The First Female Duke

Chapter 26

Mrs. Clark had no time for her son first, she went up to Edith, bent down, and cried softly:

"What's the matter, honey, did Bridges bully you?"

"Will Aunt Jolene help you teach him a lesson?"

Young Master Clark pursed his lips at that, and tried to retort, but he couldn't. He'd just let his mother get him to behave, anyway.

Edith now felt that she had been humiliated to the point of tears by her own stupidity, and now the elders knew about it.

She crouched for a moment before standing up, with both hands still covering her eyes, and said pitifully:

"No, he didn't bully me." At least she had recovered her conscience enough not to blame Bridges.

"I've been fine."

"Aunt Jolene you don't have to worry."

Clark could tell by the way she looked at her that the child was embarrassed because she was crying, and instead of telling Edith to put her hands down, she said in a relieved-sounding tone, "That's good."

Hearing Mrs. Clark say that made the twinge in Edith's heart feel a little better at last. Thinking that there was no point in hiding her face now, since she had already been humiliated, she let her hands drop, revealing a pair of red, watery eyes from crying.

Mrs. Clarke laughed a little in her heart, wondering what Bridges had done to make the child cry like that. Although Edith had denied that Bridges had bullied her, Mrs. Clark knew in her heart of hearts that even if Bridges hadn't bullied her, he had something to do with it.

Edith tried to leave the place where she had been humiliated, but when she turned around, she bumped right into Bridges' gaze.

How can I put it, those eyes were full of hesitation, anxiety, annoyance as well as anger, he probably wanted to come up and say a few words to her, but with his personality he didn't use a single word and if he wasn't in the wrong mood at the moment, Edith would have marveled at the fact that he was able to change so many moods in one face.

When Bridges noticed Edith's reddened and slightly watery eyes looking over, he broke into a bit of nervousness - though he couldn't figure out what he was nervous about, clearly he hadn't done anything wrong had he?

Swallowing his throat and squeezing his hand imperceptibly around the hilt of his sword, Master Clark wondered what he should say back if she spoke to him. Was it, "You're better, aren't you?" Or, "What did I do to you?"

Unfortunately, his well-done mental constructs weren't half as useful as they could have been.

Edith just swept him away with a faint glance before following Mrs. Clark out of the area.

As she skipped past him, Bridges admitted that his annoyance level went through the roof. Just, in a very bad mood, or the kind of bad that was bottled up and couldn't be vented.

By the end of the day Bridges had practiced his sword all over again before heading back to the main castle.

It was like Edith had stepped into safe ground when she returned to her room, if she could, she even wanted to vent her depressed and mortified feelings by screaming, but her long time noble upbringing wouldn't allow her to do so, and in the end she couldn't hold it in, so she could only gently chop off her foot.

Mary and Li Xi looked at the lady's red eyes back to the room, the mood is obviously not right appearance, immediately frightened, but the lady refused to say anything, just smothered in a side not to say anything.

Lexi and Mary could only stand by and look at her worriedly.

After a while, Edith seemed to be feeling better as she sat down at the table and thought for a moment before finally pulling out her quill.

Both maids were relieved to see this, whenever the young lady took out a pen and paper with such an attitude, it meant that she was going to write a letter to her ladyship. After writing a letter to madam, the young lady's mood would definitely improve.

Dabbing the quill lightly with some ink, Edith calmed her mind and carefully wrote on the parchment.

Dear Mom:

Is everything all right? I still miss you terribly.

The days at school seem to fly by so quickly that time slips out of hand without a moment's notice. But luckily, I wasn't unproductive during the time that escaped.

Around this time, I finally realized how hard you had been trying to educate me, and I used to wonder why someone as gentle as you would be so strict on the matter of my magical training - I could hardly slack off for a moment. But after I came to Sofia, I realized that the world is far from peaceful as I thought, it is full of dangers all the time, and I have to have the strength to protect myself - this is what you wanted to say countless times before but didn't say.

It was you who kept these dark things out and gave me a carefree time. I would love to thank you for that, but of course I know you will say that there is no need for thanks between us. I guess I am slowly growing up and don't lack the courage to face these harsh realities and truths.

I've also realized that maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was - Mentor Faust said that my light spells are full of holes, and Mentor Bertha said that the fire spells I've mastered are very one-dimensional and ...... (Edith paused when she wrote this and hesitated for a while but still told this matter), and after I had a match with Bridges After a match, I realized that my practical combat experience is almost zero.

It was a screaming fact, I knew that I was a first year and he was a fourth year, and that it was normal that I couldn't beat him, but what I didn't expect was that I'd be overpowered to the point that I couldn't do anything about it - for that reason I even shed a little bit of tears in shame (because of the shame, even in front of her own mother, Edith still used a slight euphemism)

It was probably one of the most embarrassing things I've experienced in my life so far! The good thing is that after speaking to you, I've let go of a lot of it - there's no shame in facing up to your shortcomings is there?

And I do admit now that maybe I did have too much prejudice against Bridges before, from a certain point of view (of course, it's only a certain point of view, most of the time he still looks like he's in need of a beating), Bridges is indeed a very good person, I heard that he's Master Widgie's most favorite student, I used to be skeptical of this rumor, but now, after I get to know it better, I know that it's indeed true - I've heard that he's Master Widgie's favorite student, once I was suspicious of this rumor, but now, after I know more about it, I know that it's indeed true. know that it is indeed true - at least in this area of magic, he has something in him that I should learn from.

