Chapter 19
Ares was in his pajamas, as if he had been lying down to sleep.
“W-what’s wrong?”
Aveline, startled as well, cried out.
“The window, the window!”
“What about the window!”
“The window in my room suddenly opened by itself!”
Ares ranted with a pale face.
“I was about to sleep when suddenly the window rattled and then BAM! It opened!”
“When? Just now?”
“Yes!”
If it was just now, that was when Aveline had been concentrating, trying to use magic.
‘Could it be… that I did it?’
Although it wasn’t her own room’s window but Ares’ that opened, she had still managed to ‘open a window’, hadn’t she?
‘Of course, that’s if it really was me who did it.’
Aveline decided to check once more.
“Ahem, Ares. I’ll go to your room and take a look. Stay in my room for a moment. Okay?”
“…Do you really have to go?”
“Yes. Sit there and wait quietly!”
Brushing off the desperately clinging Ares, Aveline headed to his room.
“Hmm.”
Indeed, as Ares had said, the window was wide open.
The creaking window, suddenly opened in the dark night, looked like a scene from a horror novel.
“No wonder that coward was scared.”
Ares had always been weak to ghost stories and urban legends since childhood.
Anyway, this is what opened, right?
Aveline stood quietly by the window and concentrated again.
In novels, protagonists usually become aware of their inner magic power right away.
However, in reality, she couldn’t feel anything at all.
‘Well, I’ll just give it a try.’
Still, if it wasn’t a coincidence, it meant Aveline’s attempt had worked a little.
If she was lucky, it might be possible this time too.
‘This time, I’ll try to close the window.’
She closed her eyes tightly and concentrated, but still couldn’t feel any magic power inside her body.
“Hyah!”
No matter how much she shouted, only empty silence enveloped the space.
Aveline opened her palm for one last attempt.
“Hiyah!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
The open window didn’t move at all, and only Ares’ scream from Aveline’s room was heard again.
* * *
Ares, who had spent the night wide awake, listlessly picked up his fork with a haggard face.
Today too, his plate was filled with salmon and broccoli.
“Hey, eat some carrots too.”
Aveline picked out carrots from her salad and put them on Ares’ plate.
“…”
Ares, who would normally have made a fuss, was quiet.
“I think a ghost has attached itself to me.”
Ares muttered as he absently put a carrot in his mouth.
“A ghost?”
“You saw it yesterday too. It keeps scaring me by opening the window whenever I’m alone.”
“Hmm.”
“It must be a female ghost, right?”
“Why?”
“Seeing how it’s sticking so close to me, it must be a woman, right? I’m handsome, after all.”
Any feelings of remorse Aveline had for scaring him too much yesterday vanished completely.
Aveline pretended to focus on her meal, keeping her head down.
“What should I do? Even ghosts are attracted to someone like me.”
That ghost is your sister.
Aveline swallowed her words.
Yesterday, when she tried to close the window in Ares’ room, she ended up opening the window in her own room instead.
Thanks to that, Ares, who was left alone in Aveline’s room, turned pale once again.
Seeing tears welling up in Ares’ eyes at that time had pricked her conscience a bit, but watching his behavior now turned that conscience to steel.
‘That’s an incurable disease.’
There seemed to be no suitable medicine or treatment for late-stage narcissism.
‘But I did gain something.’
Although it manifested somewhat strangely, she had used magic.
Moreover, whether by coincidence or not, the mark on her wrist had disappeared completely after using magic.
‘It’s certain that Duke Ribes’ magic is having some effect beyond just dreams.’
This must be why he had been chasing her so diligently.
Still, Theron didn’t appear in her dreams yesterday.
‘Actually, I barely slept at all.’
Because Ares made such a fuss about being scared to sleep alone, she ended up giving him the sofa.
He whimpered and groaned all night long. Aveline couldn’t sleep well either as a result.
“Ahem.”
At that moment, Count Herolds entered the dining room.
“Ah, Father.”
“Don’t mind me, keep eating.”
Count Herolds stopped Aveline, who was awkwardly trying to stand up and greet him.
Glancing over, she saw that Ares still seemed unable to shake off yesterday’s shock, looking dazed.
Regardless, Count Herolds was engrossed in reading the newspaper while waiting for his food.
“Oh my!”
“Did something happen?”
Aveline, who had been watching for a chance to speak, quickly asked.
“Hmm. It seems there was a commotion at a famous dessert shop in town yesterday.”
“…A dessert shop?”
“Yes. It says a mysterious lady visited there yesterday… Wait. Ares, were you there too?”
