Whenever people from the Bellose family came looking for her, it was just as vexing and exhausting as dealing with her senior, Jake.
'…No, it's far worse than merely vexing.'
It made her feel so uncomfortable her stomach churned.
The moment she saw the butler, the cold treatment she had endured from her family and the alienation she had felt trapped among them flared up like an old, festering ache.
Though bound by blood, her parents and twin siblings had ostracized Mona like an ugly duckling.
During her childhood, due to family circumstances, her parents had left three-year-old Mona in the care of her grandmother before departing; from that very moment, her severance from her family had begun.
"Mona, we cannot provide a safe environment to care for you right now. We're sorry."
"Wait just a little while with your grandmother, and once we make a lot of money, we'll come back for you, Mona."
It was the Count and Countess Bellose who had boarded the merchant ship after saying such words.
Yet, when her parents returned after eight years, they treated Mona with awkward detachment, as if she were someone else's child.
"About Mona… Even though she's my own child, I don't know why she feels so unfamiliar."
"Sigh. It was a mistake to leave Mona with Mother, who spent all her time on strange research. Who would have thought she'd turn into such an odd child…?"
Her fraternal twin siblings, four years her junior, went a step further, avoiding and loathing Mona.
"Why is she our noona? Olivia is my only noona!"
"Showing up out of nowhere and acting like an unnie? Who gave her the right! I can't stand the sight of her!"
Parents who treated Mona with distance.
Fraternal twin siblings who shunned Mona like the plague.
Among family members who had long forged a tight-knit bond, there was simply no room for Mona, a late arrival, to squeeze in.
And so, just as they wished, she had gotten out of that house, yet...
"What brings you here?"
At Mona's cold question, the butler pulled a large envelope from his pocket.
"An imperial invitation has arrived for you, Lady Mona."
Tearing open the seal stamped with the imperial insignia without a shred of care, Mona quickly skimmed the letter's contents.
It was an order to attend a victory celebration and memorial banquet to be held in just three days' time.
“Do I really have to attend this? Even if I showed up, my parents would only think I was bringing shame upon the family.”
As she grumbled, lightly flicking the hem of her worn, ochre robe, the butler let out a short sigh.
“You were absent from the Imperial Ball last time, following your absence from the Foundation Day celebrations before that, My Lady. Missing major events in succession will only cause talk in high society.”
“I don't care what society babbles about me.”
“The head of the family has instructed me to convey that as long as you bear the Bellose name, you are expected to cooperate in upholding the family's reputation.”
“……”
Damn it.
To play dirty and drag the Bellose family name into this.
She hadn't received a single copper from her parents since leaving home, yet that damned surname, Bellose, always tripped her up.
Whenever the family used that name as an excuse to impose burdensome noble obligations on her, she was left speechless every time.
Even so, she couldn't ask to be disowned, because under imperial law, anyone without a surname was treated as a commoner, which brought a mountain of restrictions.
Books related to monsters, in particular, were classified as forbidden texts, meaning commoners couldn't even dream of accessing them.
‘…That can never happen.’
This was precisely why Mona was suffering from chronic sleep deprivation in her bid to graduate early.
Obtaining a master's degree from the Imperial Academy would grant her the title of 'Academic Knight' along with a surname.
Of course, an Academic Knight was merely a low-ranking noble equivalent to a baronet, a bottom-tier title that couldn't even be passed down to heirs, but what did that matter?
There would be no restrictions placed on her research, and she could bid farewell to the damned Bellose family once and for all—it was killing two birds with one stone.
‘Still, for that to happen, I have to pass the preliminary graduation thesis first…’
Just as she was gnawing on her lip by reflex, cycling through the exact same worries that had played on loop all day,
Mona suddenly realized that attending this banquet might not be entirely a nuisance.
‘I'll attend the banquet and ask around for the whereabouts of my advisor, Professor Thomas.’
She couldn't shake the ominous feeling that the damned bastard of a professor was neglecting her thesis without even glancing at it.
‘If I'm lucky, I might even run into him at the banquet hall.’
He was, after all, the kind of man who strutted about with an intensely waxed mustache.
Even if he never showed his face in his office, chances were high that he would show up at an imperial banquet.
Tucking the envelope containing the imperial invitation into her bosom, Mona spoke.
