038. What I Truly Want (2)

Marie easily found the tie pin that Lucia had mentioned.

In the meantime, a maid reported that the gardener had finished making the bouquet of roses.

“Send both to the Verdun Duke’s residence.”

Lucia gave brief instructions and quickly wrote a letter.

The content of the letter was not long enough to warrant the grand title of ‘letter.’ It was just a few lines asking about the weather and well-being, along with her name added.

“I’ll deliver it right away.”

The maid, who received the gift box containing the letter, bouquet, and tie pin, bowed in response.

Lucia watched her leave for a moment, then shifted her gaze to the table.

Recently, she had been so busy spending time with Owen and thinking about him that she had not attended social gatherings frequently.

‘I was supposed to get the dress for the banquet this week.’

She had scheduled a visit to the boutique in five days to prepare for the imperial banquet next month.

“Is there anywhere to go before then…?”

Lucia, flipping through the invitations, soon found a suitable social gathering.

“There’s one tomorrow and another three days later.”

The social gathering tomorrow was a picnic, and the one the day after was a greenhouse tea party.

She had plenty of dresses to wear, so that was not a concern.

The only issue was that she was late in responding, but no social gathering had ever refused her.

Lucia quickly wrote replies indicating her intention to attend and handed them to Marie.

“Send the replies through a messenger.”

“Yes, Lady.”

Attending a few social gatherings would suffice. Although she had to participate in the ones scheduled for the next and following weeks, this week’s attendance was enough.

“Come to think of it, I might hear some rumors.”

There were rumors everywhere due to her recent trip with Owen. Since she hadn’t attended any social gatherings since the trip, this was a chance to gauge the rumors’ impact.

Though she could roughly predict the reactions, seeing them firsthand would feel different.

Feeling a surge of excitement, Lucia hummed a small tune but then swallowed a sigh at the sight of the pile of invitations before her.

“…I should finish sorting these.”

* * *

The Original Work is Going Crazy

Tick, tick.

Bella bit her well-manicured nails with a nervous voice.

“Does this make any sense? Owen went on a trip with Lucia?”

She couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the ridiculous turn of events.

Her initial curiosity was long gone. Now, Bella was left with only bewilderment.

“And not just anywhere, but to Oceane?”

Bella stopped biting her nails and tousled her hair in frustration.

“Isn’t that the place from the side story of <The Flower of the Empire>? Originally, Owen and Bella went there together.”

A few weeks ago, Bella successfully joined the Count Taylor family as she had wished.

Naturally, the Taylor family welcomed her with open arms.

Perhaps because she chose them herself rather than being discovered by them, unlike in the original work, the Count Taylor couple did not overtly try to use Bella.

Though they subtly hinted at certain expectations or tried to probe her, it was not a significant issue.

She had joined the Taylor family to revert to the original setting, not to truly become their family.

Since she had to receive education at the capital’s temple anyway, she did not stay in their territory.

They were merely formal, paper-based family members whom she met occasionally for appearances.

Ignoring or pretending not to notice their demands and expectations was enough.

“Even though I reverted everything to the original setting, why is the outcome like this?”

This was the real problem.

Bella’s premature appearance altered the starting point of the original story.

The original settings had been disrupted, so Bella joined the Taylor family herself to restore them.

And the settings returned as they were originally meant to be—at least for Bella’s character in *The Flower of the Empire*.

“Why are Owen and Lucia acting like this?”

Upon returning from the hunting competition, Bella sent someone from the mercenary guild to follow Owen.

However, he was quickly discovered by Owen and provided no information to her.

Instead, he refunded the considerable amount of money she had paid.

Since Owen was a Sword Master, it was entirely possible.

At that time, it had not been long since Bella had become a saint, and after paying off the debt she owed, only a small amount of dignity maintenance costs remained.

With that money, she could only hire B-grade mercenaries, so it was a natural outcome.

Accepting the situation as it was, Bella devised another method.

That method was to infiltrate the servants she hired into the Edelte and Verdun duchies.

She believed that infiltrating them as servants for investigation would yield more information.

Since she had received new dignity maintenance costs and had more money, she hired S-grade guild members, believing that success was guaranteed.

However…

-I’m sorry. We tried several times but failed, madam.

She sought out the information guild, the mercenary guild, and even the assassin guild, but the plan failed miserably.

The two duchies, which had existed since the founding of the empire, were as impregnable as their reputations suggested.

Even forming a team with the most skilled guild members and devising a plan was useless.

While Bella was wasting her time like that, the rumor that Lucia and Owen were dating grew even bigger.

There were talks that the two had meals together and shared tea time.

That alone was surprising.

But what followed was an event several times more shocking.

-The Duke of Verdun and Lady Edelte went on a trip to the sea together. It’s a place called Oceane, famous for its beauty.

When the maid attending to me said that, I felt like my insides were going to burst.

“Why on earth…?”

At this point, I was starting to resent the god who sent me here.

‘Is it really a god?’

In fact, I don’t know.

Was it a god?

The one who placed me in Bella’s body.

“…”

Maybe it was a devil.

Because a god would not give unnecessary trials to a good person.

Nor would they throw a person living a normal life into confusion.

It was the worst situation for both ‘Bella’ and her.

“…That’s not the point.”

But that wasn’t what I needed to think about now.

