Three days later and Dolly, along with Baz, arrived at the Count Wilhelm's family estate.

Her father had a new dress made for the occasion. They were greeted personally by the Count WIlhem's daughter, Cynthia Wilhelm. She's a 14-year-old girl with  peach colored hair and eyes, a year right before she's expected to make her formal debut in high society. 

Until then few people outside the Kingdom would be aware of her existence. It was the same with many of the youths in their respective Kingdoms. The higher ranking Noble children may be known to other nations even before their debut, but even they would not be added to the annals of history officially until then.  

Nobles were not very high in number. The larger nations would only have some thousand or so Noble Houses, regardless of rank, in existence, and even then the vast majority came from unimportant Baron families or Peerages. Since most Noble children were taught about the various Noble Houses in other nations there weren't actually very many to remember as only those of Count and above were regarded as important enough to know.

Of course, unless these small ranked Nobles were very wealthy, for example if they bought their titles like some rich merchants did. While these kinds of Nobles were not regarded very highly in terms of rank, they may be treated very well if they had enough money to their name. 

Even some higher ranked Houses could lose their wealth and fall apart. In which case they'd allow wealthy merchants to marry into their family to continue their prosperity.

The House previously under threat of going under would be saved, and the merchant family would now have a member of their family that would hold an important title and all the benefits it provided. They'd have a symbiotic relationship going forward.

In any case, Dolly knew all this but it never mattered to her. She understood exactly why the WIlhelm family wanted to get close to her, but she didn't care!

"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Dahlia. Do come in." The eldest daughter, that very same Cynthia, greeted smoothly. 

Meanwhile, behind her, a younger girl with similar colorings and short braided hair hid at her sister's back and peered at Dolly warily. 

She was Dolly's age, the second daughter of the Wilhelm's, Matilda. Dolly smiled. 

It wasn't a nice one. Rather, it was haughty and arrogant. 

"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you as well, but I don't have the habit of lying. Unlike some." Dolly's words, surprisingly, were poised like daggers and hinted at the hypocrisy of her hosts. 

The WIlhelms didn't know her. These were pleasantries they didn't mean at all, and she would have them know she understood this fact with crystal clarity. 

Cynthia took pause at her clear provocation and furrowed her neat little brows ever-so-slightly as her sister shivered in fear. 

This was the Lady Dahlia she'd heard of? The happy-go-lucky airhead who'd sell her brother for trinkets? She didn't sound like that person at all. 

Dolly said nothing more as she walked inside, leaving Baz to apologize in her place. It annoyed her! Vee would've never apologized to these two-faces!

Ah, whatever. 

The guests behind her also greeted the two at the door but Dolly paid them no attention. She understood the pretense. They were invited as an afterthought compared to her. Vee explained it well before she'd come. The Wilhelms were hoping to gain her favor as she was expected to be the next Queen. 

The WIlhelms were a family that controlled a large portion of the salt trade within the Kingdom, a lucrative business, and had fought tooth and nail for the salt permits they now owned. But it was won under the favor of the current King, and they knew the other families dealing in the salt trade had already approached Alex and begun to curry favor with him even as young as he was. This was because the Wilhelms had been struck with difficulties the last few years and were under threat of losing the rights to their salt mines if it continued.

Suffice it to say, the other families wanted the Wilhelm's pie and wanted to acquire it through Alex when he took over as King later on. There were other more underhanded means of accomplishing the same, Vee had said, but doing it this way would be the most legitimate. 

Knowing their intentions, the Wilhelm's wanted to respond by acquiring Dolly's favor. As the future Queen she would be a large influence upon Alex and that's exactly what they wanted. If their troubles were still not resolved by the time Alex took the throne, well, they would seek his aid via Dolly. 

The Wilhelms did, of course, expect foul play and Vee had told Dolly as much. Dolly being a member of the powerful Marquis Claybrook family would be another way that they could seek aid if they got her friendship. So there were two ways Dolly could help them, in truth. Either with her own family, or later through Alex if these strange circumstances lasted that long and they were able to hold on till them.

They did hope for a more immediate solution so befriending Dolly and then using this as a pretense to ask her family for help later on was ideal. 

To be honest they'd have offered a hand to her even if she hadn't been engaged to Alex, most likely. But none of that mattered to Dolly, because there was another even more vile intention Vee had warned about: They wanted Day!

