His stiffly frozen face seemed to have turned pale white at a glance, and also appeared deeply hurt at another.

As his trembling fist seemed to convey his emotions fully, Drukan slowly turned his head.

Marquis Lavernia had an expression that seemed to blame himself.

“I understand that you and the Marquis and Marchioness have suffered because of me.”

Serena spoke as if she understood everything.

To Drukan, it sounded like the typical words of someone who doesn’t understand at all.

“I fully understand that you’re upset and irritated because you’ve suffered because of me.”

“…If you understand…”

Nocturne Lavernia began to stammer, but Serena didn’t give him a chance.

“So I apologized to His Grace the Marquis, and I even treated the Marchioness’s illness that worsened because of me, and now I’m even going to be expelled from the family as you wished… Are you saying this isn’t enough?”

Serena asked, genuinely perplexed.

She had done her best as far as she could. At least, that’s what she thought.

She understood that she had done wrong.

She intellectually understood the reason why she was paying for those sins. It couldn’t be helped.

Since everyone knew it was Serena Lavernia’s fault, she also understood that Serena Lavernia needed to live up to that.

“What exactly do you want? Why do you keep holding onto me? Tell me clearly what you want me to do.”

“……”

Serena spoke with a somewhat angry voice.

Seeing her breathing quicken, Drukan hurriedly went to her side and gently patted her arm.

Her sharply raised eyes met Drukan’s.

Drukan quickly opened his mouth to suppress the ominous energy that was starting to surge around her.

“Lady Serena, His Grace the Duke said to return early today.”

“Ah…”

At Drukan’s words, Serena let out a small exclamation, her eyes widening, then she placed her palm on her chest and took a deep breath.

“…Right, I should.”

Serena turned her head, avoiding Nocturne Lavernia’s gaze.

“Compensation? Damages?”

“What…?”

“Do you want me to give you money? Or should I give it to the Lavernia family? If there’s an amount you need, tell me. I’ll ask Colin to handle it.”

At Serena’s words, Nocturne Lavernia blinked blankly.

His eyes showed that he couldn’t understand. Even as his gaze wavered as if he didn’t know what she was saying, Serena kept avoiding his eyes.

Nocturne Lavernia had never seen Serena avoid eye contact before.

Even when fighting or being indifferent, she always maintained eye contact during conversations.

“I’m sorry, but I’m really struggling even without you doing this. I’ve never thought of you as family.”

“…Why?”

“Because I received nothing from that house!”

At Nocturne Lavernia’s somewhat frustrated words, Serena Lavernia, with clenched fists, burst out shouting.

It was a violent voice, as if emotions that had been suppressed for so long had exploded.

“Because there’s nothing worth calling a memory among the memories of living in that house. Do you think I’m wallowing in self-pity? Then think about it, what was there between you and me? What exactly was there between me and the family until I was fifteen, before the carriage accident? Do you remember anything?”

Serena asked.

Among people who wanted her to be mature, what exactly should she have done?

The maids and servants said she should act maturely because her mother was sick and her father was busy.

Her father and mother often praised her when they noticed, saying they were proud of the mature Serena.

If she did things alone, they thought it was admirable, so she had no choice.

It’s human nature to want to meet expectations if there’s something someone wants.

At least, it was Serena’s nature.

To avoid being abandoned, one must be useful. So Serena always tried to be useful.

“You fed me, gave me a place to sleep, and raised me. I’m grateful. I think of it with gratitude.”

Serena said.

She wasn’t unhappy. But she wasn’t happy either. She wasn’t alone. Yet she was lonely.

Still, Serena’s inner self was an adult who remembered her past life, so she just thought that this was how her life was.

She lived while thinking it was no big deal, and now she didn’t have any particular feelings towards them.

She doesn’t feel anger or resentment.

Their indifference was their choice, and my choice was to remain silent and turn away.

However, she couldn’t understand why they were now trying to put her into the family circle.

Because Serena thought she had never been inside that family circle.

“But to be a bit cold… I can repay all of that in money.”

Serena said, thinking of the money steadily accumulating in her bank account and safe.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll do it, but… I really don’t know what more you want from me beyond this. If there’s something you want, if you could tell me clearly, I…”

Serena spoke slowly, suppressing the inexplicable emotions that were trying to rise up inside her, as she slowly rubbed her face.

