In the early morning hours, Ciel woke up in her bed. There was still time left before the sun began to rise, but Ciel was used to waking up at this hour.1

She sat up in bed, rolling her neck a few times, and then, after placing her feet together in front of her, she stretched her upper body forward. After she was done with that, Ciel got out of bed and lightly stretched her body as she loosened her joints. Then she drank a glass of water that had been placed beside the bed before washing her face, brushing her teeth, and changing into a new set of clothes. 0

Stepping out of her room, Ciel quietly closed the door behind her. Most people were still asleep at this hour. She silently walked down the hallways that were kept illuminated with dimmed lights. Getting up and leaving her room at this hour was all part of Ciel’s daily routine.0

Even during her childhood, Ciel had never once slacked off in her training, working hard to prove that she deserved to be born into the main line of the Lionheart clan. Back when the eldest son, Eward Lionheart — whose name was now forbidden even to be mentioned — had held the right to succeed the family, Ciel had been driven to fight for her mother’s approval and their position in the family. But then….3

“So what if all of our hard work was aimed in the wrong direction,” Ciel muttered with a pout as she walked down the quiet hallway.0

It hadn’t just been her. From a young age, both the twins had been hard workers, and it wasn’t just for the sake of their mother’s approval and their position in the main family. When they were thirteen years old, in the now-defunct Lionheart tradition that was the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony, they had competed against Eugene, who had shown them that an overwhelming gap existed between him and them before he was adopted into the main family. No, rather than competing….0

At that time, they were only thirteen years old. Meeting him at such a young age, the twins couldn’t help but hold complicated feelings toward Eugene — a descendant of a collateral line who was far superior to those from the main line. 0

If he had simply remained a part of the collateral lines, there wouldn’t have been much for the twins to worry about, but Eugene had then become a foster child of the main family. Fortunately, Ancilla had a keen eye for reading the wind,...3