Remnants of Malice (4)
The second clue.
Flora might not have realized it, but I'd had a vague suspicion for a while now.
This place was tailor-made for Karsein to suffer in. Smearing him with false accusations, humiliating him, painting him as a troublemaker—just as Flora had done back at the ducal house, it was the perfect venue for tormenting him in every conceivable way.
Which also meant that within the common circle called "nobility," this was a place where Karsein could be isolated at will.
To put it another way, there was a possibility that Karsein had come here in the past, too. That much I could assume.
"Right. Up until now, it was just a possibility. Not anymore."
The moment I laid eyes on this glowing object, it stopped being a hypothesis.
It became a certainty.
Karsein had been here before.
Just like today—with someone else by his side.
"Let's see, then. What the hell did that bitch Flora pull off this time?"
Flora's Handkerchief Memorial obtained!
Clang!
The fork and tableware hit the floor with a ringing metallic crash.
They belonged to a young boy whose eyes were now squeezed tightly shut. The boy, who had been eating the food on his plate mere moments ago, crouched coughing, his cutlery scattered at his feet.
The loud noise drew every noble's gaze toward one side of the room.
But such stares meant nothing to Karsein.
"Hey, Karsein. You seem awfully under the weather, so why don't you pay a visit to Viscount Gelgeton's estate sometime?"
"Viscount Gelgeton's estate...?"
"That's right. The produce from Gelgeton's lands and the surrounding area is mostly top-grade quality, you know. They say there's a chef there who's extremely renowned in the culinary world, so go eat some proper health food while you're at it."
That was what Claire had said, several hours earlier.
It was framed as concern—stop moping around and go take care of your health. But at the same time, she'd also suggested, in her roundabout way, that since he didn't seem to have a single friend to his name, it wouldn't hurt to go make some connections with the other nobles while he was there.
And yet, right in front of Karsein—who had come to look after his health—something that was not food had been laid out on the plate once again.
There was only one reason for it.
"Flora... you...!"
His eyes burning with betrayal, he stared across the table at his younger sister.
The blonde girl slid a hand over her snickering mouth and, in one smooth motion, swapped her expression entirely.
"Oh my. Are you all right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
Eyes brimming with worry.
But hidden inside that worry was something else entirely—a look harboring a devil's smile. It would be no exaggeration to call it exactly that.
"Pardon me, Young Lord Karsein? Even so, dropping your cutlery like that is hardly the courtesy befitting a noble, you know?"
"Oh dear, oh dear. Whatever the circumstances, one's table manners really must..."
"Please, try to understand. Karsein's health has been terribly poor, you see."
Flora went on to explain that Karsein's condition kept deteriorating these days, that incidents like this were hardly a first or a second occurrence.
"It breaks my heart, honestly. So won't you please find it in your hearts to be understanding?"
"Ah, so that's how it was."
"How admirable, to possess such a generous heart."
She even shed crocodile tears, playing the grieving little sister.
To any observer, it was the very picture of a sister worried sick about her brother.
But the nobles seated at that same table knew exactly what this was. A signal.
So they did not rebuke Karsein for his fault. Exactly as Flora intended, exactly as she instructed—
they merely ordered fresh cutlery brought out.
Before long, new tableware arrived. At the same time, his plate was taken away entirely and replaced with one heaped with fresh food. A plate larger than the last, piled higher, holding more.
Food that looked delectable even at a glance, and a health meal that would supposedly work wonders for a sickly young man's recovery.
"You'd better eat up properly. Lady Shaden told you to come back healthier, remember?"
Flora held out the new cutlery, folding her eyes into a gentle crescent.
"A sister looking after her brother—how truly beautiful."
"Isn't it just? No one could hope to match Lady Flora's kindness."
"I'm certain the head chef of House Gelgeton will be absolutely delighted."
The nobles smirked and chimed in one after another, endorsing her words.
Checkmate.
Karsein now had no choice but to remain at that table.
He had to pick up the cutlery.
He had to cut that food, put it in his mouth.
Chew. Swallow.
Even knowing full well that every single dish was slathered in Kelvia fruit.
He could not complain.
Unless he cleared that plate, he would once again become the delinquent troublemaker who'd caused a scene outside—he would be scolded by Claire, reprimanded by Arina, and Isabella would...
"Ugh...!"
The rejection reaction from the Kelvia allergy surged up his throat.
Karsein couldn't stop his face from contorting.
"What's with that expression? Don't tell me... you don't like the taste?"
"Heavens. This is House Gelgeton's cooking, praised by gourmets far and wide. That's simply impossible!"
"Don't rush through it all by yourself—take your time and savor it. That's what the rest of us are doing."
Once more, he lifted the cutlery.
Once more, he forced it into his mouth as if nothing were wrong.
He had to grit his teeth and chew.
He had to force it down, gagging all the while.
Even after noticing that those nobles were savoring his suffering.
And then—
"Eat lots, Karsein."
Even after catching Flora piling her own portion onto his plate with such malice.
He could not utter a single word.
"Here's a handkerchief! Wipe your mouth while you eat."
