Tatiana stepped back a pace as if shaking off her mother’s hand touching her back and faced the Viscountess. A clear intent known only to the mother and daughter who had spent their lives close together raced across the short distance between them.
“I’ve thought about it all night. Do I have the right to blame my mother?”
“…Tatiana.”
“But I think it’s okay. At least for me.”
The daughter of the quick-calculating Viscountess was even more precise in her calculations than her own mother.
“If not me, who else could dare to blame my mother?”
“……”
If not me, who has lived without deviating an inch from that intent.
The black feather decoration around her neck swayed with Tatiana’s subtle movement, overwhelming like her intense smile. She had been searching too far away for someone who had nothing to lose or protect.
“Even after looking in the mirror that much, I only realized it now.”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about, but go back to your seat for now.”
“My seat is here.”
Probably the last day.
The wounds Tatiana received won’t disappear. The wounds Tatiana inflicted on someone else have no way to be undone. But for now, she still have a chance not to become like her mother. She’ll be penniless and destitute, but she don’t want to spend her precious life floundering in self-loathing.
So, before Tatiana get swept up in splendor and can’t even distinguish right from wrong, she had to stop.
“Tiara! What are you doing there instead of coming over!”
“……”
Duke Atlas, sensing something unusual from Tatiana’s resolute smile, abruptly stood up. Queen Consort Charlize’s expression, realizing the situation late, was also not ordinary. As the nobles murmured and craned their necks here and there with exclamations, Viscountess Cartien gritted her teeth.
“…Think it over carefully. Now, even I won’t be able to help you.”
“Mother.”
“I don’t know what you’re relying on to act like this… What?”
The gazes concentrated on the two were subtly shifting elsewhere. No matter how dire the situation inside her, something strange was strange.
Where in the social world could there be a more intriguing scene than this.
Footsteps gradually became clearer behind the Viscountess, who had slightly frowned.
Thud, thud.
The bold, confident shoe sounds parted the banquet hall. Under the brilliant light of the grand chandelier, when the owner of the footsteps revealed himself, some let out gasps of admiration, and others made eerie sounds like inhaling sharply. It was clear that the appeared figure was someone no one had expected.
“Oh my goodness! Look over there!”
“Ah! No way!”
“…Tatiana.”
Between the black hair swaying with the disciplined steps, red eyes stood out clearly. It was different from that day three years ago. He clearly recognized this was a place for him, and even if not, he was already the protagonist of this place.
‘No way.’
Am I seeing this right now?
Gasp.
Tatiana, who had tried to suppress the leaking scream, looked up at him, but Kainel remained composed.
“Why. Can’t I come?”
“…It’s not that.”
“This.”
He who stood in front of Tatiana suddenly took something out from his bosom.
No.
Viscountess Cartien, momentarily thinking it might be a ring, tried to stop Kainel but was one step too late. Above all, what was in his hand was not a ring.
“I thought I should return it.”
“……”
Just a small button made of gold.
As the item, incomparable to the Duke’s diamond ring, appeared, someone let out a deflated chuckle, and another shook their head. Viscountess Cartien snorted, and Tatiana…
“I don’t think we’re the kind of relationship that needs to exchange things like this.”
“…Kainel.”
“I don’t want to hear otherwise.”
She didn’t know where in that short, arrogant sentence there was room for denial, but tears welled up in Tatiana’s eyes. Whether relief or whatever, it was fine. At his perfunctory gesture urging her to take it quickly, Tatiana grabbed his hand instead of the button.
“……”
She gripped his hand so tightly that even the eyes of that expressionless man shook. The hem of her peacock-like black dress swirled as she turned around.
*** *** *** *** ***
Lebron’s social circle was turned upside down. Completely in chaos.
But when asked the reason, everyone hesitated. Whether to start with the story of the world’s Viscountess Cartien fainting in the imperial palace, or the haughty Queen Consort screaming at the top of her lungs first, or Duke Atlas finally flipping over the banquet hall table, or perhaps how the red-eyed envoy chuckled with those blood-red eyes—no one knew what to say first and fell into a momentary panic.
