Chapter 39

'Ugh.'

Reflectively I shuddered, unconsciously caressing the ruby ring in my left hand.

"The moment the dog bites its owner, you just pull on the leash." I told myself reassuringly.

Of course, the moment the leash strangled the dog, a fall in favor was inevitably sure to follow.

"I thought this was my only option, but why do I feel like there's something I'm missing?"'

I shook my head away from my anxious thoughts. And then I went on to the next one.

"Vinter Verdandi."

He was the first character where I felt the fear of the sudden plunge in favorability. I already decided not to look back at that moment, but when I saw the figure of "15 percent," I was a little worried. Although Vinter had the biggest drawback of having the least contact with the FL, he also had the advantage of being the one of the top person of the five.

The speed in which I tapped the paper with my pen gradually increased.

"Ha."

I threw my pen in the air in exasperation.

"Why isn't there easy route?"

It was then that there was a 'knock knock' on the door. Already in a sensitive mood because of my scribbling my voice came out a bit sharper than I intended.

"Who is it?"

"This is Pennel, Miss."

It was the butler.

"…..wait."

I grinned, and slowly arranged the papers lying on my desk and put them deep in the drawer. I allowed him in only after putting the pen I had thrown back on the pen stand.

"Come in."

'krieeeett'. Carefully the door opened and the butler came in.

"Why have you come?"

"I'm here to tell lady that the Duke wants to have a luncheon with lady as it has been a long time."

"…Lunch?"

I blinked my eyes. It was the last thing I expected. Ever since I had come here, I had been eating alone in my room.

Compared to the dinners of a nobleman I had heard about, I was honestly fed a series of absurd diets, but I was satisfied in my own way. It was better than eating rotten food or starving like the first time.

Emily, who try her best to avoid the Duke and his sons at all costs because my threat with the stabbing incident had since been especially attentive in trying her best to feed me.

'It's so much better to eat alone.'

I didn't want to go all the way down to the dining room on the first floor and have what was certain to be an uncomfortable lunch with the Duke. Moreover, I was already feeling nauseous just imagining eating under the eyes of the employees there who hated me for being a princess.

"…I don't mind eating alone in my room like I always do."

I wanted to avoid going if I absolutely could, so I gave a mild but hopeful refusal.

"I'm still supposed to be self-reflecting."

"The Duke said that he has something to tell my lady and young masters, so my lady must attend."

"You mean…you're saying that my brothers are joining too?"

"Of course."

I'm doomed. I managed to catch myself before I gave a look of utter disgust. It was foolish to show a blatant dislike of the duke and his sons in front of his closest aides.

' Huh, control your mind, you can do this…'

I breathed a deep sigh inside.

"Butler. I have one thing I would like to ask for before I go to the dining room…"

"Give me your order, lady."

At my words, he looked different.

"If you have any digestive medicine, will you bring it to my room after lunch?"

"…Di-digestive medicine?"

He asked back as if uncertain that was what I had actually asked for, after all I had not eaten yet.

"Yes."

I nodded strongly. Because I was definitely going to need it.

I followed the butler out of the room.

Everyone was already waiting for me downstairs and all the preparations for the luncheon had been prepared and was ready to go. There was really no point in procrastinating on the pretext of preparing for the meal in a hope to miss the luncheon as the immediate order of the Duke could not be rejected anyway.

"The Duke seems to be very busy at the royal palace these days."

As I was walking down the hallway in silence, the butler suddenly started a conversation with me. I had no idea that the Duke was busy. He seemed to be coming home late, but I wasn't very interested.

"Is that so."

I responded with a quiet nod and an expressionless face. I felt the butler carefully watching my face.

"In the past, every time the Duke was at home, he liked all his children to attend the dinner table regularly."

"... "

"But lately you avoid it, by any chance has something occurred for you to continually avoid the dining room?"

The question that followed made crumpled my forehead in thought.

'…Had something bad happened to Penelope there?'

Probably, after all what good would she get from stuffing food down my throat there anyway? Most likely she would have received nothing for her efforts except to be despised or ignored.

