The day of Clara Dragonherz's Social Debut came a few days after Marianne had been taken from the brothel by Duke Lumiére. She was currently hiding in one of the rooms in the Dragonherz mansion, having been smuggled in with the help of a man called Arland, who worked as Eric Dragonherz's personal assistant.

Marianne found it suspicious that Arland was working for two noble families at the same time. But since it had nothing to do with her, she didn't care.

On the Duke's orders, she was to remain in her current location until she was called. And when she was, her job was to receive a vial from the Duke and to feed its contents via mouth-to-mouth to a girl, who the Duke had planned to kidnap. He had also told Marianne, that her job would be done at that point. Depending on his negotiations with the kidnapped girl, named Rina, he would either hand Marianne over to Rina or even release her.

Either way, regardless of the negotiations' outcome, Marianne was sure that her gamble had paid off. From what she had heard, that girl, Rina, was around nine or ten years old. Tricking such a young girl into doing her bidding would surely be child's play. After all, a girl who had grown up under the protection of a noble house was without question naïve and therefore easy to deceive.

So all Marianne had to do was wait for everything to start. And after a few hours, it was finally time.

Arland entered the room where Marianne was waiting and motioned for her to follow him.

As Marianne walked through the door, she saw the Duke sitting on a couch with three men, including Arland, standing behind him. Opposite the Duke, on another couch, lay a girl. Her red hair and her red eyes indicated that this girl was Rina, as she matched the description the Duke had given.

Before, Marianne had wondered, why a man of such a high standing like the Duke would be so interested in this girl, so much so that he had gone to great lengths to get his hands on her. Now, after seeing her, or rather the situation in this room, Marianne partially understood why. Though, it was not Rina's facial features, that the Duke wanted. Well, if he had been younger, he might have wanted Rina for that as well. But Marianne was sure, that the Duke had already lost his vigour due to his age. Instead, he probably wanted Rina for her powers.

When Marianne saw the injury on one of the Duke's guards, she knew that the red-haired girl wasn't as helpless as her appearance suggested. After all, that wound on the guard hadn't been there before. He had probably received it when he had attacked the girl to get her into this room.

“Do it.”

At the Duke's command, Marianne took the vial with the semi-transparent liquid he held out, poured the contents into her mouth, and gave it to the motionlessly lying Rina by mouth-to-mouth, as the Duke had instructed. Immediately afterwards, the girl, flushed, was suddenly able to move again and slid as far away as possible from her.

Seeing this, Marianne couldn't help but chuckle inwardly, while still trying to keep her stoic face. 'This girl is interesting.'

With that, Marianne retreated to the background and watched Rina and the Duke negotiate. In her eyes, the Duke was calm the whole time. This meant that everything was probably going as planned for him. The reason for that was also, that Rina agreed to every condition the Duke had given her.

'What a dumb girl...', Marianne thought, because Rina didn't even try to adjust the presented terms at all. From her experiences with the Duke over the past few days, Marianne knew that the Duke was someone who could be reasoned with. She was sure that the Duke would accommodate Rina's wishes to at least some extent. However, Rina simply agreed to everything.

And so, the negotiation – although Marianne thought it could hardly be called as such – ended almost without a hitch. But only 'almost'. There had been a small incident that had made her cautious.

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During the talks, the Duke had placed a previously captured Demon-Spawning-Cloud, which the red-haired girl had sucked into her body at the Duke's threat. This had caused Rina to scream and convulse in agony, and to collapse shortly afterwards.

At first, Marianne wasn't sure what the Duke was thinking doing this. She knew from reading books in the brothel that touching these clouds would always cause the person in contact with them to break down mentally and sometimes even physically. If she was aware of this, there was no way that the Duke, the Prime Minister of this kingdom, wasn't. So Marianne didn't know what the Duke intended to do by breaking the mind of the girl he wanted to have as a subordinate.

