The Villainess Turns the Hourglass

Chapter 7

A few days after the count left, Cain returned to the academy. He was very worried about leaving Mielle alone with Aria and her mother, but since Aria had changed so much, he only lingered a little longer before getting into the carriage.

Cain wasn’t thrilled about his father’s new wife, but he wasn’t filled with pure hatred like Mielle was. Since he was busy taking lessons to succeed the count alongside his academy training, he seemed uninterested in interfering, as long as his little sister wasn’t in harm’s way.

Once Cain was gone, Mielle finally chose someone to hire as her embroidery teacher. She began to spend all day focusing on that. Aria could imagine the state of her room, seeing that the other girl was foregoing all other lessons to focus solely on embroidery. In addition, since Aria was no longer throwing tantrums, the glares that had always been directed at her had gone away. It was Mielle who felt inferior now. Things couldn’t be better.

As Aria took a sip of tea with an unfaltering smile, Sarah asked, “Did something good happen?”

“Yes! Everything that has been happening recently has been good. And the best of all was meeting you, Miss Sarah.” Because I get to see Mielle scowling thanks to you.

Aria’s cheerful smile was very touching for Sarah. Although she had just been a cute little girl when they met, she was now a little lady, with enough elegance, grace, and dignified class to proudly show off to anyone. The transformation had happened in a matter of months.

As she watched Aria take an elegant sip of tea, Sarah brought up something she had mentioned before. “I’m planning to host a tea party in a few days. It is a very small affair with only a few of my friends in attendance.”

“I see.”

“My father has acquired some very rare tea, you see, and he was gracious enough to give it to me.” Sarah smiled gently as she continued, “If you have the time, I thought it would be nice for you to attend, Lady Aria.”

Aria pretended to be shocked at this suggestion, her eyes wide. “I couldn’t possibly!” she said, covering her mouth with her little hands and shaking her head shyly.

Sarah reassured her that it would be fine. “I would love to show you off to my friends, Lady Aria.”

Aria was aware of why Sarah was inviting her to this tea party. It had to be because of the rumors that had spread about her. Aria was familiar with most of them—that the daughter of the new countess, a courtesan, was so jealous of the count’s true daughter that she threw tantrums every day, that she had a nasty temper just like her mother, and even that she smelled terrible. According to the rumors, the wicked little girl was dead set on ruining House Roscent’s reputation, and poor Mielle Roscent cried herself to sleep at night because of her antics.

There were plenty of other rumors along those lines, and most of them were actually true. Before Aria had been given a second chance at life, that was how things were at House Roscent. Everything about Mielle being unhappy was false, but the rest was accurate. Though Aria may have been manipulated, only an evil witch would push someone down the stairs and put poison in their tea.

Aria was no longer interested in any such deeds—unless she could do them behind everyone’s back while acting like an angel, just like Mielle had. Actually, that was exactly what she was planning, which meant that she needed to put the rumors to rest before the villainess masquerading as a saint could inflate them further.

“All right, then,” Aria answered. “It’s a little intimidating, but would you allow me to join you?”

Sarah beamed at the girl’s shy reply and flushed cheeks.

In truth, Aria didn’t need to participate in the tea party to quell the rumors. It was clear that Sarah had very little influence in high society, which meant that her friends had to be the same. But since she needed to grow closer to Sarah, it was best to make as many memories with her as possible. She also wanted to see what it was like to spend time with such polite young ladies.

“Of course. I am sure that everyone will be eager to welcome you, Lady Aria.”

“Thank you, Miss Sarah.”

Sarah’s cheeks were flushed with excitement. She said she should go and tell her friends about this and left.

How sweet and innocent… Aria shook her head, wondering whether someone so gullible could really make a good wife for the marquess in the future.

Aria needed a new dress for the occasion. She had more than enough dresses already, but they were all either far too extravagant or too childish. While they were perhaps appropriate for her age, the colorful dresses adorned with giant bows made her look more like a doll than a young lady. The uncultivated taste of her younger self almost made her break out into a cold sweat.

Why do dresses like this even exist? she thought to herself. She wouldn’t even own such things if they hadn’t been put on the market like that. They were all so childish that she felt like burning them.

It wasn’t just the dresses that were immature, but all her clothing. The housedresses she had been wearing were relatively simple, so she hadn’t noticed so far, but now that she thought back, Aria remembered that she had hand-picked all these clothes herself.

