The next day, following his father’s suggestion, Rodney prepared to leave the mansion early in the morning for a company tour.

Dressed in casual clothes, Rodney fidgeted with his sleeve, seemingly uncomfortable. Due to his growth, the once-fitting clothes in the mansion no longer suited Rodney.

“Why don’t you wear the clothes you brought instead?”

Isabel suggested, watching Rodney fidget with his sleeve. Rodney shook his head.

“They’re all comfortable clothes. I should dress up properly when going to father’s company.”

“But you’re uncomfortable.”

“I’ll be back soon anyway. Don’t bother preparing new clothes while I’m gone. I’ll grow more, so those clothes won’t fit later either.”

Isabel’s silence suggested she had been planning to get new clothes, just as Rodney said.

As Isabel stood quietly, her intentions exposed, Rodney smiled slightly as if he had known all along. Before heading out, he tightened his bootlaces one last time and straightened up.

I watched Rodney intently as he was about to leave. Noticing my concerned gaze, he ruffled my hair. His expression said to leave everything to him.

Although Rodney had such a personality, he was someone who did his duties well. Moreover, if there was something he absolutely had to do or a goal to achieve, he would accomplish it perfectly.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Take care.”

After Rodney left and the door closed, Isabel stared at the door for a while before glancing at me beside her.

“What are the other children doing?”

“They’re probably still sleeping.”

“It’s almost breakfast time, they should wake up now. Lize, why don’t you go wake them up?”

“What? The maids will wake them up anyway…”

“Wouldn’t they wake up better if their sister does it?”

With those final words, Isabel walked away.

Usually, it was the maids who often woke up the siblings. Even on normal days, the maids would struggle to open the eyes of the siblings who were heavy sleepers.

The fact that Isabel assigned me a task usually done by maids meant she vaguely knew about the awkward relationship between me and my siblings.

I checked the clock in the hallway. With ten minutes left until breakfast, the second floor was quiet.

I hesitated in front of Felicia’s door. Even if I wanted to wake up the other siblings, the maids were already standing in front of their doors, knocking. In contrast, for some reason, only Felicia’s door was quiet.

“What are you doing in front of that door?”

Bitty, who happened to be passing through the corridor, asked. She was holding a large broom, probably about to clean the mansion after finishing the laundry. Before I could answer her question, I saw maids forcibly opening the doors of the other siblings’ rooms and entering.

“Ah… It seems Felicia hasn’t woken up.”

“Is that so? Julia needs to finish her work quickly… She has a lot to do today.”

Julia was Felicia’s dedicated maid. She always followed Felicia around, and it was also Julia’s responsibility to wake Felicia up.

“Should I call Julia for you?”

Bitty asked.

“It’s fine. I’ll wake her up.”

“You will, young lady? I’ll do it instead. Felicia tends to be grumpy when woken up because she loves sleeping so much. That’s why Julia finds it a bit difficult and even envies me sometimes. You always manage things so well on your own. Even today, you woke up before I could wake you. Ah, but Felicia has many other strengths too! For example…”

Bitty started listing compliments, probably belatedly afraid of speaking ill of Felicia or the other siblings. There seemed to be no end to her praises. Tired of waiting, I abruptly opened Felicia’s door.

“Ah, young lady!”

Bitty reacted with shock at my action. Thinking I might gossip about her to Felicia, Bitty’s face quickly turned pale. I calmed Bitty down and looked around the room.

Felicia was quiet. She was probably sleeping with the blanket over her head, as only a few strands of her blonde hair were visible on the pillow. Bitty stepped forward, saying she would wake her up, but I blocked her with my arm.

“…?”

‘I’ll wake her up.’

I mouthed to Bitty, who looked bewildered. After Bitty nodded, I carefully approached the protruding blanket. It was shaped like Felicia’s head.

I slowly pulled back the blanket. As expected, Felicia was still asleep. Before waking her up abruptly, I tidied the curtains and opened the window.

“Ah, what…”

Felicia grumbled, probably bothered by the sunlight. Lifting her messy head and opening her eyes, Felicia spotted me by the window and froze.

She clearly hadn’t expected me to be there, as she closed her open mouth and widened her eyes. I didn’t avoid Felicia’s gaze.

“Good morning, Felicia.”

“…So you two made up?”

Bernard asked, looking back and forth between me and Felicia. As soon as breakfast ended, all the siblings except Rodney gathered in Felicia’s room.

“Say something. Do you know how hard it’s been for me? For days, neither Felicia nor Lize came to my room… I tried to resolve this somehow with Swel and Silke, but the more we talked, the more worried we became. It got to the point where I’d tear up just seeing your faces.”

Bernard shared his recent hardships. The twins nodded several times, empathizing with Bernard’s words.

