The Tsundere Lady's Honesty Plan Backfires Spectacularly - The Seventeenth Letter and the True Feelings Revealed

I'll take on this translation now. --- "I'll face you head-on!!" How long had it been since she'd declared that so boldly? Ariana Von Gracia sat before the desk in her private room, placing a fresh sheet of stationery directly in front of her. The second floor of the Gracia Marquis residence, the eastern wing—her private chamber. The cobblestones of the Emerald Ring District stretched below her window. The morning gas lamps still burned faintly, and the distant sound of a carriage rattling down Bell Tower Street drifted through the air. On the desk: a quill pen. An inkwell. And a red wax candle for sealing. Everything was ready. All she had to do was write. "To Lord Leon. I have received your note. To speak frankly——" The moment she read it aloud, her face caught fire. She crumpled the stationery with a soft crush. Tossed it into the waste basket. First sheet, done. She pulled out a fresh sheet. Took a deep breath. This time she'd write with an empty mind. Emotions buried deep——yes, that was it. She was good at suppressing emotions. She did it every day. If she just followed the family teachings—— "I am not particularly concerned about the other day. However……" She stopped after "however." The words wouldn't come. She asked herself silently: *However what?* The answer came, but that was the problem. It bothered her. It had been bothering her all along. That note wouldn't leave her head. Last night, this morning—— She crumpled it. Third sheet. "Regarding the matter of passing time, my true intention is different——" Crumple. Fourth sheet. "Your consideration is unnecessary, but should the opportunity arise——" Crumple. Fifth sheet. "There was no particular intent, but if I were to say——" Crumple, crumple, crumple. *(Why "if I were to say"?! What kind of bureaucratic document is this?!)* The paper balls in the waste basket multiplied. Six, seven, eight. Ariana cradled her head in both hands. A pigeon cooed outside the window. Its carefree voice infuriated her. The ninth sheet began with "Thank you for reaching out." One line in, she realized *Is this a thank-you letter?* and crumpled it. The tenth sheet she stared at blank for a while, then sighed and crumpled it. From the eleventh to fifteenth sheets, she repeated the pattern: write one line, crumple. The waste basket became a mountain of paper balls. A white mountain of paper. All her failures. Sixteenth sheet. She started: "You are——" and stopped after one second. Her face boiled. Not a crumple this time—she tore it vertically, then horizontally. The quartered paper went into the waste basket. *(Calm down. Calm yourself, Ariana. Seventeenth sheet. This is the last one.)* She placed the final sheet on the desk. Picked up the pen. This time, she wouldn't think. She'd empty her mind and move her hand. She wouldn't read what she'd written. If she read it, it was over. She wrote smoothly. Finished. Set it down gently. Slowly, she read just one line. ——*"Not that I care or anything, but if you're free, come to the courtyard? Though it's fine if you don't."* Ariana froze for three seconds. *(……This is as honest as I can be!!)* She declared it silently, then with trembling hands placed it in an envelope. She lit the candle, pressed the wax seal. The Gracia family crest was imprinted in the wax. Complete. She couldn't write anymore. If she did, it would be the eighteenth sheet. She absolutely could not open it again. She looked at the waste basket. Sixteen paper balls piled high. A knock sounded. "Miss, your morning preparations——" The door opened to reveal Claude Walden. A servant with black hair falling across his right eye. His gray eyes first took in the mountain of paper in the waste basket, then the envelope in Ariana's hand. Beyond that, he seemed to see nothing—his face was perfectly, completely expressionless. "Take this," Ariana held out the envelope. "Deliver it to Lord Schwartz." Claude accepted the envelope. His slender fingers held it gently by the edges. He didn't open it, didn't break the seal—he simply gazed at the outside, studying it intently. Three seconds of silence stretched. "……If I may be so bold, Miss," Claude spoke. His voice was calm, refined, utterly devoid of emotion. "This is——torture." He gently returned the envelope to the desk. The next moment, he turned and began walking toward the door. "Wait just a minute!! A mere servant imagining the contents——?!!" She shrieked. Claude's back disappeared beyond the door. It closed quietly, as if nothing had happened. Not a sound from the hallway. As if he'd never been there at all. Ariana collapsed onto her desk. *(He didn't read it. He didn't read it, right? It was sealed, so he couldn't have read it. But he said "torture." He imagined it. He definitely imagined it. That servant imagined it!!)* For the next thirty seconds, she couldn't move, her face buried in the desk. As Claude walked down the hallway alone, his brow furrowed slightly. It was his job to deliver the envelope. He understood that. As a servant, he would faithfully carry out any order from the young lady. That was the pride instilled in him at Aoi Shield Hall——the servant training institution. But. *(……Delivering this to Lord Leon is, somewhat……)* Morning light from the Emerald Ring District streamed through the hallway window. White cobblestones, the distant bell tower. Claude pressed his lips together slightly and swallowed. —————— Ariana decided to deliver it herself. There was no choice. Claude had disappeared under the pretense of "temporary leave." She didn't have the energy to call him back. Besides, if she did, he'd probably say "torture" again with that same expression. That servant was like that—he performed his duties perfectly while delivering one line that cut straight to the heart. By carriage to Silver Peak Academy. From the Emerald Ring District to the southern slope of Silver Peak Hill in the north——twenty-five minutes. Ariana placed the letter in the inner pocket of her uniform. She felt the corner of the envelope against her chest. *(Deliver it and that's it. That's all. I might not even see him, and if I do, I'll just hand it over and leave quickly. Emotions buried deep. That's all.)