Chapter 29 - Taking Sides

Kim Su Won was taken aback by her brother's statement. Take her side? Had he lost his mind or had he realized something about her? It was not possible that people were already realizing her talent, was it? Not that she had any. All she had was willingness to throw herself into learning from scratch and some advanced knowledge from her previous life.

But she was definitely not interested in threatening the position of Cecilia or Ivan. She just wanted to live her four years without regrets that she had in the past and then, hand over this body to the businesswoman. Since she wanted to know what was going through the mind of this kid, she scoffed lightly.

"Take my side? Brother, what ideas are you getting in your mind? You don't think I am vying for any position in here, do you?" she smirked provocatively. If she were to go by the novel, this elder brother of hers was easily incensed.

Since he had never been challenged in his life before, he always thought that he was the best strategist and that his ideas were clever. But now, there was someone, the good-for-nothing younger sister at that, who was telling him he was wrong. How was he to react now?

"Why? Aren't you doing all this because you really are interested in becoming the crown princess? Everyone knows how head over heels you are for the crown prince!" Ivan Whittemore could not believe his ears.

He was so very sure that she had decided to take part in power struggle. For him, it would be better to associate to the sister who was, at least, working towards becoming crown princess, than going after the one who was actually planning to threaten his position as the heir.

In the kingdom of Krislabet, it was perfectly normal for females to inherit dukedom. However, it only happened in the cases where there was no male heir or the male was too immature, in age or mental capacity, to become the duke.

The way the dynamics worked in the Whittemore family, Ivan was very sure that his elder sister was always scheming something against him, even though she always showed how much she loved her younger brother on the outside. Furthermore, their mother was also supportive towards him becoming the next duke.

But if this girl was not planning to compete for crown princess, what had he even come here for? And what was she scheming by doing all this?

"Why? Can't I be interested in learning for myself?" Kim Su Won smiled. She knew, in this era, there was no concept of 'self' as such, something she had struggled all her previous life as well.

She had always worked according to the wishes for her parents. Starting from shunning her friends in favor of textbooks, not talking to classmates who were not good at studies because they were not worthy enough of her, not participating in sports, choosing engineering, going to that prestigious college, taking the first job she got just to not let her parents down, everything was for them.

Now that she had gotten this second chance, why would she not want to live for herself? But would Ivan Whittemore understand this foreign concept?

As expected, her elder brother's blue eyes, stared at her in speechlessness and then they curved upwards, in mockery. Ivan was trying to gauge if this kid was joking or not. But seeing her super serious face, he guffawed, so loud that his attendant came in to see if something was wrong.

"Bahahaha, oh my little sister. And here I thought, you really had gained some wisdom while you were drowning in the lake. I see, you are as foolish as ever. Do you think, as a daughter of a duke, you have your own rights, own life? You are just a pawn for the duchy to prosper. Your importance is restricted to you getting married for business relationships. And nothing else. I don't even know where you got such an idea from!" he lightly hit the book in his hands on the head of Emmeline Whittemore.

Kim Su Won was not happy with his behavior, but for some reason, it really felt like a normal conversation with a sibling. Had the original Emmeline ever tried to talk to her siblings at all? She only ever interacted with Chris out of pity. But with Ivan, she had always thought him to be on Cecilia's side. All she ever did in front of him was cry, holler or ignore. This guy did not seem that bad, not just yet.

"Young master," the kid on the side, who seemed the same age as Ivan looked at the two, not sure how to react. The two siblings seemed close, but he had not seen his friend and master, Ivan, talk to his younger sister like this.

"Ah, Alex! Why are you here?" Ivan wiped the tear off the corner of his eyes. He had not had such hearty laugh in a while.

"I am sorry. I just came to check if everything was alright," the young man replied. Kim Su Won glanced at him. The kid did not appear as someone original Emmeline knew by name but he did appear as the person who always looked at her with sympathetic eyes and was always by the side of her elder brother.

But she did not really need to know the kid's identity. His stark red hair and fiery red eyes were split copy of Isaac Laurent. What a gorgeous boy! His tan skin and muscular built gave him a beastly charm that was completely opposite to her elder brother who had skin so pale that she could literally see his veins through the skin.

This guy was one of the people who had, later in the novel, switched sides to the third prince of the country, to help him with expanding Emmeline's businesses. So, he was an ally. Or he would become one later. She had to keep an eye on this kid.

"Young lady," Alex bowed to Kim Su Won once he realized he had not greeted the lady.

Kim Su Won got up from her seat and curtsied perfectly towards the Earl's son, "Nice to meet you. My name is Emmeline," taking everyone in the room by surprise with her mannerism.