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“If you don’t mind my asking.”
I took the cup nervously and fiddled with it, then said cautiously,
“May I hear something about Young Lady Bright?”
From what I’ve seen so far, I know that Young Lady Bright is incredibly disliked by the people of the capital. But It didn’t make sense to me.
The Bright family may be one of the most prestigious family in the Empire, and the Duke and the Marquis may be famous, but Young Lady Bright herself is just a noble without a title. She doesn’t have much authority in social circles. But I don’t understand why she had become so famous to the point that everyone she meets would recognize her name and appearance, not just in a village but by everyone in the entire Capital.
“Wouldn’t it be better to ask the Marquis or some other lord other than me?”
“I’m not that familiar with anyone here.”
So even if I wanted to ask someone else about it, they would often freak out at the sight of my face. The only person I could really talk properly to was the crown prince.
“I’m sure I’m a stranger to you, too.”
“At least you don’t dislike Young Lady Bright.”
“Does it seem that way to you?”
He said in a flirtatious tone. I nodded and locked eyes with him. “It looks that way to me.”
It could be an illusion, but to me, the crown prince looked amiable, unlike everyone else. He seemed a little surprised that I didn’t have any ill will towards him. “I’d like you to tell me about the Young Lady Bright you’ve seen, not what the world thinks of her.”
“The Young Lady Bright I’ve seen hmmm…” The crown prince blurted, and eventually lowered his gaze. I swallowed dryly as I watched his long, pine needle-like lashes flutter.
“This is a very personal opinion,”
The Crown Prince said after a moment of thought, his lips parting slowly as he locked eyes with me. “I believe that the Young Lady Bright is both a perpetrator and a victim.”
Perpetrator and a victim? I frowned at the strange choice of words. The crown prince’s expression was too serious to be joking.
“What do you mean….”
“Are you aware that the Young Lady Bright is a famous villain in the capital?”
“Villain?” Come to think of it, when the receptionist said “Young Lady Bright” earlier, someone had called her a Villain, but in my haste I had forgotten about it for a moment. I felt an ominous sense of foreboding when I remembered that the Duke of Bright even accused her of disgracing the family name, and that the guards even knew her face.
“Did she do a lot of bad things?”
“Um, a little?”
‘Damn it.’
Did she commit a crime? Was she wanted or something? I hope not. I suddenly felt very uneasy. Legally, the Bright family and the Sabrina family had no connections with each other, but that doesn’t take away the fact that we’re blood related. If anyone in the immediate family had committed a felony, then I could not become a knight.
“It’s not a capital crime, is it…?”
“Ha-ha-ha. It’s not that bad.”
I asked nervously, and the crown prince laughed softly. If she had committed a sin that big, then the family would have been destroyed a long time ago, so I felt a little relieved.
“Mmm… So I guess what I was trying to say is that Young Lady Bright turned evil for a reason.”
“There’s always a reason for every action, even if it’s mostly an excuse…”
‘Because of hunger, because their child is sick, or simply because the world sucks etc.’
I thought of the criminals I’ve encountered when I was dealing with the management of the estate as my mother’s substitute, for a moment. They were always making excuses and asking for leniency. Very few of them had any extenuating circumstances.
“An Excuse? Do you really think so?”
“There are a lot of people in the world who still did the right thing even if it was too difficult.”
In the countryside, the relationship between people is narrow and the land is also small. So rumors spread quickly, but the capital is different.
“Wouldn’t it be disruptive if we were to look at every single one of them for their unfortunate stories?”
I asked seriously, and the crown prince gave me a curious look. “You’re a straightforward person, aren’t you? In that respect, you are just like your grandfather, the Duke of Bright.”
“No, I’m not.”
To say that I resemble a bad-tempered, stinky old man is an insult to me, it’s not a compliment at all. I was stunned into silence by this unacceptable comment.
“I must have said something wrong.”
“Oh, no,” I said, “You didn’t.”
I was wrong. It’s a noble’s job to control their facial expressions under all circumstances.
I coughed softly, after realizing my mistake,
“I’m sorry. I had a little conflict with His Highness the Duke of Bright yesterday.”
“The Duke has a fiery temper.” The crown prince nodded approvingly. I straightened my expression and looked at him. As I suspected, the crown prince had a favorable impression of Young Lady Bright. The first one I’ve ever met, aside from the Marquis of Bright.
