MFBO 21

Chapter – 21

“Your back’s been turned into a complete rag.”

Razet’s back was a mess.

The skin, torn to shreds, was flushed red all over. Dark, dried blood clung to the long gashes running across it. Just looking at it made my own back—finally starting to heal—throb as if it were being torn open again.

“You haven’t been applying medicine all this time?”

I gently traced the scars that looked as though they had split and healed on their own. Razet’s back muscles twitched beneath my fingers.

“It’s too hard to put it on by myself, so I gave up.”

That explained why, despite having medicine, his back was covered in scars.

“That must’ve hurt.”

With no choice but to endure it, Razet must have been forcing himself to bear all that pain.

“I should break the wrists of whoever did this to you.”

At my muttering, Razet flinched and turned to look at me.

“Don’t move. I need to put the medicine on.”

“Sis… you’ve changed all of a sudden.”

He hit the mark out of nowhere.

“That dream, you know…”

Razet dragged out his words. For some reason, I tensed.

“You said you changed your mind after having that dream where I kill you, right?”

“Uh… yeah. That’s right.”

“Why do you think you suddenly had that dream?”

Why was he digging this far?

“Why?”

I swallowed hard. I tried to lift the corners of my stiff mouth into a smile. Calm down. Stay calm.

“No reason. It just felt strange.”

“Strange things happen all the time. Dreams are reflections of the subconscious, right? Maybe my subconscious was afraid of you.”

I said it lightly, as if joking. When I brushed it off like that, Razet hummed softly.

“A reflection of the subconscious…”

Please don’t ask anymore. I hoped Razet wouldn’t sense anything off. He wasn’t suspecting that I wasn’t Rizen, was he?

“That could be.”

Tracing the uneven scars with my fingertips, I glanced at the back of his head, as if checking his mood.

“What kind of dream did you have?”

Razet hesitated, then shook his head.

I didn’t press him further. Did he dream of killing me? No—probably not. He didn’t hate me that much yet. Probably.

The most likely dream was one where he escaped this count’s estate.

That wasn’t my intention, but I wondered if today’s events had eased his heart just a little.

Even so, I didn’t ask recklessly.

While he applied medicine to my back and I applied medicine to his, Razet neither lashed out nor mocked me.

And maybe—just maybe—his frozen heart had thawed, if only a tiny bit.

“Ah, Amy, it hurts. Be gentle. Please, gently…”

Clutching my pillow tightly, I trembled in fear.

The wounds from the shattered glass had reopened because of my carelessness. I’d gotten up without thinking, tripped, and hurt my back again. Of all things, I’d scraped it against the floor, tearing the wounds wider.

So I had to apply medicine frequently.

‘Razet needs medicine too.’

Clenching my teeth, I braced myself for the pain to come, thinking I’d go apply it for him later. I was the type who crumbled easily in the face of pain.

“Miss.”

Amy called me in a deliberately firm voice.

“Did you really fall?”

She didn’t believe my story about falling. She seemed to think someone had laid a hand on me. But who would dare? There was no one in this estate with the nerve to touch me.

And this really was an accident.

“Why? Are you worried now, all of a sudden?”

Amy had once defied me, but that was in the past. She must have reflected on it in her own way, so I planned to let it slide.

My question wasn’t sarcasm—it was genuine curiosity.

“If someone really did this to me, wouldn’t that be good for you? You don’t like me, do you?”

Amy fell silent, at a loss for words. Leaving her to her thoughts, I thought of Razet.

When I woke up, he was already gone.

He’d been by my side before I fell asleep, but it seemed he’d returned to his room while I slept.

“Enough. Just apply the medicine.”

That was when a visitor arrived.

“Rizen, that child said—”

The count burst into the room, then stopped mid-sentence. His shaken gaze landed on my back. I immediately knew who “that child” referred to.

So Razet had told him after all.

It was just an accident. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. That was why I’d kept the maids—including Amy—quiet.

Since Amy had been with me the whole time, the only one who could’ve told the count was Razet.

“…So it’s true.”

The count stared at me as though he’d discovered something shocking, or like someone who’d just been struck from behind. His eyes wouldn’t leave my back.

Standing there with my injured back fully exposed, I suddenly felt awkward. Amy tried to cover me with a blanket, but it was already too late.

“Why are you so surprised?”

I looked at him calmly.

“It’s not like you beat me.”

“…What?”

“You’ve done this to that child over and over again. Compared to that, this is just a minor injury.”

“…Rizen.”

