I Start with a Bad Hand!

With a thunderous noise, the doors swung open, revealing two figures dressed in black. The pair didn’t even glance at the kicked-open door as they stepped in. Roxanne felt her heart sink when she recognized their faces.

‘Dietrich….’

An uninvited guest and an unexpected one at that. It seemed she had attended as the prince’s partner, but to Roxanne, everything was a mystery.

‘Since when did she become so close to the prince?’

Seeing them enter, escorted with such affection, made Roxanne think of her absent fiancé. Just a few days ago, she had seen him emerging from the library with Dietrich early in the morning.

Lately, Roxanne’s fiancé had been unable to hide his fatigue, and she only recently learned it was because he had been leaving for the student council room early every morning. And even that, she hadn’t heard from him directly.

“…There are some bothersome matters. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Elius had said gently, giving her a light kiss, but maintaining his firm stance. Roxanne only learned about his early visits to the student council room after overhearing a conversation between him and his aide.

‘Don’t overwork yourself. I know I can’t be of much help to you, but… I’ll always cheer for you from the sidelines.’

She had planned to say that with a batch of homemade cookies. But that was before she saw Dietrich, pale-faced, emerging from the dark library at dawn with her fiancé.

Elius’s stern expression softened the moment their eyes met. But Roxanne couldn’t take her eyes off Dietrich, standing behind him. Listening to Elius’s gentle voice asking what brought her there so early, Roxanne swallowed the words she wanted to ask.

‘…Why can’t you share with me what you share with Dietrich?’

Why.

She knew they had been meeting frequently. And on those days, Elius would be extra kind to her.

‘…I’m not doubting their relationship. You can tell just by looking at their expressions.’

Having spent a long time with Elius, Roxanne could read the subtle emotions behind his cold demeanor. When Elius looked at Dietrich, there was irritation and disdain. Dietrich, for her part, made no effort to hide her contempt, making it easy to notice her animosity.

What hurt Roxanne was that Elius shared things with Dietrich that he couldn’t share with her. Sharing things he couldn’t even tell his beloved with someone who didn’t bother to hide their dislike for him….

That meant she had a shortcoming that love alone couldn’t overcome.

“Guten Abend, meine Damen und Herren.”

The prince, who had kicked the door so forcefully it was left hanging, greeted everyone with smooth manners and a smile. Roxanne couldn’t understand it, but she recognized the language.

‘Luceran.’

Ever since she learned that her aunt was based in the Kingdom of Lucero, Roxanne had started studying Luceran bit by bit. No one had asked her to, but she felt compelled to do so. However, due to the lack of interaction between the empire and the kingdom, and the scarcity of teaching materials and instructors, her progress had been frustratingly slow.

“…Ha.”

At that moment, a low laugh echoed from the entrance. When Roxanne snapped out of her daze, it was as if her thoughts had been mocked. She saw the two people, standing close together, whispering something to each other.

The sound was too faint to discern what they were saying. Initially, she thought it was just a whisper, but it wasn’t. The words coming from Dietrich’s mouth were both unfamiliar and familiar. Dietrich was speaking Luceran fluently and naturally.

‘How does Dietrich know Luceran…?’

Did the prince teach her? The two of them exchanged a few more sentences in Luceran, seemingly oblivious to the eyes around them. Their conversation flowed seamlessly, with no gaps between their quick exchanges.

Roxanne unconsciously looked for her aunt. For some reason, she didn’t want her aunt to see Dietrich like this, though she knew it wasn’t something she could hide.

“Do you know the girl who won the hunting festival this time? Her name is Beatrice Degoph, I think.”

Though she had passed it off casually at the time, her aunt had already been searching for Dietrich. Later, Roxanne learned from Cedric that “Mother won a similar competition at a similar age.” Since then, Roxanne had taken up archery. That’s when she began feeling an inexplicable sense of urgency.

‘And she attended the academy’s friendly match….’

She might already know that girl. The same Dietrich, dressed in black as if to absorb all colors, now stood before them. In front of her and her brother, whose faces had turned red,

“Dietrich… Degoph.”

When her name was called out, almost in a pained manner, Dietrich smiled with a seemingly generous face.

“Happy birthday, young duke.”

