Chapter 217: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (10)
Chapter 217: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (10)
It had been a long time since I’d sat down for a drink alone with another man.
In fact, it was rare for any man to even step foot in my room. The last visitor had been a male student whose face I’d caved in for knocking on my door in the middle of the night not too long ago.
Thinking back on it now, those were fond memories.
I wondered if that student had recovered well at the temple.
I was a bit worried he might have run into trouble during the demonic beast attack. Or, perhaps he was perfectly fine and had become one of those people badmouthing the Princess.
Regardless, that student hadn't entered my room of his own free will, nor had he received a polite reception.
Reto was the only man who had ever visited my room as a guest and been offered a drink.
And now, an utterly unexpected name was being added to that list.
Lupin Lainella.
A man who usually maintained a dainty appearance to uphold his aristocratic dignity was now sitting before me in a rare state of squalor.
His disheveled hair and the lingering scent of smoke were striking.
He looked as if he had just crawled out of a literal fire.
Including that detail, we had much to discuss. I pulled a bottle of the cheap whiskey I always drank from the cupboard and poured it into a glass.
Glug, glug. The glass filled, and a pungent alcoholic aroma wafted through the air.
The moment he caught a whiff of it, Lupin’s face contorted in a grimace.
"…What is this? This cheap swill. Don't you have anything more high-end?"
Should I just punch him?
For a split second, I seriously considered it, but I made a conscious effort to suppress my inner violence.
I already knew Lupin was a rude brat. Moreover, he was the younger brother whom my precious comrade, Senior Elsie, cherished deeply. I could tolerate him a few times.
Yes, just a few times.
I sincerely hoped Lupin wouldn't exhaust all those chances before the day was out.
"That’s a pretty bold demand for someone who showed up unannounced."
"Unannounced? Ha… this is all because of you! Because of you, my sister is…!"
Lupin started to show signs of another outburst.
I quickly handed him the glass before he could start foaming at the mouth.
Fortunately, it seemed Lupin hadn't become so agitated that he’d completely forgotten his noble decorum.
With a dissatisfied expression, he clinked his glass against mine. Then came the scent of whiskey, burning its way down his throat.
"Kaaah." I exhaled a heated breath and turned my gaze toward Lupin.
He took a sip, then immediately stuck his tongue out in disgust.
It seemed the cheap whiskey didn't suit his palate.
Or perhaps he just wasn't much of a drinker to begin with.
Either way, alcohol was merely a lubricant for conversation. I took the opportunity to press him.
"Look, don't just get angry. Tell me the details. That way I’ll know what I did wrong… or if I even need to apologize."
"You said it, you piece of trash! Listen closely to exactly what sins you’ve committed against my sister!"
Whether the alcohol was already hitting him or not, Lupin shouted with even more indignation.
To summarize the long-winded explanation that followed, it went something like this:
Ultimately, the problem traced back to the day Senior Elsie and I first crossed paths.
That day, Senior Elsie suffered an unexpected and crushing defeat at my hands. Not only did she endure humiliation and shame, but a nasty rumor began to spread as well.
It was the rumor about her being a "bedwetter."
According to Senior Elsie’s claims, at least, this was nothing more than a ridiculous slander. But really, who would honestly confess to a junior that they’d pissed themselves?
When the truth becomes obscured, the public usually accepts whatever version they find most entertaining as the reality.
At the time, Senior Elsie’s reputation was at its lowest. The "truth" the Academy members wanted was anything that could drag her down further.
It was also the reason her marriage prospects were nearly ruined.
No matter how much the era claimed equality between men and women, the world still imposed a heavier burden of "purity" on women. This was even more true for a noble lady.
Pissing herself because of some random man?
At a glance, it might seem like a minor, humorous incident, but the moment it began to circulate among the picky gossips of high society, the story changed.
What should have ended as a moment of embarrassment instantly transformed into a permanent stain on her character.
Of course, a single incident like that wouldn't fatally shake one's position in the marriage market. However, Senior Elsie had a long history of "incidents."
Her cruel and violent temperament was a glaring flaw.
Given her exceptional skills, any average groom would clearly be destined to become a victim of domestic violence.
And then came the absurd news that she had been humiliated by the second son of a rural viscount family.
Count Lainella made an immediate decision.
He would marry Senior Elsie off before she could cause any more trouble and her value in the marriage market dropped even further.
The Count’s efforts finally bore fruit recently.
Senior Elsie’s fiancé was decided, and worried that she might cause another scene in the meantime, Count Lainella decided to rush the engagement.
Thus, the knights of the Lainella family were scheduled to arrive tomorrow to take Senior Elsie away. That was the gist of Lupin’s lengthy explanation.
"Hmm," a heavy groan escaped my lips.
It was a forced engagement. And since Count Lainella was in a hurry, he likely hadn't had the luxury of choosing a proper match.
Images of tragic heroines from various stories flashed through my mind.
An unhappy fate where one is sold off into an engagement with an incompetent, older, or ill-tempered man they don't even love.
I couldn't just sit idly by and let that happen to Senior Elsie.
I looked at Lupin with a serious expression and asked, "So, what about this fiancé? Is he old, or violent, or incompetent…?"
"No? He’s a young master from a prestigious family, handsome, with a bright future."
