MLIIWTFL Chapter 219

 219

—We’ll probably have to pay a visit. Let’s ask Lady Averil to arrange a date.

"You think so too, right?"

Letticia sighed, and from the other side of the communication stone, Seraphina asked worriedly.

—If it’s too difficult, should I go alone?

"No, it would be too much for you to go alone. They’re all like stone walls."

Letticia recalled the frustrating behavior of those people at the hearing five years ago, no matter how thoroughly she explained things, they stubbornly insisted they had done nothing wrong. At some point, she had even thought it might be easier to prove the existence of God to an atheist than to convince them.

—In any case, I thought we’d need to meet them and speak face-to-face. The Duke hasn’t properly educated Lady Averil, and even when given the opportunity, he keeps insisting it’s unnecessary.

"Just so you know, we could spend an hour arguing and still get nowhere."

—Then we try for two hours. Or three. If we keep pushing, we might find a breakthrough.

At times like this, Letticia couldn’t help but wonder if Seraphina was actually more optimistic than she was.

But unlike Seraphina, Letticia didn’t have that much patience. This time, she wanted to resolve things efficiently.

'…First, I should look into the Duke’s household.'

Up until now, she’d relied only on knowledge from the original story and hadn’t thought to investigate the Averil Duchy directly. Now, she made up her mind to do just that.

***

After giving Camilla some advice about fruit cream tea food for the first summer tea party, Letticia enjoyed a lemon cream éclair that suited her taste and asked.

"Mother, do you know anything about the Duke and Duchess of Averil?"

"That’s a sudden question. Why do you ask?"

Camilla had been happily enjoying a strawberry cream éclair, but at the mention of that name, she subtly furrowed her brows, as if her appetite had waned. Still, she didn’t ignore her daughter’s question. After a sip of tea to cleanse her palate, she answered.

"I exchanged greetings with the Duchess once at my wedding. But we didn’t talk much. The couple left the reception in less than five minutes."

"Only five minutes?"

"Staying any longer wouldn’t have done them any good. At the time, the Duchess was the social pariah of the capital. Even though she came from a perfectly respectable high-ranking noble family and had everything, beauty, refinement, all of it, people still found reasons to hate her. On top of that, she was the daughter of a quasi-noble who didn’t even have a title. It was like she’d walked right into the lion’s den."

Letticia already knew some of this from the original story. The social circles had despised the Duchess of Averil due to her low noble birth, and the Duke, furious that his wife was being mistreated, turned his back on the capital’s society and retreated to his eastern territory.

"So between her status and the Duke’s reputation, which one caused the Duchess more hardship? I heard the Duke had such a bad reputation with women that it really ruined his image."

"Both were serious, but what made it worse was the latter. Throwing wine on someone who insulted his wife was the least of it, he once released such a threatening aura in public that he made a person collapse, and then humiliated them while they were down."

Camilla clicked her tongue and took another bite of her éclair.

"I get that he was angry, but that was the wrong way to go about it. Even Patrick, who was treated like a mere jewelry peddler who seduced me with his looks, handled things wisely."

"So he was right to be angry, at least?"

"Yes. People were treating the Duchess, who was supposed to be the noble lady of a Duke, as if she were some common-born mistress. They would deliberately send her the wrong dress code or arrival time to embarrass her, and even said awful things about her unborn child. Truly disgraceful behavior."

"Definitely worth retaliating for."

Letticia also frowned. She, too, had at times refused to include someone in a conversation or deliberately chosen an impossible poem for them to memorize in order to embarrass them but that had always been mere retaliation for what they had done to her. And even then, she had her own line she would not cross.

But this? This was nothing short of base harassment. No wonder the Duke had grown so weary of high society.

"I agree the revenge was justified. But the capital’s nobles saw it differently. To them, he ruined a whole noble family just because they gossiped a little about his wife. And they’re the kind of people who’d rather die than see the order and traditions of high society disrupted."

"So you didn’t take part in the bullying, right, Mother? You just stayed out of it?"

"Well, I wouldn’t say I did nothing, but I didn’t help her either. I was too busy putting on a show to get your father to marry me."

