<20>
‘Oops!’
I’m going to get hit. Rowena reflexively closed her eyes tight and covered her face with her arms in a defensive posture.
Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered much, but if she got hit in the face, it would show.
It would also interfere with the modeling job Seymour asked for.
‘Most of all, Airi will be upset.’
It was a good deal if she could win the fight just by taking a hit to the arm once.
However. No matter how long she waited, the pain did not reach her arm.
Rowena opened her eyes slightly. Then, she saw a familiar face.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
Dante was holding Donna’s arm.
Dante’s cold face was sharpened even more fiercely than usual.
Even Donna flinched at that savage momentum. Flustered, Donna frowned and burst out in anger.
“Yo-you, what are you! Let go of this?!”
“Did I not ask you? I asked what you are doing right now. Were you really trying to hit this child?”
At Dante’s fierce snap, a look of panic washed over Donna’s face.
Donna shook off her captured wrist and raised her voice.
“So what, wh-what are you going to do about it? That kid picked a fight with me first. It’s just a minor squabble, isn’t it? If it’s none of your business, stay out of it!”
“Whether it’s a minor squabble or whatever, this child came here as a model. Just know that if hitting the child interferes with the filming, you will have to take responsibility for everything.”
Unlike Donna, who was screaming loudly, Dante continued calmly and then glanced at Rowena.
“……And it’s not like it’s completely none of my business.”
At the voice that flowed out almost inaudibly, Rowena’s complexion brightened up instantly.
‘Dante!’
I thought he wouldn’t come back inside because he left saying he hated me.
As expected, was he a little concerned about me?
Or maybe saying he hated me was a lie.
Whatever!
Rowena giggled excitedly.
“That older sister looks like a dog’s paw, but I think Dante looks like a cat’s paw.”
Hearing Rowena’s words, Dante’s brow furrowed at once.
“……Don’t use strange metaphors. And I’m not helping you because I like you.”
“Hmph.”
It was a compliment in its own way.
‘Cat paws are squishy and cute.’
However, it was similar in that one had to be prepared to be scratched by claws to touch those squishy parts.
If you approached a cat to see its paws, you were likely to end up with claw marks on your face, and Dante looked exactly like that.
As her thoughts reached that point, Rowena suddenly realized one thing.
‘That’s right? Dante is just like a cat.’
A cat’s expression of emotion does not show well on the outside.
Only the expression of dislike is revealed. But that doesn’t mean there is no way to become friends with a cat.
Because someone who knows cats well can also recognize a cat’s expression of affection.
‘Then if I get to know Dante a little better, wouldn’t I be able to become friends with him?’
First of all, I like Dante.
When Rowena beamed a giggle at Dante, Dante frowned and turned his head away.
It was an attitude as if both of them didn’t care at all about Donna, who was right in front of them.
There was no way Donna wouldn’t notice this fact.
“Not only did these things dare to laugh at me, but they even ignore me?! Papa!”
When Donna, whose face turned beet red at the insult she was experiencing for the first time, called for her father at the top of her lungs, Rowena muttered in surprise.
“Ah, calling an adult to a kids’ fight is cowardly.”
Both Dante and I don’t have a father, so we can’t call one. It’s cowardly.
But Donna had a father. And he was right nearby.
“My little princess, what’s the matter!”
“Why are you so late! Do you know what they just did to me? They ignored me and threatened me! What was Papa doing not being here at a time like this!”
“What? Such a thing happened? Just who are those rascals!”
“It’s them! Them!”
Donna’s father, Count Devon, glared at
Rowena and Dante.
“You lot, just what family are you from to behave so rudely! Did your parents teach you that? I need to meet those parents of yours!”
“I don’t have parents!”
“Wh-what?”
At Rowena’s words, Count Devon seemed momentarily flustered, but soon let out a hollow laugh.
‘I thought as much.’
He had shouted, but he had looked for the parents just in case these children might be from high-ranking families; to think they are orphans.
Then the only possible answer is that they are children receiving sponsorship from a noble family.
They receive support because they have talent, but they are in a position where they can be kicked out at any time if they cause trouble. It is a position that cannot even be compared to his precious Donna.
Once the calculation was made that he could look down on the children, Count Devon openly despised them and clicked his tongue.
“I thought as much. This is why those raised without parents are no good. Tsk tsk, since there is no home education, who knows what they will do and where? I don’t know where you get sponsored from, but don’t live like that. Hmm? Otherwise—”
“Otherwise, you will pay the price for speaking thoughtlessly, Count Devon. Just like you.”
At that moment, a chilly voice intervened between them.
All attention at the scene turned toward the owner of the voice. An embarrassed voice flowed from Count Devon’s mouth.
“Du-Duke Somerset?”
Seymour, with a face much colder and sharper than usual, was walking toward them.
His deep eye sockets and irritability from overwork already gave him a scary impression, but since he was openly showing that he was angry, he was truly no different from a grim reaper.
“If what I heard just now is correct, Count Devon. It seems you have insulted a child I personally sponsor and my nephew. Is that correct?”
“Ne-nephew? I was just this girl—”
“That child is the one I brought to be my successor. Do you dare to insult Somerset?”
The sharp momentum constricted Count Devon even more fiercely.
‘Wh-what kind of……!’
Even a single wrong word would be like strangling his own neck.
No matter how much the rumors spread that Duke Somerset himself had become a wreck, one simply does not have the confidence to cross the Duke Somerset family.
Furthermore, the current Duke Somerset family might be called one family, but in reality, they were in a situation no different from being one body with another powerful family, Hayworth.
In the end, no matter how much he rolled his brain, the only thing he could say was simple.
“I am sorry, I did it without knowing anything!”
“I suppose so. Rather than doing it while knowing, jumping in front of a running carriage would be a more comfortable way to go. Is there a need to go that far?”
Seymour said that with a face devoid of even a hint of a smile, and then called Ober and said:
“Rowena and Dante were insulted by these people in the dressing room. I don’t want to breathe the same air as them for even another moment, so I shall take the children and leave now.”
“Ah, no. Your Grace. But after that work over there is finished, we were supposed to paint Lady Rowena…….”
Ober tried to hold onto Seymour somehow with a look of great shock, but it was none other than Rowena who put the finishing touch on this matter.
“I want to go……. I’m scared. If I don’t go and eat cake, I think I won’t be able to sleep because I’ll keep remembering this!”
“So it seems. Then we shall come back tomorrow.”
Seymour finished with those words and picked Rowena up, adding before leaving:
“Ah, from next time, I hope there will be no occasion to meet them if possible. The child might want to leave early again.”
If you want to work with Rowena again, it meant making sure Donna and Count Devon never set foot in this art studio again.
It was the final killing blow.
Rowena returned to the mansion just like that and ate cake while surrounded by the maids.
The strawberry fraisier cake that Hugo served with a wide smile was a taste that made her completely forget the fear of an adult’s threat.
Of course, there was no such thing from the beginning!
Rowena ate the cake diligently with plenty of cream smeared around her mouth.
Of course, Dante received the same cake as well.
“Dante, your contribution to this matter was great. Good work.”
When Seymour said that and left the room, a light smile played on Dante’s lips.
However, it was only for a very brief moment.
‘Huh?’
Rowena, who was diligently eating her cake, suddenly raised her head.
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