The Duke's Daughter's Third Life

Chapter 33

Aeliana ignored his obvious glum emotions and copied his posture beside him. Claud blinked in astonishment before growing annoyed.

"Are you copying me?"

"Are you copying me?"

She copied his sentence in a terrible lower range voice. Claud gaped at her before gritting his teeth.

"Quit it."

"Quit it."

"Stop that!"

"Stop that!"

Claud groaned in frustration which Aeliana copied as well including his facial expression. Claud glared at her before pondering a little.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"I'm the best."

"I'm the best."

"I'm smart and cute."

"I'm smart and cute."

"I'm stupid."

"You're stupid."

"You!" Claud nearly burst out loud but restrained himself.

Aeliana had a sly grin plastered on her face, showing no remorse on what she had done. Claud took in a deep breath and looked at her.

"You had your fun now tell me why are you bothering me instead of being beside dad?"

She gazed at him. He raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"You're being nicer to me."

"This is what you think nice is?" he scoffed and poked her forehead, "You need to fix your brain."

"Well brother always does something rather than talk to me instead," she retorted and tried to block him from poking her more.

He stared at her without saying another word before he heaved a sigh and carried her up. She didn't expect to be carried so a small yelp slipped out of her mouth.

"Brother, what are you doing?" she questioned, utterly shocked that she was in his arms.

This was the first time he had ever carried and even been this close to her. He didn't look at her as he said,

"There was a reason for you to have run away from dad isn't it? So let's just leave the ballroom for awhile."

Aeliana stared at him for a long time as Claud brought her out of the ballroom. He could feel her stare on him.

"What is it?" he asked once he couldn't take it any longer.

She didn't answer him, staring at him continuously until he sighed and turned his head over to her.

"Stop staring at me and say what you want to say."

Aeliana grabbed his cheeks and pinched them as hard as she could. Claud winced at the pain before yelling,

"What are you doing!? Stop that!"

"Revenge." she huffed and slapped his forehead.

The corner of Claud's mouth twitched but did nothing to stop her.

Surprisingly, he continued to carry her until they reached the garden and sat down on the bench. Silence quickly filled the air as the wind gently blew making sure neither of them were feeling hot.

Aeliana watched the leaves on the trees shake from the breeze, making a soft rustling sound. Nobody else except her and Claud were in the garden.

She slowly brought her eyes up to her brother. He was already looking at her when she looked. They made eye contact and just as she was about to look away, Claud extended his hand out.

Unconsciously, she closed her eyes shut. She felt his hand resting on top of her head. Puzzled, she blinked and looked at him for answers.

He cleared his throat and slowly spoke, "...I..I'm sorry for everything I have done."

Aeliana wanted to dig her ears in case she was mishearing things. Did..did he just apologised to her? Without being forced or asked?

'I must be dreaming, there's no way he would suddenly say that unless he got forced by our dad'

"I know it is sudden. You don't have to look this shocked." he grumbled but continued speaking, "After what happened at the tea party, I thought about everything..."

He took in a deep breath, trying his best to avoid his voice from cracking, "I realised everything I did was wrong and you didn't deserve that. I know I did a lot of bad things and apologising isn't even enough for all of it but I hope one day you can forgive me.."

As he said all of that, he had been looking away, staring at the sky. He finally looked at her before saying something he had been wanting to say since that day,

"Thank you..for that time over the door..it really helped me. Thank you for being my baby sister, Aeliana. I'm sorry for being a terrible older brother, I promise I will fix my mistakes."

Aeliana dazedly stared at him, frozen on spot and unable to say a word back.

'He...he said my name for the first time..'

"..Are..are you crying?" Claud said, stunned.

She touched her face, her fingers feeling something wet. She didn't realise tears started flowing out of her eyes after Claud was finished speaking. Her lips quivered as her tears continued rolling down her cheeks and falling onto her dress.

She felt her body pressing against Claud's as he hugged her in his arms. As he slowly rubbed her back, she could hear him softly saying,

"I'm sorry, you can cry all you want. I'm sorry for all I've done to you."

"...I don't forgive you.."

"I know, it's not easy to forgive someone who hurt you badly isn't it?"

"...Yeah.."

"Then don't forgive me, I will make up for my mistakes so that you can forgive me."

"..."

After hearing those words, she allowed herself to be engulfed in his hug, quietly letting her tears flow freely.

Although there was no sound of crying, Claud could feel his shirt turning wet but he didn't push her away or complained. It was a small matter and it could never compare to what he had done to her.

When the two returned back to the ballroom, Cassian noticed Claud had a odd wet spot on his shirt while Aeliana had red eyes and a runny nose. Easily putting the two together, Cassian furrowed his brows and turned to Claud.

"Claud did you make your sister cry?"

"...."

Sadly, Claud couldn't defend himself as that did happen. Cassian sighed and shook his head.

"I told you so many times to stop bullying your baby sister—"

"Daddy, brother didn't bully me." Aeliana interrupted their father.

Cassian blinked, "Really? Then why are your eyes red?"

"I did cry but it wasn't because of brother. I wanted to go toilet by myself but I got lost so I started crying. But brother found and helped me!"

Cassian listened to Aeliana's story and although he still had his suspicion, he didn't want to doubt any of his children. He turned to Claud and smiled, patting him on the head.

"Good job on helping your sister, Claud."

"Uh..yes."

"Daddy can I have some food? I'm hungry."

"Haha alright my princess, let's go get some food for you."

As their father lifted her up into his arms and started heading to the food table, Aeliana and Claud made eye contact. She nodded and waved goodbye to him.

He paused before smiling and waving back at her. Now that he thought about it, his baby sister was kinda adorable.

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Author's note: claud and aeliana communicating era!? /j