A/N: I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year! I'm back again with chapter 9 and hope you guys will enjoy it along with some Stella fan art I drew for fun to keep myself motivated.

 

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These past three weeks of living here went by much more quickly than in her previous life. Perhaps she had numerous things to keep her busy, such as having daily bickering with Ophelia, teaching the two siblings horse riding in private, and spending a plentiful amount of time getting to know them better. As she remembered correctly, there should be no crucial events or scenarios leading up to Ophelia’s 17^th birthday, so she was caught by surprise when Ophelia told her that Marquis Hugh wanted to speak to her in person.

Without knowing what to expect, she was called over to his office where both the Marquis and Marchioness of Chevalier were patiently expecting her arrival. She didn’t have any recollection of this kind of situation before and what he brought up left her flabbergasted in disbelief.

“Huh?? I’ll be going…to the Northland Academy in this commencing year?”

This heartless man, who orchestrated her father’s assassination, offered to support the tuition fees and send Stella to the academy. She couldn’t believe her ears when she heard that initially, and it felt as if she wasn’t talking to the same Marquis Hugh she knew in the previous timeline.

“My daughter told me that you’re at the age of 15, which is the rightful age to enroll. As you are under Chevalier’s care and soon to become my daughter-in-law, I would like to fully support your education on Cedric’s behalf.”

Stella’s mind was in great confusion as this wasn’t what she expected to happen so soon. What could’ve suddenly got him to act so differently this time, and pretentiously act like a good father-in-law? There were too many unanswered questions running through her mind, and perhaps her actions throughout the past three weeks have begun to have a major impact on the course of history.

“I’m extremely grateful for your kindness, Marquis.”

The noble alpha expressed her gratitude so she could hide her real reaction. He was awfully kind and offered to handle all the application processes and tuition fees on her behalf. As the Marchioness noticed her confusion, she walked up to pat the young alpha’s shoulder to reassure her that it was out of their goodwill.

“Especially since you will soon become part of our family, we both wish to support and provide the best things for you after your tragic loss.”

“I’m very…touched with both of your generosity.”

She played along with them so they wouldn’t suspect her unusual reaction before they allowed her to leave. Once she stepped out, she headed to the garden where she knew both Chevalier siblings would be waiting for her. At this moment, her mind was in a muddle. This perhaps was the first major anomaly of the timeline and she came out of it with more unanswered questions. Nevertheless, this change ultimately gave her the chance that she did not have in her previous life. The young alpha would need to make quick adjustments to her plans later tonight.

 

-

 

“So, what did father speak with you?”

The moment she joined the siblings at the garden, Ophelia questioned about her meeting with the Marquis while casually sipping her tea. Stella couldn’t shake away the feeling that her fiancé most likely knew what her father called her for already, but she still asked anyway. In the end, she answered with her eyes fixed on Ophelia to take note of any subtle change in her expression.

“It is about my enrolment to the academy in this commencing year. Marquis offered to help with the process and the tuition fees as well.”

“I see. Good.”

“…??”

Well, that was quite an abrupt end to their conversation and she was even more confused with Ophelia’s nonchalant reaction to her response. Stella was still quite baffled by the entire situation and it seemed her pink-haired fiancé noticed her usual silence after she returned.

“What is with that confused reaction? I thought you would be delighted that father was merciful enough to allow you to attend the academy.”

“Well, you can say I’m slightly baffled. I wasn’t expecting the Marquis to be generous with me, which is out of his character...”

“You’re speaking quite strangely. You are at the age to attend the academy, so what is so odd about that?”

This sent cold chills down her back and her heart dropped for a second, she was behaving too suspiciously of the Marquis and her observant fiancé noticed that. Ophelia was right about how Stella was at the age to enroll, but the point was that this never happened in the previous timeline. She was imprisoned in the manor with the Chevaliers treating her like a dog in an attempt to break her spirit entirely through absolute oppression. The more she became broken, the easier it would be for them to manipulate her.

“What I meant is that he didn’t have to offer to pay everything since he could’ve easily demanded Albrecht to pay for my education instead, but he offered to pay instead…”

Stella cleared her throat and attempted to correct herself before Ophelia would find her words or actions suspicious. The young alpha knew that the Marquis only saw her as a tool to his grand plan and had little to no care for her mental well-being. All he needed was her functional fertile body to produce a legitimate heir to the Albrecht title for him, but that was the truth that she shouldn’t be aware of yet. The true nature of the family was yet to be revealed, so she needed to be extra careful with how she was behaving around Ophelia. She must still pretend to be the oblivious child unaware of the truth of her family’s downfall.

