Chapter 43
“Aunt…?”
“Yes. I mean your mother. Didn’t you come together?”
Kallia asked as she looked around her. It seemed she assumed Aillen had attended the banquet with her parents.
Aillen secretly clenched her fist tightly. She couldn’t manage her expression at all.
It had already been seven years since her mother left her side. Yet Kallia knew nothing of that fact.
He must have hidden it. No—perhaps it wasn’t even something he could be said to have hidden. To that man, her mother’s death must have meant nothing. He probably didn’t feel the need to mention it at all.
Her clenched fist trembled as boiling anger surged up. How was it that nothing had changed from the past?
Still, forcing herself to control her expression, Aillen spoke in a slightly sharp voice.
“…My mother passed away. Seven years ago.”
“Oh my, really? I’m sorry. I didn’t know. That’s unfortunate.”
There was no sincerity at all in her apologetic tone—only a trace of surprise.
Aillen was so angry that now she felt empty and absurd instead.
Then Kallia continued.
“Then how did you come here?”
It seemed Kallia hadn’t even considered that Aillen might have attended by Abelio’s invitation.
That was only natural. Kallia looked down on her, and she likely didn’t even know that Aillen had married the Second Prince, Rihardt.
So this time, Aillen could speak confidently.
“I was invited.”
“Invited? Surely not by His Highness the First Prince?”
“Then whose invitation would I have received to attend the First Prince’s birthday banquet?”
Aillen spoke in a subtly condescending tone. As expected, Kallia’s face crumpled slightly.
But she quickly composed herself and said, sounding surprised,
“I didn’t know your family was such a distinguished one.”
Rettier, who had been listening, flinched.
She wasn’t the only one. Others nearby who had been eavesdropping also stared at Kallia with stunned expressions.
When Kallia looked at them in confusion, Aillen smiled faintly.
“I guess you didn’t know. You seem rather ignorant of how the world works, Kallia.”
“What?”
This time, Kallia’s face was filled with disbelief.
With her glamorous appearance, abilities, and prestigious background, Kallia was fairly well-known in high society. To be told she was ignorant of the world was utterly absurd.
Especially coming from Aillen of all people. Crossing from disbelief into irritation, she was about to retort when Rettier intervened at just the right moment.
“Miss, this is the Duchess of Olden.”
“…Olden?”
Murmuring blankly, Kallia soon opened her mouth with a face full of shock.
“So that was you—”
Mid-sentence, Kallia realized her mistake and hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand. Aillen merely smiled at the sight.
It wasn’t that Kallia was truly ignorant of the world. Aillen knew that well.
But Kallia never bothered to remember those she considered beneath her. She may have heard that the Second Prince Rihardt had married, but she likely had no interest in learning about his wife, a fallen noble.
The price of failing to recognize Aillen—the wife of the Second Prince and the lady of Olden—was quite steep. Kallia’s arrogance had boomeranged back at her.
Knowing this, Aillen let out a soft sigh and said,
“I thought you’d at least know that much, since we’re cousins.”
Kallia’s face flushed red. At the same time, whispers arose from around them.
Lady Herben, who couldn’t even recognize the Duchess of Olden despite being her cousin. This incident would surely cause Kallia considerable embarrassment.
Feeling a slight sense of satisfaction, Aillen met the gaze of Kallia, who was staring at her intently.
“Aillen, you—”
“You, you say? Now that you know I’m the lady of Olden, shouldn’t you be more careful with your words in an official setting like this, Lady Herben?”
To summarize Aillen’s words, it was this:
Show proper respect to someone above you.
Realizing the implication behind Aillen’s words, Kallia asked incredulously,
“But as you said, we’re cousins.”
“Does being cousins mean we can speak informally no matter what?”
Aillen looked down at her with cold eyes—just as Kallia once had.
Glaring at Aillen with her lips pressed tight, Kallia eventually lowered her head.
“…I was very rude, Duchess.”
“It’s fine, now that you understand.”
Aillen replied, wearing her usual smile again.
Kallia bit the inside of her cheek and said,
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“All right.”
With an indifferent attitude, Aillen sharply turned her body toward Rettier. When she shifted her gaze, she saw Rettier looking at her with slightly startled eyes.
Kallia left. Aillen sensed her moving away by the sound of her shoes.
Rettier, who had been reading the situation, cautiously called out to her.
“Um… Duchess.”
“Yes, Miss Blaise.”
“…Are you all right?”
Aillen gave a bitter smile and shook her head.
“Not at all.”
“Perhaps you should go somewhere quiet to rest…”
“Shall I?”
Normally, she would have said she was fine and waited for Rihardt, but now she felt inexplicably exhausted.
Aillen glanced toward the area around the dais. It was still the marquises’ turn. It seemed it would be a while before Rihardt returned.
Turning back to Rettier, she said,
“Then I’ll go rest for a bit.”
