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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Cyrus Karha, the Northern Duke (4)
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“When do you think the Northern Duke will arrive? It would be great if he could make it for the garden party.”
“I know, right? The capital’s nobles are also expected that day, so he’ll probably time his arrival for then.”
“Do you think Mother sent an invitation to the Northern Duke too?”
“Of course she did. You begged her so much. Anyway, I feel a bit sorry for Ariana.”
Helena frowned at Victoria’s words.
“What’s there to feel sorry for her about?”
“Well, you know. She doesn’t know any party etiquette… She’d probably want to come to a party attended by His Grace the Northern Duke, but there’s no one to bring her. Besides, even if she came, she’d only embarrass herself.”
Helena, who had been frowning since Ariana’s name was mentioned, smiled sweetly a moment later as if an idea had struck her.
“Shall we make Ariana attend the party too? We could have her embarrass herself right in front of His Grace the Northern Duke.”
“Sister, Mother doesn’t like showing Ariana to other nobles.”
“But she’d like it if Ariana acted like a fool and embarrassed herself, wouldn’t she? I overheard Mother telling Auntie the other day that whenever Ariana acts stupid and gets ridiculed, Mother feels good, as if it’s the Eastern Duke who’s being ridiculed.”
“Even so…”
“That’s enough, stay out of this. I’ll handle it.”
Victoria chuckled inwardly, watching Helena speak triumphantly.
Even if Rachel enjoyed Ariana being ridiculed, that was only in front of family members.
She wouldn’t want to show Ariana’s foolish side to other nobles. After all, Ariana was Rachel’s biological daughter and a lady of the Bronte family.
But Victoria had no intention of telling Helena that.
The more foolish things Helena did, the more Rachel’s attention and affection for her would wane.
+++
For several days after encountering the Northern Duke, Ariana spent her days quietly. The heavy feeling in her heart, caused by the Duke’s appearance, had now settled.
Given that the Northern Duke hadn’t appeared in the past few days, he might have finished his business and departed.
Ariana woke up feeling refreshed for the first time in a while and opened her window.
A clear sky stretched out beyond the large window.
During the stomachache incident, the Old Madam had ordered Rachel to change Ariana’s clothes, but Rachel hadn’t done so. The Old Madam had also forgotten that she had given the order.
‘She must have forgotten that incident even happened.’
The Old Madam had only shown interest because Ariana was right in front of her; the moment she turned away, she would have erased any thought of the family’s nuisance. Ariana hadn’t expected continuous attention anyway, nor did she need it.
Cold wind seeped in through her thin, worn clothes, but Ariana didn’t close the window.
‘Is it finally tomorrow?’
Tomorrow, a garden party would be held at the Bronte Ducal Estate.
It was called a garden party, but due to the cold weather, it would simply be held inside the large greenhouse in the garden, where guests would admire exotic flowers and trees while dining and drinking tea.
The reason for holding a garden party in such weather was that Helena was to make her debutante in the social season a few months later. Rachel wanted Helena to establish connections with good families in the capital before her debut.
If she formed ties with the capital’s nobles, they would support Helena during her debutante ball.
Rachel believed that if the naive Helena made a mistake at the party, having many people cover for her would actually boost Helena’s reputation.
And it had indeed been true.
Once, at a debutante party, Helena had bumped into a man and spilled her drink while looking around, wondering if the Northern Duke might have arrived.
Thanks to a noblewoman from the capital who had smiled and said, “Oh my, how adorable. It seems the young lady is quite nervous,” everyone had considered Helena’s mistake charming.
—“Do you know how many times I was called ‘adorable’ back then?”
Helena, upon returning from the party, had sought out Ariana and recounted the incident multiple times, as if boasting.
‘Back then, I truly envied that. Not even realizing that “adorable” was a form of mockery.’
A bitter smile touched Ariana’s lips, then vanished.
On this very day in her previous life, Ariana had been freed after being confined to a small room.
Excited by her long-awaited freedom, she had gone out into the garden, only to encounter Rachel and be slapped for wandering around carelessly.
Ariana intended to be hit by Rachel again this time. More brutally than before. She planned to leave clear evidence of abuse on her body.
After some time had passed, Ariana quietly left her room.
The servants moving through the hallway ignored Ariana, pretending not to see her. But later, when they met Rachel, they would surely report that Ariana had secretly gone outside.
Ariana, as if to make a point, raised her head and slowly walked towards the rear garden.
The garden behind the mansion was still desolate due to the cold, but in spring, beautiful flowers and trees would flaunt their vibrant forms.
Walking along the gravel path, Ariana stopped in front of a small pond. The little pond beneath the large tree was completely frozen over.
‘It’s like my heart.’
Ariana’s heart was also coldly frozen.
When she slept, she had nightmares.
No, they weren’t dreams. The realities that had befallen Ariana in her past life repeated themselves during her sleep.
