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Chapter 2:
A quiet and good-natured woman, Seizel Aramis.
Everyone who knew Seizel would say that unanimously.
It was bound to be.
As the daughter of the Aramis family, of Peron, located in the northern outskirts, she was a woman who had everything she needed to become a lady of the aristocrats, with her beauty and warm personality that took after her mother, who was from the East.
But then again, this story wouldn't start, had she lived and died perfectly.
And, just like any other aristocrat, there's a difference between what you see and what's truly on the inside.
Originally, House Aramis was a family of landowners that represented Peron, a small town in the North, for many generations.
Seizel's father, Viscount Edward Aramis, was a decent person, having lived a life known as a man of high-intellect and honesty.
He'd grown up in a fairly orthodox family, never neglected his duties as the head of house, had a stable marriage with a woman without any affairs, and lived a relatively earnest life.
The only problem, however, was that he had a great sense of responsibility for being "the role model of others".
「My daughter should be a lady that everyone looks up to.」
And so, that belief and sense of responsibility was extended to his daughter, Seizel.
Although he was not very wealthy, they still had enough money to last for generations, but this money wasn't used for any luxuries.
The reason for this was because of his useless concerns that-if the owner of the land showed vanity, then it would cause relative deprivation to the other around him.
TL/N: Relative deprivation~ not having enough resources to live well. Essentially, if the Aramis family spends all their wealth on luxuries instead of using it for other things, then it would cause relative deprivation to their people.
Their family motto: Honesty and Frugality. While even her cousins that lived in a small village changed dresses several times a day, Seizel, on the other hand, wore neat and modest linen dresses.
Seizel didn't know if she would've been better off with a mother, but as her mother had died when she was young, the whole family was subject to her father's will.
「Seizel, we should take pride in being the nobles representing Peron. Would you ever behave like those selfish people who only covet money?」
'No, I won't.'
With this repeated drilling from a young age, Seizel naturally grew up thinking that her father was right.
Her education and the philosophy that was taught to her made it so that she never dated to challenge her parents' words.
How should I live in order to be a role model? How can I live humbly?
The Viscount took the child and made her learn only the moral book that he'd written himself.
They didn't consider little Seizel's own curiosity towards other things and her personality, but she didn't protest.
Seizel didn't want to disappoint her father, and above all, she loved him.
'I really wish my father would love me!'
Her father was the only family she had left, and at that age, all she wanted was to be loved.
'Yes, I will!'
Whatever my father asked of me, I would just say yes and nod my head.
To be truthful, I'd never really known exactly what a "great successor" was, but nonetheless, my desire to make my father proud never faltered.
So to her, her father's existence was everything. He was the law and the truth.
「Seizel, don't you think that your hair color is too fancy? It'll be hard to gain the peoples' trust like that.」
A single line from her father, and even before her social debut, Seizel's dazzling blonde hair was changed to a plain brown color.
Her clear, emerald green eyes couldn't be helped, but as her father would always say, such vibrant colours were extremely rare in the North.
I lived my life as a neat and trustworthy successor, doing whatever my father asked of me.
Although he wasn't exactly the friendliest, he still had plenty of followers as he was the most influential person in all of Peron.
In fact, there seldom were people who didn't receive help or borrow from the Aramis family, so to Seizel, it was rather impressive to see people bowing their heads down when riding in a carriage with her father.
But, this endless sense of pride she felt, didn't last long.
Less than a few months after Seizel made her social debut in the local area, her hometown, Peron, was swept into a sudden development craze.
The imperial family and some royal nobles from the capital had wanted to build a massive villa in the natural and enclosed territory.
And of course, those people brought money to the Aramis family, who owned the majority of land in Peron.
「Please sell me the land, I will pay however much you request.」
Oh, my goodness.
Suffice it to say, the amount of money they offered went beyond even the wildest of my dreams.
Seizel looked at her father, stunned, this being the first time in her life seeing so much gold.
When she saw the money and jewelry in amounts beyond imagination, all she could do was to stare in awe.
It was like the tables had turned, literally.
With this amount of money, you could live the rest of your life comfortably without even working once. It meant never having to worry about money or being swindled by the need for money…
And above all, they made no profit from most of the land they owned, since Seizel's father had said something about "noblesse oblige" and lent their land out for free.
TL/N: Noblesse oblige is the responsibility of a privileged person to act with generosity and nobility towards those who are less privileged.
So as long as they sold the land…
「We absolutely cannot do that, sir! We need to defend the pride and honor of Peron! Please don't sell the land to those undignified people who only care about money and don't know their place! 」
The citizens couldn't simply keep quiet about this.
They soon found out about this, and begged my father to uphold the honor of Peron.
It may have seemed like a request, but in actuality, it was a threat.
If father sold the land, they would be left to the streets, so their desperation wasn't completely unreasonable.
However, though, this offer was too valuable to blatantly decline.
「Of course I won't sell. This land not only belongs to the Aramis family, but it is also the pride and heart of Peron.」
Seizel's father, standing firmly in his own beliefs, shone with the honor of his own judgement.
My father spread his shoulders wide amid the cheering and clapping of the citizens and nobles of Peron.
I had a bad feeling about this, but I couldn't stop my father, who was satisfied with the decision he'd made.
In fact, I didn't even have the power to stop him, and furthermore, he didn't even know my true thoughts at the time.
'This is my father's job, so I'm sure he made the right decision.'
I really thought so.
In this narrow world of Seizel's, her father was the light and the truth. There was no way he could've made a wrong decision.
Father wouldn't have easily forgotten those stacks upon stacks of dazzling gold bars that'd been shown to them that day, but only if he were still alive…
「My lady! There's trouble, come here!」
The very next day, my father clutched his heart tightly and couldn't get up from his seat.
I don't know if it was due to overwork or the pressure from the people, but for someone with such high pride and self-esteem, he was physically weak.
With her ill father in a carriage, Seizel traveled all day to the hospital in Noiren, a city in the center of the North.
They did all kinds of tests, used magic, gave medicine- everything they could.
But when the results came out, there were no more questions or regrets.
Well only one thing: the fact that nobody else came to see you in the hospital.
***
「...Seizel. You must always live well. Always be honest and trustworthy, and you, as the successor to House Aramis, will never feel ashamed.」
「Father!」
Father stood true to his character all the way until the end. He didn't even shed a single tear for how he'd died in vain.
And even though she returned to Peron and held a funeral, Seizel's mind was still unsettled.
People sat around her as Seizel blinked her eyes blankly, unclear of what she should do in the future.
「Take it easy, Seizel- no, Viscountess Seizel. I will always be by your side, so you don't have to worry about anything. We are family, are we not? 」
It was her father's half-brother, Baron Farsen. And, he was the one who'd made her sit in this room and finally come to her senses.
Since her father's death, Baron Farsen had been taking care of Seizel in a light manner, and she trusted his words without any doubt.
Hadn't her father always told her to trust in the people around her?
TL/N: Yea this is gonna end badly…
Since we are supporting each other, if we can trust each other and I can take control of my mind and body, maybe someday…
「I need you to step down, Lady Aramis.」
I was hit in the head, hard.
On the third day, when Seizel was in bed mourning for her father, someone flung the door open carelessly.
Even when seeing her in her undergarments, the embarrassed person did not blush.
Rather, she smiled in a sinister way and handed over the paper.
As if she'd just watched something highly amusing.