Chapter 66
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 66
Tulia’s eyes had snapped open, staring blankly like a ghost’s.
Strands of jewel-toned hair clung haphazardly to her forehead, matted with cold sweat. Her skin, naturally pale, was now so utterly bloodless it looked eerie, as if caked in thick layers of wax.
With her lips turned a bruised blue, the young lady looked so ghastly she could have been mistaken for a drowned corpse.
“...My Lady?”
Her lime-green eyes, which had been sunken like a stagnant swamp, shifted slowly to look at the chief physician.
Even in the midst of the crisis, the physician felt a strange sensation. Before being assigned as Tulia’s doctor, he had been terrified of those green eyes, thinking they looked like pools of poison. Now, seeing the young girl in such a state, he felt nothing but pity.
They say grass stains sink in deep, don't they?
Shaking off his wandering thoughts, the physician hurriedly spoke to the trembling Tulia.
“My Lady! Do not try to get up. You must sleep more!”
“The Lady is awake...? My Lady?!”
He saw Adel rushing into the cabana. Due to its design, the cabana used thick fabric instead of a door, and in the brief moment Adel entered, the commotion from outside flooded in.
It was a relief. It seemed not much time had passed.
“How much... time?”
As the physician stood dazed, failing to immediately grasp her question, Adel shoved him aside and answered instantly.
“Ten minutes have passed since you were struck by the arrow and collapsed, My Lady.”
Ten minutes.
Good.
Ten minutes was not enough time for the nobles to have recovered from the shock. There would be far more nobles lingering to see how this unprecedented incident would be resolved than those who had fled in terror from the bloody scene.
A cracked voice escaped Tulia’s lips.
“Put me on a stretcher, Physician.”
“No, where could you possibly go in this—ah! The cabana must be uncomfortable. Yes, it would be much better to return to the castle for treatment.”
“No.”
Tulia grit her teeth as she spoke. Even uttering a few words made her throat feel like it was being shredded. She felt like she might lose consciousness at any moment.
How on earth did the Tulia in the game drink poisoned wine and still manage to laugh?
According to the plot of The Milk Bread, it was a potent poison that caused a sensation like the entire body was being set on fire. But right now, she was that very same "vicious" Tulia.
Which meant she was the only one who could save herself.
Han Ina—no, Tulia—began to brainwash herself.
I am Tulia.
I am Tulia.
I’m the biggest piece of trash in these parts!
Despite the cold sweat pouring down her face like rain, Tulia forced herself to continue.
“Take me back to the hunting grounds.”
“...Pardon?”
“Hurry.”
* * *
Just as Tulia had predicted, not a single noble had left.
Only a few with particularly weak stomachs had requested medicine from a doctor. The event was simply too monumental to walk away from.
Furthermore...
“I’m not brainless! Does this make any sense?! Why would I harm my precious niece in a place crowded with so many people?!”
Viscount Lilius still refused to accept the situation. He appealed to the crowd with every ounce of his being, feigning desperate injustice.
Lilius had been a power player for over ten years, acting as the petty king of the Grand Duchy. Moreover, Lilius Frezier’s reputation was the best among the three siblings of the Grand Ducal House. He was renowned for his good character and warm personality.
However, the Lilius Frezier standing there now was different. Being as clever and sharp as he was, he had already calculated exactly how massive this tidal wave would be and how it would ruin him and his family.
And so...
“Vi—Viscount Lilius!”
While Lisian and the other doctors were preoccupied with the fallen Tulia, Lilius aimed the magic tool bow once more.
The onlookers were dyed in horror. Even Grand Duke Nigella Frezier was visibly shocked this time.
“Lilius! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Brother! There is clearly some wicked trickery at play! I’ve been suspicious ever since the former Marchioness ran away with only Tulia!”
He shouted the one thing that was considered taboo—the very thing people whispered when they mocked Tulia. Lilius’s eyes gleamed with madness as he screamed about the eccentricities of the late Marchioness, the wife of Marquis Aster Frezier.
