#Chapter 12. What Was Contained in His Eyes

“…… Ariel.”

“Damian, can you hear it?”

Bruno’s footsteps passing through the corridor. Very small but consistently audible rhythm.

…… It didn’t sound like the footsteps of an injured person at all.

Ariel, who had lowered her gaze for a moment while concentrating on the sounds outside, raised her head.

The sunlight from the window spread behind Damian.

Damian’s blue eyes were shadowed by the backlight and couldn’t be seen well, but conversely, Ariel’s appearance was completely exposed to the sunlight.

Her expression would surely be clearly visible to Damian.

“I don’t hear anything. I don’t know what you mean.”

Damian slowly picked up the glass that was placed on the table.

Ariel watched from the side as he briefly bent his waist and stretched his arm.

For just a moment, Ariel had the thought that Damian would know all of Bruno’s feelings.

And yet he was leaving it alone.

Ariel’s two pupils wavered.

Her lips trembled toward Damian who took a sip of the whiskey in the glass. Her eyelashes fluttered.

Moisture rose over Ariel’s eyes, which were said to contain the bright summer greenery.

Even knowing she shouldn’t say it out loud, Ariel didn’t let go of a very small hope.

That everything she was thinking was just excessive thoughts.

“…… Damian.”

Ariel called him.

…… Please tell me it’s not true.

“Did you know everything?”

Along with Ariel’s trembling voice, silence descended on Damian’s study.

Soon in the space where only the ticking of the clock echoed, Ariel looked only at Damian.

The golden hair he passed down to Lucy. Blue eyes that contained the sea.

Upright and distinct lines but containing the appearance of a handsome man, her husband Damian, called a gift from God to the Empire.

Blunt and valuing rules and discipline, but that was…… the character and virtue that the Duke of Zenova should have.

What was contained in his eyes…….

“I don’t know what you’re saying, wife.”

Ah…….

Tears flowed down from Ariel’s open eyes.

Ariel, who slowly blinked her eyes, couldn’t maintain a calm expression.

Her face crumpled like paper. Her face, where laughter, sadness, and even anger gathered together, collapsed grotesquely.

He knew everything…….

Damian knew everything…… and yet like that…..

“…… The trip will be really enjoyable. Right?”

Ariel, who didn’t even listen to Damian’s answer, got up from her seat.

*

“Lucy.”

Bruno called Lucy.

Lucy, who had been playing with glass marbles with Derek, looked up at him with an innocent face.

“Uncle Bruno!”

If she stayed still, she was the spitting image of his brother, but when she smiled brightly, that woman’s face was revealed.

When she grows up and gets sold, well…… it might not be bad business.

“Come here. Princess.”

At Bruno’s call, Lucy shook her head.

“I’m in the middle of a game with Brother Derek right now, so it would be difficult. It’s my turn.”

“Really? Derek is really good at playing with glass marbles, so Lucy must be having a hard time.”

“Not at all.”

Lucy grinned and rolled the marble.

The glass marble that rolled made Derek’s marble fall completely off the table.

“Lucy is also good…… at it.”

“Yes.”

Lucy laughed triumphantly.

…… Right, let’s see how long you can smile like it’s yours.

“Honey.”

Jessica called Bruno.

“Derek, play well with Lucy while Mother and I talk for a moment. You must take good care of your younger sister.”

“Of course, Father.”

Derek nodded energetically.

Right, my son. My son who will take away this entire mansion, who will inherit the Zenova ducal house!

Bruno, who patted Derek’s head once, left the room.

“…… Honey. How did it go?”

Jessica’s anxious eyes looked at Bruno.

Green eyes and dark brown hair. A face that was glamorous but couldn’t erase the somehow cheap feeling.

Jessica was a woman he deliberately chose, being similar to Ariel.

It was certain that a woman from a family of the same rank as Ariel from House Borghese wouldn’t want to marry Bruno.

In that case, at least the face…….

Even though he chose her giving up the family, she wasn’t satisfactory.

The low-class speech that occasionally showed and the body that made him feel somehow cheap even when dressed up entirely in luxury.

Ariel’s eyes seemed to have brilliant light permeating them, but no such light could be found in Jessica’s green color.

“Hah……”

Bruno, who sighed, closed his eyes tightly and opened them.

Right, since she gave birth to Derek, Jessica had done her job with that. Since she gave birth to a son.

