Chapter 13
“Isn’t that right, in your opinion?”
As Calisten spoke from beside Cassias, Cassias nodded and replied.
“Yes.”
Cassias answered honestly, and Calisten turned his gaze toward Damian with an expression that looked as if he were finding everything amusing.
“Kaz, what do you think about concubines?”
Briseis tried to tell him to stop, but Calisten silenced her by placing a madeleine into her mouth.
“Well… I know that many nobles do such things, but… I’m not really in favor of it.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it’s a promise. There are many promises in this world that cannot be kept, but if nothing else, I’d like to keep the promise made at a wedding.”
“I see.”
Calisten smiled as if pleased after hearing Cassias’s steadfast answer. Then he removed the hand that had been covering Briseis’s mouth, intending to meet her eyes. By then, she seemed to have already finished the madeleine.
“I think the same, Kaz.”
At their words, Damian and Delilah fell silent, while Saturn and Eubis waved their hands as if trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.
“Come to think of it, Bri, you got bonus points during the last punishment session.”
“That’s right. Impressive. Have you finished the report?”
“I’m working on it. Shall we do it together?”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“I’ll join as well.”
Though they had asked Saturn and Eubis, it was Calisten and Cassias who answered.
“Then let’s all do it together.”
So they decided to work on the 20-page assignment together. It was clearly not an assignment meant to be done alone in the first place.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere.”
Briseis asked as she watched Calisten suddenly leave while they were heading down from the rooftop. He answered with a bright smile and a vague reply.
Then he quickly disappeared.
“What was that…?”
Briseis thought that although he was smiling, he seemed oddly irritated. Having known him since childhood, she could recognize the habits he showed when he was angry.
“Yeah… why would he be upset?”
Cassias seemed to notice it as well.
“Did we do something wrong at lunch?”
“No, Saturn. We didn’t do anything wrong. Calisten is just… strange sometimes.”
Briseis and the others headed down to Class 1, intending to rest a bit and wait for the remaining time. There were afternoon classes.
After they disappeared first, Calisten returned to the rooftop. Damian and Delilah, who had been about to leave, noticed him.
“Oh, I just forgot something.”
Calisten said that as he passed by them, then added,
“So the one who pushed Bri down the stairs was the Grand Duke, right?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Then who pushed her?”
Damian looked at Calisten. Then, suddenly, he glanced at Delilah. Delilah, looking flustered, fiddled with the ring hanging on her necklace and then said while looking at Calisten,
“That was Bri staging it herself.”
“Bri?”
At that, Calisten let out a scoff, as if it were absurd. The Briseis he knew would never do something like that out of pride alone.
If anything, if her husband had hit her, she would have been too ashamed to even admit it.
Then… did she really fall down the stairs?
But Ella, her maid, was someone who would not lie to him.
Could it be that the Grand Duke struck her, and she fell down the stairs as a consequence?
“Get a grip, Your Highness. You should understand Briseis’s true nature.”
“True nature? What do you mean?”
Calisten found himself smiling again without realizing it. When his anger reached its peak, he had a habit of smiling instead. It was a habit he had developed because of the current Empress.
Because of that habit, those who didn’t know him well often failed to realize he was angry.
“While I was away at the battlefield, Briseis invited concubines into the estate.”
“Bri did?”
“Yes, and she used the Grand Duke’s household funds as she pleased.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. That’s why she needed proper discipline. Even though her husband returned from war, she didn’t even know gratitude.”
Without realizing it, Calisten clenched his fist.
“But as far as I know, the Grand Duke doesn’t really have much wealth. Did Bri even have any funds to use?”
“It’s true. She used the family’s assets without permission… and caused me quite a bit of trouble.”
At those words, Calisten’s expression disappeared.
“I told you, Bri is my family.”
“Even family must be of equal standing… agh!”
Calisten kicked Damian without hesitation.
“Ugh! Urk! Agh!”
Damian rolled down the stairs, tumbling all the way to the bottom.
“Kyaa! Dami!”
Delilah hurried after him, her face pale with shock, checking on Damian.
Calisten descended at a slower pace and looked down at Damian. Dust covered the black uniform he wore, making it look worn and shabby.
“What… what do you think you’re doing!”
“If you lay a hand on Bri one more time—”
“Agh!”
