Chapter 18

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“You’re much calmer than I thought you would be. I thought you’d snap at me as soon as you saw me.”

“…Why would I be angry at you? You even brought me a gift like this.”

“Then, can I visit you often from now on?”

“……”

Violet remained silent. Roen didn’t insist either, as if he didn’t want a definite answer.

“The tea is more bitter than I thought, too. If you were like how you were before, you would’ve already had the maid’s hands cut off by now—the one who made this tea.”

“…I don’t give out such cruel commands.”

“You truly have changed. As expected, was it because of the lake?”

“……”

Violet deeply regretted coming here. She should have just ignored Roen, went back up to her room and tucked herself right into bed.

It’s taking too much time to just make this guy leave.

“You’ve changed this much, so… I wonder why.”

“……”

“That child returned to the main mansion while crying buckets. And she was hugging her sketchbook that’s drenched entirely in tea.”

Violet lowered her gaze to Roen’s body. She felt another headache coming on, and so she took a sip of tea before matching Roen’s gaze once more. The bitterness of the tea calmed her down a little.

As she was thinking of a way to get rid of this person—

“M-Milady!”

Mary burst into the drawing room in a hurry.

“H-His Grace the Duke has arriv, hiccup!”

Yet another bomb was dropped.

A new visitor had come. And it wasn’t just anyone—it was her father, the duke.

Roen seemed shocked as well, but it was too late. Violet was still trying to calculate whether it would be better to remove one landmine first before the bigger bomb would arrive, or if she should just let them detonate together. In the end, she quit doing that.

“Can you lead him here?”

Fine. Since they’re going to detonate anyway, why not make them detonate together? Violet concluded merrily.

It’s clear as day that Roen visited this place while disregarding the duke’s order.

“You mentioned that His Grace’s order was made only verbally, so I guess you don’t have to keep it, right?”

“Did I say that?”

“Yes. I heard you loud and clear when you said that. Mary, lead His Grace here.”

Seeing Roen unable to escape, Violet smiled brightly. It took a lot of courage to interrupt the lady and the young master’s conversation, and just that made Mary’s face go pale. She soon scuttled out of the drawing room, frantic.

She was not well versed in the proper etiquette, however the young maid did her best to attend to the duke.

As he entered the room, the duke’s eyes widened as he saw his daughter and his son, conversing with each other here despite it being in complete violation of his order.

.

.

.

Thus, the present situation came to be.

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