He currently had no fiance, as far as anyone knew. And if they could, through a friendship established via Dolly, approach her father with a offer of marriage....well they would jump for joy if such an opportunity came about. 

This infuriated Dolly! They want to use Dolly to get to her Day? What intolerable nonsense! Her father must know all of this, too, so accepting their invitation must mean that he was not entirely opposed to the idea of marrying Day to one of these girls.

And this knowledge made Dolly hate the two with a passion. 

Her mood had been dark and gloomy all throughout the journey here. 

So even when they had gathered in the solar for their tea party Dolly had been tight-lipped and short of word no matter who tried to talk with her. She would often merely sip her tea and smile with as much grace as she could tolerate giving. 

"So, Lady Dahlia." Cynthia began casually, "I hear you were recently engaged to Crown Prince Alexander. You must be thrilled, no? Many young beauties across the Kingdom are infatuated with the boy, including my Matty." She smiled teasingly at her sister, who blushed and ducked her head. "How does it feel to know you'll be the next Queen?" 

Dolly's face was a mask of polite indifference. "My engagement?" She raised a brow. "Oh, I don't find it particularly important. Considering I plan to annul the stupid thing, I'd say it's rather meaningless, wouldn't you?"

The other girls stopped and stared, some freezing just as their arms were raised to consume their food or drink. 

"A-Annul, you say..." Cynthia blinked, confused, disbelieving her ears. "That's...quite a surprise." She finished weakly. "I would think such a match would be any girl's dream."

"I have larger aspirations in life." Dolly replied.

"Indeed? Yes. That's good. Yes." Cynthia had no idea how else to respond. The news was shocking to say the least. 

And no one else did, either. So they continued the conversation, swapping gossip and news, until yet another question was directed Dolly's way.

"By the way, Lady Dahlia, how is your dear brother these days?" Some Baron's daughter inquired eagerly. 

"I don't see how my brother's affairs are any of your business?" Dolly narrowed her eyes dangerously. 

But this girl was no stranger to Dolly. She'd been there all those years ago. And so she immediately took off her beautiful amethyst necklace, the color a reminder of her beloved Damien's mesmerizing violet eyes, and dangled it in front of Dolly's with a knowing smile.

However this did not go as planned, for Dolly had had enough. "You think you can buy news of my brother with these baubles? Really?" She grit her teeth. And threw the contents of her cup at the girl's face, drenching her in a sweet aroma.

The girl screamed. "What are you doing?!" 

Baz recognized what was going to happen and said, "Young miss, wait!"

But yet again Dolly defied expectation! 

Instead of lunging at the girl, she simply opened her mouth. 

"You do not ask about my brother. He will never have anything to do with you." She turned to Cynthia and her sister. "Nor you." Her stare was heavy and final.

"What?" Cynthia blinked innocently. "I don't understand. What do you mean? Lady Dahlia, please calm down, you're being ridiculous. I implore you to apologize to Lady Constance before things get out of hand."

And that was it. Dolly had had enough. "Out of hand? Out of hand?!" She repeated. "That's rich coming from you. What, you really think I don't know what your intentions are? You two hussies, eyeing my brother like you are and yet daring to act ignorant! I hate two-faced bitches like you! You want Day? Well too bad, you can't have him, and you can forget about using me too! I'll never be friends with you, and I'll most certainly never hand over my brother to you! He's my Day. I'm the one who'll marry him, not you, not anyone! " The little girl announced with burning passion. 

Everyone else was left completely and utterly stunned at her statements, especially the last ones. 

"Me and Day are the only ones for each other, you understand me? We'll be together forever!" She went on viciously. "Every day, all day, just me and Day. We'll eat together, sleep together, bathe together....Nn." She nodded. "Just us, as it was always meant to be! And later, when we get married, we'll even...." She trailed off into an eerie laugh. "Heh...hehe...hehehe...." 

"Me and Day...lewd things..." She held her cheeks and wiggled about in her seat happily, lost in her own delusions. 

Everyone at the table was floored. 

What a scandal, They thought collectively.This'll cause an uproar throughout the whole Kingdom!

...They had to tell! 

By this time next week, they expect every Noble in the Kingdom to have heard the young girl's confession.

Meanwhile Baz sighed, wondering what punishment he'd get once the Young Master learns of this.

He'll definitely pull it off this time...

The boy rubbed his ahoge tenderly, crying silent tears