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☾ seven ☾

"Milady, there are letters that have arrived for you."

'As expected, they came.'

Although my own personal reputation was rock-bottom, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the amount of interest directed towards my father, a living hero, was unmatched in society.

It was inevitable that I'd receive some letters.

"Come in."

Marilyn came in with a silver tray which held a pile of letters on top.

"Here they are, milady."

As I was reading through the letters, I couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

Out of the dozens of letters I had received, not a single one sounded genuine in their concern for my health.

Amazing.

'Well, that just means I've been living a wasteful life.'

Though I felt quite bitter, I had no plans on getting even the slightest bit upset over something so insignificant like this.

'It's something I brought upon myself anyway.'

I spent all of my time only looking at Mikhail that I had paid no attention to anyone else.

If anyone got in my way, I unleashed my wrath on them.

Mikhail was the only one I had ever hinted favor towards.

It was no surprise I became a loner and had no one but myself to blame.

"Milady, would you like me to clean up the letters?"

Marilyn's sudden voice interrupted my thoughts.

It seems she thought I was just going to skim through them before moving them aside.

"No, I'll be replying to all of them myself."

Marilyn seemed startled by my answer.

"You...you'll be responding to these formal letters yourself, milady?"

I faintly smiled at her words and responded, "That's right. They were all expressing concern over my health so I should be responsible for writing back myself."

I knew the senders behind these letters didn't actually care about my health, but the situation didn't allow for me to ignore them like usual.

The nobles' antagonism towards me was because I had been ignoring them...I had to do some damage control and appease them.

No matter how bad one's reputation was, it could be changed if one worked to show a better image than before.

With that reason, I was determined to change my own image.

And although writing letters were part of that plan, I found myself already running into a wall.

'But what am I supposed to write?'

Because I had no interest in anyone else, I didn't even know the tastes of the few people that I managed to keep as personal connections. 

Thus, I had no idea what to write.

'I don't even know enough about them to leave compliments.'

I glanced towards Marilyn.

'Now that I think about it, Marilyn was the one who always wrote the replies in my stead.'

The typical maid was in charge of completing tasks such as cleaning and doing the laundry.

A personal waiting maid, however, was different from the average maid.