Sorts of Love

A moment later, Lady came to realize that crying would only probably work if the one she was dealing with was not the Mireille family.

It seems that her cousins became the way they are for a reason. Just when she thought she would be saved from the situation by pretending to be a damsel in distress, she somehow ended up making it worse instead. Apparently, the adults who arrived there were actually their parents. They made a fuss over their fight, but to her dismay, they chose their sons' side.

Of course, they would.

They're theirs, after all.

"Daddy! Mommy! We weren't doing anything to her!"

"That's right, that's right! She just started crying out of nowhere!"

"We only asked her to come and play with us! But she doesn't seem to like us!"

Lady has to give it to them - they're quite good in acting, too.

She keeps herself from making an unamused, deadpan look then, wondering just how absurd this situation can get. While she may have faked her tears earlier, her cousins are still straight up lying by saying that they did nothing, and as if that is not enough to make her feel indignant, their parents just also have to join in and blame her as well.

"You! What're you saying about our son being mean?!"

"It doesn't look like you're hurt or anything. You're overreacting."

"Our son can't possibly hurt you! He's a good boy!"

Now, her uncles and aunts are onto her, too.

She decided to remain quiet, taking it all in. While it is indeed pathetic to gang up on a child like this, it still kind of amazes her - how much these parents are willing to stand up for their kids, that is. They appear to be so sure that their sons are not going to do any misdeed, and they will even go as far as defending them even when they are in the wrong.

Although she knows that it is bad to spoil their young like this, as someone whose own parents could not care less about their daughter, she feels a little bit jealous. She has never experienced familial love before - nor any sorts of love for that matter, so she can't understand.

'Hmm? What's with that look she's showing now...?' Fallon pondered as he noticed how forlorn and dejected Lady suddenly looked.

'Here I thought she was going to defend herself. She cried so loud back there, but now that these parents were doing something similar to what their children just did, she fell in complete silence. Is she that fazed?'

As he was having these thoughts, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. A bit surprised, he turned around to find a certain someone looking down at him with a confused expression.

"What's with this fuss, Fallon?"

"Oh, Father, you're here."

Calixtus Mireille.

With hair as dark as the night sky and eyes as soft as lavenders, he serves like a mirror image of his son. He is this dashing gentleman with a prepossessing aura around him. Even when he is only standing there, his imposing presence still ends up catching the attention of some of the passersby near them.

'Oh, my, my, my! Who is that hottie?!'

Even Lady is completely drawn.

She totally forgot that she was in the middle of getting ganged up on as soon as she caught sight of Calixtus. At first, she thought it was Maximilian who appeared beside Fallon out of nowhere, but it turned out to be someone who just shared some striking resemblance with him. She actually doesn't even need to ask who he is -

Seeing his features alone, she already knows that he is her uncle.

'Way to go, me! These creations of yours are truly magnificent!'

She has to give herself a pat on the back for this one. Making her characters handsome and beautiful has been worth it.

"Hey, are you even listening?! You should apologize to my son this instance! To us, too! You're making such a big ruckus so early in the evening!"

Upon hearing that, Lady was forced to bring her attention back to her other relatives.

She is dumbfounded at this point. For whatever stupid reason, she is suddenly being pressured to make some sort of apology speech in front of them. While her cousins are snickering to themselves at the back, her uncles and aunts are regarding her in either dismay or annoyance.

This will not do. They are being too unreasonable.

"Ummm... Excuse me, but I can't apologize to you since I haven't even done anything wrong..." Lady began while looking up to them innocently - her gaze wide and glassy.

"That's just dumb."

Then, silence.

Some of them flare up while others give her incredulous looks. She stiffens a little, admitting in silence that she must have said it too flatly. Though she didn't mean to disrespect them or anything, she just couldn't find a better term to address it.

"What's dumb?"

The came Maximilian out of nowhere, throwing all of them off guard.