Chapter 12
“Oh, this? Are you curious about this?”
“That is my mother’s keepsake. Why do you have that necklace?”
“Oh, is that so? I didn’t know, but the butler told me. I heard your mother got it from father when she was pregnant with you. He said that Father gave it to her because he thought your mother was conceiving a son. However, you were born as a daughter instead, so isn’t it only right to return the gift?”
Callaine said as she took off the necklace. Then, she extended her hand, holding it above the pond.
Her action clearly showed what she intended to do.
If Callaine loosened her grip, the necklace would fall into the pond.
“Now that I think about it, you wore this necklace to the triumphal ceremony.”
“…….”
“Do you want this? I guess you and your low-born mother did have a strong bond with each other.”
As she took Nadia’s silence as a good reaction, Callaine smiled from the sense of victory she felt.
This was it. This was this illegitimate child’s weakness.
“Try begging me on your knees. Beg for my forgiveness for not knowing your place, a child born of a concubine. Tell me that you won’t do anything dumb again. If you beg for my forgiveness to my liking, I will give this to you.”
“…….”
“Come on. If you keep procrastinating, I am going to throw this into the pond.”
Instead of answering, Nadia closed her eyes and recalled memories of her past.
Callaine took her mother’s belongings as a pawn.
She wanted to recover the traces of her late mother.
Inside a large and lonely mansion without a single person to lean on.
Yes, it did happen before.
Nadia slowly opened her eyes and asked.
“If I beg on my knees… Will you really return my necklace?”
“Of course. It’s only important to you, and I got a lot of this.”
Nadia, who returned from the past, knew the future.
That Callaine wouldn’t return her mother’s keepsake to her.
‘I was so young. I was so lonely. I begged servilely because I wanted to have my mother’s keepsake.’
Nevertheless, in the end, Callaine broke the necklace.
Nadia couldn’t feel her sincerity at all. Callaine’s expression when she had her maid hit the necklace with a hammer was still vivid in Nadia’s mind.
Angry Nadia recklessly rushed to where her half-sister was, and the servants simply overpowered her desperate struggle.
For 15 days, Nadia ended up having to take care of herself in an attic in a separate house for making a fuss about it.
Because the Duke of Balazit paid no attention to trivial matters such as why his first daughter was upset.
Nadia’s eyes, recalling memories of the past, subsided coldly.
“Think about it. This opportunity won’t come again… Argh!”
Callaine couldn’t finish her words.
It was because Nadia kicked her ankle, which made Callaine’s body tipped over.
Nadia pushed her tripping half-sister into the pond.
Splash!
It wasn’t a deep pond, but her party dress was quite heavy. As it absorbed water made it twice as heavy.
As a result, Callaine couldn’t stand up and had to flounder.
“What did you do? Huff!”
“You’re not going to give it back anyway.”
Nadia lifted her feet and pressed her half-sister’s head, who was floundering in the pond.
Callaine, who barely managed to stand up, sank back into the water.
The reason why Nadia felt relieved about Callaine’s flustered face wasn’t that she had a bad personality.
“Gasp!”
“When I was young, I once thought about it very seriously. Why do you hate me? If I behave as you told me to, will you recognize me as a family member? Will I be able to live peacefully as a member of this family?”
Nadia continued in a sweet tone.
Meanwhile, her shoe was steadily stepping on the half-sister’s head.
It made Callaine breathe little by little because Nadia would get in trouble if she really died.
“Of course not. You are going to hate me no matter what I do.”
It was a lesson learned from past experiences.
That a low-born child could never be a part of a Duke’s family.
That no matter what she did, Nadia would never receive sincere affection from anyone in the family.
Soon after, there was a sound of people approaching, so Nadia stopped stepping on Callaine’s head.
It seemed that they gathered after hearing Callaine’s scream.
When she took her foot off, Callaine’s head came up to the surface.
She stared at Nadia fiercely, like she would kill her at any moment.
To be honest, she wasn’t even that scary because her face was messed up with snot and tears.
Nadia immediately leaned down and pretended to rescue her by pulling her arm.
In the meantime, she whispered to the sister’s ears.
“This is because you have hated me for no reason since a long time ago.”
“T-T-This crazy b*tch–!!”
“It’s okay, Callaine. I’ll give you a reason from now on. Why you could hate me.”
Nadia gave Callaine a smile at her crumpled face. A very bright one on top of that.
There was someone who hated her for no reason. Therefore, she would grant that person a reason now.
It was the second purpose she had made since returning to the past.
Soon after, people rushed to the pond.
“Someone fell into the water!”
“Bring something to cover her up! Hurry up!”
The nobles who found Callaine drowning like a mouse began to make a fuss.
