Chapter 20
“Quickly, call a physician and take the Count to his room!”
Aveline was dumbfounded as she watched Count Herolds, who had suddenly collapsed, being carried away by servants.
‘Did I do that?’
She had tried to make herself faint, but instead, her father had fainted unexpectedly.
Aveline followed to her father’s room and caught the physician who had just finished examining him.
“Excuse me, my father…”
“It seems to be fainting due to overwork. He should be fine after a good rest, so there’s no need to worry too much.”
Only after the physician bowed and left did Aveline let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness.”
Whether her father’s collapse was mere coincidence or her doing, she couldn’t know for sure, but she couldn’t help feeling guilty.
“Father’s going to be touched when he wakes up, you know.”
“What?”
“Look at your expression. Anyone would think you made Father faint.”
“…”
“I didn’t know you cared about Father so much. I thought you didn’t like him much since you rarely see his face.”
“That’s…!”
“That’s?”
When Aveline stopped speaking, Ares curiously repeated her last word.
“Never mind. I’m going to rest in my room for a bit. Logan, I’m sorry. I’ll see you later.”
Returning to her room, Aveline lay down on her bed.
“It’s not that I don’t like him.”
She continued the answer she couldn’t give earlier, looking up at the ceiling.
In the empty room, only Aveline’s voice broke the silence.
“It’s because he doesn’t like me that I’ve been avoiding him, you idiot.”
You’ve got it backwards.
To think he couldn’t even notice something like that despite being her twin. She felt irritation rising towards Ares for no reason.
“Young miss.”
Someone carefully knocked on the door and entered.
“Emma?”
“I’ve brought you a snack.”
The one who opened the door was Emma, holding a tray of warm cookies.
“I heard you were alone in your room, so I came. Today, the chef gave me a chance to make the dough myself.”
“It smells good.”
“I only used good ingredients, so please eat a lot!”
“Thank you.”
“Then I’ll be going now!”
Emma prepared to leave the room quickly, her face flushed.
Seeing this, Aveline realized she had forgotten what kind of misunderstanding Emma had been harboring all this time.
‘I forgot to explain because I’ve been so preoccupied.’
Of all things to forget!
Blaming her poor memory, Aveline urgently called Emma back.
“Wait!”
“Yes?”
“Sit here.”
Aveline pointed to the spot next to her.
“No! How could a mere maid like me sit in the same place as the young miss…”
“I have something to tell you. Sit down.”
At Aveline’s seemingly serious words, Emma sat down as if entranced.
“Emma, listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
“Yes, yes.”
Gulp.
Emma swallowed nervously for no reason.
* * *
“It’s resolved.”
She finally succeeded in clearing up Emma’s misunderstanding.
At first, Emma couldn’t believe it, but after being reminded that Aveline hadn’t met anyone and had been cooped up at home all this time, she accepted that it had been her misunderstanding.
“I’m sorry, young miss!”
“It’s okay. Just keep giving me delicious things from now on.”
“I will! I will!”
Having even extracted a satisfactory promise, Aveline couldn’t be more pleased.
Knock knock.
Just then, someone carefully knocked on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Young miss. It’s me.”
The one who knocked was the butler.
“The Count has woken up.”
Aveline followed the butler, practically running to Count Herolds’ room.
“Father!”
“You’re too loud.”
Count Herolds rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache.
“This is troublesome. I have to attend the royal banquet later.”
“Royal banquet?”
Ares, standing in the corner, looked as if this was the first he’d heard of it.
“Tsk. Have you forgotten already? Isn’t tomorrow His Majesty the Emperor’s birthday! I’ve told you several times that the banquet starts from midnight today. Anyway, this is a problem. At least two people from each family must attend, but with my condition…”
Sigh. Count Herolds turned his head towards Logan.
“From the Casey family, will it be the Duke and you, Young Viscount, attending?”
“No. This time, after a long while, my mother will be attending with my father.”
“It seems they’ll be looking for suitable young ladies as potential matches for you at this banquet. Well, judging by the earlier article, it seems you might already have someone in mind.”
At Count Herolds’ words, Logan, standing next to Ares, smiled awkwardly instead of answering.
“Ares. For now, you prepare to go to the banquet.”
“Yes. Then should I go and explain the situation to His Majesty? If I say that you couldn’t attend because you’re ill, I think His Majesty would graciously understand.”
