“Being the top… I want to become the biggest breadwinner.”

“So you’re saying you will enter the chess tournament.”

He nodded his head. What would be the point of refusing to go to the chess tournament after hearing that? He wanted to go to the youth chess tournament that Kito Baron had hindered, but there were more than one or two problems. Among them, Isabel’s reaction was the biggest.

…It won’t work. Let’s put off convincing her for later. Can I play chess avoiding Isabel’s gaze until then?

He was lost in thought. He naturally stopped eating, and Yurik extended a chicken dish in front of me. The smell of the roasted dish suddenly brought him back to his senses.

Before I could say anything, Yurik put the chicken dish into my mouth. The smell of the fire spread in my mouth. The bitter taste at the end made my worries fly away.

“Want to eat more?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

When I nodded, Yurik tore off a chicken leg. He stared at the leg from which the flesh had popped out. I thought it would be placed right in front of me.

Contrary to my expectation, the chicken leg went to Yurik’s plate. Yurik skillfully cut the meat into bitesized pieces and put them on my plate. Was it like a mother spreading meat for her children?

“I’m sorry. Did I cut it too small?”

“No, no. It’s delicious. Thank you, Yurik.”

As I put all the meat on my plate into my mouth, Yurik smiled slightly. He seemed quite proud as he repeatedly put the sliced meat on my plate and stared at me.

“Hey, me too, me too! Will you give some to me?”

What?

Watching us, Yune reached for the chicken dish at the end of the table. Yune’s short arm didn’t reach well. As things didn’t go as planned, Yune groaned and stood up.

Just as Yune managed to grasp the chicken dish and drew a smile.

She lost her balance. Yurik’s arm, flailing with her toppling upper body, pushed the dishes aside.

“Ah!”

“Watch out!”

A sharp shattering sound rang out. The dishes that fell to the floor shattered into pieces. Yune almost fell too, but I, who was nearby, barely caught her arm.

Underneath the chair, the broken pieces of the dishes were menacingly scattered. We all froze, staring blankly at the debris.

“Yune!”

Mrs. Fenton yelled. She jumped up and examined Yune’s body. Yune’s dress was dirty, but thankfully, she was not scratched or injured.

“What were you thinking? What if you got hurt?!”

Mrs. Fenton turned her head and looked at the broken dishes. She instructed us not to get up, looking at the pieces scattered quite far away. At the noisy sound, the maids who were far away began to move quickly as well.

Yune was frozen in shock, unable to even burst into tears. The Duke of Fenton glared at her.

“Yune! What would you have done if you got hurt, just like your mother said?”

“I’m, I’m sorry…….”

Tears welled in Yune’s eyes. She was confused, about to cry again. But the atmosphere was too tense to comfort her.

“Yune.”

The situation was chaotic. Taking advantage of the gap, Yurik called Yune.

He examined Yune’s stiffened arms and legs in surprise. When he saw the sauce smeared on Yune’s hand, he wiped it off with the handkerchief he was holding. Yurik carefully wiped every joint of Yune’s fingers.

“Brother…….”

“Yune. The most important thing is that you’re not hurt. We can buy new dishes, right?”

“……Really?”

At Yurik’s gentle words, Yune burst into tears again. This time, she went into her brother’s arms, not her mother’s.

Her loud crying made even the maids cleaning up the dishes, and the Duke and Duchess who were watching, pause for a moment.
The Duke and the Duchess relaxed their frowned faces and looked at Yune, trapped in Yurik’s arms. When Yune grabbed Yurik’s clothes and cried, the previously angry Duke and Duchess were silent.

They seemed to regret having just yelled at Yune.

“I’m sorry. Yune must have been quite startled.”

“Yune, I’m sorry too. I got angry, thinking you might be hurt. Really.”

At the words of the Duchess and Duke Ertman, Yune nodded slightly. But she kept hiding in Yurik’s arms, sobbing, not wanting to show her face.

Some people were cleaning up the glass fragments, some were reflecting, and some were watching it all from afar. Not doing anything. Just watching quietly.

At that moment, I was a nonexistent person. In this Fenton family, I was nothing. I was not included in the tightly bound rope.

Lise Marsen was, in this place, just a guest. That fact made me feel pathetic.

“Lise, sorry. It was suddenly chaotic, wasn’t it?”

The Duchess said to me, who was standing dumbfounded.

“……No, it’s okay.”

It was really okay. Really, this incident didn’t inconvenience me.

However, only a feeling of emptiness lingered in my chest.

When dinner was over, the sky, which had surely been bright, had turned dark. As I stepped outside the mansion after receiving the greetings from the Fenton family, I saw Biti shivering.

“Miss! You finally came out!”

“You’ve been waiting here all this time? I specifically asked a Fenton maid to take you to a warm place.”