Remembering my previous life did not mean that my identity had changed.
I was still Katrina Ezellot, who hated paprika and afraid of falling asleep alone late at night.
The end of my textbooks still continued to be filled with doodle drawings during every education class, and the tutor’s attitude toward those lessons plus the attitude of the maid who came into my room to help me with bathing were still the same as dealing with a wildcat.
If there was one thing that had changed, it was that I had matured a bit, I was no longer acting childishly and selfishly.
Had my personality finally developed? Even when I looked at the maid standing next to the sofa, there was no simmering desire for violence or my tongue did not itch for spitting out some abusive words.
It was truly a remarkable change, it made me realise how much I had been living like a reckless fool.
Every day at the Count’s castle became very peaceful just because I had been quiet.
The complexion of the employees had improved considerably. I came across the servants’ gossip here and there, most of them said that the atmosphere around my room, which used to feel bleak and hellish, with the thorny road to my room, had turned quaintly elegant. They even exaggerated that they could even sense the scent of magnolia — the flower symbolised purification around my room.
However, not everyone in the castle showed such a reaction. In particular, my brothers, who lived under the same roof as me, reacted four times noisier than usual, as if they had caught sight of a rare phenomenon.
“Kate, what did you eat wrong?”
“Rick, be silent in front of mother.”
Rick Ezellot’s lips were tightly shut at Eden’s prompt.
He had been teasing and picking up fights with me since yesterday. When I secretly stuck out my tongue at him, avoiding Eden’s eyes, Rick’s eyes widened, he displayed a dumbfounded face with his mouth stuffed with meat and salad.
Why are you staring at me like that? I stuck out my tongue again to mess with him a little.
“Kate.”
Eden, who also had his eyes on me, scolded me with a harsh voice. Perhaps it was because of a sense of obligation as the first born, and Eden was especially stricter today, when father was away.
If it had been the me two days prior, I would have shouted ‘Why are you doing this? You are not even father, so stop ordering me around!‘
But now that I was a newborn Katrina, there was no need for me to maintain my role as an air-headed girl.
In that sense, I turned towards Eden and smiled brightly like a true graceful young lady from a typical long-established count family.
“I’m sorry, brother. Rick kept making fun of me. From now on, I will just eat quietly.”
As soon as I had finished speaking, I sliced the veal steak and put it in my mouth with a calm manner. It may be a misunderstanding, but the expression on Eden’s face I met for a brief moment seemed as shocked as Rick’s from before.
For a few minutes, only the sound of dishes and tableware clattering could be heard.
I carried on with what I left on the plate with my perfect table manner as we continued our meal. Minutes later, I heard a small sigh from the seat right across from me. Even when I did not raise my head, I could tell whose voice it was.
He was the family’s second son, Lockherd Ezellot.
“Hey, tomboy. What kind of change of heart did you have? Because of you, my throat is now blocked, the meat can’t pass through, I’m going to have indigestion. You have been acting like a human being ever since your engagement with Nezar, did something happen?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted to say.”
As Lockherd opened his mouth, Rick joined in as if he had been waiting for it.
“You don’t know how hard it is to see you walking past the hallway with gentle gait. Did you fall out of bed and hit your head the day Nezar came? I had to ponder all night about what I did wrong because of you.”
I calmly wiped my mouth with the napkin I had placed on my lap.
“What is wrong with everyone? Would you feel better if I stabbed you in the back of your hand with a fork so you could be as quiet as before?”
“It’s just that you are so different from before. I thought there was a doppelganger that looked just like you sneaked in and played Katrina Ezellot.”
This was why people’s image was important. I had to listen to the same thing over and over again for two days, just because I was eating without yelling at mealtime.
Frustrated, I gulped down the prepared water on the table.
“That’s more like it, that’s how you swallow water, brutally.”
I glared at Rick, who nodded satisfactorily at my drinking a bit of water.
“Why do you keep getting on my nerves? Do you want me to spit it out on your face like an animal?”
Rather than responding to my warning, Rick was smiling comfortably with a relieved look. Once I had spoken those harsh words, he stretched his arm over the table and stroked my head.
“I told you not to smile in front of me when I’m eating, right? I feel like my stomach is going to flip upside down when I see your smiling face.”
“Right, that’s how it is, Kate, that’s who you are! So you’d better stop pretending to be the lady you never were before father could witness this and pass out because of shock.”
I swallowed the water one more time to calm my boiling stomach.
It had only been two days since I decided to become a human, and they were already acting like this. But because of pride, I did not want to return to my original state after only two days.
It went without saying that the feelings of the servants who were at a loss for words at my merciful change compared to that of those rascals who shared the same bloodline as me were a world different.
If the former made me feel proud, the latter made my blood boil.
How could Rick piss people off just by opening his mouth? Even after I had matured when gaining my past life’s memory, my patience with my brothers still seemed to be running low.
“Enough.”
Then, our mother, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, put the fork down from her hand.