Chapter 13
Chapter 13
13: What happened at the Ball (6)
Count Welton looked at his unconscious son.
His son had just tried to kill the eldest son of the Simon family.
At first, he mistook it for an illusion, but the Sword Master’s eyes didn’t accept that reasoning.
If he hadn’t stopped Jamie, the eldest son of the Simon family would’ve definitely died.
Count Simon felt the same way.
‘Due to his lack of abilities, Alf couldn’t display the Phoenix Wraith’s full potential. Even so, the attack’s power was 4th class, and he was able to block it with just his bare hands.’
The Phoenix Wraith was an experimental artefact he manufactured in his youth. Because it contained pure destruction magic, it had the power to collapse a mansion when fully activated.
As the caster’s level was low, the artefact couldn’t even use half of the power, but that alone was enough to burn the whole ballroom.
‘Amazing! This is amazing! I didn’t know that this was even possible.’
The well-being of his son wasn’t important to him.
In fact, he never even looked at Alf, who had collapsed onto the ground.
Count Simon’s head was filled with one word, ‘9th class’.
“We’ll talk about this later.”
“Yes.”
“Darling!”
Countess Simon approached the Count with anger.
She looked outraged, and with a venomous expression, she glared at Jamie.
“He was trying to harm my son! Are we going to let this go?”
“Say it right. It was Alf who tried to harm him first.”
Sears, who was watching from the side, walked out and denied her words.
“Alf evoked the illusion artefact first, and then he tried to attack my son with that.”
Sears pointed to the Phoenix Wraith that was next to Alf.
“Am I wrong?”
“Alf is still little!”
“Little! Say that once again.”
Sears’ eyes changed.
She approached Countess Simon with a cold expression. At the intimidation, Countess Simon faltered.
Count Welton came and stood in front of Sears.
“This is enough, lady.”
“This started because of what you said, Lady Simon.”
Despite Count Welton being there, Sears didn’t stop.
Whispers began to break.
It was mostly the voices of criticism towards the Countess and Alf.
With a constricted look, Countess Simon looked at her husband.
“D-darling.”
Count Simon stepped forward.
Her expression suddenly brightened.
Despite his disinterest in Alf, they shared the same blood. No matter how harsh he was, he’d definitely be there for his children.
That was what she thought.
“This was a good day, but please excuse my son. I apologize for what happened, Mrs. Welton.”
The words from Count Simon’s mouth shattered her expectations.
She looked at her husband in shock.
Count Simon respectfully apologized to Sears.
“I am at a loss of words.”
Sears’ expression wrinkled at that. What could she do if the man apologized? Jamie did use magic in self-defense, but it was true that he tried to use magic to kill Alf.
Calming herself.
“We accept the apology. We will head back for today.”
“Alright. You should go and rest. This must have been disturbing.”
“… we will head in.”
The Weltons went away.
As they disappeared, the Countess unleashed her anger.
“How could you! He is our son! Son!”
“Shut up.”
“WH-what?”
“There are eyes around. Take that one and go in first.”
“You…”
She looked resentfully at Count Simon, who didn’t even spare them a glance, and disappeared with Alf, who was sitting blankly.
Looking at her eyes, one could feel the sadness and anger of being betrayed by someone she trusted.
Nevertheless, Count Simon didn’t pay any attention to her or their son.
“I am sorry that the ball has turned out like this. I hope everyone heads back and rests for today.”
As he was the ball’s organizer and one of the two heads of the eastern nobles, his words weren’t rejected.
The ball, which was in full swing, ended in an instant.
Everyone witnessed the greatness of that one boy.
“You, how could you do that?! It is our son! It doesn’t matter that he made the first mistake. You should have taken our side!”
Countess Simon yelled at the expressionless Count, but he didn’t listen.
He was staring at his son, Alf, who was trembling in fear.
“You!”
The woman couldn’t stand it and raised her voice.
