The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 54

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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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Chapter 54

Leonhardt smiled as he looked around.

“Still, isn’t it spectacular? Drakanis at this time of year is famous, so people come here specifically for tourism. The wide river is still a river, but this is the only place where so many cherry blossoms bloom in full. Cherry trees aren’t an imperial variety, so they’re quite rare.”

A wide, blue river. White flowers blooming luxuriously along the riverbank. The majestic buildings of the principality rising beyond the flowering trees. Small petals fluttering like snowflakes, creating a mosaic on the river surface. Beautiful boats flowing gracefully between them. A symphony echoing softly.

It was such a special sight that it felt natural for citizens to flock to the riverbank. Rita had been genuinely amazed at first too. Until she got on the boat.

“Yeah, it’s amazing, but…”

She trailed off.

Honestly, being on a boat only brought back bad memories, so no matter how beautiful the scenery was, she couldn’t feel relaxed.

It wasn’t as unfamiliar and repulsive as riding a horse, but she didn’t want to ruin the mood. She finished her words with half-hearted sincerity.

“…I’m getting a bit tired of the similar scenery after looking at it for so long.”

“Come to think of it, quite a bit of time has passed already. Lunch will start soon… Hmm?”

Leonhardt, who had been speaking leisurely, looked flustered. It was because of a boat suddenly approaching closely.

On the side of that yacht, as large as Raskail’s yacht, was carved a crest of a pink pearl shell surrounded by waves, holding a sailing ship instead of a pearl.

Thanks to her diligent studying, Lillieta immediately recognized that crest.

‘Duirebourg?’

As they approached close enough for people on deck to converse with each other, she could see a passenger from Duirebourg leaning against the railing.

It was Lavinia, the pink-haired noblewoman.

“Raskail Princess!”

The girl, hanging on the railing with half her body leaning out of the boat, shouted toward Lillieta.

“Come over here!”

Rita looked at her with bewilderment, then spotted Annemarie standing behind Lavinia. She had stopped trying to restrain Lavinia and was frozen, staring blankly at the person next to Lillieta.

Lillieta checked beside her.

Leonhardt was gazing at Annemarie with a complicated expression. When Annemarie’s eyes met his, she startled and turned around, disappearing into the ship’s interior.

Leonhardt gave a bitter smile, rubbed his face once, then turned to Rita with a well-composed expression as if nothing had happened.

“Rita, when did you become friends with the Duirebourg Noblewoman?”

“I’ve never really become friends with her.”

There were many things she wanted to ask Leonhardt, but she absolutely couldn’t. Rita gave a casual reply and got up from her seat, approaching the railing.

Lavinia seemed to have forgotten her status as a noblewoman, hanging on the railing and waving her arms vigorously, only stopping when Lillieta came closer.

“Raskail Princess!”

“Yes, Duirebourg Noblewoman.”

“I told you to wait and see!”

“…You did, didn’t you?”

“Look! This!”

Lavinia opened a box she was holding with a strangely triumphant expression. A silver revolver lay in the center of silk cut to the perfect size.

“I got it! From the same workshop as the one you used! It’s a Riclef revolver. I prepared the latest model! I had such a hard time getting it!”

Why is she showing me this here? And why is this the result of “wait and see”? Rita was so dumbfounded she was momentarily speechless.

Lavinia, watching her reaction, hesitated then asked quietly.

“Aren’t you proud? Aren’t you happy?”

“Pardon?”

“I worked so hard to prepare it…”

Lavinia instantly became dejected, muttering something, then bit her lip and snapped the box shut. Then she held out the entire box to her.

“Here!”

“…?”

“I’ll, I’ll give it to you. No, I’ll give it to you.”

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“Huh? Don’t you want it? It’s the latest model… They said it was the best…”

“I don’t need it.”

When Rita didn’t take the box and shook her head, Lavinia’s expression twisted.

“…That, that liar Anne…!”

The noblewoman, angry with a tearful voice, looked to the side and was visibly flustered when Annemarie wasn’t there. Not knowing what to do and floundering, she poured out incoherent words.

“Anne definitely said so. Apologize, speak politely, and give a gift, then you’ll be able to become friends with the Raskail Princess, and if you become friends, she might teach you shooting, she definitely said that, but it’s not working, we’re not becoming friends, lies, she’s a liar…”

Rita finally understood why Lavinia had been acting so strangely. A helpless laugh escaped her.

