Chapter 11
“I’m glad the wound on your cheek wasn’t deep.”
At the doctor’s words, the Marquis asked.
“But she was hit by the monster’s claw. What if the scar remains?”
“Don’t worry, as long as you take good care of her, she’ll heal soon.”
The Marquis and his servants sighed in relief.
“But the problem is her hand. Her bones are broken. I think she hit something, so I need to put a splint on it. It may be uncomfortable for you to move for a while.”
Bluish bruises emerged on my swollen wrist.
I really broke my own wrist.
‘I’ve done something stupid.’
The Marquis, who had been looking at me with a worried face, spoke.
“I’m glad you came quickly, sir. Ulysse is not here right now.”
The doctor replied as he applied medicine to my wound.
“I heard about it. I was on my way home when I got a letter asking me to come quickly. My colleagues who work with me are also coming.”
It took two days at the earliest for a letter from the north to arrive in the capital.
Looking at the time, it must have been sent right after Ulysse arrived in the north.
(T/N: Ulysse was able to read celestial energy, so he knew right away Navian was injured.)
I secretly thought Ulysse was a quack. It seemed like I needed to reflect a little.
‘He must be a genius.’
I was suddenly curious.
How far can he read the celestial energy?
‘Does he know why Signus has changed?’
I laughed inwardly.
‘What’s the use to know about that now? The situation is already bad enough.’
Seeing what Signus had done so far, it was clear that words alone wouldn’t be able to reach him.
A bastard who tore my clothes all of a sudden would never hear me out.
Whatever the reason, he changed.
Signus, whom I served as my lord, no longer exists.
Even if I still had a desire to trust him, I had to admit the reality.
‘Since we’re engaged, I have to go to the palace soon. Not to mention, he already saw me walking around.’
However, this disgusting feeling did not disappear.
‘Should I run away?’
I could just escape to the countryside and live leisurely. Perhaps, this weak body would get better.
I was in the middle of imagining something ridiculous, but someone shouted.
“Master! Please come out for a moment!”
As I heard the chaos in the mansion, I thought another doctor had arrived.
“I told them to wait, didn’t I?!”
But the Marquis’ angry scream rang in the mansion.
‘Seems like the aide is here.’
My room was on the second floor, so I couldn’t see who was coming in on the first floor. But it was obvious from the way Marquis reacted.
“You even brought a knight now!”
I guess the knight came, too.
He must have been very angry that he was dropping the honorifics.
“You’re going to take her after her treatment, right? Do you think I’m stupid? What’s wrong with you?”
His opponent’s voice didn’t sound very small.
I could hear it if I raised my sensitivity a little, but I just let it go.
It was a predictable conversation anyway, and it was a bit annoying. But the Marquis’ next response was slightly off.
“…What?”
Wait. That reaction…
As expected, the servants were chattering. Soon after, the servant who climbed up the stairs spread the news.
“Someone sent a letter to accept the engagement.”
“Who?”
All the attention turned to me, and Mary, who was next to me, covered her mouth.
‘I got caught.’
I wasn’t embarrassed. It wasn’t something I could hide for a long time anyway.
However, I was just worried about the Marquis. Then, the Marquis shouted.
“That letter, I’m the one who sent it!”
Huh?
“Why not? I’m going to marry him!”
“….Pardon?”
I could hear the bewildered voice of the aide.
I understood how he felt. I couldn’t grasp what that old man was saying either.
But the Marquis shouted proudly.
“Would you rather choose a weak child over a marquis? Now, go tell him! I’ll change my name to Navian and come to see him.”
He was crazy.
Even if Signus was a saint, he would have slashed the Marquis’ throat with his sword right away.
‘No matter how much you don’t want to marry your daughter to a tyrant…’
It was a headache to hear the Marquis one-sided outcry.
Hearing the mess outside, I suddenly thought of something.
This whole situation was strange.
Before I went to the tea party, I overheard the conversations of the servants when I finished exercising and laid in my bed.
After the aide came and delivered the edict…
“Oh, come on! You want to reward us for the glory of the past, right? Whoever gets it will get it! So give it to me!”
….I should stop the Marquis from talking nonsense first.
“Mary. Can you tell him to come up?”
“You mean, master?”
I glanced at the stairs and opened my mouth.
“The Aide and the knight.”
* * *
The aide and Dojino knight were puzzled.
I guess they hadn’t come to their senses thanks to the Marquis’ shocking remark.
“Thank you for coming all the way here. I have something to tell you.”
I raised my gaze while organizing my words. I could see the Marquis’ shoulders hiding behind the door, but I ignored him and opened my mouth.
