Chapter 1

Berta, 12 years old.

The girl, under a sky so clear it was hateful, vowed revenge as she gazed up at the mansion that hurt her eyes with its brilliance.

She would never forget the tears she shed that day, the burning hatred, and the anger. She would surely clear this grudge.

Three years later, the girl was...

“Berta, I want to hear your thoughts on the employment conditions for women, so let’s talk after school.”

“Come on, studying all the time will make you dull! Berta, let’s train together after school!”

“Why are your invitations so extreme... Berta must be surprised.”

“That’s right, you two. This isn’t something to rush into. Let’s take a break, shall we? Berta, let’s have you prepare some tea.”

“Well, that’s a good idea. I’ll join you too. I got some pastries from the other day... Berta, you like them, don’t you?”

Surrounded by these dazzling people, Berta’s large, violet eyes widened in surprise.

(Why...?)

Watching them chatter excitedly, Berta, who was just a commoner, was frozen in place, wondering why she was surrounded by such noble people.

Berta was a village girl from a rural area in the Kingdom of Granfeldt.

Now, she was at the Platlev Academy in the capital of the Kingdom of Granfeldt, a school attended by the wealthy and the nobility.

It was a place where a simple village girl like Berta should not have set foot.

Platlev Academy was primarily for the children of nobles, but merchants and newly rich tycoons could also attend if they met the minimum intelligence requirements. If you passed the entrance exam, even a commoner had a chance to enroll. There was even a scholarship system that waived tuition fees.

Despite knowing it was inappropriate for her status, Berta studied hard to enter Platlev Academy, a school for the wealthy. She worked hard to become a scholarship student and gain the benefits that came with it.

She held her pen until her hands were raw. She clung to knowledge, sparing no time for sleep.

When she couldn’t get paper, she wrote on the ground or walls. When she couldn’t get ink, she heated berries to make it.

Thanks to her efforts, she managed to enter the school. Berta barely made it in as a scholarship student.

Scholarship students had their tuition waived, but they had to maintain a top-five ranking in their grades. There were other restrictions, but Berta, determined to stay, clung to the opportunity with all her might.

Berta was poor. She was among the poorest of commoners. She had no family and supported herself by working as a helper in a cafeteria outside the school, though she moved around frequently. She had no fixed place to live and relied on live-in jobs around the school to survive.

Berta, unlike the nobles who were born into a life of learning, knew she was one, two, or even a hundred steps behind.

The school was not free. As a scholarship student, she could not afford to slack off because her tuition was waived based on her excellent grades.

Berta worked hard every day while studying diligently. This was necessary for her to live at the school.

Berta was serious.

Her motivation for entering the school was impure, but she took her studies seriously as a student.

While the other children were building networks by socializing, Berta sat alone at her desk, studying quietly.

—Berta, who had entered a noble school to ingratiate herself with important nobles, had made a mistake from the start.

She didn’t need to attend such a high-ranking and expensive school. She had worked hard to enter to ingratiate herself with high-status people.

However, Berta didn’t really understand how to ingratiate herself with people.

She was not good at being friendly, and the idea of flattering others was out of the question. She had no entertaining stories or information to share.

Moreover, it was disrespectful for a commoner like Berta to initiate conversations with people of higher status. Even a poor person like Berta knew this. Therefore, unless a person of high status took an interest in Berta, she could not build connections. This was different from making friends with peers.

All Berta could do was observe during her study breaks to understand the status of those around her. Of course, she knew she was the lowest in status. She was fully aware that her presence was inappropriate, and she knew that the other students mocked her for not knowing her place. She knew it. She knew it, but...

Still, she wanted to ingratiate herself with the powerful.

She wanted to borrow their power.

Berta wanted to be a fox borrowing the tiger’s might.

Driven by this desire, she came to this school. As long as she remained a student, she had to study. Berta, who was already behind, needed to study more than anyone else.

To use the powerful, she had come this far, but to stay here, she needed to study. She couldn’t afford to slack off.

With a decent memory and understanding, she delved deeper into knowledge, eventually ranking third in her first exam after enrollment.

From then on, the eyes of those who had looked down on her as a poor person began to change.

Although she was still poor, Berta devoted all her free time to her studies. She did so openly, to the point where it was a bit off-putting.

Everyone saw Berta studying, and her efforts to avoid unnecessary contact with others paid off... though she had forgotten how to interact with others and was only focused on her studies... from the outside, it looked like a poor girl was studying hard at an affluent school to secure a good job in the future.

Thus, Berta, who had achieved results through her efforts, transformed from someone to be looked down upon to someone to be respected—without even realizing it.

Nobles are not just about money and power.

Therefore, they think it’s fine to be nice to someone who is excellent.

After the grades were announced, more people started to approach her, but for Berta, who continued to study hard despite ranking third, it was a minor matter.

To achieve her goal, she needed to form deeper relationships, but many of those who approached her were noble heirs with fiancées, so she couldn’t get too involved. Berta was careful about this. Love affairs were always the most troublesome.

She wasn’t trying to become someone’s mistress. So, she kept sending them back to their fiancées, no matter how many times they approached her. She was even praised by a noble lady for knowing her place, but it was such a basic thing that she didn’t understand why it was considered praiseworthy.

Berta, still losing sight of her goal, continued to study hard.

Before she knew it...

She was being attended to by these dazzling people.

(Why...?)

Only Berta herself didn’t understand why this had happened.

This is a new series. Thank you for your support.

It is expected to end in about ten chapters.

There are various convenient points, but I hope you enjoy it.