章節 8: Friends

The preparations for the birthday were rather straightforward. A large banquet hall was cleaned out and properly set up. Caterers we're hired to provide the food, and servants were required to be on standby for the entirety of the event. Most attendees arrived later in the day, closer to the evening. They appeared in their typical family groups and mixed together with other friendly nobles from similar factions. This much was rather normal in a social setting.

Since it was the heiress' 18th birthday, a special importance was place on it. Quite a few important figures attended, together with their children. Among them were heirs such as Julian Evengrad. Liandra of course had no clue because her time had been occupied as of late.

"Little sister, when you make your appearance, stay calm and focus on making trustworthy friends if you can. If I catch you fooling around with a bad crowd, I will not let you go." Estelle reminded Liandra that she was being constantly watched. Estelle did not trust her sister to stay out of trouble as Liandra's character was troublesome.

Liandra frowned, sad that she could not have a real choice on who she wanted to talk to. She had friends that she wanted to meet with but Estelle's words had an obvious meaning. Liandra could tell that Estelle was referring to her current friends as a bad crowd, it was obvious. "I haven't seen any of them since… it happened." Liandra whimpered.

"Little sister, do as I say and you won't get hurt. Have you forgotten?" Estelle scowled, side-eyeing her sister with a penetrating gaze.

"It-it's my birthday… let me have this much please."

Estelle flicked Liandra's forehead with her index finger, completely fed up with Liandra's constant requests. "Have any of those friends of yours sent you a letter since your mother died?" Estelle asked plain and simple.

Liandra's expression went blank and her body became stiff and cold. She looked away from Estelle and walked away without saying a word.

"Come back here, sister!" Estelle called out to Liandra, with little success in garnering a reply.

Liandra ignored her sister for the first time since they had met. Usually she would struggle for a while before caving in to Estelle's wishes but today was different. Estelle had brought up an extremely sensitive topic, something that Liandra wasn't quite ready to talk about. As she walked through the hallways towards the banquet hall, she released a deep breath in an attempt to regulate her now shallow breaths. She was weaker than she thought, unable to cope with her own loneliness and losses. Liandra knew that Estelle was right but she just could not accept it.

It was terrible enough that Estelle had told Liandra that the latter's friends essentially did not care about her but what made things worse was the mention of Liandra's late mother. She couldn't handle her own trauma and just needed time alone, that is what Liandra thought she wanted anyway. What she actually desired was her mother. She missed her bright childhood, a time when she had it all.

She was alone with her thoughts until she heard voices calling out to her.

"Liandra! Is that you?" A group of people called out to her. As she walked closer to get a better view, Liandra began to recognise who she was looking at. Coincidentally, the group were her friends, the same ones that hadn't contacted her since her mother's death.

There were four of them to be exact. Sandra was a count's daughter, Camille was a viscount's daughter, Danielle was a marquis' daughter, and Janna was a merchant's daughter. All of them seemed rather plain compaired to Liandra, the whole group possessing the common trait of brown hair and having a mix and match of brown and blue eyes.

"I haven't seen you girls in so long, how've you all been?" Liandra made her best attempt to smile politely on the outside while keeping herself from shaking due to her own nervousness.

"We've all be doing well, thank you for asking, Liandra. But we haven't heard from you in so long. Why didn't you send a letter? We were worried sick about you!" Danielle questioned with hardly and sensitivity to Liandra's situation. She knew she had not reached out to Liandra, and that made her feel embarrassed.

"My- my mother…" Liandra dropped her shoulders, letting her head tilt forward. Her eyes faced the ground as she looked for a good way to answer Danielle. However, she couldn't quite put the words in her mouth.

Danielle grinned widely, satisfied with how the situation turned out. She no longer had to be defensive about her negligence as a friend. It was now Liandra's responsibility to explain.

"Yeah, we missed you so much. You should've written a letter." Called out Sandra.

"Yeah- a letter would have been nice."

"I agree."

The group's stance had been laid out. The majority was against Liandra's conduct. Even if Liandra had been the one suffering, her friends were the victims.

Liandra wanted to leave as it was setting uncomfortable. Her friends didn't apologise for not reaching out, but instead wanted to interrogate her for not sending out letters. It was exactly as Estelle said, they were a bad crowd.

As the group continued trying to talk to Liandra and relieve themselves of any remaining guilt hey felt, a familiar sound of steps echoed throughout the hallway. From the direction that Liandra had come from, a familiar white haired woman approached with a look of disdain.

As if saying 'I told you so' with her face, Estelle glared at Liandra with disappointment before turning to her friends. "You are not going to apologise for not reaching out to my sister in her moment of need?" Estelle asked simply.

"You aren't a part of this conversation, you won't understand the context. Butt out." Danielle demanded, clearly offended by Estelle's question.

"Oh, but the context is quite simple. My sister suffered a horrible loss, her friends refused to reach out to her, and placed the responsibility on her to reach out to them when she was mourning the loss of someone important to her. If I'm not wrong, people call your type 'fake friends'." Estelle's expression was deadpan, her arms crossed. She had seen enough of this. Even if it was Liandra getting bullied, this wasn't something she would let happen. If Liandra learned from them more, her path to becoming a villainess would be expedited. If that happened, here would be no peace for Estelle.

"Who are you to say that?!" Sandra called out, unable to come up with an argument to back up Danielle.

"I've already told you that I am Liandra's older sister, Estelle Vermillion. Now if you don't apologise, I will have to ask the guards to escort all of you out of the estate."

"On what grounds?"

"Disrespectful conduct and blatant bullying. But I don't really need a reason to make you leave. What I say goes. If I want you to leave, you will leave." Estelle's eyes gleamed viciously, a faint golden glow formed subconsciously.

"Liandra, you wouldn't let her do this to us?!" Danielle called out to Liandra, hoping for the latter to do something.

Liandra looked away, nodding to Estelle while holding back a tear from running out of an eye.

"You bitch! You will regret this!"