However, I couldn't blame her for going to the dinners anyway. She probably didn't have much choice like I did and resigned herself to the regular torturous meals with the Duke.

And I, who refused to give up in situations like this, never acted like Penelope did in the past. But that didn't exactly make me less miserable either.

I remember bleakly the sound of tableware coming from the dining room, and simple everyday greetings with family at meals, asking about each others day. The flawless family, functioning perfectly without me, as if I didn't exist…

"…Lady Penelope?"

I blinked at the voice calling me. Pennel, who had already reached the front of the stairs, looked back at me with an questioning eye.

"…I feel nervous."

I answered casually as I went down the stairs ahead of him.

"I've been careful not to make mistakes recently, so perhaps its a better idea to take care of my meal in my room."

"Perhaps so. No. No, Of course not my Lady. Excuse my slip of the tongue."

Perhaps Penelope's surprising words made the butler say something carelessly. Hurriedly he stopped talking and changed the subject.

"The Duke was very lonely because miss hasn't come out of her room for a while."

"..."

"So please, I ask you to participate in the dinner."

The butler's words made me laugh. I guess if your dog doesn't come back to your house after a while, you have to go looking for it.

The head of the household supposedly feels lonely, but as he never really bothered looking for his youngest daughter, who he adopted himself, or knew whether she ate or starved in the corner of her room, he lacked a lot of sincerity..

"Well then, I suppose my first brother misses me too?"

"That's…"

The butler tried to say something to my sarcastic rhetorical question, but I was a step faster.

"Open up."

And here I was, I had arrived at the dining room.

Pennel stood respectfully next to the tightly closed door and gave an firm nod to the waiters to open the up. I bowed my head humbly and readied myself to enter, though the contempt in the eyes of the waiters did not give me much confidence that this would be a pleasant experience.

It didn't matter. I couldn't afford to care less about the little extras.

The door opened, and through it were the faces of the humans I really had to deal with. The middle-aged man with the brusque face sat at the head of the table. Brat #2 [favorability 10%] and Brat #1 [favorability 20%] sat side by side on his right.

"Do you have a sense of time or not? Why are you so late?"

As soon as I entered the dining room Brat #2 [favorability 10%] started a quarrel with a scowl on his face. It was the beginning of the dinner of hell.

I naturally moved to the left because they were sitting on the right side of the duke. The butler, who had followed me in, pulled out the chair, withdrawing only after he had confirmed that I was comfortably seated.

I shuffled my feet under the table feeling like an unwelcome sinner that who should be banished.

'You said it's a family luncheon right, I am here to eat.'

Before me was a feast of sumptuous food that had never before seen since coming here. Of course, it would be difficult to eat these gorgeous foods in Penelope's room which was located all the way on the second floor, even if the kitchen staff would have allowed me to have them.

Reynold seemed dazed by my dismissal of what he said. Suddenly a stern voice fell from The Duke sitting at the head of the table.

"…Serve it."

A full-coursed meal began.

In fact, I didn't know much about the order of tableware commonly used by nobles. But as Penelope herself didn't have a lot of common-sense, I doubted that they would even notice if I failed to use proper etiquette.

'It's a good thing that you don't have a reputation to lose.'

I looked down at the tableware set in front of me and made a sidelong glance to confirm that I was supposed to use a spoon for the meal in front of me.

"…Ha"

I scoffed coldly. All the utensils set in front of me were in miniature, set as if I was a young child learning how to use them for the first time. They were blunt and utterly useless.

"What's the matter?"

Perhaps he heard my soft laughter, as the sharp eyes of The Duke right next to bored into me.

"It's nothing."

I shook my head hurriedly and looked back at my tableware mildly.

Come to think of it, they wouldn't care what kind of spoon I was eating with anyway.

'If you cared even a little bit, you'd already know what was wrong as you're sitting right next to me Duke.'

Obviously someone in the kitchen still dared to play such pranks at the princess' table.

~~~~~