Chapter 27

Ariadne saw the familiar expression and felt something was wrong.

"Hey, Arabella."

Isabella hugged her younger sister very affectionately and then motioned for Ariadne to leave with a nod. When Ariadne reluctantly shuffled, Isabella whispered to Arabella in a feigned tender tone.

"We have something to talk about, just between sisters."

Isabella, who had been putting on airs in front of Cardinal de Mare, saying things like "Call me your sister now," easily changed her attitude. Arabella looked at Ariadne with a slight sense of guilt. Isabella urged Arabella.

"Hurry up."

Arabella, urged by Isabella, reluctantly said to Ariadne.

"Um... could you leave?"

Arabella, for some reason, felt the word "sister" rise to her throat as she looked at Ariadne, but it was difficult to call Ariadne "sister" while Isabella was watching. With Arabella's dismissal, Ariadne had no reason to stay. She stood up, bowed, and left the sisters' reception room. After confirming that Ariadne had left, Isabella looked at Arabella with a deep smile on her small eyes.

"The family becomes precious because of the one who is the best. You know that, right?"

Arabella nodded involuntarily, seemingly intimidated by Isabella's beauty or the weight of being the older sister.

"Are you going to give your place to a stone that rolled in from outside?"

Isabella cupped Arabella's cheeks with both hands and made her look at her face.

"I'm your real sister."

Isabella, with her mesmerizing emerald eyes, looked straight at the young Arabella and coaxed her like a bird.

"There will be a consecration mass soon, where His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen, and His Highness the Prince will all attend. It was said that noble lords and ladies can apply to contribute their talents."

Isabella let go of Arabella's face and, while twirling her chestnut hair, continued.

"You're too young to qualify for the application. If you give it to me, I'll submit it for you. And since you need to practice, you'll need a pipe organ, right? I'll ask Mother to get one for you."

Arabella looked a bit confused. As a 10-year-old girl, it was difficult for her to make a judgment with her older sister's honey-sweet tone.

"Isabella, can you play the pipe organ well?"

"No, I'm not that good with keyboard instruments."

"Then how are you going to dedicate it to the church? This piece will be mainly arranged for the pipe organ. You're not good at string instruments, are you?"

Isabella looked at Arabella as if she were telling a very silly story.

"Of course, I'll submit the score as a composition. Someone else will perform it."

Arabella looked at Isabella with a subtle expression. Isabella, slightly hurt by her younger sister's indifferent reaction, showed a hint of displeasure.

"Arabella, I don't need the pipe organ to submit this piece. But I'm asking Mother and Father to get one just for you. I'm doing all this for you, and you're going to act so uncomfortable?"

Isabella flicked her hair behind her shoulder and stood up from the seat where she had been sitting close to Arabella.

"If you don't want to, just say so."

'She's a smart older sister; she wouldn't do anything to harm me, right?'

"Wait, Isabella."

"What do you mean, 'wait'? Decide now. Don't drag it out, it's annoying."

Under Isabella's pressure, Arabella finally agreed.

"No, Isabella, I'm sorry. I'll give you this piece."

Isabella's beautiful face lit up with victory. She returned to her sweet voice and stroked her younger sister's head.

"Good thinking."

* * *

Isabella, though cunning, was a reliable trading partner. She faithfully kept her part of the deal. Isabella went to Lucrezia and Cardinal de Mare, pouted, and said she needed a pipe organ, and a small pipe organ was indeed brought into the house.

Of course, a pipe organ, which is made with pipes of lead and tin alloy, pre-assembled in a workshop, and then fully assembled on-site, takes 3-4 years to install in a house, so it couldn't be brought in immediately. However, when Cardinal de Mare heard that Isabella needed it, he readily paid a few hundred ducats in gold, and Lucrezia willingly offered the high-ceilinged prayer room in the eastern annex for the installation. The construction began, and a small harmonium was brought in for Isabella to use until then.

Arabella looked at the pipe organ being brought in without hesitation with a heavy heart.

A pipe organ is indeed an excessively expensive item to install in a household just because a cardinal's daughter wants to play it at home.

'But why can Isabella do it and I can't?'

Arabella, looking down at the construction site from the second-floor balcony of the eastern annex, felt a heavy heart. Ariadne quietly approached her.

