To You, So Noble and Vulgar (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9
“When will His Grace the Duke of the North arrive? It would be best if he arrived in time for the garden party.”
“I suppose so. Since the nobles from the capital are also coming that day, he’ll probably arrive around then, won’t he?”
“Do you think Mother sent an invitation to His Grace the Duke of the North as well?”
“She must have. You begged her so much. By the way, Ariana seems rather pitiful.”
At Victoria’s words, Helena frowned.
“What’s so pitiful about her?”
“Well, she doesn’t know a single thing about party etiquette… She probably wants to attend the party His Grace the Duke of the North is attending too, but no one will bring her. Then again, even if she did come, she’d only embarrass herself.”
Helena, who had been scowling ever since Ariana’s name was mentioned, suddenly smiled sweetly as if struck by an idea.
“Shall we make Ariana attend the party too? Just so she can embarrass herself in front of His Grace the Duke of the North.”
“Sister, Mother dislikes showing Ariana to other nobles.”
“But wouldn’t she enjoy it if Ariana acted like a fool and embarrassed herself? I overheard Mother telling Aunt the other day that whenever Ariana behaves foolishly and gets mocked, it feels as if the Duke of the East is being mocked, and that makes her happy.”
“Even so…”
“Enough. You stay out of this. I’ll handle it myself.”
Watching Helena speak with such confidence, Victoria smiled inwardly.
Even if Rachel enjoyed seeing Ariana ridiculed, it was only in front of family.
She wouldn’t want Ariana’s foolishness displayed before other nobles. After all, Ariana was Rachel’s own daughter and the noble lady of House Bronte.
But Victoria had no intention of revealing that fact to Helena.
The more foolish things Helena did, the more Rachel’s attention and affection would turn away from her.
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For several days after encountering the Duke of the North, Ariana lived quietly. Her heavy heart, burdened by his appearance, had now grown calm.
Judging by his absence over the past few days, he might have already finished his business and returned.
Ariana rose with a refreshing feeling for the first time in a while and opened the window.
Beyond the large window stretched a clear, bright sky.
During the stomach-ache incident, the old lady had ordered Rachel to change Ariana’s clothes, but Rachel hadn’t done so. The old lady herself had also forgotten she’d given that order.
‘She’s probably forgotten that incident ever happened.’
The old lady had only shown interest because Ariana was right before her eyes; the moment she turned away, she likely erased the family’s unwanted burden from her mind. Ariana hadn’t expected or needed sustained attention anyway.
Though the cold wind slipped through her thin, worn clothes, Ariana didn’t close the window.
‘So it’s finally tomorrow?’
Tomorrow, a garden party would be held at Duke Bronte’s residence.
Though called a garden party, due to the cold weather, it would merely consist of dining and drinking tea inside the large greenhouse in the garden, admiring exotic flowers and trees.
The reason for forcing a garden party in such weather was that Helena would make her debutante in a few months’ time during the social season. Rachel wanted Helena to establish connections with reputable noble families in the capital before her debut.
If Helena already had ties with the capital’s nobles, they would support her at her debutante party.
Rachel believed that if many people defended the naive Helena whenever she made a mistake at the party, her reputation would actually improve.
And indeed, that had happened before.
At her debutante party, Helena had been glancing around anxiously, wondering if the Duke of the North might have come, and accidentally bumped into another man, spilling the drink she was holding.
At that moment, a noblewoman from the capital had laughed and said, “Oh my, how adorable! Lady Helena must be very nervous.” Thanks to those words, everyone had found Helena’s mistake endearing.
—“Do you know how many times I was told I was adorable then?”
After returning from the party, Helena had sought out Ariana and recounted the story proudly, several times over.
‘Back then, I truly envied that. I didn’t even realize they were mocking me by calling me adorable.’
A bitter smile briefly touched Ariana’s lips before vanishing.
On this day in her past life, Ariana had been released after being locked in a storage room.
Overjoyed by her rare freedom, she’d gone out into the garden, only to run into Rachel, who slapped her for wandering about carelessly.
This time, Ariana intended to let Rachel hit her again—harsher than before. She planned to leave clear evidence of abuse on her body.
After some time had passed, Ariana quietly slipped out of her room.
The servants wandering the hallway didn’t acknowledge her when they saw her, but later, they would surely report to Rachel that Ariana had secretly gone outside.
Ariana lifted her chin defiantly and walked slowly toward the rear garden.
The garden behind the mansion was still barren from the cold, but come spring, beautiful flowers and trees would bloom vibrantly.
Walking along the gravel path, Ariana stopped before a small pond. Beneath a large tree, the tiny pond was frozen solid.
‘Just like my heart.’
Ariana’s heart, too, was frozen cold.
Whenever she slept, she had nightmares.
No—it wasn’t a dream. The reality that had befallen Ariana in her past life replayed itself while she slept.
The life of a pitiful, dull woman who, merely wishing to be loved and acknowledged by her family, smiled when she didn’t want to and did things she didn’t wish to do.
Ariana was still living that life—agonizingly lonely and painful—even now, having been reborn.