Count Herolds’ brow furrowed as he read the article carefully.
“It’s written here like this. According to witnesses at the scene, Duke Ribes, the Herolds young master, and Young Viscount Casey all seemed to have a deep relationship with this mysterious lady. The three men engaged in a strange tension over the lady that day. …What is all this about?”
It was clearly an article about Aveline from yesterday.
It seemed she was referred to as a ‘mysterious lady’ because she had covered her face with a wide-brimmed hat.
Ares, too, apparently hadn’t expected this to make the news, as he exchanged wide-eyed glances with Aveline.
“According to another witness, Duke Ribes referred to that woman as a ‘jewel’…?”
Thud.
Count Herolds folded the newspaper and put it down roughly.
“Jewel, he says. Duke Ribes called this woman a jewel. Well, then there’s only one answer, isn’t there!”
Has he finally realized?
Well, combining the clues in this article, it wasn’t difficult to deduce who the mysterious lady was.
The twins lowered their eyes, waiting for the impending scolding.
Given Count Herolds’ character of disliking attention from noisy incidents, there was no way he would let this pass.
“Aveline.”
“Yes.”
Aveline, tense, answered immediately.
“This doesn’t seem right.”
“I’m sorr—”
“I mean Duke Ribes.”
“Pardon?”
“Look at him, chasing after you, calling you a jewel and whatnot, then immediately going to another woman and saying the same thing!”
Count Herolds’ face turned red as if he was truly indignant.
“I thought something was off when he barged into our house early in the morning spouting nonsense, but now I see he’s just a lecher who goes around calling every woman a jewel!”
Watching her father, who couldn’t even imagine that the mysterious lady was his own daughter, Aveline felt conflicted emotions.
Still, seeing her father fuming, thinking she had been toyed with by Theron, somehow made her feel better.
“Father, are you perhaps worrying about me…?”
BANG!
Count Herolds, seemingly unable to calm his anger no matter how much he thought about it, slammed the table.
“Just how lightly must he view our family to do such a thing? He must have thought I was easy to fool. Tsk!”
The direction of his anger was somewhat misaligned with expectations.
“How fortunate that you, Aveline, aren’t involved in this! It’s already troublesome enough having to deal with Ares appearing in the news, if you were involved too, I’d surely collapse from overwork trying to resolve rumors twice over.”
At her father’s words, Aveline bit her lip hard.
‘I absolutely can’t be found out.’
Ares seemed to be thinking the same thing, furrowing his brow with a serious expression.
“Ares, since you were there yesterday, you must know who this woman is. Which family is she from?”
“Uh, um.”
Faced with the difficult question, Ares’ eyes darted around.
“Speak up, I said!”
As Count Herolds’ pressing created a heavy silence in the dining room,
“Aveline! Ares! Have you seen today’s newspaper?”
Logan burst into the dining room urgently.
Logan also had a newspaper in his hand.
He must have been in such a hurry that he couldn’t even wait for someone to announce his visit and came running in himself.
“Ah, Count, you’re here too.”
“It’s been a while, Young Viscount Casey. How is Duke Casey?”
Count Herolds calmly greeted Logan, who had suddenly appeared.
“Father is well.”
“But what brings you here? You’ve always been sickly, and now you’re even sweating.”
As Count Herolds said, beads of sweat had formed on Logan’s forehead.
He seemed to have left home in a hurry, as even his collar wasn’t properly straightened.
“This is quite unusual. To think we’d see the Young Viscount in such a disheveled state.”
Count Herolds, who had been tilting his head, spoke as if he had remembered something.
“By the way, you must know too.”
“Pardon?”
“The mysterious lady mentioned in the article. Who is this woman that caused tension between the three of you?”
“Eh?”
Logan’s mouth gaped open at the unexpected question.
As soon as Aveline’s eyes met Logan’s, she shook her head, signaling him not to say anything.
A heavy silence fell over the dining room once again.
‘Please, let me faint.’
Aveline wanted to escape this situation even if it meant losing consciousness.
But just like yesterday, her body, toughened by training, ruthlessly rejected its owner’s desperate plea.
‘…Should I try using magic?’
Nothing to lose at this point.
An unfounded confidence welled up, making her feel that she might succeed this time if she tried with such desperate feelings.
In truth, anything would be fine if it could get her out of this situation.
‘I’m fainting. I’m fainting. I’m fainting and escaping from here!’
Hyah!
She secretly put force into her palm under the table.
‘Embarrassingly normal.’
Again, nothing changed this time.
‘It seems the magic didn’t even activate this time.’
The others seem fine too, so…
Thud.
“Count!”
