Jaden Spencer, sitting on the staircase leading to the back door of the annex, playing with Lilu with grass between his fingers, turned his head towards me. Lilu, who was unbelievably small to be an 11-year-old granny cat, looked like a cat that had just been born yesterday beside the giant Spencer.
Jaden, who saw me appear out of nowhere, called out, then looked at Lilu. He pointed at Lilu with the end of the grass he was holding. Lilu made a big jump to catch it, but Jaden’s quick wrist movement knocked her to the ground.
“Is that your cat?”
“Hi, Jayden. And Clay.”
Clay was sitting on Jaden Spencer’s right shoulder. It seemed smaller than my forearm before, but after a while, it got bigger. Still, since Jayden’s shoulders were so broad, it didn’t feel too heavy for Clay to sit there.
When I greeted him, Clay stuck out his chest as if showing that he liked it. I stroked the shiny scales on his head, took out a candy from my pocket, and handed it to him. Then he twisted the candy wrapper tightly with his short foreleg, took out the contents, and ate it, which was so admirable. How much older must Lilu be to do something on her own?
“That’s my cat. Just in case, did Lilu attack you?”
I sat down next to Jaden and handed him candy. He subtly flushed and nodded his head. Because his nails were cut cleanly, he had to rustle longer than Clay to open the candy.
Now that Jaden was focusing on his candy, Lilu had a golden opportunity to get her hands on the piece of grass that irritated her the most. Lily stared at Jaden’s grip and started shaking her buttocks, so I tied the grass to Clay’s tail.
Clay fluttered it lightly around Lilu, angering her. Lilu, apparently tired of chasing the unpredictable movements of Clay’s tail, quickly climbed onto Jaden’s lap and sat like a loaf of bread.
“I guess she likes you, though I don’t think there’s any creature that hates you.”
I was incredibly proud. Lilu, who attacks everyone she meets, has been well-behaved with Jaden. It seemed like the 11-year-old Granny Cat had suddenly made great mental growth, and it seemed that Jaden Spencer was exceptional at handling creatures in general, not just dragons.
It was not difficult for Fitzsimmons students to witness the local animals looking comfortable with Jaden. Therefore, Clay, the young dragon who still needs attention, fiercely defended Jaden’s right shoulder from intruders. Even a princess in a fairy tale wouldn’t have to fight like he does.
Having said that, Jaden somehow became a bit sullen.
“Luisa hates me.”
“No, she actually likes you, but it’s just that she’s not used to carrying someone on her back. I heard she was originally a wild griffon.”
Luisa was Jaden Spencer’s Griffon. Like Kyle, he belonged to the Griffon Cricket Club. I’m not quite sure why the Griffon was strangely reluctant toward Jaden and would go on a rampage whenever he got close. It was Luisa who had made him put a sloppy cast on his leg when I met him in the infirmary.
“Or maybe she’s the type to be rather harsh on the outside to hide her true feelings. Think of Marquis Bolton.”
I swallowed some vague words of consolation for him as he drooped his shoulders in desperation. Then he stopped scratching Lilu under her chin and fell into thought. A very dissatisfied Lilu patted Jaden’s thigh with her tail, but his thigh was so thick that Lilu’s fluffy tail didn’t give him any stimulation.
“But Kyle rides her well.”
The pixie that Professor Stafford was exploiting escaped from the glass prison after four days of investigation. The identity of the culprit pointed out by the pixie was surprising. It was Layla, not me or Kyle. Poor Griffon couldn’t make an excuse and took on the sins of humans.
We didn’t know what the hell happened, but we decided to let it go. Kyle was suspected of being Layla’s partner, but he was always slick with his words, so tricking Professor Stafford was like drinking cold soup for him.
Layla was suspended for the remainder of the semester. Kyle bought her horse meat and beef jerky every day to appease her, who was confined to her kennel.
Anyway, I heard that Kyle climbed on Luisa’s back a few times instead of Layla because of that. Sadly, Luisa’s attitude toward Kyle seemed very different from how she treated Jaden. Jaden’s expression darkened even more, so I shut my mouth.
