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Nestled among the southern villas of the palace of Mendoza stood the Empress Cayetana's cottage, a deceivingly luxurious and unique retreat. The garden outside the cottage was randomly decorated with all sorts of plants, ranging from wildflowers to palm tress, and observers often described it as "beautifully chaotic". This environment was so strikingly different from the perfectly organized structures outside that it gave the illusion of stepping into another world. To add to the mystery, the cottage remained open fewer than four days a year to a select few guests, and not a single man had ever been granted entrance-even the gardener had always been a woman.

The privilege of visiting the cottage rested entirely on Cayetana's whims. She only held events there when she was in a good mood, and she invited as few as six or as many as thirty guests based on how she felt. Once, Inés had always been among the chosen-until her first miscarriage.

In a life now faded into memory, Cayetana had favored Inés, drawn by her unblemished noble lineage and her natural ability to govern others. Even though the empress had been concerned that her precious son would be overshadowed by his bride, she kept Inés close.

As the miscarriages mounted, however, the empress's favor waned and her invitations dwindled. Cayetana only invited her to her cottage whenever she sought to entertain herself by turning Inés into a laughingstock. Even then, Inés had attended with a graceful smile every single time, determined not only to stand her ground against all the mockery but also shatter the empress's expectations.

Cayetana happened to be surprisingly simple in her maliciousness, even though her despicable personality had many layers. She believed Inés would leap at the chance to join the gathering, eager for acceptance, only to be humiliated under Cayetana's refined heel. But Inés's resolve proved equal to the empress's malice. Each time, she entered the garden with her head held high, denying the empress the satisfaction of seeing her break, and the empress simmered in quiet anger.

Indeed, it was unfortunate for Cayetana that Inés had a stubborn tenacity that knows no defeat. She had faced the venomous glances and whispered insults with a serene smile. Each step had been a small victory, her eyes meeting those of the empress's sycophants with calm defiance as she crossed the garden toward her seat.

Now, Inés found herself standing in front of those familiar faces again. This time, they greeted her with warmth.

"Right over here, Inés!" one of them called out.

"Your Majesty, Lady Inés has arrived!" another voice announced.

Inés donned a practiced smile, taking in the sight of her old companions-women who had once lost their privilege to enter the garden after Inés had fallen from Cayetana's favor. It was quite strange to see their mature faces glancing over at her with varying degrees of friendliness, when she still remembered being in her youth, arriving at the cottage with their arms linked through hers.

Marchioness Yargavá, the empress's closest confidante, rose from her seat and approached Inés with outstretched arms, disregarding the usual formalities. "Welcome, Inés!"

Inés had once dreamed of snapping those arms. But she suppressed her disgust as she embraced the marchioness with a smile of joy. "It is good to see you, Marchioness Yargavá."

Inés knew fully well that Marchioness Yargavá was hoping her daughter, who was nearing marriage, would become close friends with her. She probably wanted her daughter to find safety in Inés's shadow, since her child happened to be quite shy unlike herself.

Cayetana's court still held Escalantes in high regard regardless of the ongoing turmoil within the household. Marchioness Yargavá likely knew the precarious situation the family was in but dismissed it as a passing storm, for she worshiped Cayetana like a deity.

Even then, it was a well-known fact that Duchess Valeztena had left for Perez right after Oscar's marriage ceremony due to her health declining once again, and that Duchess Escalante fell ill after falling unconscious in the palace. Moreover, Luciano was still unmarried, which meant Inés was the only woman in the palace who represented both Valeztena and Escalante. She had briefly been at the center of gossip upon her return to Mendoza after her marriage, with some whispering of the stark change in her demeanor. But now, her confident and slightly arrogant attitude, tinged with kindness, was accepted as who she was.

Inés drew people's attention wherever she went, whether that was the empress's cottage or the grand halls filled with the nobles of Mendoza. Some men and women were looked down upon despite being of noble blood, and not all beautiful and elegant ladies were popular among others. For instance, it was rare to hear anybody talking of Alicia, even though she had finally married the crown prince and become the talk of Mendoza for a few weeks. However, Inés's ability to command the attention of the room and direct the flow of conversations had nothing to do with her noble name or appearance-it was something far more intrinsic. Her presence itself was magnetic, a quality that few could match.

Now, she even had the advantage of being favored by Cayetana.

"This is your first time here, is it not?" Marchioness Yargavá asked, her voice laced with kindness.

