TPTM 41

Chapter 41

“…….”

Silence fell.

Just for a moment.

By the time I was momentarily at a loss for words at the level of rebellion he showed, Leon took a step closer and let out a short laugh.

“Not only is it annoying that I had to rush to come to my true nature, but of all people, you’re the one meeting me.”

His gaze was utterly full of disgust.

“On top of that, all this nonsense about your big-brother act. Stop pretending—you’re about to throw up everything you’re feeling anyway.”

The young man, taller than me by a head, looked terrifying as he scowled with a hatred that seemed to reach his bones.

So, I decided to just smile.

“Got it.”

“……What?”

When I said I didn’t want to pretend, he didn’t forget to switch to informal speech.

“Hi, Leon.”

“What are you doing right now… ha.”

Leon scanned me up and down with eyes full of disbelief.

Why.

You just told me not to pretend, you bastard!

…Even though I wanted to shout that, I just ended up laughing.

Because if I laughed, he couldn’t hit me for being annoying.

‘……He probably won’t, right?’

I pressed down my desire to step back and clasped my hands together.

Unconsciously, my hands trembled a little.

For the briefest moment, it felt like Leon Frasier’s eyes had swept over my hands.

“Disgusting.”

Leon Frasier muttered a curse under his breath, then spun and strode toward the castle.

A few of his attendants hurriedly followed behind him.

“L-Leon!”

Perhaps surprised that the brat would just leave like that, Lissian, who had been watching me curiously all along, raised his voice.

Leon shouted back.

“Come on in too! Pretending won’t do anything but ruin your mood!”

As Leon Frasier stormed into the castle, silence instantly filled the space.

I forced my face to smile, my lips twitching.

Inside, though…

‘What a dog of a guy.’

I cursed Leon Frasier in my mind.

Yeah, well…

<The Bread Game> is like that.

Normally, when Corico first starts, the noble Frasier family is cold, so you struggle a little.

But that’s about it.

Even just picking the right words would make the nobles open up to the heroine quickly.

But me?

Even a few words and it feels like I’m opening the gates of hell. Damn it.

Suddenly, I felt the location of Tullia even more acutely.

But I can’t cry. Because in front of me, there’s another potential romantic target.

“Brother Lissian.”

His silvery hair, bright under the sun, swayed as he turned toward me.

“Do you prefer informal speech too?”

Lissian Frasier’s eyes were a fresh spring-like green.

Why does Tullia feel poisonous with the same green, while he feels like a clean sprout?

‘Officially, it must be because he has a good personality.’

Lissian Frasier slowly opened his mouth.

“You can… call me… however you feel… comfortable.”

An angelic appearance.

The true male lead, essential for the genuine ending of <The Bread Game> and the reason Corico enters this ducal house.

He suffered from a stammer.

“Yeah. Lissian. It’s been a while, nice to see you.”

He was the only male lead who held no hostility toward Tullia.

“Miss Tullia, you’ve returned.”

“Yes. Lunch….”

I couldn’t finish my sentence and coughed, and the deputy steward’s expression showed concern.

“I suppose exposure to the cold wind wasn’t good; your cough seems to have worsened. Please wait, Miss. I will summon the physician immediately.”

“Mm.”

My head maid, Adel, was away, and though the deputy steward couldn’t be seen, he tactfully didn’t ask anything further.

Perhaps this was already calculated by Lecq Kelposher when he assigned people.

‘He said he felt guilty toward Adel.’

I didn’t know what kind of guilt, but he seemed like a good older brother for now.

I wanted to probe their relationship further, but my head felt hotter than before, so I lay on the bed and pulled the blanket over me.

As I curled up under the blanket like yesterday and the day before, a familiar sound came.

Cling!

[System] Coin acquired!

It seemed coins came whenever I started caring for my ailing body.

I laughed out loud.

Though my body was weak, so the sound was faint.

Then a thought struck me.

Could my cold, which had almost healed, have worsened because I caught a cold wind?

As I cared for my ailing body, more coins came.

“So….”

If I kept being sick but took care of myself moderately, wouldn’t coins accumulate naturally?

I could deposit them into the Benefit Bank and gradually raise my stats later…

Sigh.

I exhaled.

Not a self-harming extortionist, and yet I had become this much of a coin bird…

‘Let’s not become that much of a human wreck….’

