Chapter 61
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61
It was winter. The sun hung low in the sky, casting a pale, amber glow as if trying to thaw the biting chill of the air.
How long had I stood there, lost in that light?
“Lady Harriet, I wish to apologize.”
“Lady Viviana…?”
I turned to find Viviana biting her lip, her brow furrowed with a mix of shame and hesitation.
“On the day of that party, when everyone turned on me… the spot where I stood felt strangely familiar. When I thought about it, I realized that you were the one who usually stood there, Lady Harriet. And I was always on the other side, leading the condemnation.”
“……”
“I am truly sorry. I judged you without ever hearing your side. I treated you like a villain simply because I believed Bella’s lies, and I was reckless in spreading those rumors…! Haa… saying it out loud, I realize I truly was a wretched woman.”
Viviana covered her face with both hands, unable to meet my eyes.
But when she finally gathered the courage to look up and apologize again, she froze in shock.
Tears were welling in my eyes, and the tip of my nose had flushed a faint pink.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“What? Me? No, I’m the one who should be—!”
“No one has ever apologized to me before,” I interrupted softly. “All I ever needed… all I ever wanted to hear was that one phrase: ‘I’m sorry for misunderstanding.’”
I couldn’t hold back any longer and bowed my head.
The apology, coming from someone who had once been my most vocal critic, shook me to the core far more profoundly than I had expected.
Viviana hovered nearby, flustered and uncertain. Since my return from the convent, I had shown the world nothing but a haughty, confident mask. To see that mask crumble into tears left her at a total loss.
“I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry, Lady Harriet. I truly am sorry for misunderstanding you.”
Viviana repeated the words I had longed for like a litany. It felt brazen to apologize only after she had suffered the same fate, but she had no other words to offer.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand and lifted my head, regaining my composure.
“Forgive me. I reacted far too emotionally. It wasn’t something to cry over.”
“I don’t know if this sounds bold, but… I think I understand why you cried,” Viviana said, her voice hardening. “I’ll expose Bella. I’ll tell everyone what she’s really like.”
I shook my head immediately. “Don’t do that.”
“I know I’ve wronged you, Lady Harriet, but please trust me just this once. Everyone is being deceived by her. I can’t just stand by and watch.”
“It isn’t a matter of trust, Lady Viviana. It’s a matter of timing.”
Viviana looked bewildered. I felt a pang of pity for her; she still didn’t grasp the full extent of Bella’s nature. She believed she could fight Bella on equal terms, but the fortress Bella had built was not so easily breached.
“If you try to expose her now, no one will believe you. Bella is a master at playing the martyr.”
“So I should just keep my mouth shut and live like this?”
“If that were the case, I never would have returned to Genoa.”
My eyes sharpened.
“We need to make Bella tear off her own mask. I believe the last party was the beginning of that. Don’t you agree, Lady Viviana?”
“What? That…!”
Viviana started to ask what I meant, but then she caught my steady gaze. The realization hit her. It had already happened—to her.
Her mouth hung open in astonishment as she stammered, “Did you know? Did you know I would break off my friendship with her?”
“Of course not. I merely hoped that Bella, having lost her composure, would show a fracture in her facade. I only needed someone to witness that crack.”
Viviana’s mind clearly raced back to the events I hadn’t seen.
Bella’s icy expression when their eyes met. Had anyone else seen it?
Bella, weeping like a victim while the friends she had just been laughing with were cast out. Had no one else found that scene jarring?
“Perhaps… I wasn’t the only one who saw it?”
“I hope so. But this is only the beginning. To be honest, I never imagined someone like you would actively step forward so soon.”
However, this development wasn’t entirely a blessing. Bella would not let Viviana go unpunished; she had essentially issued a challenge.
“I appreciate your courage, but you must be careful from now on, Lady Viviana. Bella will not forgive you for ‘betraying’ her.”
“How is it betrayal?”
“From her perspective, it is. It’s both treachery and defiance.”
Bella had meticulously engineered her life to become the most admired lady in High Society. Even I had to acknowledge the sheer effort she put into the role. Because of it, men vied for her affection and women were desperate for her favor. The Golden Rose of Genoa held everyone in her thrall.
And Bella, whose pride was as vast as her ambition, loathed it when a "friend" left her first.
“I know someone who declared an end to their friendship first, just as you did. She was utterly ostracized. Do you remember Diana McKeller?”
“McKeller? You mean the House of McKeller?”
“The same. They had a youngest daughter.”
The House of McKeller was a powerful family with vast business interests abroad. Diana, the youngest, had once been my friend—until Bella sowed discord between us and stole her away.
“Among Bella’s circle, Diana had the best pedigree, so Bella cherished her. But after a subtle war of attrition broke out between them, everything changed.”
It had started over something trivial. The two of them had arrived at a party wearing the same designer dress. Both wanted the other to concede, but neither would back down.
The victor was Bella. Her dazzling beauty simply outshone Diana’s.
If it had ended there, they might have reconciled. But Bella began to mock her—disguising her insults as slips of the tongue or "concerned" observations. Enraged and her pride wounded, Diana declared an end to their friendship in front of the entire social circle.
“After that, strange things began to happen. The men who used to follow Bella suddenly began pursuing Diana instead.”
For a sixteen-year-old girl, it must have been intoxicating. From a distance, one might have sensed a trap, but a girl whose secret desires were being fulfilled lacked the discernment to see the hook.
“Diana became drunk on her own popularity. She acted like a queen among those men. She drank too much, acted disgracefully, and indulged in… indiscretions.”
“Heavens…!”
“Scandal followed, as it always does. And just as the world began to point fingers, Bella appeared at a party, surrounded by the very men who had been ‘pursuing’ Diana. Diana was made to look like a pathetic, delusional fool.”
Viviana’s eyes went wide. “Bella used those men to ruin Lady Diana’s reputation?”
“She denied any knowledge of it, of course. Regardless, the House of McKeller sent their daughter abroad before the shame could destroy the family. No one has heard a word of her since.”
I sighed, recalling the day Diana was driven out of the Empire. I hadn't been able to see her, but I had overheard Bella laughing with Aston that afternoon.
“Ugh, how annoying! Count McKeller spirited Diana away to the Kingdom of Candia. I had planned to utterly humiliate her.”
“Hasn’t she already been humiliated? She can’t set foot in Astoga anymore.”
“It isn’t enough. If I had finished what I started, she wouldn’t have had any choice but to take her own life.”
The memory still gave me chills.
A sixteen-year-old girl had decided to drive her friend to suicide and used men as her weapons. It was monstrous.
“Even Diana, who had a better family and more influence than Bella, suffered that fate. Do you think Bella will simply accept you ending the friendship, Lady Viviana? Especially when she considers you ‘beneath’ her?”
“Beneath? She considers me beneath her?”