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Madness may be a word that existed for such a moment.
The silence in the living room engulfed all of us.
Mom clapped her hands and approached me, who was dizzy.
Her jewel-like eyes sparkled as if she found a new interest.
“Girl, you’re a kid with ambition?”
No.
I shook my head in disagreement, but everyone looked like they didn’t have any intention to listen to me.
“As expected of our Marianne. Isn’t she really different from others?”
When Orion turned proud, Lord Duke next to him looked at Mom and then seriously nodded.
Even though I had already seen his confused eyes, he controlled his expression as if he wasn’t shocked at all, and then spoke to me.
“I can always support you if there’s anything you need, so you can ask me.”
“That, but I don’t have anything I need.”
“That’s right. Because her friend is a wealthy person, she has no worldly desire.”
Mom added.
However, the moment I was glad with that, her eyes curved like crescent moon.
The mouth that was opened again struck my back.
“I’m surprised that you actually have a desire for power.”
“Excuse me, I don’t.”
Abigail swiftly joined the conversation.
“Just please let me follow under you, Young Lady! I didn’t even think of becoming your right hand!”
“I already have a right hand. It’s on my wrist.”
I really couldn’t understand why you kept insisting to enter under me.
When I sent my burning face to the paper I was holding, my mother was interested in the fluttering paper.
It seemed like the word ‘disciplinary’ she slightly saw caught her attention.
“What is that?”
“Nothing.”
Young Lady Liz shyly answered the question that didn’t need to be answered in detail and kindly.
“Ah, that is confirmation of disciplinary action from the academy. The student council asked Young Lady Marianne to get stamp or signature from her ‘guardian’—”
Right at that time.
Orion turned his head hard to the paper.
I hid the paper behind my back because I felt uneasy and spoke calmly.
“Well, it’s true, but I think I can just sign this myself. This is nothing big.”
Although Orion already knew about the disciplinary action, I still hadn’t told Lord Duke and Mom about this so I got more embarrassed.
Staring at me, Lord Duke parted his lips.
“If it’s guardian, I think it’s right for me, the Duke, to sign that.”
As soon as he finished saying that, Mom tilted her head.
Then, she looked angrily at her husband and claimed her right.
“Oh my, but she’s the daughter I gave birth to?”
Orion, who was blinking while listening to them, had his face turned blue.
Like a person who fell into danger because he lost something important, he quickly said.
“I, I’m her older brother, so I also have the right as the guardian . . .”
Everyone looked like they had no interest in the disciplinary action.
I couldn’t believe they were fighting over who would sign the confirmation of disciplinary action, not even asking why I received disciplinary action, or what kind of disciplinary action I received.
It would be better if they just scolded me.
Then, the embarrassment wouldn’t make me want to leave this mansion right away.
I stared at them quarreling, then I approached Abigail and whispered.
“Go to my room with Liz. For now, let’s leave this place.”
I saw Jeremy with a curious face stealing a glance inside the living room through the opened door.
I slowly put the paper on the living room table.
Then, I spoke calmly.
“I’ll leave the confirmation paper here. I’ll go up now, so whoever it is, any of the three of you can sign or stamp this and give it to me by tomorrow.”
As I left the living room, leaving behind three people competing to show that they were my guardians, Jeremy glanced at me.
Then, he asked in a low voice.
“If it’s based on status, I’m the highest, then can I also become your guardian, Marianne?”
My feet stopped completely.
The face of the young boy who was gradually tainted with the bad atmosphere of this mansion was innocent.
I did hear that the more innocent one is, the more easy it is to get tainted.
I hoped he wouldn’t get influenced by Orion anymore.
I lowered my head and warned him.
“Jeremy, there are things you can learn and you don’t need to learn in this world.”
“. . .”
Looking at the boy with a rough and rebellious stare, I calmly asked.
“Do you want to hear that you’re an excellent pupil just like your teacher, Orion?”
“My apologies. I was wrong. I’ll reflect on this.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief at the boy’s repentance that fortunately was said without a moment of hesitation.
After sending the prince who was determined to reflect on himself to his room, there was Liz and Abigail waiting for me in my room.
“Next time please, don’t talk with Orion or my other family members.
Whether the side that gave distorted information, or the side that accepted it, it was me who was tired mentally.
Abigail calmly nodded.
I sat while holding my twitching head.
There was a reason for me to not just send them home from the living room.
“For your reference, I have no such a thing like ambition. I also have no intention to become the best. However, if someone attacks me first, I have no reason to be generous and just accept it.”
In the end, if the academy issue hadn’t touched me in the first place, no matter how rotten it was, I wouldn’t have gone ahead and made a scene.