First, it was the basic one.
“Please send my words to His Highness Signus. We will charge all the damage our family acquired due to the demon’s attack.”
The aide frowned.
Looking at his face, he seemed to think about the ruined forest, smashed carriage, and the treatment cost for my injury as well as the guards.
“It’s going to be difficult. Ethically speaking, we can cover for your treatment as His Highness’ fiance, but….”
The aide continued his words as if asking for understanding.
“And it was an accident. I’m also worried that I may offend His Highness by bringing up the money.”
I was expecting his response, so I turned to Leo.
“What’s the duties of a knight?”
Leo, who stood silently, replied to me.
“Patrolling the capital, guarding the palace, and protecting the empire barrier.”
“Then what did the knights do until the monster came up to the civilian area?”
The aide chewed on his lower lips. He seemed to have noticed why I was targeting Leo.
“I have nothing to say. It’s entirely our fault that the damage to the area has been done.”
In fact, Leo was not to be blamed.
The demon attack was inevitable, and it was too much to criticize the knights for it.
But the knight’s master was Signus.
“Tell me about your next measure to resolve this. There’s no guarantee that this won’t happen again, right?”
Leo answered me with a sincere voice.
“I am ashamed to say that we have received the help from the temple. The empire’s barriers are now being watched by the Holy Knights and the High Priests.”
“Who will replace our wounded guards?”
“We’ve sent troops to every part of this area. It’s safe here.”
Still, I didn’t know who taught him but I was very proud of Leo.
‘As expected, Leo.’
When I suppressed the rising corners of my mouth and tried hard to express my displeasure, the aide muttered as if it was unfair.
“But, it occurred before the engagement…”
I smiled small. I knew this would happen.
Because ever since long ago the aide was famous for being a cheapskate.
Since he was a cheapskate who cared not only for his own money but for other people’s money, such a reaction was not something I couldn’t understand.
“If you don’t want to do it, I’ll write a letter.”
“Oh, will you do that?”
The aide smiled as if thinking I was naive. But it was him who was naive.
“Okay, I’ll write it down right now, so you can deliver it to His Highness.”
“…Are you saying I should deliver it?”
Looking at the aide’s pale face, I replied.
“Yes. Let’s see if we all die.”
Then the aide made a groan.
“….I understand. Please make a list of what you need.”
He still hated spending money. This damned cheapskate.
“There’s one more thing.”
However, I didn’t intend to quit here.
“I’m going to postpone going to the palace.”
“Pardon?”
The aide’s expression crumpled like paper.
He even put on an expression as if asking if I was out of my mind.
“His Highness tried to take off my clothes. Thanks to him, my clothes became a rag.”
“…..What did you say?!”
Along with a scream, the Marquis broke the door.
As I watched the specks of the broken door fall down the floor and the pale faced Marquis, I pointed at the wounds in my cheek.
“It’s a cut from the demon’s claw. His Highness poked it with his fingers. The scar might remain forever.”
The doctor flinched.
He had a face saying, ‘I’m sure I told you the scar is going to heal’. He made a face like that but I ignored it lightly.
“As the aide said, the engagement hasn’t begun yet, but he shouldn’t do this to me already. Do you think we can live together when I’m scared?”
The aide, who had been silent for a while, said in a friendly voice as much as possible.
“But then your family may be exterminated.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Because you need my family, right?”
The aide blinked when I said what I had thought earlier. The fact that I felt a sense of incompatibility.
“So you knew that I’d come back alive.”
People were clattering.
So he knows she’s going to survive? Who told him that? Such a murmur filled the room.
The panicked aide shouted urgently.
“What are you talking about? No, I don’t know.”
“Really? Then let me ask you. Where did you run into the butler and my father?”
Replied the aide, who thought for a moment.
“It was in front of the stairs on the first floor. Because I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“I see.”
Nodding, I asked the butler who was standing in silence.
“What did the aide say after he delivered the edict?”
“I heard she woke up, he said.”
When I got the answer I wanted, I saw the aide and he answered.
“That’s right.”
That’s right, you say?
He put on a confused face as if he didn’t understand what the problem was. So I decided to explain it kindly.
“The servants outside were crying and preparing for the funeral. It’s the same for those who’ve been walking around the hall.”
There was one fact I could obtain from the conversation between the servants while I was lying in bed.
Normal people couldn’t hear a conversation from that distance.
Just like how I and my servants in the room couldn’t hear the aide’s voice a while ago.
“Did you hear that I was alive from the noise?”
My face was reflected in the aide’s big eyes.
It was unfamiliar to me, but I was already used to that cold, smiling face.
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