Not knowing what to do out of guilt, I caught Felicia’s eyes again. Just as I was considering whether to say something, Felicia spoke first.

“I know you called elder brother, Lize. You secretly handed a letter to the postman that night, didn’t you?”

“Is that true, Lize?”

Bernard asked me, seemingly wanting to confirm the facts. Swel and Silke also showed interest in me.

“I just sent a letter asking him to come to the mansion.”

“But you know the mansion’s atmosphere has revived because of elder brother, right? You were happy about it yesterday too.”

“…Yes. I was very relieved.”

Hearing my honest words, Felicia approached me.

“I’m sorry for saying harsh things before. Thinking about it, you’re still much younger than me.”

“I’m sorry too for saying harsh things to you, elder sister.”

After expressing our apologies to each other, we embraced. Bernard, who was nearby, couldn’t control his emotions and started sobbing.

It was surprising that he still had tears left after crying so much. The other siblings seemed to share my thoughts, laughing at Bernard.

As we teased the crybaby Bernard for a while, Swel, who was close to the window, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

“Hey, there’s a suspicious guy at the mansion?”

I quickly hid my smile. If it’s a suspicious person, could it be that crazy woman claiming to be my birth mother? I thought she was in custody…

With a nervous heart, I approached the window and saw a familiar figure.

“Swel, that’s the eldest son of the Penton family.”

As Silke said, the person in front of the Marsen mansion was Yurik Penton. Why is he here?

“The Penton family? No wonder he looks shabby.”

“You must be blind, Swel. How can you call that appearance shabby? As much as I hate to admit it, he’s very handsome. Though Roger is more handsome…”

Silke said, unable to take her eyes off Yurik.

“In my eyes, Yurik seems more handsome than Roger.”

Felicia added her opinion.

“What? Elder sister must be blind too. He should be dark and sharp like Roger.”

“You don’t know anything, Silke. A gentle and neat-looking man is the real deal.”

Felicia and Silke bickered over this pointless comparison. As I was enjoying watching their fight after a long time, a small pebble flew towards the window.

The pebble hit right in front of my face and fell. This drew the attention of my siblings to Yurik’s face, who had thrown the pebble.

Yurik waved his hand when he saw me at the window.

“Is that guy crazy? He’s waving at me.”

Swel frowned.

“…I don’t think he’s waving at you.”

“Look carefully at that guy’s gaze, elder brother. He’s looking at me. The angle and position of his pupils are very precise. If you trace his line of sight with your hand, you’ll see he’s looking at me very intensely. Ugh.”

“Huh? No matter how I look at it, Penton seems to be waving at Lize…?”

Bernard was accurate only at times like this. Finally, I stepped back.

“He’s probably here for me. So I’ll go down now.”

“What? Really?”

Swel grabbed my foot as I was about to leave the room. His eyes seemed to ask when and where I had become close to the eldest son of the Penton family, who were at odds with the Marsen family.

If I were to explain, it would be long, and I didn’t particularly want to explain. So what I chose was to run away.

“Hey, Lize Marsen! You traitor! You, you’re not stopping?”

I had just made up with Felicia, and now it seemed I was about to fight with Swel. Swel is more troublesome than Felicia.

He tends to get sulky easily and bottle things up, so he wouldn’t talk normally with someone he disliked. It’s obvious that I won’t be able to have a normal conversation with him for days.

Imagining that future, I couldn’t help but sigh. I thought I should first take Yurik to a place where my siblings couldn’t see him, but as soon as I opened the door, Yurik was right there.

If I had a weak heart, it would have dropped and stayed there. Without giving me a chance to catch my breath, Yurik handed me a box.

“What is this…”

“I’m sorry for coming unannounced, Lize. I was going to wait in the winter garden, but I thought you wouldn’t come… And I want to apologize to your siblings later.”

“Siblings?”

“The people who were with you. Weren’t they your siblings? While you were coming here, one man kept cursing at me.”

It must be Swel. It’s definitely Swel.

“He must dislike me. But Lize, I want to become friends with your siblings. So I’ll definitely come to apologize later. Okay?”

“Wait, wait! Are you leaving now?”

I asked, watching Yurik about to leave.

“I don’t think it’s the right time to be at the Marsen mansion now. Next time, I’ll bring gifts for your siblings too. Have a good day, Lize.”

I wanted to say there was no need for that, but Yurik was faster. Quickly disappearing, Yurik didn’t even leave behind his warmth.

“…”

I stood there dumbfounded. I wondered what this was all about. Then I looked at the silver box Yurik had given me. It was of a decent size and seemed to be decorated with ore, as it sparkled. When I opened it to see inside, there was a red rose along with a silver case.

Inside the case was a small ring.

“…?”

…This is a gift set I’ve seen many times before.

For instance, when a man confesses to a woman, or when a man proposes to a woman.