Violet wondered why he was acting like this, then clicked her tongue as she saw Cairn following behind. Now that she thought about it, their last conversation hadn’t ended well.
Aldin’s face was as expressionless as ever, but if you looked closely, you could see his emotions fluctuating.
Maybe that was why. Normally, Aldin would have offered to escort her first, but this time he silently walked without making any such offer.
It was definitely strange. At least to Violet.
She was already uncomfortable coming to her maternal family with Cairn alone, without any information, and now even the one person she was happy to see was acting awkwardly, which fueled her discontent.
Lost in her complicated thoughts, she momentarily stumbled.
Violet’s body swayed.
As she lost her balance, Aldin hurriedly caught her.
She almost had the embarrassing experience of tripping on a perfectly smooth path.
“…Thank you.”“It’s… nothing.”
Aldin quickly stepped back, startled, as if they had gone back to the day they first met.
Violet gave him a small smile. Despite his awkwardness for the first time in a long while, Aldin was still Aldin.
She could see the tips of his ears turning red. Worried that Violet might stumble again, he offered to escort her.
It was just a momentary trip due to her wandering thoughts, yet he was treating her like a child.
Violet didn’t refuse.
Cairn glanced at the two of them.
Even though he had met a friend only now again, he still remained silent.
* * *
Violet’s first impression of her cousins was as follows.
“I challenge you to a duel!”
“Sonia, at times like this, you’re supposed to throw a glove.”
“Oh, really? Then, again. I challenge you to a duel!”
One of the children, who looked like they were twins, with short-cropped hair threw off a glove.
The glove was thrown forcefully to the ground.
“Hurry up and accept my challenge!”
“…You should probably decide who you’re challenging first.”
“I don’t care who! Yes, you, the one who just answered, duel me!”
“Sonia, that’s Ducal Lady Violet. You should be respectful.”
“What does that matter! What’s important to a knight is conviction!”
“…I’m not a knight, nor have I ever formally learned swordsmanship, so I will decline.”
“What? How can you not have learned swordsmanship!? Are you even part of the Blaise family?”
“Sonia…”
There were countless things that needed correction. Violet had thought Cairn was the only one who behaved so wildly in noble society, but the world was wide. She wondered how to respond to her cousin’s unilateral duel challenge.
Until now, Violet had always used respectful language with people she was meeting for the first time.
This was her own way of remembering Yeon Ha-yoon, who respected people as people, rather than as the notorious Violet who treated everyone harshly.
However, there were exceptions. If someone looked down on her first, she would mercilessly respond in kind.
“Hurry up and accept my duel challenge!”
The child called Sonia was raging. She looked no older than fifteen. It was hard to tell if the child, whose glove she picked up and threw again, was a girl or a boy. This time, the glove landed in front of Aldin.
“……”
“Accept it quickly! I can’t believe there’s someone hailed as a genius of the century besides me. I’ll duel you to show who the real genius is!”
She seemed to be mistaken about something. Of course, Aldin was also called a genius, but the one Sonia was aiming for was probably Cairn.
Aldin picked up the glove and politely returned it to Sonia.
“…If you wish, I will spar with you, but do you know my name?”
“I know. You’re Cairn. My older brother told me.”
“My name is not Cairn.”
“What!? Then who is Cairn? Come out! Let’s duel!”
“Um, are you Sir Aldin Aesir? If you don’t mind, could I ask for your advice? Oh, I’m Hayes Blaise!”
It was utter chaos. At the same time, a new realization dawned. Violet had always wondered from whom Cairn inherited his temper in this family.
And today, she found her answer.
“You brats! What do you think you’re doing, being so rude!”
At that moment, someone appeared. A man with light platinum blond hair grabbed the twins by the back of their heads and made them bow. Hayes, who had been timidly explaining next to Sonia, was also made to bow.
The newcomer appeared to be in his early twenties at most. He bowed his head along with the twins and offered a heartfelt apology.
“I’m sorry about my younger siblings’ behavior… I’m Delta Blaise. I apologize for their rudeness.”
Finally, a normal person appeared.
Sonia and Hayes, thoroughly scolded by their eldest brother, continued to receive a barrage of scolding. Of course, Sonia seemed to let it go in one ear and out the other. The child, undeterred by the scolding, argued back against Delta and ended up getting a good whack on the head.
Though the butler was standing nearby, he did not intervene. It seemed this was a frequent enough scene.
While Violet was too stunned to comment, the actual head of House Blaise arrived.
“You brats!”
With his arrival, the situation quickly settled down.
The troublemakers couldn’t even think of defying their father and grandfather.
“…I apologize. No matter how much we educate them, we can’t seem to change their fiery tempers.”
The twins’ father sighed, pressing his temples.
Violet understood his feelings all too well and glanced at Cairn.
Normally, he would have stepped up to say something, but he remained unusually quiet. A sign of maturity, perhaps.
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