Chapter 24

“Ru-Rubette, how can you talk like that to your brother? Don’t do this. I don’t want you and your brother to fall apart because of me.”

Instead of the two speechless brothers, Lillia intervened.

‘Oh, how annoying.’

That girl, who resembled her mother and was clever from a young age, grew up bullying Rubette all her life.

‘But if it happens again in the second round of my life, I’ll be a little upset.’

Now is not the time to act like Lillia, pretending to be nice, innocent, and being subjected. Such acting works only when there is an audience who will believe me no matter what I do.

For that reason, my role now is ‘the younger sister who drowned in a pond and turned around 180 degrees after she survived’.

Things that Rubette, who’s been shut up all her life, would have always wanted to say.

‘I will do everything.’

“I will explain everything that Brother is mistaken about.”

I smiled and said with both my hands up as if I were surrendering.

“First of all, the matter of butler Rob being fired?”

“…”

“It’s half right. Because I spoke to Father.”

As I smiled and admitted, Viego’s eyes narrowed.

“But there are some misunderstandings, and there was no personal feelings at all. I just reported that he was being arrogant and bad-mannered when he was just an employee.”

“What? You, how long Rob has been working in our family…”

“What does it matter how long he has worked?”

I cut off Viego’s words with a displeased expression.

“I went to see my father for the first time in a long time, but the butler dared to order his master to keep a low profile and stay in the room.”

“What? Really?”

When Victor asked with a frown, I nodded.

“These servants all over the house seem to have the right to be so arrogant toward the master lady as they accumulate years of service.”

“…”

“If I had listened to it and stayed still, it would have been more of a problem. Do I have to be so scolded by my brother for firing the butler who ignored our hierarchy?”

“Rob…”

He looked confused, but again, Viego let out a sigh and shook his head as if he didn’t believe me.

“If you don’t want to believe it, don’t believe it. These explanations are not because I want you to believe anyway.”

“What? You—”

“But one thing is for sure, I didn’t fire Rob myself. It was Father who made the decision. And Father…”

I looked back at Victor, who listened to me, and asked.

“If I ask you to fire an employee, saying he is being a jerk, but you personally think he doesn’t deserve it, would you still fire him?”

“No.”

Victor quickly agreed and added.

“Isn’t it amazing that Father did something in the first place? How could he be fired by Father if he didn’t cause a lot of trouble? What did he do?”

“Look. What Brother Victor knows, don’t you know, Eldest Brother? You know very well what Father is like.”

“…”

“Father fired him because he was worthy of dismissal. So, if Brother is dissatisfied.”

I pointed to the still open door and smiled broadly.

“Go and argue with Father. Not with me.”

Viego, who was staring blankly at me, burst into laughter with an expression of confusion and anger.

I casually shrugged my shoulders once and continued.

“And when you hear only one side of the story and yell at your sister, who is three years younger than you, you won’t look handsome, so please take care of your image more in the future.”

At that moment, everyone stiffened.

“Everyone should know that the image of the head is the image of the family, right? Even a three-year-old kid knows this.”

I returned Viego’s words as they were, sarcastically.

“H-Hey, Ruby…”

Surprised Victor grabbed me by the shoulder and stopped me.

“Oh, let go. I still have a lot to say.”

I waved my arm to shake him off and took a step forward.

“Mph.”

Victor backed away.

An unexpected confrontation between his older brother, who was always scary and strict, and his gentle and obedient younger sister. In the meantime, Victor looked quite flustered .

“Go easy, go easy…”

But perhaps because Victor had as much things accumulated with Viego as I did, his mediating gesture was not very sincere.

I raised my lips in a smirk and continued speaking.

“Well, if you want to think that I fell into the pond on purpose until the end, you may do so. Even if I ask you to believe me, you won’t be able to hear me anyway because you only believe what you want to believe.”

“…”

“But I’d like to ask you one thing. I know you want to listen to whatever Lillia says and trust her, but to a certain extent…”

I smiled and patted my head a couple of times.