“Yes. When His Highness returns, I’ll tell him you went to rest.”
“Thank you.”
Grateful for Rettier’s consideration, a smile naturally spread across her face.
Aillen left the banquet hall immediately. Once free from people’s gazes, her steps quickened slightly as she entered the quiet corridor. She was worried she might run into that person.
That person—when she thought of her maternal grandfather, forgotten memories surfaced one by one.
When she was young, shortly after her magic stone crafting ability awakened, and while her mother was still alive.
She had received an invitation. It was from her maternal grandfather, whom she had never once seen since birth.
Young Aillen, who knew nothing about her mother’s circumstances or her maternal family, was simply excited at the thought of meeting relatives. She didn’t understand why a bitter smile lingered on her mother’s face as she read the invitation.
Following her mother, Aillen went to her maternal family—the Marquis Hibis household. There, she met her maternal grandfather, Crocker Argent Hibis.
“You’re that child.”
She still couldn’t forget it. From their very first meeting, his gaze raked over Aillen as if she were an object. Nor could she forget how he didn’t spare her mother a single glance.
Aillen nodded but, intimidated, couldn’t bring herself to look at him properly. Then her eyes met those of the woman said to be her aunt.
It was an arrogant gaze, just like Kallia’s now. She wore a smile that practically radiated, Who do you think you are?
“So. Your magic stone crafting ability has awakened, I hear.”
“…Yes.”
Her mother answered a beat late to Crocker’s words. But at his next question, she fell silent again.
“What grade is it?”
She parted her lips, hesitating to answer. The proud smile she had worn when Aillen’s ability first manifested was nowhere to be seen.
When Crocker urged her with his gaze, she finally spoke.
“It’s… low-grade.”
“Pfft!”
The source of the laughter was Aillen’s aunt, seated across from them. She was openly mocking her niece and her own younger sister.
“I see.”
But Crocker didn’t stop her. Instead, as if his business was concluded, he left the room.
After he left, the woman called her aunt also stood up.
“You should know your place.”
She tossed something onto the table with a light thud. The item that came to rest before her mother was a high-grade magic stone.
“Still, since it’s my first meeting with my niece, use that to buy yourself something tasty.”
With that, she too left the room. And no matter how much time passed, no one came back.
“Mother…”
Aillen cautiously watched her mother’s reaction. When their eyes met, Aillen flinched without realizing it.
Her mother smiled sadly and patted Aillen’s back as she bowed her head.
“It’s all right, Aillen. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
That was when Aillen realized it. The ability she had thought so amazing and something to be proud of was, in truth, a paltry one. And that those without ability were cast aside by the maternal family.
Just like her, and her mother.
The two of them left without taking the magic stone. Outside, they encountered an unexpected person.
Kallia—Aillen’s cousin of the same age, and the daughter of the aunt they had just seen.
Kallia’s ability had awakened around the same time as Aillen’s. But unlike Aillen, she was a high-grade magic stone crafter.
Aillen was a little wary of Kallia, but her mother greeted her with a smile.
“Hello. You must be Kallia.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m your aunt. Your mother’s younger sister.”
“Aunt?”
Kallia tilted her head, then alternated her gaze between Aillen and her mother.
“Hmm… I see. Then that girl is my cousin?”
“Yes. This is my daughter, Aillen. She’s the same age as you.”
“I see.”
Her gaze toward Aillen was indifferent. Aillen, too, didn’t find Kallia appealing.
Even so, her mother took a lollipop from her sleeve and said,
“Kallia, do you like sweets? Aillen does. Here, take one.”
Kallia didn’t take the lollipop held out to her, only stared at it.
After a moment, she pushed it aside with a flick and said,
“I don’t need it. With just one magic stone I make, I can buy hundreds of these. And better ones, too.”
Ignoring the candy that had fallen to the ground, Kallia walked past her mother. As she passed by Aillen, she muttered softly,
“Disgusting.”
Aillen heard it. Which meant her mother, standing nearby, must have heard it too.
Her mother, who had been crouched quietly, stood up. Her face as she looked at Aillen was bright.
“Oh dear. Looks like we won’t get to eat the candy. Shall we buy new ones on our way back?”
In the end, Aillen couldn’t hold it in anymore. She clung to her mother’s skirt and burst into tears—out of frustration.
Her skirt was soaked with tears, but her mother didn’t push her away. She only patted her back and comforted her.
Even though she was the one who needed comfort most.
As the unpleasant memories resurfaced, it felt as though the bitterness of that time was rising up again.
Aillen hurriedly hid in a corner and pressed a hand tightly against her chest, trying to swallow the tears that threatened to spill.
“Ugh… ngh…”
Each time, painful sobs forced their way past her lips. Even so, the resentment inside her didn’t lessen at all.
Just as she was panicking, thinking her makeup would be ruined by tears, she heard someone’s voice.
“If you keep that up, your lips will be ruined.”
