As she slowly but surely took a sip of her tea, Iris, who was feeling somewhat tired at the moment, couldn't help but let out a deep breath, finally being able to relax herself after walking around the estate all day.
Suddenly, though, Iris suddenly froze with an extremely shocked look on her face, causing the cup of hot tea in her hands to fall to the floor and shatter, spilling all over.
But even so, Iris ignored the cup of tea, as she continued staring at the woman who had just appeared in front of her.
A moment later, Iris then took a step over the shattered cup and began walking through the woman, ignoring the shard of porcelain that had grazed her foot, as well as the hot water she was stepping in.
After finally reaching the woman and staring at her face for a few more moments, Iris couldn't help but finally burst into tears as she suddenly stretched out her hand and embraced her.
"Beatrice... my little baby, mother worried about you so much," mumbled Iris as she lightly sobbed, causing Beatrice, who was finally appeared in front of her mother, to let out a faint sigh as she then placed her hand over her mother's soft hair, allowing her to cry in her embrace.
Even though she was back on Golwall Island, Beatrice did not actually come back to her home even once in these ten years, party because of a certain feeling of paranoia and partly because she was far too busy.
But as she looked at her mother, who was currently crying, Beatrice couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of regret.
"You don't have to worry so much, don't you see I'm fine?" asked Beatrice as she looked down onto her mother, who was quite a bit shorter than her, and wiped the latter's tears with her palm, causing the latter to finally nod.
"Yea, you're fine, I shouldn't cry..." mumbled Iris as she clenched her fist, causing her nails to slightly sink into her skin.
This pain allowed Iris to finally regain her senses and return to her normal self.
...
As she looked at the tall woman in front of her, who was staring at the grave of her grandmother with a silent look on her face, Felicia couldn't help but feel some weird emotions enveloping her mind.
Even though she had been Beatrice's personal maid back then, over a decade ago, as she looked at the current Beatrice, who had a cold look on her face whilst she placed a flower over the grave, Felicia couldn't help but feel as though the current Beatrice was even colder than before, causing her to feel a sense of estrangement to her.
At this moment, though, Felicia was broken out of her thoughts by Beatrice, who had finally begun walking away from this grave, causing the maid to follow her.
Thankfully, though, Felicia didn't have to follow Beatrice for long, as the latter then stopped in front of another grave, which had the name 'William' on it.
This was of course the name of the head butler of the Agnes estate, William, who had peacefully died just one year ago to old age.
Even though Felicia knew that William lived extremely well towards the end of his lifespan, as Renald assigned numerous servants to the old man who had raised him back then, knowing that Lady Beatrice came back just a year later, Felicia couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the old man.
'It's a pity that you weren't able to witness lady Beatrice's retur-'
Without any warning, though, Felicia's thoughts immediately froze as she stared at the scene in front of her.
As she looked at the pitch black flowers which were quickly growing around this grave, as well as on the grave of her grandmother, Felicia couldn't help but blank out.
By the time Felicia finally regained her senses, Beatrice, who had seemingly done all she had to do, was nowhere to be seen, making the girl feel a little bit lost.
...
As he looked at the tall woman in front of him, who was peacefully eating with no particular expression on her face, Frederick, who was used to eating alone with his parent's, couldn't help but become slightly tense.
What made the boy even more tense was the fact that the woman in front of him was his older sister, who both his father and mother constantly talked to him about, comparing the two.
'Frederick, your sister learned to read when she was two'
'If only you managed to learn the knight breathing technique as easily as your sister'
'If you were a bit more like your sister, thing's wouldn't be so complicated'
Even though neither Renald not Iris had no ill intent, nor did they say these things intentionally, words like these made Frederick develop a weird relationship to his sister, who he had never met.
As she sensed the somewhat tense gaze towards her of the little boy in front of her, which was filled with both apprehension and a weird feeling of adoration, Beatrice couldn't help but faintly smile.
Even though the affection Beatrice had towards her brother was nowhere near the level she had towards her parents, and back when he was firstborn eleven years ago, he was somewhat annoying, in the end he was still her little brother.
But just as Beatrice was about to speak, she was suddenly interrupted by her mother, unintentionally of course, who suddenly spoke up.
"Beatrice, how long do you plan on staying home," said Iris, causing Beatrice, who was just about to speak, to fall into thought.
As she stared at her mother, as well as at her childish little brother, who were now staring at her with hopeful eyes, Beatrice fell into thought for a few moments.
"I'll be here for around a month, I will try to visit you when I can in the future," said Beatrice as she silently decided to increase the amount of time she spent home from three to four weeks.