"Oh, was that when you were pretending to be lovesick?"

"Yes. I spent all day at home pretending to be ill, and it was exhausting. Then came the wedding prep and all, so I hardly went out. And even if I did get invited to a gathering, the Duchess wasn’t invited, so we didn’t run into each other."

The kinds of gatherings Camilla attended were the most coveted in the capital. There was no way they’d have invited the Duchess, who had become society’s scapegoat. It made sense that they never crossed paths.

"More than anything, I didn’t want anything to do with the House of Averil."

"Why? Was there something between Averil and Wade? Now that I think about it, it seemed like the Duke knew you."

"It was better when we just didn’t know each other. Honestly…"

Camilla grimaced with irritation and called a maid to bring some iced tea. Even after taking a sip of the cold drink, her expression remained sour as she continued the story.

"Back when I was being bombarded with marriage proposals, before I met your father, Countess Freke suddenly said that a great noble from the east wanted me as his daughter-in-law and invited me over to her estate. Then she sent me and that man out to the garden for a walk, saying young people should spend time together."

"Oh…"

Letticia sighed, already guessing how it went, even if this wasn’t in the original novel, it followed every cliché of a romance fantasy plot.

"It was the former Duchess who wanted me as a daughter-in-law, but the man himself said he had no intention of getting married and told me not to get the wrong idea, just enjoy the walk and leave. So I snapped back, asking who said I even wanted to marry him in the first place, and he looked at me with this baffled expression like he couldn’t believe it. Seriously, what did I lack that I should grovel for his attention? It’s not like I have no other prospects just because I can’t become the Duchess of Avril."

"That’s something only you, Mother, could say… well, maybe I’m the same way."

Apparently, the trait of rejecting arrogant, high-status men who already had someone else was hereditary.

"I was already sick of dealing with boring men, and then I had to listen to one who thought every woman in the world would fall for him. I sort of snapped. We ended up raising our voices, trading barbs about underhanded schemes and axe-murderer tendencies… in the end, we both agreed to pretend the meeting never happened."

"Wow, you’re so bold, Mother. I don’t think even I could handle someone calling me an axe murderer."

"I was young. If it happened now, I’d use more clever sarcasm, but back then, I resorted to rather… colorful language."

Camilla took another sip of her tea with a slightly regretful look. Letticia popped the last piece of her lemon éclair into her mouth and asked.

"So, do people not know about the proposal between you and the Duke?"

"It wasn’t exactly a secret, so it did get around, but since nothing came of it, people quickly lost interest. Besides, right before the Duke and his wife announced their engagement, word got out that I was dating Patrick. So while there were comparisons between us, no one tried to spread rumors linking me and that man."

Which was truly a relief. If the Duchess had gotten jealous and the Duke went on a rampage, or if Camilla had lost her temper and caused a scandal, or worse, if Patrick had quietly plotted something from the shadows, things could have gotten very messy.

"Anyway, why are you asking about all this? Is it because you’re thinking of inviting Lady Averil to gatherings and working with her on business, so you want to be informed?"

"Well, that too... but actually, I agreed to teach Lady Averil etiquette and decorum at the gatherings. But the Duke didn’t give his permission, so I plan to visit him in a few days and try to persuade him."

"Do you really have to? If he doesn’t allow it, you could just not teach her."

"Lady Averil herself wants to learn, and Lady Eskis is really eager to teach as well. And honestly, I just... feel a little sorry for her."

Her initial desire to stay away from the original heroine had long since faded. Though she still felt reluctant because of the ducal family, her concern for Ariette and her wish to support the girl’s efforts to grow had come to outweigh that hesitation.

If this was the charm of the original heroine, then it truly was something remarkable.

"Poor lady… The late duchess would sigh if she could see her now."

Camilla muttered cynically and said no more. Letticia couldn’t help but agree.

Would the duchess have wanted her daughter to reach adulthood without ever learning proper manners or even how to manage household affairs, without knowing what she was truly good at?

At least, the duchess in the original story would never have wished that. And the real one… likely wouldn’t either.

'…What a complete mess, seriously.'

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🍓; Social pariah, someone who is rejected, avoided, or shunned by society or their social group.