Huh?

It was at Lady Bella's initiative...?

Yes.

'An invitation to the upper echelons out of nowhere? Hadn't I left after accepting her explanation...?'

I had never let my guard down in front of Bella.

I was certain because I had never played the role of a 'gifted child with dreams' so perfectly.

Bella, too, seemed to have only probed me formally, with no intention of digging deeper.

It would have been unnatural for her, who had no connection with me to begin with, to take an interest in me.

Even so, the fact that I had been invited to the social gathering meant... I had to assume it was due to the influence of those who were already curious about my identity or abilities.

Aiden, for instance, or Enrico, or perhaps the other teachers.

I asked Iroha.

"Lady Iroha, is it common to designate a companion for a social gathering of the higher-ranking families?"

"It happens sometimes. But I've never heard of it at the academy."

"As I thought... I must be putting you in a difficult position."

"Heh, I actually prefer it this way."

As always, they said that if someone brought another person along to a closed gathering, the responsibility rested entirely with the person who had extended the invitation.

Apparently, Iroha had not particularly intended to bring me.

......Instead of inviting me herself, Bella had gone out of her way to have Iroha do it.

This meant Bella knew that Iroha and I were close. I didn't know whether it had been Bella's own idea, but this invitation was practically an implicit threat.

'Stop being a nuisance and reveal all your information.'

I had no idea what scheme she had devised, so staying quiet was my best option. But.

"You're coming with me, then, right?"

"Of course! It would be an honor."

I couldn't bring myself to put Iroha in a difficult position.

Even setting aside the matter of my relationship with a person in power, how could I turn my back on a friend who had shown me kindness?

In the end, the answer had been decided from the start.

"By the way, Lady Iroha."

"Yes, Lady Raebi."

"This is my first time at a gathering like that, so is there anything I should know in advance?"

"Hmm... Let's see. You should at least familiarize yourself with the attendees, and if possible, make sure you don't get confused about the hierarchy."

"Anything else?"

"Not particularly. However..."

Iroha fixed her gaze on me. Her eyes held both concern and curiosity.

"In Lady Raebi's case, they said you know why you've been invited. That probably means they want you to show them something commensurate with it."

“Something commensurate with it…”

......It would have been nice if I at least knew exactly what I was being called there for.

"Haha, I must have attracted attention because I know more than you'd expect. This is rather stressful!"

"Oh... Are you allowed to brag? Anyway, don't worry. I'll cheer you on as hard as I can!"

Fortunately, Iroha did not dig any deeper.

I would have wondered whether to tell her at least part of the truth if she asked,

but for now, she seemed to regard me simply as a 'clever girl with a talent for item crafting.'

But I had a feeling that someday, whether by my own choice or someone else's, the truth would be exposed, and I decided to leave everything to fate when that time came.

Afterward, I heard a few things about the social gathering and took my leave.

It was late, so I couldn't stay long enough to chat.

I returned to my room and held an emergency meeting.

Han Jihye took turns admonishing An Nari and me with all sorts of warnings.

Honestly, it was called an emergency meeting, but it was closer to a one-sided parade of nagging.

After that stormy stretch, I went to bed.

"An invitation to the British social gathering?"

"Yes..."

"......Raebi, what did you do this time?"

"Pardon?"

"I told you to keep a low profile! Come here, you need to be scolded."

When I consulted Livi early that morning, she nearly tore my cheeks off.

Perhaps because my accumulated karma had caught up with me, she did not even give me a chance to explain.

"Hwaaah-!!! L-let go of me!! It's unfair!!"

I hurriedly began explaining the situation to her.

This time, when Livi realized that I genuinely had no idea what was going on, she slowly loosened her grip,

and when she heard that Bella's announcement had been unilateral and sudden, her expression clouded with conflicted emotions.

"I thought everything had been resolved..."

She muttered in a low voice.

Since Livi had also more or less observed my private lessons with Bella from the sidelines, the current situation seemed quite unexpected to her as well.

"You really didn't do anything, Lady Raebi?"

"I didn't! Really!"

Except for scamming Teacher Enrico.

But I couldn't imagine Bella ‘Cecil’ inviting me merely to hold something like that against me.

Then what else could it be?

Maybe Bella had seen through my act, or Enrico or the other teachers had raised questions, or my item-crafting ability had been exposed.

'Or maybe my body?'

I suddenly remembered something Bella had said.

-Lady Raebi, it's unusual that your nails are bluish. I thought silver hair and golden eyes were fairly rare too.

People usually assumed nail color was simply nail polish and moved on without comment.

Since pointing out a physical characteristic could hurt someone's feelings, it was also rare for anyone to say something so bluntly.

"Sis Livi. Judging by how Lady Bella keeps making unilateral announcements like this, she doesn't respect me, does she?"

"That's right. It's not as though she doesn't understand noble etiquette."

Yes... This was it.

Honestly, she didn't seem interested in me as a person, either. She had smiled to my face, but that had to have been a completely fake smile.

She had probably mentioned my physical traits to identify 'unusual details' and observe my reaction.

I didn't know why she would go that far, but perhaps someone had asked her to investigate my circumstances.

'Then this makes things a little easier.'

Whoever the client was, Bella found this whole thing bothersome.

The proof was the way she hastily wielded her power, as though she didn't care what happened to her relationship with me.

If she'd been willing to spend time testing the waters by putting me in contact with other nobles first, she could have found all sorts of ways to make me let my guard down.

"……Come to think of it, didn't Lord Aiden call for Raebi during the entrance ceremony?"

Livi blinked several times as she spoke. She looked as though she had realized something.

"He... did, didn't he? Why?"