“There’s no need to react like this now.”

A heavy silence followed. Amy, glancing nervously between us, hurriedly fixed my clothes, pulling the dress back over my shoulders.

Staring straight at the count, I asked,

“Have you been punishing him this whole time?”

“……”

“All I can think is that your aide punished him in that cabin.”

Had Razet been in that cabin yesterday because he was being punished?

The count was busy. Managing the territory, pushing forward his businesses—he wouldn’t have the time to personally punish Razet. Which meant his aide was the most likely culprit.

“I’ll rephrase the question.”

“……”

“Were those punishments the aide’s decision alone?”

I still had a sliver of hope.

No matter how twisted the count had become, I wanted to believe that punishing Razet was the aide’s doing alone. Maybe I was just hoping for that.

After all, the person I’d have to deal with long-term was the count, not the aide. I wanted to believe he wasn’t that utterly vile.

But the count chose silence.

“You really haven’t changed at all.”

“……”

His expression answered everything. He’d ordered it himself.

“Do you want me to die?”

“What kind of nonsense is that?!”

The count snapped, as if struck at his core.

“When Calib is hurt, it hurts me more than if I were injured myself—body and soul. If Calib dies, I might die too.”

“…You—!”

“So never touch Calib again.”

Threatening with my own life was despicable. But the count had already crossed the line. I had no intention of considering the feelings of someone who treated people like livestock.

“Are you threatening me now? Rizen, I did my best. Everything I did was for you—”

I didn’t want to hear his long justification. I cut him off.

“Was that for me too?”

“…What are you talking about?”

“That day. The day Mother followed Calib into death.”

It wasn’t my memory, but it was still unbearable to face.

If only this story had appeared in the original novel—I might have been prepared.

I recalled the wounds that never appeared in the original story.

It was a bright day.

A day so clear it could make even someone who wanted to die want to live. A refreshing breeze blew, lifting spirits for no reason at all.

That day, Rizen went to see her mother.

“Mother… I—I’m hurt…”

After Calib died, everything changed. Her parents turned away from her.

Rizen suffered nightmares daily. Even awake, she cried and agonized constantly.

Calib’s death was an accident. But everyone blamed Rizen. She blamed herself too. Still, she sought her parents’ embrace.

They had once been warm parents.

Strict, perhaps, but always thinking of Rizen.

She hadn’t been showered with affection compared to her younger sibling, but she didn’t mind that.

Rizen just wanted to feel her parents’ love again—even if it was less than before, even just a little. Knowing it was shameless, she still followed her instincts.

When Rizen was hurt or sick, her parents paid more attention than usual.

So she hurt herself.

And then she went to the countess’s room.

There, she found her mother’s cold, lifeless body.

Countess Bistor.

Why was her mother hanging there in the air? The young Rizen couldn’t understand. She couldn’t scream. She just stood there, mouth agape, frozen. She wanted to say something, but it felt as though someone was strangling her throat.

Soon, screams rang out. Servants who discovered the body rushed past Rizen, sometimes knocking into her. She fell backward, watching as her mother’s body was lowered from the air.

A white cloth covered her mother’s face, and then the body passed her by.

“F-Father… what… what is this…? Why is Mother…”

The count arrived late. Rizen ran to him like someone finding salvation. But he slapped her across the face.

You killed your sibling and your mother.

Silence.

Just like now.

He hadn’t said much, yet even a fourteen-year-old could read his face, unguarded as it was.

“Do you know what kind of expression you wear when you look at me?”

“Enough.”

The count turned to leave, as if he already knew what I was about to say.

I despised him. Hated him. Rizen’s emotions and mine blended together.

“You killed them.”

I spoke quickly, afraid he’d escape. The count froze as if his ankle had been grabbed.

“You killed your sibling and your wife. So live in misery yourself.”

“……”

“That’s what it looks like you’re saying.”

The count knew why Rizen became dependent on drugs. He had to know. After that day, she stopped seeking her parents and sought medicine instead.

“If you feel even a shred of guilt… if you don’t plan on taking the Bistor name from me… then leave Calib alone.”

He wouldn’t abandon me. If he were capable of that, he would’ve discarded Rizen long ago.

He couldn’t throw her away—but couldn’t love her either. He wanted her alive, even if she broke.

A twisted, tangled relationship.

“Also—fire that aide.”

The count, his face pale as if being strangled, wiped his face with trembling hands.

He turned and left the room, his voice small, fragile, almost extinguished.

“…All right. I will.”

Guilt was a powerful weapon.