The central staircase was dizzyingly high. Arabella didn’t mind the height at all, and she didn’t slow her down at all, as if it didn’t matter as long as she could knock Ariadne down. However, there was a difference in weight between the 15 year old and 10 year old. No matter how hard Arabella ran, she couldn’t defeat Ariadne. Ariadne lightly took a step to the side. But. of course, Isabella was standing diagonally next to Ariadne. With Ariadne out of her way, Arabella’s course was straight toward her eldest sister, Isabella.
“Uh huh?”
“Huh?”
Isabella couldn’t avoid the jumping Arabella, and after colliding with her sister, she fell down the stairs.
Bam-bam-bam!
“Kyaaaa!”
“Oh my god!”
Arabella looked ahead and ran head-on, so she grabbed the railing near the stairs and managed to stop. But Isabella, who was standing with her back to the stairs, had nothing to hold on to and support to take her strength. She tumbled down about a floor high to a middle landing and collapsed in the narrow space between the steps.
Bruk!
Isabella rolled so hard that she couldn’t even get up on her own.
“Ouch…”
The central staircase of Cardinal de Mare’s residence was strangely tall and narrow. The sheer slope and narrow stair width looked really dangerous. Because of the high ceiling, the screams echoed loudly. In response to Isabella’s scream, the door to Cardinal de Mare’s parlor was thrown open,
“What is this noise?”
Cardinal de Mare, rushing out of the parlor at the noise, looked out. He looked around and looked at Arabella, who was terrified, and Ariadne, who stood calmly.
“How did this happen?”
He gestured to the maid to help Isabella. The maids who ran here and there seated Isabella up and began to ice her with a pouch they had brought from the kitchen. Isabella, who had injured her ankle, was unable to stand properly, and Cardinal de Mare reared at her as she saw Isabella perched on her landing.
“Who did this?”
Isabella cleverly bowed her head and said nothing. She said that it would only cut her face. Cardinal de Mare questioned Isabella as she stared alternately to Ariadne and Arabella when she did not respond.
“Which of you two are doing this?”
Arabella stuttered for an excuse, blushing. Ariadne would have cried at the age 10 years old in front of a father with such a spirit, but seeing that she spoke in a well-coordinated way, she thought that Arabella was quite good.
“Father, I’m not like that… Ariadne, Ariadne…!”
Although it was quite different to say what a child likes to say. Arabella’s effort to change the target was a perfect input to Cardinal de Mare.
“Ariadne! Are you already having an accident like this just because it’s been a few days since you came back home from Bergamo estate!”
Arabella sighed in relief at the fact that she had a scapegoat, and the maids gathered on the landing looked at Ariadne as if they were a strange stranger. It's only been a day since she returned to her hometown of San Carlo from her country farm, but the girl’s future will be difficult because she has injured Lucrezia’s golden eldest daughter and incurs the wrath of Cardinal de Mare. But Ariadne didn’t look frightened at all, and as if she was sorry, she began to speak as if there was a misunderstanding. She was a little shy, but at the same time unconcerned.
“Father, I apologize for making a loud noise in the house not long after I came back from the manor. Besides, sister Isabella was only hurt trying to help me…”
‘Help you?’
Isabella, who had her head down, looked at Ariadne with suspicious eyes.
‘What do you mean by that?’
Arabella frowns and glares at Ariadne. Ariadne continued her words despite her sister’s stare attacks.
“I heard a lot about Isabella when I was in the manor, but she is really kind. She is also the most famous lady in San Carlo Castle. I have just arrived, but I am truly grateful to Isabella for reaching out her hand to help me. However…”
Ariadne glanced at Arabella.
“I think Arabella should be a little more careful about her appearance. Arabella was playing a prank on me and she pushed me, and she fell down her steps while Isabella tried to help me. When she is 10, it is time for her to grow up as she is not a child and as a virgin.”
Arabella blushed from the roots of her ears. It was scary, but she was relieved thinking that there was no way that a stupid girl who had just come up from the country could speak properly in a situation where Cardinal de Mare was holding on.
“No! No!”
Arabella screamed desperately. She knew what she could if her father was angry. She could not be her youngest daughter who hurt her older sister who was loved by her father.
“Isabella didn’t try to help Ariadne, she was by her side and she pushed me towards her! She hurt Isabella!”
Ariadne did not raise an eyebrow at Arabella’s daring lies and bowed her head with a hurt expression. There is no objective evidence anyway, and there is only one witness.
“Even though I came from a country estate, I don’t lie.”
Ariadne pointed to Isabella, who was lying downstairs.
