Chapter 7

“Ah… Call that bastard here.”

Hearing my words, my father, who had been keeping silent until now, ordered Sir Vieira to be called.
Fortunately for me, but not for anyone else.

At the same time as Lilika’s shoulders trembled, my brother immediately protested.

“Father! Lilika is not in a state where she can see Sir Vieira right now…”
“Stop pampering her. Bring the son of the count here and hold him accountable for this.”

Of course, it wasn’t that my father was taking my side and acting against Lilika.

“Do you really think that siding only with Lilika is for her own good? If you pamper her in this situation, Lilika will truly become the one who seduced her older sister’s fiancé!”

“… But…”
“Even if we try to contain it using the power of our family, hundreds of people attended the birthday banquet. Do you think you can shut their mouths? It will only have the opposite effect!”

That’s right. Calling Sir Vieira here was, after all, for Lilika.

‘Father is mad at Sir Vieira because he doesn’t think Lilika really tried to seduce my fiancé. And my brother, too.’

My brother eventually agreed with my father’s words. It was a natural result. Lilika revealed her refusal once again, but it did not work.

“I’m sorry for causing a commotion.”

And how long had it been? Not long after the servant left, Sir Vieira opened the door of the study and came in.

“Huh?”

Has he arrived already? Lilika’s face showed signs of despair.
I thought it would take at least a few hours, since the banquet was cut short and everyone had gone home, but he really came in an instant.
It was certainly fast. It was so fast that Lilika couldn’t even come up with a plan to remedy the situation.

“You bastard…”
“I’m sorry for causing a commotion. I was also very worried about what happened today…”

Sir Vieira lowered his head.
He said he couldn’t be at ease because he was afraid Lilika was going through some trouble, so he didn’t go home and continued to hover around here in the carriage.

“I know you won’t be satisfied with me because I’m the son of a mere Count. But my feelings for Lady Lilika are real. Please allow me.”
“Ah… You caused such a great commotion and you’re also good at answering questions. You bastard, don’t you feel sorry for Yuria?”

Sir Vieira, who was determined and confronted my father, could not answer immediately.

‘Yuria? I don’t know how long it has been since my name came out of my father’s mouth.’

And Lilika did not miss the moment of silence.

“Sir Vieira, I don’t think this is right.”

She thought it would be better for her to intervene before my father interrogated him in earnest.
Hearing Lilika’s words, Sir Vieira had a betrayed expression on his face.

“Lady Lilika!”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know why you thought I would marry you.”

There were others better than Vieira in Lilika’s fishery, so she didn’t want to be restrained by someone like him.
It would also be horrible for the image she had built so far to fall apart because she stole her sister’s fiancée.

“I apologize if I caused any misunderstanding. But I… I don’t love Sir Vieira.”
“You even gave me a handkerchief with the emblem of your family…”
“It was just to save trouble for my sister.”

At this point it was fair to think that he was manipulated. Sir Vieira merely tried to persuade Lilika with an embarrassed face.

“I remember very clearly what Lady Lilika said when you gave me the handkerchief. You said you loved me, but you couldn’t come close to me because I was your sister’s fiancé, and so you were sad.”
“No. Father, I never said that. Sir Vieira is lying!”

Lilika tried to prove that she was dignified in front of my father. In fact, in a way, it was more important than her reputation in the social world.

As he kept seeing Lilika denying it, Vieira’s face turned distressed.

“Lady Lilika, why are you lying about your feelings?”
“If there is anything between us, my sister will be sad! How could you say something like this in front of my sister, who loved you so much…”

Though she was the one who tried to seduce the fiancé her sister loved so much. She was very good at pretending to think of me.

“Why are you talking about Lady Yuria? The lady said she would surely bless us.”

And those words, they were not something that he should say in front of my family. Though I did say them for real.

“How can you say that Yuria has blessed you?! You really have no shame!”

Even my mother, who was distraught by my brother’s words earlier, raised her voice as if she couldn’t stand it.

“D-Duchess. You may misunderstand. But Lady Yuria really said that she would bless us…”
“Don’t you know this is the land of the Primrose duchy!”

My father raised his voice as if he couldn’t listen to it any more.
Even my brother, who was relentless in covering Lilika, looked at Vieira as if he was taken aback.

“Just say one more word. How dare you use Yuria as a shield?”

Of course, to my father, I was hardly his child.
But in this situation, it would be stupid to use me as an excuse and think that he would receive support.

‘Regardless of whether he has any affection for his daughter, I was insulted as Lady Primrose.’

However, Sir Vieira made a public confession because I pushed for it, so it would be embarrassing to hear this.

“Sir Vieira, please just go back. How could I, of all people, covet my sister’s fiancé? Don’t act like this in front of Sister Yuria!”

At this point, Lilika wanted to induce Sir Vieira to go back.
But he stared sharply at one person, holding out as Lilika pushed him with all her might.

Lilika, who whispered first that he loved him, was denying him, kept mentioning me, her ‘sister’, and things weren’t going as he wished.
In this situation, Sir Vieira…

“Yuria Primrose, you. Did you threaten Lady Lilika?”

He chose to attack me.

“Otherwise, I don’t understand why Lady Lilika would refuse to be engaged to me. Didn’t you say that you were blessing me and that you were planning something?”

The outcome was different from what he expected, so of course he was doubting me.
I encouraged him to confess publicly, but rather than accepting his love, Lilika was denying him, so he was surely confused.
But wasn’t it stupid to attack me in this situation?

“H-how can you say that? I even blessed you to go to Lilika, hoping for your happiness…”

If I was attacked by the man who used to be my fiancé in front of my family, I would look even more pitiful.

“How much did Yuria think of you, that she earnestly asked me to bring up the marriage talks!”

My father couldn’t stand it and got up from his seat.
My mother hugged me tightly as my shoulders trembled, and prevented me from looking at Sir Vieira.

“I ap-pologize. It’s because I was so embarrassed.”

Then, he tried to fix it, but there was nothing that could be done. Sir Vieira had now crossed an irreversible path.

“Lady Yuria, please say something. Didn’t you say you would bless my love? You said you would let me go. You said you were sorry for forcing me to be engaged…”

But Sir Vieira was persistent, as if I had all the solutions.

“It was Lady Yuria who asked me to confess publicly to Lilika. I am not one to do such a bold thing on my own!”
“Sir Vieira, please stop!”
“Lady Lilika, please let go of me. I have to reveal the truth. When I visited Lady Yuria when she was sick, she told me to wear a light pink suit. If she hadn’t, how could I have worn the same thing as Lady Lilika?”

Hearing that, Lilika, who was pushing Vieira, was startled and released him.

“Sister… Is what Sir Vieira said true? Was this all planned by you? No, right? You said you were giving me your blessings! There’s no way you were lying to me…”

Lilika’s eyes narrowed as she continued to pretend to be feeble.

Just because she was able to do it once, she was trying to make everything seem like ‘something my sister made up’, and leaving out what she had done herself.
At the same time, she did not attack me, but denied everything that Sir Vieira said and drew a line. While supporting that remark.

“I didn’t know what color dress Lilika was wearing until the birthday banquet.”

Although she tried hard, I had no intention of letting myself be attacked by Lilika.

“Everyone here was probably the same. You know, Lilika left her dress in the dressing room and only took it out today…”

——