My Next Life as the Neglected Daughter of the Grand Duke

Chapter 23

"W-wait, d-did I hear you correctly?" Irene asked as she stuttered from shock.

Fever? Why the world would I get a fever out of nowhere-

"I knew something was wrong with you since yesterday morning," Elle mumbled to herself, and turned her attention to Irene. "Yes, you heard correctly Lady," she responded as she touched her forehead and got up to talk to the doctors.

It only left Irene in deep thought, it was true that she wasn't feeling the best yesterday, but it was due to shock, not a fever. Irene then thought that this was the aftermath of the dream she had since not all dreams show endings of novels.

Wait, do the dreams I have, show me endings of novels? What kind of ability is that-

Confused, Irene looked around the room, everyone seemed to be in a rush, she didn't even realize that she was out of bed and was guided towards the washroom.

Irene seemed absent-minded that day. As Roxy and Mal got her ready she was thinking about her dreams, it could be possible this could be some kind of ability or it was just weird dreams and she is overthinking it.

She had read a lot of novels in this world, and never finished it in time and went to bed, wondering what happens next, but nothing happens. So what does this mean?

Irene knows that the first dream was to tell her something, maybe to warn her of the hidden villain? But the second dream, however, she did not know, but she has a gut feeling that the dream is telling her something. Something important.

"I..."

"Irene?" someone called.

"Huh?" Irene suddenly snapped out of her thoughts, it turned out she was long gone from the room and was at the dining table.

It turns out she was just staring at her food.

"Oh my, sorry, what did you say?" Irene quickly apologized to Alice who looked very concerned, she looks like she was on the verge of tears. "I was wondering if your alright, I was very worried yesterday," she said.

Wait are those tears in her eyes?

"Oh no, I am fine, I was just thinking," Irene quickly replied and squeezed her hand reassuring her. "That's grea-" Alice was then cut off by someone.

"That's good."

It was an incredibly cold voice, the owner was the one and only Grand Duke.

If you weren't so handsome, I would have ripped off that pretty face of yours! Irene cursed as the corners of her smile twitched.

The whole table was then silent with forks and spoons clanging to the plates or bowls. Count then looked at Irene and asked if she was good, which then she replied that she was all fine.

At the end of the meal, the Grand Duke announced that we would be going back to the mansion. "Since of this incident, we will be going home early, Count."

"Oh yeah, I see," the Count replied.

Ah finally! Home is the best, I can finally see Sofia and most importantly alone time!

The meal then concluded right there.

"Alice, are you sure you want to come with me?" Irene asked as she looked at the girl hung on her waist. "Yes, you are leaving soon, sniff," she said on the verge of tears. Irene sighed, patted her head, and went off.

"I-I didn't know we would be leaving the mansion..." Alice stuttered as she looked around, Irene thought she looked like a puppy, Irene patted her head, "Today, I heard there was a festival, I got the adults' permission," she said.

"I have never been to one..." Alice said as she put her head down, Irene laughed, "Me too, I guess this is our first time," Irene thought it would be good if she had fun for a while, it might have looked stupid to go out after a fever, but that fever was just caused by the dream she had.

It won't hurt if I had fun for a while...

Irene pulled her hood more down and helped Alice pull hers, but then Alice shook her hood, and did it herself. "You are not the older one here, I want to be your big sister," Alice said, Irene chuckled and nodded.

Alice was in fact only 2 months older than Irene, but who cares.

"Lady, we will be behind you," Mal quickly said, Irene, turned around to see Roxy, Elle, Ralph, and Taylor behind them in hoods, and nodded as Mal quickly went back.

Irene suggested to the guards to keep distant when there is free space, but when crowded make sure to keep close. Irene smiled, thinking today is going to be great.

Alice and Irene ran around the plaza and then learned that today was the Green Carnation Festival, the village near the Count's estate was known for their carnation, not just any, their green carnation. Irene was shocked when she heard a couple of maids talk about this festival and decided to go out.

Getting permission was the easy part.

However, going alone wasn't.

Irene looked at the puppy-like lady beside her admiring the stand they were looking at, Irene shrugged and stared into the things display in front of them.

The owner of the store booth looked at the two girls with a nice smile, "Ah you two must be interested in these hairpins, their quite rare, those carnations are real, isn't pretty?" he said, "2 for 10,000 gold coins."

Aha...my first festival and I am already getting scammed!

Irene wasn't so sure that one of her veins was popping out all she knew was that her polite smile was now twitching, she could clearly see that the carnations were fake. And while walking here she saw a box behind the man, and one of those "hairpins" was marked 5 coins.

Idiot.

Alice's eyes sparkled, "Oo, wow, the hairpins are really pretty should we get them?" she said as she looked at the white hair.

The man surpassed a smile.

Those sucker kids.

The man can clearly tell that they were from nobility through their cotton-soft black cloths covering their fancy dresses. The man also knew kids were naïve even if they were from nobility so he took the chance the scam them like all those nobles from before.

The man who was smiling proudly, looked towards the white hair little girl, that girl is definitely is at least a daughter of a Count or higher, so is the girl beside her.

At this point he wasn't even hiding his disgusting smile, too bad Alice was too busy admiring the "hairpins" so only Irene and her party noticed.

Irene saw how Ralph's sword was slowly unsheathing from behind, Irene shook her head, Ralph listened.

Who stabs someone in the middle of the day with the public eye? At least do it when he is exposed to his sins.

Today is definitely his lucky day.

"I want the one in the box behind you," the white hair suddenly said with a monotone voice then the man froze.

Hah...when will I ever have an actual nice day? 10,000 coins? I can pay someone 100,000 coins to kill you.