Chapter 31: It’s My Blood.

I hadn’t done much at the end of the day. It should not have been me who was thanked.

“I didn’t do much,” I softly mumbled in reply, to which Gloria sneakily smiled. Then she turned her body and easily lifted Ailette into her arms.

“Ailette.”

At her aged voice, Ailette turned her head.

“Don’t blame yourself for not speaking up earlier. I’ve made the same mistake even knowing the pain my husband, children, and grandchildren have gone through because of this curse.”

Gloria’s smile dimmed.

“If you thought that we left you behind, I want to reply that that was never the case. It was my delusion that living with your mother would make you happier than staying by our side that cursed you… Since when Zen was alive, Melin treasured you quite a bit.”

“M-Miss Gloria.”

“Yes, my baby.”

Gloria patted her on the back before carefully moving her hand to touch the child’s cheek. Then, with her wrinkly index finger, she wiped away the child’s tears.

“I will make certain that they pay a heavy price for fearlessly touching a precious child of the Lapileon family.”

As if swallowing the resentment from what had happened in the past, Ailette, who had been close to tears, reached out to Gloria’s neck and pulled her in for a tight hug. Sunlight shone through the window above them.

“Ailette.”

Ailette nodded her head.

“I want to adopt you under Finn. Would you be okay with that?”

Ailette, who had her head buried in her neck, slowly lifted it. Although I wanted to take her and spend time with her so she got better, I was someone who would disappear in one year. For the child herself, it’d be best for her to go not with me but with someone from the Lapileon family. Ailette turned to stare at Finneas. At the innocent child’s gaze turning to him, Finneas smiled gently.

“Spending so much time alone made me lonely.”

“…”

“If you could become my daughter, nothing else could make me happier.”

At Finneas’ gentle tone of voice, Ailette’s lips trembled. Sniffling, Ailette took this as permission and carefully grabbed Finneas’ hand. Finneas, who held Ailette’s tiny hand, mumbled with a teary expression.

“Ailette, I will use all of my medical knowledge to ensure that not a single scar remains on your body.”

At that moment, the knights of the Grand Duchy that Theodore had called arrived in the sitting room. Theodore and the guards secretly took the man and Melin into the basement prison of a separate building so that the other employees of the house wouldn’t know. Compared to when they entered the sitting room, the two people were dragged out in a completely different state. Gloria hugged Ailette and walked towards the window so she wouldn’t see her parents one more time.

“The weather outside is nice.”

“The sun is high in the sky today, Miss Gloria.”

“Yes, Finn… Then, since it’s rare for us all to gather like this, let’s have some tea in the garden as well as talk about future plans. What do you think? Ailette, do you want to?”

“…Yes!”

Ailette smiled brightly for the first time, her eyes still red.

* * *

The sunlight was warm and the flowers were fragrant, making what happened just earlier seem pale in comparison.

“Ailette, do you want to go see the pretty butterfly over there? Let us take some sandwiches so that it is like a picnic,” Finneas said.

“O-Okay!”

“Selphi, you should come too.”

“A picnic in the garden? Do you think I’m some young kid? But since the sandwiches are heavy, there’s no other way. I’ll carry this.”

Finneas purposely led them to a far place in the garden so that we could have a conversation where the young Ailette and Selphius couldn’t hear. Since Ailette’s feet hurt, Finneas carried her in his arms. It must have felt awkward for Aieltte, so she kept smiling.

‘Will this be okay?’

I couldn’t stop watching the three of them move further away, stretching my neck out more to see. Then, Sercia placed some walnut tarts on my plate and said calmly, “It’s okay. Uncle has a lot of experience treating children who have experienced traumatic things. We received a lot of help from him too.”

Children who have experienced traumatic things—this meant that what Ailette had gone through was something that several within the Lapileon family had experienced.

‘Oh yeah, Sercia and Theodore also experienced something similar when they were younger…’

What if this was also part of the curse on the Lapileon family? I looked at my complicated expression in the reflection of the tea.

“Anyway, we can’t let them easily die.”

I was brought out of my daze by a murderous voice, raising my head in surprise. As our eyes met, Sercia smiled gently, as if nothing had happened. But even that was a brief moment. Her smile vanished as soon as she turned her head. She ground her teeth.

“Let’s confine them in prison for a week and whip them, and then release them in the Forest of Beasts. Let’s kill them after they feel the pain from their flesh being cut into and the fear of being chased by beasts.”

“Ailette suffered for several years; would one week be enough? Not to mention, it’d be better to cut their flesh off from the whippings before releasing them into the Forest of Beasts. That way the hungry beasts will smell their blood and chase them.”

“Theo, you’ve still got it. Good idea.”

“Shut up, Sercia.”

Even at Theodore’s curt words, Sercia gave him a thumbs up.

“Anyway, Theo, you didn’t actually feed him your blood earlier, right? It would be unfortunate if he died so easily.”

“I didn’t. I just wanted him to feel the fear.”

Gloria, relaxedly drinking tea in between the two as they bickered, nodded her head.

“Good idea. Then can I leave the aftermath with you two?”

“Does cleaning bugs require two people? I’ll just do it.”

“Okay, Seci, then I’ll leave it to you. It must be because I’m old, but I’m not like I used to be. If I were younger, I would’ve cut their necks on the spot.”

It was now that I understood why Finneas had taken the young Finneas and Selphius to a faraway place.