“Something has changed. It’s not me, something else has changed.”

Bella did her best for the original story.

Even so, changes occurred.

Changes so drastic they couldn’t be called anything but original story destruction.

‘What could it be?’

Where and how did the changes start?

Bella calmly retraced her thoughts.

‘…The ones who have changed the most are Owen and Kyle.’

The biggest difference from the original was the relationship between Owen and Lucia, but surprisingly, Lucia remained the same.

Lucia was still the same.

She possessed the sharpness, glamour, cruelty, and languor unique to a villainess.

There was nothing unusual about Lucia’s actions.

Except that, unlike in the original story, she now had Owen in her grasp and was acting confidently.

But that was a natural change.

Who wouldn’t be confident when they finally obtained what they had desired so much?

‘But Owen and Kyle have changed strangely.’

However, the main character Owen and the sub-male lead Kyle from the original story had changed significantly.

Kyle, who should have shown interest in Bella as soon as they met, showed no reaction, and Owen, who should have subtly paid attention, was indifferent.

In fact, I didn’t pay much attention to Kyle’s changes.

Because Kyle was a character that had nothing to do with me, whether he changed or not.

In the original work, the foolishly kind and gentle female lead cared about him, but…

Unlike the original her, Bella had no interest in Kyle.

Seeing him in person, he was quite handsome.

But that was all.

Since Kyle was not the subject of Bella’s interest, she didn’t pay him much attention.

But should she not have?

‘Since both of them have changed… was there a common reason for their change?’

Bella pondered the situation carefully.

However, no particularly plausible idea came to mind.

At most, she thought that the two had become close.

‘…But how did Owen and Kyle become close?’

Upon thinking about it, this point was also strange.

She found it odd during the hunting competition but was too preoccupied with Owen to think deeply about it.

Even after that, she was too busy investigating Owen.

Because she was concerned about his changes, she didn’t pay attention to other relational changes involving Kyle.

It seemed clear that the changes in these two people had influenced the changes in the original story.

The problem was not knowing the fundamental cause of these changes.

‘It’s really troublesome.’

Bella sighed deeply and stood up.

She felt confused without a clear conclusion or solution.

But she couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.

She pulled the bell rope and called for a maid.

“You called, Saintess.”

The maid, whose face had become quite familiar, entered the bedroom.

Dressed in a pristine white uniform typical of the temple maids, she greeted Bella politely as usual.

“I heard there is a gift from the Holy Emperor to the Magic Tower.”

“Oh… yes, that’s right.”

When Bella spoke, the maid nodded slightly in response.

Then she looked puzzled.

She seemed to be wondering why Bella was bringing this up.

“Who is supposed to go?”

“I heard that the Chief Priest is going with the Holy Knights.”

At the mention of the Chief Priest, Bella smiled.

The Chief Priest had just been promoted last year.

He was so gentle that sometimes Bella thought he was a bit clumsy.

That might be because Bella’s position as a saintess made her feel that way.

“I heard the Holy Emperor has temporarily left the capital.”

That gentle Chief Priest was currently the highest leader remaining in the temple.

Except for Bella.

In other words, there was no one to oppose Bella at the moment.

“Yes…”

The maid responded nervously, perhaps sensing something from Bella’s smile.

To confirm the maid’s uneasy premonition, Bella dropped a bombshell.

“I’m thinking of going to the Magic Tower instead of the Chief Priest. Could you inform the Chief Priest?”

“What…?”

The maid’s eyes shook as if shocked by Bella’s words.

Even seeing her brown eyes trembling finely, Bella remained calm.

“Isn’t the schedule for tomorrow? There’s no need to inform the Magic Tower separately. I’ll explain when I get there.”

“B-but…”

As the maid stammered, Bella looked at her with a persistent gaze.

Bella knew it too.

For a saintess to personally visit the Magic Tower was unheard of.

For the pride of the temple, such a thing should never happen.

The reason for sending gifts to the Magic Tower was to seek their understanding.

Although the relationship between the Magic Tower and the temple was already bad, the imperial banquet, delayed by a month due to the temple, was a significant event.

It was an event announced by the imperial family, and since the reason was related to the saintess, the temple could be blamed.

Because the summer imperial banquet, which also served as a debutante ball, was a major event in which the Magic Tower, the temple, and all noble families of the empire had to participate.

It was one of the few occasions where the Magic Tower, the temple, the imperial family, and the Verdun duchy all gathered together.

Thus, delaying such a banquet unilaterally was…

While the imperial family maintained good relations with the temple, the Magic Tower and the Verdun duchy might not view it favorably.

Although the relationship between the Verdun duchy and the temple was neither good nor bad, making understanding unnecessary, it was different with the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower Master detested social gatherings.

To unilaterally postpone an event that he reluctantly prepared for was incredibly rude.

“Can I ask you to do this favor?”

“…Yes.”

But those were the concerns of the temple and the Magic Tower.

To Bella, their mutual interests were less important than the direction of the original story.

When Bella asked again, the maid responded slowly.

To the maid, the saintess was both her direct superior and an absolute figure.

Although it was an unimaginable situation from the temple’s perspective, the maid couldn’t oppose Bella’s will.

Satisfied with the maid’s answer, Bella smiled and dismissed her.

Having made an excuse, she decided to meet Kyle tomorrow and find a reason.