***
My favorite person in the County of Villard was the Countess of Villard. Then next came her husband. Their eldest daughter, Edith, now the Marchioness of Patterson, was the third. Kyle Villard was second to last.
I will emphasize this again. Kyle is the second-to-last. Surprisingly, he was not my least favorite member of the Villards!
The virtue of a harmonious family, which the first duke emphasized, has been upheld for a longer time than the duke himself by the Countess of Villard, a descendant of the Duke of Spencer. Thanks to this, Kyle, unlike me, who is the only child, has five siblings. Kyle’s mischievous temperament didn’t just fall from the sky or spring from the ground; his siblings tended to be similarly rowdy.
Cornelia Villard’s room, which was regarded as synonymous with the Countess of Villard, to some extent, also had the “best joke” trophy. It was an award given to the person who dressed up as the funniest person at the Joke Month Banquet, and it was no different than a mischievous guarantee check among academy students and graduates.
Unfortunately, Villard’s heir position was taken by the worst of them. I still had doubts about whether it was reasonable for Maverick Villard to succeed Count Villard just because he was the eldest son. Even setting aside the personal grudge I had for him.
“Ariel! I heard you broke up with your boyfriend. Are you still not over me?”
“You wish!”
“Brother! I told you not to tell Ari about that!”
On the road leading from the square to the main entrance of the main building, two bright red heads caught my attention. Instinctively sensing danger, I immediately turned around, but somehow, Maverick called me by whistling with his hand. He spoke too much bullsh*t to pretend I didn’t notice him, so I ended up giving back an annoyed response.
He’s still the same Maverick Villard that I know. My lifelong nemesis!
And Kyle Villard, I’ll deal with you later. How dare you tell Maverick Villard, of all people, about my private life? While Maverick looked away, I looked straight at Kyle and slit my throat with my thumb.
My history with Maverick wasn’t as long as Kyle’s and mine, but it was very deep. Ariel Dalton, before and after her debut dance, was a young girl full of dreams and love, smiling at the fallen leaves rolling on the ground and shedding tears at the dew on the petals. She also has a distorted view of love forged by numerous romance novels and bards’ songs, which led her to mistake all people who felt mature for her destined partner.
The same is true for Arthur, Quentin’s son, the stablekeeper at Dalton Manor, and also for Kyle. It was like playing house, something one would do at a young age. I give meaning to each action, interpret it as I like, and then break up after dating and getting married in my mind. They were not the real ones.
Maverick Villard, the eldest son of the Count of Villard, had such a decent appearance that even the women of the neighboring Viscounty of Dalton spoke about it. I had never seen him, so I could only imagine his appearance. However, when I turned thirteen, Count Villard, who had a chronic illness, called Maverick, who had been living in the capital, back to the estate to be educated as a successor.
He was exactly ten years older than me, so he was twenty-three at that time. It looked so cool in my eyes to see him kissing the back of Mrs. Villard’s hand while wearing the uniform of the Royal Knights of Milua, with an aura different from his peers.
After dinner, my legs went limp. It was the first fever I had in my life. My mother said it might be because I ate too much of her beef stew, but I knew my body. I fell into a flame-like first love and suffered for two weeks.
In the end, I didn’t know how to express my burning love, so I wrote a long love letter. Maverick must have considered me like his sister, or maybe even his daughter. Otherwise, there was no way he would have thought of taking it out at a banquet where all the members of the Viscount of Dalton and the Count of Villard were gathered. ‘Hello, Maverick. It is time for the flowers to bloom on Stanic Mountain.’ His spirit, which was elated, faded when he read ‘the moment I met you in the drawing room of Villard Mansion full of sunlight.’ He probably thought that it was a cute greeting letter.
Everyone around the long table looked at me. The reason I couldn’t commit suicide at that time was because I didn’t have a knife at hand. After all,the main dish, piglet sashimi, was yet to be served.
The burning love turned into a burning hatred. From that day on, Maverick Villard became the lifelong nemesis of Ariel Dalton.
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