We Are Not the Same

'Still, this is getting a bit too blatant.'

Dozens of stares bore down on me from around the table, all of them less than friendly — every last one glaring daggers. As nonchalantly as I could manage, refusing to let the weight of it shake me, I lifted the corners of my mouth into a serene smile and spoke.

"If the 'rumor' you're referring to is the one about my relationship with His Grace the Grand Duke..."

"......"

"Yes, some of it is true."

I admitted it outright. The result was instant pandemonium among the ladies gathered around the table.

The truth was, I'd come prepared for exactly this.

'Denying it here would only fan the flames. Better to concede the information that's already out there than to dig myself a deeper hole.'

And besides, it wasn't as if I'd be lying.

"Just a moment. You say 'some' of it is true? What exactly does that mean? Please be more specific."

"I've noticed a few publications taking things rather too far. That I'm already carrying His Grace's child, of all things. Ha ha. Naturally, I trust no one here would believe such baseless gossip."

I let my smile carry the unspoken subtext — you'd have to be a fool to swallow that kind of rumor, wouldn't you? — and several of the noblewomen and young ladies answered with stiff, awkward laughs.

"So your relationship with His Grace is real, then?"

"That's right. I honestly can't fathom why the story has ballooned to this extent, but no, it isn't false."

At my brazen confirmation, the women seated around the table exchanged silent glances, bewilderment creeping across their faces.

They clearly hadn't expected me to come clean this quickly, this cleanly.

'Sorry, but all of this was within my calculations.'

Phew. Swallowing a small breath, I took the measure of the room. I had laid the groundwork from the very start, after all.

"How embarrassing this all is. We were simply carrying on our relationship quietly, like any ordinary couple."

Whispering behind someone's back among yourselves — 'I hear those two are an item~' — without their knowledge was one thing. Publicly airing a courtship that hadn't even progressed to an engagement was another matter entirely. It simply wasn't done. One careless word, and you'd be branded a loose-lipped gossip with no sense of decorum.

At my pointed remark, the noblewomen who had been egging the young ladies on just moments ago cleared their throats and dropped their gazes, apparently realizing they'd failed rather spectacularly to hide their curiosity.

But.

"That's impossible. But you and His Grace the Grand Duke have... you have no connection whatsoever. And yet so suddenly... how can things have suddenly...!"

Right. The real problem wasn't the noblewomen — it was the young ladies, charging in headlong without a thought for the consequences.

"As for how we're connected, His Grace and I were seniors and juniors at the Academy. We were both scholarship students, so we had occasion to cross paths fairly often."

"The Academy, you say?"

"Yes."

The revelation that our meeting place had been the Academy visibly rattled the young ladies. The Academy was entirely residential — every student boarded on campus — and its closed-off nature meant that whatever happened within those walls stayed there.

What was more, while the Orden Empire's Academy did admit both men and women, most families had stopped bothering to send their daughters at all. Even among girls my own age, the number of Academy graduates could be counted on one hand.

Just as I'd expected. Faced with information they had no access to, the young ladies fell silent one by one.

"Th-then you mean you'd known His Grace even before he became a priest?"

"That's right. For what it's worth, His Majesty the Emperor was also enrolled two years ahead of me. He remembered me, in fact."

The Emperor remembers me, and you expect me to believe none of you have heard of it? Roughly half of the remaining young ladies shut their mouths as well.

Now, the next predictable objection would be...

"Even so. However fated your connection may have been, don't you think seducing a priest was going a bit far?"

There it was. The single weakest point in my entire position.

'The fact that I seduced a priest.'

Clink.

I set my teacup back down — I'd raised it only moments before — and gave an awkward little smile.

"On that point..."

"......"

"I honestly have nothing to say."

The moment I fell silent, the young ladies perked up like hounds catching a scent, pressing their advantage.

"I should think any respectable lady of society knows better than to stoop to such behavior. Are you even aware of how shameless you've been?"

"Exactly. Because of you, Marquess, the rest of us could easily suffer for—"

"I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I can't agree with that assessment. As everyone here knows full well, I am not a lady of high society. Rest assured — I cannot be lumped in with young ladies."

"...Pardon?"

At those words, the onlookers who had been quietly spectating froze mid-breath. Their faces said everything.

'Wait. Now that I think about it... she's right, isn't she?'

