Mother stared at me with her eyes fully open, clearly shocked seeing her daughter. She looked at me then at anastasia then me then anastasia. She then stared at the ceiling, seemingly pondering about something. She then smoothed out her hair, pulled the blanket, and went back to sleep.

 

“Oh Lord this girl.”

 

Anastasia walked towards Mother with an angry face. I only knew her for a while but I could say with certainty that Anastasia's angry face was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. She grabbed the blanket that Mother was holding and pulled it with an inhuman strength. As a result a few seconds later Mother was rolling on the ground.

 

“What are you doing!?”

“Trying to wake up a pig, of course.”

“Who are you calling a pig!? I was just trying to go back to sleep and end this nightmare!”

“What nightmare? Did you finally become unable to differentiate reality and dream?”

“No! *huff**huff* Then if this is not a dream tell me why Charlotte is in my room? ”

“Because she wants to see you.”

“Hahaha! Nice one, she must hate me by now. There is no way that she would come here.”

“*sigh* this kid.”

 

I could only stand there silently listening to their banter when I heard my name was called by Mother. Did Mother think that I hate her? I didn’t remember ever saying things like that ever. Maybe she realized that she neglected me and Brother, and she thought that we hate her because of that. I didn’t hate her, though I don’t know about Brother.

 

“Um.. Mother, Anastasia, Maybe I should come by again later?”

“Oh no, Milady. I am very sorry for ignoring you. Could you please wait for a while?”

“Wait! Why are you much more polite to Charlotte compared to me!?”

“Stop shouting! Milady, I’m very sorry for this. Please take a seat while I prepare the madam.”

“Ow! Anna stop! Stop! Stop! I’m sorry! Ow!”

 

Anastasia led me to the sofa and poured me a cup of tea. She then grabbed Mother by her ears and dragged her into one of the side rooms. From the inside the room I could hear some crashing sounds and even more shouting. The ruckus stopped momentarily and I could here Mother finally realizing that everything that just happened wasn’t just a dream then the noise started again. I decided to just ignore the noises and sipped my tea. It had a nice rose fragrance and the sweetness was just enough. I wonder where Anastasia got this tea from? I thought that I would ask her later about it.

 

10 minutes later the noises stopped and the door of the side room opened. Mother walked in still in her pajamas but now her hair was combed nicely and her face was fresher. She walked gorgeously and sat at the opposite of me.

 

“Morning, my dear.”

“Clarina, it’s too late for you to keep that image.”

“But I want Charlotte to at least remember me as a lady. I know that she probably won’t ever visit me again so at least I need to show her a good image of myself.”

“Mother don’t worry, I will make sure to visit you often in the future.”

“Ah what a nice child. It’s okay Charlotte you don’t need to lie to make me feel better.”

“I’m not lying. I always wanted to visit and talk to you. Brother too.”

“...”

“We never can see you and Father is always busy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“This is why I told you to not be so stubborn, Clarina.”

“But he… I’m sorry.”

 

Mother lowered her head in regret. She really resembles Father in this situation. Maybe the two of them just need to talk to other people. Wait, wasn't that the same with me and Brother? I think I finally know why our family didn’t work. Every single one of us had a problem with expressing ourselves. Each of us had our own difficulty with it, I was timid, Brother hid behind his smile, Father preferred working than talking, and Mother was really stubborn. It seemed that my plan was correct from the beginning. If only we could just sit and talk with each other then we could get closer. The problem was nobody wanted, or couldn’t, open up and talk.

 

“Mother, why are you hiding inside your room all this time?”

“Um...”

 

Hearing my question Mother twiddled her fingers. If somebody came into the room they would be confused which one is the old one and which one is the young one. Anastasia sighed once again and started to talk about the reason.

 

“So it all started after the marriage. The Lord was already busying himself with work even back then. As a result the Lord really rarely visited your Mother.”

“Right right that! I already said how much I loved him and he never even said anything back. At first I thought he was shy but then he didn’t even try to meet me anymore.”

“And as you can see your Mother is really stubborn just like this. She never made any initiative to look for the Lord either.”

“Of course! The man should be the one to come to the lady and apologize.”

“*sigh* as the time goes on their relationship gets worse and worse. Clarina doesn't want to meet the Lord and the Lords never come. In the end we are here.”

 

So from this story and from Father's story I could conclude that Father was indeed the root of the problem. We really need to stop him working too much. Maybe I could go to the castle myself and ask the king if he could give Father some holiday.

 

“Mother, I think Father thinks that you hate him.”

“Well of course I do.”

“And he was scared that you will be angry at him.”

“That man could feel emotion like fear?”

 

They really didn’t know about each other. I wonder why Mother was adamant about marrying Father back then. After a little deliberation I told Mother about the talk I had with Father back at the salon. Mother tried to put an indifferent face but I could see her leaning closer to hear the story. As the story continued Mother’s face showed various kinds of expression.

 

“That was the man that I married?”

“What kind of man do you even think the Lord is?”

“I don’t know, back then I was only focused on his face and then I saw him walking and I thought he was so cool. The next thing I know I was married to the man.”

“...”

“...”

 

Well, I think I at least solved one of the problems.