A young man of a noble family took off his outer coat and put it around Callaine’s shoulder.
Nadia picked up the necklace that fell on the grass while others were busy helping Callaine.
Then, the party host, Duke Balazit, appeared.
“Nadia! Callaine! What in the world is going on here?!”
“Boo hoo! F-Father!”
Callaine burst into tears like the world had betrayed her as soon as she came into Duke Balazit’s arms.
Her wet from head to toe appearance was utterly embarrassing.
However, the Duke only demanded an answer in an annoyed tone, as if her biological daughter’s pitiful appearance didn’t shake her conscience.
“Didn’t I ask you what’s going on?”
“Boo hoo… S-Sister Nadia was….”
“Don’t cry. Speak properly!”
“She pushed me into the pond! It wasn’t enough for her, so she stepped on my head so that I couldn’t come up!”
People’s eyes turned to Nadia. Even though her younger sister accused her of drowning her in the pond, Nadia’s expression was calm.
The Duke of Balazit asked suspiciously.
“Is this true, Nadia?”
“It’s a lie.”
“What?!”
Callaine’s teary voice turned sharp.
“What are you talking about? You pushed me!”
“No matter how embarrassed you are to trip by mistake, you shouldn’t lie like that. Why would I drown you on this great day?”
“T-T-This… You shameless…! You did it because you wanted to have my necklace!”
Callaine, again, hung on to her father and cried.
“She, sobs, tried to take my necklace away! Look at that! She’s holding my necklace! I was just resisting so that it wouldn’t be taken away, but I fell into the pond when I struggled.”
“That’s a lie, too.”
Nadia calmly added.
“If I had tried to take away her necklace by force, there would have been traces of the chain on her neck. She took off her necklace with her own hands to brag to me. Then she slipped into the pond and dropped her necklace. I just picked it up.”
“······!”
People’s eyes turned to the back of Callaine’s neck.
The neck of the well-maintained noble daughter was clean without any blemishes.
It was evidence that Callaine had untied her necklace with her own hands.
As people’s eyes turned at her suspiciously, Callaine’s face heated up.
Conversely, her accusation was seen as a deliberate effort to hide her embarrassment of the accident. Callaine couldn’t refute and didn’t have a choice but to keep her mouth shut.
Nadia continued to talk, drooping her eyebrows she was wronged.
“Callaine, I don’t know why you’re doing this to me. Are you doing this because you’re upset that I’m getting married?”
Then Nadia apologized to the guests who gathered around the pond by slightly bending her knees.
“I apologize to those who came to celebrate my engagement. My dear sister must have been grumpy because I, her only sister, said I was leaving her somewhere far away. I hope you could understand her with your generous heart.”
“What… What….!”
Callaine tried to say something, but the Duke cut her off.
“Callaine, be quiet!”
It was very unlikely that Nadia, who was quiet and not greedy, would have had a physical fight just because she wanted Callaine’s necklace.
Moreover, there was no chain scratch on the Callaine’s neck, so it was natural that Nadia’s words were more plausible.
The Duke knew how Callaine hated her half-sister Nadia so much, but to think that she even made a fuss in front of his guests!
Of course, the Duke, who valued honor over anything, was furious.
“Your body is cold. You’d better go into your room and rest before you catch a cold.”
“F-Father!”
Callaine’s face turned white at his order which didn’t sound sincere at all.
“I’m innocent! This is unfair!”
“Aren’t you going? Hurry up and take Callaine to her bedroom.”
The maids who were ordered by the Duke helped Callaine struggle on both of her sides.
They held her gently, but it was a force that she, a young woman, couldn’t overpower.
Eventually, Callaine had to leave with a flushing red face.
When Callaine was dragged out semi-forced, a cold silence filled the air.
Such an awkward atmosphere where the guests were looking at each other. The Duke cleared his throat loudly and tried to fix the situation.
“It seems that the sisters had a small quarrel. On behalf of them, I apologize for making such a fuss on a good day. I hope you all go back inside and enjoy the party.”
Then, as if he was embarrassed, the Duke hurriedly left his place.
As the Duke returned to the party venue, the guests gathered also began to return inside one by one.
The main star of conversation among the party guests was definitely Callaine.
The women, who had ill feelings toward Callaine, laughed and whispered.
“Oh, my. What’s going on? I can’t believe the precious princess of Duke Balazit embarrassed herself!”
“Well, she doesn’t have a normal personality anyway. I thought she might end up embarrassing herself one day, at least once.”
“I am sure she is going to stay low for a while because she has humiliated herself.”
It seemed that many people had clenched their jaws because of Callaine.
Nadia, who managed to take her mother’s keepsake, smiled a little and walked away.