“If you don’t believe me because I'm short on learning and unfamiliar, ask Isabella herself!”
Arabella is confused.
‘What trick is this?’
On the other hand, Isabella, the wicked woman who shook the court of the Estruscan Kingdom in her past life, has been a cotyledon since she was a bud. Isabella came to her senses in time for her breath to take a break, and immediately put on a pitiful expression and drastically lowered her head.
“Father…”
Isabella’s decision was simple.
“I stopped trying to help Ariadne…”
Isabella didn’t miss the chance to be a good person herself. She never forgot what she hated until the very end.
“Arabella was just kidding, Father. Please don’t scold her too much.”
In an instant, unlike her friendly sister, Arabella became a mean child bullying her good stepsisters, staring at Isabella with her mouth wide open. Isabella shook her head shyly, and Ariadne swallowed her sigh of relief into herself.
‘Nothing has changed, Isabella.”
Whether it was her sister or whatever, Isabella was never a great person to let go of her own gains.
***
“Arabella! You must stay out of your room for two weeks and pray while eating only dry bread and water!”
“Father! I really didn’t!”
“What a spoiled daughter! If the lie is caught, you should at least reflect on it, don’t you? One more week as a punishment! Pray for three weeks!”
Arabella trembled and stared down at the floor. Isabella rubbed only her ankles so as not to make eye contact with her sister.
“Isabella, call the doctor. Lucrezia! Where is this woman! How the hell did you educate your children!”
The house was a real mess. Ariadne, who sowed the seeds of discord in Cardinal de Mare’s residence from the first day of her return, laughed alone.
“...Does it work?’
At the loud sound og the landing, everyone in the house except for Ariadne couldn’t make a sound and just looked down at the floor. Cardinal de Mare stomped his foot as if he didn’t like that either.
“There’s something to see, so they’re lined up and looking around! I really don’t like it at all, eh!”
Shaking off her hem of his white robe, he slammed the drawing room door and entered. Despite the wound on her ankle, Isabella seemed quite content with the chance to look good in public, and with a gentle expression on her face, supported by her maids, she entered her room on the second floor of the mansion. Right before Arabella is taken away by her maid chief, she gnashing her teeth as she glares at Ariadne with a ferocious look.
“Don’t think that this is the end!”
Ariadne just smiled.
“You are pitiful.”
“What?”
“Father and mother only like Isabella.”
Arabella trembled, her face red.
“What do you know? Without knowing anything!”
“Little lady, let’s go. If you make a loud noise here, His Eminence Cardinal will hear another voice.”
Arabella couldn’t stand it and was dragged away when the head maid dissuade. As Arabella waa led away, she shouts of vulgarity, ugliness and reverberated through the hallway. Ariadne brushed off the hem of her dress and rearranged herself. In the place where everyone left, the nameless maids busily tidying up and the red-haired maid Maletta, who had been standing in front of the door of Cardinal’s drawing room, remained. Ariadne looked at Maletta, whose attitude was more dignified than before, and smiled refreshingly.
“Now, shall we go?”
***
Carinal de Mare ordered that Ariadne be given the same education as the other two daughters, but Isabella was bedridden with a sprained ankle, and Arabella was imprisoned for three weeks, leaving only Ariadne to study. Perhaps Lucrezia felt it was a pity to pay for a tutor to Ariadne, so she ordered another tutor. It had never happened in Ariadne's past life. Isabella was injured and Arabella was put on probation, so her casualty has changed. At the time, she had been stuck in the other two’s home education class, idly sitting in a class that was completely unintelligible.
“This is Giovanni. I will teach Latin and Arithmetic. Listen carefully.”
Mr. Giovanni was a man in his thirties and in poor health. Pores stood out on his strawberry noses as if he was soaked in wine, The drunkard's body odor stung Ariadne’s nose. Ariadne looked at Mr. Giovanni and had her doubts. At first glance, he didn’t seem like a decent teacher. Besides, why are you giving me your first name and not your last name?
“Mother, how dare I call him by name? What is Mr. Giovanni’s last name?”
Lucrezia let out a roar.
“Stop talking nonsense and study! If it’s Giovanni, then it’s Giovanni. What are you talking about so much!”
Lucrezia reacted sensitively even to trivial questions about whether there was something stabbed. Giovanni’s teached was even more suspicious of his smiling face. When Ariadne was told to call him by his first name comfortably and not raise his title, she just nodded her head without showing a hint of displeasure.
‘Something smells suspicious.’
Next chapter will upload every two days!
Previous - Chapter 6 Next - Chapter 8
Please support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment