Episode 137

The commotion caused by the monster came to an end with the duke’s arrival.

“What? A monster?”

Upon hearing the full story, he turned his cold gaze toward Marquis Tebron.

“You said you were here just to visit a friend, didn’t you?”

At the duke’s sharp question, Marquis Tebron averted his eyes.

Still, perhaps regaining some composure after the monster disappeared, he struggled to sit up and leaned against the bed.

The duke addressed the marquis with a calm yet firm tone.

“Please recount everything that happened before you came to the capital.”

“……”

“If you refuse, you may return to your estate. I won’t tolerate any more disturbances in my house.”

“How dare you…!”

The marquis, who had been keeping his mouth shut, seemed quite offended and shouted with a flushed face.

“Fine! I’ll leave right away, so don’t worry! Do you think I have nowhere else to go? I’ll pack my things immediately…!”

“Um…!”

As the atmosphere grew tense, I hurriedly stepped between them.

Both the duke and the marquis turned to look at me simultaneously.

‘Yikes.’

Feeling a bit intimidated, I mustered up the courage to speak.

“Marquis, how about treating your foot before continuing this discussion?”

The marquis’s foot was in a terrible state, likely due to the monster’s attack.

The wounds were bleeding profusely and looked quite severe at a glance.

Upon hearing my words, the duke’s brow furrowed even deeper.

Encouraged by this, I awkwardly smiled and pointed to another matter.

“And those caterpillars too.”

“Hmm?”

“They’re too creepy and scary, Duke…”

Feigning fear with a slightly playful tone, I prompted the duke to act.

“…Remove them immediately. We need to send them to the temple, so try to keep them alive if possible.”

“Yes, sir!”

A couple of servants rushed in and carefully swept the caterpillars into glass jars.

Meanwhile, the arriving knights drew their swords and stood guard.

However, the green caterpillars didn’t transform back into monsters or attack anyone.

‘Why do these monsters now look like ordinary caterpillars?’

I tilted my head, observing the monsters—or rather, what used to be monsters—being placed into the glass jars.

Being unfamiliar with monsters, I couldn’t quite grasp what happens to them when exposed to divine power.

One thing was certain: they didn’t die but lost their aggression.

Moreover, their appearance became less grotesque.

They now resembled real insects one might find in nature.

‘I’ll have to ask Edwin when he returns.’

As I was pondering this,

“And also.”

The duke, surveying the now tidy room, added,

“Butler. Send a message to the Marquis of Barelotte immediately.”

“Excuse me? Why the Marquis of Barelotte…?”

“If he’s so eager to see her, we should call her, shouldn’t we?”

The duke added, glancing back at Marquis Tebron.

“Ask if we can invite Diana, saying we’ll make a donation.”

“Ahem!”

Marquis Tebron coughed awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable.

But the duke was merciless.

“By the way, the donation will be charged to the Tebron estate. Please be aware.”

“D-Donation? What are you talking about…?”

“Didn’t you know? To receive healing from a Saintess candidate, you must pay a hefty donation.”

“……”

Whether he truly didn’t know or not, the marquis’s face darkened with gloom.

It seemed that, being from the distant southern region, he was out of touch with such news from the capital.

“Still, considering our past relationship, I won’t charge you a donation for Belze’s help.”

At those words, the marquis snapped his head up sharply.

“Donation, my foot! Why should I pay you anything!”

“Didn’t you receive Belze’s help in destroying the monster?”

“T-That was…!”

Lost for words, the marquis stammered for a moment before bursting into a shout.

“She barged in on her own and destroyed it! Why are you making me pay for something I never asked for!”

“Think of it however you like. In any case, once you receive healing from Diana, please leave the ducal estate.”

The duke issued his command so coldly that even the bystanders flinched.

The marquis clamped his mouth shut, his face burning red.

He had no choice but to accept the command, but being humiliated in front of so many people must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Honestly, I also felt a bit wronged by the marquis’s words.

‘Barged in… seriously…’

If I hadn’t rushed in, not only Grandpa Gordon but also everyone nearby would have been attacked by the monster.

