“...What?”

“Take that with you and stomp on him.”

She’d seen it last time—how naturally Juella swung. That wasn’t the form of someone who’d only hit a person once or twice.

Even our pathetic Ravi has never raised a hand.

Ravi had dragged Camilla toward death more times than she could count, and he’d explode in anger at the slightest thing, but he’d never used violence. Not once.

The Duke of Sorpel and Ludville were the same. No matter how much she messed up and wore them down, they’d never lifted a hand to her.

“Do you think he goes around hitting people wherever he goes? Of course not. He gets drunk on his own strength and runs wild because he knows you can’t move, can’t fight back.”

Even Arsian—who got called the worst piece of trash under the sun—didn’t start by throwing punches at random.

His image just hardened into ‘rabid thug’ because he growls and bites everything in sight.

If you looked at the ones Arsian had gone after, they always fell into one of two categories: they mouthed off to his face, or they mouthed off behind his back.

And “mouthed off” was putting it kindly. They were the kind of trash who spewed every word they should and shouldn’t—like Bellak.

“Your brother’s rotten to the core. Where does he get off laying hands on people.”

Gambling, violence, stupidity. He had a nice, even spread of the worst traits. A man with so many problems there wasn’t even room left for redemption.

I should’ve hit him with a pointed heel back then, not a flat shoe.

Sometimes a beating really was medicine.

Still, it wasn’t too late.

“Do you know what the most painful beating in the world is?”

Camilla let out a light laugh as she looked at Juella—who was still a little dazed—and gently fluttered the gambling-debt papers in her hand.

“Money.”

“...Money?”

Juella repeated it blankly, then her eyes slowly widened. Only then did she understand what Camilla meant.

Camilla added one last line for her.

“Go beat him as much as you want.”

*****

“Mantiz!”

The papers Count Bakes threw went flying, filling the room.

“What the hell are all these?!”

“Dear, calm down.”

“Does it look like I can calm down right now?! Look at these documents! You made them come to me to get their money! And it’s not a small amount!”

“Mantiz must have his reasons. But if you push him like that, what are you going to do? He’s scared and can’t even speak properly.”

“Grrr—”

Count Bakes forced himself to swallow his fury at his wife’s words.

But unlike what Countess Bakes said, Mantiz didn’t look scared at all—if anything, his expression was painfully indifferent.

He even shot Count Bakes an irritated glare.

“Why are you getting so mad over something like that?”

“What?”

“That amount of money, I can refill it in no time.”

Mantiz kept complaining as if he genuinely couldn’t understand why Count Bakes was angry.

“Those bug-like bastards. Over that? That’s how much they’re whining about?”

They had the nerve to go to his father to hound him over debt?

It was absurd. And at the same time, he was disappointed in his father for getting this worked up.

When you gambled, sometimes you won and sometimes you lost. All he had to do was win back several times the amount next time and put it back.

“That’s right, dear. A man can gamble. That sort of thing happens.”

“Look at the amount! At this rate I’ll have to liquidate a whole business! What did you do with the inheritance I gave you, and why did you take on debt in the family’s name?!”

“Th-That’s......”

Even Mantiz couldn’t answer that one properly. He just kept dodging Count Bakes’s eyes.

“What is it, Father? Are we broke?”

Whether they fought or not, Kayrin had been sitting off to the side with a bored look like it was none of her business. Only now did she finally react.

“I told you I’m getting clothes tailored at JL Shop this time. Their clothes are insanely expensive. You’re not saying I have to cancel, right? I barely got a reservation!”

At the sight of his daughter looking like she might burst into tears any second, Count Bakes and his wife hurried over.

“Don’t worry. Go and get whatever you want made.”

“Of course. If our daughter wants to buy it! There’s nothing to worry about at all.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

Worried she might even get her feelings hurt, the two of them kept soothing her.

“What is he even doing out there? He can’t be causing trouble for me, can he?”

“Shut it.”

“Mantiz, don’t yell at your sister.”

“That’s right, son. She’s your only sister. You should get along.”

As she soothed the two of them, Countess Bakes reproached her husband with her eyes. She didn’t like that he’d stirred up unnecessary chaos over something so pointless.

So what if it was a gambling debt. Just pay it off somehow and move on. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

KNOCK KNOCK.

Then, with a presence at the door, it opened, and someone stepped inside.

It was Juella.

The moment she appeared, the air in the room turned cold.

No one bothered to hide their discomfort, and Kayrin actually curled her lips into a sneer.

“Where have you been this whole time.”

“I had a lot to take care of.”

“Take care of what? Work?”

Count Bakes immediately furrowed his brow and clicked his tongue. How could there be not a single thing about her he liked.

