Chapter 135
Chapter 135
I looked back briefly to see that Alicia and Ria were giggling together.
The awkwardness they felt towards each other dissipated in an instant, and they were now sitting down on the grass, making flower necklaces.
Diana, who also looked behind her, murmured worriedly.
“Is it truly alright, Milady? I don’t think it’s very courteous for Ria to…”
“It’s fine. Besides, I’m the one who asked for it. Well, there’s nothing to worry about. By the way, are you really feeling alright now?”
“Of course. In the first place, only my arm was hurt.”
“Sure, the same arm that was on the verge of being rendered useless.”
Clamping her lips shut, Diana couldn’t say anything back.
Smiling, I turned my head again and pretended I didn’t see that.
Soon enough, we arrived at Logan’s clinic, and when we knocked on the door lightly, Logan and Zobel rose from their seats to greet us.
“Welcome, Your Ladyship.”
Logan nodded slightly as a greeting, while Zobel greeted us with a big smile.
It’s funny how different this pair of teacher and student were.
I took a look around the room and immediately got straight to the point.
“How is everyone doing?”
The hunting festival was absolutely hectic, but it was not completely without any yielded results.
Thanks to the pouch being tightly tied to my waist back then, I was able to bring back a portion of the antlers even amid the commotion. I handed it over to Logan the moment I got back home.
Of course, it was for the sake of creating Cassion’s rapid development pill.
As soon as I asked, Logan pulled out a drawer and rummaged through it.
Soon, he took out a small container from deep inside the drawer.
“It just so happens that I finished one earlier today.”
Clack.
When I opened the container, a single, huge, round pill was contained within it.
“Just one?”
“We don’t need a lot of the same medicine anyway, so we’ve focused our attention on making each one with great care and attention. The next pill will be completed in a week.”
Well, that makes sense.
Cassion and Diana will be the only ones who’ll take this medicine anyway.
It’s effective after taking even just one of it, so they don’t need to take it like a constant supplement.
And since only a small number was needed, it’s better to make each one carefully.
Nodding, I closed the container and put it into my pocket.
No, I was about to put it in.
“Are you not going to take it?”
I had to pause when Logan asked.
“Huh? Me?”
“Yes, you, Your Ladyship.”
He nodded as well, and I answered immediately.
“Well, I don’t think I need to take it.”
“But wouldn’t you rather take one anyway? There was that fiasco at the hunting festival, and you’ve got a target on your back now.”
Or perhaps, a target was contrived in that way.
He added the last part with a murmur.
I looked at him quietly and smiled.
Good grief, he really is Blanca’s right-hand man.
He’s as outspoken as she was.
And quick-witted as well.
His insinuation was clear.
I was being blamed for the incident that happened during the hunting festival, so someone might get back at me.
No, even before that.
He’s saying that someone might have already been targeting me before the incident itself, and had been planning to pin it on me from the start.
Logan and I faced each other calmly.
It was Diana and Zobel who were rather surprised. As they listened to the conversation, their eyes grew wide for a moment.
With her eyes as wide as saucers, Diana spoke.
“Mister Logan.”
Diana’s voice carried a warning tone, and Logan glanced at her once before he spoke to me again.
“I apologize if I overstepped. Still, I was worried.”
“Worried?”
“Yes. If Your Ladyship gets hurt, there are many people who will be affected.”
As soon as Logan said this, a few faces flashed in my mind.
Alicia, Diana. Brother and the duke.
Zobel, the Riddle family. Blanca and Logan.
And, Cassion.
“Don’t run away. Don’t die. Don’t go… please.”
“I know that I’m being selfish, but now, I… I can’t imagine a life without you.”
There, at the cave during the hunting festival. His voice as he was pleading to me echoed in my mind.
I found myself laughing in vain.
I had long since decided to live a long, uncomplicated and boring life. Yet now, I realize just how many people my presence had taken root in.
Hah. Seriously.
Even if I say that I’d rather run away, I don’t think I can anymore.
My chest throbbed for no reason.
At the very spot where I, as Rita in the third transmigration, had been stabbed.
Stabbed, just to escape from Urien.
Even so, it strangely didn’t feel unpleasant.
This goddamn sense of responsibility wasn’t all that detestable after all.
Despite knowing that these ties would, at the end of the day, serve as my weakness…
I didn’t feel regretful about it.
“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t get hurt.”
And, I also don’t want anyone else to get hurt.
If anything or anyone would come to threaten me, I’ll tear them all to shreds.
Even if it’s a part of the past that’s been strangling me all this time.
Or.
Even if it’s a shocking truth that I would have to face someday in the future.
Urien, Rita, transmigration, God, sacred relic.
Numerous words flitted through my mind but disappeared in an instant.
All that remained in my clear head was calmness and tranquility.
* * *
A few days had passed since then.
