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Chapter – 19
“Eek!”
“You dare bring this to me and call it a meal?! Are you trying to mock me?!”
“Y-Young Master…”
Crash!
With Jekiel’s furious shout, the dishes the maid had brought were flung onto the floor.
On the tray had been mushroom soup, roasted lamb, and charcoal-grilled herring, all prepared to look appetizing.
But to Jekiel, it looked like dog food meant to ridicule his injury.
“You’re looking down on me too, aren’t you? You’re laughing at me!”
“N-No, Young Master… ahh!”
The maid wrung her hands and bowed repeatedly, but Jekiel, consumed by rage, grabbed a nearby pitcher and dumped the water over her.
Soaked like a drowned rat, the maid hurriedly gathered the scattered dishes and spilled food with her bare hands, desperate to escape his wrath.
“Get out at once! I can’t stand the sight of you!”
“Yes, y-yes…!”
Though the mess remained, the maid fled in a panic.
Watching her retreating figure, Jekiel’s expression hardened even further.
“She should’ve cleaned it all before leaving! Damn it—she must be looking down on me too!”
He glared at the mess he himself had made before irritably pulling the blanket over his head.
He had barely moved, yet his lower back throbbed painfully again.
“Damn it… how did I end up like this…?”
Jekiel ground his teeth.
Fortunately, he had not died at the hands of the Black Golem and had survived thanks to healing magic.
However, due to his back injury, he had been told he would need to recuperate at home for several months.
Healing magic did not necessarily mean a complete physical recovery.
“Damn it! What kind of disgrace is this?!”
Just in case, he had asked Jules Hildeht to use healing power on him, but he had been coldly refused.
Jekiel’s muscles had healed in a twisted state. To restore them properly, they would need to be gradually repositioned using small amounts of healing power every day.
It did not require great healing strength, so it was usually a treatment performed by lower-tier healers.
Jules Hildeht was a man who pursued his own interests to the extreme.
There was no way he would stoop to doing work meant for low-level healers.
“Father is truly too much! Aren’t I the most valuable child in this family?!”
Having only ever seen Jules Hildeht’s gentle side, Jekiel felt this rejection deeply unfair.
“I’m the one who’s supposed to become the next head of the Hildeht family…!”
His grinding teeth suddenly stopped.
“Wait… isn’t that wench Eleanor about to take the examination?”
Jekiel had stolen Eleanor’s talent to reach his current position.
If Eleanor were allowed to take the healer’s examination without interference, all of that deception might be exposed.
“Don’t tell me… Father intends to make that girl the head of the family?!”
Jules had no such intention. In fact, he did not even know of Eleanor’s talent.
But to Jekiel, who had just been rejected for the first time, the possibility felt very real.
Jules Hildeht discovers Eleanor’s talent and pushes Jekiel aside.
At that thought, Jekiel’s eyes flew open, and he abruptly tried to sit up in bed.
“Ugh!”
A sharp pain shot through his back again.
He had moved too much; his muscles twisted painfully once more.
Unable to move further, yet unable to quell his anger, Jekiel continued grinding his teeth—
Click.
“Jekiel.”
“M-Mother!”
The door opened, and Jennifer entered gracefully.
She wore a crimson dress, her hair elegantly pinned up, subtly accentuating the graceful line from her neck to her collarbone.
“You caused quite a commotion.”
“That maid was mocking me!”
“Calm yourself, Jekiel.”
Lifting her skirt slightly, Jennifer sat at the edge of his bed.
She looked at his brown hair and eyes.
He was her first son, one who strongly resembled her in appearance. She had wanted to give him everything.
Her plans had all been perfect—so how had things come to this?
“What will you do if that wench takes the healer’s exam? The subjugation unit is purely merit-based! I’ll be pushed out!”
“….”
Jennifer looked into her son’s frenzied eyes.
He still did not know how to endure hardship with composure.
To her, he was endlessly fragile and lovable. And so she intended to personally remove his trials for him.
“As you said, a letter has arrived stating that Eleanor will retake the healer’s examination.”
“Then it’s true!”
Fear flickered in Jekiel’s eyes, but Jennifer shook her head.
“There will be no retest.”
“With me out of commission, there’s already a shortage of healers. The initiation test site was destroyed, so they can’t accept young healers for a while. And yet those old fools are refusing a retest?”
“She has been registered as a mid-level healer.”
“What?”
Jekiel’s eyes widened further. Had his mother gone mad?
“Mother, are you siding with that girl now?”
“Calm yourself, my son.”
Jennifer tightly clasped his hand.
“A mid-level healer can be assigned to an operation alone, can they not?”
“…Yes.”
“If, by misfortune, a dangerous monster were to appear during an operation she is assigned to alone… what do you think would happen?”