For the first time, the Count’s expression changed. He frowned as he looked at his wife.
“Be quiet.”
“Ha!”
“I have been very patient. Unless you want to drag this with me, I advise you to back down.”
The Count’s eyes turned cold.
It was a warning not to say anything anymore.
The wife’s spirit collapsed, and she went silent as she knew the Count’s temper.
The Count looked at Alf again.
“Were you trying to get my attention?”
“…”
“Speak.”
“… yes.”
“Didn’t you know that your actions would bring shame to the eastern noble’s head in front of the whole kingdom?”
“… I just.”
“Answer me!”
“I-I don’t know.”
The Count has never been angry with his child.
He didn’t care much, so Alf didn’t know what his father’s angry side was like.
And today, for the first time, his father took an interest in him.
Still, Alf didn’t like this.
It was scary. He was afraid. His father’s first time looking at him was terribly painful.
Alf, who was still young, didn’t understand his father.
“Is this enough? You got your father’s attention.”
“…”
“Why do you think that I was never interested in you?”
“I don, I don’t know.”
“Who gave you the Phoenix Wraith?”
“…”
“I won’t ask my question twice. This is the last time. There won’t be a third.”
“Le-Lenon. Lenon gave it to me.”
“Bring Lenon.”
After a while, Lenon appeared with an attendant.
He looked at his brother with pitiful eyes. He gave him a spoon to eat, but he failed because of his lack of ability.
And now, it was his turn.
Count made Lenon sit next to Alf.
“Did you give your brother the Phoenix Wraith?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t like seeing my brother suffer.”
“Wrong. You just wanted to control your brother, didn’t you?”
Lenon’s eyes widened at the Count’s words.
So was the Countess, she went even more shocked as she saw Lenon’s reaction.
“Le-Lenon, is that true?”
“…”
Lenon didn’t answer.
Since when did his father know about that?
He always showed the image of a good son, so he thought that his father would assume that Lenon was kind to his brother.
Above all, his father, Count Simon, paid no attention to the kids. So he thought that his real intentions would never be known.
He was sure that his father would never know.
Count’s words continued.
“Right. I am not interested in you. Even though you are of my blood, you lack talent.”
“Darling!”
Both Alf and Lenon were gifted with magic.
However, the talent that Count Simon desired was more than that.
“Did you think that I won’t know about you?”
The child was smart.
But looking at the face was all that was needed to know what kids were thinking.
Even now, Lenon and Alf were concerned about how they got caught.
“You want my attention?”
At the Count’s words, the two kids looked at their father with puzzled eyes.
“If you want my attention, prove to me that you hold the blood of the Simon’s. if you try to do such stupid tricks one more time, I won’t even look at you again.”
The brother’s expression turned dark at the word stupid.
Whatever they did, Count Simon knew about it.
Which was why they were being given another chance.
A chance to get their father’s attention.
“I don’t care what you do in the future. But whatever you do, you will be the ones paying for it.”
The Count got up and gave the final order to his sons.
“Go to the Welton’s tomorrow and apologize to Jamie Welton till he forgives you.”
Alf wanted to say no, but he didn’t have the courage.
For the first time, he got to know a little about his father. And realized that everything he did till now was meaningless.
‘Damn it, Do I have to meet him again?’
The fear hadn’t subsided yet.
Rather, every time he thought of Jamie, his body trembled.
What if he decides to kill Alf instead of forgiving him?
Alf couldn’t even think of an answer.
Unlike his older brother, Lenon had little thought about the order to apologize.
He just pondered on what the Count said.
‘Prove that you have the blood of Simon’s.’
That made Lenon’s heart skip a beat.
Sears caressed her son’s cheeks with a sad expression.
She wasn’t sure what happened between the two, but her gentle son tried to use magic with the intent to kill.
That was no illusion. In her life, she had seen many people with that intent. Jamie’s intent to kill was real. It was too blatant for her to dismiss it as an illusion.
