OHNIR – Chapter 74
Chapter 74: Irony
“…Mr. Lewis,” Gloria narrowed her eyes, turning slightly to shield Kelusta behind her. “I didn’t realize you would grace us with your presence,” she said lightly. “My humble shop has failed to give you a proper welcome.”
“Good afternoon, Lady Gloria,” the heir of the Hippol family cleverly sidestepped her polite dismissal, still smiling broadly. “You mustn’t overwhelm me with such kindness… I ask you, who in the capital doesn’t know that any of the Duke’s businesses are among the very best on Newlinya Queen Avenue? It’s always been a matter of customers fighting their way in, never a reason for you to personally welcome anyone.”
In response to the clear goodwill in Lewis’s words, Gloria’s attitude was far more inscrutable. Her gaze was cold, her lips curved into a perfunctory smile, and her tone was as flat as if she were reciting a diplomatic script. “If I’m not mistaken, you are here to order a gown for Miss Tina?”
Miss Tina… Tina Hippol?
The kind noble lady famous in their year, Lewis’s sister, the one who generously gave Musen two books last time?
Kelusta was quite familiar with the name, and with the Musen connection, she couldn’t resist peeking out from behind Gloria. However, she didn’t see the count’s daughter she was expecting.
Slightly disappointed, she pulled her head back and remained obediently behind Gloria, eavesdropping on their verbal sparring.
“Your Ladyship is correct,” Lewis said with his hands behind his back, readily confirming the silver-haired girl’s suspicion with a smile. “I am indeed here with my sister to have a gown custom-made. I never expected such a coincidence, to have the honor of meeting you both here.”
“I see.”
Gloria gave a slight nod, seemingly eager to end the conversation. She turned to the manager, Mary, and said politely, “Madam, since you are still busy inside, please continue to attend to the young master and miss. I will return later.”
As she spoke, she took hold of Kelusta’s wrist, poised to turn and leave the moment she finished speaking.
…Is Lux trying to avoid the son of Count Hippol?
Kelusta lowered her gaze, her eyes fixed suspiciously on the fingers clasped tightly around her wrist. She couldn’t help but recall what Lewis had just said—
“The world is unpredictable and unfathomable. How can you be certain that your future self will be unable to afford a mere dress like this?”
The sentence didn’t seem to be a simple platitude; it felt as if it held some other, hidden meaning.
And Gloria, who was trying so hard to prevent Kelusta from speaking directly with Lewis, must also be hiding something Kelusta didn’t yet know.
What could it be…
What seemed like a long moment of deep thought was, in reality, only an instant. Kelusta came back to her senses at the exact moment Gloria was about to pull her away, only to be stopped by a single sentence from Lewis.
“Lady Gloria, why must you insist?”
The handsome count’s son let his smile fade. He shook his head with a helpless expression and sighed softly. “The Amirium family has already made its decision… Even if you still resist it on account of the late Madam Silentdis, you cannot change a fact that is already set in stone.”
—The Amirium family.
Kelusta silently mulled over the name.
She remembered that when she and Gloria had rescued Musen, Lewis had mentioned “Duchess Amirium” to Gloria, whose expression had turned quite sour.
Afterward, Kelusta had looked up some sparse, superficial information in the library. She only knew that this ducal family had been exceedingly low-key for the past decade, almost as if they didn’t exist. The current matriarch, the Duchess, had attended almost no public events. Their only recent move was collaborating with the Hippol family to develop the Potion Potency Amplifier.
So inscrutable… And judging by what Lewis just said, what major decision had the family made that could possibly be related to the late Aunt Susan?
According to Kelusta’s research, the only daughter of the Duke and Duchess Amirium had apparently passed away long ago. Of that generation, only a niece, Eise Amirium, had married Count Hippol. She was Lewis and Tina’s mother.
She buried her many questions deep inside, observing the scene unfold without a word, and continued to listen intently to the veiled exchange between the two nobles.
As if provoked by Lewis’s words, the aura around Gloria turned from calm to glacial. Her deep blue eyes stared at him until he involuntarily took half a step back. Only then did she deign to speak, her tone anything but polite.
“…What Madam Amirium decides to do is her affair. Whether I resist is mine,” Gloria said coldly. “And in terms of standing, it is hardly your place to lecture me, is it, Mr. Hippol?”
Lewis froze. Seeing that he was about to be saddled with the blame, he thought, This is bad. He dropped his pretense and scrambled to recover. “Lady Gloria, you exaggerate. How would I dare interfere with your decisions? It was merely a few words of advice from my family’s perspective… If you do not wish to hear them, please pay them no mind.”
But the duke’s daughter ignored his attempt to back down. The tips of her fingers tightened on Kelusta’s wrist, and her voice was like shards of northern ice—sharp, cold, and utterly merciless.
“Pardon my bluntness, but since Madam Eise has already married into the Hippol family, you can hardly be considered a member of the Amirium family. Therefore, you have no right to speak of a so-called ‘family standpoint’—lest you bring trouble upon yourself, and upon the Hippol family, that you cannot shake off.”
Enduring the ducal daughter’s cold glare and derision, Lewis gave a bitter smile. So thoroughly chastised he couldn’t even raise his head, he concluded with the exact same admission of fault as their last encounter: “Yes, I will heed Your Ladyship’s teachings.”