However, the one scene everyone unanimously pointed to was undoubtedly this, the moment when Lady Tatiana, who had turned around holding the envoy’s hand, returned to her mother and handed over the diamond ring, which they ranked as the highest.
“It might be a bit small, but don’t worry. Mother is someone who can surely slim down her finger to fit the ring.”
How sweetly melting that gentle smile was.
Testimonies poured in that the gentlemen of Lebron, who had to turn a blind eye to Tatiana under the pressure of Viscountess Cartien, beat their chests as if pounding the ground. The heat was carried on by newspapers and gossip sheets. In the scandal that was unprecedented in the Freya Empire, newspaper companies that had hit the jackpot poured out special features day after day.
There was already open talk that some newspapers had a fixed corner on the Cartien family, but now every page of every newspaper was plastered with stories of their clan. If you close your eyes and pick up any newspaper from the stand, opening any page would cover you with the intensely black-like face of Tatiana Lauren de Cartien.
| The socialite princess’s choice, holding the hand of a war hero, not a Duke! |
| The truth of that day, in-depth coverage. What exactly happened between the two? |
| Viscountess Cartien, the fainting scene of sorrow and sobs |
“Who fainted! Just closing my eyes once, and they make a fuss out of it!”
Viscountess Cartien’s scream-like wail echoed through the residence. Her white hand, picking up one of the newspapers Viviana had brought, was trembling.
The only thing humans gain from excitement is weakness.
She had always engraved that philosophy deep in her heart and lived by it, but before she could even turn to the next page, she slammed her fist on the table with a thud.
“…How dare she, my daughter, say she’s going to marry a blood-soaked war maniac?”
“M, Mother!”
“Ha, hahaha!”
Annesia was stunned by the sight of her mother bursting into a mad, blood-red laugh filled with insanity. Even the twins clung to her, trying to stop her, but the situation had already gone too far. Viviana sat down, burying her face in her hands, and Katarina sobbed while covering her mouth.
With even the three sons-in-law unable to think of intervening and just bowing their heads, the Cartien family was swept into an uncontrollable vortex. If any of the reporters surrounding the viscount’s residence had stolen a glance at this scene, they would have defined it in one word.
This place is living hell.
“Mother, please calm down. All the reporters in Lebron are gathered outside, what if your voice carries over the walls?”
“……”
The calmest was the eldest, Annesia. She too found this situation unbearable, but her sense of crisis that everything would collapse if even she lost her mind shone through. Moreover, she had the experience of being ‘Regina’s sister.’
“This isn’t the first or second time something like this has happened. Every time Regina got divorced.”
“I’d rather she get divorced!”
“……”
“How could she marry a beast like that… Ha.”
The Viscountess, who had been laughing maniacally, suddenly sobered up and crumpled the newspaper. It seemed a bit of reason had returned, but her anger hadn’t subsided. No, not at all.
“Tatiana! My Tatiana, I say!”
“……”
From the beginning, she wasn’t a child to compare to Regina. Tatiana was on a different level from Regina, who deliberately poked at her every chance and openly defied her. Born with a body so small it was scary to even hold, from that very moment, she was the most clever and proud youngest daughter. A treasure who never even contradicted her, not once, with so much as a glance.
“…How could this happen. When on earth did she meet a guy like that!”
“Mother.”
“That guy must have seduced her! Daring to harbor vain ambitions! After hearing he’s a hero, he got all puffed up thinking he’s something and seduced my daughter!”
Anything else would be unbearable.
That way, my daughter wouldn’t have betrayed me first.
Her anger flared at the fact she couldn’t bear to believe, but after the thick dust settled, she had no choice but to admit it.
Among my daughters, the most obedient, the most beautiful, the most ladylike, the most haughty, but also the only one who could cause something like this—it was that child alone.
“…Yes. So that’s how it is.”
Viscountess Cartien twisted her lips. Even ‘that Regina obeyed and married as I told her to. Three times, even.
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