Chapter 227: The tea party where no one drank tea

We walked to the center and took our seats. 

The guests took theirs and the four girls on our table all stared at me.

There were actually a lot of guests here and from around the world too. 'And this is supposed to be a tea party?'

A bad feeling?

Nay, I had a terrible premonition. But I guess that was just expected.

"What are you people doing here?"

The three in front of me, though, caught most of my attention.

"Well, I was invited here," Eve said, smiling slightly. She was in a red ball gown. Very daring in the chest department.

"I heard you were here, so I couldn't resist," Leilis licked her lips and grinned. She was in a rather weird dress, a lot of colors ranging from pink to sky blue. And it was almost like a rainbow was gradually falling down from her chest to the bottom of her dress.

"Do you really need to ask?" Selene chuckled. She had this skin-tight black dress- similar to something she wore in the past- just not as much daring.

And last but not least, "Remember that time Vana Battlesuin came to visit?" Merin spoke with a nervous smile. "Well, I also got invited and you know very well, we can't ignore a Battlesuin's invitation- or- or they'll-"

"Murder everyone in your family, I know." I sighed. "It's good that you're here but shouldn't you have known better, Merin?"

The guy knew I'd be here and there'd be trouble- so did he really need to come?

And that rumor about Battlesuins murdering families was just a rumor anyway. 

Okay, maybe not.

He just smiled awkwardly. I guess he couldn't say anything about the Battlesuins while being surrounded by the bunch.

He was wearing his best jacket today though, so I guess he didn't expect to see a bloodbath. 

Actually, everyone was wearing fancy clothes and the girls at our table were kind of wearing light. I guess they weren't as cold as me.

But shouldn't it have been common sense that a fight could break out today? So how come the people were so carefree? Something was amiss and it wasn't me.

"Your friends?" Mom whispered from the side.

Mom was to my left, while uncle was to my right. And next to mom was grandma and next to her was auntie while Marg was near the end of the table. 

The other seats were empty and they were probably going to be filled by the Battlesuins.

"I'll introduce you guys later." 

I certainly didn't feel like doing anything now. 

"Friends and family-" Hyora warped to the head of our table with father. "Welcome!" she raised a glass- a glass of champagne. "Thank you for coming. Today, we shall celebrate our reunion with Helio Romswell Jintel."

"Reunion?" I leaned towards uncle. "Is she screwing with us?"

Uncle just stayed quiet. 

"Or should I say-" Hyora smiled- the very same creepy nonchalant smile. "Helio Battlesuin Jintel."

"Wait what?" I chuckled. "I knew one of us would pick a fight eventually, but I didn't expect you of all people to pick it. And I thought you'd discuss the death of that- what was that guy called again? Anyway, this is so funny." I kept on laughing and stood up, a hand on my saber. 

But no one else laughed. Even my family stayed quiet. 

"Come on guys, you're not going to put up with this BS, right? Mom?"

None of them looked at me. I looked back and Hyora and she was just smiling. Father was also just looking down. 

Oh.

It took a second to click but-

I could get a vague idea. 

All those things everyone said. 

It would be impossible for me to enslave the Battlesuins- or so mom had told me. She said she promised father to not say something to me- and the name of my father wasn't anywhere, ever.

And the marriage was never credited by our families, that's why we always stayed away from our families and that's why we were always in debt. 

Pieces just kept on falling to place.

Minutes passed but the silence remained. 

Oh!

"He was a Battlesuin," I spoke in disbelief and fell to my seat. 

"I'm sorry, you had to find out this way." Mom said. "But I'd done a blood oath before you were born- to not tell you. I'm sorry."

"What about you, why didn't you tell me?" I asked uncle.

"You know your mom. She'd have slapped me silly."

I almost felt pained. 

They could have at least given me a head start. I felt so frigging betrayed.

All this time I thought my father had left our family for this woman, for Hyora but- I guess there was more to that. 

However, "Though that's shocking, we're not here for that. You invited us for some other reason, I'd assume." I said, glaring at Hyora. I needed something to distract myself.

"We'll get to that later, first." She spoke softly but her voice reached everywhere. It was almost as though she had magic in her voice. "Let the party begin."

She lifted her glass forward and took a drink. 

The rest followed suit- all apart from us. 

The silence was no more and the guests began to talk amongst themselves. 

Though this was called a tea party, I didn't see anyone drinking tea. There was green tea on our table but yeah- no one was drinking any.

There were all sorts of snacks but the most common things were wine and champagne and both were the fancy kind. 

I was very tempted to have a drink and forget about all this crap.

"But, does it really matter?" Grandma drank a bit of wine. "Your parents loved you and as things changed, they moved apart. But that doesn't change the fact that they loved you. And it also doesn't matter what your family is. After all, you decide who your family is and what you'll do with it. You decide, who you trust and who you'll crush."

"That sounds nice and idealistic, but you know that's not what I want to hear right now."

"Then what do you want to hear?" Mom's voice shivered slightly- she was speaking very softly, enough so that only I could hear. "That I fell in love with the wrong man? That I ran away from my family, disobeyed everyone, and loved the wrong man? You want to hear that? You want to bear that shame?" 

She was pained but she didn't cry. She was just stating facts. 

"I hate them, not gonna lie. But most of that hate comes from the fact that father left because of them, not because our families are enemies. And therefore, even if I was a Battlesuin- even if I am one- it won't change. And your love with the wrong man brought me to this world- so if you're ashamed about that, then are you ashamed of me?"

"No!" She almost looked frightened for a second. 

"Then I'm not ashamed of you: so, there's no shame to bear in the first place."

With that said, I glared back at Hyora. "Well go on. We don't have all day. In fact, it's still too damn cold."

Frankly, though I was surprised, I didn't give a damn about my lineage, it had just caught me off-guard.

And I couldn't forget the real reason we were here because of that. 

Hyora almost chuckled, but she didn't. "Very well."