…As a bystander, she was completely lost. How had things escalated to this point?
Crouched behind Gloria, Kelusta listened in astonishment to their exchange—it could almost be called an argument.
She had rarely seen Gloria get so angry with someone.
In her memory, the elegant noble lady always took care to cultivate a gentle image, choosing to treat even those she disliked with politeness.
As such, Kelusta had never seen Gloria be so caustic before.
—It seemed this Lewis really was no good.
Her heart already hopelessly biased, Kelusta didn’t care that it was her dear senior who had backed him into a corner and forced a sullen apology. Instead, she began to feel genuinely sorry for Gloria.
Just as she was about to tug on Gloria’s sleeve to get her attention, a soft, gentle female voice suddenly drifted from the back of the shop, interrupting her.
“Brother? I thought I heard you talking to someone.”
His sister’s call was perfectly timed, rescuing him from the awkward predicament. Lewis whipped his head around and, the moment she finished speaking, practically bolted in the direction of her voice.
Gloria shot a cool glance at his retreating back but didn’t call him out on his rather impolite behavior.
Kelusta blinked curiously, took a quiet step forward, and whispered in Gloria’s ear, “Was that Miss Tina who just spoke?”
“…It was,” Gloria replied. Her expression still held a trace of displeasure, but she didn’t take it out on Kelusta. After answering the brown-haired girl’s question, she reached out to stroke the top of her head and asked softly, her voice calm, “Are you still angry with me, Ruth?”
“I was never angry to begin with,” Kelusta answered. “The gown was a gesture of your kindness. I understand that perfectly well, so how could I be angry with you for it?”
Hearing this, Gloria’s tense posture finally relaxed. She managed a faint smile and, softening her voice as much as possible, tried to persuade her once more. “I know you’re unwilling to accept my gift… but I’m sure someone as clever as you has already guessed, Ruth—”
“You will be my only partner at this year’s royal ball,” she said solemnly. “Therefore, I absolutely cannot allow you to be slighted by anyone over trivial details like your attire.”
“Lux… I don’t want to embarrass you, either,” Kelusta said, her eyes half-lidded as she let out a soft sigh. “But a formal gown is just too valuable. I can’t be as naive as I was when we were children, trading something of completely unequal value with you. That wouldn’t be fair.”
It had to be said that when Kelusta decided to be stubborn, she was a second Ricana—just as infuriatingly headstrong. Truly mother and daughter.
Now, Gloria was finally experiencing the same conflicted helplessness her own mother must have felt all those years ago.
The ducal daughter, whose gift had been refused, sighed inwardly. She opened her mouth, on the verge of blurting out, “You can absolutely afford it”—
But before the words could escape her lips, the gentle voice from before sounded behind them, offering a polite greeting.
“Lady Gloria, Madam Mary, good afternoon to you both.”
The silver-haired girl paused. She gave Kelusta, whose eyes were filled with curiosity, a long look, then pressed her lips together and turned around with a sigh of resignation. She gave the newcomer a slight nod, fully revealing the girl to Kelusta’s view.
“…”
The brown-haired girl froze.
Because she was looking at a pair of eyes remarkably similar to her own.
…But while they were similar, a closer look revealed subtle differences.
If Kelusta’s eyes were a pure, rich gold, like bright sunlight or thick honey, then the eyes of the girl being supported by Lewis were a paler shade. They were like the peel of a freshly ripened lemon, so brilliant they were almost blinding.
In stark contrast to her eyes was her pale, sickly complexion. It served to make her eyes seem even more beautiful, but it also cast her in a subtly fragile light, inspiring an involuntary feeling of protectiveness.
So this was Tina Hippol?
Kelusta blinked, a vague sense of realization dawning on her.
It was said that Miss Tina, the second daughter of Countess Eise Amirium of the Hippol family, possessed extraordinary beauty and a compassionate heart, but had been known for her poor health since childhood.
It was also worth noting that, for some unknown reason, Tina had always been deeply doted upon by her maternal grandmother, Duchess Amirium. Her brother, Lewis, however, did not enjoy the same treatment.
Kelusta had also heard from her father that her own mother, Ricana, had been frail her whole life. Despite her lively and cheerful personality, her constitution had burdened her, leaving her perpetually listless and unwell…
It was said that Kelusta’s eyes were identical to her mother’s—a brilliant, dazzling gold, much like the eyes of the frail-looking Tina Hippol before her.
The brown-haired girl frowned slightly. In her mind, it was as if a snapped string had suddenly been reconnected, letting out a sharp, vibrating hum.
Gloria’s strange attitude, Lewis’s suggestive words, Tina’s resemblance to her—it seemed… she really was connected to the Amirium family.
She let out a long, imperceptible breath. She met Gloria’s worried gaze with a reassuring smile, though a storm of thoughts churned within her golden eyes. Her gaze shifted, locking onto Tina, who stood nearby in a pale pink dress.
Meeting Kelusta’s intense gaze, the black-haired, golden-eyed count’s daughter paused for a moment, taken aback. Then, her eyes crinkled into a friendly, gentle smile as she said softly, “And to you as well, miss—good afternoon.”
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