Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 84
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 84
“The necklace?”
Clarentia echoed back, puzzled, but she grasped the necklace just as Lion had requested.
And then…
Woom.
Faint though it was, the sword’s blade trembled as if responding to the necklace.
“…!”
Lion heard it too, so there was no way Clarentia had missed it.
“I think it would be a good idea to hold it a little closer.”
There was clearly some sort of mechanism on the necklace.
‘Heirlooms aren’t just heirlooms for no reason. It couldn’t have simply disappeared.’
The former family head—
Clarentia’s grandfather, that is—had definitely spirited it away to a safe place.
Ironically enough, that safe place had simply been somewhere other than Bydantis territory.
If it hadn’t been, an insignificant necklace could never have become a marquisate’s heirloom.
And if it responded only to that holy sword, hiding it would have been easy.
Heeding Lion’s words, Clarentia slowly brought the necklace toward the sword.
The vibration grew stronger, until finally even the ornaments on the wall were shaken by the tremor.
And then…
Fwaaah!
Light burst from Clarentia’s hand.
‘Not her hand…’
Looking closely, he saw it was the sword.
A light too brilliant to look upon streamed from the transparent blade and was absorbed into Clarentia’s hand.
As though it were finally disgorging everything it had hoarded all this time.
‘I suspected as much, and sure enough.’
What else could a sword be, that granted power in exchange for stealing something precious from its wielder, but a cursed sword?
And yet to Lion’s eyes, the Bydantis holy sword was classified not as a ‘cursed sword’ but as a ‘holy sword.’
What was especially noteworthy was the fact that it took emotions as ‘collateral’.
That meant if certain conditions were met, it could give them back.
And—
The necklace had been meant to serve that role.
The reason Clarentia’s mother was wearing that necklace was most likely…
‘Because it would be where Marquis Clarentia’s father would return to.’
Only then did Lion grasp the meaning of the place.
Not the Bydantis family head’s chamber.
Clarentia Bydantis.
The ‘place for the necklace’ her mother had in mind was the embrace of the daughter she had raised like gold and jade.
Belated, but at least it had returned to its place now. That was a relief.
Lion allowed himself a faint smile.
He hadn’t grown up feeling his parents’ love very keenly,
but this warmth was something he could recognize here, because he had met so many people who worried about him.
[The true power of the Lost Necklace is being revealed.]
[That which the Bydantis Holy Sword took as collateral is being returned to its original owner.]
Before long, the light and the tremor subsided gradually, and the room fell perfectly quiet once more.
“…”
Clarentia looked deeply astonished.
Her eyes had gone wide, and the glint that had seemed lost had returned to them.
And before much time passed,
moisture gathered along her straight lashes, then soon receded.
Even within that maelstrom of emotion, Clarentia did not weep.
‘She’ll need time.’
Because those years, those blood-and-tear-soaked years, would not simply vanish.
That was why she still could not allow herself to cry freely.
Perhaps it would take those years—or even longer—for the raw flesh of her emotions to grow back over her wounds and for them to heal.
Even so, a scar would surely remain.
And she would have to live on, bearing that scar.
It was like homework she had to work through alone.
And also the price for killing her enemy.
‘A little harsh, I suppose.’
But it had already happened, so nothing could be done. The fact that she had recovered even this much was simply fortunate.
In any case.
“Congratulations, Lady Marquis.”
The years had been cruel, but today, at least, was a day to raise a toast.
Lion wholeheartedly congratulated the Marquis of Bydantis on her recovery.
[You have placed the ‘Lost Necklace’ in its original place!]
-Returning emotions to one who had been worn away (Complete)
[The necklace’s original owner is thanking you.]
[Congratulations! You have guided a person’s life toward the light.]
[You have cleared the ‘Lost Necklace’ quest!]
Multiple notifications appeared before his eyes.
The one that caught his attention most was the one about the original owner thanking him.
‘It was nothing.’
Lion silently paid his respects to Clarentia’s mother in his heart.
If she had been watching over all of this from the underworld, unable to rest peacefully, how heartbroken she must have been.
‘Still, guided a life toward the light?’
It wasn’t even that big a deal—wasn’t it described a bit too grandiosely?
[Acquiring reward.]
[You have acquired a Gift Box.]
[Please confirm your reward in a safe location.]
A neatly wrapped gift box dropped into his inventory.
‘A safe location, though?’
This hidden quest apparently did give an important item, just as expected.
Lion closed out his inventory and all the notifications.
That gift box, he would open once he got back home.
* * *
“…”
Having apparently more or less calmed the rush of lost emotions swirling inside her head, Clarentia slowly opened her eyes.
The surging feelings had mostly subsided, but in their place, many thoughts had risen to the surface.
The first thing that came to her was self-reproach.
‘I can’t believe how calculating I’ve become.’
After becoming family head—
no, ever since she had executed her own brother with her own hands, Clarentia’s heart must have begun to freeze over.
From then on, Clarentia used any means necessary to protect her house and her people,
whether that meant being calculating or cruel,
or even destroying herself in the process. She did not care.
Attending Lion Asteri’s coming-of-age ceremony had been for that same reason.
Whatever their past, the House of Asteri now commanded wealth and power greater even than the imperial court.
And that wasn’t all: they also had the prestige of having defeated the demons alongside the Hero.
So much so that no one would dare lay a hand on Asteri.
So she went.
