‘I was told that I shouldn’t be associating myself with Lady Ottilie.’
I still clearly remember the day when my entire life changed.
My name is Ottilie Chevincourt, the eldest ducal lady of House Chevincourt.
I was 5 year old at that time and in attendance of my very first social party, and to put everything that happen in the most simplest terms, I was ostracized.
‘Why?? I’m telling you that I want to talk!’
To tell you the truth, I was terribly pampered as the ducal house’s long-awaited baby girl at that time. All of my selfish whims were heard. Dress, toys, or anything I desired was provided by my parents. I once demanded a hair pin from a maid who had no choice but yield to my demands.
I was very blessed, and it gave me the illusion that the entire world is revolving with me as its center. It made me think as though everyone loved me deeply, and that all my demands must be met without questions. That’s how it felt to me at that time.
However, they were nothing but delusions.
A terribly cold glare followed by a firm rejection– what laid await at the furthest end of my pampered world was an unexpected repulsion.
Not a single soul in that party wanted to keep my company, nor even dared to approach me either. If they were forced to converse with me, they would do so with the utmost cold demeanor. All they needed in order to completely ostracize a lady from a ducal house were mere words from a single person.
「-Why do you not want to talk to me!?」
Bewildered as I am at the sudden refusal, I raised my voiced like a selfish brat. All this time, I thought that attending to me was nothing but absolute.
Which is exactly I couldn’t comprehend nobody attended to my demands. Such a situation in which the entire surrounding doesn’t revolve around my whims was entirely new and incomprehensible.
However, the more I acted like that, the more the surrounding glare became cold. Everyone was just whispering that I was just as Lady Louise described.
At that moment, I didn’t know the person named Louise, nor do I know just how she relates to me. I didn’t even have the slightest idea that she was the reason behind the situation I am in.
From then on, no matter which party I attend to, no matter how much I proclaim my demands, it only brings the same results. Both mother and father seemed perplexed. Even the attendees at the banquet that my father had sponsored acted cold towards me, even my older brother gives me the cold glare.
Having realized that and feeling greatly dejected, I wanted someone to talk to which brought me towards the employees of the ducal house to ask them why. After all, I have now been made perfectly aware that maybe I had been hated all this time.
「Hey, did I perhaps, do something bad?」
After attending countless parties to no avail, I approached the house employees that I have never paid any mind. I’ve always thought that I was someone special, that all the employees are nothing but common people. It made me think that there was no need to particularly give them any attention.
Which is why it’s only natural that they will be bewildered at my sudden approach.
――Now that I think about it, a selfish and whimsical child suddenly asking them why she was being rejected so much. They must’ve been anxious that their jobs were in great danger.
Although my first attempt yielded no result, after pestering them for a couple of times more they finally told me about my faults.
That was home I became completely aware that I am hated as a selfishly whimsical lady. Hence, I came into conclusion that my past selfish actions were the reason why everyone treated me so harshly.
That’s why I gave it my utmost all to reform myself and with the help of the employees of the ducal house, I was able to fix misdemeanors.
It is fine to be aware of one’s peerage as a lady of a ducal house. However, if you overstep your boundaries you will be hated by your surroundings. First, demanding things personally owned by other people is no good. Secondly, there’s no way that the whole world revolves around me.
Having realized my faults, I mended my behaviors and correct my past mistakes. Although there were only few, I was able to return some of the personal things I took from the employees. Everything that I have already used up, I replaced with something new.
I was firmly convinced that I was no longer the same person that I was before.
That was the day that my life had changed. The day I was reborn anew.
However, ten years after that…
「I never thought that they will still be like that after ten years.」
「They must have terrible eyesight to hate milady this much!」
I was still hated in the end.
I have gotten along with the employees well at that point, and my personal maid, Mirda was clearly displeased at this predicament.
I have already given up on being liked at that point but soon I will be attending an academy for children of the higher nobilities.
For someone liked me who is hated by all sons and daughters of the higher nobilities, what awaits is nothing short of hell itself—or rather Hell itself.
Frankly speaking, being absolutely abhorred for a total of ten years, I have already consulted to my parents about my future after I graduate.
I had them promise me one thing.
–That if by the end of my school years, I was not able to find a single fiancée, then they would allow me to live my life as a commoner instead.
Although I was severely hated by everyone else, fortunately I was still so much beloved by my parents.
They were still greatly perplexed about why I’m hated by the surroundings, but they are still carefully considering my well-being.
However, my older brother who is in the same age as the crown princess hated me to death, and even refused all chances of meeting me.
Although I’m considerably dejected about what’s to come in these three academic years, I clung to the hope that I will be able to live a peaceful commoner’s life once I overcome this challenge.
「Aim for it, Ottilie. Commoner’s life is the way. You will absolutely not find a fiancée and will get your peaceful commoner’s life! 」
Riding my carriage after my attendance at another social party, I muttered to myself with resolve.
Hearing me, Milda who had been my personal made since long ago could only offer encouragements.
