She felt a bit dizzy as a heavy pull took hold of her body. The ground, with her feet in the center, began to glow brightly before fading and dying as a flurry of writings temporarily seared themselves into the ground.

The sword she had unexpectedly acquired weighed heavily in her hands. They didn't have much time; while Sir Sean stood guard at one entrance and Sir Yaakov held his own at the other, Norina waited behind her mistress with bated breath.

He hadn't even shown up, but chills were running down her spine. And something like that was now attached to her little sister too? Then again, as a loyal servant and older sister, she didn't feel good about it, but she found it extremely convenient to be able to use a sub-dimension to store things that no one was supposed to find or have access to.

Like the sword that slipped into the ground without a sound, as if it had never fallen from its master's hands. They were in an empty shed on the grounds of the mansion.

Without further ado, as soon as the slight pressure she could feel had subsided, her lady walked over to the young maid and took from her the small bag she had been clutching. With its contents, she began to cover the ground she had just burned.

"Is that why you had me bring the salt from the kitchen, my lady?"

"Why else?" the lavender-haired noble replied, "We wouldn't want to endanger all of Vandenberg, would we?"

Sure, the Unholy Ground left little room for another Visitor to come through as long as their energy permeated the soil, but that wouldn't be forever, and she wanted it to be safe until they renewed the blessings periodically. The salt, after all, was only a temporary measure as well.

It wasn't something she could easily explain, so she had to do it in secret, just a few minutes before she was about to embark on a journey that would take her right back into the lion's den - literally, with her father also waiting for her, as he had stated in the letter that had come along with the Emperor's.

It was a good thing she hadn't told him about her plans to leave the Territory early after all. Still, she would have to be polite and greet the Emperor upon her arrival in the capital and express how grateful she was for her planned debut.

"I guess my comfortable days are finally over." And she wasn't exclusively referring to her upcoming carriage ride.

'That's what I get for trying to be polite,' Rowena muttered to herself as she shuffled down the grand staircase to the front garden of the Imperial Palace.

She stopped by for an audience on her way home. If they hadn't let her in, that would have been it, but to her dismay, they did. All she had to do was bow to the emperor and tell him she was back in time for her debut.

"There are many things I would like to hear from you directly, but I don't want to keep you from resting. Your journey must have been arduous, young lady of Varnhagen."

'A lot of things he wants to talk to me about, huh? Fuck off with that shit, you old geezer.' She couldn't keep her expression from darkening just as her gait was abruptly halted by something ramming into her right shoulder.

"What the-" she let slip out in a moment of confusion, then blinked as her overly focused mind began to register her surroundings.

Suddenly, her narrowed field of vision returned to normal as she turned to take a frazzled look at what had happened.

A young woman, much like Rowena herself, with brown hair pulled back in a fancy updo, gave her a disparaging glance. Half of her face was hidden behind a fan as elaborate as her dress, and only now did Rowena see two more modestly dressed but equally elegant girls at her side.

"Still as haughty as ever," the unknown noblewoman spat, "I thought we wouldn't see you outside again after what happened back then."

She mentioned something Rowena couldn't know. But that also meant that she would know her name, which the current Rowena did not.

'No problem,' Rowena thought, 'there's no way she's a friend anyway.' Shaking her head, she dusted her shoulder and waved courteously. "Don't fret, even when I'm out, I can only fall victim to your clumsiness so many times."

An angry red began to color the part of the unfamiliar face she could see from her side of the fan. "I really can't understand how your family can be satisfied with something like you representing them."

'Representing?' That word had a strange ring to Rowena's ears.

Scoffing, the obviously proud noble made an effort to turn away with her large and puffy dress. But not without one last shot over her shoulder.

"Her family isn't even older than mine, and I don't see anything in her that would put her above me, isn't that so, ladies?"

"But the eldest son is quite handsome, isn't he?" One, Baron Hershley's young daughter, awkwardly tried to change the subject, while the third girl, who hadn't said anything yet, laughed.

"Does that extend to the eldest daughter, Elina?" Alice Ronia Duncan, the daughter of Count Duncan, said.

"Enough, the princess is waiting for us. Especially since she took the time to personally invite us to her tea party." The ladies, all the same age as Rowena, had already made their debuts.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

At this point, something clicked in Rowena's head. 'Elina… ?' She looked at the innocent expression, then at the blonde girl with the braid. 'In that case, the bitchy one must be Shelly - or whatever her name was. The Neuhaus' daughter anyway.'

She blankly stared at the back in front of her, until she realized that smug expression of the head that kept looking over her shoulder, in an unnatural manner.

'Wait, was that supposed to irk me somehow? What do I care? Just piss off if you have somewhere to be?' Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Rowena closed her lids and took a deep breath. "Let's go, Norina."

The latter balled her fists during all of this. She should never speak ill of nobles in their presence, she was a mere servant after all. But she didn't like standing there and doing nothing.

"Of course," the maid replied in a strained voice.

Rowena would only turn to her servant when she was out of earshot of those three hyenas.

"Do you have any idea what that was about?" What incident did she mean?

As if struck by lightning, Norina looked over in surprise. "Do you not know, my lady?"

"I seem to have misplaced the memory."

So it was something she should know about, not something that had happened behind her back. But how did Norina know?

