MPNV 17

~Chapter 17~

“Did you… just hear that?”

“I did, but… I think my eyes and ears have gotten worse these days.”

People around them began to murmur all at once.
Everyone was blaming their eyesight and hearing, not believing what they just saw.

I want to faint.
Aveline wanted to just lose consciousness after everything that had happened in the few hours since she broke her seclusion and went outside.

But all her knight training meant she didn’t have the luxury of being that weak.

“What do you mean, ‘jewel,’ since a while ago?”
Logan suddenly spoke up.

“I really don’t know what kind of low-class, vulgar talk you’re spouting, something you’d expect from a street thug.”

Theron, with his handsome face and relaxed smile, met Logan’s gaze.

“I wonder if the real vulgar one is the person who started this strange role-play and even got violent.”

“This has nothing to do with what we’re talking about,” Logan replied. “And who in their right mind would make a duke do something so perverted?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Aveline, listening to the two men, almost screamed.

They’re talking about me!?
In the dream, she’d told the real vampire to drink her blood (without knowing it was Theron), and she even punched him (because his face just happened to be there).

But she couldn’t just stand by and let herself be painted as a pervert.

Before Theron could say any more, Aveline quickly jumped in.

“Oh my! To think someone would make a duke do something so perverted. I just can’t believe it!”

Theron’s eyes sparkled at Aveline’s shameless reaction.

“Do you think so too, my lady?”

“And on top of that, to swing a fist around so violently! Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps!”

“Is that so. But, my lady…”

Theron looked straight at Aveline and spoke quietly.

“I never said it was a fist you used.”

The red scratch on Theron’s cheek stood out even more as he smiled slyly.

What a fox…!
Aveline cursed him inside as her heart sank, but she quickly hid her expression and pretended to be calm.

“Ahem. I just have good intuition.”

“Still, I’m glad you understand how perverted it was, my lady.”

Aveline, stung by his answer, gave her most triumphant smile.

“But isn’t the real pervert the one who got even more into it than the person who started it?”

She was calling out how Theron had really tried to bite her arm, like he was going to drink her blood.

Theron just stepped back with an interested look instead of arguing.

Why isn’t he denying it?
The conversation ended awkwardly, and a strange mood settled over them.

Is he admitting he’s a real pervert, or what?
As Aveline grew flustered, a harsh voice sounded beside her.

“Bite her…?”

“Huh?”

“Are you two talking about the mark on my sister’s arm?”

Ares was spinning his fork threateningly, looking murderous.

If this keeps going, this place will turn upside down.

Aveline didn’t want her rare trip outside to end in disaster.

“What are you talking about? This is about the book I read yesterday!”

It was a dream about the book anyway, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“A book? I’m supposed to believe that the duke read the same book you did?”

Ares wasn’t backing down.

“Yes! The duke is interested in vampires, so he borrowed the book yesterday!”

“Is that true?”

Ares turned to Theron, who shook his head.

“I didn’t borrow it. I bought it.”

Ares frowned at Theron’s shameless attitude.

“You really have an interest in such novels?”

“I was taught it’s not good to have narrow tastes.”

Ares finally put down his fork, stepping back in confusion.

“Then what about the scratch on your cheek, duke? Did you get punched by someone who doesn’t like you? Or did you make so many enemies that you got mugged at night?”

He pretended to ask out of concern, but was really just airing his own hopes.

“I toss and turn a lot in my sleep.”

“That’s a shame.”

Ares let his true feelings slip, then hurriedly checked his pocket watch and stood up.

“It’s already this late. Let’s go.”

He quickly gathered Aveline and Logan and left the place.

“Miss, you’re back already?”

Yoni was surprised to see Aveline flop down on her bed.

“The world outside the blanket is dangerous.”

“But didn’t it feel good to go out after so long?”

Yoni was glad to see her lady out and about again.

Even though that strange young lord had done something creepy like bring a perfectly fitted dress, it was nice to see Aveline dressed up for once.

It had already been four years since Aveline shut herself away after her debutante ball.

Yoni felt bad seeing her young lady with no friends, stuck in her room.

Lately, though, she seemed to go out more.

But thinking about the strange man who called Aveline a jewel and barged in early in the morning, Yoni sometimes wondered if it was a good thing.

Rumor said he was crazy in a full 360 degrees—he acted perfectly normal, but just a short conversation revealed the truth.
He was as handsome as the rumors said, though—proof the world was sometimes fair.

“Miss, you should wash up before you sleep.”

“Tomorrow. I’ll wash when I wake up.”

“Just for today, okay?”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow, Yoni.”

After Yoni closed the door, Aveline stretched out on her bed.

“I’m so tired.”

It wasn’t just meeting Theron that made the outing exhausting.

‘Today again, the Herolds young master got the most partner requests, huh? They say he’s so different from the young lady. Even though they’re twins, people really compare the two.’

Back at her debutante ball.

Aveline had been about to enter the waiting room when she overheard voices.

She wasn’t surprised—she’d expected people to talk like this.
Compared to Ares, who was always in the spotlight, she knew she came up short.

‘Even the countess didn’t come to see her today. Even if she’s sick, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime debutante!’

But when they started talking about her mother, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
She burst into the room.

“H-Herolds young lady?”
“You sure talk a lot of nonsense.”
“Hah! It’s not like I’m making it up. Everyone says even her parents don’t care much for her! If I were her mother, I’d be ashamed too— Aah!”

Aveline couldn’t stand it anymore and grabbed the other girl’s hair.
When her own carefully styled hair got messed up, the girl grabbed Aveline’s hair back and the two started screaming.

“What is this commotion… My daughter!”

The lady in charge of the debutante girls saw the scene and shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Even if your mother didn’t teach you manners, you should have some dignity! To act like this on such a day!”

People started to gather.

Count Herolds, who’d been in an audience with the emperor, came running over.

“Aveline! What’s going on here?”
“Father, she started it—”
“Enough. Go home.”

Aveline wanted to say more, but her father’s cold glare made her stop.

She roughly fixed her messy hair and clothes and pushed through the crowd.

Ares, sensing something was wrong, tried to come over but couldn’t get away from the group of young ladies around him.

Even after getting home, Aveline couldn’t calm down.

She kept thinking of the lady who’d seen everything but still only protected her own daughter.

If only my mother had been there.

She knew her mother was too sick to come, but the childish resentment crept up anyway.

She sat at her desk and picked up a pen without thinking.

<I need my mother too.>

After folding the paper and putting it in an envelope, Aveline realized what she’d done.

If I send this, it’ll just make Mother sad.

She knew better than anyone how much her mother wanted to be there.

Her mother had been getting sicker and wouldn’t even let Aveline visit.

So she just put the note away in her drawer.

Two days later, a package arrived from the countess’s estate.

<Aveline, congratulations on your debutante.>

It was a short note in a shaky hand, with a white dress for her debutante enclosed.

She didn’t forget.

Even though the gift came two days late, just knowing her mother had remembered made Aveline’s anger melt away.

She saw the date on the envelope and realized her mother had sent it over two weeks early—delivery had just been delayed.

The dress was elegant, exactly her mother’s taste.

The hem was made to flutter while dancing, showing just how much care went into the design.

But when Aveline tried it on, it was a little big.

Thinking about her mother trying to guess her daughter’s size made her nose sting with tears.

When I grow a bit more and the dress fits, I’ll wear it out for sure.

Maybe I’ll even go visit Mother wearing this.

Thinking that, Aveline buried her face in the white dress that still seemed to smell like her mother—and cried a little.