Following Oral's words, the hall fell into momentary silence.
The four of them were each lost in their own thoughts, while the two servants didn't dare make a sound.
Only Luna was anxious, like an ant on a hot pan.
Luna didn't understand all their considerations. She only knew that Oral apparently had to go to some dangerous place.
Oral was extremely unwilling and wanted to push it onto Celitia, and Viscount Herbert was already considering it.
They were going to abandon Lily—how could this be allowed?!
"Master!" Disregarding the setting, Luna blurted out, "You know Miss Celitia's health condition. She can't withstand even the slightest exertion! Please, for the sake of your late wife—Ah!!"
Before Luna could finish, Oral suddenly stood up from his chair, rushed to her, raised his hand, and slapped her hard.
"You lowly slave, know your place. Do you have any right to speak here?!"
Celitia was nominally his sister, and at least in front of their parents, Oral couldn't vent his anger on her.
But with a household servant, the daughter of a nanny, Oral had no reservations.
Oral's slap was extremely heavy. Luna's fair face immediately reddened as she covered the injured area with one hand, tears involuntarily welling up in her eyes.
Oral's smug smile had barely appeared when, the next moment, another crisp slapping sound rang out.
Oral felt a burning pain on his face—he too had been slapped.
The area where he was hit quickly formed a clear handprint.
Turning in disbelief, Oral saw Celitia standing beside him, methodically withdrawing her hand that had been raised in the air.
The girl spoke gravely, her purple-gray eyes swirling with an eerie mist that sent chills down one's spine.
"Luna is my person. Since when did it become your place to discipline her?"
Perhaps because he never expected Celitia would dare to hit him, to the point of forgetting how to react, or perhaps because he was frightened by the girl's sudden outburst of anger—either way, Oral was stunned.
Given his typically hot-tempered nature, he should have immediately pressed Celitia's head to the ground.
But being stared at by those gloomy eyes, as if sensing some extreme danger, Oral surprisingly didn't dare to make a move.
While Oral was stunned, Lady Herbert was not.
Seeing her stepdaughter suddenly strike her precious son, leaving his face red from the slap, Lady Herbert's screams filled the entire hall:
"Ahhhh—! You wretch, how dare you lay hands on Oral! I'll beat you to death!!"
She completely lost her noble demeanor, lunging at Celitia, raising her hand to strike back.
Without thinking, Luna hurriedly blocked Lady Herbert, firmly hugging her waist, forcibly stopping her:
"No, my lady, please calm down, don't use violence again!!"
The hall was instantly thrown into chaos, with the two women grappling, Oral standing dazed holding his face, and the two servants sweating profusely, desperate to flee the scene.
Watching the chaotic scene before him, Viscount Herbert's already limited patience was completely exhausted, and he exploded:
"All of you, get out—!!"
○
Because of this farce, Viscount Herbert flew into a rage and punished everyone involved.
Lady Herbert was temporarily confined to her quarters, Luna was fined a month's wages and ordered to reflect upon her actions for an entire day behind closed doors.
Both Celitia and Oral were punished with kneeling, required to kneel outside the main hall entrance for two full hours.
However, Oral endured for less than twenty minutes before he couldn't bear it anymore, got up, and secretly slipped away.
As long as he wasn't bold enough to wander before his father, Viscount Herbert turned a blind eye, pretending not to know.
Meanwhile, Celitia gritted her teeth and knelt for the full two hours at the door.
The late autumn wind blew through the girl's fluffy curls, exposing her thin, gaunt shoulders.
Her slender waist looked as if it would break with a single bend, yet she stubbornly kept it straight, never once yielding.
Passing servants pointed and whispered from a distance, apparently discussing how she had offended Young Master Oral again today.
The girl knelt alone, as if surrounded by her own space. Although servants gathered to watch, no one dared approach her.
Only Luna's mother, Rebecca, dragging her unrecovered ill body, ran over in tears to drape a cloak over Celitia, and only left after much persuasion from others.
Celitia didn't even know how she endured those two hours, or how she eventually returned to her attic room.
The muscle strain in her legs still hadn't healed, and her knees were now badly bruised from kneeling.
The cold illness from falling into the water days ago had only half recovered, and after being exposed to the biting wind for two hours, her body immediately developed a high fever, so burning hot that Celitia's mind became somewhat confused.
Celitia lay in bed wrapped in blankets, eyes closed, in a daze.
She drifted up and down in fragmented dreams, unaware of how much time had passed.
She only felt something cool placed on her forehead, and faintly heard the sound of sobbing beside her ear.
Opening her eyes, Celitia saw Luna sitting by the bed, carefully holding her hand, occasionally wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Luna," Celitia's voice was hoarse, "don't cry..."
She had always hated seeing people cry in front of her. Her body instinctively struggled to sit up, wanting to wipe Luna's tears away.
Just as she propped herself up, Celitia felt a wave of dizziness and involuntarily fell back.
"Don't move!"
Luna hurriedly picked up the fallen cloth and placed it back on Celitia's forehead, tears streaming down her face.
"Alright, I won't move," Celitia managed a very faint smile. "But you have to promise me, no more crying."
Luna nodded heavily, took out a piece of paper, sniffled, and wiped her nose until it turned red.
Celitia's gaze fell on Luna's still-swollen cheek.
"Does your face still hurt?" Celitia asked softly. "Oral's strength has always been considerable. It might take a few days before you're presentable..."
"You still have the heart to worry about me!"
Celitia's simple concern instantly brought back the tears Luna had just managed to stop.
"It was just a slap, what could happen to me? You're so ill... why don't you think about your own health..."
Luna was anxious, angry, and worried all at once. Thousands of words were stuck in her heart, not knowing how to express them, they could only transform into tears, continuously falling.
"It's fine, I'll be better in a couple of days."
Celitia wasn't very concerned.
After these days of observation, Celitia had discovered that although her body was frail, for some unknown reason, certain special characteristics had emerged.
Specifically, even when sick to the point of near death, after a day or two, her body could recover to its original state on its own.
Perhaps during the soul fusion, some reactions had occurred simultaneously.
Although she didn't know the exact reason, Celitia felt this probably wasn't a bad thing.
Hearing the indifference in Celitia's tone, the typically good-tempered Luna became angry:
"I forbid you to be so careless about your own health!!"