloe I knew, it made sense she'd prepared something for this banquet.
Eirin spoke upon hearing me out.
"The Marchioness Atern's daughter has prepared a small banquet, you say?"
"That's right. She stressed it was just a casual little gathering, nothing to worry about."
"Then it's absolutely not small. A 'small banquet' from a wealthy house like Atern's would be worlds apart from common sense."
So Eirin taught me the latest banquet manners trending among the capital's noble youths. Or rather, it felt like private tutoring.
Dress codes, conversation codes, dancing to the music—it was unimaginably complex and difficult.
Yet I mastered it without issue.
My Ordinary Noble Scion trait had changed like this. It was the one I'd used most, so it evolved a rank through accumulated proficiency.
Thanks to it, I swiftly absorbed the noble manners Eirin taught me.
The banquet was set for a few days later, Sunday evening.
Time was tight, but I mastered the intricate etiquette in less than half a day. Eirin's help was invaluable, of course.
'How does a single maid know all the latest capital noble youth banquet manners? She's truly a transcendent maid.'
Plus, I had the Artist with Aesthetic Sense trait. I was confident handling even the loftiest nobles.
And I'd unlocked one more trait using GP.
The Ordinary Alchemist trait. I hadn't started alchemy lectures yet, but the reason I unlocked it early was in that description.
Class special effect: Understanding of Poisons. Essential for an alchemist handling dangerous materials constantly.
'That psycho Chloe might slip something weird into my food or drink.'
I'd humiliated her badly. Assassination was a stretch, but who knew what a raging psycho might do.
She could spike my wine with a potion to paralyze me.
Chloe would be the prime suspect, sure—but against that woman, I needed to be thorough.
This was my countermeasure.
The Understanding of Poisons revealed a hidden passive in my blood.
Immunity to All Poisons. Demon King's blood apparently couldn't be felled by mere toxins—it was a noble constitution.
'Makes sense why the mana-awakening elixir was useless for Julian—it hurried his mana awakening instead.'
Tragic in ways, but irrelevant now that I'd awakened my mana.
It was banquet day now. As I sorted my thoughts, coachman Hans dropped me off at Chloe's mansion.
"I'll wait here then."
"The banquet won't end quickly. Plenty of other coachmen around—go mingle."
"Understood, young master."
With that to Hans, I entered Chloe's mansion.
'What a mansion. Way bigger than ours in the capital.'
Makes sense for House Atern, which no imperial noble could match in wealth. The servant announced my arrival.
"Harssen Count! Julian von Reinhardt has arrived!"
Chloe trembled with rising fury.
Count Julian hadn't fallen into a single one of her traps.
In the center of the hall, filled with stately music, stood one man amid the invited noble youths.
"Glory to the lion's valor that tames the north winds! Marie, second daughter of Viscount Leble, greets Count Julian."
"Glory to that valor. Yes, good to see you, Marie. Enjoy yourself at this delightful gathering hosted by Lady Chloe Atern."
"I will, Count Julian... I surely will..."
Even now, the noble daughter greeting him had stars in her eyes.
Was this truly the man who had insulted her over etiquette manners right before her?
Count Julian mingled flawlessly with the invited noble youths. Dress code, greeting etiquette, conversation topics—perfect in every way.
No one in the capital's nobles didn't know wastrel Julian. At first, everyone hesitated to approach.
But with shockingly impeccable manners and affability, Count Julian drew them all in.
Before long, the banquet's center had shifted from Chloe to Count Julian.
"As expected of an item procured by Lady Atern—porcelain of the highest caliber. It holds classical beauty yet boldly incorporates transitional experiments toward later eras, sparingly placed. Such pieces have immense artistic value."
"Impressive, Count Julian! They all look the same to us. As a renowned artist, your eye is different."
"Pantheon's arts department has top-tier lectures. You pick things up naturally."
"Is that so! We're learning from you again, count. Haha."
Chloe had mixed porcelain of vastly different values around the venue to embarrass him—items that looked similar at a glance.
The self-proclaimed artist count would be asked by the nobles, she figured.
She'd even casually brought up the porcelain during the banquet to lead him on.
But he hadn't been fooled once, distinguishing every valuable piece. Even slyly elevating the hostess—herself—in the process.
It was the epitome of dignified poise befitting a grand duke's heir.
'How did that trash artist count change like this? Damn it. If the banquet ends like this, it's my total defeat. Can't let that happen.'
Chloe resolved to use her final prepared move. She poured fifty-year-old wine into two glasses.
Aphrodisiac in hers. Erectile dysfunction drug in his. Then she approached Count Julian.
"Count Julian, care to try this wine? It's fifty-year-old vintage from the renowned southern vineyards, made from hand-picked grapes."
"Sounds good. Pour me one."
"Together with me."
She drank the wine he offered. Chloe couldn't suppress a wicked smile.
The mansion's rear garden. Amid shrubs taller than a man and dense landscaping trees, it offered plenty of hidden nooks for a man and woman.
The capital's noble youths, lax on chastity. And the recent banquet culture.
Accordingly, moans filled the air from guests enjoying steamy after-parties in the garden's corners.
"Ahh... ahhn... so good... ahh..."
"Lower your voice, viscount's daughter!"
Sure enough, even near where Chloe and Julian stood, someone was in the thick of it.
Chloe quickly checked Count Julian's reaction. He was a man too. His face flushed with arousal and excitement.
"I hoped to rest here with you, count, but other guests beat us to it. My estate is quite spacious, though."
"True. For private talk, we should move."
Chloe led Julian to a more secluded spot in the rear garden. Having downed the aphrodisiac, and stirred by the moans unlike her usual self, she was a bit excited.
'If even I'm this heated, no man could hold back seeing me like this.'
She exuded raw sensuality.
Along the way, she'd whispered seductively to tempt him. Blatant sexual invitation. Naturally, no red-blooded man could resist such a den of moans without stirring.
'But if he can't get it up amid all that? Total humiliation.'
At last, the pair settled in a secluded garden spot.