She judged that it was better to join hands with the prestigious mage family of Asteri than to remain bound by the empty title of a sword mastery family.
And so she took note of the one who seemed the most pliable.
Coincidentally, she also had a plausible excuse: clothing.
Using the new clothes as a medium, she formed a shallow acquaintance.
And then, as it happened. That man was sucked into the labyrinth.
She did find it regrettable.
She thought that his brother, Rickshel Asteri, going pale, showed that the brothers shared a fine fraternal bond.
How different from the brothers of my own family, who fought bloody battles for the seat of family head.
She did help.
After all, it was not a difficult thing to do.
But ‘We have to save someone in
danger!’—it was not that kind of feeling.
‘I was meticulously calculating.’
Thinking that if she saddled him with a debt like this, it might come in useful someday.
And at the same time, to observe and learn how this prestigious mage family handled a crisis.
‘But this man…’
Pure goodwill. That was all it was.
Honestly, she hadn’t believed it until just before they stopped at the dwarf village.
There were certainly people with warm hearts.
But a noble—
especially a high-ranking noble—could not possibly act solely because it was the right thing to do. Of that, she had been certain.
Because she herself had been the same.
Hadn’t she learned it the hard way in her naive youth?
That the reward for trusting someone was nothing but betrayal.
‘But—’
Lion Asteri was not like that.
He thought of his friend before anything else.
For the sake of a dwarf named ‘Mudu’—who was simply a blacksmith—he thawed the heart of the dwarf village chief and rekindled the passion of their family and relatives.
Even if one argued he did it with an eye toward her, it was a result that couldn’t have been achieved without sincerity.
Besides, he had no need to be mindful of her.
The debt had already been more than repaid, in full, by the family head, Petrick Asteri.
It didn’t seem as if Lion had come without knowing that.
No, in fact, it seemed he had come more at ease because of it.
He had clearly acted purely as his heart led him.
Because that was the kind of person he was.
Now she understood.
If he had intended to use the necklace, he would have come straight to the castle without stopping anywhere else.
And had he himself not been the first to discover the necklace’s true worth?
He could have kept silent about it.
If he had tried to use the necklace to extract something, he could have gained an enormous amount.
What’s more, if that man had not told her, she would have had to live the rest of her life having eternally forgotten and lost something precious as the price for using the holy sword.
In any case, the prestigious mage family and the sword mastery family were rivals in the eyes of the world.
So he could have seized upon that weakness and exploited it.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seemed to know how.
‘He didn’t even need to go out of his way to make and serve those sweet yet bitter chocolates…’
The bittersweet aftertaste of the chocolate lingered in her mouth.
It had slowly, little by little, awakened her.
Clarentia clutched the necklace so tightly that its texture was sharp against her palm.
That man…
Lion had genuinely wanted to comfort her.
For her one instance of calculated goodwill, that man had returned it a hundredfold. No, a thousandfold.
Out of sheer compassion.
“I am ashamed.”
She was merely ashamed that she had approached Lion Asteri, who had helped her, with calculation.
She did not know how she could ever repay this kindness.
At the same time, she wished to keep him here.
It was selfish, but she felt that if that man were to stay, perhaps the Bydantis territory might grow a little warmer.
“Lion Asteri.”
Then, in her usual measured voice, she called out to Lion.
“Yes.”
“How much longer do you plan to stay at Bydantis Castle?”
“Ah, now that I’ve delivered the necklace, I ought to be returning soon.”
Lion answered frankly, then paused for a moment.
“…Is that so?”
Clarentia’s expression seemed somewhat…
‘Huh? Wait, is this…’
Lion had seen that expression somewhere before.
Wasn’t that… the look a university professor got, or a battalion sergeant major, when they were trying to convince you to reenlist?
An alarm sensor went off in Lion’s head.
If he gave the wrong answer here, he might end up suffering for it.
On top of that, Lion had too much to do back home as well.
He had to go open the reward, he had to plant the moonflowers inside the labyrinth… and make the walking trails, too!
“Perhaps you might consider staying a little longer…”
Just as Lion was racking his brains for how to politely refuse the Marquis of Bydantis’s offer,
“My lady!”
the door suddenly burst open and a rescuer appeared.
It was Jasper, the head butler.
“Oh, my lady! Are you all right? How is your body? You haven’t fallen, or struck something, have you?”
Normally a timid butler who only tiptoed around Clarentia’s might and barely managed to say what needed to be said, he had now come running faster than anyone and was anxiously checking her over.
His eyes were full of worry.
“…”
Noticing this, Clarentia too seemed to forget what she was about to say, and she closed her mouth.
“Lady Marquis. I well understand the meaning of what you were saying, but I think there is something you have been forgetting.”
Lion watched the scene with a smile and discreetly stepped away.
He could feel the storm of emotions she had barely laid to rest stirring back to life inside her.
Her grip tightened further on the hand holding the necklace.
‘I have been a fool.’
To Clarentia, her servants had merely been people she had to protect.
And so she had lived believing she must never crumble, and that any show of weakness was forbidden.
To the point of near obsession, she had refused to lean on them in the slightest.
But now…
Looking at it now.
Clarentia gazed at the open door.
Through the gap, other attendants and maids were peering in at her with anxious faces.
‘They had been protecting me, too.’
Each in their own place.
She had thought she had no family left.
…It seemed that wasn’t the case.