"Ha, ha, ha...! This sure is a lovely garden, hm?" Lillian laughed half-heartedly with a crooked smile.
With her arms wrapped tightly around Marionette’s, Lillian placed herself between Emilio and her girlfriend, ensuring that the two weren’t completely close.
Now, why was she doing this, you may ask? Well, that was because the two of them ended up together in the future.
Lillian kept her gaze fully centred on Emilio.
’The Eclipse Raven...’
In the game, during the Legacy Table, where the nobles would come together, Emilio would accidentally bump into Marionette in this very garden.
Of course, the two didn’t hit it off at the beginning, but slowly, they found themselves growing to become acquaintances, finding themselves to be much more in common than they thought.
And after the event, after a very long time of separation, they would soon meet each other on the matter of arranged marriage - a decision made by both family heads.
Granted, the relationship never bloomed into anything more than acquaintances despite their marriage. If Lillian had to guess why Marionette was partially fine with it, it was because she could easily control Emilio’s actions.
The person in control.
Embarrassingly, it was also one of the reasons why Lillian was fine with being on the receiving end in the relationship - as long as Marionette liked it, she was fine with it.
Although this was just her assumption of what Marionette was like, she could never really bring herself to ask her girlfriend about these sorts of topics.
Hugging her body closer to Marionette, Lillian gave Emilio a forced smile that turned eerie - spooking the poor young man and causing him to sweat.
Anyway, she would be damned if she let Marionette get swept under her nose because she took a liking to the Nightraven.
Emilio turned his face away from Lillian’s eerie smile, frightened by such an image. Then, he began to wonder if he had done anything wrong to receive such an expression.
Had he somehow offended Lillian by accepting the Lady of Roses’s request to join them on their stroll? Wait, why would that offend her? It was just a casual stroll through a garden, after all...
Hold on, was it because of something he said earlier? Wait, what did he say earlier that could’ve been interpreted as offensive!?
As the Nightraven tried to rack his brain around this matter, Marionette was currently thrilled with the situation she was in.
Just by accepting a request to go on a walk, she had managed to somehow get Lillian to cling to her without her initiating anything! Which... May seem a bit sad in other people’s eyes.
If she had to be honest, she quite liked it when Lillian took charge or initiated anything with her first.
Marionette wasn’t sure why, but she always felt her chest flutter whenever Lillian ordered something from her - a feeling she would never have for others that would do the same.
Marionette felt rather bashful about the thought, even going as far as visualising it. Yet, no matter how bashful she may feel inside, she remained stoic and taciturn on the outside.
Anyway, with the risk that it could possibly damage the image Lillian had of her, Marionette never gave in to the thought of asking Lillian to be more assertive with her.
It was... Way too embarrassing of a confession.
Glancing down at Lillian, she noticed a strange air radiating off the girl - although she didn’t know what was going on inside the Rabbit’s head, she undoubtedly ignored her girlfriend’s strange behaviour.
She sensed there was no harm.
Marionette turned to Emilio, who was still hesitant to turn in Lillian’s direction. She raised an eyebrow at this, but decided to pacify Lillian by placing a hand on her head.
"Which of the Nightraven’s are you? I remember that your family is large in size." Marionette asked, staring him in the eyes.
Compared to the other nobles, Emilio was far more bearable to look at. Unlike the rest that appeared as rotting corpses with maggots rolling through their decaying flesh, Emilio was partially human, with the only exception being that he was missing half of his body.
Hearing Marionette’s question, the Nightraven turned to the Roselle, momentarily relieved with the recession of Lillian’s piercing gaze.
He then smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassingly at the phrase ’large in size’.
He knew what his family was like.
His family were a rather social bunch, unlike him, especially his parents, who had amassed quite a number of children, around 10, just so they had more to speak to; fortunately, he was the last child they had.
As Emilio was about to answer, he then widened his eyes, "How did you know I was a Nightraven?"
"Hm? Simple." Marionette stared at him before glancing at Lillian, "My servant told me."
"Eh? I did?" Lillian responded, confused. She didn’t recall telling Marionette about Emilio going to this event.
Marionette nodded, "You did. Somewhat."
In actuality, Marionette just pieced it together. It wasn’t that difficult to guess what background Emilio belonged to.
Lillian and Emilio knew each other. This event was for esteemed nobles only. And Lillian had told her everything about her time in her Trial.
Granted, there was a possibility that Lillian knew other nobles of higher rank in the past, but Marionette would rather bet on the fact that Emilio was wearing a raven-inspired masquerade mask.
Emilio sighed. Just with a simple chat with Lillian, he had already found out.
"I’m the youngest of my family. Emilio Von Nightraven."
"... Oh. I believe I recall your name." Marionette hummed, "Are you aware if my family has been contacted by mine yet?"
"Huh? For what purpose?" Emilio inquired, tilting his head slightly, causing Marionette to narrow her eyes.
Discovering he was unaware of what she meant, she nodded and muttered plainly:
"I see."
Marionette then glanced to the side, staring at the trees that were beautifully arranged beside the path they were walking on. She caught a glimpse of a dark shadow that was a second too late to disappear.
She narrowed her gaze, soon understanding they were being tailed.
"You two. How knowledgeable are you on the Darkhound family’s elites?"