Chapter 29
“What do you mean by ‘what’s what’?”
Caught completely off guard, my voice came out dazed and confused.
Please don’t tell me getting caught going to the ball means there’s some penalty…?
The system window was silent, so maybe there wasn’t a penalty. But it had fooled me countless times before, pretending nothing was wrong while stabbing me in the back.
In other words, I couldn’t let my guard down for a second.
“Where were you going at this hour? Don’t tell me you snuck into the palace?”
Paula’s voice sharpened, clearly annoyed by my vague answers as she grilled me.
After a moment of thought, I decided to keep denying and answered cheekily.
“I just went out for a bit.”
“Where exactly?”
“What do you care? I just went outside for a while.”
“Hmph, in those clothes?”
Oh no.
I was wearing a dress anyone would recognize as a fancy ball gown.
And since only two such dresses were allotted to me and Paula in this poor household, it was obvious.
But even caught red-handed, I wasn’t about to admit defeat so easily.
“I was just getting into the festive mood. What’s the problem with that…?”
As I tried to brush past Paula, she stopped me sharply.
“I’m not done talking. Adelheid Ulmer, stop right there!”
Ugh, I’m so tired.
Naturally, I tried to ignore her and walk on, but the system window flickered and popped up again.
[SYSTEM] ‘Paula Ulmer’ is recognized as the first daughter of the Ulmer Duke family.
The first daughter has the authority to discipline family members!
Ah, right…
But today I had zero mood for discipline.
I’m seriously exhausted.
“Let’s do this another time, later… huh?”
I felt a strong force pulling at my back, but it wasn’t like before where my body or voice was forcibly controlled.
As I ignored it and moved forward, the system popped up again.
‘Is it going to forcibly activate again?’
Thinking about the long scolding from Paula made my head throb.
But then…
[SYSTEM] To refuse disciplinary authority, you must have notoriety above 200!
Your notoriety is above 200, so you refuse ‘First Daughter’s disciplinary authority!’
[SYSTEM] ‘Paula Ulmer’ fails to discipline you, the greatest villain in the Bregentz Empire! Gullibility -5
Huh. The system message was totally different from what I expected.
I just ignored her because I was dead tired, but it actually worked?
‘Finally escaping being a pushover…?’
Come to think of it, my gullibility score was really low now.
It was only 5. Almost a farewell to the max score I used to have.
I hadn’t tested it in practice before, so I was anxious, but since I avoided Paula’s authority too, I could be confident now.
Those shameless pushover experts who betrayed their consciences couldn’t touch me anymore.
My heart started pounding. Just thinking about giving that shameless manager a good hit made it beat faster.
“Adelheid, if I catch you sneaking out to the ball again, I won’t let it slide. I’ll tell Father everything about your reckless behavior!”
Paula’s threatening voice snapped me back to reality.
‘Wait a minute.’
If I’m not a pushover anymore, does that mean I can finally stand up to Paula?
Even if I don’t know her tricks, I don’t have to worry about going to that creepy old man’s matchmaking meeting for her!
Just as I was about to start pushing back at Paula with full force—
“Miss, she stayed home all evening!”
Unexpectedly, Sophie interrupted.
…When did she get here? And why isn’t she terrified for once?
[SYSTEM] The frightened ‘Maid Sophie’ looks at you and wishes she’d rather die than meet your gaze! Notoriety +5
…Okay, so she was scared after all.
While I was momentarily frozen by Sophie’s unexpected appearance, Paula snapped sharply.
“She stayed home all evening? Then what’s with that ridiculous outfit?”
Sophie scrambled to come up with a lie.
“She was disappointed she couldn’t go to the spring ball… so she just dressed up a bit and said she’d take a short walk for about an hour. To the square. There’s a festival in the square…”
Though stumbling over her words, it was surprisingly convincing. Paula’s eyes narrowed.
But Paula didn’t find any real fault, bit her lip, and turned away with a snort.
“Hmph!”
As Paula left, Sophie finally let out a deep sigh, hand on her chest.
Watching that, I couldn’t help but tilt my head.
‘What the heck is going on?’
Before I was doubtful, but today it was definitely strange. Sophie behaving so unexpectedly…
Even in the game, Sophie appeared as an NPC, but thinking back, she was never this scared or unpredictable.
She was just a maid dutifully serving the daughter, nothing more or less.
‘This is the game world. So why do these characters keep acting like they have their own wills?’
I was possessed by the game, Adelheid Chronicle, proof being the system messages I always saw.
“Miss, aren’t you coming in? The hallway is still cold.”
“…Alright.”
Following Sophie into my room, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
‘Did something change when I got possessed?’
Is that why the characters’ behavior is different?
‘There are no possession reviews in the user community…’
I pondered until I fell asleep, but found no clear answers.
The pressure from the quest time limit was more intense than I expected. I couldn’t relax even lying down.
But I couldn’t just sneak into the palace recklessly either.
Paula was watching me like a hawk, and sneaking through the sewers wasn’t easy.
Even if I tried, arriving before the ball started and wandering around would draw too much attention.
‘I can’t get randomly stopped by a paladin.’
Being suspected for no reason was the villain’s harsh life. It was exhausting.
I felt bad that, despite playing the game endlessly, I never understood the hardships of the daughter.
So I was stuck doing nothing in my room, only moving after evening came.
“Miss, Paula’s carriage has left.”
“Okay, got it.”
Maybe because of yesterday, Paula watched me like a hawk until she left.
And Paula’s maids kept coming and going in my room, pretending not to be her maids.
Their suspicious glances and pretending not to notice when our eyes met made me quietly irritated, but…
‘Calm down, calm down.’
I endured with extreme patience. They were just following orders.
Though I wanted to act freely trusting my nullified disciplinary immunity, this game wasn’t that easy.
Paula might still betray me later despite her authority being useless now.
Anyway, after Paula left, I put on a show to shake off her maids before finally stepping outside.
