Leonardo doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that the stall he visited sells the cheapest, shoddiest goods in the whole district.
There are perfectly good shops selling new, clean merchandise. There are even shops nearby dealing in glass so beautiful you’d take it for jewellery from a distance.
And there’s no possibility Sherry, who lives in that city, was unaware of it. She led Leonardo deliberately to the stall with the shoddiest goods in town. Because she couldn’t bear the thought of her lover giving his fiancée something lovely.
Sherry’s motive is plain jealousy. Hearing that her lover was buying a gift for another woman, there was no chance of her staying calm about it, so she made him pick something filthy and felt better for it, and that was all. What might come of it afterwards, Sherry never gave a moment’s thought.
Shallow, thoughtless Leonardo and Sherry with her jealousy hidden away. The result the two of them brought about is this: Leonardo’s standing in society has plummeted, and he’s ended up being interrogated by his mother and brother.
That the road ahead runs downhill and keeps running, neither of them yet knows.
[That someone like you should insult Lady Chloe is not to be permitted under any circumstance. She is the next head of the great House Calendula. Do you understand what a single insult from you does to this family?] (B)
Leonardo loses his words under his brother’s questioning and lowers his eyes. Seeing how feeble he looks, his brother’s tone sharpens.
[……You will never carry this family’s name. That is doubtless why you can behave so irresponsibly. But if you wish to remain a noble, then understand a noble’s obligations. Careless conduct fouls not only your own name but the house’s. If you commit one more discourtesy against Lady Chloe——I will strike you from the family register.] (B)
[Wha…… Brother, that’s……!] (L)
Never expecting to be told he’d be struck from the Linden register, Leonardo presses toward his brother with panic on his face.
[You must be joking……! I’m to marry into House Calendula. Struck from the Linden register, I could hardly be called of fit standing to stand at Chloe’s side. Are you telling House Calendula to take a commoner as its son-in-law?!] (L)
[You seem to be under a misapprehension, so let me correct it. Leonardo, Lady Chloe’s husband does not have to be you. Any man of the Linden line of a suitable age will serve. We need only adopt someone from within the family who is more devoted to Lady Chloe and better mannered than you, and that settles it. Are you so arrogant because this house has no sons besides myself, the heir, and you? If you’re under the impression that you can do as you please and remain a noble regardless, then House Linden has no need of you. I would not hesitate to cast you out.] (B)
[Th…… that can’t be……!!] (L)
Looking at his brother’s face and seeing that he means it, Leonardo’s mind goes blank.
He was the only son of House Linden apart from his elder brother, the heir. He was indispensable to the engagement with Chloe. Therefore he could never be cast out of the family. That was what he believed.
Told now that the thing he thought absolute isn’t absolute at all, Leonardo can’t think at all.
[And where did you purchase that thing in the first place? I’ve never laid eyes on junk of that sort.] (B)
His brother, who since birth has seen nothing but quality goods from shops the nobility patronise or from merchants who call at the house, genuinely hadn’t realised it was something sold at a market stall. Without Sherry to guide him, Leonardo would never have had occasion to see anything that cheap either.
Tell the truth here and his mother and brother would both be incandescent — that much is obvious. Which is precisely why he can say nothing, and into his silence falls his mother’s cold voice.
[Setting aside where you bought such an item, Leonardo, you will apologise to Lady Chloe with complete sincerity. You will press your forehead to the ground if you must and beg desperately for her forgiveness. ——That is the only atonement available to you.] (D)
[B-But Mother…… is an apology really necessary over a gift she happened not to care for?] (L)
For a man as proud as Leonardo, bowing his head to Chloe is a humiliation.
Once they’re married she’ll have no choice but to be an ornamental wife, a wretched creature — that is Leonardo’s assessment of Chloe, and he has no idea how warped a set of values it is.
He did give her something a little shabby, granted, but finding fault with a person’s gift in the first place…… His complaints are still piling up when his brother’s roar comes down on him.
[Don’t talk rubbish! How much shame do you intend to pile on before you’re satisfied!] (B)
His brother’s voice rings through the room like thunder. Leonardo turns toward it without thinking, and finds anger and disappointment mingled in his brother’s eyes.
After a moment, the duchess closes her fan lightly and lets out a quiet breath.
[What you are to do is apologise. Nothing else. I will not permit you to answer back.] (D)
She rises slowly and points the tip of the fan at her son.
[Tomorrow morning I will send a messenger. When permission is granted, you will call on House Calendula and apologise formally. And you will go on bowing your head, there and then, until Lady Chloe forgives you.] (D)
[You can’t……!] (L)
[If you fear shame, then don’t create it in the first place!] (D)
The duchess’s hand comes down, and the hard fan catches Leonardo across the face. It must be made of iron; he lets out a dull [Guh……] and collapses to the floor.
Simplyrical 