"There was a story the maids talked about when I first started working in the annex..." she trailed off and grew silent, "No, it's nothing you need to know if you can't remember."

With that, she led her lady back into the carriage, which instantly dispelled all thoughts of anything but fear from the young noblewoman's mind.

Upon hert arrival, Rowena went to her study first and waited for another maid to call for her private tutor. Her father wasn't in the house right now, her brothers were out and about as well, only Beatrice and Arabella had been around.

Nobody was in the room with Rowena either, which made it feel very empty to her. Norina had left after bringing in a tray with tea and two cups as well as some cookies. She was already very nervous when they arrived, knowing that Charlotte had arrived in the capital about a week earlier, having been shown the ways of a maid by Ava. Rowena couldn't tell her not to visit them, could she?

"I heard you were looking for me," Louis Ballinger asked with a frown on his face, as he hadn't seen his theoretical student in a long time.

He had heard that a lot had happened, and the lady's punishment seemed to have come to an end as well, so to say that he was surprised that she still wanted to talk to him was putting it mildly.

Ballinger wasn't a cynical person by any standard, but working for the Grand Duke's daughter had been trying for him. Of course, he was happy that she finally needed and relied on him as a teacher instead of shunning him like everyone else, but he couldn't judge her attitude or the reasons behind her changes, and that had made him wary as well.

Then again, she greeted him with a fresh and carefree gesture that melted away his suspicions. He wiped the frown from his face and smiled instead.

"You've just arrived, so I was wondering what was so important that you had to meet me before anyone else."

Actually, she didn't have to, but there were some pressing questions and she simply didn't want to meet any of her family members yet. The trip had made her quite tired, and she didn't think they would make it during the day.

She faked a cough and went ahead. "I have requested your presence in my study because I have some questions about a very urgent matter."

"I am all ears, Lady Rowena." Her teacher looked at her expectantly now, thinking about how far she had come after finally stepping out of her shell just a few weeks ago.

"When I was in the territory, I was told that Eisenwacht was originally much larger and further south. I was also told that the Varnhagen Territory was originally one that dominated the crafting market within the North-Western Continent." In reality, she was citing what she had read in the book, which didn't quite fit the world she had seen.

Eisenwacht was a very small village these days. It was a part of world history she couldn't have known, so she thought it would be wiser to just ask, since Norina wouldn't be able to answer her questions. Some of it, as her grandfather had implied, was only for the ears of higher nobility, but a qualified private tutor like Ballinger would be privy to that kind of knowledge. The magic word was "private."

Ballinger just blinked at her, wondering what the meaning of her question could be. "It is true. Eisenwacht was once a separate territory, not just a village. It used to be next to the Gloria Forest and the Granbell Mountain Range, where you would find the Duncan Countdom these days."

"If it was that far down, doesn't that mean it had nothing to do with Varnhagen at all?"

"Yes and no," he said, "it depends on how you understand what 'Varnhagen' is." He turned to find the door to the study shut tightly.

When the noble girl noticed him looking around, she chuckled. "We are alone. Why don't we sit down and have a chat over some tea, Mr. Ballinger?"

He bowed slightly with a smile. "I would be honored."

At his words, he helped her with her chair before sitting across from her, looking down into a cup of fragrant tea.

As they sat like this, Rowena put down her still steaming cup after taking a sip. "What exactly is the Varnhagen family, can you explain that to me?"

"Well, I certainly can," he said and sighed, "it's not that it's a big secret, but not everyone knows about it nowadays, to protect the Imperial Family from any kind of damage. Not that they would actually receive any, they simply don't like the prospect of sharing power in any way."

'Sharing power? How?' she thought, but didn't utter it, feeling that she had to go about it in a different way. "Is that why there is no other duchy in the Arlen Empire, even though there are three marquisates?" Nerena, Neuhaus and Baldwin, the pillars of Arlen's high society.

He paused for a moment to look at his student, wondering why no one had told her about the origin of her own bloodline and its history on the continent.

"You know, there are remnants of our ancestors all over the North-Western Continent. Before the first historic war that led to destruction everywhere and the revolution of humanity through the growing use of magic," he began, thinking of the ancient split that was explained in history books that were exclusive to very few eyes, "we still used ancient languages."

They referred to it simply as old, but it occurred to Rowena that it probably meant all the names that sounded similar to the German language in her old world. English and German also had a somewhat related history in Celia's world, something about tribes traveling and mixing, but it might have worked a little differently here.

"So names like 'Neuhaus', 'Varnhagen', 'Eisenwacht' - they were all related to the ancient language?"

"Yes, it is a heritage from the Northern Heights, which used to be culturally very different from the western parts of the continent."

Rowena nodded in understanding. The North-Western Continent was indeed the largest landmass on the map, and was probably even larger in the old days, so of course there would be cultural differences even on the same continent.

"Within the last five hundred years, only one place, the one place that dominated the Northern Heights, retained this ancient language in some of its cities. That was the kingdom of Vandenheim."

As he said these words, he looked at her as if expecting a reaction, but there was none, so he knew she really didn't know.

"What kingdom?" she asked, surprised.

She had looked at the world map and didn't see any place like that. And the reason for that, she would bet, was a part of history that had been largely swept under the rug.