The life of a pitiful and foolish woman who, simply to be loved and acknowledged by her family, smiled when she didn’t want to and did what she didn’t wish to do.
Even now, having been reborn, Ariana was still living that terribly lonely and painful life.
Every time she woke from a dream, her heart froze.
Every time she saw her past life in a dream, the person she resented most wasn’t Rachel or Helena, but herself.
She resented and pitied herself most—the self who had hoped for what would never be given, been tossed around like a fallen leaf, and then abandoned by everyone to die.
“Ariana!”
At the sharp voice, Ariana turned around to see Rachel striding towards her.
Rachel’s green eyes, fixed on Ariana, were filled only with irritation and fury.
‘Even beasts cherish their young…’
At one point, Ariana had even thought that Rachel might not be her biological mother.
She had even dreamed once that her real birth mother would come, say, “I lost you and prayed every night to find you,” and then embrace her.
But there was no hidden birth mother; Rachel Bronte was indeed Ariana’s biological mother.
She still couldn’t understand how a child carried in one’s own womb could be hated so much, simply for resembling a man one despised.
But now, she had given up trying to understand.
You hate me? Then I will hate you with all my might.
“Didn’t I tell you not to come outside as you please?”
Rachel, who had stopped in front of Ariana, said, panting.
Ariana gazed steadily up at Rachel.
As her pale blue hair, vivid blue eyes, pearl-white skin, and delicate face came into view, Rachel’s expression twisted.
For the sake of Seoryeong, she had to leave the man she loved and marry a man she didn’t.
She had left her beloved daughter in the hands of another woman, unable to even nurse her once, and conceived a child with a man she didn’t love.
She had hated Ariana since she was in her womb. When she held that small body after birth, her heart had been torn, remembering Helena whom she had left behind.
She couldn’t unleash the rage of being used for Seoryeong on Seoryeong’s father, the Western Duke, or the Eastern Duke, but she could on Ariana.
The resentment towards the Western Duke and the loathing towards the Eastern Duke were entirely directed at Ariana.
If the Western Duke hadn’t ordered, ‘Bring Ariana; she’ll be useful later,’ she would never have kept Ariana by her side.
*Smack!*
Only after a sharp sound echoed did Rachel realize she had unconsciously slapped Ariana’s cheek.
But there was no apology.
She could do this to Ariana. She had carried her for ten months and given birth to her, so she was entitled to this much venting.
“How dare you stare straight at me?”
Rachel waited for Ariana to shrink back and beg for forgiveness, as she always did. Seeing Ariana beg for forgiveness made her feel as if the arrogant Eastern Duke himself was kneeling before her.
But Ariana did not act as Rachel expected.
Ariana straightened her face, which had been turned by the slap, and calmly looked up at Rachel, asking,
“Do I need to ask for permission just to look at Mother’s face?”
“What…?”
Ariana’s unexpected behavior left Rachel dumbfounded.
“In that case, do Sister Helena, Victoria, and Joyson also ask for permission every time they look at Mother?”
Just as a lion, attacked by a rabbit, might be momentarily flustered and unable to react, Rachel stared blankly down at her daughter.
Realizing what had just happened, Rachel immediately kicked Ariana without a second thought.
*Thud! Thump!*
Even with the painful kicks to her shins, Ariana didn’t let out a single groan. She simply watched Rachel’s actions in silence.
Rachel disliked her lack of any pained expression even more, so her kicks grew increasingly violent.
“You… truly… have… not… a… single… redeeming… quality!”
With each word she spat out, she would pinch and hit, but Ariana neither begged for forgiveness nor cried out in pain.
Only after hitting Ariana until she was breathless did Rachel realize that Ariana was different from usual.
“You, today…”
Just then, something small and hard began pouring down from the clear sky like rain. It was hail.
“Gah!”
Rachel, hit by the hail, let out a small shriek and covered her head with both hands. Small cuts appeared where the sharp ice fragments grazed her.
Even amidst this, Rachel glared at Ariana.
“You stay right there! Reflect on your actions until I tell you to come in!”
Even as the hail poured down, Rachel left her daughter and returned to the main house alone.
In her haste, Rachel hadn’t properly noticed. Strangely, not a single piece of the countless falling hailstones hit Ariana.
Ariana reached out her hand towards the ice fragments that were falling, avoiding her. The angular ice pieces were hard and surprisingly heavy; it seemed they would hurt if they hit her.
‘What’s going on?’
As she tightly clutched two ice fragments that had fallen into her palm, a dark figure leaped down from the tree without a sound.
Ariana blinked and stared at the figure, still clutching the ice fragments in her hand.
A tall man with striking silver hair and red eyes that seemed as though they could find her anywhere, and broad shoulders. Cyrus, the Northern Duke, whom she had thought she would never see again, stood before Ariana.
He was dressed as before, in a black suit with a black coat that reached his thighs.
As he gently raised his hand, his gaze fixed on Ariana, the hail falling from the sky stopped.
