It’s Trouble Because Unrequited Love Is So Fun - Chapter 27
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Your act of pretending to be pitiful—it’s all been exposed, dear child.”
Mother’s cold gaze touched my face. She let out a sneer and grabbed me by the collar.
“Whatever you do is useless, child. I have an orb that can detect the presence of all magical tools, you see?”
“…”
“So when you were young, I easily noticed when you wore those cheap earplugs to avoid my ‘precious advice’… Have you already forgotten those days?”
Seeing my face turn bright red, Mother began rolling up her sleeves and searching her pockets.
My body trembled slightly like someone with chills.
Soon, Mother’s filthy fingertips reached my cheek, my nape…
“Found it, the item you hid like a little rat.”
“Ah…!”
Mother growled as she pulled out the video orb magical tool I had hidden at my nape.
She threw the video orb to the floor, shattering it as she shouted.
“How does it feel to be exposed and made into a fool who did something stupid? Did you show this video orb magical tool to the people at Kairozen Castle, pleading ‘I’m pitiful. I’m suffering,’ hmm? Were you trying to humiliate the mother who raised you? Hmm? Is that what you did?”
“That’s not it… Cough, cough.”
I didn’t answer. But Mother seemed to be growing more confident in her assumptions.
“Since you have no magical tools, let me say this—apparently Serenthia, someone like you is useless. If you can’t do anything, you should at least listen well…”
Her eyes blazed with fierce intensity.
“Must I really use our mother-daughter token to make you obey?”
Our mother-daughter token.
When she put a bracelet on my wrist, I would naturally get beaten by her.
That wasn’t all. She whispered to me in a low voice.
“…Not just a bracelet, but maybe a necklace—”
“Stop.”
No matter how much I pretend to be pitiful, there’s just one thing.
I absolutely don’t want to reveal that I was abused enough to be beaten by Mother since childhood.
Before my regression, I died with Raphael’s crying face as the last thing I saw.
So I absolutely didn’t want to show him my crying face either.
Because I know it hurts to see tears.
Even if Raphael doesn’t love me, no one wants to show their rock bottom to the man they love.
Scraping together my last remaining pride, I whispered to Mother.
“Please stop tormenting me now.”
…And please only be as bad as I allow you to be, Mother.
Because I’ll make you pay the next price with my own hands.
Just as I made that serious resolution, a loud noise rang out.
Bang!
No, it wasn’t just a ‘bang.’
The door had completely disintegrated.
I opened my eyes wide and stared at the doorway.
‘What, what is this.’
Raphael Kairozen stood tall in front of the broken-through door.
Serenthia inwardly cheered while pretending to be flustered.
“Ah! Did you come because it was too noisy? Did you hear everything…?”
“Yes, I heard everything.”
This room had a structure where ‘one-directional’ noise between floors could be heard.
I had made it that way by changing the frequency of the mana circuits under the pretext of a ‘safety inspection.’
At the same time, I synchronized the flooring and mana circuits of the study upstairs.
Even small whispers from here would sound as loud as a megaphone upstairs.
‘The magical tools were just a smokescreen, Mother.’
The day when Raphael alone organized the weekly reports submitted by high-ranking retainers in the room upstairs.
In other words, it meant only Raphael would be staying in that upper room.
‘If other people overheard the family’s dirty laundry, it would give them ammunition against us.’
Since my goal was to appear pitiful only to Raphael and my closest allies, it was important to check ‘Raphael’s solo schedule.’
‘All plans, perfectly successful.’
An architect prepares their own kind of refreshment.
And…
‘…This is the first time in my life. Rebelling against Mother using my wits.’
Perhaps that’s why. I kept covering my rising lips while pretending to be forlorn and worriedly rambling.
“Oh my, did you hear everything?”
“Yes. I heard everything. So I have something to discuss with my mother-in-law.”
“Oh no…!”
Mother’s complexion had turned somewhat pale. Her expression suggested she had never even imagined such a situation.
“If you have something to say, you’ll say it over here.”
Raphael muttered in a disrespectful tone he would never normally use with his mother-in-law.
“Come out here.”
“No, no…”
“…Why. Should I give you some discipline.”
To anyone watching, he was clearly being unfilial.
But since the other party was Grand Duke Raphael Kairozen…
“Oh my, that can’t be!”
Mother was weak to the strong and strong to the weak.
A person whose mind worked well when it came to protecting herself.
She rubbed her hands together with a servile expression, then nodded readily.
She looked like someone who actually had something to say to Raphael.
And Raphael looked at Veronica with an expressionless face, then turned his gaze to me.
“…Serenthia Rosemary, the same goes for you. Since I played along with your plan, let’s meet again later.”
…I’m screwed.
***
I was certain.
‘My plan, it’s all been exposed.’
What Raphael said to me was practically equivalent to being caught ‘acting like a tragic heroine.’
Naturally, my complexion turned ashen.
I curled up on the drawing room sofa and thought seriously.
I should have just openly said ‘I’m pitiful so please don’t kick me out!’ and clung to his pants.
‘Acting smart and showing off… This is driving me crazy.’
As I held my head in frustration, people who had gathered in the drawing room approached me.
“Your Grace the Grand Duchess, oh my. Are you alright?”
“Look at the child’s complexion. Why is that mother tormenting the child?”
“Your Grace the Grand Duchess…”
It was Tein, Isidel, and Melorsi in turn.
Not only Tein and Melorsi, but perhaps thanks to the completion of the salon and donut-shaped building, Isidel seemed to have become more of an ally too.
Unlike these innocent and kind people, Raphael Kairozen…
“Don’t act and stay put.”
…left after saying just that.
Wow, I’m really screwed.
“Uh, as expected, I’m not okay. I’m really not okay. I don’t want to pretend I’m okay. Because I’m really not okay. The words ‘I’m okay’ just won’t come out of my mouth. Isn’t it really stupid that I can be this not okay? But what can I do. I’m not okay.”
They thought I was like this because of Mother and were bursting with indignation, but…
‘No, that mere villain isn’t a problem at all!’
The person I truly feared, Raphael Kairozen, hadn’t come out of the room where he’d been with Mother for over an hour.
I lay curled up on the sofa with the heart of a prisoner waiting for a death sentence.
“Don’t worry. From what I can see, you’ll never get kicked out. Just lie down and eat some acorns.”
…With that cryptic remark from the squirrel, I pressed myself firmly against the sofa.
The tightly closed door…
…When would it open?
***
“I have no idea what I did wrong! That’s just how you’re supposed to raise children. Hoho!”
Listening to Veronica’s useless words, Raphael still wore an indifferent expression.
“Shut up.”
Perhaps reading some kind of signal from his cold and indifferent expression, Veronica’s eyes flashed.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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