“I’ve interrupted you while you were in the middle of your story. So, can we now hear more about why Young Lady Bright turned evil?”
“Do you know about witch-hunting?”
“A witch-hunt…. Why ask about it so suddenly?”
I was taken aback by the sudden question, but calmly recalled what I knew.
“Are you referring to the ones in the past that framed Elementalists as evil witches and killed them?”
“That’s right. Elementalists are now revered in the Empire, but it was different in the past. Before, it was not uncommon for those who communicated with the spirits of nature to be labeled as evil and executed or banished. Witch hunt was a word that came out from it.”
“Why talk about it all of a sudden… ah”
A light bulb immediately went off in my head. All these years later, witch hunts are now considered as an evil act. So now It was often used to refer to people who suffered from sexual rumors or were being persecuted.
“Are you saying that Young Lady Bright was a victim of a witch hunt?”
“I don’t know about anyone else, but I think so.”
“What do you mean, what kind of witch hunt…”
My head spun at the unexpected words.
“I’m not defending all of Young Lady Bright’s actions. She certainly did something wrong, but when she was young. She wasn’t always bad.”
The crown prince, whose smile had long since faded, said with a serious expression, “Young Lady Bright was a victim of a social scapegoat made by the nobles.”
“Scapegoat?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying that the nobles deliberately framed her? Is such a thing even possible?” I frowned at the incomprehensible words, and the crown prince looked a little troubled as well.
“Well, I get it that Young Miss hasn’t had her debutante yet, has she?”
“Yes, I haven’t, but why are you suddenly bringing that up?”
I was puzzled by the out-of-the-blue question, but he answered solemnly.
“Then you don’t know much about the social circles’ ecology.”
“I’m ashamed to say, but Yes. I don’t.”
‘Social circle.’ Those words were quite distant from me.
Back in the north, of course, there are also large cities where social circles existed. But I could not afford to attend the monthly banquets and social gatherings. Our estate was in the middle of nowhere. The nearest estate from ours was at least three days away, so my interactions with other nobles were very few and far between.
“You’re twins with Young Lady Bright, so you’re already over twelve this year? In terms of age. your debut is already a bit late.”
“That’s true, but… I didn’t come to the capital to have a debutante in the first place.”
Unlike the coming-of-age ceremonies for all citizens of the Empire who turned twenty, the Debutante was an event reserved for the nobility. It was done in order to be recognized and accepted into society. Since it was such an important event for the nobility, debutantes were often held during the social season from late spring to summer. It was also mostly centered around the prestigious families of the capital, and since it was a gathering of all the most prominent families in the empire, even the most modest of families had a chance to make connections and showcase their talents to gain entry into politics and advance to the center of society. The problem was, a debutante ball cost as much as a year’s budget for most families.
‘Not all nobles were rich.’
“My family has no ties to the capital…” I want to sound confident, but my voice is croaking. As much as I hate to admit it, our estate was too poor to prepare for the Debutante. And I wasn’t about to go into debt just to pay for one.
“Aren’t you related to the Bright family?”
“Legally, I’m not. I also don’t think they’re my family yet… so..”
“The Marquis of Bright will cry if he hears about it.”
“I can’t help it.” I said, “And as I said, I don’t know anything about social circles.”
“Then let me make it simple for you. I don’t know about the provinces, but in the capital, debutantes are usually held when one turns sixteen, or eighteen at the latest.”
“I see.”
“In the capital,” the crown prince explained in a hushed voice, “Young people begin to socialize at the age of ten by attending tea parties and social gatherings held by noblewomen, and the connections they make then lead to their debutantes.”
“The Young Lady Bright made her first public appearance at the age of fourteen, which is very late compared to others.”
“Was it because her body was weak?”
“Yes, it is. She was congenitally weak and often sick, and spent her entire childhood in bed. As a result, she never developed much of a friendship with anyone.”
“Ah.”
Although the reasons are different from mine, I suddenly felt strange thinking that Young Lady Bright also spent a long time alone.
“Anyway, Young Lady Bright became a celebrity among her peers as soon as she appeared. Two years later, when she held her Debutante Ball, she was the center of attention. She became famous because of her family name and good looks, and that was also the beginning of her misfortune.”
The Crown Prince continued the story as the room gradually dimmed.
( T/N : Oh so it’s not as simple as it seems..)