“Worried?”
Molitia reiterated slowly.
The past was too horrifying to hark back to. Those sheer nightmares, which crept into her mind, had made her feel sick to her stomach.
“Yes! Worry! Did you know that I couldn’t even attend a party—all because of the sake for my older sister’s medicine? Or how I was being very patient in regards to buying me some new sets of clothings?”
You shouldn’t have done that. Arjan whispered under her breath.
“It was absolutely impossible to accommodate those new clothes in your closet any longer when in reality, you had only worn them once. Also, when I had a new outfit that was made for me, I didn’t even mind when you took it away from me. Do you really think that I wasn’t aware how you chose to use me as a stepping stool for boosting your own status during those parties?”
“What—what… how can you even say such a thing about someone’s kindness?”
“Arjan, that will never even change the things you had done to me back in the county.”
“What?”
Arjan’s mouth became ridiculously contorted all of a sudden.
“Still, I allowed you to come here for this one last time only because you are my flesh and blood. And yet, here you are—consistently ignoring me.”
“Ignore you! Isn’t that a tad too harsh?”
“Stop.”
Her voice reverberated across the parlor.
“You know perfectly well that our sisterly relations aren’t that close enough with one another to bring up such private stories, so let’s just stop there. Isn’t there another reason why you have come to see me—plus the Duke and the others as well?”
“…ha.”
The once certainly remarkable Arjan immediately clicked her tongue.
“That’s right. My father had said this: ‘A huge fine had suddenly flown right into the county’ and he kept on saying that it was the work of the Duke of Linerio himself.”
“What?”
Molitia instantly skimmed through her past memories. There was definitely a time when such a report was addressed here, but then, Raven had already said that he would keep everything in the dark.
“Father must have been quite mistaken. The Duke had declared that he would keep his silence about that day.”
“Sister, are you trying to say that father was wrong?”
Sister? She had always shook her head or nodded in response when father had said something. Arjan just couldn’t believe it when Molitia insisted that he was wrong. She even had a thought that the person who was right in front of her wasn’t in fact, Molitia at all.
“If you’re actually here to negotiate then, you should have really learnt from scratch, Arjan Clemence.”
“What the…”
It was now Arjan’s turn to stumble against Molitia’s unfamiliar words. Molitia then slowly lowered her eyes before rising to her feet. Her gentle eyes had become sharp like razors.
“Since it is undoubtedly a public affair—and not a private one—shouldn’t you be courteous to the Duchess? Lady Clemence.”
“But still, it’s just a family affair…”
“No matter how many people claim myself to be someone who was just from a Count’s household, I have now been granted the title of a Duchess. Nevertheless, are you just going to violate the nobility law that was set by the empire itself?”
Molitia’s voice that sounded an octave lower, which she never heard before, had made Arjan’s heart weep anxiously. It was only Molitia. Still, Arjan bit her lips—hard.
“Or—is it that you’ve forgotten even the simplest courtesy one should do when conversing about the public affairs between two families?”
“Are you treating me like someone ignorant right now?”
Arjan could no longer resist herself as she straight away jumped to her feet. Her unruly behavior had caused the table to sway violently.
“Butler.”
“Yes, Madame.”
The butler, who was waiting right outside the parlor all this time, straight away entered at Molitia’s call. Arjan paused herself at the appearance of that said stranger.
“Lady Clemence says that she’ll be returning home. Do escort her outside.”
“Understood.”
“Sister!”
“Arjan, it’s already over.”
She was still unable to curb her anger thoroughly as she looked at Arjan who was already incapable of hitting her any longer.
“At the very least, we won’t have to run into each other until you fix this behavior of yours.”
“No! I’m not done yet and you know that! If I were to return like this, how will father be…”
“Come on now, take her outside.”
At long last, Arjan was dragged away by the maid that was called upon the butler. When Arjan had ultimately disappeared from the parlor, only then Molitia could relax her waist that had been in an upright position until now.
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