Grand Duke’s Beloved Granddaughter

Busy days continued after visiting the Temple. She got up early in the morning and had her strength training with Brian, had a light tea time after breakfast, and studied the culture of society before lunch. After she ate lunch, she would carve out time to learn manners and dance for the ball. The tutor was Viscountess Maynard, who had tutored her mother in her childhood. She was the Viscountess Maynard, and although she was over sixty, her every action was flawless, graceful and perfect. She was the first to learn the etiquette of the aristocratic family, and even for her, she had very intensive guidance so that she could quickly master it.

Using her body was a rather pleasant thing for her. She taught her etiquette and dancing, for example, which she could easily do. Fortunately, the way she made light movements and the way she stepped while dancing didn’t bother her too much. But the problem was education.

Culture was generally the knowledge possessed by the nobility. Kind of like common sense. 

For her, who had lived as a commoner, it was very difficult to learn culture because it was so different from the world. After all, Viscountess Maynard told her to memorize and repeat the material she gave her, and she had to lift both hands and feet in the tedious task she had to do. Etiquette and martial arts ended early, so she studied liberal arts in the morning and afternoon. It was the same even now.

“It would be nice to do everything perfectly, but the princess’s goal is to go up to the point where you can have a moderate conversation at the ball that’s right in front of you.”

If she was particularly lost, Viscountess Maynard would follow her like this.

“Since you’re still very young, not many people think that you have a perfect grasp on all these subjects. So don’t be too impatient. Do you understand?”

“…I understand, madam.”

“The answer is too slow.”

“I understand, madam.”

“Great. After tomorrow, you will have enough time to study slowly.”

Still, she remembered half of what Viscountess Maynard told her, either because she wasn’t quite sober, or because she had the learning abilities of a nine-year-old. She was obviously upset that Viscountess Maynard wasn’t good enough. For me, this was a bit of a perk.

“Then, today’s education will end here. You should read the material I gave you at least twice before the ball tomorrow.”

“Thank you, madam.”

She was finally liberated from Viscountess Maynard’s liberal arts classes. If she had known that after learning etiquette and martial arts, the empty time would be filled with liberal arts classes, she would not have finished etiquette and martial arts so quickly. But even so, she couldn’t do everything perfectly. Anyway, after all classes were over and she had some free time, she could go after Daniel. It took her a long time to figure out how many spies were in this mansion and who they were. It was because it was not so easy to hunt down those who had been digging deep for years. However, as the class continued to amplify from one, she couldn’t have time to spare.

As Viscount Maynard said, she shouldn’t be impatient… There was still plenty of time.

Daniel’s actions started, as she remembered, 14 years later, so the worst wouldn’t happen right away. Besides, it didn’t seem like there was any contact between her mother and Daniel, so she didn’t think there would be any major problems for the time being. In any case, if Daniel did touch her mother, Prince Crichton would not stand still, so he couldn’t have moved hastily. It was fortunate.

After tomorrow’s prom, she thought she would have some time to spare, so she had to look for something.

“Little lady, are you okay?”

As she was exhausted and prostrating on her desk, Anita approached her with a teary face. Looking at Anita like that,she smiled softly.

“It will be alright after the prom tomorrow… maybe.”

Remembering what Viscountess Maynard had said about taking enough time to study, she doubted how free she would be after the ball, but she believed that at least she would be better off than she was now.

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Huh. I will.”

She cheered up again with Anita’s support. Then she started walking slowly to the dining hall for lunch.

“By the way, little lady, I have a question for you.”

“What are you curious about?”

“That… You know, that pendant that you received from a previous visit to the temple. Why aren’t you wearing it?”

“Ah…”

Anita didn’t know what had happened in the temple, so she didn’t know why she was squeamish about the pendant. Even though it was a pendant that Saint Pleon gave her, saying it would give her an answer, she couldn’t dare to wear it easily. More than anything, she didn’t wonder why she came to the past. She understood that returning to the past from the future was a very special event in itself. It was a perfect second life for her as she even had a chance to avenge her mother. That’s why she ran for the purpose. She didn’t even need to know why she regressed. But it wasn’t that she didn’t care.

It’s a waste to throw away, and it’s reluctant to have. For her, that pendant felt like that.

* * *

It was only after she finished dinner and finished her bath that she returned to her bedroom feeling much lighter. As soon as she got to the bedroom, she put herself on the bed. The bed still hugged her warmly. As she was tossing and turning on the bed for a while, her gaze turned to the small velvet pouch lying on the bedside table.

It was very clear what was in it. It was brought from Duana Temple and left untouched. Still, she couldn’t let this go on forever. In the end, a decision was needed.

She got up from bed and sat down next to the bedside table. Then she reached for the velvet pouch. The touch of soft velvet touched her fingers. She picked up the velvet pouch as it was. And she checked the contents inside. It was, as always, a silver pendant necklace in the shape of a winged heart. Strangely, however, there was something different from when she first saw it. The eyes of the snake drawn on the front of the pendant was now invisible.

She wondered if she was mistaken, so she rubbed her eyes and checked again. However, it was the same as not having snake eyes. She took a good look at the picture of the pendant just in case. Upon closer inspection, the white snake inside the pendant appeared to be asleep. Could this be?

A question popped into her mind. The snake in the pendant was only a painting. By the way, the painting sleeps with its eyes closed? It would have been quicker to think that the pigment in the eye area had been erased inside the velvet pouch. She turned the velvet pouch upside down, wondering if it was really like that. However, there was no red pigment on the inside.

She checked the pendant again, and very strangely, the eyes of the snake that had disappeared in the pendant reappeared.

“What is this…”

She continued to stare at the snake in the pendant. She also felt like the snake was staring at her. And at that moment, the snake closed its eyes and opened them. 

She wasn’t mistaken.

In fact, the snake inside the pendant was repeating closing and opening its eyes. It was only after she confirmed that the picture of the snake in the pendant was blinking that she remembered that Pleon had called the pendant ‘He’. At the time, she couldn’t understand why Pleon called the pendant like a human, but now she seemed to understand. 

What Pleon referred to as ‘him’ was not simply a pendant. To be precise, it referred to the snake drawn on the pendant. So would this snake really tell her the truth?

She felt puzzled, but she remembered that if she put the pendant back in the velvet pouch, nothing would be found out, nothing would be solved. So she finally mustered up the courage to put the pendant around her neck. Then something very special happened.

[Ah, finally! My voice has reached you!]

“Who?”

It was someone’s voice in her head that sounded like a little girl her age.

At first, she didn’t know where the sound was coming from, so she looked around. It was a reflex action, but when she thought about it, there was no way someone else was in her bedroom. If there had been, she would have known. Either that, or an assassin, but it didn’t seem like that. After erasing the number of cases like that, the only thing left was the pendant.

That’s how she realized belatedly that the person who was talking to her was the pendant snake.