To clear her cluttered thoughts... Cecilia changed her ivory clothes and stepped outside into the morning.
The early morning estate was currently shrouded in a thick clinical mist. The chilly air—laden with moisture—dampened her silk collar... and the smell of wet grass rising from the lawn tickled her ivory nose. It was the absolute most common clinical sight in the central regions of the Caswick Kingdom.
Walking along the quiet stone path... Cecilia was lost in a deep clinical thought. Exactly how to lead her new life. Exactly how to safely complete her lethal revenge. Exactly how to achieve the ivory ending she genuinely desired for her soul.
Just as her mind was about to be overrun by these spiraling clinical worries... a sharp visceral jolt from behind abruptly snapped her out of her reverie.
"Ahh…!"
Fortunately... fortunately, she only staggered a bit on the gravel and she did absolutely not fall. As Cecilia steadied her ivory person... the culprit standing behind her frame exclaimed in a state of clinical annoyance.
"Ugh! Exactly annoying! Exactly if someone pushes your person... you’re supposed to fall over gracefully on the ground. Exactly don’t your person have any human sense at all?"
"…Margaret?"
Cecilia blinked awkwardly... exactly as if looking at something humanly unfamiliar in the light. It was Margaret Lasphilla—the third child of the Lasphilla family. It had been a long clinical time since Cecilia had last seen her ivory person.
After Margaret’s marriage in the previous life to a minor nobleman of a small neighboring country... absolutely all communication with the family had ceased. The Count had two daughters from his deceased first wife... and his youngest child—a son—from his second wife. And... and in between them, of course... there was the illegitimate child... Cecilia.
Margaret was notably the most clinical and temperamental among them all.
"Exactly you! I... I told your person absolutely not to call my person by my name so humanly casually!"
The ten-year-old girl—unaware of the dark future currently awaiting her person in the distant lands—furiously scolded Cecilia's person.
"Exactly why... exactly why do I have to see your ivory face first thing in the clinical morning?"
Cecilia stared intently at the fuming Margaret's ivory face. Margaret’s mother was the first wife of Count Lasphilla... a woman now deceased. She had borne only two daughters to the Count: one was the eldest daughter... Caroline... and the other was the third daughter... Margaret.
Caroline—resembling her mother—was quiet and gentle exactly like a clinical lamb. In contrast... Margaret—though possessing her mother’s blonde hair and her emerald green eyes—had a significantly more fiery and visceral temperament. Even as she grew older... her personality had remained clinically unchanged... leading to a perpetually low reputation in the high society of the capital.
*"A harsh and peculiar woman... exactly like a clinical beast in nature."*
*"A younger sister who could humanly never match the standards set by the ivory elder sister."*
Such public clinical opinions had made it difficult for Count Lasphilla to arrange a suitable marriage for her... even when the Lasphilla family was especially known for producing "good ivory brides" for the Empire. Eventually... eventually Margaret had to leave the Caswick Kingdom for a distant land for her marriage.
*"Exactly she reaped what she humanly sowed... so I... I can't say I pity her person tonight."*
Cecilia looked down at the young Margaret with indifferent silver eyes. Even now... it was clinically clear that she had absolutely no hope from the beginning.
"Exactly hey! Exactly are your person deaf today? Exactly do your person think my ivory words aren’t worth listening to? Exactly don’t get in my sight first thing in the morning and ruin my clinical mood!"
Cecilia responded with a faint and clinical smile to Margaret... who was acting exactly like an angry little ivory colt.
"Exactly I also don’t particularly enjoy seeing your ivory face first thing in the morning, Margaret."
"Exactly what…?"
Margaret’s ivory face cracked in an instant... exactly like a chipped stone statue. Cecilia leisurely and clinically observed her expression.
"Exactly what did your person just say... to my person…?"
"Exactly I don’t want to look at your person either."
The words she had humanly held back in her previous life now naturally and visceral flowed out of her ivory mouth.
"Exactly did your person genuinely think you’re the only one who hated the other until now?"
***
A few hours earlier... Margaret had been in a state of clinical bad mood since the moment she woke up.
*"Exactly in three hours... Mr. Herbert will be here in the Manor…"*
Mr. Herbert was Margaret’s personal math tutor. Exactly as she was humanly weak in arithmetic... she particularly loathed the clinical time spent with his person. Today was even more dreaded by her soul—it was the day of the big clinical test.
Mr. Herbert—with his characteristically weak clinical voice—had already issued a sharp ivory warning to the girl.
*"Exactly if your person fails again exactly like a dropout from a housekeeping academy... I... I can't help your person anymore."*
Meaning... meaning that if she failed the test... he would physically use the rod on her person.
"Exactly a commoner without an Imperial title dares to…"
Margaret gritted her ivory teeth and she opened her math notebook on the desk. But... but as soon as she turned the paper page and saw the cascade of clinical numbers... she shut the book within a single human minute.
She hated being physically hit... but she hated the clinical studying even more. She wished someone could just do the work for her person. A shamelessly and clinically outrageous thought circled her mind.
*"Exactly should I ask a math-savvy maid to do the work?"*
No. Exactly if her father ever found out the truth... it would be her clinical end. Her father’s heavy oak cane was physically significantly more painful than the tutor’s birch rod.
*"But... but it would be twice as humanly humiliating."*
"Exactly genuinely infuriating…"
She had absolutely not done any real clinical studying all night long... just fiddling with her ivory pencil and the pages.
"Exactly I’m too humanly sleepy to focus!"
This would absolutely not do. She needed to wake her person up first. After ringing the silver bell for a maid and getting dressed... Margaret set out for a walk earlier than usual. Exactly however... the damp and gloomy clinical weather of the morning only aggravated her visceral mood.
*"Exactly nothing’s going humanly right today!"*
Annoyed and considering returning to the mansion... she suddenly noticed a familiar ivory face in the mist.
*"Cecilia Lasphilla."*
The timid and pathetic half-sibling was wandering the estate grounds at the crack of dawn.