Chapter 133
Chapter 133: Vicky (First Part)
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I frantically patted down my hair that the gust had nearly sent flying off my head, eyes wide and mouth agape, watching Victoria calmly turn around and settle back onto the sofa without a care in the world.
As if what had just happened in front of us was nothing worth mentioning.
She smoothed her hair and bent down, picking up the napkin by her feet to wipe her hands, then tossed it aside casually.
The napkin fell onto the carpet, one corner quickly soaked through by the soup splattered across it.
Seeing this, my brain crashed for a moment. Then, like a bucket of cold water to the face, it all clicked.
...My Captain Grey!!!
It's over.
The dinner, Captain Grey, and the exquisite embroidered carpet beneath our feet, after Victoria's sudden explosive punch, all of it was done for.
An entire table of dinner, completely wasted, the scene before me a total wreck. A bottle lay on its side, still gurgling red wine onto the carpet. I moved fast and set it upright first, while Captain Grey rolled across the floor and bumped to a stop at my feet.
...Pick it up and it's still edible.
Once I realized that, the part of me that had been on the verge of losing it calmed down just a little.
And by then, Victoria's relatives had caught up with what just happened.
"Vicky! You! Oh god, what have you done!"
"You are a queen of a nation! How could you resort to violence! You've just made an enemy of the entire Clive family!"
"Impulsive... way too impulsive..."
A group of nobles in their thirties and forties, self-styled high-society aristocrats, members of Isenbell's royal family, every single one of them had lost their composure. There was also one plump, fair-skinned middle-aged woman who, after her initial panic, turned and walked straight for the door without looking back, muttering as she left: "I don't know anything, I didn't see a thing, this has nothing to do with me..."
Victoria made no move to stop her.
The Iron Guards waiting outside seemed to have picked up on the commotion inside and sensed something was off, but the Sword of Kanri was blocking the doorway, and the standoff held.
"All of you, shut up." Victoria said flatly.
"Shut up? Vicky! This was supposed to be so simple! How are we going to fix this now! Tell me, how are we going to fix this!"
Faced with the furious reproach of the portly middle-aged man, Victoria merely gave him a glance.
"This is my business."
"Your business? You'll drag us all down with you! Look at this, we were all here! Who knows what the Clive family will think!"
"That is your business."
"You—! You are completely unreasonable! Do you even still see me as your uncle!"
Victoria suddenly stood up again.
Her movement startled her fuming uncle, and his feet instinctively stepped back, but all Victoria did was walk past him to the cabinet on the side, where she picked up another bottle of wine a servant had placed there earlier. A flick of her wrist, a soft pop, and the cork shot off.
She took the clean glass Lecter handed her and poured a little in.
Red lips met the rim, the dark brown liquid flowed in, her throat moved, and she drained the glass in one go.
"I'm wondering..." she said coldly, fixing the prince with a stare, "what exactly gave you the nerve to raise your voice at me like that. Is it because you're my father's older brother?"
"You—!"
The prince trembled with rage.
He glared at Victoria for a long moment, but in the end, couldn't bring himself to say another word.
"Vicky, your uncle is just angry, everything he said was for your own good..."
Another noblewoman stepped in to smooth things over.
"Don't call me Vicky." Victoria cut her off.
"Uh... no, Vicky, just listen to me..."
"Do not call me," Victoria said, "Vicky."
When she repeated it the second time, her voice carried weight.
It was the first time I heard any emotion in her words.
That hard, commanding tone, the complicated feelings threaded through it, the disappointment buried inside, perhaps only I could catch it.
"You are not my family." she said.
"You don't deserve to be."
Silence fell over the room again.
Everyone still there stood with eyes wide. The way they looked at Victoria, as if they were staring at something strange, something unbelievable.
The prince's face flushed deep red, and after pointing at her for a long moment he finally managed: "Look at this, just look at this! The things she says! I really wish your mother could hear this—"
"Lecter."
"Yes."
"Throw him out."
"Understood."
After that brief exchange, the green-haired guy who had been standing silently to the side all this time came over, his expression dark.
"You dare!" the prince snapped.
"Sword of Kanri, what do you think you're doing!"
The noblewoman who appeared to be Victoria's aunt glared at Lecter too, but he paid her no mind whatsoever.
"Wait, I'll walk out myself... Ah—!"
The prince was no match for Lecter at all, he was grabbed by the collar and dragged all the way to the door, the noblewoman clawing and grabbing at Lecter the whole way trying to stop him, while Lecter held her off with one arm and flung them both out.
"Victoria!" the noblewoman screeched in her sharp, grating voice, "We'll settle this at the council!"
Victoria naturally didn't bother responding. The woman shot one vicious glare this way, then stumbled out the door in a rather sorry state.
Once that was done, Lecter walked over to the unconscious Bart, hoisted him up, and threw him out too.
The moment Bart hit the outside, the Iron Guards outside erupted. Amid the clamor of shouts, Lecter gestured back toward us, and after Victoria gave a small nod, he stepped out through the door.
What followed were the sounds of something heavy hitting something, and a few cries of pain. After that, the noise outside died down considerably.
Throughout all of this, no one dared to say a word.
These royals seemed to understand now.
Niece or little sister, whatever she was to them, this young queen standing before them had made up her mind to see this through her own way, and she would not spare anyone's feelings.
Once they worked that out, they started losing their nerve, hovering uncertainly and not quite daring to move.
Victoria was sharp as ever, and could naturally see through it at a glance, in fact, this was exactly the result she had wanted, so she spoke: "You may leave as well."
It seemed she had no intention of making things hard for these people.
Just like the punch she'd thrown at Bart earlier, it hit a lot harder than anything I'd ever seen at the academy, a facial fracture wouldn't have been out of the question... and yet for that loud, blustering prince of hers, all she did was have him thrown out.
Because they're still family... I suppose...
But now that she'd gotten what she wanted, she had no reason to keep any of them for dinner.
The tea table's gone though...
The royals heard Victoria's words and exchanged glances with each other.
"This... sigh—"
"Too young... so impulsive..."
"Just wait and see how the Queen Mother handles this... sigh... walking the same road as the late king..."
They read the room, shaking their heads and sighing for appearances' sake, then made quick work of leaving the mansion.
In an instant, the vast mansion was just the two of us again.
Outside in the courtyard there was no sign of movement either, and once everything went completely quiet, I suddenly realized my left leg had gone slightly numb.
As a bystander, I'd just been sitting here watching all this time, barely shifting my position at all.
So I shuffled my little rear end around, thought about it, and then simply slipped off my shoes, folding both legs up beneath me. My small frame tucked easily into the corner of the sofa — once I was comfortable, I tilted my head and looked over at Victoria.
She had started drinking alone again.
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat, wanting to say something, but had no idea where to begin.
The air was heavy in a way that made it hard to sit with.
I actually kind of wanted to ask her about the state of the mansion now, and who was going to pay for the door... but this didn't really feel like the right moment.
"You don't need to worry about the repairs to the mansion."
Victoria said suddenly, which startled me for a moment.
This woman... could she always tell what everyone was thinking...
She wasn't some genius of Wind Order at all, she was a genius at reading minds.
"...Oh."
I actually wanted to say more than that...
A little while later, Victoria stood.
"All of this..." she stared at the wrecked living room in silence, then after a few seconds spoke again, "someone will clean it up later."
With that, she took the wine bottle and her glass, and turned to head upstairs.
I couldn't help asking: "Where are you going?"
"To get some fresh air." she said.
That back of hers looked even thinner than the last time I had seen it.