[Year 20XX, Martius VIII, Spring]
I slept the whole afternoon, and since there was nothing much to do anyway, I figured that doing nothing was simply the best solution.
"It's a good thing they don't care about me," I muttered to myself.
It was already getting dark outside when I noticed it — lights blazing in the distance from the direction of the main mansion, bright enough that they reached all the way out here to the spare mansion, and there were enough of them that whatever was happening over there was clearly not a small thing.
I rang the bell and waited, and there was a slight delay before Jane arrived and bowed in front of me.
"What seems to be the problem, my Lady?" she asked, looking a little flustered, which was unusual for her.
"What's going on over there?" I asked, nodding toward the window where the lights from the main mansion were still visible in the distance.
"The Lady doesn't know?" She raised her brow.
Obviously, I wouldn't ask if I knew.
"Did the Lady perhaps not remember—"
"Some things are hazy," I said before she could finish, keeping my voice nonchalant. "Just tell me."
"It's…" she hesitated for a moment, and then said it quietly, like she wasn't sure how I would take it.
"…Lady Adele's debutante ball tonight."
She watched me carefully after saying it, and I understood why, because the old Josephine would have snapped at the mere mention of Adele's name.
Hmmm. I highly doubted that Adele would be happy to see me at this point, but it wasn't too bad to give her something on her special day, right?
"When does it start?" I asked.
"Around 8:00 PM, Lady."
I had around three hours to work with.
"Okay, come back at around 7:50."
"You're not going to attend, my Lady?" Jane asked, her eyes wide.
I smiled at her, though it came out a little bitter. "But why would I attend a party I'm not invited to?"
Jane fell silent, unable to find the right words.
"Stop pitying me," I said softly. "Just let me know when it's time."
I gestured toward the door and she bowed her head and left.
I reached to the top of my drawer and grabbed the box I had been working out of for the past few days, and among Josephine's collection were the materials I had been slowly putting together without any particular reason in mind, just because working with her tools felt like the most natural thing to do with idle hands.
The necklace was mostly finished already, and it had a high-grade silver chain with a lacy design, with kindle gems adorning each side for vitality and blood diamonds threaded through the laces, and all that was really left was setting the centerpiece, which I had been putting off because I wasn't sure I wanted to use it.
The Bloodstone Ruby sat in its small cloth pouch at the corner of the box, and I held it for a moment before deciding.
I don't need it, and it will all be useless if I die anyway, and there's no good use for it sitting here in the spare mansion either.
I set it and finished the clasp, and by the time I was done it really did look like a masterpiece, and I felt a pang of something I couldn't quite name at the sight of it.
At this point, I really pitied Josephine, and I bit my lip as I sat there with the finished necklace in my hands, because the more I thought about it the more it felt genuinely unfair for her, and that feeling wasn't going away no matter how much I tried to set it aside.
That's why I'll do my best to get her out of here.
I placed it in a designer's box and wrote a note: "Congrats on your Debutante, Josephine."
For some reason, even though it was just a normal box and a normal note, something about it made me feel like I was going to regret this later, and I couldn't explain why that was.
Anyways, I adorned it with a pink ribbon and rang the bell again, and Jane came through and bowed.
I handed her the box. "Give this to Adele. It's my gift."
Jane looked nervous, and I couldn't really blame her since I imagined that delivering anything from the spare mansion to the main mansion was not a comfortable errand.
"Sigh, it's not bad, okay? Here, look!" I opened the box and showed the necklace to her. "See? Not bad, eh?" I smirked.
Jane's eyes went wide and then started sparkling in a way that I was not prepared for. "Wow! Lady! Isn't this made by Nephie?"
A slight annoyance crossed my face. "Uh, yeah…?"
"Amazing! Amazing! Nephie's work is so beautiful and brilliant that even the imperial family praises her!" She leaned her face close to the box and I moved it aside before she could get any closer.
"Anyways! Give it to her. It's my gift."
Jane is a good girl after all.
"I'll take care of it. Yes, Lady." She straightened up, still clearly delighted, and then paused. "But Lady, how did you get this piece? Nephie's work is very rare."
"Nephie is a close friend of mine," I said, scratching my head and laughing a little awkwardly.
"Is that so?" Jane replied, and there was a hint of something curious in her voice that I decided not to examine too closely.
"Go. Also, prepare my dinner beforehand at the cottage in the maze."
"As you wish, Lady," she replied and left the room.
I let out a slow breath once she was gone, because I couldn't let anyone find out that I was Nephie, or else escaping would become even harder than it already was.
I looked out through the balcony again and gazed at the night sky, and the full moon was shining brightly and the stars were scattered across it in every direction, and the lights from the main mansion were still blazing away in the distance like they had nothing to do with me.
'I don't know why I'm here,' I thought, and the more I sat with that question the more I realized I genuinely didn't have an answer for it, and that felt strange in a way I couldn't quite shake off.