It was early the next morning. I got up early and headed for the dining hall, as I promised the butler the day before.
Even though I was half asleep, my mind was busy. After breakfast, I saw the Duke off, and it was pretty hard to meet Eclise just before class.
But we arrived at the dining room before I finished my plans. "It's your first time since the renovation, my lady."
The butler who came to pick me up explained me. He was right. Originally, I only played in my room and ate rice with on my own, but I had never been near the dining room due to repair work.
"You can look forward to it."
With a word of significance, the butler soon opened the dining room's door. And the open space, I don't know what the hell it was about, but it was completely different.
'Oh…'
It was amazingly colorful and extravagant. The row of gold and flowers arranged from place to place. At first glance, it was dizzy and hectic, but if you looked closely, it was more harmonious than you thought. He seemed to have paid considerable attention to the design.
While looking through the interior of a strange place, I suddenly saw a flower that stood out of nowhere. It was the flower that decorated the interior of the dining room the most.
'What..'
Attractive rose vines.
That's a voracious fleshy rose vine.
—The Ellen Wick Rose.
The other day, I had a luncheon in the greenhouse because of the renovation. The Duke answered to my interest for this plant that had roughly surrounded to avoid the quarrel of Reynold.
Come to think of it, then I thought it was the first time when the Duke talked to me for no particular purpose or reason.
'I guess he just liked that flower.'
I thought with an effort of cynicism, desperately pressing down on the insides because of nausea. Excessive meaning was bound to bring about a backlash.
Fortunately, I couldn't think of the nightmare of starving with food in front of me, perhaps because the inside was completely changed.
Unlike earlier one made of oak wood, the luxurious marble table had already been seated. The Duke, sitting at the top of the ladder, greeted.
"You're here."
"Good morning. Father, brother."
"Good morning, frozen to death. Don't you go early?"
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Yeh guy with his pink hair got into a fight for being only a few minutes late. "Stop it, Renald."
"There's nothing wrong with that. Heck! My father always tells me something."
The Duke's eyes were on me, and the mouth was closed because of fear. Derrick just stared at me silently with his usual expressionless face. I'd been through it a few times, and now I was quite used to
it, so I was not impressed by the neglect of greetings. "Let's do it."
Except for the early morning hours, it was an unusual breakfast. There was only occasional clatter of tableware in the luxurious and quiet dining room.
"…Now, a few days later, it's your birthday, Penelope."
At the middle of the breakfast, the Duke suddenly spoke. I replied with a smile, even though it was a subject that made me sick.
"Yes, it's already done."
"Are you getting ready for the ceremony?"
"What can I do? The butler and the maid are preparing instead me."
I really didn't do anything. All I could do was get a massage from the maids every day during the bath to make the best skin and body shape. As I got used to it, I tried to ignore it.
"Is there anything you want for the coming of age?"
Then, suddenly the Duke asked. I answered without long thought. "Well… not really."
It had already been after a grand arrangement of dresses and accessories for the coming-of-age ceremony. What I really wanted was something the Duke couldn't give.
"Hey, don't bounce, tell me what you want we'll buy it."
As usual, there was a sarcastic look as if he had been waiting for it.
"Weren't you so jealous of my dad for getting me a magic yacht at my coming-of-age ceremony?" "Ah, that."
It wasn't such a bad thing to have a bath with maids every day. There were so many funny stories to pick up.
"You bragged about it and you dragged it in the Altes River, and you couldn't drive it properly, and it was overturned."
At a smile on my face, his face turned red in an instant, as I said everything I heard a while ago. "Who, who, who said that?! It was just an accident!"
"Hmm, you pathetic bastard."
"Huh? Why are you laughing, Father! Oh, no, no, no!"
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Reynold shouted hurriedly to the Duke. But it didn't mean anything. I leaned toward the Duke, taking advantage of that he wasn't in the fuss.
"…It was just."
And whispered quietly.
"Early morning, can you come and say hello?" "Hello?"
"Yes."
Something out of the blue, looking at the Duke, I slowly opened the mouth. "…Say goodbye to your immature little daughter."
"What are you talking about, Penelope. Say good-bye."
"I'm becoming a decent adult now. I want to forget about my shameful past and become a mature person after the coming-of-age ceremony."
I ended my speech calmly, hiding the words "last farewell" with his daughter, who mimicked that maturity.
"When did you ever…"
The Duke's blue eyes, which looked at me with unfamiliar eyes, slowly became warm. "Yes."
"I'll make sure I would say hello in the morning."
The Duke has repeatedly promised. This lie was pretty bitter and hard. It was time to barely turn away from the ticklish feeling with an awkward smile. Suddenly the dining room's door opened, so the butler stepped in with a hasty gesture. He reached the top of the table where the Duke sat.
"Master, I think you should come out to the front door for a moment."
The old butler's face was not as good as ever. The duke showed signs of discomfort.
"Hmm. We all haven't been eating together in our family for a while, butler. If it's not urgent, let's talk again another time."
"It was…"
With an embarrassed face, and soon the butler bent down and put his mouth in the Duke's ear. The Duke's face, which had expressed displeasure with the interruption of his meal, became harder and harder.
Finally, the butler, who had finished speaking, pulled up his upper body. At that moment, shhhrrrrak -! The Duke sprang up from his seat.
Quadang-! The wind made the chair pulled back. But he hurried out of the dining room without hitting it at all. The butler hurried after him.
Derrick and Reynold, as well as I, were just blinking their eyes without knowing what to say. Shhhhrrrak—. Then, Derrick rose from his seat pushing the chair.
"I've got to go out."
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He said, and left the dining room without hesitation. "Oh, man, what was that while eating…"
Reynold muttered nervously.
'The Crown Prince… didn't come here again just because I ignored the letter, did he?'
A terrible assumption suddenly came to mind. It was a story that a madman could have done. If so, the duke who had been beaten once deserved to run like that.
'Crazy! It hurts! What the hell is wrong with you?'
As I frowned and got fed up, Reynold glanced at me with a strange look. "Hey, what are you doing? Let's see what is going on. Get up."
"Uh, uh, yeah…"
Reynold rose from his seat and urged me to go out with him. I answered with a puzzled look. I didn't really want to go. My head already ached at the thought of going to see the prince again and settling it.
I followed after Reynold, leaving the dining room. It was around the time of passing the long corridor, and seeing the central stairway in hall.
The front door of the mansion was wide open, as the butler said. "There was a problem."
Between them stood a stampede. It was a tall man. Through the wide open large doors, there was a cool outside smell of early morning air.
'Aren't you going to catch people?'
I walked fast, still crumpled my forehead. Just past the drawing-room, the Duke and butler, Derrick and Reynold, standing stiffed.
Instead of the golden hair I expected, I opened my eyes wide. "…Eclise?"
The man standing in front of the front door of the mansion was none other than my capture target. At my call he glanced at me. The gray eyes, which had always been dull, raised wide opened.
"Why here at this hour…"
My heart suddenly fluttered for no reason. The mysterious anxiety that I felt a day before my mother died. As if it flees through with its whole body like a thunder.
"What…"
There was a little person bouncing out of the back of that Eclise. "…Father."
"…"
"…Brothers."
Lovely pink hair that looked just like Reynold. Blue pupils that were indisputably vivid in the veins of Eckart.
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"I'm… Yvonne."
That day early in th morning, the coming-of-age ceremony was still five days away.