“… Promise you will think first, before you act.”

Viego, who was speechless, froze, and Lillia was next to him, seemed to be in a great panic.

Originally, she was stuck and was about to say ‘I’m sorry…” to Viego. But the counterattack of the usually quiet person was apparently pretty surprising.

“Now, the last one. What’s left? Oh, I slapped Ricky in the face?”

“Yes. Didn’t you? I saw it myself. You hit Ricky. We went there on purpose because we were worried about you falling into the pond…”

Lillia burst into tears and tugged at Viego’s collar, as if urging him to do something.

“Rubette must hate me. That’s why she treated Ricky carelessly.”

“… Yes, that’s right. You said you slapped Ricky on the cheek. Is this true?”

Viego’s, who was already beaten out of his mind, question, had a tone of wanting to double-check the facts unlike before.

‘He must have come to his senses now.’

I swallowed a laugh and asked Lillia.

“You were there too, didn’t you just say it yourself?”

“That’s right!”

I nodded my head and acknowledged it in a gentle way.

“That’s right, Brother. I slapped Ricky.”

“Why?”

“The reason you’re asking is because you know well that I’m not the kind of person who’d do it for no reason, right?”

When I asked, Viego was silent. It was an acknowledgement.

In fact, it must have been difficult for Viego to believe this series of situations. He’s a good, timid older brother who knows the temperament of his immature little sister who can’t express herself well.

I said as I walked towards the two of them, to be more precise, towards Lillia.

“Ugh, if I were you, I’d rather die than live as a chubby fat kid.”

Then I pinched Lillia’s side.

“Aww!”

“Ouh, how disgusting. Look at the oil stains.”

“Rubette? What are you doing…?!”

Lillia was surprised by the unexpected attack and Viego was even more surprised.

Ignoring it, I pinched Lillia’s neck this time.

“Hey, where the hell is your neck? Let’s see, shall we look for our Lillia’s lost neck?”

“Aaaah! Argh! Oh, it hurts, it hurts!”

I didn’t pinch that hard, but it was enough.

“Stop it!”

Tak!

Viego shook my hand violently. The back of my hand, which had been thrown away with considerable force, quickly turned red.

Surprised, Lillia burst into tears and hugged Viego, who hugged her and comforted her.

“Ahhh… B-Brother. Hiccup! Waaaa!”

“What are you doing?!”

“I deserved it right?”

I asked, raising the back of my bare, swollen hands.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s why I did it. Ricky’s cheek.”

“… What?”

“Everything and every word I just said to Lillia. Ricky, who came to me because he was worried about me, who survived, did the same thing.”

Viego’s eyes shook.

He looked into my eyes for a long time to see if this was really true, then gently pulled Lillia, who wept frantically, and asked.

“Did Ricky really do that?”

“Hiccup. No, no he didn’t. Ricky… Ricky was just… just kidding. Hiccup! He really was…”

Surprised by my unexpected attack, Lillia shook her head foolishly.

‘Is she stupid? I’d rather insist it didn’t happen until the very end. Well, I’m not the type to slap people for no reason, so Viego must have suspected it.’

Whatever it was, Lillia confirmed Ricky’s evil with her own mouth, so for me, thank you.

I shrugged my shoulders with a nonchalant face.

“The person who gets it doesn’t feel like it’s a joke, so is it okay to say it’s a joke? Then I was joking too just now, Lillia.”

“You, you, you were not joking!”

“Lillia. First of all.”

Viego, who had grabbed Lillia and stood there, gently wiped her tears with his hand.

“Go to your room for now.”

“Cough. Hukk…”

Lillia, who had been crying sadly, soon pouted her lips, quivered, and slipped out of the room.

Lillia, who would become a complete devil, was still young and not so meticulous. It’s a good thing.

‘I can’t lose a fight with elementary school students.’

Satisfied, I said to Viego, who looked confused.

“End of explanation. To recap, I accidentally fell into the pond, Rob was fired because he deserved it, and Ricky was beaten because he deserved it. Are you satisfied now?”