Chapter 103 – Grace
A sumptuous and delicious dinner awaited Snowbel, who returned home in the carriage.
It was a reward given to her for moving her body with her dancing, and it was an annual event that was not skipped unless there was a special occasion.
But…
“…Does he eat with you, mother?”
“Of course. I invited you.”
After tidying up her body and clothes and going to the place where her meal was prepared, Snovell staggered as soon as he saw Jun sitting proudly in a corner of her table.
When Black Bell naturally answered the question with her hopeful heart, she flinched at the corners of her eyes.
“He’s not a family member, isn’t he just a commoner esthetician?
He doesn’t deserve a place like this.”
Blackbell made no reply.
As she got up without saying a word, Snobel cowered at her.
It was because her mother’s expression was extremely cold.
She had a face similar to the one she had once made when she ordered the utter ruin of the life of an rude servant.
She had never made a face like that on her daughters before.
Black Bell approached with her stiff face and slapped Snovell on the cheek without any warning.
It is not a gesture intended to intimidate a child.
Squeeze sharply! It was a hand jab to make a sound.
Snobel, who was in shock as if she was going to lose her soul with her pain flashing before her eyes, collapsed on the spot with her buttocks pounded.
“Uh, mother…?!”
“How dare you say that, Snowbel?
Don’t you know that now that your father is away, I’m the deputy?
To insult a guest I invited.
Above all, you shouldn’t judge others just because they’re commoners.
Before class division, we are all the same.
How can a person who cannot even share a meal with others call himself an aristocrat?”
Snobel caught her breath.
Black Bell might be saying the right thing.
But it was by no means ‘her’.
She was someone who knew that there was an unbridgeable gap between her nice words and reality.
Black Bell’s teachings flashed through my mind, saying that a person’s rank was determined the moment he was born, and that it is our duty not to lose sight of that power and superiority.
Her mother changed completely in just one day.
Maybe it was all too late for her.
Snobel looked up at her mother’s cold expression as she slapped her daughter on the cheek, and she realized it.
Even if I corner Jun and knock him down, will I be able to put everything back to normal?
The change in her mother, felt through her skin, came more shocking than the slap on the cheek.
“Don’t forget the pain in your cheek, Snowbell.
And get up right away and apologize to Jun.”
“Ah, ma’am. Please don’t be like that.
I am okay.”
Daguchi approached Black Bell, and Jun interrupted with a single smile.
More than anything, his face seemed disgusted as he seemed to be enjoying the situation.
As soon as Snowbell secretly clenched his teeth, Black Bell said in a fit of rage.
“You call me madam again.”
When Black Bell noticed something she didn’t like, she turned to Jun with a characteristic expression.
The memory of her slapping Jun on the cheek in the same situation was like déjà vu in his eyes.
“I told you to call me Black Bell, not my wife…
Have you already forgotten?”
“Ah, that’s right. I’m not used to that kind of thing because I’m from such a lowly position.
How could you use such a friendly title for a lady?”
“You say that I, the person in charge, like it.
You can call me Berry if you like…”
Black Bell clings to Jun with a sticky tone as if flirting and crosses her arms.
Even her husband in her newly wedded days did not call her by her nickname, a chaste lady.
Even polite and cute honorific words like treating your boss?
Snobel, sitting down and clutching her cheek, looked up at them with her empty eyes.
Rani is the one who is afraid of her mother, whom she fears more than anyone else and at the same time loves deeply.
If she had been the Snovel until a few days ago, her heart would have been broken by the sight of her mother not recognizing her own loneliness as she risked her heart to save her family.
But now she was different.
Snovell silently raised her body and bowed her head to Jun.
“Sorry.
My thoughts were short… Yo.”
It really took a lot of willpower to give that hateful man a title of honor.
Amid Black Bell’s stern stare at herself, Snobel, who had forced her pride down, sobbed and wept.
However, this immature appearance was rather desired.
In Jun’s eyes, Snobel’s appearance would be that of a rather cheeky noblewoman who was unknowingly being slapped by her mother and wringing out her tears.
Her blade, which she hid deep within her chest, would never be revealed.
“Raise your head, lady. What kind of…
The food will get colder than that. Let’s go eat.”
After receiving an apology, Jun said in a bright voice.
He seemed to quickly change the topic to relieve the cold atmosphere, which made me angry.
On the subject of the obvious, he would have enjoyed watching her tears and apologies more than anyone else.
There were many things, but the meal started anyway.
The food was equally delicious, but there were two things that kept Snovell from focusing on her food.
