Chapter 57
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57
I didn’t even see him move.
Leon Frezier had charged in like a bolt of lightning, wrapping his arms around me like a human shield and taking an arrow in my stead.
“N-no!”
A scream escaped my lips before I could stop it.
“Get away!”
Leon Frezier’s favorability toward me was already at rock bottom. I didn’t even need to check the bar to know that.
If he got hurt because of me, he’d only hate me more, wouldn’t he?
And what about the sub-mission? Was that going to fail, too?
I struggled to pull away, but he didn’t budge.
Thwack.
Instead, that horrific sound echoed again, as if mocking my efforts.
“Lady Tulia! Young Lord Leon!”
“Young Lord!”
The ear-splitting screech of a magic tool shattering rang out.
The sound of knights and doctors rushing toward us.
It was a symphony of absolute chaos...
“Leon.”
I barely recognized my own voice.
“Leon?”
Only after I called his name a second time did he look back.
Leon’s face was twisted in a grimace as he looked down at me.
His black hair was splattered with blood.
He looked like he was in agony. He also looked furious.
I was terrified.
Leon’s dark green eyes had a way of striking fear into people.
I can’t let this guy hate me any more than he already does...
If he did, I was truly finished.
The situation felt so dire that three arrows in the back seemed like a trivial matter in comparison.
“Leon.”
I managed to squeeze out his name. My teeth were chattering, perhaps from the pain. Even as he glared at me, I didn't feel the usual annoyance.
I just wanted to ask him quickly. I wanted to know.
Leon Frezier.
“Are you okay?”
You’re not mad at me, are you?
“...”
“I asked if you’re okay.”
Did your favorability toward me drop again?
“...”
“The arrows... just now. Two of them...”
He already despised Tulia as it was.
“...”
“I’m sorry.”
What was I supposed to do?
“I’m so sorry.”
What did I have to do to get even a shred of forgiveness from this bastard?
“Because of me, you got hurt... I’m really...”
I’m sorry.
Leon finally opened his mouth.
“You really are...”
His voice was low and heavy, like a lead ball sinking into the depths of the ocean.
“...a complete moron, aren't you?”
He asked in a choked voice.
Leon’s hands, which had been holding me, were covered in blood. When he saw the crimson stains, his face went eerily blank.
I was momentarily confused.
Why did he look so angry?
Well, of course he was angry.
But why did he look like he was angry at himself, not me?
It was strange.
I had to be misinterpreting it, right?
But like a sudden meteor strike, the thought stuck and refused to leave.
My mind felt like it was glitching.
It was like a person suddenly thrown into boiling water.
The skin, unable to process the sudden heat, makes the error of perceiving the scalding water as freezing cold.
That was it.
I realized it only then, very slowly.
Leon Frezier was absolutely livid.
“You’re the one who got hit more.”
“...”
“And you have the nerve to worry about me?”
That was all he said.
“Young Lord, My Lady!”
“Heavens, there’s too much blood!”
Leon handed me over to the chief physician and the knights who had rushed over. To me, it felt like only a brief moment had passed.
A few doctors swarmed around, shouting frantically. They forced a cloth into Leon’s mouth and pulled the arrows from his back and shoulder.
Leon gritted his teeth, but even that didn't last long.
“Take her. Treat her.”
With those brief words, Leon Frezier stood up abruptly.
“Young Lord! Y-you need to be bandaged!”
“Young Lord Leon!”
He completely ignored the desperate shouts behind him.
Leon Frezier began to stride away.
No, he was running.
His destination was clear.
Tedric Frezier, who stood frozen in place like a pillar of salt.
That bastard.
“L-Leon, brother...”
Tedric’s voice shook like a leaf.
“I’m sorry. I really didn't mean to hit you. I swear. Why would I hit you? Right? I really...!”
The sight of Tedric, who had ignored me so easily, now trembling in fear and apologizing to Leon, was pathetic and absurd.
And a little bit miserable.
“You’re sorry?” Leon repeated.
The moment Tedric nodded frantically—
Thwack!
“Aaargh!”
Leon’s fist flew straight into his face.
“L-Leon, Young Lord!”
“Young Lord! Please, calm down!”
“I-I was wrong. Leon, brother. Brother, I-I was... Argh!”
Leon didn't seem to hear a word.
He just kept raining blows down on Tedric until he was a bloody pulp.
“Young Lord Tedric!”
Leon looked like a wild beast that had gone mad with hunger.
The other young lords began to tremble.
They were the ones who had joined Tedric in firing arrows at me.
“L-Leon Frezier, Young Lord. I-it was a mistake!”
“We really didn't know the arrows would hit the Lady—ack!”
“Guh!”
“Young Lord Leon, Young Lord! Please, calm down!”
In the blink of an eye, the young lords collapsed like paper dolls dropped into a bucket of red paint.
Every single one of them.
“...Physician.”
“Lady Tulia, the bleeding is severe. Please don't speak! Just lean back!”
“No, look. Physician. Am I seeing things?”
“My Lady! I told you not to speak!”
“It looks like blood is pouring out of Leon’s back, too... No... Look. Physician...”
“My Lady!”
“Stay with us!”
“Lady Tulia! My Lady!”
“Bring a carriage immediately!”
Amidst the overlapping shouts and screams, I finally lost consciousness.
* * *
“If I’m in pain, will someone worry about me?”
“If I get hurt, will my family come running?”
The Han Ina in the mirror murmurs.
Yes, there were times when I was desperately curious about such things.
I was at that age.
Because I was young, and therefore more fragile, I built my shell even thicker. I told myself I wasn't hurt by small things. That I was indifferent and didn't care.
Those young days when I thought I wasn't a child anymore.
The times when I even managed to trick myself.
“Can I be loved like that, too?”
Then, suddenly, during the early hours of the morning, I would feel a blind jealousy toward all the happiness in the world.
So many nights during my childhood.
The unquenchable thirst was like a very angry child.
Because I would shatter the Han Ina in the mirror as if bursting into tears.
Blood flows along the jagged edges of the broken mirror.
Since I had to clean up what I broke—since that was how I had always grown up.
As I wiped the bloody mirror with my fingertips, suddenly...
I saw strands of pink hair tangling between my slender fingers.
“...lia.”
A voice slowly pulled me toward consciousness.
“Tuli...a.”
My eyelids were heavy.
But I couldn't just stay asleep.
“...Tulia.”
Because the voice calling my name sounded so devastated.
Slowly, my vision cleared.
Silver hair, white as snowflakes, spilled over me.
“...Lisian.”
His face was as pale and refined as ever. Lisian used to smile at me out of habit whenever he saw me.
In those moments, I really felt like he was family.
Even now, when I was in this much pain, the smile Lisian gave me was different—it was blurred.
Strangely, it made my heart ache.
Because he looked like he was truly worried about me.
Because he looked like he really thought of me as family.
I was fooled like this back when I was Han Ina, too.
When I was very sick, I had once opened my heart, crying, to family members who looked worried.
I hadn't realized then that their concern was merely the fleeting interest one shows when a pet dog suddenly falls ill.
I hadn't realized they were exchanging glances, bewildered by my tearful, rambling mess.
So, how many times had I subconsciously vowed never to be fooled again?
How many times had I pulled my tattered heart back together like that?
“...”
Then why did the look in Lisian’s eyes as he gazed down at me feel so heavy and lost, like a thick fog in a winter sky?