One by one, the chefs started bringing out dishes that made Ning's mouth water just at the sight of it.
The various different dishes were truly something one could only dream of eating. However, even after the food was on the table and it was starting to cool, no one really gave a thought to eating them.
The Duke's eyes filled with anger while Lucius was one step away from pouncing on Ning.
The stepmother simply smiled at the situation, while Ori was dumbfounded at Ning's courage to speak, up against her father.
Trevain on the other hand was wide-eyed with surprise to the point that he did not even know if he was truly hearing it all correctly.
"What did you call me?" the Duke asked.
"Oh, I called you nothing. I called the version of your that would try to get his son married off without his approval, a scum. Which I hope you aren't, are you?" Ning asked with a smile.
"Do you know who you are speaking to?" Lucius asked from the side.
"Well, certainly not you, am I? I'm pretty sure I was talking with the duke and not his son," Ning said to the young man who tried to stand up for his father.
"Again, I have no idea what is happening behind the scene, so I am only commenting on what I think is happening. If what I speculated is incorrect, then please forgive me," Ning said.
The duke looked at Ning and gave a cold smile. "Are you trying to stand up for your friend?" he asked.
"Uhh… yeah, you can say that," Ning said.
"Your friendship must be quite strong to tempt fate itself, young man," the duke said.
"I'm just saying it as I see it," Ning said.
The duke turned from Ning to Trevain and asked, "You made friends like this? Even after being gone for 5 years, you still disappoint me."
"Stop," the duchess said as she placed her hands on the duke, but the duke moved it away and continued speaking.
"You need to learn how to judge people. You bring home such people that speak up against a duke without care for their life. Why would you spend 5 years there to make stupid friends like this?" the duke asked.
Trevain's face was cold and shivering. He was one step away from breaking down, and he was barely doing everything he could to keep himself from crying all out.
Ori was already crying, but she had to hide behind her stepmother so her father couldn't see her.
Lucius on the other hand did nothing but sneered all around him.
The dining room grew cold and silent as the only thing that could be heard now was some sniffing here and there.
Ning suddenly grabbed his fork and tore off a piece of the fish and started chewing on it.
"You say some rather mean things to your son, Duke. Is it just the one son or do they all get called these things?" Ning asked.
The Duke grumbled and looked towards Ning who was freely chewing on the delicious fish.
"Oh, and also, I think you misunderstood something here about our relationship. Yes, I am Trevain's friend, but I think you didn't learn when I became friends with him," Ning said.
The duke frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"I see, you must have been too busy to either get information from the butler or he simply didn't know it himself," Ning said. "You see… I really only met Trevain today morning. Well, I suppose you could say we met three days ago, but he was hiding his face in the public, so I wouldn't call that a meeting."
"Well, I should say I became friends with him just today," Ning said.
"What?" the duke was confused. "How could you become friends with him just today. Did you bring to my home someone you didn't know before today?"
The duke confronted his son, but Ning waved his hands from the side to grab his attention. "Oh no, I'm here because he hired me to bring his furniture. That's really just what I was here to do, but we ended up being friends on the trip," Ning said.
The duke said nothing for a while as he kept staring at Ning.
"And you think a day-long friendship is enough for me to let you just threaten and humiliate me?" the duke asked. "Do you not fear death?"
Ning smiled. "That would suggest that you have any possibility of killing me," he said as he shook his head. "You have none."
"You think I don't dare kill you just—"
"Enough!" Trevain shouted from the side. "Enough is enough." He banged his fist on the table with an angry look on his face that no longer had the same crying face as earlier. Finally, he had snapped.
"Keep your voice dow—"
"Or what? What will you do?" Trevain asked with an angry look on his face. "Will you imprison me? Or will you disown me? I don't see how either is better than what I have right now."
"Bastard, is that how you talk to father?" Lucius asked.
"Shut up, or I will kick your face so hard you will be shitting your own teeth tomorrow," Trevain said and turned to his father.
"And you, you can go and tell the senior Tarkov, that I will not marry his daughter. Did you really think I still am who I was 5 years ago? That I would willingly agree to marry a 36-year-old woman who is clearly mentally ill?" he asked.
"Do you know who senior Tarkov is? He is the vice headmaster of the First Bond school. Marrying his daughter will help our family reputation grow to even greater heights. Our political power—"
"I am telling you this now. I am not going to marry any woman that I don't choose myself. I already tried to leave this family once so I don't care about many things."
"As for things like respect, reputations, and political power, you can shove them up your ass."
