Chapter 4 - That’s Your Role, Not Mine (2/2)

How could this person exist? I mutely blinked my eyes at her. Even if Maristella wasn’t executed, she would have died early from stress. I was sure of it. No, would Maristella even recognize this situation as stressful in the first place?

I plastered a fake smile back on my face. “If you say something confidently, then I’m sure your reputation will survive, Rothe!”

“Yes, but! Today you’ve been so cold to me,” Dorothea grumbled, blissfully ignorant of the rudeness of her entitlement. I couldn’t get used to this person. First she asked me to tie her ribbon, and now this.

“I think you’re acting a little strange today, Marie,” she chirped.

“…”

Abnormal people were the ones who saw normal people as abnormal. But it was still too early for me to say that, so I decided to save my retort for later. Instead, I said this. “I was always like this, Rothe.”

“No, Marie.” Dorothea strongly shook her head. “You weren’t like this before.”

“How was I like before?” I asked with genuine curiosity. To be exact, I wanted to hear what Dorothea thought of Maristella, though I didn’t expect anything less than pretentiousness and tactlessness.

“The old you was not like this. Up to the last time we met, you only cared about me. You were never this cold.”

“I still only think of you, Rothe,” I lied, but Dorothea didn’t seem to believe it. “I’m looking out for you using my most reasonable judgment.”

“If you really were looking out for me, then why did you just sit there like that?’

“Your view of ‘looking out for you’ is different from my view of ‘looking out for you’. I’m doing it my way. You do your way. Isn’t that fine?”

“Why can’t you do it my way?” she insisted.

I did my damndest to be patient with her. “I am not you, and I have my own thoughts. It’s perfectly natural for me to act on my own judgment, Rothe. I’m not your doll, but a living person. You can understand this, right?”

“….”

Dorothea kept her mouth shut as if she couldn’t find the words to refute me. But in actuality, I thought that she was probably thinking, ‘Can’t you live as my doll?’ She probably thought the minimum amount of respect was enough.

“Lady Dorothea, we have arrived,” the carriage driver announced.

The Bellafleur mansion was relatively close to the Trakos mansion. I smiled casually and bid Dorothea farewell.

“Goodbye, Rothe.”

“…Goodbye.”

It was amazing that she still had some sliver of manners. Given her personality, I thought I would be told to shut up and go away.

Shortly afterwards, the carriage carrying Dorothea set off for her house, and as I watched the carriage disappear, I smiled. I knew that she’d stick to me even after this break up.

Because Dorothea couldn’t do anything without Maristella.

***

“Ah, you’ve arrived, My Lady?”

As soon as I entered the house, I heard Florinda’s high voice and saw her rush towards me.

“Why are you greeting me so excitedly Florinda?” I asked with an awkward smile.

“I always greet you like this,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders, and I decided to act as naturally as possible. In fact, the biggest challenge for me was not that ridiculous tea party I was at earlier, nor that cancer that called me her best friend.

It was this house itself. There was almost no description of Maristella’s surroundings in the book. As far as I could remember, Florinda’s name was mentioned only a few times. I should be given infinite praise for even remembering that trivial date.

In any case, that was all I knew of the situation, and I had no idea the circumstances Maristella had grown up in, what the atmosphere was like in the Bellafleur family, or even if she had siblings. The author never bothered mentioning any of it. If there was only one thing I knew, it was that she did not lose her parents early in life.

“Sister!”

A strange voice pierced my ears. With a puzzled expression, I turned my head towards the sound. A blonde-haired girl was running towards me. I took a few steps back, startled, but she didn’t slow down. Who on earth was she?

Florinda, who was standing next to me, stopped the girl. “Oh dear, Lady Martina. You’ll get hurt.”

“But I’m so glad to see her!” The girl called Martina turned towards me with a sunny expression. “Sister, you’re back now!”

“Huh? Yeah—”

“Were you with Lady Cornohen again?” she said, her voice wary.

I wanted to lie, but I decided to be honest. “Yes.”

“Ugh, you saw her again!” Martina’s expression crumpled as if she hated the idea of me seeing Dorothea. I studied this doll-like girl as she scrunched up her features. Judging by the title by which she addressed me, this must be Maristella’s little sister. Given that she hated Maristella seeing Dorothea so much, she must have grasped Dorothea’s hypocrisy early on.

Too bad Maristella didn’t notice it until it was too late.