Count Lainella was more competent than I’d imagined.
The moment I heard Lupin’s words, my momentum completely fizzled out. I even poured another drink and gulped it down to soothe the hollow feeling.
If that was the case, it wasn't even my business to begin with.
No matter what anyone said, I was an outsider to the Lainella family. No matter how close I was to Senior Elsie, that reality didn't change.
"Then what’s the problem? It’s not like it’s rare for noble families to marry off their children like commodities… and the match sounds decent enough."
"You… you still don't get the problem?!"
His face now flushed from the alcohol, Lupin slammed his fist on the table in anger.
"She’s being forced into it! My sister was bawling her eyes out! Look! Look at this! I tried to comfort her and got scorched for my trouble!"
Lupin spread his arms, proudly displaying his pathetic, singed appearance.
I had to swallow a hollow laugh at the absurdity.
"But what can you do? It’s the unavoidable fate of being born a noble. You get sold off for the sake of the family as the price for living a better life than everyone else until now."
My words pointed out the most common-sense perspective.
In noble society, the family comes before everything else. A life of luxury as a noble child was only sustainable because of the family's prestige.
Senior Elsie would have been the same.
And now was the time to pay the price.
To be honest, my stomach felt a bit churned, but I tried my best to feign composure.
However, that common-sense argument only served to infuriate Lupin further.
"…The family?"
The emotion contained in that choked-out voice was unsettling.
At that single word, smoldering with heat, my hand tilted the glass and then froze. Lupin’s blue eyes were burning fiercely.
It was a density of emotion incomparable to anything he’d shown so far.
Only anger and hatred concentrated over a long period could possess such a hue.
"What has the family… ever done for us…?"
It was a fundamental question.
Something so taken for granted that it was actually difficult to explain.
My head, already buzzed from the alcohol, wasn't working properly. The only answer I could stammer out was a cliché.
"Well, uh… you know. Food and shelter? Things like that."
"Our parents… they never gave us anything…!"
The words were spat out through gritted teeth.
Surely the family hadn't failed to feed or house them. But the rage Lupin was showing now was enough to suggest he had been outright abused by the Lainella family.
Soaked in drink, Lupin began to pour out his true feelings.
"To our parents, we were just dogs in a fighting pit… They threw us in and waited to see which dog would come out the strongest. Do you have any idea how miserable it was growing up?"
His voice was taking on an increasingly intense color. Violent pain swirled in his bloodshot eyes.
"Whenever they were bored, we were dragged out and beaten! For no reason, just because it was fun! And if I told our parents? They’d scold the culprit once and that was it… and then I’d get beaten even more cruelly in retaliation. There were times they even made me fight the pet dogs… I begged them so hard to stop!"
I couldn't say a word in the face of this sudden storm of overflowing emotion.
I simply poured more whiskey into Lupin’s now-empty glass.
In place of the tears he should have shed.
"Back then… back then, the only one who protected me was Elsie. She fought those huge dogs in my place. At first, she’d get bitten and bleed everywhere, and the older brother who ordered the fight would be the one to freak out. Heh, heh… but do you know what’s funny? By the time the knights arrived much later, Elsie had already strangled the dog to death."
Lupin let out a sound that was somewhere between a sob and a laugh. Thud. His head slumped onto the table.
Only then did I cautiously try to stop him.
"Lupin, you’re too drunk. You should head back…"
"We finally became free!"
Shouting at the top of his lungs, Lupin downed the whiskey in his glass in one go. The sharp scent of alcohol wafted off him.
"And now we have to go back to that family? Even though they did nothing for us, now that we’ve become 'excellent fighting dogs,' they want to sell us off for a good price?!"
I couldn't find any words to answer that desperate voice.
With a sigh, I sank back into my chair. As I tilted my glass, a fire burned inside me.
It was probably just the alcohol.
"I… I can't do anything… I’m weaker than my sister, so I just have to get struck by lightning and keep my mouth shut…."
Lupin’s head dropped weakly onto the table again.
He was out of his mind.
That was why he could speak his unvarnished truth.
"But you’re different. You… you’re stronger than my sister…."
That was the only reason Lupin had bothered to seek me out.
I must have been the only person he could think of. Even in the entire Academy, there were few who could persuade Senior Elsie.
Weeping and falling into a deep sleep, Lupin murmured pathetically.
"Lainella's fate is decided by Lainella? What does that have to do with any of you…?"
‘Lainella's fate is decided by Lainella.’
It was likely the motto of the Lainella family. A cliché phrase that every noble house seemed to have.
Lupin groaned even in his sleep, as if the words themselves were painful.
I drank in silence for a while. Just until I finished the last of the whiskey in the bottle.
"…Acting tough when you can't even hold your liquor."
With a grunt, I stood up and tossed Lupin onto my bed.
Since I had no interest in sleeping with another man, I had to try and get some rest on the small sofa. Even as I drifted into a cramped sleep, I wondered.
What exactly did Senior Elsie want?
My drunken consciousness faded into a hazy darkness.
And the next day, when I finally regained my senses.
"…Stop."
In front of the Lainella family knights who had come to collect Senior Elsie, I was uttering those very words, reeking of alcohol.
"Take your hands off Senior Elsie."
I really didn't want to be doing this.
A sigh escaped my lips of its own accord.