“They’ve done something to frame me! Even if I fire again, it will surely hit that girl!”
“Stop it, Lilius!”
“Viscount Lilius! Please, stop!”
Twang—!
Despite the pleas to stop, the arrow flew. Ridiculously enough...
Crack.
It split the apple perfectly.
Crack.
Crack.
The two subsequent arrows he fired also hit their marks dead center.
“This... this isn't right...”
Lilius stammered. Just moments ago, the arrow had moved like an eel to strike that brat, Tulia Frezier. So why now? What had changed?
Lilius, shouting his innocence, looked around and flinched. The hunting grounds were no longer noisy. Instead, everyone had fallen silent, as if they were dolls with their mouths sewn shut.
Contempt. Accusation.
He was the worst kind of noble, one who had tried to murder his fifteen-year-old niece by disguising it as a magic tool accident. The sound of his long-built reputation crumbling rang in his ears like a hallucination. Seeing Aubrey’s pale face, Lilius hurriedly shrieked like a madman.
“There’s a problem with the magic tool!”
“Viscount!”
In the meantime, Tulia had been moved to the cabana by Lisian. It had happened in the brief moment Lilius had looked away to plead his case to the nobles.
Lilius looked around frantically.
“Dammit! Where did that girl go?!”
“Lilius! Watch your tongue!”
“But Brother! That thing has turned me into a heinous murderer!”
Currently, Tulia was someone basking in the affection of Grand Duke Asis Frezier. His ambition to inherit the position of Grand Duke, which he had built up all this time, was collapsing in an instant. And it was collapsing in a way he couldn't even comprehend.
Lilius couldn't keep his sanity.
“Fine! You, Sir Knight! Stand over there!”
“Pardon?”
The knight he pointed to was caught off guard.
“Lilius!”
“Brother! Give me one more chance!”
Nigella quickly ran the calculations in his head. Lilius was, regardless, a brother on his side—someone who subtly opposed Marquis Aster Frezier alongside him. To push aside the eldest son, Marquis Aster, and inherit the title of Grand Duke himself, Nigella absolutely needed a strategist like Lilius.
“Fine.”
“Grand Duke!”
Cries of shock erupted from all sides, but the highest-ranking nobles present were these two Frezier brothers. With Grand Duke Asis Frezier away on a territorial inspection, it meant that even though Tulia had been shot, there was no one who could imprison or punish Lilius Frezier.
The mages protested their innocence with all their might, but they knew well that even if they called for support from the Mage Tower, it would be difficult to take a stand against the Frezier Grand Duchy.
“Sir Knight! Stand there, quickly!”
“Ye—yes, Viscount.”
Only the designated knight moved hesitantly to the spot where Tulia had been standing. Lilius, his eyes bloodshot, fired the bow again.
However...
“...?!”
“He hit the apple?!”
“As I thought, then...”
“The Viscount must have targeted Lady Tulia on purpose...”
“How cruel. She’s his own niece...”
A massive murmur swept through the crowd like a wave. Now, even Lilius began to doubt his own hands. Nothing was different from before. So why! Why did it hit Tulia then, but hit the apple perfectly now?!
What was the difference...?
Ah!
“There must be something wrong with Tulia herself!”
Lilius shouted as if he had suddenly reached an epiphany. He cried out with a face full of desperate appeal.
“Everyone, does this make sense?! Why would I shoot my own niece?! What could I possibly gain by harming her in front of so many people—”
“I suppose you intended to kill me while pretending to be as victimized as you are now.”
“...?!”
The voice trembled slightly at the end. But there was no mistaking it. The owner of that voice was none other than...
“Tulia?”
“Lady Tulia?”
Tulia was being carried in on a stretcher. She looked even more like a critical patient than when she had been in her wheelchair.
As if by unspoken agreement, everyone held their breath.