After the incident with Lucen Thornehart, the Vermont father and son returned to their home. When they got home, Reginald's Mother, Count Vermont's wife, Elandra Vermont, was waiting for them.

She was a woman in her forties, but looked like she was in her late twenties. She had an almost permanent smile on her face as she was trained to never show her true emotions on her face.

She was the youngest daughter of Marquess Eron Halbrecht and married Count Vermont to strengthen their ties through blood. Both families are part of the second prince's faction.

"Husband, you have returned. Can you tell me what happened?" Noticing the expression on Count Vermont, the ever-smiling Elandra asked a question.

"The supposed merchant who insulted our son and did so without reason was none other than the heir of the Iron Duke, Lucen Thornehart."

The second she heard those words, Elandra, who was still smiling, looked at her son. Despite her smiling face, there was an intense pressure around her, making Reginald take a step back.

"Oh, my lovely idiotic son. It would seem that giving you whatever you want was a mistake."

Her tone was as sweet as honey, but it was the kind that suffocated rather than soothed. Her smile remained perfectly in place, unbroken, as if carved in porcelain. The light in her deep, dark eyes, however, was sharper than any blade.

Reginald instinctively took another step back.

"We hired the finest tutors for you." She continued gently. "I didn't care how you amused yourself as long as you learned from those things. I allowed you to surround yourself with flatterers, hoping you would learn from their failings, not mimic them."

She tilted her head, her smile never once faltering.

"It would seem that it has given you a mistaken thought that you could do anything without consequences. Now you even have the audacity to lie to your parents. That not only makes me feel disappointed but sad."

She reached out and delicately brushed a stray hair from Reginald's cheek, the gesture maternal in appearance, but every fiber of her presence screamed danger.

"Now, my lovely idiotic son, tell us the truth about what happened."

Reginald, who was trembling and sweating, gulped dryly as he had no choice but to tell everything that happened.

***

After listening to the entire recounting without any interruption, the ever-smiling Elandra sighed. Kyle was holding back his anger as he rubbed the temples of his forehead.

"Truly disappointing, my son. You showed neither the dignity nor the courage one would expect from a noble heir. It is as the child of the Iron Duke said, you were simply a clown dancing for his entertainment."

"No one said anything! He looked like a merchant. How was I supposed to know? He was even wearing the crest of the Thornefang. Wasn't that simply a merchant's crest?" Reginald suddenly replied, which made Elandra shake her head.

"No one said anything? How were you supposed to know? Those are things you should have figured out yourself." Elandra answered, sounding even more disappointed.

"Even if he wasn't the Iron Duke's heir, you thought that if he were a simple merchant, you could do something about it?"

"Of course, aren't we nobles higher beings than commoners?"

"And what, pray tell, gave you the delusion that nobility makes you untouchable? That it places you above consequence?"

Elandra's voice remained sweet, but her words cut like a knife.

"Was it your drunkard friends? The pampered fools you keep around like pets? Or was it the comfort of this household, where no one ever made you bleed for your stupidity?"

"Doesn't Father also say such things?"

Getting pointed out, Kyle, who was silently listening in, frowned as he glared at his son. His wife then turned her head to look at him. He wavered and turned his head away. Elandra shook her head again as she spoke.

"True, your Father thinks of such things, but he never says out loud in front of anyone aside from family. He also doesn't show that he thinks about commoners, as such, his actions do not betray his thoughts. Unlike you, who show your very thoughts through your actions and words."

Elandra looked at her son, and the smile on her face disappeared and turned into a neutral look.

"You must remember this, even commoners have power. I remember you like watching plays, don't you, my son, then I will explain it in a way you can understand. Nobles are like the playwrights of the play. They write the story and tell the actors what to do. The merchants have the power of the coin. They can create the stage and pay the actors. The commoners are the actors. They move in a way as dictated by their role, but actors can also go off script. They can do something beyond what the playwright wrote. We may have written the script, but if it is not written by someone respectable or the story itself is not right, the actors may refuse to play their part."

Elandra paused as she looked out of the large window in the room. The sun was shining brightly on them.

"Still, even among commoners, there were actors so great that they became well known to everyone. Those in reality are commoners who become knights, mage scholars, rich merchants, and some even gain noble titles. Many of the current houses came from humble beginnings, so never underestimate someone you perceive as a commoner. In fact, never underestimate anyone. When the actors rise from the stage and write their own script... History calls it revolution."

Silence filled the room. Reginald didn't respond. Kyle said nothing. Even the distant ticking of the clock seemed to hold its breath. Elandra's neutral expression disappeared, and her ever-smiling face reappeared.

"Still, what has been done cannot be undone. To think that among the four Dukes, you would choose the most difficult to mess with. The Runescars would have dealt with this problem using battle. The Judicars would initiate a trial, and you would only have a minor punishment since no one was harmed. The Aeromont would not even bother to care about what you've done. But the Thorneharts do unexpected things. They are the guardians of the North, and we do not know how they would react to what you have done."

Elandra paused as if in thought before continuing what she was saying.

"The only path forward now is to soften the blow. Tomorrow, before the Third Prince's birthday celebration begins, you will personally apologize to Lucen Thornehart. I'll also prepare a gift, you will hand it to him yourself."

The moment Reginald heard his mother's words, he froze. Even though his opponent was the Iron Duke's son. A public apology would humiliate him.

"Why should I apologize? I said and did nothing wrong. If anything, he was the one who started all of this! He provoked me into attacking."

"How disappointing, my son. It would seem that you are lacking more than I thought." Elandra clapped her hands, and someone appeared behind Reginald.

"Please bring my son to his room. He isn't allowed to leave until I say so."

The person who appeared wearing a knight's armor nodded his head and grabbed hold of Reginald.

"Wait! Unhand me! Let me go now!" The knight didn't care for whatever Reginald had to say and simply dragged the other party to his room.

Elandra waited until the heavy door upstairs slammed shut before finally letting her smile fade completely.

"...His pride is a cracked mask," she murmured. "And if it breaks in public, so will ours."

She turned to her husband.

"Tomorrow must go perfectly."

Kyle's brow twitched. "Do you really think a public apology will be enough for the Iron Duke's heir?"

Elandra walked past him, her voice almost too soft to hear. "I do not know. There's too little information about the current Lucen Thornehart. All the intelligence we have on him was when he was a sickly child. We have no idea if that was the truth or not. We do not know if he was always hiding his claws, if he just acquired them."

Elandra sighed. "If it were just the Iron Duke, I know he would simply scold our son, and that would be it, but Lucen Thornehart is different. He could very well start a war because of this, or he could be like the Runescars and ask for a duel against our son. Neither of those options is good for us... So now I can only hope that the young pup doesn't bite. We also need to inform my Father about our current circumstances."

When Kyle heard that his wife would report this incident to the Marquess, he could only sigh. He wished she would not do so, but given the situation, she must do so.

"If we make a mistake here, then we might need to switch sides." Elandra sighed again. Her idiot of a son truly gave her a difficult problem to solve.

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