“That’s right, if it’s a collaboration, it should be clearly stated as a co-composition.”

Cesare de Como approached slowly, greeting Ottavio and his close friends with handclaps.

“Beautiful Isabella, it’s been a while.”

He bent his knee flamboyantly, showing courtesy to Isabella.

Isabella also stood up, bowed her head, and extended her hand to him, and Cesare made a loud fake kiss in the air above the back of Isabella’s hand before releasing it.

“You’re still beautiful. Today, as always, your beauty befits the title of San Carlo’s greatest beauty.”

He approached Isabella closely, putting his face near her ear, regardless of whether Lucrezia was looking or not. At a distance close enough to feel his breath, the man whispered to Isabella in a languid tone as if whispering in her ear.

“Your strength is your beauty. It’s ugly to struggle to wear clothes that don’t suit you, swept up by others. Like today.”

Isabella looked at Cesare with her eyes wide open.

“Swept up by others?”

“Isn’t that so?”

“I’m not conscious of that child!”

“I never mentioned who, but you understood perfectly. My goodness, such beauty and intelligence too.”

He raised both hands exaggeratedly.

“Children! Lady De Mare is so smart!”

Ottavio and the young nobles laughed together as if in unison. Isabella’s face turned bright red with shame, and Julia de Baldasar whispered something to the person next to her and smiled, raising only one corner of her mouth.

Isabella was certain that Julia had mocked her. Camelia de Castiglione didn’t dare to laugh openly like Julia and lowered her head, desperately trying to control her expression.

As Lucrezia was about to intervene, Cesare beat her to it.

“I came to see the good music I heard about today, but I ended up seeing something unexpected. I think I’ve seen everything I needed to see, so I’ll take my leave first.”

He bowed gracefully to Lucrezia and immediately turned to leave, and Ottavio and Cesare’s group also greeted Lucrezia before departing together.

With her fiancé gone, Camelia de Castiglione, not knowing what to do, greeted Isabella and Lucrezia respectively and left, and Julia de Baldasar also stood up and left with her usual distant smile on her lips.

The other young ladies also rose en masse when Julia left.

Left alone, Isabella looked around with her eyes wide open. All that remained were the musicians belonging to the cathedral, the nun in charge, and a few priests. They were all under the absolute influence of her father, Cardinal De Mare.

Isabella, who had held back her frustration in front of the influential young nobles, now burst out:

“What are you staring at! Get out of here!!!!”

Cesare leisurely exited the main gate of San Ercole Cathedral, leading a group of friends. As he was about to mount his usual reddish-brown steed, Ottavio, holding the reins of his own horse beside him, spoke up.

“Hey, Count Cesare. What’s with the meddling?”

Cesare turned his head arrogantly to look at Ottavio.

“What do you mean, Ottavio?”

“You, didn’t you quite like Isabella De Mare?”

Ottavio shrugged his shoulders.

“Isabella De Mare has quite a strong pride. Honestly, her face is pretty enough to warrant it. Are you confident you can get over this, or have you completely lost interest? It’ll take quite some effort to coax and appease her again.”

Cesare frowned deeply. He seemed genuinely upset. He spoke with furrowed brows.

“What’s not is not. Since when has Count Cesare been unable to say what he wants while worrying about a mere woman’s feelings?”

Annoyed, he took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, glancing at Ottavio.

“If she wants to meet me, she should endure it herself. If she doesn’t want to hear unpleasant words, she should acquire a head that only speaks wise words. Do you know me so little, Signor Ottavio?”

Cesare leaped onto his horse.

“I’ll depart first. I’ll see you at the salon. I need a drink, I’m in a bad mood.”

And with that, he spurred his glossy reddish-brown steed and galloped away with the horse’s vigorous neigh.

Arabella, dragged home, was immediately pulled by her neck to her mother’s reception room by Lucrezia. Isabella was crying pitifully behind Lucrezia’s back, still in the outfit she had carefully prepared to see her friends.

“Mom, mom. How can I show my face now?”

Isabella shed tears drop by drop as if she would collapse from exhaustion.

“Did you see Count Cesare’s face? It was a look of contempt! Did you see Julia de Baldasar’s expression? She won’t even speak to me anymore! What if they ostracize me in society?”

“My daughter, my poor daughter, don’t cry. Everything will be alright.”

Lucrezia comforted her eldest daughter while stroking her hair. Then she yelled fiercely at her younger daughter trembling in the corner.

“How could you act out like that there!”

Arabella lowered her head and stared endlessly at the floor.

“N-no, that… I thought elder sister had given permission… The song was about to be presented with the wrong score…”

“Who cares if the song is presented wrong or not! That damn song! Your elder sister’s name has been tarnished, that’s the problem!”

