Chapter 8
In some ways, a noble lady’s dress was like a soldier’s weapon in a war. Lilika’s dressing room was particularly famous for its iron-clad security. There was no one who didn’t know that.
“Sir Marcel Vieira!”
Naturally, a rebuttal erupted.
“Lilika only took out her dress from the dressing room this morning, so how would Yuria know that? Don’t put Yuria’s name in your mouth anymore! How long are you going to use my daughter to talk nonsense!”
But I was surprised that the person who rebutted him was my mother. It was the first time I had ever seen my mother scream like this.
He suspected me just now and urged me to confess publicly later, but who would believe that? Everyone knows how sincere I was to Sir Vieira.
“Sir Vieira, I thought about you from the bottom of my heart and stayed quiet. But to say that I manipulated you like that… no matter how much you’re trying to get out of the situation…”
I spoke and stopped again, as if I could barely continue. Then, I moved my lips as if I was about to say something, and closed them again.
“… No, does it matter what I say? I just want Lilika and Sir Vieira to be happy.”
Then I shook my head again and smiled pitifully, as if I had given up everything.
‘I didn’t find out through the dressing room, but I did guess the color of the dress based on the experience of my past life. How could they suspect that I told him about the light pink garment?’
Considering how I became a vicious sister who wanted to stand out on Lilika’s birthday that time, the current twist was even more thrilling.
“You’re right. Considering the situation, Sister Yuria had no way of knowing the color of the dress… Sir Vieira, do you have any evidence that she did?”
“I don’t have any evidence… But doesn’t Lady Yuria have a wicked side?”
Lilika’s expression, which didn’t betray my expectations until the end, cracked. She must have thought it was a card that could reverse everything, so how did it feel now?
“Lilika, don’t listen to the nonsense this bastard is saying about Yuria being wicked!”
Although Lilika came out belatedly because she was neck-deep in her cunning speech, it would have been nice if she hadn’t intervened in the conversation in the first place.
She had been pretending the whole time that it was unfair, and that Vieira’s words were not true, so why was she suddenly asking if it was true?
“Lady Lilika, why don’t you trust me? If not, I’ll…”
“I don’t want to hear anymore. I can’t give either Yuria or Lilika to someone like you. Let’s just break off the engagement! What are you doing, drag this scoundrel out now!”
The knights of the duchy who had been waiting stood in order and grabbed Sir Vieira’s arms.
Although he was also a great knight, he didn’t have his sword with him.
And even if had his sword, if he took it out here, it would have been a really big problem.
“Lady Lilika, I remember the day you told me that you loved me. I even wore a light pink suit, which can be embarrassing for a man, to match the Lady. Lady Lilika, Lady Lilika!”
Though she seduced him and then denied it, he has great loyalty.
For Sir Vieira, Lilika was just a poor heroine who was being threatened.
It was a shame that Lilika wasn’t getting engaged to him, who didn’t really have anything to show, instead of other male characters, though it’s not like she was being crucified for doing the immoral thing of getting entangled with her older sister’s fiancé…
When Sir Vieira left, my brother, who had been quiet for a while, seemed to feel refreshed and stepped forward.
“Father, don’t worry about what that crazy guy says. We need to stop it before word about Lilika gets out of the duchy and spreads to the social world. Yuria, you can’t even keep your fiancé…”
But my brother never finished his words.
“Jiksen.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Shut your mouth.”
My brother’s face crumpled relentlessly.
However, my father’s vigor was too fierce to argue back. My brother stepped back, seemingly bewildered, as if he had only now figured out the atmosphere. Still, he tried to open his mouth.
“But Yuria…”
“Brother.”
However, even then, Lilika grabbed his arm and pulled him, forcing him to close his mouth. What a pity, I was wondering what would happen if he babbled a bit more.
“My Lady, go back with Yuria to her room.”
Then, I turned around with my mother.
I whispered to my father that I was sorry.
Since I had cried while acting, my voice came out so unintentionally thin that I couldn’t even hear it.
“…”
I didn’t know what kind of face he made when he heard my words, or better, if he could even hear me.
In the meantime, my mother wrapped her shoulders around me and led me out of the study. It seemed that she was worried that I might be scolded by my father.
It wasn’t a wrong judgment. My father was always harsh towards me, so today was a bit of a special day.
‘He even killed me with his own hands.’
I felt the need to look pitiful to my father. My father’s influence in the Primrose duchy was absolute.
‘But that will only be until I become independent from the household.’
When that time comes, even if my mother doesn’t pull me, I will walk away without regret.
‘There will be no rumors that Lilika stole her sister’s fiancé.’
It seemed that she was just sad that she didn’t know my inner thoughts.
“I never imagined that Sir Vieira would do something like this. If I had known this would happen, I would have opposed the engagement! Yuria, how much you…”
My mother hesitated, and then added,
“Do you still have feelings for Sir Vieira? But he…”
“Don’t worry. I decided to forget Sir Vieira now. I don’t think he’s my destiny.”
The fact that I liked him and was flustered was a story of the past, and it had now been a long time since I cleared my mind.
‘Since I was going to destroy the engagement anyway, it’s a good thing that I took the chance to throw a bomb at Lilika.’
The image of Sir Vieira, grabbing me by my hair and dragging me to my father when I was running away in my previous life, suddenly came to my mind. And his appearance while proposing to my sister in front of me, his fiancée.
‘If I still had feelings for him after going through all sorts of things, I would be a crazy level of pushover.’
Fortunately, my mind was sane. My mother looked at me and spoke comfortingly,
“The Primrose family is a family that can even have marriage talks with the Crown Prince. Of course, it would be much more of a waste if you left the family before that, Yuria.”
“That’s right. It would be a waste.”
I smiled faintly in agreement. Only then did the anxiety seem to have disappeared a little from my mother’s face.
In fact, I knew what was going to happen, so it didn’t matter.
The only thing that worried me was my mother, who doesn’t take care of herself because she cares for me.
“Mother, what Brother said to you… No matter what anyone says, I know that you worked really hard for Lilika.”
“Thank you for letting me know.”
I didn’t know what my bastard brother was thinking. It wasn’t surprising to me, who had always been treated like that, but I didn’t know he could be rude like that even to our mother.
“I’ll talk to your father about what happened today, so don’t worry too much…”
“You know, I heard that kind of thing. That the child is happy only when the mother is happy.”
Even if she talked more about it to my father, it wouldn’t have any effect. I spoke emphatically to my mother before the topic of conversation changed. It was the most sincere conversation of the day.
“Mother, please take care of yourself more. If Mother is happy, I, as your child, will be happy too.”
“…”
My mother looked at me without blinking for a moment. Seeing her looking blankly at me, I was worried that I had said something useless. My mother smiled softly.
“That’s right, I have to show you a good appearance so that you can follow my example.”
And as if he was making a promise, she muttered something.
“If I show you that I am unhappy because of a man, and tell you not to live like me…”
“What?”
My mother’s voice was too low to hear. However, she looked like she had made up her mind about something, so I thought I shouldn’t ask more.
“Nothing, it was nothing. It was a promise for my actions in the future. I should attend more social gatherings from now on. I think society has underestimated you too much because I haven’t been outside too often.”
“Ah…”
My mother’s gaze was firm. It was a strange appearance for my mother, who, both in a good and bad way, was always elegant and composed.
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