One is food ingredients.
Fried oysters with lemon, grilled asparagus, plump intestines, steamed eel wrapped in foil, soybean pie, warm hojicha, ginseng bath, leek marinated with garlic, fresh salmon…
The things on the table were all ingredients known to be good for stamina.
It was a menu that inevitably reminded us of what would happen to the upcoming ‘Esthetic’.
It was probably Blackbell himself who ordered this dinner to prepare.
She seemed to really like her experience last night.
“Jun, try this too.
I’m young, so I can eat all of this, right?
Come on, do it…”
The second, needless to say, was Blackbell’s attitude.
Black Bell, who brought her June to the seat right next to her, clung to him as if he were going to remove her liver or gallbladder.
It was to the point that even Jun himself smiled wryly at how she incessantly suggested all sorts of food to Jun.
It reminded me of a fire fox character that appeared as a hindrance to the female lead in a love novel I read the other day.
It was an irritating character who was looking for a man who was in love with the female lead.
If she existed in real life, she would have fawned over men like that.
If it was a vulgar cartoon, it had a pink atmosphere like a heart mark floating around.
Just by looking at her appearance, it would be easy to believe that she was Snovell’s older sister, but Black Bell, with the voluptuous flesh of a grown woman, was so devoted that she radiated her bewitching charm beyond belief.
Snovell had to try with all her might not to direct her gaze to where Black Bell and June were.
Fortunately, after her meal had begun, Black Bell seemed to have forgotten that her daughter was even there, so she must not have looked unnatural.
As Snobel moved his food to his mouth, he consciously synchronized his senses with the cat in the corner of the mansion.
If Jun tried to give a command with his hypnotic voice, he would immediately turn his consciousness to the cat’s hearing and not listen to him.
The dinner was over, not even having time to taste the food because I was worried about this and that.
As soon as the meal was over, Snobel got up from his seat and went to his room.
She wouldn’t look unnatural, as any daughter slapped by her mother would have behaved that way.
Just before she opened the door and stepped into her corridor, she looked back at Black Bell and June for the last time.
Snovell deliberately avoided her gaze from Black Bell, who was still clinging to Jun.
And Snowbel saw a rare sight.
She must have thought that Snobel had already left, but for a moment, Jun’s face was different from usual.
It wasn’t the pretentious, seemingly servile smile she always had.
From Jun’s expression, I could feel her overflowing confidence and sharp momentum.
For the first time, Snowbel felt natural in the true sense of the word.
That expression must have been Jun’s real face.
Come to think of it, that man must have been hiding his true feelings for the past few days.
Since he is a human being, there are bound to be moments when he is relieved of tension, and that was now.
It was only for a moment that his true nature was revealed, and it felt amazing that he immediately returned to his original mask-like smile.
Jun accepted Black Bell’s recommendation in moderation and ate food at his own pace, pushing him away relentlessly when he wanted to overdo it.
He ate well, like a young man, or even a young man.
There is no food to cover, so I pick up this and that and eat it very deliciously.
‘It looks more familiar than I thought.’
His table manners were neat while moving food to his mouth without stopping.
He seemed to be familiar with the etiquette to be followed at a noble table.
He said that his status was low, but as expected, all of his words were lies from one to ten.
Snobel, who clicked his tongue inside him, turned him around and headed for his room.
…
Snovell, who took a deep breath in his room and tried to activate his magic.
But it wasn’t easy considering what awaited him in his mother’s bedroom.
Even though he thought he had fully prepared his mind, it seemed that he lacked determination.
“…Uh?”
After a long sigh, Snovell suddenly raised his head.
It was because I felt like I heard a small sound somewhere.
But he looked around and there was nothing to make a sound about.
There was only cold silence in the room.
“Was it an illusion? But I’m sure it sounds like…”
Took!
The moment Snobel tilts his head, the sound echoes again.
This time it was a clear sound that could never be misheard.
The sound came from the thick glass panes.
Something like a small rock hit the window and made a noise.
Snowbell carefully looked out the window.
Her room is on the second floor.
When she sneakily looked down at her, it was already dark outside.
Esthetics will start soon.
Nervous Snovell turned her gaze from place to place.
A person was hiding in the dark shadows between the flower beds.
“…!”
An astonished Snovell gaped at her.
It was because the face of the person who called her by throwing pebbles from the flower bed was familiar to her.
She was the woman I had met and talked to just an hour or two ago.
Her grace, lowering her body in her shadow, was looking at her snovel with her index finger on her lips, as if telling her to be quiet.
