Chapter 18
“You’re grounded for a month.”
Count Herolds, who returned home a week after the debutante ball, busy with some matters, punished Aveline with confinement for causing the commotion that day.
“But that young lady first…!”
“Enough. How much more embarrassment must I endure here?”
Aveline attempted to defend herself, feeling wronged, but was immediately cut off by her father’s words.
“Father, this seems a bit…”
Even Ares, trying to help from the side, was silenced by his father’s cold gaze.
“Useless talk. And Ares, from now on, you’ll accompany me to the council chamber. It seems His Majesty the Emperor and Duke Nor have taken a liking to you.”
“But!”
“Starting tomorrow, so prepare well.”
After finishing his words, Count Herolds turned to leave but stopped as if remembering something.
Could it be that Father also thought he had gone too far and was going to withdraw the confinement order?
The brief hope Aveline had held shattered with the following words.
“I’ve changed my mind. Make it two months. Keep a close watch to ensure Aveline doesn’t go outside.”
“…Understood.”
Only after leaving instructions with the butler did Count Herolds fully leave the reception room.
During the two months that Aveline continued her confinement under the butler’s surveillance, Ares solidified his position as a promising young nobleman of the imperial faction.
People who had whispered comparisons between the twins gradually stopped even mentioning Aveline, and everywhere one went, praise for Ares could be heard.
As if the two were no longer comparable.
Instead, people’s attention focused on Ares’ every move.
These were evaluative gazes trying to gauge whether the promising young nobleman was truly doing well.
As a result, Ares’ personality became increasingly sensitive to his reputation day by day.
It was a different change from Aveline, who was becoming more and more withdrawn.
Even after the two months passed and her confinement ended, Aveline couldn’t readily go outside.
People must have just forgotten about the commotion at the debutante ball.
If she showed herself now, wouldn’t it bring that incident back to the surface and embarrass Father again?
She remembered how pleased Father had looked whenever he talked about the good reputation Ares had received.
‘I want to be a child who doesn’t embarrass Father too.’
If so, for now, let’s stay quiet and seek ways to earn Father’s trust.
To gain even a little recognition so that Father wouldn’t be troubled when I show myself.
But because no one paid attention to Aveline, there was nothing she could show.
Tired of just watching for opportunities, Aveline eventually searched for something to immerse herself in and ended up shut in her room, passing time reading novels.
* * *
Aveline, who had been recalling old times, suddenly opened her eyes.
The reason she had been particularly flustered when she saw Servell and the group of young ladies earlier was for this reason.
Among Servell’s companions was the young lady who had insulted Aveline at that time.
It was Melina Sroon, the eldest daughter of Count Sroon.
At first, she was so focused on worrying about whether Servell would recognize her that she didn’t notice immediately.
But she couldn’t possibly miss the gaze that was staring at Aveline so intensely.
So at first, she thought Melina Sroon had recognized her.
Though she had covered her face, the thought that her identity had been exposed sent chills down her spine, but before long, she realized that piercing gaze was for a different reason.
Melina Sroon, who had shown no interest in the lady wearing the strange hat all along, began to flash her eyes fiercely after Ares spoke to Aveline.
And the moment she saw those eyes, Aveline realized the meaning contained in them.
The emotion in those eyes was clearly jealousy.
There were many young ladies who liked Ares.
He was one of the empire’s three great beauties, and he was a promising young nobleman in the empire in his own right.
Although she hated to admit it, he was a desirable husband that anyone would covet.
So that wasn’t particularly surprising, but…
Thinking about it carefully, there was something strange about Melina Sroon’s behavior back then.
No matter how much she liked Ares, to so harshly insult Aveline, whom she had never even spoken to before.
It was behavior that didn’t suit the usually quiet Melina Sroon.
‘Could it be…’
She had occasionally seen this kind of thing in novels.
Taking out anger on an innocent person after being rejected by the man one likes.
‘Could it be that she was rejected by Ares when she asked him to dance that day?’
It was a plausible story.
There had been young ladies before who would pick fights with Aveline as they passed by, venting their misplaced anger after being rejected by Ares.
However, there had never been a young lady who had harmed Aveline more than that.
She thought such backbiting was something that only happened in novels, but to think it really happened.
‘And for me to be the victim!’
Even today, didn’t she glare fiercely when Ares spoke to Aveline?