I postponed that as an absolute last resort and closed my eyes.

Perhaps I was secretly excited by the comfort and protection my grandfather provided.

The hatred and disgust from meeting ‘brothers’ again after so long were unpleasantly noticeable.

But I’d get used to it in a day.

People quickly become numb to things they experience repeatedly.

As always.

“…Miss….”

“Take… your medicine….”

“…Your fever is… high…”

When I vaguely woke up, the physician and deputy steward were busy checking my condition.

My head felt like a burning mass, clearly very feverish.

Even so, bitter medicine was entering my mouth, and a cold compress was carefully placed on my forehead.

Even with my eyes closed, I could feel the thick feather blanket and the warm heat from the stove.

That’s right.

No one had done this for me before, had they?

Cling!
Cling!

So now, being Tullia was much better.

I faintly heard the coin sound and slowly closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep.

“The other day, there was some commotion with Tullia, wasn’t there?”

The next morning.

The dining table was decorated brightly with flowers and greenery.

Among the busy but quietly moving servants, Lilius spoke.

The younger twin of the marquis family.

Leon Frasier answered in a neutral tone.

“It wasn’t much, little uncle.”

“Tullia, that must have provoked your temper again.”

A thorny voice came sharply from Aubrey.

Even the twins, who had been staring absentmindedly at champagne in their glasses, shifted their gaze simultaneously.

“Madam.”

Lilius cautioned in a low voice.

Meanwhile, Aubrey, who had lost a lot of weight, now had a sharp jaw and gaunt cheeks, no longer radiating the elegance she once had.

Leon Frasier looked away appropriately.

He had already heard about Aubrey’s precious son, Tedric.

He was said to have been expelled after angering grandfather.

But why the place Tedric was expelled to was originally the castle where Tullia lived was unknown.

‘Actually, it was said to be an abandoned warehouse shaped like a castle.’

Both Lissian and Leon Frasier only learned this after arriving here.

“But, darling!”

Even with Lilius’s mediation, Aubrey showed no sign of stopping.

“Tullia has come, yet she only causes family disputes! She clearly hasn’t learned anything…!”

“D-Dispute, I-I haven’t…”

Then, Lissian’s voice shifted Aubrey’s furious gaze.

His bloodshot eyes held aggression that spared no one.

“What did you say?”

“I haven’t caused a dispute, little aunt.”

In place of his elder brother, Leon Frasier’s somewhat rough voice rang clearly through the dining room.

Lissian Frasier and Leon Frasier both inherited their father, Marquis Aster Frasier’s, tall stature.

Lissian Frasier, with angelic looks and a pure white aura, however…

Had the major flaw of a stammer.

Because of this, despite his tall frame, broad shoulders, and toned muscles, there was something that made him seem slightly less imposing.

Leon Frasier, however, was a bit different.

Even sturdier than his elder brother.

His dark hair gave him a more raw and somewhat cruel aura.

Once angry, he looked like the type to twist someone’s jaw sharply.

“…….”

When Leon Frasier’s eyes locked onto Aubrey, she finally averted her gaze.

“…I see. This little aunt must have misunderstood.”

Normally, Aubrey would never have touched these twins, especially Leon Frasier.

But recently, she had been living a nightmare.

Her hostility toward Tullia had boiled red-hot like a blood feud.

Moreover, everyone in the Frasier Duchy knew that the twins’ relationship with Tullia was at its worst.

Suppressing her anger, Aubrey muttered.

“Tullia that woman doesn’t know her place. You’re very understanding for putting up with it…”

“Huh? Little aunt?”

For a moment, Aubrey’s words trailed off.

Everyone at the dining table, including the busy servants, paused to look at the person entering.

Pink hair, elegantly styled as if touched by palace maids.

Eyes a strange pale green.

Perhaps because of the lifted corners of her eyes, Tullia Frasier, though smiling brightly, had an edge that made one wary.

Especially to Aubrey.

‘That insane woman!’

To Aubrey, she looked like a monster intent on devouring both herself and Tedric whole.

“It seems it’s been a while since we last met……”

Since Marquis Aster Frasier left, Tullia Frasier had never sat at a dining table with the twins.

She walked straight toward the table, smiling brightly.

“Were you talking badly about me? Again?”