WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Malfoid
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Don't Need a Family ◈
Episode 32
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* * *
“She came back?”
The Duke asked again after hearing his aide’s whispered report.
His voice was as booming as it was self-assured.
Loud enough for Gillian, bent over his work in a corner of the study, to hear.
Gillian realized it.
He would not be able to focus on work for the rest of the day.
His quiet heart began to pound violently.
Ah. So this was how it ended.
Strangely, instead of excitement, his heart chose to grow cold.
He felt neither gratitude nor relief that his younger sister had returned safely.
Instead, his head filled with nothing but emptiness and resentment.
‘It was that easy.’
Had she tormented him so much over something that would end so quickly?
As all the tension left him, he began to resent every moment of effort he had wasted on this matter.
Once again, Father had been right.
Why had he not realized it, after seeing it firsthand for years? If they gave her no attention, she would quietly return.
Gillian regained his composure and lazily lifted one corner of his mouth.
Then he returned to his work.
As if Vivette’s return had stirred no emotion in him at all.
The Duke was no different.
He haughtily leaned back in his chair.
“Did she say she wanted to see me?”
“She requested that Your Grace make time for her, as she has something to tell you.”
“Is that so?”
Enjoying the silence, the Duke tapped his fingers against the desk.
After a brief thought, he spoke.
“As you know, I am not such an idle man.”
“Of course.”
“Send her to the drawing room and have her wait. If she has any shame, she can endure that much.”
He intended to make her wait deliberately. For hours, or even days.
Until his daughter wept and begged him to see her.
Only then would she understand her place and reflect on her actions.
He needed to teach her a proper lesson while he had the chance.
The Duke leisurely lifted his already empty teacup and took a sip.
* * *
“This way, my lady.”
The main house maid greeted Vivette with a beaming smile.
She had a habit of dragging out the ends of her sentences, but today she stretched them endlessly.
Like everyone in the main house, this maid disliked Vivette.
The biggest reason was that her wages had been heavily reduced after the recent incident.
‘You tattled to Lady Fadde and got me in trouble. Serves you right.’
The maid found it deeply satisfying to see Vivette looking exhausted, as though she had suffered on her journey back.
Still, she made no effort to show it.
She knew Vivette Ashwilt herself would be the most embarrassed.
There was no need for the maid to act spitefully when there were others ready to make Vivette’s life miserable.
Who else could it be?
The members of House Ashwilt, furious with her.
‘Just look. They sent the daughter who ran away straight to the drawing room.’
No matter how refined and elegant a drawing room for receiving guests might be, it could never be as comfortable as one’s own room.
If they truly cared about their daughter, they would first send her to the annex bedroom and tell her to soak in a hot bath.
But the Duke had not done so.
He pretended to be courteous, but in reality, it was no different from making his daughter stand there as punishment.
As if to emphasize that this was where she belonged.
After only a few days away, she had become someone who could not even enter her own room. How pitiful she must feel.
Being driven even from the annex and confined to one corner of a tiny drawing room.
Her family no longer treated her as family, but as a guest.
“The drawing room.”
Seeing Vivette murmur that to herself made the maid even more pleased.
“Please remain here until His Grace calls for you.”
The maid shut the door with a bang and snickered as she turned away.
The young lady had finally been completely cast out by her family!
She had subtly mocked Vivette countless times before, but never had she enjoyed a day as much as this one.
“What are you laughing at?”
If only Young Lord Harris had not picked a fight with her while passing by.
“Oh, Young Lord Harris.”
She was not an impudent maid, so she respectfully bowed even to Harris, a member of the collateral branch.
But Harris looked displeased for some reason, his face sour.
“Can’t you read the room?”
“Pardon?”
“The whole household is like this, yet you are the only one who looks happy. Are you enjoying your work that much?”
I feel miserable enough already.
Harris was taking his bad mood out on someone completely unrelated.
The maid found it absurd.
What was supposedly wrong with the atmosphere in the household?
With that woman who stirred up trouble every other day gone, the place had never been more peaceful.
Even His Grace and the eldest young lord seemed relieved.
The main house servants were the ones putting up with Young Lord Harris wandering about gloomily for days.
And he had the nerve to say that?
But she was a maid, and Harris was a young lord of this house.
It was unfair, but she could not risk being dismissed, so she quietly lowered her head.
“I apologize.”
“Things are gloomy enough with my sister gone, so let’s keep quiet, all right?”
“Ah... Miss Vivette has returned.”
“What? When?”
“Just now. She is in the drawing room. Ah!”
The maid stopped the thoughtless young lord as he immediately turned toward the drawing room.
“What?”
“His Grace has not seen her yet.”
“She just arrived, didn’t she? Shouldn’t he be in there talking with her by now?”
“His Grace is busy. He has no time to see the young lady.”
“So I look idle to you? Is that it? Because I wander around the house with nothing to do?”
The ill-mannered brat was openly picking a fight.
He did not act like this with other servants. Only with her.
The maid could roughly guess why.
‘He must have heard us talking behind Miss Vivette’s back the other day.’
We had cursed her for punishing the entire main house, calling her mean and selfish.
It had happened when several main house maids had gathered together, easing the strain of their hard day by gossiping about others.
But that sweet little gathering had ended before they could really let loose.
Cold water had suddenly poured down from the laundry room ceiling like a flood.
Getting their hair and padded clothes soaked through on a freezing winter day was one thing, but the real problem was something else.
They had been in the room where dry laundry was folded.
It was the day the head maid had scolded them because the laundry they had spent all day washing had not dried in time.
They were the ones who had suffered in every way, yet Harris, who had poured cold water over them, had been the angrier one.
