The March was bustling from the noises of busy footsteps. For the first time in a long time, the Dharmanath household will be going away for a vacation.
The last vacation that they had was when the previous Marchioness was still alive, which made the servants eager and excited to see them doing normal family activities.
That being said, there was a dark cloud on top of the irritated 16 year old girl. Ainaira and the Marquess went back to back during their conversations.
"Who will take care of your work? What if something happens to our family business!" Ainaira desperately tries to convince the Marquess to cancel the vacation.
"That's what workers are for, we make money just by breathing!" He argued, with a smug and proud look on his face.
( DAMN CAPITALIST!)
She cursed internally at the thought of spending time with this family, except for Ainsley. She doesn't mind spending time with him.
The Marquess took a step closer to her and whispered
"I'll make sure you're enrolled at the Union Academy and have the annulment be official on Monday. So, do this for me."
Ainaira no longer had any logical reason to disagree with the vacation. Even if it doesn't change how she dreads spending time on that island, the benefits outweigh the losses.
And if she's enrolled by next week, there's no need to worry about sneaking past the gate security. Even though it only made it a bit bearable, it wasn't enough for her to swallow up her fear.
They will be spending 3 nights at Paradis Island. It is a small and gorgeous island located at Welt Harbor. It's filled with rare plants, ruins and treasures. Usually, only archeologists and historians are allowed access to this place. As a result, when the Marquess asked about visiting the island, they refused.
He tried to convince them at first, which they disagreed with. Then, he tried to bribe them, which they refused. Then, he tried to negotiate renting the island, but they refused once again. When none of these methods worked, the Marquess ended up buying the whole island 10x its original value.
Upon hearing this, the Marchioness had a smile on her face as if buying an island was just a Tuesday shopping.
Aeron had no reaction. Always being in character.
Ainsley only smiled and giggled nervously. He was mostly concerned that his father took away a location that would greatly benefit humanity in the future rather than the amount of money he spent.
He was not wrong, what's contained inside Paradis island will help a lot of people. In the future that island will become known as Saintess research ground. Producing groundbreaking medicine that would heal various incurable illnesses.
Meanwhile, Ainaira was baffled about the fact that a 50 years old man infront of her bought an island because they refused entry.
She never understood why rich people would resort to buying a person, place and land if things didn't go their way.
It was hypocritical of her to think that, since she did and acted just like that in her previous life. If a shop couldn't let her in, then she would buy that business and fire every employee.
'Instead of buying what you can't get, why not just destroy it?' is what she was thinking. She always scorned the voices that wouldn't make her destroy what she wants.
After everyone left, the Marquess returned back to his office. He had mountains of work to do before leaving, so after he drank his medicines, he powered through the papers.
Fredrick was helping him sort out some documents that aren't that urgent. the two quietly and efficiently going through the work.
The Marquess cracked his fingers, and stretched his head. He just finished at least 3/4 of his work.
"Should we take a break?" Fredrick requested upon seeing the Marquess finished work.
"No need, let's finish this already."
…
"I realize that I haven't been paying attention to what's been happening around me.. I want to change the fact that I couldn't reach them before." The Marquess' head hung low while staring at a document.
Images of his children flash through his head; The eldest son, whom he never praised or talked to, not even about his achievements, the only daughter whom he never realized that she had changed, and his youngest son, who he knows nothing about...
"It's time to let go of her."
He stared longingly at the picture of his deceased wife. After the death of Lillian, the most beloved Marchioness of all generations, each family member became distant from each other. For the Marquess, drowning himself with work became his outlet for his grief. As a result, the Dharmanath family became richer but cold to each other.
The butler momentarily stopped his hands from writing and processing what his master had just said.
(The March is slowly changing.) he thought.
Fredrick doesn't know what caused the Marquess to change, but he was hopeful he might get to see that warm and welcoming atmosphere that used to surround the March, once again.
—
Around 3:50 PM the whole family gathered outside the gate. Servants yell at other servants to quicken up their pace, putting all of the family's luggage and setting it in the back of the carriage.
Compared to the enthusiastic servants walking around, the Dharmanath are just standing there awkwardly. Not one of them decided to talk to one another.
Ainsley fidgeted and kept looking at Ainaira every 10 seconds. He wanted to talk to her about his latest progress but he knew she was keeping her magic a secret.
The ride to the Paradis island didn't make the deafening silent any better. Without any servants to drown out the silence, they are made aware of the awkwardness this situation caused.
Ainaira noticed Ainsley's eagerness to talk to her but she just realized that Aeron also kept looking at her every 5 seconds. Not only that she felt a dangerous aura staring in front of her, it was Rosetta. (god i wish i was ainaira)
Ainaira's mind was preoccupied with something else, but before she ignored the gazes on her, she gave Aeron an unpleasant look.
Upon opening the carriage the smell of salty wind brushes their faces. Ainsley's eyes lit up at the small yet noisy market.
Fishes, crabs and any sea animals are being sold, some are alive, freshly killed, dried, and cut into pieces.
There are many different shapes and sizes of boats. The huge ones contain various goods and products that are imported from different nations.
All of them marvel at the beautiful site. The harbor was a melting pot of the Ethereal Empire, many people from all different nations came to sell their traditional goods.
Ainaira gazes at the distant island. With an emotionless face, she looked at Paradis Island intently, drowning out any noise and sights from her surroundings.
Her eyes slowly turned azure blue, and she looked up at the sky. Her lips were open for a short moment, noticing the sky darken.
She was in shock then said:
"It isn't supposed to rain..."
She re-analyzed the mana configuration in the sky. The result was still the same, later at night, there would be rain.
Ainaira bit her lips, feeling regret. She shouldn't have come here.