Chapter 263

Marchioness Paanté frowned and seized her daughter’s arm.

“What on earth are you saying?”

Passing through the central courtyard, Marquis Paanté spotted the two and approached.

“Rumelisa must be tired. Why are you holding her the moment we arrive?”

“Because of the former princess, our Rumelisa nearly suffered humiliation.”

“What?”

The Marquis, who doted on his daughter, instantly scowled.

“Explain in detail. What happened?”

Rumelisa jutted out her lips like a sulking sparrow and began.

“She’d barely taken ten steps into the hall and suddenly said she was leaving.”

“The former princess did?”

“Yes! I was startled and said, ‘Please, won’t you stay a little while longer?’ And then she just exploded in anger!”

The Marchioness’s expression hardened.

“You didn’t speak rudely, did you?”

“Would I ever?”

Rumelisa clenched her skirt so tightly her hands trembled, as if reliving the humiliation.

“She shouted, ‘I said I’m leaving!’ right there in front of everyone. I was so flustered, I nearly cried.”

“What?!”

Sparks flew from the Marquis’s eyes.

Even in the most provincial noble gatherings, such rudeness was unheard of.

To arrive and immediately declare one’s departure…

And then to shout on top of it?

“No matter if it’s a children’s party, how could she be so disrespectful…”

The Marquis ground his teeth.

Arms crossed and face cold, the Marchioness said,

“Do you think it’s because it was ‘just’ a children’s party?”

The Marquis narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“The Lily Garden Party isn’t just some children’s gathering. It’s a meeting of houses’ heirs. Rumelisa is Paanté’s only heir.”

She bit out her words, glaring at her husband.

“That means the heir of House Paanté was treated as if she were nothing.”

“Hmph…”

“Do you think the former princess didn’t know how much effort I put into this party? Do you think she failed to grasp what it means that the madam of House Paanté personally petitioned Her Majesty the Empress Dowager for attendance?”

The Paanté couple’s faces flushed red with anger.

Rumelisa said with a sulky pout,

“It was mortifying. All the other young ladies and young lords just stared at me, speechless…”

“Oh heavens, how distressed my baby must have been without her mother there.”

Hopelessly devoted to her daughter, the Marchioness quickly pulled her into a comforting embrace.

Nestled in her mother’s arms, Rumelisa suddenly lifted her head.

“But thanks to Young Lady Astra, I was saved.”

“Young Lady Astra… you mean Daymond Astra’s daughter?”

“Yes! She wasn’t nearly as bad as people said.”

Before the party, Rumelisa had heard plenty of things about Erylotte.

‘That child is dreadfully brazen.’

‘The true star of this Lily Garden Party won’t be Rumelisa Paanté but Erylotte Astra.’

‘She’s cunning. Be careful not to get eaten alive.’

Even Astra’s own kin, who had ties with her parents, had said as much.

“Geoffrey Astra himself warned me. He said Erylotte Astra would ruin my party just to make herself the center of attention.”

“Well… that’s what I heard too.”

Valdrich Astra, as Duke Astra’s son, had many ties to great houses.

He was in the same gentleman’s club as Marquis Paanté, so Paanté had their channels for Astra gossip.

But Rumelisa’s eyes sparkled.

“Yet she turned out to be wonderful.”

“Really?”

“Yes. When I was floundering, she even escorted the former princess out for me…”

The Marchioness’s eyes went wide.

Their sources had said the former princess caused a grand incident at the Astra estate, targeting Daymond.

It was said his daughter Erylotte had suffered heavily because of her.

‘Ordinarily, you wouldn’t even want to see the former princess after that.’

Of course, grown adults could mask such grudges with polished social grace.

But a ten-year-old child?

No matter how her parents cautioned her, emotion should take priority.

“My, my… So when she saw you in trouble, she stepped in despite her own dislike.”

“I think so. Isn’t she sweet?”

“She’s… quite considerate, surprisingly uncharacteristic for an Astra.”

Everyone knew how arrogant the Astra bloodline was.

There were second-generation nobles among them who, without any title of their own, still commanded high lords as if by right.

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