It was enough to make her furious.
‘Damn it. From now on, I should make sure the windows are closed before I gossip.’
The maid had no choice but to pretend she was properly repentant.
“I did not mean it that way. I apologize.”
It was an unfair and humiliating apology, but it did not reach Harris’s ears.
‘So Sister Vivette is in there.’
If he opened the door and stepped inside, he could see her right away.
But there was no reason he had to.
The thought of going in and facing her made him uncomfortable.
His sister had walked back into this miserable estate of her own accord. That was all.
Leaving and returning were both her choices, so she would have nothing to say.
She would have no choice but to love him as she always had.
As for what came next... well, somehow, it would work out.
It felt as though all he had to do was lie still with his arms open, and their ruined relationship would mend itself.
That was how it had always been.
Was Vivette’s one good quality not her ability to smoothly mend even distant relationships? She would figure something out herself.
If she wanted to get along with him again.
In any case, hearing that his sister had returned released the tension that had built up over the past fifteen days.
He should go rest now.
* * *
I stared intently at the old wall clock in the drawing room of Ashwilt Estate.
“What time is it?”
That eccentric clock would not even tell me the time.
At House Ashwilt, you had to send mana into a clock to turn it on before you could check the time.
It was not an ordinary clock, but an expensive mana-powered clock. Keeping it on all the time would waste mana, so they only turned it on when necessary.
It was like having to tap a smartphone before the time appeared.
Which meant that, without mana, I could not even look at a clock in this house.
That had not been a problem for Vivette.
There was nothing in the entire house she could do by herself, but she had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
So she had maids.
People willing to do anything at a single word from her.
‘What good is that? I can’t even check the time without someone else’s help.’
All the lights were mana lamps, so I could not even turn on a light.
I could not wash my hands because I could not turn on the water.
It was like being Choi Eunseo again, back in my previous life. Not much different from the life of a patient.
The servants who had been clearing snow earlier had cursed me behind my back, thinking I could not hear them.
They said it must be comfortable, living entirely on other people’s strength.
It was not comfortable. And it was not happy.
Plaford was practically the Middle Ages compared to Erenston, but the few days I had spent there were far better.
At least my hands and feet had not been tied there.
Just as mages saw Vivette as a woman incapable of functioning properly, I saw that clock as a completely useless object.
“Even a clock looks down on me for being a person without abilities. It will not even tell me the time.”
Still, it was pretty to look at.
Even when it was not running, it was valuable enough to justify its price.
“...”
I was bored. I had been left alone here for hours.
Why else would I be wrestling with a clock?
What time was it now?
The sun had practically set, but the Duke had neither any intention of seeing me nor of sending me away.
What was he planning?
“Lady Fadde will worry if I stay out overnight.”
She might wonder whether the Duke had caught me.
The lady had nearly jumped out of her skin, saying the Duke might seize me and lock me up the moment he saw me.
If I did not return home for a whole day, she would step in.
‘If that happens...’
Then the maid from earlier entered, pushing a tray with a light knock.
“His Grace says he may be delayed, so he asks that you have dinner first.”
Dinner? They had not even offered tea and had turned me away at the door, but now dinner?
“...I do not know etiquette very well, but is it normal to dine in a drawing room?”
Was the drawing room not for drinking tea?
If they truly wished to serve a meal, proper etiquette would be to invite me to the dining room.
If I were a guest, that was.
And if they wanted to treat me like family, then I should be sent down to the dining room too.
‘Do they want to treat me like family or a guest?’
Well, it did not matter. I would act like a guest.
I stood before all the dishes had even been placed on the table.
“My lady? Please eat quickly.”
“No. It is not polite to stay at someone else’s house until late, is it? If it is time to eat, I should take the hint and leave.”
“Someone else’s house?”
“This is not my home, is it? Isn’t that what you wanted to show me?”
I shrugged at the maid, whose mouth had fallen open.
“If they still treated me as their daughter, they would not tell me to eat in the drawing room. I am leaving.”
“No, my lady! Where are you going? House Ashwilt is serving you a meal.”
I glanced at the maid.
Her tone was meant to sound flustered, but her expression failed to hide itself.
The mockery was obvious. She was making fun of me.
I flashed a grin.
“Serving me? I suppose House Ashwilt serves guests the same food as its maids.”
“Ah.”
“I will not thank you.”
I threw open the door and walked out without hesitation, only to meet the eyes of the man standing at one side of the corridor.
The Duke of Ashwilt’s aide.
I did not know why he was standing guard here, but I calmly walked past him.
“My lady? Where are you going?”
“To eat dinner.”
“That will be difficult. His Grace and the young lords are in the main house dining room.”
When I lifted my chin as though I did not understand, the aide trailed off awkwardly.
“Ah... You are not going there? Then, the annex dining room? If it is the annex dining room... No, that will not do either. In any case, you can no longer enter there. It is no longer your residence.”
“Then what?”
“I understand that the main house has prepared a separate meal for you. Though it may be inconvenient, could you please have it in the drawing room?”
“That will not do.”
I spoke with a relaxed expression and a faint smile.
“Meals are for eating with family.”
A look of disbelief crossed the aide’s face.
“Why are you being so unreasonable? Did you think you would remain family forever? You were the one who abandoned us first, yet how can you speak of family?”
He spoke as if he were scolding me.
Even so, he remained polite, so I did not bother pointing it out and walked away from him.
“My lady!”
The aide called after me repeatedly, but I neither turned nor stopped.
Then I left through the main house entrance.
It was evening, so I had to go home.
I had to return and eat with my “family.”
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