“…Hmm, not bad. So you are not that oblivious after all.”

Ophelia kept her eyes on her as she was quite amused with Stella’s perceptive mind beyond her age despite witnessing it several times. Thus, she did her a favor by enlightening the younger alpha of the truth of her situation.

“Allow me to enlighten you then. The only reason my father is utterly generous with you is because you are my property.”

In public eyes, everyone knew Stella as Ophelia’s fiancé who currently lived with the Chevalier. If rumors go about that she did not attend the school despite being under their care, it will significantly defame the family’s name. It would be in Marquis’s best interest to present himself as a good father-in-law figure to the public by supporting her academics on behalf of Stella’s biological father who recently passed away. Thus, ultimately boosting his reputation and fame within a noble society.

“The fact we were kindly enough to feed you well and give you a roof to sleep under is because you are substantially useful to us in many ways—your Albrecht bloodline in particular.”

Stella had embraced that truth for many years already, which made it hard to pretend to be in pain upon hearing that from Ophelia for the ‘first time’. She was aware of how many people tried to approach her with various ulterior motives that she couldn’t be bothered to list out. Marquis Chevalier was one of those people but was just far crueler than anyone else and was able to plan his dear old friend’s assassination just to take over the Albrecht with the ultimate goal of ruling over Northland.

Everything that Ophelia said was justifiable, but if that was the case then what made it different this time though?

In the previous life, Marquis could’ve done that to let her guard down and further boost his reputation from this situation, but he didn’t. Was it just because she was well-behaved this time? She wasn’t convinced that could be the only reason, but as of right now, she would accept this priceless offer and make the best out of it.

 

-

 

A couple of days later, the Marquis called her in again to meet with one of the professors from the Northland Academy regarding her enrolment application. Obviously, a man of his fame and power would be able to summon one of the senior professors to authorize her student application by today.

Stella triple-checked every single paper before she signed them to make sure it was regarding school application before the professor checked through all the documents. Once everything was completed, Stella did not forget to turn to Marquis Hugh and thank him for his extraordinary generosity. Even though she despised him to the core, Stella had to play into her character as a harmless oblivious child to keep his guard down with her.

“Thank you so much for your generosity once again, Marquis Hugh.”

“I’m glad to support my daughter-in-law’s future and do what I can to fill in your father’s shoes.”

As expected, he wore a pretentious smile and patted her shoulder, pretending to be a good father-in-law to her in front of the professor. Stella could feel the blood pressure rising but she had to force herself to smile as she tightened her fist.

…It was a long meeting since she had to go through many documents, but at least her application to the academy was officially approved and sorted. The younger alpha would attend the academy by the end of next month with Ophelia, but before that happened, she must remind herself that her fiancé’s birthday party would be next week. That reminded Stella that she needed to go into town later to pick up the special orders she made last week. As her mind was thinking of what she needed to do today, a familiar scent hit her nose and rekindled the raging flame of animosity that she would never forget until this day.

“Oh my, so the rumors are true!”

She turned to the sound and her eyes met with a group of Chevalier youngsters that just returned from their long summer vacation. The moment her eyes met them, she could feel her nerves twitch with great displeasure. Stella could never forget all of them that easily, Ophelia’s obnoxious cousins with an incurable toxic attitude, just like Theo and Eleanor. Especially one of them who had that thick vanilla-scented pheromone, even a faint smell of it was enough to make her gut twist out of anger and disgust.  

“You must be Ophelia’s pet, hey? You’re quite cute now that I have a better look at you…”

That filthy omega flaunting her pheromones was none other than Mabel Chevalier. That face, voice, scent, and presence…Just the sight of her made Stella recall that hideous incident she was drugged and almost got sexually assaulted by her. If she could be honest about it, pushing aside the alpha chivalry from the equation, Stella would love to give a nice punch right in the face but that wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do at this moment. Her intimidating phemones leaked while she shot daggers at them and that was more than enough to give them a cold sweat. She had no reason to fear these spineless cowards with their nonexistent dignity of a noble.

“You dare to threaten us? Do you even know who you are looking at?”

“Of course, I do know you guys quite well. You were all from the branched families, am I correct?”

Years she lived with the Chevalier, she knew a thing or two about the disparities and tension between the main family line and other branch families. This was not known to outsiders as they were all meticulous with maintaining their public image. While the public eyes viewed every Chevalier member as equal, that was not the case behind the scenes—there was a hierarchy within their family. In every generation, the current Marquis’s family would become the main family line with the highest hierarchy among everyone. Thus, others who were not part of the main family would automatically become second-class or even third-class Chevaliers.

