Ah, I suppose sensibilities do vary, don’t they?
Ever since, she had been directing her twisted feelings toward me in all kinds of different ways. But I knew her type. She was just a tsundere. I’m sure this was just her prickly way of showing affection in her rebellious teenage years.
“Now, now, thank you, dear,” I said, smiling. “But if you don’t tilt your face three degrees to the right, that expression of yours will be visible to everyone else as well.”
“Sister?!”
With a loud exclamation, she bolted to her feet, knocking her chair over in the process. A sharp crease deepened between father’s brows. My, my, how careless.
“How cruel...” she said with a sniffle.
The way she could summon tears on command—now that was a talent. If only she could have kept that smug little grin hidden at the perfect angle, so that it was visible to me alone, it would have been even more impressive. But alas, she still slipped up on occasion, and as her elder sister, it was my duty to correct her. Practice makes perfect, after all.
Even now, I offered her an encouraging smile. Still, from my vantage point, she still wore the expression of a devil. What a shame, it seemed that my feelings couldn’t get through to her. Her catlike eyes were drawn so sharply upward that her usual cuteness had all but disappeared. Such a waste.
Father sighed, and then gave a curt order. “Enough. Leave.”
Mother nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s right.”
Sienna gasped in exaggerated shock, though her lips still curled into a smirk. And, now, she had overcorrected herself. She had tilted her head three degrees too far to the right. It looked unnatural. But I did find it rather adorable that, for all her rebellion, she still heeded my advice.
Mihail shot me a brief glare, but did not add his voice to their chorus. How unusual.
“But we’ve barely begun eating,” I said.
Mother’s little tirade had erupted just as we had started on the main course, meaning hardly anyone had eaten anything. It was such a shame. Tonight’s menu was the work of my favorite chef.
More importantly, why were they so invested in my academic performance all of a sudden? Indifference suited them much better. Did they have any idea how difficult it was to make sure I barely passed every term without actually failing?
“You’re being too noisy for dinner,” father said.
“Exactly!” mother agreed. “Someone as useless as you has no right to eat!”
“Oh, poor sister!” Sienna sighed. “At least take some bread with you!”
“I won’t deny that things have been rather noisy,” said Mihail quietly. “Father, my apologies.”
While mother and Sienna misunderstood father’s words entirely, Mihail at least had the sense to take responsibility.
“I meant you two,” father said coldly. Perhaps my mother and sister couldn’t immediately process his words, as the two of them stared blankly at him. “You two are the ones who will leave.”
“What?!” they cried.
And just like that, the view across the table suddenly cleared.
From beyond the closed doors, I could still sense their presence, though no sound reached us. It seemed father had instantly cast a teleportation spell, a silencing spell, and a lock spell all at once.
“If you wish to continue eating, do as you please.”
With that, he let out a sigh and resumed his meal. I merely nodded in response and followed suit.
For the first time, we leisurely enjoyed our meal in complete peace. All of us ate in silence, savoring each bite.
Yet I could still sense their presence outside the door. Hadn’t they listened to what father had said when the same thing happened last month?
“Now that the children have all entered the Academy and are coming of age, I expect peaceful meals. The next time someone disrupts dinner, they will be removed. No exceptions.”
Then, he had been the one to leave. I had been rather surprised at his sense of fairness. Though really, it was absurd that we had never once managed to have a quiet meal together before then.
Following his declaration, I had quickly assembled a small sandwich, tucking a piece of hamburger steak and some vegetables into a roll and then following after him. Mother and Sienna shot me looks of utter disdain, but Mihail’s face had lit up in surprise.
Later, I heard that my favorite chef had prepared a hamburger for my brother’s late-night meal, and I knew I had won. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, but it was a victory nonetheless. It might have violated manners in the world of the nobility, but hamburgers were both delicious and convenient.
The buns, made using my own homemade yeast that I’d shared with the chef, were delicious and paired exquisitely with the meat. This burger had been cooked to golden perfection, left no unpleasant smells when reheated in my room, and was made with one hundred percent high-quality meat. The very same chef later snuck a portion to me as well.
This was in stark contrast to the burger I took to my room when I left the table to follow father. That meat had been one hundred percent wild game and mostly left raw. But with a dash of my homemade herb salt and a quick sear in my room, it had been delicious. It had been easy to season, given how raw it was, but they didn’t need to know that. It would have been too cruel if they knew I actually appreciated their malice.
As I reminisced about last month’s debacle—the one with the chef favored by my mother—I realized I had already finished the luxuriously smooth, rich pudding that had been served for dessert. When had that happened?
With a wistful sigh, I silently wished that I could have a second helping that I could take to my room for later.
And with that, tonight’s dinner came to a close.
✦ ✦ ✦
With a loud bang, the single door to my quarters was flung open.
“Sister, you’re horrible!”
Naturally, this loud outburst had come from my dear foster sister. This was a routine occurrence and came as no surprise.
Fortunately, my room was set apart from the main estate, housed in what was little more than a sturdy old log house. Since I was the only human who lived here, at least I didn’t have to worry about Sienna disturbing the neighbors with her yelling. Still, given the building’s age, I’d have appreciated it if she handled it a little more gently. If she broke something, I had no doubt the other “residents” would be quite displeased.
“Now, now, what’s the matter? Won’t you sit?” Seated at a small table near the entrance, I gestured to the chair across from me with a smile.
“Don’t play dumb! You ruined my dinner with father!”
Ah, a complete reversal from the prim-and-proper act she put on in public. The moment we were alone, her voice took on the sharp, shrieking quality of a desperate villainess who had been backed into a corner. It was positively ear-piercing. Was she refusing to sit just so she could project her voice more forcefully from her diaphragm?
She sounded a lot like mother had when she lost her temper at the dining table. Could it be that she was actually mother’s real daughter, not me?
I let out a quiet chuckle, finding the resemblance amusing, only for her to take a step back with a look of disgust.
“What are you laughing about? It’s creepy.”
“I just noticed something and had an absurd thought, that’s all. So, what was that about father?”
“That’s right! Because of you, he kicked us out at dinner! And now mother is furious!”
“Oh, is that right? Was that how it happened?” I tilted my head in confusion. All I remembered was them being loud and getting thrown out because of it.
“Don’t play dumb! Tomorrow at the Academy, I’ll tell Shua all about this!”
“Oh my, how wonderful. So His Highness the Second Prince will explain it to me?” I nodded in understanding and offered her a serene, ladylike smile, only to watch her face flush bright red. A fever, perhaps?
“What do you know?!” she snapped. “You’re his fiancée, and yet he won’t even let you call him by his nickname! You’re nothing but an uneducated, talentless fraud—far from a true lady! Stop clinging to His Highness like some lowly parasite! You’re no better than the infamous villainess herself! You’re a talentless, magicless wretch! A Beljeanne standing in the way of His Highness’s true love!”