Chapter 62
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 62
Leaning back against the thin cushion of my chair, I blinked, feeling a flicker of anticipation for whatever state Tedric would be in when he made his entrance.
“Good heavens, what happened to his face?”
“I heard that Young Lord Leon Frezier…”
“Apparently, he flew into such a rage that they had a violent confrontation right then and there.”
Nope, wrong.
It wasn't a "violent confrontation." Tedric Frezier just got his ass handed to him in a one-sided beating.
“It seems Young Lord Leon cherishes his sister, Lady Tulia, very deeply.”
“That’s quite different from the rumors we’ve heard.”
Wrong again.
Leon is just a psycho who beat up all the young lords, Tedric included.
I was aware of the others glancing at me and whispering, but I feigned ignorance, shifting my gaze back and forth between Lisian and Tedric.
Wow, he really went all out with the cover-up.
Tedric Frezier had bandages wrapped around his jaw and his entire face. One might mistakenly think Leon Frezier had actually pulverized the boy's skull.
He’d simply been beaten to a pulp, but he was clearly overdoing the bandages to elicit sympathy from the vassals.
What was strange, however, was that his hands were also heavily swathed in bandages.
Viscount Lilius looked at his son with pitying eyes before speaking.
“Tedric told me that day. He said his hands kept getting cut while using the magic tool, making it difficult to aim.”
‘What a load of rubbish!’
The mages looked as if they wanted to scream exactly that.
“Tedric’s archery skills are renowned even in this vast Grand Duchy. Furthermore, Tedric is neither such a reckless child nor such a villain that he would attack his own cousins in a public setting.”
Wow, this guy…
Did he trade his conscience for a snack?
But he did have one point. Tedric wasn't so low on the intellectual scale—not quite an amoeba—that he would attack us so openly in public.
The vassals slowly began to murmur in agreement.
Not many of them knew just how much Tedric loathed me. Before I became Tulia, I had been quite dependent on Tedric’s parents. If anything, the vassals likely thought we were close.
Even if he did hate me, they seemed to realize anew that he wasn't stupid enough to try and kill me in front of a literal cloud of nobles.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the magic tool!”
“This is an injustice!”
The mages cried out in indignation.
It must have been a burden for them to shout so boldly at the direct lineage of the Grand Ducal House. Seeing them so full of resentment, it looked like they would be requesting a superior from the Mage Tower the moment they returned.
“Lisian Frezier. Do you have nothing to say?”
Nigella asked.
Lisian, who had been sitting in the seat of honor observing the situation, shifted his gaze.
“I, I a-also… th-think it is… s-strange.”
Nigella looked at Lisian with an expression of pure headache.
Then, he spoke.
“It is… difficult to understand what you are saying.”
In an instant, my hands, resting on my lap, turned white as I clenched them into fists.
“Can you not call for a proxy?”
Those bastards.
To say something like that so openly in a formal setting?
Besides, it wasn't as if Lisian was speaking a foreign language. They were speaking the same tongue, yet Nigella had the audacity to point out that he was "difficult to understand." What kind of rotten character was that?
I could understand him perfectly fine.
I found Nigella Frezier pathetic and cruel for using such a low-handed tactic just to break Lisian’s spirit.
However, it seemed I was the only one struggling with my temper.
Lisian merely replied with his usual gentle smile.
“As, as you k-know… Leon is still… b-bedridden.”
“Then you have no noble who can serve as your proxy.”
Strictly speaking, even Lisian was acting as a proxy for Marquis Aster Frezier.
For Lisian to use another proxy, he needed someone who matched his rank and status. That was why Leon Frezier had been mentioned first.
But.
“No. There is someone.”
For the record, that wasn't Lisian’s voice.
It was mine.
A low murmur broke out.
The vassals weren't the only ones surprised. The eyes of the composed Count Nigella Frezier and Viscount Lilius snapped toward me.
As if he had been waiting for me to speak, Lisian said with a smile, “I sh-shall… d-designate my… y-younger sister, Tulia, as my… p-proxy.”
“…?!”
Yes.
The time had come.
I felt Tedric whip his head around to look at me.
I don't know what he thought he’d done right or what he was so indignant about to be glaring at me like that, but…
You only came wrapped in a few bandages, didn't you, Tedric?
He seemed to think he could win the sympathy vote by looking like a mummy.
Without taking my eyes off Tedric, I gave a light signal.
“Assistant Butler?”
“Yes, my Lady.”
“I need to move.”
“Leave it to me.”
The Assistant Butler moved me onto "it" with calm, swift precision.
Then, he began to wheel me toward the center of the Grand Council Chamber. The Chief Physician followed behind, carrying a massive box of medicinal herbs.
The murmurs grew louder.
The chamber, which had been briefly silent, was now plunged into a different kind of shock.
“Good heavens…?”
“Wait. Was she really injured that severely?”
“It seems she can’t even walk. Just how savagely was he firing those arrows…?”
The shocked voices of the vassals had never sounded so reassuring.
I looked at Tedric as I was carried along like a half-corpse in my wheelchair.
He, too, looked considerably flustered and startled.
Didn't expect me to show up in worse shape than you, did you?
This, you brat, is what we call the "K-Chairman performance."
You dim-witted fool.
* * *
A brief silence followed.
The first to speak was, as expected, the seasoned Count Nigella Frezier.
“Tulia.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
“Are you truly unable to even walk?”
Of course I could walk.
A few servants had probably even seen me doing it.
Whether Nigella’s words were laced with thorns or not, I didn't care to judge or insult him. In fact, I had been waiting for him to say exactly that.
“Doctor.”
I called for the Chief Physician in a sorrowful voice.
“Unwrap the bandages on the top of my foot. Since my uncle is so suspicious… it would be better to show him directly.”
“…?”
Nigella, who always maintained a dignified air, looked uncharacteristically flustered.
He hadn't explicitly said he "suspected" me—and perhaps he hadn't even intended to go that far—but I had jumped straight to unwrapping the bandages.
“Tuli—”
“Gasp!”
Nigella was cut off mid-sentence.
Thanks to my prior coordination with the Chief Physician, those thick bandages were removed in the blink of an eye.
A short wave of horror and gasps rippled through the chamber, followed by a grim silence.
And for good reason.
Even to my eyes, the wound was gruesome and horrific.
It was a "raw" wound, not even a day old.
“As you can see, the top of my foot was nearly crushed.”
I spoke clearly, looking back and forth between Nigella and Lilius.
“Because Tedric and the other young lords attacked me with a magic bow.”
“That is a misunderstanding, Tulia!”
Lilius bolted upright from his seat.
His voice was so thundering that I flinched reflexively. As I recoiled, the raw skin on my foot throbbed with a searing pain.
“It hurts…”
I didn't plan that line.
It genuinely hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“T-this won't do, my Lady. I must wrap it again immediately.”
The Chief Physician’s voice was clearly audible to everyone. So was his muttered follow-up.
“This is far too severe…”
And his expression was deathly serious.
No one could open their mouth while the physician meticulously re-wrapped my foot and secured the splint.
For a moment, a silence so heavy you could hear a pin drop filled the room.
Is it really necessary for them to wait this quietly?
It was just re-wrapping a foot.
Feeling a bit puzzled, I lifted my head.
“…!”
And in that moment, I understood the reason for the silence in the chamber.