In the meantime, I checked Rosetta’s diary day and night, but I could glean no other words except for the single mention of ‘transmigration’ and the other spaced out words.
It seemed like those were the only clues I’d be able to get from this diary.
‘I think I need to investigate the connection between my transmigration and the sacred relic after my birthday.’
I might be able to find more clues after I’m allowed to go to the secret library.
Regarding Urien, I had decided to put off thinking about how to deal with him for later.
The current situation was akin to a cold war.
Urien must be terribly fatigued right now, considering how many blue monsters he summoned.
On the other hand, I couldn’t move around freely because of the rumors.
So, yes. For the time being, this cold war would continue until my birthday.
Leo and Daniel.
Those two were the likeliest suspects, but if I let my judgment be too clouded with my suspicions, it might bite me in the back later.
Of course, I had those two men investigated through Blanca.
I asked her about two things: Did either of those two start acting strangely this year? Or, did they act in any suspicious manner before or after the hunting festival?
That’s all that I could do right now.
As I was lost in thought, the clattering of tableware echoed amid the space.
And because my knife went astray for a moment, the sharp sound it made reverberated even louder.
Raising my head, I looked around.
The hands of the three people who I was dining together with stopped, and they all looked at me in unison.
The duke. Damian. Alicia.
Two weeks and five days had passed since the hunting festival.
At long last, the duke and Damian were able to come back home, and we were having dinner as a family tonight.
All of them looked at me with their golden eyes. I felt a bit more awkward for no reason.
When I nodded slightly, I began to focus on my meal again.
Sitting next to me, Alicia whispered furtively.
“It’s not like you to make a mistake like that… Sister, are you alright?”
Instead of answering, I nodded once more towards her and casually went back to my meal. At this, Alicia hesitated a little before she picked up her knife and fork again.
It was such an awkward dinner.
* * *
After a while, the stiflingly awkward, silent meal ended. The plates in front of them were taken away, and what replaced them were teacups.
“Rosetta, your coming-of-age birthday is soon.”
The topic was brought up out of nowhere.
Even though he said nothing until now, it was the duke who said this. His voice sounded as calm as usual.
However, only his outward appearance seemed calm. Just like how he was during the hunting festival.
“Yes, it will be soon.”
Just as he said, my coming-of-age was less than a month away.
“Right. How would you like your banquet to be held?”
Damian joined the conversation with a smile.
His attitude was also not that much different from how he had been before the hunting festival.
Still, it was obvious that they knew I was at the center of the hunting festival controversy.
Rumors were rampant everywhere, and the duke himself even defended me directly at the state meeting of the nobles.
At least, that’s what Blanca told me.
But here he was, bringing up my birthday so casually.
I rubbed the pad of my finger, feeling quite peculiar.
As my answer was delayed, the entire dining hall was blanketed with heavy silence for a moment.
“I just… want to let my birthday pass.”
Exactly like the sharp sound my knife made against my plate earlier, my words were particularly loud amidst this silence.
“Sister…!”
“What?”
Alicia and Damian spoke at the same time.
Both of them spoke in such unusual tones.
Besides that, Damian’s straight brows became furrowed.
Letting out a shallow sigh, he soon spoke again as if to persuade me.
“What do you mean by that? It’s not even an ordinary birthday—it’s your coming-of-age.”
There’s a good reason for him to emphasize that particular detail.
Coming-of-age celebrations were particularly meaningful when it came to the empire’s three duchy.
It’s the day that a descendant of a duchy would be given the chance to try and become the master of their respective sacred relics.
Therefore, it’s been customary for a long time now that every family member of the duchies would celebrate their coming-of-age birthdays splendidly and grandly.
Well, except for House Freesia, who took their characteristic traits of piety and frugality seriously.
Anyway, that’s not going to change my mind.
I glanced towards the duke, who was staring at me quietly, then I made eye contact with Damian.
With the right flutter of the eyelashes, and with just enough hesitance in this smile of mine, I watched as Damian reacted with slight panic.
Acting accordingly, I opened my lips to speak in a weak tone.
“I’m sure you know about it, too… That there are such rumors about me spreading.”
Again, the heavy silence weighed on the air around us.
“Even if we throw a banquet, it would just be a spectacle. It’ll serve only as fuel for those rumors.”
I looked at Damian with a troubled expression, then I dropped my head and chewed on my lower lip.
“But—”
He tried to say something, but he couldn’t continue.
Because someone else spoke up and cut him off.
“Rumors? What rumors?”
It was Alicia.
Everyone’s eyes turned quickly towards her, surprised that she was acting uncharacteristically. However, as her pupils trembled, she did not pay any attention to this.
“Rumors about Sister… What… Just what kind of rumors are they?”
She just wanted someone, anyone, to answer her question.
Her pale fingertips grabbed my elbow.
Her grip was enough to convey just how desperate she was feeling.