Chapter 40
Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Meritorious Vassals' Conference (2)
The endless Meritorious Vassals' Conference came to a halt the moment my bright, cheerful voice echoed through the chamber.
Well, to be precise, a short recess had been scheduled around that time anyway. Still, it felt great that it stopped right on cue with my timing.
'This is how you screw over Opstein.'
You rotten, wicked Opstein. If you thought you could live leisurely for life after using me as an experimental subject for ten years, you were sorely mistaken.
They seemed to be struggling desperately to wriggle out somehow, but now that I'd exposed everything irrefutably in such an important venue, they were done for, right?
It felt so damn refreshing. I might even sleep with my legs stretched out tonight.
"……."
Everything was fine up to there, but the atmosphere in the waiting room felt off somehow.
"Ahem."
"Khm…."
"Cough."
The heads of the three Meritorious Houses who had been ushered into the waiting room with me kept stealing glances at me and clearing their throats awkwardly.
"What's wrong?"
"……."
"Is something the matter?"
As I quietly tilted my head and asked, Marquis Sharhen, who had been glaring at me earlier, finally spoke in a low voice.
"…You didn't lie, did you?"
Huh? What? You think what I said was a lie?
"If there's even the slightest deviation from the truth, you'll bear the consequences alone…."
"…Marquis, shut up for a bit."
"Has age dulled your sense too?"
Countess Harkfrit of the Frontier and Marquis Magnaris immediately scolded him from the side, but suspicion still lingered on Marquis Sharhen's face.
"No, I get what you mean."
Of course, it would be hard to believe just words alone. As I said in the conference earlier, they need physical evidence, right?
"So take a look for yourselves."
Fortunately, my body still bore scars and bruises. It was a stroke of luck that I hadn't healed them, half-expecting a day like this might come.
"This one's from surgery a year ago. This on my side is from when they stitched up my shattered bones at age five…. And all these marks are just surgical scars."
"……."
"…These bruises are from beatings. Every time I resisted or talked back, they'd hit me with ashtrays or seals."
As I excitedly lifted my shirt and pointed out each scar while explaining, the house heads' faces paled in unison.
"What kind of state is this for a child not even ten…."
"Full of inflamed and infected scars…. They never even got proper treatment?"
Well, the abuse I suffered in the Opstein Marquisate was pretty severe, after all.
To be honest, ever since I awakened to my past life and realized I was being abused, I'd been trying not to dwell on my days there.
Honestly, even a slight slip could make those ten years of trauma come rushing back and choke me in an instant.
But that's that, and this is this. As a romance fantasy reader, I had zero intention of hiding the damage I'd endured to create some frustrating plot twist.
The protagonist in a romance fantasy child-rearing story might be frail and tender-hearted, but when it's time to push forward, they do so with grit.
"One question."
"Yes?"
As I held up my shirt with those thoughts in mind, Marquis Sharhen, who had been staring blankly, suddenly asked me something.
"Was the Marchioness Opstein involved too?"
I had no idea what his intent was, but telling the truth shouldn't be a problem.
"…Yes!"
"Really?"
Good. This is my chance to drag Opstein all the way down.
"Marchioness Opstein mostly whipped my legs or clawed my back with her nails."
In response to Marquis Sharhen's question, Kairen answered with a somewhat aggrieved expression before turning around to show his back.
"See? It's real, right?"
Nail marks too gruesome to look at directly covered Kairen's back.
"…Why?"
"Because I kept playing with Dorsia. But what could I do when Big Sister Dorsia came to me first?"
Marquis Sharhen stared silently at the marks before asking again with an incredulous expression.
"…Dorsia was involved too?"
"Lady Dorsia was the one who treated me the best, relatively speaking."
At Kairen's response, Marquis Sharhen's face showed a flicker of relief.
"She'd strangle my neck until I passed out while 'playing,' but she'd always feed me some weird drug to wake me up again. She's so kind!"
"……."
"…The part where she'd pin me down and slap my face until it bruised whenever I forgot to bark like a dog was a bit hard to endure, though."
But as Kairen's words continued, the brief relief on his face twisted into something increasingly grim.
"Still, that was my fault, so…."
Sensing Marquis Sharhen's sudden silence, Kairen muttered softly under his breath and lowered his shirt.
"……."
Staring down at Kairen with a twisted expression, Marquis Sharhen suddenly stood up and murmured lowly.
"…Excuse me for a moment."
Without giving anyone a chance to speak, the marquis stepped out of the waiting room and vanished.
"Hey, kid."
"Yes?"
"Are you really okay?"
Right after, Marquis Magnaris hurried over to Kairen and started talking to him.
"No child could endure something like that."
"I'm all grown up! I'm an adult!"
"Don't lie."
Countess Harkfrit of the Frontier, who had approached cautiously, chimed in with a worried look.
"Do you have nightmares lately, or hear strange voices?"
"Uh…."
"Any sudden shortness of breath without warning, or cold sweats?"
Kairen looked puzzled amid their barrage of questions.
"Why are you all doing this?"
As he spoke in a tone of genuine confusion, the two house heads' expressions turned grave.