A handkerchief. The message was clear: even slipping it to the left side, out of sight, would not be permitted.
In that moment, Karsein hated Flora with everything he had.
No one at this table knew he suffered from a Kelvia allergy. If only she hadn't been there, normal food would surely have been served.
But Flora had tagged along.
The nightmare from the ducal house's dining hall had been resurrected right here.
Flora's influence had crept into this place.
Her malice had been mixed into that food.
Every noble in the room had caught on.
He could not cry out.
He could not get angry.
He could offer no resistance at all.
The best he could manage was to clench that handkerchief in his fist—to aim a silent, wordless cry of defiance at the scrap of cloth in his hand.
And so, wracked with excruciating pain,
Karsein had to chew and swallow in silence, bite after bite after bite.
What came after was nothing special.
Karsein had shoved that handkerchief deep into this very trash can, then boarded the ducal house's carriage right away, wracked with pain, and returned home.
And the moment he got back, when Claire asked him whether he'd eaten well, the feeling he'd been choking down had come bursting out.
"I'm never—NEVER going out with Flora again! Never!!"
And then the boy got scolded by all three of them.
Just as he always was.
The handkerchief's glow faded, the space returned to the present, and a status window unfurled before my eyes.
The Memory has ended.
"Ha. She pulled off all of this, and then brought Karsein back here again?"
Honestly, it was laughable.
The way Karsein's eyes had lit up with hope—finally, finally, a proper meal he could eat—was still seared into my mind.
And so was the misery in those same eyes, drowning in betrayal and despair, as he forced the food into his mouth, bite by agonizing bite.
And in spite of all that, Flora Bagland had dragged Karsein back to this place.
"Truly an unbelievable woman."
That aside, this Memorial had breathed yet another vile piece of the past into me.
In my past life, too, I'd once been thoroughly humiliated in front of the third kid's friends.
Which is why I was able to recover my composure quickly.
Episode in progress!
It has been revealed that Karsein is being endangered at the villa!
Success and failure outcomes will be presented to the player in advance, based on Achievement Rate.
[ ON SUCCESS ] Arina's Intimacy will increase slightly.
[ ON FAILURE ] You will fall under a status ailment, suffer in your room for a full day, and a curfew will be imposed.
A curfew, of all things.
Why did this have to hit so close to home?
It was around the time I'd started working part-time jobs, I think. Before long, a curfew had been slapped onto me—courtesy of the third kid, no less. She'd kept tattling to the eldest about how late I was coming home from who-knows-where, and out came the lectures about "worrying your little sister" and a strict curfew to go with them.
Because of her, the money I could save up from my jobs took a serious hit. On top of that, my movements themselves were restricted, and I even got dragged along to places I never wanted to go, only to be made a laughingstock.
Which is exactly why.
I had a feeling my situation right now wasn't so different from what I'd endured back then.
I'd been asked by Arina to look after Flora. So if Flora's influence crept into this place too, a curfew appearing here would be entirely unsurprising—and not just from the game system alone.
"Even accounting for the Kelvia allergy, ending up bedridden would be one thing. But a curfew—that's the dangerous one."
A restriction on where I could go had workarounds. A restriction on when had none. That was one penalty I absolutely could not afford to trigger.
"Whew."
Coldly, deliberately, I took a deep breath to smother the heat rising in my chest.
I closed my eyes tight. Organized the information rapidly.
What this episode demanded was simple: evade the nobles' schemes aimed at Karsein. And the Achievement Rate would fill up according to how skillfully I dodged them.
I was standing inside the Gelgeton villa—the very place that had served up dishes drowned in Kelvia fruit.
In the past, Karsein's Kelvia allergy had already been exposed to the nobles once. By Flora.
So what about now?
That the nobles—and their companions—hadn't touched the subject at all was a foregone conclusion.
This tea party was, in the end, an event staged for one purpose: making a mockery of the man with the Kelvia allergy.
The answer to why I'd been able to sit quietly until now finally clicked into place.
The nobles at this villa would inevitably wait for him to touch the food, then relish the sight of Karsein writhing in agony.
And.
That other person would be no different.
Karsein had simply been dragged back to the place where the remnants of malice still lingered.
That was reality.
"Right. This is reality. Arina. 'Look after your little sister first,' was it? While that little sister is tormenting me this viciously?"
What a load of crap.
I had no intention of taking this lying down, either.
Feeling cold blood settle over me like a second skin, I picked up Flora's handkerchief.
Then I left the empty room and went straight to a servant.
"Hey, you. Do you happen to know when the tea party begins?"
"I believe it will commence in roughly fifteen minutes, my lord."
"Fifteen minutes, then."
I remembered Tasha's parting words before we left the ducal house—that it would serve me well to learn a little about Gelgeton's territory before arriving.
"The Gelgeton territory keeps its village built remarkably close by, so that fresh ingredients can be supplied quickly."
The distance: about three minutes on horseback.
She'd said there would be plenty of time to spare.
"In that case, I'll be stepping out for a bit."
There was more than enough time to gather what I needed.