# 69 - 69
“As expected...!”
“There is no way such a flaw could come from a magic tool directly created by the Magic Tower!”
"exactly!"
“Earlier, he even tried to portray the late Marquis’s wife as obsessed with black magic.”
“To utter such false rumors out loud, isn’t this extremely impolite?!”
The nobles were chattering excitedly as if they were riding a fast current.
Viscount Lelius and his wife Aubray were unchanged beyond recognition.
“This can't be true, this can't be happening...!”
Step by step, Lilius stumbled backwards as if he were trapped.
But Leon Fraser didn't even glance at them.
Taking wide strides towards Tulia Fraser, he lifted her from the wheelchair in one swift motion.
Her thigh, wrapped in several layers of bandages, was dangling in the air.
However, the bottom of her dress was pale red, as if the stitched wound had reopened.
damn it.
Leon Fraser, suppressing his curse, shouted loudly.
Call your personal doctor!
* * *
It's really painful.
It's really painful.
When a person feels pain, their heart weakens, and when the heart weakens, buried memories tend to surface.
So, desires like Han Ina's.
Maybe if I were a little more sinister in nature.
Maybe I wished everyone would just disappear.
My older sister and my brothers, who are separated by a large age difference.
Even my younger brother, who was my mother’s “real” son and stepfather.
If only they were all gone.
If only my older sister, my brothers, and my younger brother were all gone.
Is it possible that I, who was only allowed to remain in that embarrassing situation forever, had become an important person to my mother?
Someone more important.
The most important person.
Someone who cannot be replaced.
If that were the case, would I be able to live without feeling feelings like envy and hatred?
"who knows?"
Still…
I thought about it once.
My heart was like a little balloon.
A balloon that requires long breaths to be pushed into it every day.
As the surface expands with each breath, existing wounds will also become invisible.
So I could pretend that nothing happened, and pretend that I wasn't envious or lonely at all.
A fragile balloon that seemed like it could hold up forever.
As long as I breathe deeply every day, my wounds will remain invisible.
If it hadn't been for that very thin balloon bursting, everything would have been fine.
Before the balloon exploded, my mother died and I died too.
Since everyone was dead, I couldn't know what would happen after my heart exploded.
I could only guess forever, never knowing the truth.
“…Leah.”
A disgustingly familiar sound woke me up, and I pretended not to hear it.
“Tulia. Hey. Tulia. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.... Hey.”
A sound more annoying than an alarm clock on Monday morning.
I pour the ashes of the burnt letters over my head.
He was saying childish things, saying that he had never thought of someone like me as a younger sister.
That effort.
That attempt to hurt me was very impressive.
That damned bastard who ended up hurting me with that commendable effort kept trying to wake me up.
“Just… shut up.”
“…ha.”
I spat out the words as if I was chewing them, unable to open my eyes properly.
I know I need to manage this bastard's emotion level.
I know I'm going to have to dance with this bastard at my grandfather's birthday party.
Because that's the mission.
The job had to be done.
So I did my best to please him and worked hard to grovel to him, but when a person is in so much pain, he ends up breaking down like this.
I don't know.
“Ah, it doesn't matter.”
I don't really know.
If you're going to kill me, just kill me!
I'm in so much pain, surely things can't get any worse than this.
I feel like my whole body is burning from fever.
My thigh is completely numb, I can't even tell what kind of sensation I'm feeling.
“Get away from me, Leon.”
“Okay, I'll get lost.”
After that, I seemed to sleep for a while.
My throat was dry, and as I felt my way around, water poured into my mouth.
As the tepid liquid moistened my parched insides, I felt like I might live.
Only then did I have the strength to lift my eyelids which were not able to open properly.
“What, what...”
I was astonished as soon as I opened my eyes.
“…Why are you here?”
Still?
Because Leon Fraser was sitting on my bed with his legs crossed.
Leon Fraser, who was looking down at me with his arms folded, was not as elegant as usual.
