Who made me Penelope Judith?

3. The noble etiquette

One of the delights of reincarnating into Penelope was exploring how nobility worked.

It's already been a week but it wasn't as exhausting as I thought it would be. To be honest it all came very fast and I slept soundly each night. Penelope did have her fair share of lessons and a heavy schedule but it was well balanced with just enough free time.

It didn't take me long to notice that Penelope didn't ever even consider perhaps seeking out the little bits of joy in life. She was all about acting properly, grow up to be an influential and respectable woman, just be a good perfect aristocratic noblewoman. She wanted to grow up faster while she had a perfect childhood to enjoy.

Honestly, to me, that kind of life sorta sounds like it sucks. Yes, I, who was born with severe health issues in Paris to two normal citizens with decent salaries, think that Penelope's version of a good life sucks.

How do I know all that about her life?

Well. I didn't have the chance of some of the lucky isekai people who incarnated a character AND received the memories of the character's entire life so far (ex. Abigail Friedkin, lucky incarnation of Snow White's evil stepmother) I had no souvenirs from Penelope. I don't know who her contacts are. I don't know what happened to hers and Roselia's mother. I don't know her relationship with her father. I don't know what she likes to eat for breakfast. I don't even know her favorite color (though I suspect it must be green).

Yet I found her diaries from ever since she knew how to write, so from about 2 years ago. The first ones were all in a very bad handwriting (just what would be expected of a 5/6 years old), but the first thing she wrote on the first page of her oldest diary, (so the first thing she ever officially wrote in her life), was a list of qualities a lady needs to become the 'Jewel of society'. Everything was horribly spelled and her 'S's looked like '5's, but I managed to decipher it. That already gave me an idea of what kind of person she was.

There was nothing in there that was particularly joyful. The most positive sentence I read in there was: Dear diary, I am one step closer to my goal. I suppose she takes pleasure in that, moving closer to her objectives. She also slightly described her tea parties but most importantly she wrote down the crucial subjects of which she and her friends talked and circled and underlined those she needed to investigate more because of the importance of it. She also mentioned that knowing much might prove to others that she's cultured (Wow, Penelope). She also vaguely wrote down a few names of her friends, but mostly she just described their family wealth. She classed them into two, those she should get closer to to improve her influence and social circle, and those who might not be worth the effort really since collaborating with them would get her nowhere.

I was very stunned reading all of that. What kind of twisted child is this...

She didn't mention Roselia very often, but when she did, it was something like: Roselia decided to not invite me to her 'private' tea party although I helped her pick the outfit for that day. I'll have my revenge by wearing one of HER dresses to the next event we'll both be invited to. I believe if I cut the sugar for next week I'll fit in them.

That sounded very childish to me, especially seeming how Roselia seems to look up to Penelope. Plus, who can't help but question an 8 year old seriously employing the word: Revenge because she wasn't invited to something. I wonder if this is how Maleficent was as a child.

Well! Penelope's life was just planning and scheming. That was all she ever was. And mind you this is her at 8 years old. Normally I think that we've all been pure and innocent, also very ignorant, as children. But Penelope was all about schemes. Her whole life, she planned it in advance. There wasn't the little spark of hope, innocence and anticipation for more events in life for her, no particular excitement, taht was so common to kids her age. She set her own future in stone.