"Ugh... my head hurts."
Only after an unknown length of time did Hazel slowly emerge from her deep unconsciousness.
She raised a hand to her throbbing forehead and looked around the disheveled room in bewilderment.
"What happened...? Right, where's Teacher?"
She looked around, but the grayish-white rat was nowhere to be seen.
She sat there blankly for a while. Then, as if suddenly realizing something, she jerked her head up!
"Oh no! The time!"
She looked up at the mechanical clock in the room.
Its hands had mercilessly passed midnight.
"You'd better be there at midnight tonight, on the dot. If you don't come, I can't guarantee what sort of news will appear in tomorrow's papers~"
The man's threatening words echoed in her ears once again.
Just imagining the public condemnation her family would face if this really made the papers made her tremble all over.
"Hazel! I never imagined you would do something like this!" Her father's furious, disappointed roar seemed to ring in her ears already. "My daughter, why? Why would you do this...?" Her mother's heartbroken sobs followed close behind.
"Look, that's the infamous thief!"
"I told you their whole family were hypocrites!"
"Who knows what her father did on the battlefield? Maybe he was a coward who clung to life at any cost!"
"A whole family of thieves!"
Countless ordinary people, the utterly vulgar people she had once looked down on, surrounded her, pointing fingers with mocking smiles plastered across their faces.
"No! No! I can't let that happen!" Hazel abruptly snapped out of the terrifying vision, her back drenched in cold sweat.
She hurriedly gathered up the stolen gift and picked up the crystal Monocle from the floor. Without even taking the time to change out of her dust-covered clothes, she clambered over the balcony