Diana sipped her tea before speaking up. "So, how have you been—no, that’s a pointless question. Of course, you’ve been fine, haven’t you?"

Beside her, Nika and Beatrice were quick to fill in the gaps, doing the tasks that a maid would normally handle. However, given my presence, Beatrice, who also served as the head attendant, insisted on taking care of things herself. After all, there wasn’t a maid in the Crate family who would dare refuse her.

"Of course, I’ve been fine. But why ask all of a sudden?"

"I heard some news. They say even Lady Aihenhart Renitus is involved with you now?"

"I’m not sure what you mean by ‘involved,’ but if you’re talking about the summer festival, then yeah, we had a duel to decide the free sparring order. That’s about it."

Seeing Kang Yuna like this—calm, composed—made me feel a strange sense of unease. The only time I had seen her act like this was when she received a bonus that was 800% more than expected.

Despite having known Diana for nearly 20 years, the familiarity I felt seeing Kang Yuna, after only 20 years apart, seemed to prove that blood truly is thicker than water.

"Impressive, Mira."@@novelbin@@

"What is?"

"My darling little brother is not only involved with the Agnes family, but now you’re also pulling the Renitus family into your orbit. How can I not be impressed?"

"I already told you, it’s not like that. What part of my explanation didn’t you understand?"

"Isn’t it? I just figured you were trying to pull Renitus family members into your circle too. People are saying you seemed pretty close with Lady Aihenhart during the summer festival."

"She’s devoted to the Crown Prince. There’s no way I could interfere, even if I wanted to. Wait, this is going to be misunderstood again. Even if there were something, I wouldn’t do it. So, tell those people to shut up and back off."

Diana pondered my words for a moment, then clapped her hands softly.

"I get it now. They approached you to get closer to the Crown Prince, right? That explains why you two met privately—so the Crown Prince wouldn’t find out."

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