Every time she woke from those dreams, her heart froze over.
Each time she saw her past life in her dreams, the person she resented most wasn’t Rachel or Helena—it was herself.
She most bitterly regretted and despised herself for foolishly hoping for something she’d never receive, drifting helplessly like a fallen leaf until everyone abandoned her and she died.
“Ariana!”
At the sharp voice, she turned around to see Rachel striding toward her.
Rachel’s green eyes, fixed on Ariana, were filled only with irritation and anger.
‘Even beasts cherish their own young…’
There had been times when she wondered if Rachel wasn’t her real mother.
Once, she’d even dreamed that her true mother came to her, embracing her and saying, “Ever since I lost you, every night I’ve prayed only to find you again.”
But there was no hidden birth mother—Rachel Bronte truly was Ariana’s biological mother.
She still couldn’t understand how a mother could hate her own child—whom she’d carried in her womb and given birth to—simply because the child resembled a man she despised.
But now, she’d given up trying to understand.
You hate me? Then I’ll hate you back with all my might.
“Didn’t I tell you not to go outside on your own?”
Rachel, stopping right before Ariana, huffed angrily.
Ariana looked up at Rachel, staring straight into her eyes.
At the sight of Ariana’s pale sky-blue hair, deep blue eyes, pearl-white skin, and petite face, Rachel’s expression twisted.
She’d been forced to abandon the man she loved and marry one she didn’t, all for the sake of the Western Realm.
She’d handed over her beloved daughter without even nursing her once, placing her in another woman’s care, and conceived a child with a man she didn’t love.
She’d hated Ariana even while she was still in the womb. When she held that tiny body after birth, she’d been overwhelmed with heartache, thinking of Helena whom she’d left behind.
She couldn’t vent her fury—at being used for the sake of the Western Realm—on her father, the Duke of the West, or the Duke of the East, but she could take it out on Ariana.
Her resentment toward the Duke of the West and her disgust for the Duke of the East were fully directed at Ariana.
If only the Duke of the West hadn’t commanded, ‘Bring Ariana; she’ll be useful later,’ she never would have kept Ariana by her side.
Slap—!
Only after the sharp sound echoed did Rachel realize she’d instinctively struck Ariana’s cheek.
But she felt no remorse.
It was fine to treat Ariana this way. After all, she’d carried her in her womb for ten months and given birth—this much venting of anger was permissible.
“How dare you stare straight at me?”
Rachel waited for Ariana to shrink back and beg for forgiveness as she always did. Seeing Ariana plead for mercy like a beggar made her feel as if the arrogant Duke of the East were kneeling before her.
But Ariana didn’t act as Rachel expected.
Straightening the face she’d turned from the slap, Ariana calmly looked up at Rachel and asked evenly,
“Must I ask permission even to look at Mother’s face?”
“What…?”
Stunned by Ariana’s unexpected behavior, Rachel was dumbfounded.
“Then do Helena, Victoria, and Joison also ask your permission every time they look at you?”
Just as a lion, attacked by a rabbit, would be so startled it couldn’t move for a moment, Rachel stared blankly down at her daughter.
Realizing what had happened, Rachel kicked Ariana without another thought.
Thud—! Thump—!
Even as Rachel’s kicks painfully struck her shins, Ariana didn’t utter a single groan. She simply watched quietly as Rachel carried on.
Ariana’s lack of reaction only infuriated Rachel further, and her kicks grew harsher.
“You truly, honestly, have not a single, single, likable, trait, at, all!”
With each word spat out, Rachel pinched and struck her, but Ariana neither begged for forgiveness nor cried out in pain.
Only after beating Ariana until she was breathless did Rachel realize her daughter was acting differently than usual.
“You, today…”
Just then, something small and hard began raining down from the clear sky like rain. It was hail.
“Eek!”
Struck by the hail, Rachel let out a small shriek and covered her head with both hands. Sharp ice shards left tiny cuts where they grazed her.
Even in that moment, Rachel shot Ariana a glare.
“You stay right there! Reflect on your actions until I tell you to come in!”
Despite the hailstorm, Rachel left her daughter behind and returned alone to the main house.
In her haste, Rachel hadn’t noticed something strange: though countless hailstones fell, not a single one struck Ariana.
Ariana reached out toward the ice shards that seemed to avoid her. The angular pieces of ice looked hard and surprisingly heavy—they’d surely hurt if they hit her.
‘What’s going on?’
As she tightly gripped two hailstones that had landed in her palm, a dark figure leapt soundlessly from the tree above.
Still holding the ice in her hand, Ariana blinked and stared at the figure before her.
A tall man with striking silver hair that seemed capable of finding her anywhere, crimson eyes, and broad shoulders stood before Ariana—the Duke of the North, Cyrus, whom she’d thought she’d never see again.
He wore, as before, a black suit and a long black coat reaching down to his thighs.
Fixing his gaze on Ariana, he gently raised his hand—and the hail falling from the sky stopped.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
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I finally found the chapter corresponding to chapter 42 of the manhwa!
Here’s a mother who refutes the “instinctive motherhood” notion.