The Monstrous Grand Duke’s Fake Lady

“You. You need to get ready as well.”

“Pardon?”

“Did you not hear me? You need to get ready as well.”

“But, I…”

As she heard hesitation in Vivian’s tone, Alexia’s expression immediately turned ferocious.

“Shouldn’t you be by my side—so that when I bump into the Grand Duke, you can at least tell me what you usually talk about?”

It was precisely at the moment when Alexia began raising her hand to land a hit on Vivian, who had been making her feel all frustrated.

Vivian instinctively shut her eyes while her body flinched as usual, but then, that particular hand hadn’t flown towards her. So, she pried her eyes open—ever so carefully.

For some unknown reason, Alexia had suddenly ceased to assault Vivian. Instead, she was just boring a hole into her—with such menacing eyes.

“You’d better think carefully whether or not that head of yours will still be stuck on your body at the moment you said something against my order—like how you don’t want to accompany me to that gathering.”

“…I’ll prepare right away, My Lady.”

“Ah, ah, that’s right.”

As if she had suddenly remembered something, she turned back once again before rummaging through the drawer.

“It’d definitely be better to prepare thoroughly. What if someone recognizes that face of yours?”

She held out a vial—forcefully trying to make Vivian consume the content. The liquid that was in that quite flashy vial appeared to have an odd yet subtle color.

“It’s a medicine that covers your hair in magic for a few days. It has such an absurd price attached that you can’t ever lay a single finger on it for the rest of your life. So, it’s better for you to use it with utmost care. Try changing that red color to something else that you’ve never even imagined before.”

“Understood, My Lady.”

Only after listening to Vivian’s obedient answer did Alexia’s unpleasant expression finally loosen. It was rather obvious to see that she didn’t really find this matter to be severe at all.

“I like your prompt answer. Then, go and get ready now. I still get terribly irritated whenever I see your face.”

Vivian finally heaved a sigh as she had managed to escape from the clutches of Alexia’s fierce hands.

Between the vial in her hand and attending as a maid for the Young Lady during the hunting competition—she was at a loss as to where she should start preparing herself for work.

“Vivi, are you okay?”

Amanda quickly approached her as if she had been waiting for her return from the Young Lady’s room. Seeing how anxious Amanda’s expression had gotten, she immediately felt like she wanted to make that one person happy—at least.

Vivian then put away the vial into her skirt’s pocket before holding onto Amanda’s hands.

“Amanda, you need to get ready as well.”

“Huh? What for?”

“In preparation to accompany the Young Lady.”

“What? She’s also taking me along?”

“Yeah. She said that she would allow us to go together.”

Amanda’s face was brimming with smiles at Vivian’s words.

“I’m so excited! When we reach there, most of the work must have already been done by those maids at that place, right?”

She had been expressing her desire to accompany the Young Lady since a few days ago. Just like her wish had come true, she grinned brightly before swinging along with Vivian’s arms.

“Let’s go and have a lot of fun over there!”

Despite Amanda’s enthusiasm, it was terribly hard for Vivian to even part her lips in response. She couldn’t tell her something like, ‘let’s have fun’—recklessly. Vivian immediately scrunched her face up at the frustration that was curbing her chest, but she soon expunged that feeling of hers.

Time flew by rather quickly.

The event was going to take place in less than a month after Alexia had received the letter. Thanks to that, she was under a lot of pressure during the preparation and therefore, making the house appear to be treading on thin ice for every single day.

When they had finally managed to finish preparing Alexia’s dress and some other items, the event was just around the corner already. Alexia suddenly stopped in front of Vivian while she was still commanding the other servants to carry her luggage.