"Wasn't I just proving I was their lab rat? I don't get why you're suddenly talking about something else."
"What do you…."
"Oh, if it's about the corporal punishment, I'm fine. I was taught this is standard treatment for bastards."
Unaware of their concern, Kairen continued brightly, almost boastfully.
"And Belverk is kinda weird to me, in a good way."
The two house heads, who had looked baffled, exchanged dazed glances.
"Everyone's so nice to a nobody like me. You know? I haven't been hit once since coming to Belverk!"
"……."
"One time, Mother said she'd punish me, so I took off my clothes, but she got shocked and just made me raise my hand instead?"
Kairen's cheerful voice kept ringing in their ears.
"Raising my hand as punishment? The rumors about Belverk being cruel must all be lies. Hehe…."
Once Kairen finished speaking and sat happily kicking his legs, the two house heads exchanged quiet words.
"…She doesn't even know what's wrong."
"She grew up taking this for granted from birth…."
"Beasts raised in cages from young think whippings are normal."
Their gazes turned to Kairen, who was still tilting his head innocently.
"…She's no different."
Just as the room's atmosphere grew heavy,
"Oh, right!"
Kairen suddenly rummaged in his pocket as if he'd forgotten something.
"I heard I'd meet the heads of the four great Meritorious Houses today, so I brought gifts!"
At his words, the two house heads, who had dark expressions, widened their eyes.
"For Countess Harkfrit of the Frontier. Gloves I made myself!"
"……."
"…Okay, lie. I panicked and bought the most expensive gloves in the capital with my pocket money."
The first gift Kairen pulled out was a sky-blue pair of gloves crudely scribbled with what looked like a puppy.
"But I drew the wolf symbolizing House Harkfrit myself!"
"…A wolf, huh."
"What do you think? Cool, right? Hehe…."
Realizing belatedly it was House Harkfrit's wolf symbol, the countess gave an awkward smile and examined them closely.
"For Marquis Magnaris, this!"
"…What's this?"
"Black mana stones only found in Belverk territory!"
Kairen pulled a second gift from a leather pouch, beaming as he offered it to its recipient.
"Y-You can't just give something like this to someone like me."
"Hehe, I know. But I'm the head now, so it's fine! No one can scold me!"
Noticing the ominous aura from the black lump, Marquis Magnaris glanced around suspiciously before asking.
"…You didn't mine this by hand, did you?"
"Yes! My maid big sisters helped!"
Hearing that, Marquis Magnaris carefully accepted it with his cloak and glanced around warily again.
"And, Grandpa… I mean, Marquis Sharhen!"
"……?"
"I have a gift for you too!"
After confirming with a smile, Kairen offered the last gift to Marquis Sharhen, who was leaning against the corridor wall outside, lost in thought.
"I didn't know what to get, so I stole some herbs from my First Knight Order Captain big sister's barracks!"
"…Herbs?"
"Eat this and live long!"
Staring blankly at what was clearly a top-grade elixir from the Eastern Continent, Marquis Sharhen glared coldly at Kairen.
"…Don't you hate me?"
"Huh?"
"I only said things that annoyed you just now."
Kairen tilted his head briefly before smiling in reply.
"It felt like grandpa nagging, so I liked it."
"……."
"I've always dreamed of having a grandpa! Hehe."
Kairen tucked the herb into the marquis's arms, then dashed down the corridor with a slightly flushed face.
"I'll go to the bathroom!"
A brief silence followed.
"Still looks like a puppy…. Well, cute enough."
"…Black magic. The black magic sample I've longed for. Research it immediately. No, erase traces first."
Listening quietly to the voices from the waiting room while leaning against the wall for a while, Marquis Sharhen broke the silence with a cold expression and started walking somewhere.
"…I'll step out briefly."
With that commanding short phrase, he made the imperial knights guarding against anyone leaving during the conference withdraw en masse.
- Creak….
The place Marquis Sharhen headed to, exuding an intensely chilling aura, was a shabby carriage waiting secretly near a hidden palace entrance.
"F-Father!"
"……."
"I-It’s been a while. Since I married…."
Greeting the marquis who roughly opened the carriage door and entered was none other than Marchioness Opstein.
"D-Did the Meritorious Vassals' Conference go well?"
"……."
"W-What about the agenda for Opstein's reinstatement? This is our last chance."
Sensing the silent Marquis Sharhen's mood, she broke into a cold sweat and pushed forward Dorsia, sitting behind her.
"Father's getting on in years now. If we miss this, it's all over."
"……."
"So please, at least for your granddaughter's sake…."
But before she could finish, a ear-piercing screech echoed through the carriage.
- Slap…!
The marchioness's face whipped to the side. Clutching her swelling red cheek in a daze, she turned to her own father.
"G-Grandpa."
Dorsia called out to her usually affectionate grandfather with equal shock.
"Aridna von Sharhen."
However, glaring at her with icy eyes, Marquis Sharhen turned to Marchioness Opstein and spat a contempt-laden question.
"…Are you even human?"
A heavier silence than ever before began to swirl inside the carriage.