Of course, she could understand why she had chosen such colorful and over-the-top outfits. When she lived as a commoner, they had been so poor that she had worn the same sets of clothes for months or even years on end. Her clothes had been so worn that they had lost all their color, and they didn’t have any patterns, either. That was obviously why her young self had gone for these gaudy dresses in bright colors.

They make my eyes hurt. I need to get rid of them right away. Aria called for Jessie and asked the maid to throw everything away. Jessie seemed to agree that they weren’t worth keeping because she took them all out without comment. There were too many dresses for her to carry on her own, so she brought a big wheelbarrow to cart them all away at once.

Once the dressing room was nice and empty, Jessie let Aria know that she had completed the task she was entrusted with earlier.

“Oh? So the hourglass has been put back together?”

“Yes. Shall I go and retrieve it, my lady?”

The broken hourglass Aria had discovered under her sheets the day she had returned from her past life was reassembled. She had collected all the glass shards and sand and had ordered Jessie to have it restored. Thankfully, it hadn’t been completely shattered, so while it would take some time, it could be fixed.

The hourglass was clearly not just an ordinary object. It may have expended all of its powers after turning back Aria’s time, but it was precious to her for giving her another chance at life. That was why she wanted to restore it and keep it safe.

“No, it’s fine. I need to go buy some new dresses anyway, so I’ll get it myself. Please help me get ready.” Aria didn’t know what might happen if the hourglass were to break again, so she needed to be very careful with it. That was the main reason she wanted to handle it herself.

Jessie bowed her head apologetically when Aria asked her to help her prepare for an outing. “My lady… Well…”

Aria gave her a questioning look, wondering why the maid was hesitating so much instead of doing as she was told.

Although things were different now, Jessie had always gotten the worst of Aria’s tantrums, so she was still cautious about setting her off. When Aria gave her a friendly smile and asked what the problem was, the maid finally seemed to remember how much the young lady she served had changed recently. She pulled herself together to tell her the bad news.

“If you throw away all of your dresses, you won’t have any to wear on your outing. The housedresses you wear inside the manor won’t be appropriate for going outside.” Though the different kinds of dresses were all expensive-looking to commoners, they had very particular uses for nobles. There were clear differences between indoor and outdoor dresses, and if anyone were to ever go out in a housedress, they would immediately be shunned and considered vulgar.

The complication made Aria click her tongue, but there was no helping it. Still, now that she had realized just how gaudy and terrible her dresses were, she could no longer bear to wear them into town. She weighed her options for a moment, trying to think of a way to wear one of her old dresses without feeling humiliated.

Just then, she got an idea. There was another way. The manor was full of elegant and beautiful dresses, even without her buying any new ones. They would undoubtedly fit her perfectly, too. “Put all of those dresses back in my dressing room,” she instructed Jessie.

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them.”

Despite having to go through all that work again, the maid did just as Aria ordered without complaint. She was so used to much worse treatment that she didn’t even think to complain.

It took a while, but Aria didn’t rush Jessie as she arranged her old dresses back in the dressing room. As soon as she was done, Aria immediately asked her to wait outside for a moment. Though she seemed puzzled, the maid did as she was told.

Those matches must be in here somewhere… Aria thought. She had matches used for lighting scented candles. She remembered purchasing them to try and mimic elegant young ladies, but they only sat unused in one of her dressers. As it happened more than ten years ago, she could barely remember it now. In the current timeline, only a few months had passed since she had purchased those scented candles, but with her memories of her past life, it seemed like much longer.

There they are! Aria quickly lit one of the matches and waited a second for it to flare before throwing it into her dressing room, which Jessie had long since left. She watched the flames for a moment before letting out a few panicked shrieks, her expression as calm as ever.

Jessie, who had been waiting outside, rushed into the room, only to be faced with the awful sight. “M-my lady?!” She tried her best to put out the fire, but as the dresses were incredibly flammable, it quickly grew out of control.

With a bustling of voices and footsteps, a crowd of people rushed toward Aria’s bedroom. Sitting on the floor, surrounded by scattered matches, the girl frowned and sighed. “I thought I’d light a scented candle, but… It’s been so long since I used matches… Oh… What should I do now? Since my dresses are all burned, I suppose I have no choice but to borrow one from someone.”

Jessie stared at Aria with a strange expression. She seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time.