The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

167 - A Chain of Unfortunate Events

Lily's Point Of View

The door to the meeting room shuts quietly

"Seems like we are all finally here," Catarina says excitedly and pats the chair next to her.

Catarina, Helena, Jesmaine and Landon are already seated around a wide round table, and the chair Catarina is patting is... unevenly close to her. Not only that, but there is clearly only one free chair, indirectly indicating that Lionel isn't welcomed.

I thought that maybe this interval where I got my nerves numbed would return Catarina to the status of a human being, but no matter how you look at it, he is clearly still a cockroach.

Lionel let's go of my hand, and walks past me while glaring at Catarina the way he used to do towards me when we were kids.

"I see the maids that set the table have been lazy with their setup."

He grabs the chair and starts pulling it away, only for Catarina to actually grab the chair as well.

"Stop getting in the way, you damn sadist!"

Catarina scolds Lionel while finally letting her inner thoughts fly free.

"Again, Princess Catarina, I do not have that sort of hobbies, nor do I enjoy watching people suffer," Lionel responds with his very best attempt at remaining polite towards Catarina.

"Yea sure you don't. Now let go," Catarina growls and tries to pull the chair from Lionel. Unsuccessfully.

I stare at the ridiculous scene playing out in front of me somewhat dumbstruck. Catarina is pulling at the chair quite stubbornly, but of course it's barely moving in Lionel's grip. Still, I suppose the stupidity of this is keeping me from focusing on anything else...

"Princess Catarina, please release the chair. Princess Emilia made it quite clear that I should treat you as a man. Thus, being so physically close to you is unacceptable."

I break them up, only to be met with an awkard silence from everyone in the room.

"...you don't have to be formal. It's not like anyone other than the pervert here is listening," Catarina speaks quite calmly... still holding onto the chair.

"In that case," Lionel starts out as his otherwise forced polite expression fades and his eyes gleam with irritation.

"Let go of the chair you creep. Lily already told you to let it go as well," Lionel adds bluntly, immediately cutting away all sense of formality.

"A-anyway, let's not fight over a chair. We should just move on to the reason you called us, right Catarina-sama?"

Helena adds somewhat nervously while glancing to me.

I look back to Catarina that visibly pouts as we start using numbers against her, and then finally lets the chair go, but not without one last lash out at Lionel:

"See, your true nature is coming out."

...is this cockroach doing it on purpose, or does she really believe that Lionel is a sadist?

Lionel lets out a patient sigh and pulls the chair away from Catarina and motions for me to sit. Somewhat hesitantly I sit down, not having Catarina on one side, and Helena on the other... all this chaos over a chair.

Lionel places a hand gently on the back of my chair while standing by my side, partly getting between Catarina and I.

I look to Landon, who immediately forces an awkward smile to me. He has seated himself on the opposite side of the wide table... sadly a sword won't reach from here, but... Lionel was right, I will have plenty of opportunities to kill him. Right now I need to find out what I need to decide how to ensure that he is punished for his sin-