“You should be out there building a relationship with Lady Sorpel...”

“I was with Camilla until just now.”

“Ah—hem.”

Count Bakes instantly had nothing to say. He cleared his throat again and again.

Juella watched him in silence for a moment, then slowly lowered her gaze.

Papers were scattered everywhere. They looked no different from the documents Camilla had just handed her.

So these were the other debts Camilla mentioned?

“How much gambling debt did you even rack up?”

The moment Juella brought up debt, everyone there scowled.

Mantiz, especially, didn’t even try to hide his anger. He strode right up to Juella, lifted a finger, and tapped her forehead—tap, tap.

“Who the hell are you to butt in?”

“I’m saying it because I’m worried. The debt you took on—this isn’t all of it.”

“Ha.”

Mantiz let out a laugh like it was ridiculous, and his hand got rougher. The way he shoved at her head made Juella’s body sway.

“So I’m asking you—why does it matter to you? You’re nothing.”

Even while they watched it happen, not a single person there tried to stop Mantiz.

If anything, they looked at Juella like she was pathetic, as if he was right. How dare she try to lecture her brother again.

“How long are you going to keep living like this?”

“What?”

“Juella, how dare you say something like that? Such bad manners! Is that what I taught you? Apologize to Mantiz right now!”

Juella stared at her mother without speaking.

When an argument broke out, her mother always sided with the other two—nothing new about that.

So why did her chest feel so tight today?

Rather than anger, bitterness rose first.

“Just tell ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ her to get out. We’re talking as a family, so why is she even in here? She seriously has no sense.”

At Kayrin’s sneering words, Juella’s gaze slowly shifted to her.

This was something she’d heard countless times, and she’d always brushed it off.

She’s still young. She’s still shocked that we aren’t real sisters. Juella had soothed herself with that, again and again.

“Where did you even pick something like this up from—!”

SMACK!

A dead silence fell over the room.

Even Kayrin—who’d just been slapped—stood there with her head turned, unable to react for a long moment.

What... just happened?

“Y-You...!”

Only after a while did Kayrin clutch her cheek and look back at Juella. Tears welled up in Kayrin’s eyes.

If it were before, I would’ve panicked and tried to calm her down immediately.

I would’ve said it was a mistake, that I was sorry, begged and begged—until Kayrin cooled off.

But...

“Such bad manners.”

Juella threw her mother’s own words back at her, her gaze colder than it had ever been.

Kayrin flinched and trembled. Even she could tell now—this wasn’t the Juella who always gave in to her.

“Juella!”

Only then did Countess Bakes snap out of it. Screaming like she’d lost her mind, she rushed over and shoved Juella hard, as if to yank her away from her daughter.

“U-Uh... W-Waaah!”

The moment her mother got close, Kayrin burst into tears.

It was the first time she’d ever been hit—and the fact that it was Juella felt humiliating and unfair all at once.

“What do you think you’re doing?! You hit Kayrin?! How dare you! You—You!”

“My brother always hits me.”

“Th-That’s...!”

“When my brother hit me and split the inside of my mouth, you said that, didn’t you? That I shouldn’t have been rude to someone above me. That it was my fault. So I disciplined Kayrin too. She was rude to someone above her—me.”

“Y-You...!”

“How dare you talk back!”

When his wife couldn’t even continue, Count Bakes hurried forward and shouted at Juella with a murderous glare.

“You really are beyond saving! Apologize to Kayrin right now!”

“Waaah!”

“She’s seriously lost it today.”

“Can’t you hear your father? Apologize to Kayrin right now!”

Juella looked at the four people surrounding her and said nothing for a moment.

Then a hollow laugh spilled from her lips.

Was this all I’d been protecting all this time?

The price of all that endurance was... this?

What had she even been expecting?

What did she want so badly that she’d forced herself to swallow everything for so long?

After laughing for a while, she pulled something out from her clothes.

A communication orb.

And it was already connected somewhere—glowing with a bright light.

“Camilla.”

“Speak.”

The moment the voice flowed out of the orb, the room fell silent.

Everyone looked openly flustered.

Count Bakes was no exception. He couldn’t understand what was happening at all.

Why was she connected on a call?

And to Lady Sorpel of all people?

If it had been connected from the start...

No.

Then that means—

“N-No, then what just happened...!”

Camilla heard everything?

Count Bakes’s face went pale, as if he at least understood they were in the wrong.

Given that he’d recently been desperately knocking on House Sorpel’s door to secure trade with the Gracia Empire, it was an unbelievably awkward situation.

“Camilla... I think I’m glad I listened to you.”

“.......”

“You heard it too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”