Siffia let out a shallow sigh of relief and slowly turned around, looking at the face that so closely resembled her own.
“...Hello, mother.”
Never one for greeting her daughter back, her mother instead lightly shoved Siffia out of the way, taking a good hard look at the dresses inside the box with a steely face before turning her gaze back to her.
“Such expensive looking dresses… How did you get these? Just three would be enough to buy this family manor from us!”
“Ah, they-”
Siffia opened her mouth to try and explain, hoping to calm her increasingly agitated-looking mother, but no such chance was to be had amongst her mother’s frantic rantings.
“Don’t tell me such a scatterbrained, unfit girl like you managed to find someone to send you things like this?! Who was it?! What did you do?! What did you do to get such amazing dresses, Siffia?!”
“I-I, no, I-”
“What is all this yelling about so early in the morning, Spirrel?!”
Her father’s voice resonated down the hallway, and the two of them quickly turned towards the sound of his domineering footsteps approaching them. Worried though she was, it was easy for Siffia to tell that her mother, whose face was so similar, also seemed to look a bit stressed by his arrival. She hoped for a moment as her mother stepped forward that she might possibly help cover for her poor daughter; After all, though she was interrogating her, it was still true that her mother’s eyes had sparkled just a bit when she’d witnessed the extravagant dresses too.
However, as should have been expected, her mother sold Siffia out to her father to protect herself, just like always.
“This girl! It was because of this girl! Have you seen what came for her this morning, Darling?!”
“Hmm?”
Siffia’s father squinted his eyes and continued past his wife, nudging Siffia even further and more roughly away than her mother had, to examine the dresses. Siffia was sure that he’d snarl or growl in contempt, assume the wrong thing just like always, and maybe even smack her for her perceived foolishness. However, as she cowered and trembled there, watching his face closely for any hint of what was coming, something unexpected happened; It wasn’t a scowl but a smirk that appeared on her father’s face.
“Aha… I see. So you did listen to my words for once, you clever girl. Well done.”
“W-what?”
“Hm? What’s going on, Darling?”
Both Siffia and her mother were clearly confused by the almost subject-less sounding ramblings, but her father paid neither of their questions any mind, his greedy gaze turning to Siffia with a hint of madness flaring up from deep within them.
“I hadn’t expected you to pull it off so soon! To think such an undesirable omega as you would be able to pull it off in just a day… And without the help of the ‘potions’ that I was procuring for you! I should have known that a daughter of mine wouldn’t continue to let me down like this forever! How wonderful!”
Her father, now madly beaming with glee, began to grab, pat, and shake Siffia’s shoulders as his overjoyed words flew out. Poor confused Siffia was constantly uncomfortably jostled left and right. Her shoulders ached from how hard her father, an alpha, had been hitting and squeezing them. Even though he was smiling, it still somehow felt like she was being punished.
“I’d thought I’d have to wait for a bit longer when you didn’t spend the night as I said, but it seems an entire night was unnecessary to win them over! Such foolish men! To think the children of a Margrave could be so easily and foolishly won over! So then, how did you do it? Which one was it? Which of them were you able to win over yesterday?”
Though slowly coming to realize her father's misunderstanding, Siffia had no clue what to say to correct it without angering him. She hesitated, flapping her mouth open and closed repeatedly, until she was saved by the all too familiar voice which rang out clearly and elegantly through the foyer.
“I’m sorry to ruin your fun, Count Heston, but I believe the ‘foolish child’ that you were speaking of would be me.”
Siffia, who’d been wincing both from pain and the weight of horrible misunderstanding, quickly perked up, her eyes almost glistening as she turned her head towards the doorway.
“Lady Eris!”
Before she could even think, Siffia’s feet were moving her to Eris’s side. The welcoming nod that Eris gave her as she approached made her feel incredibly safe. It was as if there were no one she could possibly feel more comfortable with.
However, when Eris’s comforting hand came to gently pat her arm, the memories of last night’s mortifying thoughts came flooding back to Siffia.
The place that had just felt safe like no other now felt like a fiery inferno of shame. Her face lit up like a candle, and it was all she could do to step back slightly and bow her head in the hope that Eris wouldn’t notice how shameful she currently felt.
“...Lady Siffia?”