But those questions were answered half an hour later when Rina woke up again and acted almost the same as before. This, however, showed her that the red-haired girl was indeed someone special.

Though, the fact, that Rina had muttered phrases like “Don't leave me”, “I'll do anything”, and “Use my life as you see fit” with tears streaming down her face during her unconsciousness, was a little concerning. But still, she didn't go insane.

Back to the topic at hand, when the Duke and his entourage eventually left, Marianne talked to her new mistress for a while. Then, they also left the room and headed for Rina's bedroom, where they continued talking, ate, and basically spent the rest of the day getting to know each other.

Their time together only ended when Rina went to her mistress's room near the end of the day. So, left alone, Marianne used this first moment of peace after days of hectic to process the information she had received and to plan out her future.

First of all, Marianne was now sure that she had won her gamble of escaping the brothel via the Duke for a better future. From her interaction with her new mistress, Marianne knew that she would be treated well, at least much better than a normal maid in a noble house would be.

After all, her new mistress, Rina, was highly treasured in the Dragonherz household, from what Marianne had heard. So all she had to do was to get on the redhead's good side and she would be set for life.

Fortunately, Rina was one of those, who were attracted to the same gender, so Marianne decided to seduce her. It seemed to be an easy task, as just a little kiss and her babbling some crap like “You were my first and you will be my last” was enough to make the red-haired girl aware of her.

Additionally, it was clear to Marianne, that Rina had little to no self-confidence, despite having such an attractive face. So, it was only a matter of time before Rina would completely fall in love with her if Marianne went all out and exploited that weakness.

The only problem was Clara Dragonherz. Marianne was sure, that Rina loved Clara. Whether these feelings were reciprocated or not, Marianne didn't know for sure. Unfortunately, the fact that the Dragonherz's first-born daughter had made Rina her permanent assistant indicated that Rina's feelings might not be one-sided.

So Marianne had to act fast if she wanted to get between them. And she did want to get between them.

Though, Marianne still wasn't sure how to use Rina afterwards. But having someone as powerful as the redhead doing her bidding would certainly be advantageous either way. But Rina had to fall first, so she put her plans for her on hold for later.

Fortunately, the younger girl had suggested that they would share the bed for the night. And since their conversation from before showed, that Rina had little or no regard for her own safety, Marianne resolved herself to make a move on her, as soon as the redhead returned.

Luckily, Marianne didn't have to wait for long, for she noticed that the door, through which Rina had left earlier, opened again. So Marianne rose from her lying position and prepared herself to seduce the owner of this room.

“Excuse my intrusion.”

The words of the person entering the room, however, caught Marianne off-guard. She wondered why Rina would say that when entering her own room. But as soon as Marianne looked up, and saw that a tall, blonde girl in a nightgown had come in, Marianne understood, that her plan to live off Rina wasn't going to go as smoothly as she had hoped.

While Marianne was still trying to figure out how to get out of this awkward situation unscathed, the intruder, Clara, looked less than amused. “Who the f*ck are you!?”

But before Marianne could come up with a solution and lament the fact that her scheme to seduce Rina had failed before it even began, there were two questions, which she wanted to have answered first.

Firstly, why would the first-born daughter of a noble family visit a maid's empty room while wearing a nightgown? After all, Rina had told her earlier, that they had a wholesome and normal mistress-servant relationship. The mistress sneaking into her maid's bedroom proved otherwise, regardless of the mistress's motives.

Secondly, according to Rina, Clara Dragonherz wasn't someone interested in love. Looking at that lady's face, which metaphorically resembled a demon, showed Marianne that Rina's guesses were way off.

'Really... Rina needs to have her brain checked...'

***

Much later, Marianne, 'the Shadow', would be responsible for the end of many villainous people. And if those people, who had been trashed by her schemes were to find out how her first big scheme, 'Seduce Rina and leech off her', turned out, they would be probably turning over in their graves in despair.