Seeing him talking to me first when he wasn’t even angry felt different.

I glanced at the butler standing next to my father. He must have told him what happened.
His attitude had definitely changed since I found the lead pot in the kitchen last time.
And it was also the butler who rushed to take the maid outside earlier.

“Is it true that she came here just to say thank you, hm?”

My father urged me as if he was impatient. I spoke in a humble tone.

“It wasn’t a big deal… Her Highness seems to see me in a good light.”
“It’s not a big deal when Her Highness came to the castle?”

The butler, thinking that I was embarrassed, stepped in.

“Her Highness seemed to think of Lady Yuria in a very special way.”
“Yes, even I, the Duke, haven’t seen Her Highness Princess Vivian for years. What did you do?”
“I apologize. I can’t tell you because she asked me to keep it a secret.”

To be precise, I asked her to keep it a secret.
The fact that Princess Vivian hadn’t gone out because of her skin wasn’t really worth hiding now that she had improved.
However, it would be difficult if it was discovered that I was the one who improved the princess’ skin by making cosmetics.
Princess Vivian generously allowed me to make an excuse, saying it was something related to the imperial family.

“Is it something you can’t tell me, even as your father and a duke of the empire?”

I shook my head to the end. However, I knew that my father would rather like my appearance like this.
As expected, he buried himself in the chair with a satisfied expression.

“That’s right, if it’s something related to the imperial family, you should be cautious. You must be careful. I’m glad you’ve changed for the better lately.”
“I should be the one thanking Father for seeing me in a good light. I didn’t expect you to compliment me like this.”
“You must have done well to receive Her Highness’ favor. According to the butler, you were good at receiving her.”

Although it was fine to wrap this up after being praised by my father…

“Is hospitality also important, Father?”
“You’re saying something obvious. Would it hurt to continue to be acquainted with the imperial family? Besides, how great is the symbolism that the first place Her Highness Princess Vivian visited, after not going outside for years, is the ducal castle!”
“Aah, that’s such a great thing!”

I let out a long sigh of relief as opposed to my father, who burst out laughing, excited.

“I almost didn’t get to meet Her Highness, but I’m glad it went well.”
“What? You almost didn’t get to meet Her Highness?”
“Well… I didn’t think the reception was that good today. Her Highness got angry twice…”

I lowered my eyes and made a tearful face, then smiled brightly.

“But the good thing is that Her Highness didn’t scold me and let it go! So you don’t have to worry too much…”
“Her Highness got angry? What do you mean? Tell me everything about what happened from beginning to end.”

My father’s expression hardened. I continued to speak innocently, as if I didn’t notice such signs.

“When Her Highness came, Brother told me not to meet Her Highness ever again. Because he caught and wouldn’t let me go right when Her Highness came, I almost wasn’t able to meet her.”
“What, that’s ridiculous. What crazy thing did that bastard Jiksen do!?”
“Still, she said that she came to see me. Since she was my guest, I thought I should meet her at all costs…”
“Of course, since Her Highness came here, how rude would it be not to meet her!”

My father, who was getting angry, faltered as he was getting up from his seat. He seemed to want to grab my brother by the collar at any moment.

‘He’s impatient.’

But wait a moment. It wasn’t just your son who caused big trouble today.

“Calm down, Father. Even if I had listened to my brother, she wouldn’t have been stood up. Lilika was going to meet her instead…”
“… What?”

As I added, my father’s face turned cold again.
Seeing that his face, which had been burning up like an active volcano just until now, had changed coldly, I remembered the saying that when a person is really angry, all expression disappears from their face.
Anger on top of anger, this was exactly it.
But I pretended not to know.

“Aah, but Lilika thought that since I was late, she would be the one to welcome the guest instead. How thoughtful is that child? But Her Highness was very angry… I think she just needed to talk nicely.”
“… Yuria. Be quiet for a moment.”

It was a very different voice from before. His tone, which had been higher than usual because he was excited, had long since disappeared.
My father turned his head to the butler with a blunt face.

“Tell me what Lilika did.”
“First of all, when I went there, Young Lady Lilika had already…”

The butler calmly continued.
Even though he only told him exactly what had happened without exaggerating anything, my father clenched his teeth loudly.

“Ugh… I tried not to say anything because it’s embarrassing. Sister often breaks her promises or cancels plans. I apologize for saying this, but my sister…”
“Are you saying that you are better than your father, that you would serve a guest that came to the duchy instead of him? You know what I’m going to talk about and want to serve me instead?”
“Is your master’s order… more important than the imperial knights escorting me?”

The fact that Lilika told the princess to talk to her instead of the person she was personally visiting.
The fact that I was only ten minutes late, but she exaggerated it as if I had committed a grave sin.
And even the fact that despite us telling the maid to withdraw from the place because we wanted to be alone, she endured it to the end…

“How could a mere maid hold out in front of the Princess! With what happened with Vieira, how can a member of the prestigious Primrose family do such a disrespectful thing!”

Bang!

He struck the table with his clenched fist. One of the vases at the table fell and shattered, making a loud noise.
But in this atmosphere, in this situation, no one cared about the vase.

I made a bewildered face and cautiously spoke to my father.

“I think it’s a big problem that the maid didn’t back down right away… But there’s no way that Brother Jiksen or Lilika would have given such an order.”

My father yelled.

“Alright, tell Jiksen and Lilika to come here right away!”

The butler told my father that he had reprimanded the maid right away, and that she had been sent by my brother. That he told her to stay close to us no matter what, and that it would be fine even if I got angry because he would take responsibility…

“Take responsibility? What are you going to do if you disrespect the Imperial Family!”

Then, Brother Jiksen, who had been summoned, was sweating profusely because of my father’s anger.

“You threatened Yuria not to meet with Her Highness, didn’t you? Who are you to say that?”

He was my cherished brother, who my father said would become the heir of the family.
Yet, he chose to say something like ‘who are you’. It was quite shocking.

“F-Father. It’s not like that. It’s because it’s Yuria. I was worried that she would be rude…”

My brother began to stutter at my father’s words.
It was very rare, but it seems that what he said to me earlier wasn’t the only surprising thing.

“I just… d-did it out of concern. Above all, I didn’t know Her Highness had come at that time…”
“Oh, don’t you know that standing Her Highness up is an even bigger problem?”
“I meant to refrain from meeting Her Highness in the future… I d-don’t know how it was distorted in a way that interrupted her meeting with the Princess who had come to the castle.”
“So, someone who doesn’t know that suddenly sent out a maid?”
“What? A maid?”

Brother Jiksen opened his mouth with a dumbfounded face.

“Ah. So you mean that Lilika was the one who said that it would be better to stick a maid to them, since you didn’t know what Yuria would do if she met with Her Highness?”
“M-me?”

When the criticism returned to her, Lilika clasped her hands with an embarrassed face.

When did he pretend to think about Lilika?
He was hiding behind his younger sister because it seemed that the damage was coming towards him.

——