Chapter 33
At my shocking words, Cassio naturally froze like stone.
“So, I’m saying—let’s be friends!”
Thud.
Not long after I shouted again, a piece of lettuce fell messily from the sandwich he was holding.
Cassio still had a hard-to-read expression, but his stiff posture showed he was clearly surprised.
Well, he probably didn’t expect me to say something like that.
Even if he didn’t want to, I wasn’t going to take it back. So he might as well give up quickly.
“I… I don’t need friends.”
“Yeah, I thought so.”
I said that, and Cassio gave me an even more puzzled look.
That reaction was exactly what I expected.
I wasn’t planning to back down either, so I stayed calm, completely at ease.
I wasn’t expecting to get close to him immediately.
“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to be friends.”
Anyway, it was certain this boy was Cassio Lubantié. I could take my time getting closer later.
I smiled faintly and added,
“For now.”
On the way back to the main house, I stopped in surprise at a large carriage at the entrance.
“Huh?”
I didn’t need to ask Elly; I could already guess who had arrived in it.
I ran straight toward the carriage. I had never been so happy to see him before today.
I had to ask him everything I hadn’t been able to ask Cassio.
“Huh? Miss?”
But stepping out of the carriage was not Herald—it was Silvestan.
Carrying a large box, he got down and smiled brightly at me.
I stopped running and tilted my head in confusion. This was completely unexpected.
He approached with long strides, speaking cheerfully.
“You’ve grown so much since I last saw you! At this rate, you might even catch up to my height.”
What? You’re already barely under two meters.
“Where’s Dad?”
I ignored Silvestan’s playful words and looked for Herald instead.
“The Duke arrived around lunch… didn’t you meet him?”
Gasp! He came that quickly?
“Th-then this carriage…”
“Oh, the Duke took the horse I was riding, so I came comfortably instead. Haha.”
Silvestan’s smooth, shiny skin made it clear he was telling the truth. He looked happy, at least.
“Then where is Dad…?”
I looked around, and Silvestan gave a small embarrassed smile and gestured toward the mansion.
“Well, I think he probably went straight to your mother. He seemed to have something urgent to say.”
Ah, he went to clear up the misunderstanding about Cassio.
“Got it, thanks! Bye!”
I waved at Silvestan and ran into the mansion.
Now that Herald’s innocence was confirmed, I wanted to help him immediately.
“Miss! Where are you going? Aren’t you returning to your room?”
“I’m going to see Mom.”
I heard Elly muttering something while running after me, but I ignored it and kept moving forward.
I ran up the stairs and through the long marble corridor until I reached my mother’s room.
No one was guarding the door. Probably Dad or Mom had given the order.
“Ah, Miss… huff, you’re so fast…”
“Elly, shh!”
The corridor was long and wide, so our voices carried. I put my finger to my lips and signaled her to be quiet.
“Huh…? Why all of a sudden…?”
“Elly. I’m going to Mom alone, so you can go somewhere else.”
“What? No! You might disappear again…”
“No! Haa…”
Elly clearly had a big trauma about me disappearing.
If not, she wouldn’t cling to me this much.
I realized it was partly my fault for my temper before. I softened my voice again.
“I’m not going anywhere. Mom and Dad are together, and I just want to surprise them. So Elly, you shouldn’t be here.”
“Huh? What… does that mean?”
Ugh!
Elly looked like she wasn’t going to listen at all, so I gently pushed her aside.
“I’m really not going anywhere. I’m going to Mom, so don’t get in the way.”
“Ah, okay… I’ll go to the kitchen then. You really won’t go anywhere else?”
“I told you, okay.”
After sending Elly away, I quietly approached Mom’s room.
I expected the door to be tightly closed, but there was a faint crack.
I almost reflexively pressed my face against the crack. Through the narrow gap, I could vaguely see inside.
Mom and Herald were sitting on the sofa, facing each other. I could faintly see Mom’s face, but Herald’s red hair was just visible over the back of the sofa.
Their expressions weren’t clear, but the heavy tension in the room was obvious.
“…Until then, you… left me to… handle it all… alone…”
“Why didn’t you… tell me… back then…”
Because I was far away, their words weren’t very clear.
Ugh, it was so frustrating.
I pressed my ear closer to the crack, holding my breath, and heard Herald’s low voice clearly.
“Why won’t you speak? Is there still some misunderstanding?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then why are you keeping your mouth shut?”
“……”
“Sigh…”
Herald’s arm slowly moved over the back of the sofa.
He seemed to sweep back his hair with a long exhale.
“I… it’s frustrating that you stay quiet to avoid hurting me. If you have complaints, just say them directly.”
“This wasn’t a place to speak freely.”
“…What?”
“Think about it. Was this Erayton place somewhere I could easily make requests or complain?”
“That is…”
Mom let out a small, dry laugh and slowly began to speak.
“Back then, news about worsening relations with the duchy poured in every day. And my name was printed big and sensational in those articles.”
“……”
“On days like that, the Marchioness of Polz and other nobles would constantly find faults with everything I did. They insulted me in every possible way.”
“What…? Aunt did that? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“They weren’t the only ones. You wouldn’t know how people addressed me. At tea parties, many young ladies and noblewomen insulted me with the same words: ‘The evil woman who devours Erayton’s flesh and blood.’ That’s what they called me.”
“……”
“Well, it wasn’t completely wrong. I married you to buy time. And you married me to gain the duchy’s mines.”
“I told you many times it was a misunderstanding.”
“Then why did you bring me here?”
“……”
Herald didn’t answer my mother’s resentful words easily.
“You probably can’t say. That’s the only reason.”
“Sigh, Adeline…”
“I didn’t refuse to speak from the start. I just gradually got used to keeping such things inside.”
Mom didn’t cry, but her voice was thick with emotion. To me, at least, it sounded that way.
My nose tingled strangely as I felt tears welling up.
While I wiped my own eyes, Mom’s voice continued.
“When we first married… I had hope. I thought we could be happy if I trusted you. But you left me alone in that place. No matter how desperately I begged for your attention, you ignored me, saying you were busy.”
“……”
“So now, I don’t expect anything from you, Herald. All that remains between us is the role of Chloe’s parents. The desire to continue as a couple… I abandoned long ago.”
After Mom finished, silence filled the room.
I couldn’t stay there any longer either.