As soon as she saw Irene standing beside Cedric, the aloof and polished expression on Dietrich’s face softened with unmistakable delight. When Irene, who had widened her eyes like a startled rabbit, gave a slight nod of greeting, the icy expression that Irene had maintained next to Cedric loosened a bit.

‘Why….’

When Roxanne learned that Irene and Cedric were getting engaged, she was genuinely happy at the thought of Irene becoming part of her family. Being the only woman in the household, she finally felt she would have someone she could confide in.

“When I found out that you were becoming a member of the Elexion family, I was really happy. Do you know that I’ve been looking forward to that day every single day?”

“…Really?”

Irene responded ambiguously to her words. Although Irene didn’t refuse Roxanne’s invitation to have tea together, their conversations were sparse. Roxanne would chatter on, and Irene would merely nod occasionally.

Her brother’s fiancée, who had said she didn’t like wasting time on trivial matters, spent quite a bit of time with Dietrich. Although it didn’t seem like they were doing anything special, Irene’s demeanor suggested that being with Dietrich wasn’t a waste of time.

‘I thought they had grown distant recently… but that wasn’t it.’

It was clear from their brief eye contact that the two were very close. Irene’s gaze towards Dietrich seemed even warmer than when she looked at Cedric.

‘Why do I feel this way?’

Unconsciously, Roxanne clutched her chest. The feeling that had often surfaced when she saw Dietrich washed over her again. She had never resented Dietrich, and the words she once told her—“It’s not your fault”—were sincere.

That remained true even now. Dietrich had done nothing wrong. For the first time, she was fully dressed like a noble, her lips moving smoothly, displaying a natural smile as if she belonged in this place. Roxanne glanced again at her aunt standing in the corner of the hall.

Their expressions were the same. Though she knew they looked alike, seeing them together now, they resembled each other like family.

‘But Auntie said she had no children….’

For the first time, Roxanne gave a name to the emotion that had been unsettling her heart.

She was jealous of Dietrich.

***

‘You told me to leave it to you.’

What is this? I never expected him to barge in so forcefully. As everyone stared at us, I found myself being dragged into the banquet hall, holding onto Icarus’s arm without knowing when I had grabbed it.

“Guten Abend, meine Damen und Herren.”

The sudden greeting in Luceran made me look at him involuntarily. Icarus, as if to keep the momentum going, escorted me forward, subtly pulling me along. It was as if he was urging me to continue. But….

‘No, that would be too ridiculous….’

Barging into someone else’s birthday party uninvited, speaking in a foreign language that no one understood—it was an ordeal my sanity couldn’t withstand. Why did he have to take on such an excessive persona?

‘If I had known it would be like this, I should have had a drink before coming in.’

“Damn it,” I muttered, not realizing I had spoken aloud. Icarus, who was escorting me, paused and quickly whispered in my ear.

“What?”

“I can’t handle this. What do we do?”

At that moment, I made eye contact with a noble who had been standing there. He looked at us with a face full of pure curiosity, as if wondering, ‘Why are they doing that?’ His expression, filled with genuine confusion, pushed my already fragile mental state over the edge.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Laughter, almost hysterical, began to spill out of me. Icarus lowered himself slightly and asked, “Are you satisfied now that it’s going the way you wanted?”

“This is the laughter of someone who lacks the courage to face the current situation and is desperately trying to escape,” I said.

“I didn’t know there was a word for that in Luceran.”

“I just made it up.”

“Just because you slap prefixes and suffixes onto existing words doesn’t mean you’ve created a new one.”

I don’t even remember how I managed to walk straight down the middle of the banquet hall to stand in front of Cedric. As soon as we stopped, the silence was shattered by a flood of murmurs. Cedric’s face, flushed with anger, showed he was barely containing his fury in front of the prince. That expression was truly….

‘Really… thrilling!’

Cedric barely managed to bow and greet the prince, his hands clenched tightly.

“Dietrich… Degoph.”

His name, spoken through gritted teeth, felt like it might shatter his jaw. Somehow, this loosened something within me, allowing me to smile at Cedric for the first time.

“Happy birthday, young duke.”

As I smiled and made eye contact with him, Cedric’s face began to harden, but this time, for a slightly different reason.