Calisten stepped on Damian’s chest as he spoke.
“I won’t just stand by either.”
“Ugh!”
As Calisten pressed down, Damian gasped in pain and grabbed his ankle. Once he was released, Damian clutched his chest tightly and glared at Calisten.
“How could you do something like—!”
“You were the one who started it. I warned you.”
Calisten said that and walked away.
“Sniff… Dami… are you alright?”
Delilah pretended to worry about him while touching the ring on her necklace. Damian looked at her as if regaining his senses.
Seeing his dim eyes, she said with a face still on the verge of tears,
“Are you badly hurt?”
“I’m fine now.”
As Delilah threw herself into his arms, Damian, slightly dazed at first, soon held her tightly and began to comfort her as she sobbed.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Where were you?”
Briseis spoke as she looked at Calisten, who returned just as lunch time was nearly over. He widened his eyes and replied,
“You’re worried about me? Oh my… this hurts so much.”
Seeing his unhinged expression again, Briseis couldn’t help but frown.
“Come tomorrow to pick up the key.”
“W-wait a moment.”
He genuinely struggled to sit down. But the fact that she had been worried about him made even sitting difficult.
“Ha.”
He barely managed to sit and tried to rest his head on Briseis’s shoulder. She quickly leaned back and said,
“The next class is ethics. It’ll be important for you, so pay attention.”
“Where’s the key? Did you leave it in the room? Near the bed?”
Calisten asked with a flushed face, but Briseis had no intention of engaging with him. She took out the notebook she had nearby and looked at it instead.
“Near the bed would be nice.”
“Why would you just give something so important so casually? What if I lose the key?”
“Then you’ll take responsibility, won’t you?”
“And what, wear it for life and call that responsibility?”
“I don’t need you to do it for life. As long as you take responsibility for me.”
As they bickered in hushed whispers, the students behind them watched from a distance, thinking they were arguing.
“Please, stop.”
As Briseis pushed Calisten’s face away, he chuckled as if amused. Yet his ears were so red that anyone could tell something was off with him.
“I’m really hurt.”
“Yeah, sure.”
As she coldly returned to her notebook, he sat down beside her and said,
“When we were kids, you used to worry when I said I was hurt.”
“Back then, I didn’t know you were faking it every time.”
“What’s changed is you, Bri. Change is the bad thing.”
“The one who deceives consistently is the one at fault.”
“The one who changes is the one at fault.”
Talking with him made Briseis feel more and more exhausted, and she looked around, wondering if she could move to another seat.
However, everyone else was quietly chatting among themselves, as if trying not to attract Calisten’s attention.
Rattle.
Damian returned with Delilah, but his condition was nothing short of a mess.
“Damian? What happened to your face?”
“Why? Does it please you to see me injured?”
Damian had stuffed cotton into his nostrils to stop the bleeding, likely from hitting his nose when he fell.
“Come see me at the estate later, Bri.”
He said that and attended class while receiving Delilah’s devoted care and attention.
❖ ❖ ❖
After class ended, they gathered in the library to work on the punishment assignment. However, due to the book being borrowed by someone else, they had to reconvene the next day, as the due date for returning it was the following day.
Thus, Briseis had to return early to the Grand Duke’s estate.
“Where have you been?”
At the voice of the unwelcome guest she could never get used to, she looked at him with a look of utter distaste.
The person waiting at the main entrance of the Grand Duke’s residence, as if he had been waiting for Briseis to arrive.
“You still haven’t learned that education is useless for a woman.”
She was Damian’s mother—the former Grand Duchess and the matriarch of the house.
“Wearing such short skirts and stockings… you show your legs so openly without any shame at all!”
The matriarch loved her son deeply. That was why she despised the Philia Marquis family. She believed her outstanding son Damian had been looked down upon for marrying a woman from a family that only had wealth.
“Mother.”
“When you arrive, you should greet properly. Why are you looking around like that?”
Briseis nearly sighed without realizing it, but held it back.
“I hear that because you failed as a woman, our Dami had to take concubines.”
“……”
“I’ve always told you to act properly as a woman, yet here you are.”
Clicking her tongue, she looked down at Briseis with contempt, as usual.
“Then I’ll be getting a divorce.”
But Briseis no longer had any reason to endure it.