"The more I think about it, the stranger it is. Why would that Cavendish want to meet an adopted noble from a family of uncertain standing first?"

She stared at me intently, saying, ‘There really is something going on.’

She said that even a family as powerful as Shimizu taking an interest in us would have been impossible if not for the issue of my appearance.

That was what the ‘upper echelons’ were like.

"Are you still not going to tell me? You know I had to sweat buckets explaining things so nothing would blow up during this social season."

"......Y-yes, yesss."

This was troublesome.

Since I kept bringing one absurd incident after another in my wake, Livi, being both a woman and a member of my family, had been dragged into all of it.

Bella's visit in particular had caused huge repercussions, and Livi had been frantic wherever she went, smoothing over talk related to it.

She said it had been especially difficult to know where to draw the line because she herself didn't know the crucial details.

So she deserved to hear the truth.

By ordinary standards, that was certainly true.

I decided to tell her enough to satisfy her, but no more.

"Well... actually."

"Yes."

"Lord Aiden seemed curious about how I had come to be adopted. He appeared to find it strange that I hadn't made any donations."

"Ah..."

Livi's mouth fell slightly open. She seemed to empathize.

"It was a topic of discussion as soon as the news got out. People said it was strange that the family head had taken in a child of unknown origins who wasn't even high-ranked. The information saying you were E-rank was wrong, though."

"My arrival was a topic of discussion?"

"Of course. Anyone who knew the family head's personality couldn't help but be surprised. And he even dispatched Douglas Kim's Watchers to bring you... Sis April also suspected that there was 'something going on.'"

......So that's why she'd come to meet me.

"Raebi."

"Yes, Sis."

"You said you gave the family head an item, right? Can't you tell me even a little? I'm so curious I feel like I'm going to go crazy..."

"Ah……"

'Oh, no!'

My heart began to waver.

Even though someone who had already suffered so much because of me was looking at me so pitifully and asking me to at least tell her what had caused it all, how could I remain unmoved?

Judging by her usual personality, she probably had no ulterior motive.

Honestly, it had been wrong of me to keep pretending not to know until now.

But a no was still a no, so... I steeled myself and looked at her.

"Raebi...?"

"The thing is, Sis."

"......Tch. If it's something you can't tell me, then it can't be helped. It's the family head's order, after all."

She gave up before I could even open my mouth. She must have sensed my refusal from my expression.

That bitter smile and disappointed look pierced straight through my heart.

'One of the few people who was kind to me after I was adopted...'

It hurt.

Douglas did dote on me, but it felt as though he were handling a jewel, while Vincent was kind but mischievous.

Livi was the only one among the Douglas Kim nobles who had embraced me warmly, so refusing her this time was especially difficult.

‘Right. I'm the one who gets to decide who comes with me.’

"Sis. You have to hear me out to the end."

"Huh? You couldn't tell me?"

"Well......if you would really, truly stake your life on keeping this secret, ...then I could show you a little."

Livi's eyes slowly widened. A smile spread across her pretty face.

"R-really?"

"Yes. But only on the condition that you promise me."

"Of course! I promise!"

Livi jumped up and down on the spot.

"So what is it?"

After her excitement had calmed down a little, she asked.

Remembering how she had hugged me while thanking me, I asked with a pleased smile.

"You're being uncharacteristically hasty, Sis. Were you really that curious?"

"Of course! It was strange because Raebi isn't thoughtful or meticulous enough to keep a trivial secret!"

"……"

......Is she seriously saying something that mean?

The complete lack of malice in her tone or expression made it even more of a killer.

Still, I thought it was much better than having her say something she didn't mean while anxiously watching my reaction.

"First, have all the attendants leave. No one may spy on us."

Everyone except Han Jihye, who knew the circumstances, left the room.

Since nobles were never to be trusted not to stab one another in the back, this was something that ordinarily should never be done.

But neither Livi nor I belonged to the sort of people involved in such political maneuvering.

I spoke to her as she waited, brimming with anticipation.

"I have summoning magic. What I gave the family head was a summoned creature, too."

"Hmm? ......Can summoned creatures be transferred to someone else?"

"Not exactly. But I can put one into a mana-infused item and make it obey the item's owner's commands."

"Wow... Show me!"

Ding-

[The stored Pygmy Warrior is summoned.]

I first summoned just one mid-level Pygmy. It was a child-sized wooden doll, similar to a goblin.

Livi picked it up and began examining it with fascination; her surprise deepened when she saw the plant fibers moving like muscles.

"It's alive. Definitely."

"Hehe, I was surprised when I first saw it, too."

"It looks moderately strong... You have enough of these to give them away as gifts?"

"Yep. I can manufacture them myself, after all."

"Wow!"

Livi praised me as a true artisan. She asked whether I could give her one as well, so I put the one she was holding into her ring.

Like Douglas, she enjoyed putting it in and taking it out.

But soon the smile vanished from her face and she furrowed her brow.

"But it's rather unusual. It suddenly pops out without any gesture at all, which is quite different from known summoning magic."

"Really? I don't know much about it..."

"Hmm, and summoned creatures made by humans are newly created each time... but this feels as though it's being stored. Where could it possibly be normally?"

"That's..."

In fact, that was something I was curious about, too.

When I had previously seen a message saying something like 'Cannot enter ring,' it seemed certain that they stayed somewhere in a different space... but then what about the other Pygmies I had made myself?

I suspected that some sort of place might have been provided for them as well.

I let slip something I shouldn't have.

"I don't know for sure, but perhaps they shrink down or stay in another space. I'm curious about what the children usually do, too, so I'd like to take a look right now."

Ding-

Moving to ['Inventory'].

'Huh?'