With even her own father saying this, Margaret had no choice but to accept reality.

Under everyone's gaze, she dragged her feet with difficulty, walked onto the award platform, and stood facing Sophia.

After taking countless deep breaths and doing endless mental preparation, facing that face she detested to her bones, Margaret fiercely closed her eyes.

Finally, she spoke the words:

"I'm sorry, Sophia. I apologize to you for everything I've done!!"

As Margaret spoke, the entire venue fell silent.

Throughout the auditorium, only her voice continued to echo.

Then, someone started it off and a wave of boos spread from below the stage.

Margaret stood on stage, her face alternating between red and white, her hands clenched into fists so tightly she nearly drew blood from her palms.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but her last bit of pride as a duke's daughter prevented Margaret from crying in public.

"Just this one apology?"

Celitia wasn't letting her off yet, speaking coldly, "Margaret, what exactly did you do? According to our agreement, under the goddess's witness, say it all."

"I... I..."

Margaret was nearly grinding her teeth to pieces.

Left with no choice, she had to speak about her endless petty schemes.

Such as fanning flames and spreading rumors, stealing Sophia's speech draft, poisoning enemy team members before the competition...

All underhanded tactics that couldn't see the light of day.

Margaret wanted to avoid saying everything, stopping after each section.

But Celitia kept staring at her, as if she knew everything.

Whenever Margaret stopped, she would smile slightly, as if saying, "Do you dare swear to the goddess that this is all?"

Under the pressure of those eyes, Margaret had to stammer and confess everything one by one.

The audience was in an uproar.

So all these things were done by Margaret?

Some people had originally harbored doubts about certain rumors regarding Sophia and Celitia.

Only now did they realize they had been used by Margaret, becoming the knife in her hand to attack others.

The boos from below grew heavier. If the audience had anything at hand, Margaret would probably have received quite a few rotten eggs.

By the time she finished confessing everything, Margaret was nearly collapsed.

Her chest heaved violently, so angry her vision went dark, feeling as if the gazes from all directions were cutting her flesh piece by piece.

Just as Margaret seemed about to faint on stage from anger, Celitia finally let her go and turned to look at Sophia.

"Does Your Highness think this is enough?"

"Enough, I accept your apology." Sophia nodded. "You may go back, Margaret."

Looking at Margaret's expression, Sophia felt she looked rather pitiful.

However, she had definitely vented enough anger!

This time, Margaret's reputation was surely ruined, and she shouldn't be able to stir up any trouble for a while.

Also...

Her gaze drifted to Celitia, and Sophia reached another conclusion.

It was fine to offend anyone, but absolutely not Lily!

Otherwise, once she held a grudge, this kind of ending was really...

Charlotte sat at a somewhat distant position, watching them from afar with very complex feelings.

With Margaret losing face like this, given her proud and competitive personality, she'd probably be so angry she wouldn't even want to attend school anymore.

Moreover, with this apology, the Brienne family's prestige had fallen to rock bottom. Margaret's previous efforts were basically wasted, and there was no need to continue making trouble.

The temporary cooperation between herself and Margaret had obviously also failed.

She had already told Margaret not to make such high-risk bets, and since she wouldn't listen, she deserved to fall to this state.

But it was also good. After watching this farce, Charlotte felt that her head, which had been heated over Celitia's affairs, was gradually cooling down.

Looking toward the stage at the girl standing beside Sophia enjoying unlimited glory, Charlotte's eyes still flickered with flames of jealousy and hatred.

Perhaps she should temporarily endure...

...and then think of some new methods?

○

From this competition, Celitia received a reward of a full five hundred gold coins.

This amount of money would be enough for ordinary people to spend most of their lives.

The first thing Celitia did after getting the money was to look for houses in the commercial district near Cassia's outer city.

Sophia actually hoped Celitia would move to the inner city district, but the courtyards and estates there were astronomically priced, which Celitia simply couldn't afford.

Moreover, Celitia naturally lacked favorable impressions of those conservative nobles.

Even though Sophia was willing to lend money, Celitia still refused her.

It happened that a merchant was preparing to leave Cassia and was urgently selling his house in the outer city district. Celitia negotiated the price with him and finally bought it.

The five hundred gold coins she had just received, before they could even warm up, all left her again...

Celitia wasn't a greedy person, but she still felt quite heartbroken.

"Lily, are you ready?"

Accompanied by a series of knocks, Sophia's voice came from outside.

Adjusting the collar of her dress, Celitia turned and walked out: "Ready."

As soon as she stepped out, servants stood in two rows at the door and bowed to her in unison: "Miss Celitia."

Having hurriedly moved to her new home, Sophia had stuffed a full six servants into her not-too-large house, packing it completely full.

Celitia politely declined on the grounds that she couldn't afford wages, but Sophia patted her chest and said she would cover all the servants' expenses, forcing Celitia to compromise.

"You should have let the maids dress you up properly."

Sophia stood directly in front, arms crossed, looking Celitia up and down with some dissatisfaction.

"Compared to your grand entrance at the last award ceremony, this time is quite lacking."

"That's enough," Celitia didn't care at all, "there's no need to be so grand."

If she had to go through the same thing as last time again, Celitia really wouldn't want to leave the house.

"How can it not be grand," Sophia grumbled unhappily, "today is a good day to go show off at the Herbert family."

Compared to others' various wishes, Celitia had only made one extremely simple request—

She hoped to liberate Luna, Rebecca, and Gidi from their slave status.

Marianne issued an order in the king's name, forcibly paying the Herbert family a sum of money to cancel the three maids' personal contracts and restore their freedom.

The three were originally at the royal palace, and they could have simply been taken from there, but Sophia came up with a devious idea to first send the three back to the Herbert family, then pick them up in a grand manner.

Even though Marianne had already imposed punishment, Sophia still hadn't completely gotten over the series of events that happened at the Herbert family.

Hearing Sophia's words, Celitia showed a trace of helplessness in her eyes: "That's enough already."

They were going to pick up people, not for a beauty contest. What was the point of dressing up so grandly?