‘We can’t let children listen to this kind of conversation.’

I felt chills down my spine. The thought that no matter what, I shouldn’t make the Lapileon family my enemy came to mind.

“We need to confirm how far news of our family’s curse has spread. Based on that woman’s words, they lied and said the blood was poison while selling it, and they didn’t reveal the family’s secret. However, it’d be best to be sure.”

Theodore’s eyes glinted with murderous intent.

“Good idea, Theo. However, they are unlikely to speak openly about the curse for fear of repercussions. If they did, I would have already heard… But like you said, it’s best to be sure, so investigate it.”

“Then after we whip them and get the truth out of them, and before we leave them in the Forest of Beasts, let’s cut their tongues out. Someone who shoots their mouth off once will do it again.”

“There’s nothing as effective as the classic methods.”

To think they had a conversation about killing and torturing someone in such an elegant and calm manner. Watching the three people made a bead of sweat drip down my spine.

‘No matter what happens let’s not make the Lapileon family an enemy.’

Seeing the goosebumps on my neck and arm, I gulped in anxiousness.

“Oh, it came to mind after talks about the confession. What happened to the criminal we arrested during the parade? Theo, Miss Pershati?”

“…You saw?”

“Of course. Since I would be able to see the parade of my grandson and the face of the Grand Duchess, Miss Pershati, all at once, I watched from afar.”

Heok, so she had been observing the parade. When I turned my gaze to Gloria, my eyes met her head-on.

“You waved your hand well then.”

Shit! She really saw! I wanted to go hide somewhere. I hunched forward with flushed cheeks and grumbled.

“You should have come to the residence.”

“I still have some sense, even though I’m old. What would I do, stepping in between you two, who have only recently begun your married life? I have no plans on interrupting your honeymoon phase.”

“P-Pardon?”

Honeymoon phase? W-We aren’t in that kind of phase! However, Gloria smiled brightly, as if saying that it was okay to be flustered.

“It’s fine. It’s normal for you to be passionate with disregard for time and place in your honeymoon phase.

I said it’s not! I couldn’t even deny it, grabbing my red cheeks in embarrassment to cool them down when Theodore muttered lowly.

“He died.”

“Huh?”

Died? Who died? Why did they die? No, not why. That’s not it. With curious expressions, the three of us all looked at Theodore. It was only then that he opened his mouth to speak.

“He’s the criminal who tried to poison the Grand Duchess…”

Bang!

“Where is he, that bastard?”

Sercia slammed the table with her palm and stood up. Theodore’s teacup flipped. The tablecloth got soaked, and it even dripped onto the grass, to which Theodore spoke.

“The person who tried to poison the Grand Duchess and interrupted the parade is a member of the rebel forces.”

Theodore’s red eyes flared with lunacy.

“He’s dead.”

“…!”

What? Dead? My jaw dropped in surprise. No way…

“Theodore, you didn’t kill him, did you?”

At my question, Theodore shook his head.

“He committed suicide.”

Then, Theodore took a small pill the size of a knuckle out of his pocket. The outside was clear and wrapped in a thin coating, and the inside was filled with a sloshing red fluid.

“He had three of these with him. It was so small that it wasn’t found when we searched him. The fluid inside must be poison, for he died as soon as he ate it.”

“…”

“I think this is the poison you ate that time. The fact that he had this means that he was planning on dying if he was caught in the first place.”

I frowned and stared at the small pill on the table.

“The fact that he didn’t leave tracks while running away after a long chase shows that the group of rebel forces are more systematic than we thought.”

Theodore muttered under his breath as he tugged at his cravat, which was too tight around his throat.

“There was a lot we could have gotten from him before he died, tsk. Since we lost the lead, there will be much more to do.”

‘So that group of rebel forces tried to kill Theodore.’

That man had definitely tried to kill Grand Duke Lapileon at the parade. In that case, the poison in the food was probably intended to kill Theodore as well.

“It’d be good to be careful,” I said, worried, to which Theodore confidently shrugged.

“No matter how strong the poison is, it can’t kill me. And there’s no one who can beat me at swordsmanship, either.”

Oh right, poison wasn’t effective on him. At times like this, I wondered if it was a good thing that he was cursed.

“Yeah, Sasha. Theo will do fine on his own, so worry more about yourself than him. Someone might try to poison the food to kill Theo again.”

Sercia stared at me with a worried expression. It seemed that she was more worried and cared more about me than her own younger sibling. I smiled and nodded my head. From far away, I saw Finneas, Ailette in his arms, and Selphius holding the basket, approaching the table.

“Did you finish your conversation? It seems Ailette is sleepy now that she’s relaxed a bit. If it’s okay, can I go back to the bedroom first and put Ailette to sleep?”

Ailette, within Finneas’ arms, was blinking her eyes in exhaustion. Watching her like that was so lovely that it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.

“Sure, since it’s the children’s job to eat and sleep well.”

After Gloria nodded, Ailette yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes. Then, looking atop the table, she said, “Huh?” softly.

“What’s that doing there?”

Ailette pointed her finger. What the child was pointing at were the small pills Theodore had placed on the table. Theodore tilted his head.

“Do you know what this is?”

At Theodore’s question, Ailette nodded her head without hesitation. Then she smiled brightly before speaking.

“That’s my blood that Step-Dad was selling.”