Chapter 22 – Shopping

“Marina, why didn’t you buy more? Surely I had given you enough money,” said Mother as she browsed through what I had bought. 

I shook my head and replied, “Trends change quickly.
I figured it is best to buy new clothes when trends change than to buy a lot of them all at once.”

It seemed she liked my answer and was smiling satisfyingly at me.
“I finally feel like we are back to being a central noble.
I can see you can look out for yourself, but I’m still worried about you.”

I smiled at her concerns.
“I’ll visit on my vacation.
Please be well.”

Mother’s eyes became teary, but she soon returned to her normal, graceful state.
Then she said, “We shall be leaving now.
It’s already late, and I’m worried about Harris.”

She spoke as she turned sideways to hide her tears, and father smiled.
Then he added, “Don’t forget that you always have us.
Don’t hesitate to tell us anything if you need our help.
Oh, and I deposited a hundred times the money I owed you at the bank, so use it when you need it.”

I realized we truly didn’t have to worry about money anymore.
A hundred times? How much was that? Father had borrowed about 300 gold, so that would be around 30,000 gold.
That’s crazy, Marina.
That’s almost all the cash most middle-ranking noble families have.
It was an amount of money that I could barely save up even if I worked as a government official for 10 years.
And now I had it in my bank… I really am rich now.

“Thank you, father.”

“Also, I have one last piece of advice.
When you enter the palace, try not to come across his majesty or his highness.
I wish you to stay as quiet as possible, mostly unseen and unnoticeable.”

I felt like I knew what he meant.
He was saying that I should be careful of what I do in front of high-ranked people.
That I should not make mistakes, so I should try to be unnoticeable if I can.
Then I replied, “Of course, don’t worry.”

“I trust you, Rina,” said Father as he nodded.

I also nodded at my father, calling me by a nickname that only he uses.
Then I remembered another person in my faint memory who also used that nickname.
But that went away quickly, and I returned to reality.
As my father and I were saying goodbye, Mother was making my uncle make a promise.

“Berdian, please look after Marina,” said Mother.

“Don’t worry, Phiria.
You know very well that your brother loves Marin.”

“Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, I trust you.”

She then got up and my father also got up from his seat.
Uncle looked at Mother disappointingly and said, “You can stay for a few more days.”

“I wish I could, but Harris is alone back at home.
I have to go back and check to see if he had ran into any trouble,” replied Mother.

Yeah, Harris was a troublemaker.
He wasn’t healthy by normal standards, but he still caused trouble whenever he could.
Uncle nodded at the mention of Harris with a frown and added, “I hope he grows up soon.
He should learn from his sister.”

Mother laughed awkwardly, and I, too, laughed.
It was actually my uncle who played a role in Harry becoming what he was today.
Poor Harry.
My mother then waved her hand and bid farewell to Uncle.

“We’ll be off then.
Rey, look out for Marina, will you?” asked my mother.

“Of course, auntie,” answered Rey.

“Don’t forget to train yourself.
And Daisy, I know I can count on you.
Keep it up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

My father then held my hand and cheered me again to ease his worries.
I felt my heart warm and nodded.
Soon, the carriage with my parents began moving, and I waved at the carriage as it went further and further away.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of it until it was out of my sight.
Lumi then dragged me in by pulling on my arm.

“Marina, we had prepared your room right after we heard you’re coming.
Let’s go up and check.”

Lumi dragged me upstairs and guided me to the guest room.
I was greeted by a room much more lavish than the one I had at the estate, and I felt touched.
The room I was going to stay in was in the exact state that it was from when I stayed briefly at his house a long time ago.

“Welcome back to the capital, Marin.
We tried our best to make it look like your old room,” said Chelleno, who appeared from behind.
As I turned around and met his eyes, I became reminiscent of the days when I lived in the capital again.

“…Thank you,” I whispered.

“What? I can’t hear you.
Say it louder!”

I frowned as Chelleno pushed his ear against me.
Then, he walked into the room and sat me down on a couch.
Lumi and Jianne also took a seat on the couch across from me and looked at me.

“So, what happened? Why did you break up with that shameless pr*ck?” asked Chelleno.

I smiled bitterly.
It was all in the past now, and I thought I had forgotten about it while I studied but thinking of it made my heart ache again.
Those five years weren’t meaningless after all.
“It’s nothing.
I was the only one who liked him and realized later that he didn’t feel the same, so I broke up with him.”

Chelleno grimaced, then made a fist and almost stomped on the table but stopped.
That was because I was watching him. ‘I won’t forgive you for damaging this expensive marble table!’ And as if he knew what I was thinking, Chelleno slowly put his fist back down on his knee as he muttered some swear words.
“That damn pr*ck.
I never liked him since the beginning!”

“That damn prick.
I haven’t liked him since the beginning!”

But it wasn’t only Chelleno who hated Kyles.
Everyone around me did.
I guess I was the only fool.

“To dump our Marina over that ug- not so ugly sly b**ch.”

I guess Chelleno was a man after all, not able to say Elise is ugly.
But there was a word that I was uncomfortable with, and I made a guess.