At her mother’s words about the situation being a disaster, Isabella cried even more pitifully.

Arabella tried her best not to be swept up in her mother’s anger by thinking about how the patterns on the marble floor resembled a donkey here and a puppy there.

“You should have just stayed quiet there!”

From behind Lucrezia, who was gesticulating and scolding, Isabella chimed in to add fuel to the fire.

“That’s right! Making strange rumors about my song by meddling unnecessarily!”

Arabella, who had been trying her best to look at distant mountains, finally snapped at Isabella’s words ‘my song’.

“Your song? That’s my song!”

“What did you say?”

“It’s the song I wrote! You stole it!”

“Hey!”

Arabella gave up on dealing with Isabella and pleaded to Lucrezia.

“Mom, mom. That’s really my song. Elder sister stole it, I’m telling you. Even if no one else understands, you should know, mom.”

But what Lucrezia fixated on was something else.

“Are you talking back to your elder sister now?”

“Mom!”

“You should always be polite to your elders! Didn’t I tell you not to talk back to your elder sister?”

As Arabella started crying uncontrollably out of frustration, Lucrezia scolded her severely.

“Is ‘your song, my song’ so important? Sisters share everything! Will you take responsibility if your elder sister’s marriage prospects are ruined?!”

At the mention of ‘ruined marriage prospects’, Isabella wailed even more hysterically behind them, and Lucrezia scolded Arabella even more harshly.

“Our Isabella is such a jewel with a high name in society! Such a proud daughter of mine! I won’t tolerate anyone ruining that! Whether it’s you or your precious song, I won’t forgive anything!”

Lucrezia picked up the oak stick used for punishment. It had never been used on Isabella, and was originally only used on Arabella, but recently it had been used on Ariadne as well, reserved for the two black sheep.

“How many strikes do you want? Tell me how many strikes you deserve for what you did wrong!”

Arabella, with her face covered in tears, said to Lucrezia.

“I didn’t do anything wrong! It’s elder sister Isabella who did wrong by stealing my song! If she hadn’t stolen it, none of this would have happened!”

“You insolent child, talking back even to your mother?! And stop blaming others! How rotten must your character be to blame your elder sister even in this situation?”

– Whoosh!

Lucrezia threateningly swung the oak stick in the air.

“Kneel! Give me your hand!”

Arabella, startled by her mother’s shout, reluctantly knelt down, but she still didn’t want to be hit. Arabella twisted her body and slowly pulled her body back. Lucrezia leaned forward, chasing after Arabella as if pouncing.

Arabella tried her best to avoid her mother while maintaining the line of not openly fleeing in the narrow space, but here Isabella intervened meanly.

She forcibly pressed Arabella’s back, who was kneeling on the floor, with her knee, restraining her younger sister and offering her to their mother, and Arabella’s brief struggle came to an end.

“Give it here!”

Captured, Arabella finally held out her palm while crying profusely.

– Smack!

Lucrezia hit Arabella’s palm with the oak stick.

– Smack!

Arabella shed tears endlessly with each strike. But Lucrezia did not stop.

After completing ten strikes, Lucrezia hit one more time saying she couldn’t stand to see Arabella crying, and only then did she throw the oak stick on the floor and shouted:

“You, go to your room and reflect! You can’t go anywhere except for mass for a month! You’ll eat separately in your room! Don’t even think about seeing meat!”

Having finally received the grateful order of expulsion, Arabella threw herself out of her mother’s reception room as if fleeing.

– Bang!

The heavy brown oak door closed in front of Arabella. It was good that she had succeeded in escaping, but being kicked out still hurt her heart.

The love and bond between her mother and elder sister that Arabella couldn’t be part of remained inside Lucrezia’s reception room.

Expelled from Lucrezia’s reception room, Arabella fled to the west wing used by the children. The maids whispered among themselves seeing the little lady running away crying, but no one approached or took care of her.

From the servants’ standpoint, they were afraid of the unpredictable anger of their mistress.

Instead, in the west wing was Ariadne, who had come out after hearing about the commotion Lucrezia was causing in the east wing reception room. Seeing Arabella’s mess, Ariadne said nothing and simply opened her arms.

Arabella also didn’t say a word like sorry or that she had thought wrong, but simply jumped into Ariadne’s open embrace.

Entering Ariadne’s room, Arabella cried her eyes out in Ariadne’s arms.

Ariadne said nothing and just patted Arabella’s small back. Arabella’s tiny body burrowed into Ariadne’s embrace like a small mountain animal.

Body heat met body heat, unspoken apologies and understanding were exchanged, and no more words were needed between the two