“What are you talking about? It’s the Emperor’s birthday banquet. Our family will also have two people attending.”
“Will you be alright?”
“No, I won’t be.”
“Then…”
Count Herolds, who had been lying still, stretched out his hand to point somewhere.
“Aveline.”
“Me?”
“Aveline will attend in my place.”
* * *
“Ughhhh…”
“We can’t help it. Just bear with it a little. We’ll just make an appearance and leave quickly.”
Aveline leaned her head weakly against the window, letting Ares’ comforting words go in one ear and out the other.
And she recalled what had happened earlier.
“I, I can’t go!”
“How long are you going to act so childishly! I’ve been lenient for a long time, now you should do something for our family too.”
“I don’t have anything to wear to the banquet!”
This seemed to work, as Count Herolds hesitated for a moment.
Then he ordered the butler to look for something suitable among Aveline’s clothes.
Just look, he said. There really wasn’t anything like clothes to wear to a banquet.
She did have the new clothes Logan had given her yesterday, but those were for casual outings.
They weren’t suitable for an occasion like the royal banquet where one needed to dress formally.
A little while later, the butler carefully appeared holding one dress.
“There is one dress that could be considered suitable for a banquet, but…”
The butler, uncharacteristically, stammered and couldn’t continue his words.
“But what?”
“It’s just that…”
At Count Herolds’ urging, the butler showed the dress instead of answering.
What the butler had brought was the debutante dress that Countess Herolds had sent to her daughter four years ago, but which had arrived somewhat late.
The dress made of white fabric was clearly for a debutante, as anyone could see.
“Hm.”
“It’s said to be a dress that the Madam had made and sent for the young miss in the past.”
“Lilia did?”
Count Herolds reacted immediately at the mention of the Countess.
He looked thoughtful as he gazed at the dress his wife had supposedly sent to their daughter.
“Yes. But it arrived two days later than expected, and since it was a bit big for the young miss at the time, she has never worn it.”
Everyone in the room maintained silence as they looked at the unfolded dress.
No one spoke the word ‘debutante’ out loud, but it was clear they were all thinking the same thing.
After the incident, the word ‘debutante’ had become taboo within the mansion.
It was an unpleasant memory for everyone.
And now, Aveline, who had disappeared from sight after her debutante ball, was going to attend a banquet wearing a debutante dress?
There couldn’t be anything better to attract attention.
* * *
Before they knew it, the carriage had arrived at the entrance of the banquet hall.
Perhaps because it was a banquet held at the imperial palace, security was tight.
Although it had become dusky as evening fell, the light leaking from inside the banquet hall was bright, and music could be heard flowing out continuously.
“Get out.”
Ares, who had gotten out of the carriage first, held out his hand to escort Aveline.
“I feel a bit intimidated.”
Aveline whispered quietly so only Ares could hear.
Although she had come as her father ordered, she felt overwhelmed at the thought of attending a banquet after four years.
“If anyone tries to pick a fight, just glare at them with all your might. They’ll all run away.”
“You’re funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. You probably don’t know because you’ve been out of social circles for a while, but the rules have changed recently. Intimidation works better than words.”
Ares wore a rather serious expression.
‘Logan should have come too.’
If it were Logan, he would have told her whether Ares was just playing another trick on her.
Logan had gone back home earlier.
He said he needed to finish a paper he had to submit for an upcoming academic festival.
“…Do you believe me?”
In the end, Ares was the only one Aveline could rely on in this situation.
“Do as you like.”
As Ares answered nonchalantly to the end, Aveline fell deeper into a swamp of confusion.
As they reached the entrance of the banquet hall, Aveline could hear every beat of her own heart.
Her hand resting on Ares’ arm kept growing cold. Even though she hadn’t eaten much, she felt nauseous as if she had indigestion, and cold sweat broke out.
“Can’t I enter hiding behind you?”
Aveline whispered quickly while waiting for their turn to enter.
Some of the people lined up to enter had already started glancing at Aveline standing next to Ares.
“That would definitely make you an issue.”
“…Never mind.”
I can’t become a laughingstock after coming here to revamp my image.
As the people in front of the twins finished entering, an attendant approached to check the list.
“I’ll confirm. Mr. Ares Herolds and next to him is…”
“Aveline Herolds.”
As Ares answered, the attendant stopped writing and jerked his head up.