For this reason, I have decided to treat him better in the future - provided, of course, that he doesn't come to me for a fight.

Seeing the words is like seeing the face

Love, Edith.

Although Edith in the letter said what she thought, but ideas are ideas, it's still a bit difficult to actually do them, at least after this happened, she and Bridges were both in an odd and awkward state.

--They could neither quarrel as recklessly as before, nor could they peacefully and naturally fake smile at each other.

Bridges couldn't apologize to Edith without knowing that he had done something wrong (whether or not the young master had the word apology in his vocabulary was, of course, another story), and Edith, for her part, couldn't explain that she had in fact just, well ...... temporarily lost control of her emotions that day?

They kept such a stiff atmosphere and rode on the carriage back to school.

Of course, before they left the house, Mrs. Clark was extra worried and explained that they should not quarrel.

The turn of events occurred after returning to Sophia, when Edith stood at the door of the girls' dormitory building, intending to come to a complete parting of the ways with this Young Master Clark, but Young Master Clark called out to her.

He coughed softly, the knot in his developing throat moving slightly, and his eyes drifted around as if he had found some novel building in this uniformly styled dormitory area.

"I ......"

He had just started, and Edith's brow furrowed in an odd frown, recalling the young master's previous behavior:

"Don't you tell me again that you're going to come upstairs and have a tour or something." Glancing at Bridges, Edith added quickly, "Don't even think about it."

Bridges choked, his thoughts instantly derailed by such an interruption, and he furrowed his brow in displeasure:

"What do you mean 'again', when did I ever say anything like that?"

It was hard to remember if she said it or not Edith, but that was always what it meant anyway.

"And you have!"

Bridges paused, and two seconds later, he said:

"Aha, this is really your style." He resumed his mocking tone that could exasperate anyone.

"What's my style?"

"Like making something out of nothing, being irrational, whatever ......"

Edith rounded her pretty eyes, "Why can you talk about me with such a straight face?"

"Why can't I, I mean, isn't it the truth?"

"But don't you see what's wrong with yourself?"

Bridges duly cast a quizzical glance at her.

Edith gave a lurch and couldn't help but raise her voice slightly, "Such as arrogant, rude, venomous, and pompous ......" she said nearly ten words representing pejoratives in one breath.

Bridges was rare in not getting angry, he hooked up the corners of his mouth and nodded his head with a bit of mockery and said, "It seems that in your eyes I have flaws written all over me."

Edith choked, if put before, she would definitely say yes without hesitation, but now ......

"Not really." She narrowed her eyes and mumbled in a small voice.

Bridges raised an eyebrow in surprise, not realizing he had any merit with her?

The young girl in front of her seemed to shrug her shoulders down in a bit of a disheveled manner, her soft brown hair falling to her sides from her movements, which made her face look extra small:

"At least you could have subdued me in one move, I'm in no position to mock you in that regard."

Her voice was flat, but Bridges could just hear a bit of helplessness and, well, frustration in it. And she was standing in front of him, only just up to her chin.

Bridges sighed suddenly and silently, reaching out to rub the top of her hair, earnestly:

"You've done very well, Edith." It was about rare to hear Master Clark speak in such a gentle tone.

Edith froze, then looked up in surprise as Master Clark's dark eyes looked at her so intently that it was impossible to doubt the truth of his words.

Before Edith had a chance to be moved, she saw him smack his lips and add indebtedly:

"Of course, it's still that much worse than when I was a first year."

Edith: "......"

She expressionlessly took the hand off her head and hooked the corner of her mouth in mockery, "Thanks for being a little touched just now, surely that's the point of your latter sentence, isn't it?"

Bridges purposely made a surprised expression, looking as if this was all obvious to you.

Edith shrugged her nose and grunted, twisting her head to head back to her dormitory, only to be pulled back.

"What are you doing?" Edith turned back in annoyance.

"What's your hurry." Bridges glanced at her and lifted the corner of his mouth to say slowly, "You're so bad at real combat that at this rate I guarantee you'll fail your combat class."

Edith felt downright insulted, she wouldn't be reduced to flunking even if she was bad.

"I wouldn't." She affirmed.

"Who knows?" Master Clark picked up lazily, "You might be crying miserably again when you flunk."

Edith's eyes widened in disbelief, what, the man had learned to stick it to her, hadn't he? Did she think she didn't have a cure for him?

"So what do you want?"

Master Clark coughed, averted his eyes slightly unnaturally, and said, "I could take you to practice in the school's training room for a while."

Edith grimaced, "No, I'd rather go to Connor."

Master Clark wrinkled his eyebrows, "Hell, you're still coming on, aren't you?"

"I'm sacrificing my precious time practicing with you."

"Why I have to thank you for that!"

"Of course." Master Clark lifted his chin rightfully.

Edith shrugged his hand away as if she didn't want to talk to the childish ghost anymore.

Seeing her turn around, Bridges didn't pull her this time, but stood still and said lazily:

"Going or not, give us an answer."

"No!"

Young Master Clark nodded to himself, "Since you promised, well - see you in the training room tomorrow."

Edith: "Bye!"