“Tell Father. Tell him I will attend this imperial banquet.”
***
“Grandmother. About this experiment in the old tome, I want to try it!”
This was, most likely, a dream.
A dream of herself around the age of seven.
“If this experiment succeeds, couldn't monsters become friends with humans, too?!”
As a young child who had discovered an old tome titled 《Synthesis of Aromatic Substances Promoting Heteromorphic Affinity》 in the annex basement, Mona had spoken in an excited voice.
Though the title was unfamiliar and difficult, Mona—having received a high-level education from her grandmother, who had been a monster scholar, and having read countless books herself—could roughly grasp the contents of the ancient book.
The core of the book was a perfume formulation capable of eliciting a friendly response from monsters hostile to humans.
“Right, Grandmother?”
Yet her grandmother's expression was dark.
Her grandmother, who had always encouraged whatever Mona tried, touched her own left eye patch with an inscrutable look and said:
—Mona… My dear child who takes after me so much.
—Yes!
—This grandmother of yours knows better than anyone just how fascinating the abyss born of chaos truly is.
—…
—However, do not gaze into the abyss for too long. There is an old saying that the abyss swallows whole those who try to measure its depth…
Her grandmother's warning didn't register in her ears at all.
Near the villa where she lived alone with her grandmother, the local children openly looked down on and bullied the small, frail Mona.
Now that she had discovered the possibility of befriending such fascinating monsters, she couldn't give it up.
Grandmother. The darker the night, the clearer the light shines.
I can find the light within the abyss.
Yet before she could reply, the landscape of the dream began to blur and crumble, soon shifting into a musty, cramped attic.
—I have a good feeling about today…? The mixture's concentration is perfect, and I feel like it's actually going to work.
Time jumped forward in the dream, and she saw herself at seventeen, completing the experiment recorded in an ancient tome.
Gripped by excitement and euphoria, her younger self pulled something from inside her clothes.
—Now, if I just add this…
Yet the instant she put in that final ingredient, the substances inside the glass tube suddenly began to swell in unison…
Boom!
.
.
.
“Gasp—!”
Jerking awake from the dream with a sharp gasp, Mona instinctively clutched her shoulder blade.
Was it because of the nightmare?
It felt as though the burn scar from her failed experiment at seventeen was stinging hot.
Her entire body was already drenched in cold sweat, and her heart was pounding madly.
Roughly wiping the beads of sweat gathered on her forehead with the back of her hand, Mona flinched.
Staining the back of her hand was not clear sweat, but a murky gray liquid.
"...Damn it."
As expected, the sight of herself in the mirror was a spectacle.
It hadn't even been a month since she dyed it, but the alchemically crafted dye had crumbled into powder like dust.
Thanks to the ash-gray dye powder melted by her sweat, her face looked as if it had been doused in dirty water.
Scrubbing away the dye staining her face, Mona scowled.
'The dye is fading faster and faster.'
All she had ever wanted was to create a perfume that would let her become friends with monsters.
Yet the result had defied her intentions.
As a side effect of the failed experiment, her very constitution had changed.
'A body that monsters are drawn to...'
That wasn't all. Her once-dark gray hair had turned as snow-white as a heavy blizzard, and the pigment in her ash-gray irises had faded as well.
Her irises, pale with a silvery sheen, shifted in subtle patterns whenever light filtered through them, taking on a bluish cast.
To make a comparison, it was like mist rising in the blue dawn.
Even her fingernails had turned a milky white, drawing a sigh from her lips.
'And Grandmother, the only person I could consult about these strange symptoms, has vanished without a word...'
Groaning under her breath, Mona picked up the cheap dye and colored her hair dark gray once more.
After finishing the dye, she let her bangs fall disheveled over her brow again and put on her glasses.
Only when she put on the thick glasses that obscured her face did she finally feel a measure of calm return.
It was just then.
Knock, knock.
A rap sounded at her dormitory room door.
The visitor who had arrived so early in the morning was the butler sent from her family.
"Lady Mona. The carriage is ready, so please come down."
Today was the very day of the victory banquet hosted by the Imperial Family.
Which meant she would soon have to face the family she had turned away from for so long.
Though her heart began to beat wildly again with an uncomfortable tension, Mona betrayed nothing on her face and drew a deep breath.
"Let us go."