“I don’t think it’s Sister Anne’s fault, Duirebourg Noblewoman. Aren’t you missing a lot?”

“Missing something?”

“You didn’t apologize, and you weren’t polite either.”

“Ah!”

Lavinia gasped in surprise, opening her mouth. Lillieta thought Lavinia’s surprised triangular mouth looked like a rabbit.

“An, an apology…”

Lavinia rolled her large eyes around, confirmed again that Annemarie wasn’t there, floundered, then carefully asked Lillieta.

“You know, can I… apologize? Since the Raskail Princess is also a princess? Since we’re both from ducal families?”

“…Do noblewomen apologize based on status?”

“I’m the Duirebourg Noblewoman! I can’t carelessly bow to someone below me! Mom absolutely told me not to! She said not to use honorifics carelessly either! Because then I’d be looked down upon! She said I must maintain the dignity befitting a noblewoman…”

“Then just keep maintaining your dignity without apologizing.”

“But I want to become friends with you and learn shooting… Will you teach me even if I don’t apologize?”

“Do you remember what I said before about qualifications to hold a gun?”

“Someone who recognizes the power and meaning of the weapon called a gun and can take responsibility for the consequences?”

She memorized that without missing a single word. Rita was slightly surprised but replied without showing it.

“Do you think someone who can’t even recognize their own mistakes and doesn’t know how to apologize could accurately recognize weapons and take responsibility for consequences?”

“Uh…”

“You’re still someone who shouldn’t hold a gun, Noblewoman. Farewell.”

Lillieta turned around without regret. Lavinia cried out urgently.

“Wait! Don’t go! I’ll apologize! I said I’ll apologize! I’ll speak politely too, I will!”

Rita neither answered nor looked back. She could hear the sound of the short girl stamping her feet.

“Ugh… Just you wait!”

Since the last “wait and see” was an unexpected gift, the next “just you wait” would probably be quite absurd too.

Rita returned to her seat with a slight smile. Honestly, it was somewhat gratifying that someone was so passionately wanting to learn magic gunmanship.

Leonhardt, who had been waiting, saw her expression and smiled before asking.

“Are you becoming friends?”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Suddenly, the sound of a horn trumpet echoed majestically from the direction of the imperial vessel.

“Lunch seems to be ready. Let’s go, Rita.”

Leonhardt stood up from his seat.

As the sailing ship flowing along the river stopped, the nobles’ boats also gradually anchored near the vessel. Boarding bridges were laid between the imperial vessel and other boats, and nobles crossed the bridges one by one to attend lunch.

Raskail’s yacht also anchored close to the vessel and connected a boarding bridge.

While Leonhardt discussed something with the butler nearby, Lillieta leaned against the boat’s railing and watched them connect planks to create a bridge. Then she saw a yacht stopping right next to them.

‘That crest is… the Blen Viscount family?’

A crest of stars and olive branches. She remembered greeting the viscount couple at the debutante ball.

‘It was a family of mages. The current viscount’s father is the head of the Mage Association and master of the Magic Tower, and both the viscount and viscountess are mages. Their only daughter is my age and is said to be a genius mage…’

Viscount Blen was said to have had connections with Duke Raskail during their academy days. The connection with the Magic Tower that her father mentioned was precisely Viscount Blen.

She had heard that the investigation of the magic circles remaining on the coffin fragments and slipper pieces from the lake was also secretly commissioned to the Magic Tower through the Blen Viscount family.

‘I wonder when the results will come out.’

While thinking this and looking at the Blen Viscount family’s yacht, Rita suddenly widened her eyes. Her mouth fell open involuntarily.

‘Oli…?’

Perhaps the viscount wasn’t attending, as only the viscountess was waiting for the boarding bridge with a young lady in a brown dress. She seemed to be the Blen Viscount’s daughter who hadn’t come to her debutante ball, but the face turning toward her was all too familiar.

Black bob hair and cat-like upturned eyes. Though there were differences—no glasses and olive-colored rather than black pupils—it was a face that resembled ‘Oli Pascal’ like a twin.

‘How is Oli here?’

A friend of the same age and the creator who made and maintained her magic gun. A tremendous drinker, the greatest mage, and the genius called the ‘witch’ of Beacon.

Rita shook her head in a daze.

‘This is ridiculous. Another person who looks like someone, after Gid.’

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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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