“I’ll try to accommodate as much as I can. You told me never to appear before you again and to die, but I can’t die for you.”

“That was my mistake…”

“It must have slipped out because it’s what you usually think. That’s how people’s words typically are, right?”

Just as Serena was about to turn her head,

At the edge of her vision, she saw Marquis Lavernia with a hardened expression.

‘…Oh no.’

A hint of dismay clouded Serena’s expression. Her cheeks turned pale at the unexpected scene.

‘I hope this doesn’t lead to another rampage?’

She frowned.

“…Is that… what you thought?”

Marquis Lavernia, whose eyes met hers, suddenly spoke.

Serena tilted her head with a puzzled look.

“Pardon?”

“I asked if you thought you weren’t family.”

‘If I say yes, will that black energy surge again?’

Serena relaxed her tightly pressed lips and smiled, curving the corners of her eyes.

“Of course not, it’s just a sibling quarrel. Fa… Father.”

At this, Marquis Lavernia’s expression hardened even more.

His tightly clenched fist was trembling as if he might strike out, so Serena subtly moved a step closer to Drukan.

“…Were you very lonely?”

At that, Serena opened her eyes wide and then smiled, shaking her head.

“No, I really had a good time and it was nice to be well-off. Thanks to you, I lived without lacking anything…”

As Serena spoke as if conducting some kind of business, Marquis Lavernia approached her with large strides, his face darkened with deep shadows.

Serena stiffened, startled.

“Serena.”

Marquis Lavernia called out, gently gripping Serena’s shoulders with his hands.

“…I’m asking for your true feelings. I’m not angry. No… I am angry, but…”

Marquis Lavernia, uncharacteristically rambling, hastily added.

“I’m not angry at you, I’m angry at myself. I was never angry at you at all. It’s just the fact that I made you so lonely, I…”

“…Hmm.”

At Marquis Lavernia’s words, Serena couldn’t hide her somewhat bewildered feelings as she rolled her eyes around.

After all, this wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have.

She didn’t like the current situation much because whenever she had such serious talks, Serena was always the one who ended up losing.

“…Could it be that you kept saying you wanted to leave the family because of loneliness?”

“No, that’s…”

I thought I was going to die.

Looking at his desperate face, she couldn’t bring herself to add those words.

“…I thought I would be unhappy if I stayed in the family.”

After contemplating for a while, Serena carefully said.

“And it’s true that I have caused and did cause trouble. I thought it was the best choice for both of us.”

Serena decided to try to persuade the other party by delving into it logically.

After all, now that the conversation had come this far and Marquis Lavernia had heard everything, she thought it would be better to speak honestly.

Of course, while trying not to provoke him too much.

“The best choice?”

Marquis Lavernia repeated as if he had heard something unbelievable.

Serena nodded her head firmly and gathered her thoughts.

“Think about it. Even if I say I’ve changed my mind now, the world doesn’t know that well. So in the end, the Lavernia family keeps getting caught up in rumors and gets criticized because of me for no reason.”

“……”

“No matter what I do, it’s taken negatively and I get criticized… Even if I pick up trash on the street, people will think there’s some kind of device in that trash.”

“What…”

“So if the Lavernia family cuts me off completely here, people will think they’ve finally gotten rid of the troublemaker and did the right thing, and the Lavernia family will quickly regain its former reputation.”

As Serena fired off her words like a machine gun, seemingly slightly excited perhaps due to a sense of mission to persuade the other party, silence fell all around.

Marquis Lavernia’s lips turned blue, and he couldn’t even open and close his mouth as if he didn’t know what to say, while Nocturne Lavernia rubbed his eyes and picked his ears as if he couldn’t understand what he was hearing.

‘…She doesn’t understand what the problem is.’

Drukan just turned his head and remained silent at his employer’s behavior, which was almost innocent.

He knew that even this was close to a self-defense instinct to avoid hurting herself.

To avoid being rejected first, or to prepare for the situation when she is rejected, she had already created and thought about dozens or hundreds of reasons why she should be rejected.

To the point where she could say it without missing a single detail in this situation.

“…So for these reasons, I thought it would be much more beneficial for the Lavernia family if I left… right?”

Thump, Marquis Lavernia reached out and pulled Serena into a tight embrace.