“Ah, Lady Mescal! You’ve come to our house once again, I see!”
Luckily before Eris could enquire any further about Siffia’s strange actions, Siffia’s father stepped affably forward to speak to her, followed quietly by her confused looking mother. Though Eris didn’t appear too pleased by their approach, she still turned herself towards them and boredly responded, even while her soothing hand lingered itself on Siffia’s arm.
“...Yes. I came because I wanted to make sure that the dresses had arrived.”
“Aha so that’s why you came in such a timely manner! And may I ask, is what you said about these dresses being a gift from you true, My Lady?”
Eris frowned and didn’t answer right away, looking a bit conflicted as if she were holding herself back from saying something, but eventually she nodded along to his question.
“...Those weren’t my exact words, but yes, it is indeed true that I ordered these dresses.”
“Is that so? I see, I see~!”
Siffia’s father nodded as if he believed her words, but the smirk on his face and the disbelief in his eyes belied his true thoughts. He’d clearly taken Eris’s previous brief hesitation to mean something different. Siffia couldn’t help but scrunch her eyebrows and frown at the way he was acting; All too often her father disbelieved most of the words spouted by women and omegas, even the ones spoken by his own wife. It seemed that he was even doing it now too to Eris, something that greatly displeased Siffia.
Knowing how much this trait of her fathers’ also irritated her mother, Siffia looked to her in the hopes that she might speak up. Though Siffia’s mother was often cowardly and usually wouldn’t spare anything to save her image in the eyes of her father, the one time that she might actually stand up to him was when he was on the verge of being rude to someone higher up than them. However, despite Siffia’s hopes, instead of showing irritation towards her father, her mother was currently looking back and forth between Eris and Siffia as if she were seeing something unbelievable.
“Oh… Oh my…”
“Hmm?”
Her father, having heard the small murmurs coming from his wife, turned to look at her questioningly, but she simply pursed her lips and hesitated, unsure if she should say anything to him. In the end, she seemed to choose to say nothing, quickly flapping open her fan and hiding herself behind it in the way that noble ladies often did, and shaking her head to her husband.
“N-no, it’s nothing, Darling.”
“Hmm… Alright, then.”
Though he narrowed his eyes in suspicion for a moment, Siffia’s father swiftly turned his head back towards Eris, giving the best business smile that he could provide.
“Well, Lady Mescal! As you can see, the dresses have arrived in perfect condition! Now then, if you would like to wait in the parlor or Siffia’s room, then I’ll have some servants come and take up this box-”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“I… beg your pardon, My Lady?”
Eris’s unexpectedly blunt rejection had clearly frazzled Siffia’s father, as his smile seemed to creak with stiffness.
“As these dresses are a gift from me, and I intend to head towards Lady Siffia’s room anyway, I think I’ll simply take the box there myself along the way and save some trouble.”
“What...?”
Siffia, along with both of her parents, all gasped at Eris’s declaration. To have a guest perform such a task, not to mention someone of as high of standing as Eris was, was simply taboo amongst the nobility. The fact that she’d even suggested it was practically unheard of.
“L-lady Mescal, no! We couldn’t possibly make a guest perform such a menial task-”
“But it is not ‘menial’ to me, Count Heston.”
The coldness of Eris’s voice and gaze all but cut through Siffia’s father as she spoke. With the back of her gloved hand she rudely pushed against his arm, gracefully moving him aside as she made her way towards the box. Rough though she’d been with him, her hand that grasped onto Siffia’s and led her along after her was extremely gentle.
“Besides, it's better not to entrust such an important gift with someone who has such harsh habits with his hands, don't you agree?”
Though she didn’t specify who she was talking about, it was obvious who and what she meant. Siffia’s father grimaced behind her, both in anger and worry.
“Though I… appreciate your kind sentiments, Lady Mescal, I don’t think you can simply-”
But his words suddenly failed him when Eris picked up the box as easily as if it were empty. She didn’t spare him a glance, calmly marching her way towards Siffia’s room with familiarity, only stopping a few seconds later when she realized that Siffia was no longer following her.
“Come along, Lady Siffia. I don’t intend to hold this box all day.”
Of course, the gaping Siffia could only attempt to pick up her fallen jaw and dutifully trot along after her, her astonished parents all but forgotten and left behind.