Jennifer spoke as calmly as if discussing dinner.
Jekiel was not foolish enough to miss the implication.
“She would… die, wouldn’t she?”
Greed flickered in his brown eyes, and a smile curved his well-shaped lips—so like Jennifer’s.
He understood her meaning.
“Jekiel. Lower yourself for now. There will be countless opportunities below to tear that girl apart.”
“Mother…!”
“You need only concern yourself with how you appear. Leave the dirty work to me.”
“Mother, I was short-sighted.”
“That’s understandable. What matters is the result.”
Jennifer narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Soon, Trisha will officially become the Representative of the God as well, so there is no need to be impatient.”
A Representative of the God could only be confirmed upon receiving a divine revelation on an appointed day.
Yet Jennifer spoke as though Trisha had already received it.
Jekiel did not question this at all.
“I was impatient, Mother.”
“It’s all right. Just be careful from now on.”
“When Trisha becomes the Representative of the God, she’ll firmly support me, won’t she?”
“Why wouldn’t she?”
Jennifer smiled. Trisha was the child who had inherited her blood most strongly.
“So rest comfortably. Soon, that girl will receive her very first solo mission—one perfectly suited to her.”
“Forgive me for being a son who cannot match your foresight. I will strive harder.”
Mother and son exchanged dark smiles.
A sinister gleam filled their eyes.
“Mid-level healer, huh.”
Eleanor lay on her bed and opened the letter Laura had brought her.
“So Mother has made her move.”
“Madam did?”
“Yes.”
Tearing the letter in half, Eleanor explained.
“At the council, they likely didn’t want to test my healing abilities separately. If the results were excellent, it would prove there was a flaw in their examination system—something they wouldn’t welcome. But because they had to consider the prestigious Hildeht family of healers, they probably agreed to a retest.”
Eleanor smiled.
They were old men who had once agreed to sacrifice her to the demon realm, caring only for preserving themselves.
“But conveniently, the Hildeht family made an offer. Suggesting it would be better to compromise by registering me as a mid-level healer.”
For ordinary people not born into the Hildeht bloodline, one typically became a lower-level healer between sixteen and twenty.
Eleanor was eighteen. By simple calculation, her rank matched her age.
But considering she was a daughter of the Hildeht family, it was different.
“Isn’t that too low?” Laura pointed out.
She was right.
Children of the Hildeht family typically achieved at least one rank higher than commoners.
Yet Eleanor’s face was filled with a smile despite the clear slight.
“That makes it better for them.”
Everything was unfolding as she had predicted.
If the exam had failed to recognize a genius, the entire testing system might have to be revised. But if it had failed to recognize someone ordinary, it could be dismissed as a minor incident.
“And Mother must be pleased as well.”
From mid-level healer onward, one was treated as a formal knight and could be sent on solo missions.
Eleanor could almost see through Jennifer’s thoughts.
There was no way she would allow Jekiel to lie bedridden while Eleanor thrived.
But Eleanor was not afraid of Jennifer’s shallow schemes.
“You’re truly amazing, my lady,” Laura said.
Eleanor half-opened her eyes.
“Why?”
“You can see through the entire situation just from one letter. I suppose I chose the right person to align myself with.”
“Well…”
Eleanor gave a bitter smile as she thought of her past.
Back then, she had seen everything unfolding before her eyes, yet had understood nothing.
No—she had not even wanted to understand.
She had believed that if she lived kindly enough, her family—and God—would watch over her.
“Perhaps that’s what happens when you give up expecting anything.”
“Expecting?”
Laura blinked.
Eleanor looked at her steadily.
After a moment’s hesitation, Laura clenched both fists and suddenly blurted out,
“D-Do you have no expectations of me either?”
“Hm?”
“I know! Until recently, I did pretend not to know you… that’s true…”
Muttering in a small voice, Laura squeezed her eyes shut and raised her voice again.
“But someday, I’ll work hard enough to become a maid you can truly trust!”
“Is that necessary?”
“Pardon?”
“I wouldn’t mind even if you were a spy.”
Most of what Eleanor did was beyond Laura’s awareness anyway.
And even if Laura reported things to someone, it would hardly matter.
But Laura seemed to take her words in an entirely different direction.
“Someday, I’ll make it so you can trust me completely!”
“…?”
“I, Laura, never let go once I set a goal!”
It seemed she had somehow ignited the girl’s competitive spirit.
Not wanting to get entangled in something troublesome, Eleanor changed the subject.
“Let’s get up.”
“Where are you going today?”
“The Three-Eyed Golem Cave.”
“Again?”
Laura looked frightened, but Eleanor had no intention of stopping.
Today, she planned to finalize her deal with the King of the Three-Eyed Golems—Kauther.
