"Good, so that topic is more or less wrapped up for now," Mark said. "Which ans there’s only one more thing left to address..."
And as he said it, his gaze drifted slowly until it ca to rest, without any attempt to hide it, on Rose and Alice.
"As so of you may already know, during the journey back... an incident occurred that shouldn’t have happened," Mark said in a notably calm tone.
He paused.
"And two of you ended up fighting each other."
Aria and Ely turned their heads toward Rose and Alice at the sa ti, but neither said anything.
Rose had her lips slightly pressed together and her gaze fixed on an undefined point on the floor.
Alice, for her part, was rigid, fists clenched and green eyes locked on her own feet.
"While I’m not going to go into the details of what happened because it isn’t necessary..." Mark took a deep breath. "First I want to apologize to you all."
Hearing their Master’s words, everyone was left in shock.
And the first to break the silence was once again Ely.
"Apologize?" she said with a confused expression. "Why, Master?"
"Because I’m your leader... and I clearly wasn’t competent enough to prevent that situation from happening," Mark replied, letting out a sigh. "I knew there was tension between the two of them, and yet I did nothing about it, assuming it would sort itself out."
"Master..." Aria said, snapping out of her shock.
"So I apologize to all of you," Mark said, looking at each one present.
The silence that followed his words was long.
Ely wore an expression of total disagreent, her mouth half open as if she wanted to say sothing but didn’t know how to start.
Aria had gone quiet with a serious expression, which coming from her was quite uncommon.
Yuki remained motionless with a slight frown.
And both Rose and Alice were exactly the sa, eyes on the floor.
Until Alice decided to speak.
"My lord," she said in a firm voice, stepping forward and making the others look at her. "You have no reason to apologize."
"Alice—"
"No!" she interrupted, and her voice ca out stronger than Mark had expected. "You are an excellent Master, my lord, and what happened that night was not your responsibility."
Alice swallowed before continuing.
"It was my fault and my jealousy..." Alice continued with her jaw slightly clenched, as if each word cost her physical effort. "I knew I was letting my emotions build up, and instead of trying to fix things... I stayed quiet and bottled everything up until I exploded."
Hearing Alice open up like that, nobody said anything for several seconds until, surprisingly, Rose spoke.
"It’s not only your fault."
Alice’s eyes opened and she looked toward the vampire.
"I’m also responsible for what happened," Rose continued in a tone that was noticeably different from the mocking one she usually used with Alice. "Probably just as responsible as she is, or even more."
"Rose..."
"I noticed her jealousy from the very first day," Rose said, crossing her arms and looking away to one side. "And instead of acting like the adult I’m supposed to be, I decided to provoke her even more."
"..."
"The laughs, the looks, the comnts..." Rose listed. "I did all of that because I found it entertaining to see her get annoyed, and I didn’t realize how far I was taking it until it was already too late."
Rose looked directly at Alice.
"So Alice... I’m sorry for how I acted."
"You don’t have to be," Alice said, slowly shaking her head. "You could have provoked as much as you wanted, but it was who decided to throw a punch instead of using words."
"Even so—"
"It was my decisions that made the situation escalate so quickly," Alice cut her off in a tone that left no room for argunt. "If I had kept my composure, none of that would have happened, so don’t carry all the bla."
"Alright... but for the record, at least half of it is mine."
"I’ll accept that."
While there was still so tension, it was the closest Alice and Rose had co to sothing resembling an agreent since they had t.
Mark, who had been watching everything from the throne without intervening, leaned back slightly.
’Well... looks like that resolved itself more easily than I thought.’
And the truth was he was genuinely surprised.
Because he had ntally prepared himself to have to diate, or to give a long speech about coexistence, mutual respect, and all the things a leader was supposed to say in these situations.
But none of that was necessary.
The two had apologized to each other on their own, without him needing to force or pressure them.
’Maybe I underestimated them a little.’
Mark was about to consider the matter closed when he noticed sothing.
Ely and Aria hadn’t said a single word throughout that entire part of the conversation.
Not one.
And considering the topic, that was strange.
"Ely, Aria..." Mark said, directing his gaze toward them. "What do you think about what just happened?"
Ely and Aria looked at each other for a second, and then Aria stepped forward.
"I think it’s stupid," she said in a tone so direct that Mark hadn’t seen it coming.
"...Stupid?"
"Stupid," Aria repeated, nodding firmly. "Fighting to that extent, risking your lives, destroying things, making a scene in front of the Master while he was sick... all of that was stupid."
Mark looked at her completely surprised.
"Because think about it, Master," Aria continued, turning to look at the others. "The Master loves all of us. ALL of us. That’s sothing we all know, right?"
The others didn’t respond, but none of them denied it either.
"So hurting one of us is like hurting you," Aria said in a tone that sounded unusually mature for her. "Because if any of us gets hurt, the Master would be the first to suffer from it."
’...That was surprisingly well put,’ Mark thought.
And then he looked at Ely, who had her arms crossed and was nodding with her eyes closed.
"Ely, what do you think?"
Ely opened her eyes and looked at him with a serious expression.
"I agree with Aria — fighting over who the Master loves more is ridiculous," Ely said in a tone that sounded like she was stating the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh," Mark said, genuinely impressed. "Well, I’m glad—"
"Because it’s obviously ."
"..."
Aria turned her head toward Ely so fast there was an audible crack.
"Excuse ?" Aria said with narrowed eyes.
"You heard ," Ely replied without even looking at her. "The Master loves more, it’s always been that way, it’s a universally accepted fact."
"Universally accepted by WHO?!"
"By ."
"THAT DOESN’T COUNT!"
"Of course it counts, Aria, I’m the head wife, my word is law."
"Your word is not law, Ely!"
"Yes it is!"
"The Master’s favorite is !" Aria said, stepping toward Ely with puffed cheeks. "It’s , it’s always been , and it always will be !"
"In your dreams!"
"MASTER!" Aria shouted, spinning toward Mark. "TELL HER!"
"MASTER, YOU TELL HER!" Ely shouted at the sa ti.
Mark looked at both of them.
Then he looked at Rose, who had a hand over her mouth very clearly holding back a laugh.
Then he looked at Alice, who had her eyes slightly wide with an expression of bewildernt, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
And finally he looked at Yuki, who was simply watching the spectacle with boredom.
’I should have seen this coming...’
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