* She repeated it three times in her mind. Like an incantation. Through the academy gates, down the stone path, into the courtyard. A spring morning, the air still cool. The white stone walls of the main building gleamed in the sunlight. A faint mist lingered over the courtyard stones. In the center: the Silver Birch. At its roots—— Deep chestnut-brown short hair. Calm eyes. Leon Schwartz stood there. Ariana's feet stopped for a moment. *(Why. Why is he here. I only came to deliver this. It was supposed to be just handing it over and leaving.)* He noticed her too. His golden eyes narrowed slightly. In the morning light, his calm expression remained unchanged——the same face as when they'd met in the courtyard yesterday. Observant, peaceful. Something thudded in her chest. *(It's just surprise. He happened to be here, that's all. Nothing more.)* Ariana walked. She didn't stop. If she stopped, she'd run. "This." She closed to three steps away and thrust the letter forward. Without meeting his eyes. "It's my reply." Leon accepted it. "……Thank you." He immediately began opening the seal. "You can read it later!!" "I'll read it now." A single, quiet reply. No hesitation. Leon carefully opened the envelope and withdrew the folded stationery. He unfolded it. He read the single line slowly. During this time, Ariana didn't know where to look, so she fixed her gaze on a single point on the Silver Birch's trunk. Leon looked up. He was smiling gently. "——It says you want me to come properly." Ariana's face turned red to the tips of her ears in an instant. "I-I didn't write it with that meaning?! It's a Japanese language issue!! I wrote that it's fine if you don't come!! Why would you interpret it that way?!!" "But you're not denying it." Quietly, gently. Leon spoke. Ariana stood with her mouth open, unable to say anything. *Not denying it——because she couldn't deny it. She wanted him to come. She wanted him to come properly. That was the truth. She just couldn't write it honestly——* Five or six figures appeared in a second-floor window of the main building. "……Is that a confession?" "But she's yelling, right?" "Can both happen at once?" Whispered voices drifted faintly on the wind. *(They can hear me——!!!)* Ariana stepped back half a pace. Leon didn't look troubled or amused; he simply indicated the edge of the stone steps. "Won't you sit?" The gentle slope of stone at the Silver Birch's roots. *(Why is this happening. Why can't I refuse. Why am I sitting next to him.)* She'd sat down before she realized it. The distance between her and Leon: about fifty centimeters. Spring morning light fell on the stone courtyard. The Silver Birch's branches spread overhead toward the sky, and beyond them lay pale blue sky. A bird called in the distance. "On the edge of the stationery," Leon spoke quietly. "There are faint traces of rewriting." Ariana went rigid. "The pressure from the previous sentence remains——is this the final sheet, after seventeen rewrites?" "……Don't count them!!!!!" She stood up. She stood, but had nowhere to go. Running required direction. Back to the main building, toward Frost Flower Hall——she turned, and her gaze caught on something beyond the main building's corridor window. A rose motif wall ornament. A stone relief of ivy and roses carved into the corridor wall. White stone, flowers carved in relief. Her feet stopped. "What are you looking at?" Leon asked, standing and moving beside her. His voice was quiet. He followed her gaze, looking in the same direction. Ariana didn't try to answer. But her mouth opened. "……Whenever I see roses, I always——" The words came out. She'd tried to stop them, but they came out. "——remember Lady Elze." Leon fell silent. He simply listened. Without realizing it, Ariana continued. "It was ninety years ago. A young lady of the Gracia Marquis house——Lady Elze fell in love with a gardener. The Oath Marriage System——without Imperial Marriage Bureau approval, marriages above the rank of viscount cannot be formalized, that's the rule. But the two of them tried to run away together," The Silver Birch's branches swayed gently. "Fourteen people died. Lady Elze was locked away in a convent. The gardener disappeared. In the rose garden of the Gracia residence, on a winter morning——the frozen petals of the roses were stained red with blood. That's why it's called the Frozen Rose Uprising." Her voice was flat. Because she'd heard this story hundreds of times. From her tutors, in front of the corridor paintings. "Do not forget what Lady Elze did," that voice, over and over. Drilled into her, repeated endlessly. "So the young ladies of the Gracia house are taught, generation after generation——keep emotions buried deep, because Lady Elze was swayed by emotion and people died, so we must never show our feelings on the surface." She finished and realized. *(Why. Why did I say that. Something like this.)* "Why did I say that?" She murmured it like a soliloquy. She'd never told anyone. Emma might suspect, but she'd never put it into words. Yet now, in front of someone she'd only just met——someone she'd only met yesterday——she'd said it all. Leon opened his mouth quietly. "I think——this is the first time you've spoken in your own words." Something in Ariana's chest made a sound. It swayed, she thought. That place deep in her chest that had always been locked tight. This person. What was his purpose in saying such things? Smiling gently, accepting everything, speaking like that. He wasn't angry or exasperated, and most of all——he was looking at her directly. Ariana lowered her gaze. The joints in the stone courtyard were ar

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Episode 3

Name: The Tsundere Lady's Honesty Plan Backfires Spectacularly
Author: Novelia

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