She frowned as she asked, "What are you saying?"
He replied with a loud voice so that she could hear him clearly, "He won't help me, and he won't help you because he is bitter about being taken advantage of by you."
She slumped in her seat and sighed. Her eyes were downcast as she said, "I know that he hates me. I didn't care in the past because I didn't want to belittle myself."
Then she looked at him and said, "I did like him. I cared a lot for him. But I have to admit that I took advantage of him, so I didn't have the guts to continue to act shamelessly by chasing after him."
"I thought I had already gotten the most important thing for him. If he didn't want me, then I wasn't going to bother with him. But it has been fifteen years now. It is enough time for me to know that I was wrong to let him go."
He sighed. He didn't know what to say, so he kept quiet.
What she said is emotional, but he doesn't believe her. He is just too suspicious of her. If he, her son, doesn't believe her, then he doubts that Augustus, who has always been wary of her, would fall for it.
He had a lot to say, but he didn't think what he had to say was appropriate. So he just sighed and kept quiet.
Lady Vena, on the other hand, had a lot more to say. She said, "He had just reached the first transformation when you were born. It has been fourteen years since then. He used an average of 3 years to gain each transformation while he only spent 5 years to overcome the first bottleneck."
"You don't know how impressive that is. It usually takes others five years to gain each transformation. That is just the average time. Some take longer than that. As for the bottleneck between the third and fourth transformations, the average time is 10 years."
"I knew that he was talented when I saw that he took just three years for each of his transformations. Everyone thought so too. But when he took just five years to break that bottleneck, we finally realized just how talented he was."
She shook her head in wonder. "Can you imagine what he would have been able to achieve if he had succeeded in entering a sect? He didn't succeed, but he can still achieve great things out here. It will just take longer."
Arthur finally couldn't take it anymore. He asked her, "My father is talented. I've heard you say it and I agree with you on it. But why are you telling me all these? What will it change?"
Her eyes widened and her nose flared in anger. She poked his chest and said to him, "I'm telling you this so that you know just how important this party is to me. You have to wow your father and make him like you."
He shook his head. "It won't work. I can't make him like me. I am too old to act like a child and any attempt to repair our relationship would be seen as exploitative at this point."
"Maybe it could have worked in the past of you had asked for his forgiveness. But you acted pompous and refused to apologize to him. Now that his talent has been revealed, nothing you say or do will work."
She poked his chest again and insisted, "It will work if you put in enough effort. He is wary of me and might hate me a little bit. But he is only indifferent to you. He doesn't hate you. So you must worm your way into his heart."
Arthur offered some advice: "If you ask me, what you should do is…"
She interrupted him. "I didn't ask you for your opinion. What I asked you to do is go to that party and suck up to him."
He groaned and said, "I shouldn't have come out to do anything this morning. I should just have run away."
Lady Vena sneered and said, "It is too late for regrets now."
She took him home, where he had his bath and got dressed for the party. He was complaining and grumbling about the unfairness of his situation the whole time.
The same thing was happening in his father's time. Only it was between Tyson and his mother, Delia.
Tyson also didn't want to go to the party. But his mother kept forcing him. She forced him to have his bath and get dressed.
Lady Delia had to watch him like a hawk as he got dressed because apart from Augustus, she is the only one he fears in the family. And that's because she is willing to make liberal use of a cane to make him do things he doesn't want to do.
It is why she is holding a cane in her hand and watching him get dressed. If she doesn't watch him, he won't get dressed. He might even run away.
If she doesn't hold a cane in plain sight for him to see, he won't take her threats seriously. It is only until he sees the cane that he will understand that she means business.
Be that as it may, the cane won't stop him from grumbling. He said, "You say that I should work hard all the time, but now you want me to waste my time with a party. You should make up your mind about what you want me to do with my life."
She said sternly, "I have the cane so I can tell you to do whatever I want. It is your business to listen and obey, not to question me."
She swung the cane about to show him where her source of authority comes from.
He sneered at her and said, "Fine. You have the cane, so you're the boss. But that's only temporary. That cane will become less effective on me over time. We will see how you will deal with me then."