“Even if I am Ophelia’s pet, I am still an Albrecht noble and Duke of Northland’s daughter. How about all of you here?”

Her nonchalant attitude and coldhearted smirk easily silenced them and the grins they had on earlier disappeared in an instant. Initially, they intended to have fun ridiculing the young alpha, but then it was too late to realize that their roles had switched. They were the ones receiving the contemptuous stare from the Albrecht alpha instead.

“Y-You—!!”

She recognized that annoying alpha boy who stepped forward, Caleb Chevalier, who was amongst the crowd as well. The black-haired alpha knew that her words were like a sharp blade that reminded them of their inferiority complex, which was her goal from the start. She had no reason to be nice to them since the only person she needed to be on good terms with within this household would be the Marquis and Marchioness of Chevalier themselves.

“I must take my leave. You better hope Ophelia would forgive all of you for wasting my time since she’s expecting me right now.”

She bowed politely, but it was more of an act of sarcasm instead. She took her leave with a satisfied smile after she exacted an act of sweet revenge against those annoying brats who abused her for years. She walked down the corridor and headed to the outdoor garden where Matteo and Ophelia were waiting for her arrival. Encountering those people earlier made her mood sour, but then that feeling disappeared the moment she saw those two pink-haired siblings from a distance with the younger boy waving at her energetically.

“Stella, we’re over here!”

“You do not need to shout, Matteo. Stella could see us just fine.”

Those two siblings were made the corner of her lips lifted unconsciously. She joined them for the afternoon picnic and discussed with them about heading into town sometime this week. Coincidently, the older alpha remembered that the bookstore they went to last time said they would have a large batch of newly released books. As expected, that instantly lit up the spark in the young boy’s eyes as he turned to his sister immediately.

“Ophelia, could we? Please?”

Those puppy eyes from the young boy were enough to convince Ophelia to take them to the town the next day. Even though she felt a bit guilty for using Matteo, this was the most efficient and effortless method to get Ophelia to do things for them. If Stella were to ask, she would certainly shoot down her request in the blink of an eye.   

They headed into the town the next morning and to the bookstore Matteo requested. As now they were in town, Stella managed to get some alone time after successfully convincing Ophelia that she needed to drop by the stationery store to purchase writing materials. Within that short time window, Stella sneaked into one of the hidden jewelry shops within the dark quiet alley in the downtown district. This place was a hidden gem within the dark corners of the town, owned by commoners, an artisan couple. Despite their finesse and craftsmanship, their origin as commoners hindered them from marketing within the aristocratic society. However, thanks to Viscount Lemaire’s investment in their business in the next 3 years from this present time, they would forge their name among the aristocrats and even the royal family for their unique custom design and finest craftsmanship. 

“Good afternoon, I came to pick up my custom order that I requested a week ago.”

“Ah yes! Please wait here, Lady Stella. Your custom orders are ready for pick up.”

The artisan lady, one of the owners of this shop, remembered and asked her to sit down before she brought over the bracelets she ordered. The first one was the same exact bracelet that she once gave to Ophelia for her birthday in the past, a bracelet made of lavender-colored crystals, but with some slight adjustments. She specifically requested a cheap imitation of the original bracelet since it would be destroyed by Ophelia on the night of the birthday banquet. It would be a waste of her money to purchase the original one which wasn’t exactly that cheap too.  

“I’m very pleased with this. Please let the artisan that made this know that the bracelet is an exact replicate of what I described it.”

“We’re grateful to meet up to your expectations, Lady Stella. I will make sure to pass your feedback to my husband.”

Of course, the cunning alpha didn’t make just one order, but two bracelets in total. One was meant to be a fake gift that Ophelia would break and another one was meant to be her real birthday present. She ordered a beautiful white gold bracelet with a simple yet sophisticated design, just the way her fiancé would like it. Stella could tell that the artisan couple meticulously crafted the designs and incorporated the finest grade of amethyst as well.

“Hmm…I’m very pleased with both orders. Please wrap them up for me.”

Just as Stella was about to pay for her order, the generous artisan lady seemed to have a special offer for her. She brought out a selection of handcrafted charms that she could choose and add to the white gold bracelet free of charge.

“Unfortunately, we would have more selections for you to choose but these are the only two designs we have left in our stock. We will add the charm to the bracelet for you before I wrap the box.”

The alpha stared at the two charms and noticed that one of them was a heart shape. Without a second thought, she chose the other one since it would rather be awkward to choose a heart-shaped charm for someone she had no special feelings for. After paying for the custom orders, she bought several writing materials along her way before returning to join the siblings at the bookstore. Thanks to Matteo, he kept his sister occupied so she didn’t notice how long Stella was gone.