Watching them, I smiled inwardly. Everyone here had been making the same mistake.

If I were an ordinary marquess's daughter, then setting aside questions of truth, merely being tainted by such dishonor before marriage would have dealt a devastating blow to my marriage prospects. But my rank was marquess — in my own right.

Even in the worst case — even if I truly had seduced the Grand Duke and deliberately stripped him of his priesthood — I'd take a share of criticism, certainly, but my value would not diminish one whit. My worth lay not in the version of me displayed on the marriage market, but in the Zacherete fortune resting in my own two hands.

Fortunately, a few of them finally seemed to grasp the distinction, and I could see them quietly preparing to bow out.

"How can anyone be so shameless!"

Though not all of them, of course.

"Enough. I can't bear another word of this. Out of courtesy — for the sake of your honor, Marquess — I held my tongue until now, but some things simply must be said!"

One young lady, having appointed herself the champion of the group, slammed her palm on the table and shot to her feet, spitting her accusations with venom.

"You have used vile, underhanded means to ruin a man's entire life! His Grace... His Grace is a kind soul. He simply fell prey to your schemes, Marquess! And to commit such a monstrous act and then show your face here, brazen as you please...!"

Trembling with rage, the girl glared at me. To anyone watching, I must have looked like the vilest creature alive — a monster who had deliberately devoured Leon's future.

And what was that? A kind soul?

'He didn't exactly strike me that way.'

Unbidden, the memory surfaced — the day I'd been summoned before His Majesty the Emperor, when Leon had turned on the Emperor with a face terrifying enough to curdle blood.

He wasn't a man of endless patience; he simply chose his battles. He got angry like anyone else.

...He made threats.

And he seemed to enjoy watching people squirm under them.

'Hold on. Now that I actually think about it, he's an absolutely rotten piece of work, isn't he?'

One thing was certain, at least — he was no pure-hearted angel of boundless mercy, however much these girls insisted otherwise.

"His Grace is simply too upright, too strong a sense of duty for his own good!"

Wow. She's still going.

"When I think of His Grace being dragged around by the nose by someone like you, Marquess, my heart tears apart with grief. Lately I haven't been able to sleep a wink for—"

Yeah. I've heard quite enough.

"You know, your logic is rather strange."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you truly believe His Grace the Grand Duke is that much of a fool? That he could be led around by the nose by someone blinded by ambition, like me?"

"When did I ever say such a thing! You have no argument left, so you're twisting my words on purpose!"

"That is precisely what you're saying right now. That the Grand Duke is being deceived by me. That he's a pitiable man."

"Ghh...!"

Told that this had been her own argument not a minute ago, the young lady bit down hard on her lip.

"Well, this is... haah."

When the silence finally arrived, I let out a long, deliberate sigh — so pointed in its displeasure that the hushed spectators all stiffened at once.

"I didn't intend to go this far, but I suppose I have no choice. Young lady. You are operating under a very grave misconception."

"A misconception? Whatever do you—!"

"Even if I happen to be close to your age, even if I'm wearing a dress, even if I'm sitting at this very table with you—"

"......"

"You and I are not in the same position. Not remotely."

There was a difference between us.

The moment I stated it in no uncertain terms, the noblewomen reacted instantly. It was a fact every one of them knew in her head, but had been reluctant — so very reluctant — to actually acknowledge.

"What you see is not all there is. You understand what I mean, don't you? Young lady?"

"What is that supposed to...! Oh — Mother!"

The girl, still too slow to read the room, tried to fire back a retort — only to be urgently cut off by the noblewoman seated beside her.

"I beg your pardon, Your Excellency. My daughter is not yet accustomed to gatherings such as this, so she—"

"It's quite all right."

I let my expression soften into a gentle smile.

"If anything, I'm the one still awkward in settings like these, as everyone here knows. I'm far less versed in society than any of you, after all."

"......"

"Ha ha. Give me ledgers and business plans and I'm your woman, but gatherings like this truly leave me at sea. What a fix I'm in."

"Oh, oh, please... there's no need for such modesty... ha ha."

I could see it. I could see it — the corners of their mouths straining upward in stiff, forced curves, the sweat beading across their foreheads.

You thought I was an easy mark, didn't you?

I was still savoring the thought inwardly when—

"My, it sounds as though everyone is having a fascinating conversation."

"Ah, my lady!"