Chapter 33
At my shocking statement, Casio naturally froze like a stone.
“So, be friends with me!”
Plop.
Not long after I loudly shouted it again, a piece of lettuce pitifully fell from the sandwich Casio was holding.
Casio still wore an unreadable expression, but judging from how stiff he had become, he seemed quite shocked.
Well, he probably never expected me to say something like this.
Even if you hate it, I have no intention of taking those words back. So just give up already.
“I-I don’t need friends.”
“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”
At my answer, Casio looked at me with even more confusion in his eyes.
Honestly, this reaction was completely within my expectations.
I had no intention of backing down over something like this, so I stayed perfectly calm.
I wasn’t even expecting us to become close right away anyway.
“If you don’t want to, then we don’t have to be friends.”
Now that I was certain this child really was Casio Rubantier, I could slowly grow closer to him over time.
I curled up the corners of my lips and added,
“For now.”
On the way back to the main building.
The moment I saw the large carriage standing in front of the entrance, my eyes widened.
“Huh?”
Even without asking Ellie, I could immediately guess who had arrived in that carriage.
I quickly ran toward it. I had never been this happy to see him before.
I was going to ask everything I couldn’t ask Casio.
“Oh? Young miss.”
But the one who stepped out of the carriage wasn’t Herald. It was Sylvestan.
Holding a large box as he climbed down from the carriage, he smiled brightly the moment he saw me.
Completely caught off guard by the unexpected person, I stopped running and tilted my head.
Walking toward me with wide strides, he cheerfully spoke.
“You’ve grown so much since the last time I saw you. At this rate, you’ll catch up to my height too.”
As if. You looked almost two meters tall.
“Where’s Dad?”
Ignoring Sylvestan’s nonsense, I immediately looked for Herald.
“The Duke arrived around lunchtime…. Didn’t you see him?”
Huh? He came that early?
“T-Then this carriage is….”
“Ah, the Duke took the horse I was riding…. Thanks to that, I got to travel comfortably. Haha.”
As if proving his words were true, Sylvestan’s skin looked incredibly refreshed.
Well, he certainly looked happy, so that was good….
“Then where’s Dad…?”
I asked while looking around. Sylvestan gave a slightly troubled smile before glancing toward the mansion.
“Well, I think he probably went straight to the Duchess. He looked like he had something urgent to say.”
So he went to clear up the misunderstanding about Casio right away.
“Got it, thank you! Bye!”
I waved roughly at Sylvestan before running straight into the mansion.
Now that Herald’s innocence(?) had been proven, I intended to go help him immediately.
“Young miss! Where are you going? Aren’t you returning to your room?”
“Nope, I’m going to see Mom.”
I vaguely heard Ellie panting and mumbling something while chasing after me, but I ignored it and kept moving forward.
I climbed the stairs, ran down the long marble hallway, and arrived in front of Mother’s room.
No one was guarding the door. It was probably by either Father’s or Mother’s orders.
“Y-Young miss…. Huff, you’re too fast….”
“Ellie, shh!”
The hallway was wide and long, so voices echoed easily. I pressed a finger to my lips, signaling Ellie to stay quiet as she groaned dramatically.
“Huh…? Why all of a sudden….”
“Ellie. I’m going to Mom alone, so you can go somewhere else.”
“What? No way. What if you disappear again….”
“No! Haah….”
Ellie clearly had serious trauma from me disappearing before.
Otherwise, there was no way she’d cling to me this much.
I was about to snap at her, but realizing I was largely responsible for this situation, I lowered my voice again.
“Where would I even go by myself here? Mom and Dad are together right now, and I’m trying to surprise them. So you can’t stay here, Ellie.”
“Huh? What exactly does that mean….”
Geez!
In the end, since Ellie clearly had no intention of listening, I started firmly pushing her away.
“Hurry up. I really won’t go anywhere, okay? I’m going to Mom. Don’t interrupt me.”
“O-Okay then, I’ll stay in the kitchen. You really can’t go anywhere else, alright?”
“I said okay.”
After somehow sending Ellie away, I slowly crept toward Mother’s room.
I thought the door would be tightly shut, but as I got closer, I noticed a faint crack in it.
Almost instinctively, I pressed my face close to the gap. Through the tiny opening, I could vaguely see inside the room.
Mother and Herald were sitting across from each other on the sofa. Mother’s face was faintly visible, while only Herald’s red hair could barely be seen over the back of the couch.
I couldn’t clearly see their expressions, but it was obvious a heavy atmosphere was weighing down the room.
“……Until then, you…… I had to deal with that all alone…… nothing….”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner…… I…… to you…….”
Maybe because I was too far away, their voices weren’t very clear.
Damn it, hearing only bits and pieces like this was frustrating.
I pressed my ear tightly against the crack and even held my breath. Then Herald’s low voice clearly reached my ears.
“Why won’t you say anything? Is there still some misunderstanding left?”
“That’s not it.”
“If it’s not, then why do you keep your mouth shut like that?”
“…….”
“Haa….”
Herald’s arm slowly moved over the back of the sofa.
It looked like he was running a hand through his hair with a long sigh.
“I… get so frustrated when you shut down like this because you’re hurt. If you’re upset about something, you should just tell me directly.”
“This was never a place where I could speak directly.”
“…What?”
“Tell me. Was this Erelton really a place where I could easily make requests or voice complaints?”
“That’s….”
Mother let out a bitter laugh and slowly began to speak.
“At the time, articles about worsening relations with the Grand Duchy were published almost every day. And in those articles, my name was always written in huge provocative headlines.”
“…….”
“Whenever those articles appeared in the newspapers, Marchioness Poles and the elders would constantly come find me and nitpick every word and action I made. While saying all kinds of humiliating things.”
“What…? Aunt did that? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“They weren’t the only ones who acted like that. You probably don’t know what people called me. Every time I attended a tea party, many young ladies and noblewomen insulted me with the same words. ‘The wicked woman destroying Erelton from the inside.’ That was the title they gave me.”
“…….”
“Well, it’s not entirely wrong. I married you to buy time for the Grand Duchy. And you married me to obtain the mines of the Grand Duchy.”
“I told you countless times that’s a misunderstanding.”
“Then why did you bring me here?”
“…….”
Even after Mother’s resentful question, Herald couldn’t answer easily.
“You can’t say it, can you? Because that’s the only reason.”
“Haa, Adeline….”
“I didn’t stay silent from the beginning. I simply became used to burying those things inside over time.”
Mother wasn’t crying. But her voice was full of tears. At least, that’s how it sounded to me.
The tip of my nose stung painfully. Somehow, whenever Mother looked sad, tears always welled up in my eyes too.
While I wiped the tears gathering in my eyes, Mother’s voice was heard again.
“When I first married you… I had hope too. I thought we could live well together, that I only needed to trust you. But you left me alone in a place like that. No matter how desperately I begged for you to look at me, you always turned away saying you were busy.”
“…….”
“So now, I don’t expect anything from you anymore, Herald. The only thing left between us is our role as Chloe’s parents. I gave up wanting to continue our relationship as husband and wife… a long time ago.”
After Mother finished speaking, silence filled the room.
And I couldn’t stay there any longer either.
