A Reluctant Compromise
“…T-thank you…….”
Diane offered a greeting that fluttered like a dry twig in the wind, then hurried out of the room.
Through the gap in the door, Idel’s face appeared, hiding behind a book.
Her expression was as if she had seen a ghost, and she quickly shook her head.
‘Calm down. Calm down.’
Diane gripped the doorknob of the closed door and took a deep breath.
Afterward, she decided to calmly and as objectively as possible list out the series of events that had happened to her.
‘So, I might have misunderstood Idel until now? The actions she showed me looked that way too.’
Honestly, she was still unsure.
What could she say? The things she’d thought were obvious suddenly shattered.
After all, none of the servants had ever liked Idel.
‘But if I really did misunderstand….’
Only then did Diane’s suppressed actionability begin to stir.
She turned her body as if making a promise while blinking tightly at the doorknob.
She had to visit the head maid’s room to go on Idel’s outing the next day.
“Sigh…….”
Throughout the walk, two thoughts clashed fiercely in her mind.
One was that a single more check would let her reach a conclusion, and the other was that doing this when everyone’s attention was focused was crazy.
But what could she do.
‘This is really a nasty habit.’
If she hadn’t seen it, maybe she could have pretended not to notice. But Diane couldn’t bring herself to turn her eyes away after it had already caught her eye.
At the head maid’s room, she pressed her trembling hands against her racing heart, then carefully knocked on the door.
***
While Diane’s prejudice was shattering into pieces inside her, Idel peacefully examined the things she needed to confirm.
She had also checked that the rebound ring Viled gave her changed color, and cross-referenced the information from the old map and current map with the original story.
‘The old map really has the abandoned orphanage that appeared in the original story. Since it’s not marked on the current map, it seems no new building has been built there yet.’
That meant it would be worth visiting the abandoned orphanage one day to find out.
She might not get anything out of it, but it was still the place where Melissa was adopted.
Her brother had mentioned it several times in his book report too.
‘It’s even fairly close to the Lopez ducal family? It would be worth going there pretending it’s Violet’s grave.’
Violet was the cat Idel had raised when she was at the ducal family.
The only friend she could confide in before the memories of her previous life returned.
Idel slowly tapped the desk with her finger while marking the information pulled from the restless memories.
‘Strange.’
For some reason, everything was going too smoothly.
Even if catching the curse’s thread to meet Sigmund had been the result of luck and effort, the events afterward didn’t seem believable.
‘Melissa is too quiet for now.’
Of course, Melissa hadn’t cared about her daughter’s relationships.
More precisely, she hadn’t cared about her daughter’s growth at all.
Moreover, children whose main stage was the streets like Sigmund weren’t much different from a cat named Violet in Melissa’s eyes.
‘Since I confirmed the curse was solid right before meeting the duke, the “friend” I met on this outing must have lightly brushed past her too.’
But what about the other problems? There must be something she’d missed. For example….
‘What Melissa did after I collapsed.’
Idel’s eyes narrowed. The thought that Melissa had simply left the place without doing anything after she collapsed didn’t feel right at all.
Yet she was so quiet. One of two things had to be true.
‘She already did something I didn’t notice, or she’s preparing something else.’
Whichever it was, right now the only thing Idel could do was reduce the curse’s effect on her and thoroughly search the abandoned orphanage for clues in any way she could.
“I’ll have no choice but to focus on tomorrow’s outing while keeping an alert eye on my surroundings.”
At least, since it was an officially approved outing, there was the small consolation that she didn’t have to rush back.
Idel took in the settings of the memories she had sorted last, then immediately returned to the bed.
She needed to stock up on energy now for tomorrow.
***
The next morning.
Idel left the ducal manor early to wait for Sigmund, who was waiting endlessly for her arrival.
She blinked a few times at the various figures standing in front of the carriage.
“……Is my eyesight strange? Why are there four heads?”
She understood two of the four heads by generously sparing them.
He had said he would go alone, but the duke had firmly refused.
The fact that the meeting place had been set at the cafe the duke specified was largely to blame too.
But the other two were people who definitely shouldn’t be here.
“Idel, here I am!”
“Ah, Miss Idel! G-good morning……!”
“Jiana, Diane.”
Why are they here?
Idel raised her eyebrows in open disbelief at the situation she couldn’t understand.
She walked over to the two with wide eyes and threw a cold, stiff question without preamble.
“What are you two?”
The two made the most difficult expressions and nodded their chins, urging her to speak quickly.
Based on the experience of dealing with Jiana and Diane so far, when they were urged like this, they immediately shrank and made excuses….
“Eh? Well, I came to see my little brother off today! You were going to the Cafe Florant, right? I wanted to go with you…. But there’s a lesson I can’t miss. It’s too bad. Next time, let’s go together!”
“Ah, I was able to go with Miss Idel. S-since when the young lady goes out alone, I couldn’t send her alone…! The head maid allowed it.”
Excuses…?
‘What’s going on today? Why are they so energetic?’
Idel’s eyes shook slightly at the two’s completely different behavior from usual.
‘Did I just say something too weakly?’
It was possible. People are adaptable animals, after all. Maybe they’d gotten used to her tone.
So Idel took a more resolute expression and tone than before and answered again.
“Hah, I’m not at all sorry. Since I’m going alone, you two step aside!”
At this point, she expected them to back down as usual. But the next words from the two made her eyes widen.
“Ehh, I see. Then I’ll prepare the drink you like when Idel comes. Let’s eat the cheesecake together.”
“I-I have to go with you! No matter what Miss Idel says, this is something I absolutely cannot back down from!”
Why is this happening?
Idel looked back and forth between the two with a doubtful expression due to their completely different demeanor from usual.
But despite Idel’s persistent gaze, Jiana and Diane didn’t back down even a little.
It was a bold attitude only people who had already shared opinions on the topic of “Idel’s mean tone and sincerity” could have.
“Haa…….”
When both showed no signs of giving up, Idel let out a short sigh.
‘Yeah, even though in the original story she was the kind of person who gave in easily, the Clementine duke wasn’t an idiot either……. Just relying on her alone to accompany me wasn’t something I could trust.’
Today’s conversation with Sigmund had a high chance of reaching the duke’s ears.
‘Anyway, I’ll have to be careful with my words today.’
She had lied about being close enough to Sigmund that she couldn’t be separated from him, so she had to act like that.
Deciding on the attitude she would show Sigmund in her mind, Idel flicked her fingers and called Diane.
It was silent permission to go together.
Diane rolled her eyes to check Idel’s mood, then beamed with relief after the single gesture.
“I don’t need to serve you much, so just hang out with me and mess up the mood, okay? Call me ‘Del’ instead of ‘Idel’. Just ‘Del’.”
“Ah, y-yes! I-I will remember!”
“Good.”
Idel nodded her head vigorously at Diane, then gave her a small nod and stepped into the carriage.
If she could, she wanted to add a few more conditions before leaving, but if she did, it felt like Sigmund would punch her in the face the moment he saw her.
‘He’s still waiting for me alone.’
Idel quickly shook her head after recalling her first meeting with Sigmund. She didn’t want any more bloody incidents with the “Mad Dog.”