Margaretta slapped Cecilia across the face.
The sound of the impact was so loud it made my ears ring. It felt as though she had been holding back considerably when she hit the boy at the Convenience Office. Cecilia collapsed from the sheer force. Her face was hidden by her hair, which fell like a curtain, so her expression was invisible.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
A silence shared by four people swirled around their feet.
It was as if time had stopped for a moment.
A breeze blew through the garden where even the birds had ceased their chirping and the petals seemed to hold their breath, fluttering Cecilia’s hair.
As the wind swept her hair aside, the marks of five fingers were appearing clearly on her pale face. There was also a cut across her cheek. Cecilia’s blood was smeared on Margaretta’s ring.
Cecilia looked as though she had lost her soul.
I was just as stunned. To think something like this would happen so suddenly…
“What… what do you think you’re doing!”
It was Hawkins who shouted, tearing through the silence of the garden.
He glared fiercely at Margaretta as he dropped to his knees beside the fallen Cecilia, wrapping an arm around her shoulder protectively.
“Are you alright?”
His voice was urgent and filled with concern. Hawkins’s face, twisted with worry, looked pained.
“Margaretta…”
‘How could she just slap her out of nowhere…’
I swallowed a groan.
“Margaretta Torrento!”
Evan’s angry voice rang out next.
The smile that had been on Evan’s face just a moment ago — the slight, troubled one — had vanished completely.
However, Margaretta didn’t even blink.
She slowly lowered the hand she had used to strike Cecilia, as if finishing a dance. She removed her ring, wiped it with a handkerchief, and then pulled off her gloves.
The way she pulled at the fingertips of her gloves one by one was remarkably elegant. Her elaborate false eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings.
Cecilia slowly raised her head. Tears pooled in her eyes and fell like raindrops, tracing paths down her scarred cheek.
“What is wrong with you?”
Evan strode forward and snatched Margaretta’s arm.
From the rage in his eyes, I could tell just how angry he was.
Good heavens.
Good grief.
Muttering hollow exclamations in my head, I also approached them.
Hawkins was glaring at Margaretta as if he were about to strike her.
“Who do you think you are?”
It was a blatant dismissal. Margaretta pulled off her glove and threw it down right at Cecilia’s feet. The handkerchief she used to wipe her ring also rolled across the garden floor.
“A Mencheson?”
Her voice sounded as if the person wasn’t even worth mentioning.
“Does a Mencheson think they can defy me now?”
“Margaretta!”
Despite Evan’s attempt to stop her, Margaretta was already consumed by a peak of rage and seemed unable to hear anything.
Even if it meant a major falling out with Evan later, Margaretta clearly wasn’t in the right mind to care about that now.
“Margaretta, let’s talk in a little while…”
I tried to stop her, but it was futile.
“I assume you’re not unaware that Evan and I are to be engaged. The ceremony is as soon as spring arrives. With how much people gossip, there’s no way you couldn’t know.”
Margaretta, stamping her foot as if crushing the grass with her heel, spoke in a theatrical tone.
“Ah! So you think this is your last chance? Are you planning to break an already promised marriage arrangement and take Evan for yourself? How dare you! Do you dare issue a challenge to me, a Torrento?”
Margaretta’s thundering roar echoed in my ears.
How dare she!
I could feel the sheer scale of the anger Margaretta was unleashing.
“I… I…”
Cecilia slowly lifted her head.
Her lips were trembling. Because of her pale skin, the reddened wound was even more prominent.
“I was wrong. I’m… I’m sorry. Lord Evan, this is my fault.”
“…Ha.”
Cecilia wasn’t apologizing to Margaretta… but to Evan.
Evan looked speechless.
Sorrowful tears fell from Cecilia’s eyes, and her tightly pressed lips made it look as though she were enduring great pain.
Margaretta, who was trembling all over, seemed to have lost her words. Her fingernails, unable to fully release her anger, were digging into her own palms.
“You…”
Only her shaking voice remained like an afterimage.
“That’s enough, Margaretta.”
Evan, suppressing his anger as much as possible, grabbed Margaretta’s shoulder.
“…”
She looked at Evan with eyes that seemed to have much to say, then bit her lip. Evan said nothing. His gaze simply seemed to tell her to stop. Margaretta tore her eyes away from Evan, glared at Cecilia as if she wanted to kill her, and then spun around.
The hem of her dress flared out richly.
Margaretta, who must have dressed up extensively for today’s date,
“Margaretta…!”
dragged her voluminous skirt and left the garden just like that.
“Sigh.”
Evan’s deep sigh settled heavily.
“Are you okay, Cecilia? Oh dear, your face…”
Evan knelt just as Hawkins had and inspected Cecilia’s face.
“It’s going to swell.”
With pitying eyes, Evan reached out his hand, almost touching Cecilia’s cheek. He looked as if he were the one in pain.
“Ouch…”
“I’ll send some good medicine, so don’t worry about the scar.”
Evan, who had been carefully stroking the sharp cut from the ring, withdrew his hand.
‘That kind of attitude is the problem.’
Suddenly, I wondered how far the story between the two of them had progressed.
Was Evan already fallen for Cecilia after all?
I began to think that in this life, Margaretta might not even make it to the engagement.
