"Perfect, huh?" Kafka crossed his arms skeptically.
"Oh, it was brilliant."
Evangeline smirked, showing more emotion then she ever did before, making it obvious how happy she was in the mont.
"We decided to use your own nature against you. Because, as everyone here knows..." She turned her sharp gaze toward him. "...you, Kafka, are one extrely possessive man."
"Excuse ?"
"Oh, co on, she’s right!" Lyra burst out laughing.
Bella nodded eagerly. "You totally are! You can’t even stand it when soone looks at one of your won for more than two seconds."
"T-That’s not true!" Kafka’s face turned bright red.
"Oh really?" June said teasingly. "Should I remind you of the ti that guy asked Olivia for directions and you nearly flattened him with a bench?"
"I—what—? That was an accident!" Kafka stamred.
"Sure it was." Evangeline said sweetly. "But that possessiveness was the key. We realized that you would only face the truth if you were confronted with the threat of losing her."
She began pacing slowly.
"So we asked ourselves—what happens if another man enters the picture? What happens if Lady Vanitas’s affection seems to shift, even a little, toward soone else?"
Everyone leaned in slightly, enjoying the reveal.
"The answer was obvious: you’d snap." Evangeline smiled. "You’d get angry, jealous, maybe even violent. And in doing so, you’d finally face the truth of what you felt."
She gave him an approving nod.
"Which is exactly what happened."
Kafka’s mouth open and closed but no sound ca out.
"That’s why, I created a false ’other Kafka’—soone who looked like you, acted like you, even mirrored your energy. I wanted to give you a perfect rival. Soone who could draw out your possessiveness in full."
"So that’s why you—" Kafka began, then stopped, realization dawning. "You pretended to be him?"
"In the flesh." Evangeline gave a mock bow.
The rest of the family burst into soft laughter.
"And it worked beautifully." Evangeline said, glowing with pride. "You saw —well, him—standing near Vanitas, and your instincts did the rest."
"Jealousy, anger, fear...all the emotions you’d buried ca roaring out."
"Then, when I challenged you to examine those feelings, you finally realized what they were. And that’s how everything has led to this."
Kafka stared at her, dumbfounded.
"You...You’re insane."
"You look more insane then right now with how cuckoo your eyes look like you escaped a ntal asylum."
Evangeline chirped back, which made Abigaille not know whether she should laugh or pity Kafka.
"B-But wait—that, that doesn’t make sense."
Kafka suddenly argued as he thought about one important factor.
"For this whole plan to work, you’d have to know I was in love with her to begin with. Otherwise, it’s pointless. How could you possibly know that?"
Evangeline’s smirk softened into a mysterious smile.
"Ah. For that..." She turned her gaze toward the side. "We should probably thank Seraphina."
The crowd’s attention shifted instantly.
Seraphina stiffened.
"Seraphina...She was the one who found out?" Kafka asked, not expecting this.
Evangeline nodded, while the normally composed Seraphina looked flustered for once, her cheeks faintly pink.
"I-I only did what I had to..."
"Don’t be modest." Evangeline encouraged. "You were the first to notice it. Because of your position and duties, you were always near him—watching, observing."
"Even when you weren’t physically present, you kept track of him through your little surveillance thods."
"That was part of my responsibility..." Seraphina’s blush deepened.
"Of course it was." Evangeline said cooly. "But because of that, you learned to read him better than anyone. You could tell his emotions just from his facial expressions."
"After watching over him for so long, you practically beca an expert in decoding him."
Kafka gave Seraphina a bewildered look.
"You were watching that closely?"
"It was...for work, Master. For your security." Seraphina averted her eyes, murmuring.
Evangeline smiled slyly.
"Anyway, it was thanks to that sharp observation skill of hers that we discovered sothing interesting. She noticed that for the past month, whenever you were with Lady Vanitas—if another man so much as looked at her—you’d get this tiny flicker of irritation in your eyes."
"Irritation?" Kafka repeated, frowning.
"Yes." Evangeline said. "And while most people might assu it’s just a son being protective of his mother, Seraphina noticed sothing different."
Seraphina hesitated but then nodded.
"It wasn’t the look of a son protecting his mother." She said quietly. "It was the look of a man protecting his woman."
The garden fell silent for a mont.
Evangeline continued, her voice gentler now.
"And after that, she began to notice it more and more. Every ti Lady Vanitas talked to another man like a cashier in a store, your expression changed."
"Every ti her na ca up alongside soone else’s, you reacted. Every single ti, Kafka. And eventually after Seraphina reported this matter to everyone else—the whole family started to see it too."
She looked around at everyone, who nodded in agreent.
"Oh, yeah." Nina grinned. "It was super obvious once we started watching for it."
"I caught him glaring at a waiter once. Over water." Camila chuckled.
"Sotis, he would look he was going to kill soone just be speaking of a man’s na next to his mother’s na." Olivia also added with a gentle smile like she found it funny.
"Oh, for heaven’s sake!" Kafka groaned.
"And that’s how we confird it." Evangeline raised a finger. "We all agreed—you were already in love with her. You just hadn’t realized it yourself."
"And then, we simply gave you a little push. And judging by the way things turned out..."
She looked between him and Vanitas, whose cheeks were still flushed with emotion.
"I’d say it worked beautifully."
Camila chuckled mischievously, her hands on her hips.
"Not to ntion..." She added slyly. "We might have also been using a little bit of ntal manipulation on you, Kafka."
Kafka blinked. But before he could press further, Nina leaned forward with a smirk, her tone playful and unrepentant.