“I think I need to talk to my brother once more. More than that, what about Lucy?”

“Lucy?”

Jessica’s eyes widened round.

How stupid. Do I have to explain even this one by one? That woman infers things with just her glances and gestures……!

“Right. The tutor. Are they using a tutor or not?”

“Ah…… that? But is that so important?”

Jessica acted as if she didn’t understand why that was so important.

Bruno just wished Jessica would shut up and answer his words promptly.

When Bruno wrinkled his face completely, Jessica, who flinched her shoulders, opened her mouth.

“Uh, well…… I asked Lucy and it seems they’re not using one.”

“Why?”

“She said if she learns from a tutor, she can’t eat what she wants to eat, can’t say what she wants to say, and has to smile even when she wants to cry.”

“She’s a lady of Zenova, so that much is natural. How can you listen to reasons from the child! You should have subtly asked Ariel why they’re not using one! Do you think they won’t use one for such a reason? Do you have thoughts or not!”

Bruno raised his voice, looked around again, and then lowered it.

“Find out the real reason.”

“I think that is the real reason……”

“Hah……”

Bruno grabbed his hair and then clenched his fist tightly.

As if enduring the desire to punch the wall, he swung his fist in the air and then thrust his face toward Jessica.

“I’m not curious about your thoughts. Don’t try to use your stupid head, and find out the real reason.”

Jessica, who lowered her eyes, nodded.

*

“Lucy said…… the reason you’re not using a tutor is because she has to smile when she wants to cry and endure if there’s something she wants to eat. Is there a special reason why Your Grace doesn’t employ one?”

As soon as Ariel arrived at Lucy’s playroom, Jessica, who had been reading the mood, asked.

Ariel, who met eyes with Jessica, put on a gentle smile on her lips, different from her crushed heart.

“Unfortunately, there’s no special reason. What Lucy explained is exactly the real reason.”

An emotion like mockery appeared on Jessica’s face, who had been looking around timidly just moments ago.

Ariel looked at Jessica, who wasn’t skilled at managing expressions, and read her mood and thoughts.

Inferring the thoughts the other person was having along with the context wasn’t particularly difficult.

Ariel had received especially harsh education in that regard growing up.

That’s why she had never lost in invisible battles of wits.

In the first place, it didn’t make sense for Ariel, who bore the name of House Borghese, to lose.

A position where she couldn’t lose even without trying to win.

Ariel had known since childhood about that great power her family gave her.

Surely Lucy would also wield overwhelming influence in society.

In other words, to raise Lucy as a person rather than an ornament…… she needed the status of being the Duke of Zenova’s daughter.

“I see. I happened to hear that there’s a meeting with Marchioness Orsini regarding children’s education. Could I also attend?”

“Unfortunately, it seems your educational views won’t match with the Marchioness, Lady Jessica. Let’s meet for something else next time.”

Ariel, who cut off Jessica’s words with one stroke, finished with a gentle smile.

When she was young, Ariel had once visited the slums with her father.

Her father probably gave her a kind of shock therapy to make Ariel want to go to the imperial palace, but that day Ariel realized other things.

…… Everything she had was a luxury.

Smiling beautifully, walking beautifully, dressing beautifully, all of it.

Wearing accessories that didn’t match one’s station and gambling weren’t luxury.

Everything that filled Ariel…… was luxury.

Even receiving harsh education under her father was a luxurious life.

Her father’s education had constrained Ariel’s life in a different direction.

She decided to take responsibility for her life as much as she was living luxuriously.

Since she was living an abundant life, she decided not to complain.

That even if she practiced curtseying all day, the fact that she never got hungry was a very peaceful life in itself.

She decided to become a trophy herself.

When she heard her father’s praise, she also thought she was taking responsibility for the life of those in the slums.

That only by becoming a perfect noble could Ariel, who stood above their lives, be doing her best for them.

However, Ariel changed after giving birth to Lucy.

She would give Lucy…… a life with greater meaning than such a life full of luxury.

If there were two choices between becoming someone’s trophy and being able to live Lucy’s life completely, Ariel would choose the option that would allow Lucy to fully enjoy her life even if a knife came to her throat.

For that, Lucy…… had to be able to fully enjoy life as a lady.

If Derek became the heir…… surely not.

Ariel would not let her daughter enter the display case as someone’s trophy like herself.

Even if that was a selfish thought.