What happened to the innocent 7-year-old child?
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
She heard rumors about Alf. And the thing where he was using the second generation eastern nobles as his subordinates. At that time, she thought that it was just an act of a kid trying to play the leader.
However, the Alf she saw was more vicious.
It wasn’t his intention to kill the opponent like Jamie, but if the artefact had been triggered properly, several lives would have been extinguished in the room.
‘If he hadn’t come forward, the damage would have been more.’
It was late to notice.
As Jamie was her kid, she was tilted to him.
And confused about what to do. Should she borrow her title power? If she went out with that title and raged, even the Simon family would back down.
Count Simon apologized, but she didn’t feel like she won.
And thinking, she saw Jamie’s face.
‘… what am I thinking?’
She brushed his emerald hair back.
Then, with the sound of the door opening, Count Welton entered.
“Are you okay?”
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?”
The Count sat next to her and looked at his son.
And asked his wife.
“What do you want me to do?”
“…”
“I will do whatever my wife wants. If I do what I want to, things will get too big.”
Sears looked at her husband.
His eyes were still stained with deep rage. Still, it was different from before. Now, he seemed to have organized his thoughts and kept his emotions under control.
Seeing him, Sears smiled.
“You calmed down.”
“I was afraid that you were more hurt.”
“… enough of that. Count Simon apologized on the spot. And no one was injured.”
“Are you fine with that?”
“I don’t want this issue to cause division in the eastern nobles. Jamie would think the same too. And, it looked like he was confused.”
“Alf? He sure looked like he was terrified. Haha.”
They foolishly smiled at the frightened face of a kid.
“He won’t be able to sleep if you stay right here. Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
One last look at their son, and the couple left the room.
After a while.
Jamie opened his eyes. His head was pounding. Was it because he had Sears giving him love for the last few hours? No, it wasn’t because of that.
‘Jane.’
He thought that it was a forgotten memory.
The eldest daughter of Viscount Balle reminded him of her.
She looked exactly the way Jane looked. The only difference was the hair and eye color.
He knew reincarnation was possible. Wasn’t he himself a result of that?
However, he didn’t know that the woman he loved would also be reincarnated. And the woman didn’t recognize him. Well, Jamie’s face looked different, so it was possible.
Maybe she didn’t have memories of her previous life.
‘Normally, that is the case. I am the special one.’
Was this a joke or some mean fate?
Or someone’s plan?
Jamie frowned. Whose plan?
‘Did they know that I reincarnated and let Jane appear before me?’
He shook his head.
The 12 Gods wouldn’t let him live if they knew that he was back. They knew how big of a threat Jamie was.
In particular, Zenith, that God established his footing in Haiss.
There was one thing Jamie was sure of.
The 12 Gods didn’t know of his existence. So meeting Jane, the eldest daughter, was purely coincidental.
“Phew. My head is a mess.”
He had thrown away the feelings of love. His feelings for her were blurred. But knowing she was dead, he didn’t feel sorry for her.
Kik!
Maybe his master’s feelings reached him. Black suddenly appeared and rubbed itself to Jamie’s cheek.
“Thank you.”
Jamie smiled faintly.
“I need to meet her again.”
Previously, he was too shocked to react, and scared, making him lose control.
He didn’t know that Alf would bring such an artefact. Yes, it wasn’t difficult to cancel it because Alf didn’t even know how to use it.
The problem was what Jamie did. Unable to control himself, he went beyond the limit.
If Count Welton hadn’t stopped him, he would have still been resting.
‘Not a bad thing. As a result, he will curl his tail whenever he sees me in the future.’
Exposed to death.
Alf would realize that Jamie could kill him at any time.
And as he was young, the feelings would be more explicit and will become a trauma.
In the end, he would back down.
He would never appear in the social world, let alone with nobles. Even if he does, his naughty appearance will disappear.
‘I can say that I saved one person.’
Jamie nodded with a satisfied expression.