Once the younger brother was done with his shopping spree, it was about time to head back to the manor and rest for a bit before dinner time.  

-

Since yesterday, dinner time had been quite entertaining to Stella. It was obvious that Ophelia’s cousins did not tell anyone about their first fiery encounter with her yesterday because everyone knew that Marquis Hugh couldn’t care less of any of them, the second-rate members of the family. It was priceless to see how they wanted to get back at her but they were too powerless to do anything to her.

Once dinner was over, Stella would usually leave the dining hall with the siblings, but not tonight. Ophelia excused herself from the hall earlier since she still had a lot of birthday planning to do, so it was only Matteo and Stella walking back together. Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a young lady who had been following them from the dining hall.

“Stella, do you have a minute?”

The first thing that hit her nose was the nauseating vanilla scent and even though she wished she could just ignore her completely, she did not have a choice but to turn around to respond to Mabel.

“…State your business, I do not have time to waste since Ophelia is expecting my return right now.”

“I would like to apologize to you for yesterday, what others and I said to you was uncalled for.”

Wearing a friendly façade, she followed her just to apologize for her and her cousins’ disrespectful attitude, but Stella wasn’t buying it in the slightest. The real Mabel she knew very well was the embodiment of selfishness, narcissism, and arrogance — just like Theo, Eleanor, and others. Seeing how pretentious she was right now made her feel sick to the stomach. It was obvious this was just an act and she was not apologetic for what she had done in the slightest.

“Allow me to be clear that I couldn’t care less what you all, members of the branched families, would think of me. Whether you apologize or not has no value to me. I would appreciate you directing your inferiority complex toward the main family instead and not wasting my time as I have much more important matters to attend to.”

Even though she tried to mask her emotions, Stella could see how Mabel’s face twisted by her blunt remark. Even Matteo who wasn’t even part of the conversation, the boy was shocked and speechless with how brutally direct the older alpha was. He was used to her gentle presence and smile whenever she was with him and Ophelia, but this time her blue eyes were ice cold and filled with indescribable and bottomless contempt that even sent chills down his back.

“Let’s not waste our time any longer. Let’s go, Matteo.”

“R-Right.”

When she turned back to him, she gently patted his back and was back to her usual self once again. Just before they were about to walk off, Mabel’s attitude changed instantly after realizing that being friendly to this Albrecht alpha wasn’t working in her favor.

“I’m being nice to you here since you are the one that the most pitiful one here. Are you that stupid that you’re not aware that you’re just a plaything for THAT witch?”

Ignoring her blabbering, the older alpha gently pushed Matteo forward to walk away from this spot. The young boy was confused and uneasy with the things Mabel was saying regarding his sister after being provoked by Stella, but what scared him more was the fact that the older alpha was completely unfazed by everything she was saying. It was as if she already knew what Mabel would say.

“Mark my words, you’ll regret not listening to me today once you learn how cruel that bitch is.”

Stella agreed with her that Ophelia was a cruel person but in a completely different view from what Mabel and others may see her as. She selfishly treated everyone, including her family members, as chess pieces on her board game, sacrificing everyone and herself, and deciding everyone’s fate including Stella’s regardless of whether the alpha agreed to it or not.

The two of them kept walking until they arrived at Matteo’s room. Stella looked around the double-check that no one was following them before she let out a long exhale.  The moment she turned around, she instantly noticed the discomfort painted all over the boy’s face. It was as expected that he would be uncomfortable hearing his cousin speaking poorly of his beloved sister. Sometimes it felt like Matteo was born into the wrong family, he was too kind to be in the den of vicious wolves.

“…Matteo.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Could you keep what happened earlier a secret from Ophelia?”

The young boy made eye contact with those gentle blue eyes and noticed that Stella was back to her usual self before he firmly nodded back. She was usually very kind and patient with them, but she became a completely different person to others. If Matteo had to be honest, what happened earlier made him realize how terrifying Stella could become but he was not personally scared of her.

“…Okay, I won’t tell her about what happened earlier.”

She smiled before saying her goodnight to the younger brother before heading back to her room to rest for the night. Now that she was lying in bed and staring at the ceiling of her bedroom, many thoughts and emotions started to resurface. If the young noble must be honest, she was nervous about the upcoming birthday banquet, as Ophelia’s 17^th birthday marked the start of Chevalier’s cruelty and revelation of their true nature. Uncertain what the outcome may be after next week, she hoped that her efforts since day one would be enough to prevent history from repeating itself.

 

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A/N: Maybe I might draw Ophelia next time (  owo)