The smile on Rina's face suddenly froze, as she found the situation to be far from what she expected.
She had always sent the previous letters directly to her dorm as it was not easy to see Vesper around the Academy.
She assumed that Vesper at least saw and read them even though she wouldn't think much of them.
She never expected Vesper to claim not to be familiar with her brother at all. She sounded like she had never seen any of the previous letters she had sent to her room.
Then what happened to the letters?
She burned them without even looking at them. That's what happened.
Having a pretty face meant that Vesper had quite a number of suitors despite her cold appearance and unapproachable aura and those people would always send letters to her dorm.
She had a special channel for receiving important letters so the ones that came through the normal channel were always discarded without much thought.
That included all the letters Rina had ever sent to her.
"You didn't read the previous letters?" Rina asked after a while.
"Previous letters?" Vesper said with a subtle frown.
"You didn't see them?"
She was just trying to confirm but now she was sure Vesper didn't see any of the previous letters.
She was feeling very conflicted now as her brother emphasized that she had to make sure Vesper read those letters.
But still, she had to calm down. Those letters were probably gone but at least she still had this one.
"It doesn't matter, you can just read this one."
Vesper just looked at her like she was an idiot before retracting her gaze.
"I asked you if I was familiar with your brother?" Vesper uttered.
She sounded calm but Axel could tell that she was starting to lose her patience.
"You should know that my brother is the heir to Duke Sandan," Rina said matter-of-factly.
She hated the way Vesper pretended not to know her brother, but she couldn't afford to lose her temper at this princess, so she could only wear a calm expression.
Without bothering to look at the letter again, Vesper asked, "Then why isn't there a seal on the letter?"
"Huh?" Rina was confused for a moment before carefully searching the envelope. "I don't think the seal can be used for personal letters."
"A personal letter?" Vesper's voice suddenly turned colder. "Since when did the heir of Duke Sandan develop the habit of sending me personal letters?"
Her tone sounded the same as usual but Axel could sense the hint of mockery in it. He was quite shocked by how well he could read the little details in Vesper's actions.
He was good at reading people, but that was only upon careful observation; he wasn't even trying with Vesper here, and he could still tell.
"Well, that's because my brother cares about you…."
"Tell him to direct his care elsewhere."
Rina's attempt to put in a good word for her brother was met with a bucket of cold water.
After saying that, Vesper shifted her gaze to Axel; her expression didn't change, but her eyes softened.
"My fiancé isn't dead yet after all."
With that said, she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes.
"You can leave now, I want to rest."
Since Vesper had already said, Rina couldn't continue staying, as that would be disrespecting a member of the royal family, so she could only clench her fist before turning around to leave.
Rina Sandan might be her cousin, but Vesper didn't like her one bit; in fact, she didn't like anyone from the Duke Sandan residence.
She hadn't even settled scores with them yet and they were already trying to get close to her.
Add that to the fact that she was engaged to someone from the residence of Duke Melborn.
Duke Sandan and Duke Melborn didn't get along, that much was obvious to everyone.
Rina had just left, when Vesper suddenly shot her eyes open, instantly dashing toward the window and grabbing someone by his throat.
"Hey, hey, sis…ter..in."
Vesper had a really high level of awareness of the movements around her, so she reacted instinctively without looking at the person.
Seeing the familiar face, Vesper quickly let go of him allowing him to crash down on the ground.
Axel had already turned around the moment Vesper charged toward the window, and now he was looking at the boy who was coughing on the ground, looking dishevelled but still majestic.
This was Axel's older brother, Nathan Melborn. Nathan could be classified as a flirtatious but elegant young master. That was because no matter what he did, he would always find a way to maintain his charm.
Even now that he was lying on the floor trying to catch his breath, he still looked quite dashing with his foxy-looking eyes.
Any other female would have already been entranced by this sight but Vesper only looked at him with concealed disdain in her eyes.
"Sister-in-law, why is your grip so strong? You almost choked me to death." Nathan mouthed after catching his breath.
"Use the door."
Those were the only words she threw at him before walking toward Axel who was now sitting up on the bed, looking at Nathan with hesitation.
As unfeeling as Vesper might seem she could read certain things better than most people.
She cast a glance at Nathan before saying, "Help me look after him for a while, I have something to do."
The first part of the sentence was for Nathan and the latter half was for Axel.
Axel nodded at her after which her body got covered by shadows before she disappeared.
Seeing the interaction between the two, Nathan walked toward Axel with a playful smile hovering on his face.
"You seem to be getting along well with her. Have you finally been enlightened?"
He felt a bit regretful after asking that question, as he remembered that Axel would always lose his temper whenever he was linked with Vesper for whatever reason.
However, this time, he saw Axel nod with a serious expression.
He was left dumbfounded and it took him a while to recover from the shock.
"Seriously?!"
His voice went up a bit from the excitement causing Axel to cover his ears.
"Yes."
"You will stop chasing Rina?"
"Yes."
"And be faithful to only sister-in-law?"
Axel felt there was something wrong with the way he worded that sentence but he still nodded.
"You're not joking, right? I know my sister-in-law's brain has gone mush for you, but you can't do something like leading her on and then hurting her; she might really stab you with her spear one day, and I won't be bothered to save you. I can't beat her anyway."
Axel found Nathan to be really amusing and he couldn't help but shake his head with a helpless expression.
"I wouldn't dare joke with her.*
Nathan stared seriously at Axel for a while to try and see if he was lying. He only relaxed after making sure he was being sincere.
"That's good, that's good, you've finally seen the light. The shit in your eyes is finally gone."
He didn't bother asking Axel why he suddenly changed. All was well as long as Vesper was his sister-in-law and not that phoney from Duke Sandan's residence.
He was also aware that Axel would tell him if he wanted to.
Axel looked behind Nathan with a solemn expression and was about to say something when he heard his older brother slapping his thigh.
"Oh, right, little bro, I found something very important."
"What?"
"Something to help you quickly break through."