"Yeah, yeah! That was so fun."
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Kafka frowned, looking around.
June raised her hand like a student in class, grinning.
"Actually..." She began casually. "...for about a month now, we’ve been...let’s just say, running a little experint on you."
"Oh no."
June continued, ignoring him.
"Basically, we were constantly ntioning Vanitas and so random guy—any guy, really—just to provoke a reaction."
"Whether it was lunch, dinner, training, or just walking around outside, we’d drop hints like, ’Hey, that man over there would look good with Vanitas,’ or ’Wow, did you see how that one guy was talking to her earlier?’ Stuff like that."
Camila giggled, crossing her arms. "Sotis we didn’t even pick soone real. We just made up nas."
Nina added gleefully. "Oh yeah, like that ti we told you Vanitas had gone for tea with so mysterious man. The way your face twitched was priceless!"
"You were lying to this whole ti?!" Kafka’s jaw dropped.
"Yes, Kafi." Olivia nodded before quickly adding so that he didn’t misunderstand. "But not to tease you. Rather e wanted to...hmm, how do I put it?"
She blushed lightly before saying,
"We wanted to marinate you in that jealousy. To make sure the feelings you had for her wouldn’t stay buried. We needed them to boil up, to beco so overwhelming that when the mont ca...you’d finally let it all out."
Kafka’s head throbbed slightly as he looked at all of them, his face a mixture of shock, disbelief, and betrayal.
"So basically..." He said slowly. "...my entire family has been sabotaging for weeks?"
Lyra raised her hand cheerfully. "Pretty much!"
Bella added between giggles. "You should’ve seen your face every ti we said sothing! It was priceless!"
Kafka groaned, rubbing his temples. "You’re all such sneaks."
But then his gaze shifted to Abigaille, who stood quietly off to the side. He frowned, his tone softening but tinged with disappointnt.
"What about you, Mom?" He asked. "Did you...do the sa?"
Abigaille’s expression imdiately turned guilty. Her lips trembled as she tried to speak.
"I...I’m so sorry, Kafi." She finally whispered. "I was part of it too."
Kafka’s eyes widened in disbelief, while Abigaille went on miserably like she felt really bad.
"Whenever we were together, I’d subtly ntion Vanitas and so other man, just like the others. It was part of the mission. I hated doing it, but it was necessary for everything to work out."
"Unbelievable." Kafka groaned loudly, dragging his hands down his face. "I’ve been betrayed by my whole family."
But in response, everyone looked sowhere else, either pretending to be innocent or smiling awkwardly.
But Kafka wasn’t done yet. He raised his head again, frustration bubbling up.
"Wait, hold on. That still doesn’t make sense. My mother, she promised she wouldn’t lie to . She swore on the heavens themselves! I even made her promise that whenever I told her to tell the truth, she would. She can’t possibly lie. That’s impossible!"
"Oh, that? Yeah, we took care of that too." June snorted, waving her hand dismissively.
Kafka blinked. "What?"
June smirked, putting her hands behind her back innocently.
"Rember that party we had? The one where everyone got a little tipsy from that immortal wine?"
Kafka squinted suspiciously. "Yes..."
"Well..." She continued. "While you were drunk out of your mind, we made you make another promise."
Kafka’s eyes widened. "What kind of promise?"
June grinned devilishly.
"That one day, in the future, we might need to lie to you for a very good reason. And when that day ca, Vanitas would be the one doing it. You’d probably ask her to tell the truth—but in that mont, it would be okay for her to lie."
Kafka’s mouth fell open in horror.
"You made promise that!? While I was drunk?!"
Nina burst into laughter.
"Being drunk or not, you still said yes!" She said cheerfully. "A promise is a promise, Kafka. There’s no way around it."
"That’s cheating!" Kafka shouted. "You can’t do that! It’s not fair! I wasn’t in the right state of mind!"
"Maybe, but you still accepted it." Camila winked at him.
Kafka threw his arms up, completely exasperated.
"This is unbelievable! Then what about divine punishnt, huh? Even if you all agreed to this madness—the heavens won’t! You can’t just lie about sothing this big and expect no repercussions!"
But Bella simply scoffed, flicking her hair back.
"Who cares about the heavens, Daddy?"
"Excuse ?!" Kafka blinked.
Lyra smirked, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at Vanitas.
"I think you forgot, Kafka, that your mother over there is the Ruler of Existence. If the heavens tried anything, she’d just slap them back into place. Literally. Who’s going to punish her?!"
Vanitas blushed slightly but didn’t deny it.
"Yep." Nina continued smugly. "She waved her hand, the heavens got the ssage, and boom—no punishnt. Problem solved."
Kafka stared at them all, slack-jawed.
"That’s...that’s absurd! That’s actual cosmic-level cheating!"
"Call it divine intervention." Evangeline smirked.
He groaned again, rubbing his temples so hard it looked like he might drill into his skull.
"You people are absolutely shaless!" He finally shouted.
And for a mont, everyone froze. The way he said it—the sheer frustration, disbelief, and weary outrage—made them all second-guess if maybe, just maybe, they had pushed him too far.
His expression was so pained, so betrayed, that even the more mischievous ones, Camila, Nina, and June hesitated.
But then, sothing strange happened.
Kafka lowered his hand, blinked once...and started laughing.
At first, it was just a small, incredulous chuckle—but soon it grew into a full-blown fit of laughter, his voice echoing through the garden.
He doubled over, laughing so hard that it startled everyone into silence.
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