"Indeed. It is a privilege that I haven't had the chance to experience until now."

It was quite a shameless thing to say, considering she could have experienced the "privilege" multiple times in the past if she had been willing to. Cayetana had already tried to improve the standing of her niece-in-law even before her marriage, but Inés had stubbornly refused to cooperate. But those were only minor details in the palace.

Marchioness Yargavá, well aware of the entire story, skillfully feigned ignorance as she patted the back of Inés's hand. "Well, it's almost like you have visited this cottage before, considering you knew exactly what to wear. What a lovely dress... I must say it is unexpectedly beautiful." Inés responded nonchalantly, "Thank you. Now that I am here, however... I fear I should have dressed in something a bit more elegant, especially since I accepted such a special invite from Her Majesty." The dress in question was made with white linen, and she wore it quite casually when she was in Calztela. Currently, she was not even wearing a corset, which made her outfit stand out as the one that had taken the least amount of effort.

Although all of the ladies in attendance were wearing relatively simple clothes and jewelry in consideration of the casual occasion, their dress were still quite formal with bright colors and voluminous skirts. It was obvious that they were making an effort to show off their wealth and power, which was typical for Mendoza.

Indeed, many of the nobles in the capital never ventured down to their own fiefdoms, as if they feared there was nothing but a great void beyond the walls of Mendoza. They decorated halls to resemble mountains and beaches despite never having visited either one. Therefore, perhaps it was only natural that they found a way to remain formal even when they were in a place that was meant to be the opposite.

Inés slowly looked around the garden to meet the eyes of every single guest, taking note of how their attention initially drifted to the wide-brimmed summer hat that she usually wore in Calztela to shield her face from the sun. In a way, it made sense that everybody was looking at her-the outfit she was wearing was much simpler than anybody else's, so much that her most extravagant decoration was a long, white ribbon tied around her straw hat.

"They are all staring at you, Inés," the marchioness whispered. "I never thought something like this would look so elegant, but it truly does... Perhaps it's because you are wearing it."

"Oh, I don't know if it is elegant... This is what I usually wear in Calztela, since it is the norm to dress more casually there. But I should have worn something more suitable."

Marchioness Yargavá waved her hand in disagreement. "No, no. I think you understood exactly what Her Majesty was asking for. So simple, yet so graceful... I can almost see a harbor and hear the crashing waves!"

Although Inés was secretly disgusted by her obvious attempt at flattery, she simply nodded shyly. She had to allow the marchioness to chatter away for the time being, even if she was trying to burden Inés with her darling daughter.

She could feel some of the ladies carefully studying her dress-they were far more sensitive to fashion trends compared to the others. Inés knew the desire to wear casual white dresses would spread through Mendoza like the plague, the symptoms manifesting themselves at every single garden party. Surely, the poor men would be shocked and appalled to see all the ladies walking around in what was essentially a nightdress, not even wearing a corset.

It had also been a great controversy when Inés Valeztena Ortega wore riding pants in public, only for many other ladies to follow her example. Over the next few months, nearly every single newspaper in Mendoza had published articles and drawings that criticized the new phenomenon, as if those ladies had caused some great societal upheaval by "shamelessly" wearing clothing that revealed the shape of their legs. Even the nobles who had supported Inés had been overcome with shock and horror. However, the trend had spread like wildfire until women wearing riding pants became something that was "shocking but occasionally acceptable", then "inelegant but still appealing".

Truly, it had been laughably easy to start fashion trends back when she was married to Oscar, for it had simply happened even when it was entirely unintentional. Disgust coiled in her stomach as she recalled those days even as she silently laughed at herself.

It was ridiculous and trivial, but it was exactly what she needed to prove the extent of her influence. In fact, she needed many more of these trivial things, no matter how insignificant they seemed at first glance. She wanted every single naive soul in Mendoza to associate Inés and Cárcel Escalante with Calztela and Cárcel with the navy, just like how Calztela had been inseparably linked with Escalante back in the days of Admiral Calderon.

It wasn't enough for them to imitate the dresses that she wore. She wanted them to admire Calztela instead of regarding it as a small, dingy coastal village, and to covet everything that appeared as if it had some kind of connection to the city. And once Calztela became something aristocratic and elegant, she would reap the fruit of her labor.

Inés put a bright smile on her face, knowing that she was about to walk straight into a beautifully decorated puddle of mud and waste.