Raga of the Dry Branch - Chapter 12

“Who would have thought I’d see you here. It has been a while.”

I came face to face with an elderly woman that had a pale face and gorgeous reddish blonde hair tied with a jeweled hair pin. The pale face, still vivid in my memory, smiled coldly at me.

“Mr. Boizana.”

My maternal grandmother and the lady of Boizana family, and not a well-wisher, was slowly approaching me. At that moment, I even forgot to breathe.

“Did you come here from Baliares?”

“…”

“How did you even come here? This isn’t a place where you can easily enter. Did you come with someone? Answer me.”

“I… was appointed to the embassy in Bishastur. I was able to stay here one day thanks to the people who I met along the way and stayed with them for a while.”

“Hmm,”

To be honest, she wasn’t the kind to let this pass easily. Those bloodlines, including her, nor my father too were happy only when I was in the lowest place.

“Was this party the ‘Great Duchess’ by any chance?”

“… as if that could happen,”

“I thought that perhaps you two had some hidden love for each other.”

As if what she said was funny, she covered her mouth and snickered behind the fan, yet I could hear her laugh. I felt my heart crack at it, despite being emotionless, it felt bitter. I let loose my hands and said.

“The Grand Duchess and the Lord, who is her brother, are at the Summer Palace. You are talking funny stuff in here, Mrs.”

It was someone I considered as a friend but they betrayed me and the other ended up hurting others because of a mistake. It is a memory which I didn’t want to recall, but it was cemented in my mind. These days, especially when I wanted things to end, the two would constantly invade my mind.

For a moment I remembered how I looked in the bathroom, and the mood went sour.

“And why would someone who knows my ‘situation’ make such jokes? Does this seem fun to you?”

“But weren’t we such a good match? Even when you were young, you used to constantly cry because you liked me.”

I did. But in fact, it was because I didn’t like her.

“Or is your party made up of men?”

What do you want me to answer?

“What does that have to do with this? I only met them as I was passing, and came close. If you are curious, I can let you know. There are both men and women.”

“That so? Huhu.”

It was burdensome to stand there knowing she was looking at each move trying to figure out what to do next to me. Covering her face with the fan, she went again.

“I have something to tell you. I’ll see you in the ‘tree garden’ after a while. Maybe it will be our last meeting, so come out.”

Last, last is it…

“… Yes.”

When my mother was 3 years old, her mother had died due to an airship accident and my maternal grandfather, Count Boizana, who loved her so much ended up in a half dead state for a while. It was said that he loved her so much that he couldn’t even look at his daughter who reminded him of her.