Thrown Into A New World: Let The Punishment Begin!

Yvonne had a pleasant time conversing with Jacob Kiron with Aleena and Rika chiming in at regular intervals.

She was even fine when she greeted the members of the Yona family as excluding Cecily Yona, no one else had much of a problem with her.

The little girl simply had to turn a blind eye to Cecily's frown after she was done greeting her.

Thus she had not been too bothered even when she was meeting them.

However, that feeling subsided when her parents had headed to another family who had made an appearance here today.

"Greetings, Marquess." Earl Rutherford was the first to greet the other man abiding by the hierarchy followed in their land.

The men then nodded at each other while the ladies maintained a pleasant smile as they greeted each other as well.

It was now Yvonne's turn so she did as she was taught and curtsied elegantly to the Marquess couple who was standing before her.

Her eyes then turned to the one standing next to the couple.

"That's the one, Grandpa." A whisper reached her ears which halted her in her ways.

Glancing in the direction of the voice, she found a little girl dressed in a sparkling yellow dress which reminded one of daisies blooming under the warm rays of the Sun.

As much as Yvonne liked the dress, she disliked the one wearing it just as much.

Despite her obvious dismay at having met this person so early on in the party, she had to keep a straight face which did not reflect what she was feeling right at this moment.

Her gaze then shifted to the one standing beside the girl, to whom she had whispered the earlier statement.

"Greetings, Lord Leopold." She chose to curtsy to the older man first before turning to the child and doing the same.

"Nice to see you again, Miss Elna." Yvonne exercised restraint as she put on her best smile in the presence of the other person.

Just as she had expected, her smile worked wonders in darkening the face of the other girl.

For the past few days, Elna Leopold had been frustrated beyond measure at the news she had been hearing everywhere she went.

All anyone wished to talk about was the events that had taken place during their lunch with the King.

The name, 'Yvonne St. Claire' was one that got people curious and made them wish to learn more about her.

Not to mention that her paternal uncle, Cosmet Leopold, who happened to be the King's Minister was one of the people who was singing praises of that little girl before everyone he knew.

In the past, she had chided Miss St. Claire, reminding her to know her place in the society but now, that same child was being praised and talked about.

The two girls had not seen each other for over a year but when they met in the Palace, Yvonne St. Claire had once again tried to hinder her path.

Among the daughters of the Marquesses, Elna wholeheartedly believed that she was above the rest.

She did not think of herself to be haughty when she deemed to be the best among the other girls as that was the truth in her mind.

However, the daughter of a mere Earl who should be below her had gotten to be in the limelight for far too long.

Duchess Tanner and her family treated her as a treasure, something that was precious and needed to be cherished which she could discern through their actions all too clearly.

Even Marquess Samed called her his favorite pupil and the Kiron family was also on very good terms with her.

'Thankfully, the Yonas can still distinguish right from wrong.' Elna harrumphed while thinking of what she had just observed.

The Carter and Jorbin families were not acquainted with her so she was glad that they too had not fallen into the trap of that vile child.

Elna knew that Miss St. Claire pretended to be innocent and used this to act as she pleased yet no one stood up against her to correct her wayward ways.

On the rare occasion when she had tried to intervene, she had been treated as the enemy which was also something that had aggrieved her in the past.

These things, her grandfather, the patriarch of the Leopold family had known as well.

If there was someone who she could depend on at all times, it was either her elder brother or grandfather.

However, in the past, the two men had been away on business trips as the Leopold family dealt with rare and invaluable jewels from different Kingdoms.

To her luck, her grandfather had returned to the Capital this time and after the meeting with the King, she had poured out her grievances before him, revealing that the child from the St. Claire's family had once again done something she should not have.

She had even witnessed how that girl had taken away the Princess's attention during their tea party in the greenhouse.

Others had not noticed it but Elna had always been an observant one so it was easy for her to catch the numerous glimpses Princess Felicia had shot in Yvonne St. Claire's direction.

Thinking of that tea party, another unpleasant incident came to her mind which caused her to grimace.

Somewhere deep down in her heart, Elna blamed Yvonne for that incident too but did never reveal it to anyone in her family, much less to her grandfather.

___

Yvonne had no idea about the kind of thoughts Elna Leopold was having right now.

After all, her attention wasn't on that haughty child who attempted to put her down every time they met.

Instead, her gaze was fixed on the old man with gray hair and dull brown eyes who was watching her as well.

Jonah Leopold, the previous Marquess who later passed on his title to his son, the current Marquess Leopold.

Yvonne had never met this man before as he was always out on business trips to different neighboring kingdoms with the future heir of the family.

Elna's elder brother was around ten years older than her and had graduated from the Academy a long time back.

He and his grandfather were in charge of handling the businesses under the Leopold family which mainly dealt with procuring jewels of all kinds.

The two men were often away from the Capital for this purpose as the gems they collected were sent to various jewelers who turned them into expensive pieces of jewelry that would later be sold at high prices in the Commercial District.

The Leopold family's business was started by this old man standing before her which wiped away her earlier irritation for having met Elna Leopold.

To Yvonne, he was someone that anyone who wished to build up a successful business empire needed to look up to.

Her grandpa had always taught her to learn from others, not through their successes but also their failures.

This man standing before her had started a business during the time when it was still considered to be 'wasteful' to collect jewels.

People looked down upon those who spent lavishly instead of amassing it and putting it to good use.

This was because he had established his business in his youth, a few months after the first great plague had ended.

The citizens were still suffering at that time and the then King had advised nobles to help the others out in whatever way they could.

Therefore, for the first few years of the Leopold jewel's business, it had been losing money.

People either admonished him for initiating such a project or mocked him for continuing even when it was running at a loss.

However, he had persisted and today, it would not be wrong to say that almost half the jewels in the Commercial District came from the ones their business had collected.

Currently, their toughest competition would be Ocular's Caravans but not everyone was comfortable doing business with a foreigner.

Not to mention that Sevenz's business did not supply such large quantities of gems and neither did they deal with easy to obtain jewels.

Sevenz catered to an elite clientele and possessed only materials that were either extraordinarily rare or difficult to obtain here.

Therefore, right now, the Leopold family still had an upper hand but no one knew what the future holds.

'Though you cannot deny his hard work and perseverance to get his business to this point..' Yvonne complimented the old man she had met today.