It was clear that she disliked anyone who was close to Ares, regardless of who they were.
It was truly a fanatical and twisted affection.
“If it were me, I would have chosen to become friends with me instead.”
Then it would have been easier to naturally run into Ares.
Even the young ladies who had briefly vented their anger on Aveline in the past would soon pretend to be friendly and approach her again.
They knew there was nothing to gain by being at odds with Aveline, Ares’ twin.
“Isn’t she a complete fool?”
It’s not like glaring like that would make her closer to Ares.
It was even more frustrating because it was so obvious that she had carelessly provoked Aveline, thinking her an easy target because she usually kept to herself.
“The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
Because of that incident, someone had spent the last 4 years not going outside and being depressed, and it was for such a ridiculous reason?
“Just wait until I catch her again.”
Aveline clenched her fists and made a resolution.
“I’ll stick right next to Ares and linger around him openly.”
Even just looking at today, this seemed like it would be the most effective.
“Heh heh…”
Aveline imagined Melina Sroon trembling with rage and showed an evil smile that didn’t suit her gentle face.
She had seen many such scenes in the novels she had read so far.
Scenes where those who tormented the protagonist for trivial reasons received their comeuppance many times over.
The thought that she could actually do this herself made her a little excited.
‘Now all that’s left is to put it into practice.’
However, there was still another problem remaining.
“What should I do about this?”
Aveline placed her hand on her stomach.
Even if she dealt with Melina Sroon somehow, she had no idea how to resolve the issue of Theron chasing her even into her dreams.
Theron’s magic stone was supposed to be somewhere in her body, but she couldn’t feel anything beyond the skin of her belly that her hand touched.
“He’ll keep bothering me until this is resolved.”
Judging by Theron’s actions, it seemed he would follow her everywhere, whether in dreams or reality.
Just look at how he suddenly appeared at the dessert shop earlier and ate what Aveline had offered to Ares instead.
“What do you mean, ‘just passing by’.”
While he ran into Aveline in the alley and came on purpose.
If this were in a novel, Theron would have been given titles like ‘scheming male lead’ or ‘obsessive male lead’, but what Theron was chasing was not Aveline, but the magic stone inside her belly, or more precisely, his own magic power contained within it.
In a way, he was obsessing over himself, so he seemed closer to being a severe narcissist.
“…Should I just cut open my belly and end this?”
He said himself that his skills were decent.
It seems he has no intention of stopping until he gets his magic stone back anyway.
Rather than continuing like this, it might not be bad to quickly return it and end things.
“…No, let’s value our life.”
She almost chose a shortcut to the afterlife, swept up in a momentary emotion.
In fact, after hearing Theron’s proposal to cut open her belly, she had looked into various medical books.
But the many complications written in the medical books pushed Aveline into fear.
The fact that there had never been a completely successful abdominal surgery in the empire also played a part.
She still didn’t know the extent of Theron’s abilities, and she didn’t have the guts to readily offer her belly to someone who wasn’t even a professional physician.
With only one life, there was no way she could easily accept such a proposal.
“He’s not going to chase me in my dreams today too, is he?”
Even as she said it herself, Aveline realized she had spoken needlessly.
Theron showed no signs of easily giving up on Aveline.
“Sigh.”
To think she couldn’t even sleep properly because she got involved with some strange duke.
She felt sorry for her own situation anew.
What good was having a strong magic stone in her body if she couldn’t use it?
“Somehow, this feels unfair.”
Aveline, who had been tossing and turning, sat up and assumed a solemn posture.
“Hmm. Focus strength in the lower abdomen…”
In books, they often used power like this.
But in those cases, usually,
-Close your eyes and try to feel the energy flowing through your body!
or
-I’ll praise you if you can even graze my fingertips, greenhorn.
There were helpers who assisted in using the power, but Aveline had no such thing.
Aveline tried to sense Theron’s magic power, which she still couldn’t feel at all, recalling the supernatural stories she had read before.
‘Gather energy. Gather energy…’
Then she stretched both hands quite seriously towards the closed window.
“Hyah!”
…
Of course, nothing happened.
“Aw, come on.”
I guess books and reality are different after all.
Just as she was lowering her hands, feeling embarrassed for putting on a show alone in the middle of the night,
“Aaaagh!”
Ares burst in, his face pale, tightly hugging a pillow.