And yet, despite feeling indignant, when I saw the marquis fumbling silently, his lips quivering without a word, I felt… oddly sympathetic.

‘…Maybe because he has the same hair color as Joshua?’

Even though it was shocking to see him seek Diana over me in this life…

From my memories of my past life, he had been rather affectionate toward his grandchildren.

Despite his poor relationship with the duke, he made the long journey every year to mourn Joshua’s death.

He spared no expense in supporting Edwin.

Moreover, when the ducal house was on the verge of collapse, it was the marquis who, despite his old age, came up to the capital and fought hardest for them.

 

“Damn it. Marquis Tebron keeps dragging up promises made with the late emperor to interfere…”

“He’s probably the one who helped the young duke escape too.”

“Should we send another assassination squad?”

As I recalled the conversation between the Second Prince and his subordinate that I had overheard in the imperial palace prison in my past life, I calmed my turbulent emotions.

“I’ll just heal him, Duke.”

I took a step closer between them and spoke.

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

But the duke immediately cut me off like a blade.

“You already exhausted yourself dealing with the monster. What if you collapse again, bleeding from the nose?”

At that, my face flushed a little.

Because that had happened seven years ago.

‘I haven’t collapsed like that even once since then…!’

I pouted and protested.

“I’m perfectly fine now. And… he’s bleeding a lot. Diana might not even come…”

Of course, the chance of that happening was slim.

My instincts told me she would come running the moment she was summoned, probably even offering healing without asking for donations.

After the pecan pie incident seven years ago, she had been banned from setting foot in the ducal estate.

Recalling that, I raised my voice a little more clearly.

“I heard the donations these days are ridiculously expensive too. It’s just a waste of money.”

“No need to worry. After all, the marquis will be footing the bill. Jackson, just sprinkle some hemostatic powder on him for now.”

The duke motioned with his chin toward Jackson, who was standing stiffly.

“Huh? Y-Yes, sir!”

Startled, Jackson, who had been supporting Grandpa Gordon, hurriedly rummaged through his bag.

The duke then added nonchalantly to the trembling Marquis Tebron, who was shaking from humiliation and anger.

“And we’ll be billing you separately for the hemostatic powder too.”

“Liam Kallios, you bastard! How dare you! How dare you treat me like this?!”

“Take this opportunity to learn something. In Kallios territory, we don’t associate with those who turn to Saintess candidates sponsored by other families rather than the one we officially support, Lady Belze.”

“Ugh…”

“If you prefer, I can arrange for your belongings to be moved over to the Marquisate of Barelotte…”

“There were circumstances! I had no choice!”

It happened then.

Marquis Tebron cut the duke off with a thunderous roar.

“Do you think I wanted to drag my sick, dying body all the way to this damn place?!”

With a deeply aggrieved look, he finally burst like a dam breaking, spilling everything that had happened.

What he had gone through a few months earlier was roughly like this:

In his territory, several children had been kidnapped from a village.

The marquis had mobilized knights and searched the entire territory, but both the children and the kidnappers had vanished without a trace.

Then he received a report that, a few days before the kidnapping, two suspicious men in black robes had been spotted setting up camp deep in the forest far from the village.

Convinced they were the culprits, the marquis personally led the knights into the forest, where they engaged in a fierce battle.

“Those bastards… they used strange dark arts. They summoned a magic circle that glowed with violet light.”

My ears perked up at that.

‘A magic circle glowing with violet light…’

It was black magic, the same kind Logan used.

After a fierce battle, one of the two men was killed, and the other was captured alive.

Thankfully, the children trapped in their hideout were rescued unharmed.

However, during the fight, the marquis had injured his left foot.

“At first, I thought it was just a scratch, nothing serious.”

But the wound, though small, refused to heal and festered over time.

No matter how skilled the doctors he sought around the territory were, it was no use.

Day by day, the marquis suffered worsening pain until finally, he recalled the captive kidnapper and interrogated him for a way to heal the wound.

“And that bastard said it was a kind of curse. Only someone with overwhelming divine power could cure it.”

“……”

“And there’s only one person like that in all of Erea…”