“Cecilia, as for Margaretta, I—”
“Lord Evan! Why didn’t you scold her in front of Lady Cecilia? Why! Does Lady Cecilia have no dignity?”
Hawkins shouted with a face full of indignation.
“Hawkins.”
“To let her hit her like that and just walk away…!”
Hawkins ground his teeth.
His eyes, which I had thought were as gentle as the color of leaves, were burning as if caught in a fire.
“…She is a Torrento.”
For some reason, I was the one who felt solemn at Evan’s single sentence.
Something was strange.
It was definitely wrong for Margaretta to hit Cecilia.
However, assuming the events in this garden occurred between noble and noble… you couldn’t unconditionally blame only Margaretta.
Because bringing up ‘secrets’ to a man who had an engagement partner was a clear mistake.
Could there be a more certain provocation than that?
“…Noble. Is being a noble everything?”
And it seemed as though Evan’s statement had ignited the fire in Hawkins’s heart. Hawkins, who had looked like he was on the verge of exploding, was now radiating a chilly coldness.
A short silence followed.
“I’m fine, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought that up… Lord Evan, Lord Hawkins, I’m sorry. I… I was just so happy that you were looking out for me that I unintentionally… hmph.”
Cecilia’s voice was trembling like a petal shivering in the wind. Her tear-soaked voice was heartbreaking even for me to hear.
“Hawkins. Why on earth did you say that?”
Evan chided Hawkins while patting Cecilia’s shoulder as if to comfort her.
“Didn’t that woman disrespect Lady Cecilia?”
“Sigh…”
Evan, standing up as if frustrated, swept his hand through his hair. Then, he glanced at me briefly before returning his gaze to Cecilia.
‘Why does he keep looking at me?’
Ever since Hawkins mentioned that Evan had told him to ‘take care of Lady Cecilia,’ Evan had been constantly glancing my way.
Is this somehow related to me?
“Can you stand up?”
Cecilia stared blankly at the hand Evan held out before slowly reaching for it. She stood up unsteadily.
“Ah…”
“Careful.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just dizzy…”
Hawkins and Evan stood on either side of Cecilia, supporting and guarding her. And for some reason, the situation turned into them facing off against me.
I felt awkward. I had missed the timing to say something comforting to Cecilia.
“Cecilia… are you okay?”
I couldn’t find the right words.
“Ah, Liana. I’m sorry, you had to see something so unsightly. What should I do? I should ask for her forgiveness as well…”
If that were the case, she should have asked for her forgiveness earlier, not Evan’s.
“…I’ll go check on her.”
Perhaps I said it impulsively.
“You, Liana? Why?”
Cecilia’s eyes widened.
‘I wonder why.’
Actually, I thought I should be here comforting Cecilia and looking after her wound — wasn’t that the duty of a best friend? But…
“The two of them are here.”
Even if I went with them, there would be nothing for me to help with, and no room for me to step in. Even when Margaretta caused the scene earlier, I was mostly just a spectator…
To put it accurately, I felt like an ‘outsider.’ This strange feeling kept persisting.
No… in truth, I was honestly a bit worried about Margaretta.
“You don’t need to do that, Liana. Go to the infirmary with me… please? I’ll visit Lady Margaretta tomorrow. You can go with me then. Please?”
Cecilia spoke as if coaxing me, reaching out her hand. Her hand, chilled by the outside air, momentarily gave me goosebumps.
Cecilia’s eyes sparkled.
“I told you, Cecilia. In noble society, you have to observe ‘etiquette’.”
I pushed Cecilia’s hand away. It felt as if a crack appeared on her face.
Even as I looked directly into Cecilia’s clear, transparent water-colored eyes for the first time in a long while, there was tranquility in my heart.
“Well then. Please take good care of Cecilia.”
I was always the one being asked to look after Cecilia, so it felt a bit strange to leave her behind.
Evan had a complicated expression.
I didn’t wait for their answer, and without even checking Cecilia’s expression, I turned my back.
Toward the direction Margaretta had gone.
Perhaps I should have checked Cecilia’s expression then.
***
“Margaretta. Lady Margaretta.”
I called out Margaretta’s name as I peeked into the small gardens.
The gardens, decorated with all kinds of flowers, were arranged like interlocking gears, so it was easy to get lost if you got confused even once.
It might have been the most dangerous place for someone like me with a poor sense of direction, but thanks to all the information about plants coming to mind after my visit to the capital, I at least didn’t have to worry about getting lost in a place filled with flowers and trees anymore.
“Margaretta—”
*Achoo.*
I had forgotten to grab my outer coat in my haste to leave.
As the sun began to set, the wind naturally turned chilly. The cold spring breeze seeped through my clothes.
“Lady Margaretta!”
Where could she have gone in just a few minutes? No matter how much I searched, she was nowhere to be found.
Sigh.
‘Did she go back to the dormitory?’
I didn’t think so. It would be uncomfortable since we shared a room. She probably went somewhere where they wouldn’t run into each other.
“Then she must have left the garden already.”
If I didn’t soothe Margaretta’s anger now, it would likely remain a great grudge.
“Ah… I should have asked Evan too.”
Why he kept looking at me, and if it was something related to me.
What kind of regression is this?
It felt as though things had become much more intricately tangled than before.
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