Although he did not maintain as meticulous tidiness as Lisien, he always maintained the elegant cleanliness befitting a young master of the Marquis family.
Even a cup of water was in his hands.
Did he just give me water?
Surely not Leon Fraser, that bastard?
for him?
“Whew!”
I was sure.
I'm sure Leon Fraser wouldn't shoot me with an arrow, at least.
My confidence increased after I checked his level of affection.
Leon doesn't know.
In that brief moment when Leon angrily approached the command to fire the arrow, the “Status Window” opened.
I checked Leon Fraser's emotional level, something I had put off time and time again.
[System] Would you like to check Leon Fraser's emotional level?
[System] The importance of Leon Fraser's character: ☆☆☆☆☆
The affection index I examined was...
Clear and blue like a beautiful midday sky.
Ridiculously.
“…What did I do that made the level of affection reach this high?”
Leon Fraser wasn't the only one among the main characters in the main quest who was supposed to "love" Tullia.
I already doubted it.
Since Leon Fraser scattered the ashes of burnt letters over himself.
However, I never expected the affection scale bar, which I assumed would only be red, to be so brightly blue.
“…”
Of course, I never expected him to end up giving me water like this...
Why does he act like this?
Has he lost his mind?
I hid my confusion and asked.
“Did you stay up all night?”
here?
“Yes. He stayed up all night. Here you go.”
“Why?”
"I don't know."
Don't you know?
“Yes, I don't know.”
“This bastard.”
Is he trying to start a fight with me when I'm practically a dead body?
I was startled, but I had no energy, so I closed my eyes for the time being.
But then a finger kept poking me.
They told me to feed you when you wake up.
What Leon Fraser brought was a bowl of herbal medicine.
The air seemed to have cooled a little, but steam was still rising faintly from it.
“I can eat it myself, so can you please leave?”
Leon Fraser didn't even pretend to listen to me, and listlessly stirred the herbal medicine with a spoon.
“As for the Marquis’s daughter, you don’t have many servants, but these few can’t do anything against you.”
I'm going to eat it myself, so can you please leave?
“The assistant butler is at least young, but the head maid is from the border regions, and the personal physician is a famous doctor with a prominent nose – how could you win them over? You have nothing to distinguish you except your face. With such an obnoxious personality, you managed to make three people really worry about you.”
I'll eat it myself, can you really stop bothering me and leave?
“Why do you always have to worry so much?”
Suddenly, the air flow stopped completely.
“…”
I felt like I was walking slowly on what I thought was flat ground, only to suddenly find myself landing off an unexpected ledge.
Because Leon Fraser's voice has dropped by exactly that much.
Did this man take the medicine himself?
I was totally thinking about that.
“Is it because your hair is pink? Your eyes are also spring green.”
Even when he was talking about me, he wasn't looking at me.
Like a boy talking about spring while thinking about winter.
“Is it because you look like my mother the most, so no matter how much I clung to my mother, it was in vain?”
“…Huh?”
“You don't know, do you? I was asleep the whole time.”
The movement of the hand that was stirring the herbal medicine gradually slowed down.
“It was a very dark night. There was no moon either.”
“…”
“My mother put on a robe at night and secretly went out through the back gate. I don’t know why I woke up at such a late hour, but when my mother left, I quickly followed her.”
I could slowly understand the story Leon Fraser was telling.
The late Marchioness Fraser.
Biological mother of twins Tulia.
Their mother, who died while enjoying a secret affair with another man, became the subject of taboo and public ridicule in high society.
“Even though I was young, I knew instinctively that my mother would abandon me and leave.”
“…”
"So I clung to it. I just clung to it. Because I was young."
It was instant.
Suddenly, a colorful text appeared before my eyes, and content that was very familiar to me appeared.
[System] Additional reward obtained!
[System] Play the song “Memories of That Day”!
Wait, did you start playing the video without my consent?
————