"You finally got the pipe organ."

Arabella looked up at Ariadne and nodded.

"Are you happy to have it?"

In response to Ariadne's question, Arabella shook her head.

"I don't know. Why did Isabella say she would only do me a favor if I gave her my piece under her name? Is that wrong?"

"Not everyone is good, Arabella."

After a moment's pause, Ariadne asked Arabella.

"Are you really going to give the Missa Brevis to Isabella?"

Arabella, frowning, responded.

"Can I not give it now?"

"The pipe organ is already here. If you don't give her the score, what can she do now? Will she take it apart and take it away?"

Arabella's emerald eyes sparkled with joy at the thought of getting the pipe organ and keeping the score.

"Hehehe, you're a genius, Ariadne!"

Arabella, excited, playfully nuzzled Ariadne's head like a puppy. But the joy was short-lived as she thought about the aftermath.

"But Isabella won't leave me alone. If I fight with Isabella, Mother will scold me too."

"You have to stand up against unfair treatment. Nothing changes unless you speak up."

To some extent, she was talking to her past self. Ariadne reaffirmed.

"Those people are bad and are trying to take advantage of you. Trying to be loved won't get you anything. Lucre... Mother only loves Isabella. Isabella is rotten to the core."

Arabella, looking confused, looked at Ariadne.

"But Isabella is my real sister, and so is Mother. Even if she treats you badly, she wouldn't treat me... she wouldn't treat me that way."

Ariadne countered.

"Why did the pipe organ, which you needed, suddenly appear when Isabella wanted it? Both the cardinal and Mother know that Isabella isn't interested in playing string instruments. Aren't they your real parents?"

Arabella's grip tightened.

"Even the tutors say so. To match your progress, you should have a more renowned music teacher. But because of Isabella's progress, you keep getting the same teacher, Manchini. And the court etiquette teacher was changed to match Isabella's progress. Why don't they match your progress and only cater to Isabella?"

Ariadne continued to push Arabella.

"If you keep quiet and accept it, no one will know it's wrong. If someone with a conscience tried to stop it, would Isabella do that? Isabella has no excuse for the score. She just stole it!"

"Stop it!"

Arabella, who had been sitting close to Ariadne, suddenly stood up.

"The score... yeah. Anyway, I don't have any use for it, so I'll let her use it. My real sister wouldn't treat me badly. The pipe organ is too expensive, and I felt it would be a burden for me to use it alone, so I thought it would be better to share it with my sister. It's not that they only bought it for Isabella and not for me. The teacher... I'm still young."

Tears welled up in Arabella's eyes.

"I've been too close to you lately. That's why. If I give the Missa Brevis to Isabella and stop being close to you, Isabella will treat me well again. Then Mother will treat me well too."

Arabella pointed at Ariadne with a small finger.

"You! Don't say strange things to me. Don't badmouth my sister just because you're doing well. My mother loves me! I'm the real de Mare. You're not!"

Arabella, shouting, wiped away her tears and ran off. Ariadne stood alone on the second-floor balcony of the eastern annex, looking at the stairs where Arabella had gone, feeling a heavy heart. Despite the harsh words, she wasn't particularly upset. She could see that Arabella was trying to comfort herself.

'Did I say something unnecessary?'

* * *

On the day the lead pipes that form the body of the pipe organ were delivered to the construction site of the eastern annex, Isabella, with the support of her parents' affection, proudly took the score from Arabella. Arabella, wearing a summer indoor dress made of satin, looked particularly meek as she handed over the parchment score to Isabella. Arabella, while flipping through the score, gave Isabella detailed instructions as if handing over a child to a stepmother.

"It's a Missa Brevis, so I reduced the harmony and made it shorter. It's a score for an ensemble, so I drew it as a full score."

(Full score: A score that includes all the parts for multiple instruments on one sheet, typically used by conductors in orchestras.)

Isabella took the score and glanced through it casually.

"So, this is the score? This is called 'Missa Brevis,' right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Got it. Hand it over and go."

Isabella, without properly looking through the contents, placed the score on the table in the reception room and then instructed her maid to put it on her desk. As a result, no one noticed that a relatively cheaper, thinner parchment, used for practice and hastily scribbled with notes, was incorrectly inserted among the thick, neatly drawn parchment sheets.