🔊 TTS Settings
CHAPTER 11
The guards stationed outside hurried in after him, flustered. But since the intruder was Elforten, no one dared to actively stop him.
“How dare you humiliate me?!”
Elforten, his face bruised, glared at me as he huffed with rage. Startled, Luna stepped in front of me, trying to shield me.
I looked at Luna’s small back before rising from my seat. Luna was technically older than me, but that was just a number.
In an empire with a strict class system, age didn’t matter—Luna could never protect someone of higher status like me.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I heard you went to Father. You told him to send me as His Highness’s conversation partner instead?”
“Yeah. You seemed eager to go in my place.”
“Don’t act so proud just because you’re entering the palace first. Do you think His Highness would be happy to have some girl chatting with him? You’re nothing but a useless disgrace to our family.”
Elforten glared at me like he wanted to tear me apart.
But I wasn’t afraid. Luna had once told me that Elforten had hated Elufe since childhood.
So I’d long decided I had no reason to act nice around him.
“Barging into a lady’s room without knocking—isn’t that lacking the dignity a noble should have? If we’re talking disgrace, wouldn’t that be you, Brother, who hasn’t even mastered basic manners?”
Elforten reflexively raised his hand toward me.
According to the maid who combed my hair, his violent habits were infamous in the mansion. Still, he had never laid a finger on me before, likely because I held the Count’s full attention.
“Why, you—!”
He suddenly swung at me, and my legs trembled. But the loud slap that followed wasn’t from him hitting me—it was from Luna falling to the floor.
“Luna!”
I rushed toward her red-cheeked face in shock, but Elforten twisted my arm cruelly, grinning meanly.
“How dare a mere maid block my way?”
He glared between me and Luna with a crazed look in his eyes.
Then he hurled an expensive-looking vase to the ground, shattering it with a crash.
Glass shards scattered everywhere, and a terrified Luna ducked down. Elforten then stomped down mercilessly on her back.
“Ugh.”
“Perfect. Let’s have you take the beating in her place today.”
Thinking I cared deeply for Luna, Elforten began targeting her.
What kind of petty excuse for a villain was this? It made all the time I spent playing this game feel wasted.
“Stop it.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Listen closely. If you show off your little black magic again, I’ll break your precious maid’s legs. Got it?”
This was nothing but him projecting his own inadequacies onto me, and it made me furious.
More so because he wasn’t taking it out on me, but on someone weaker—Luna.
“Did you know? Frightened animals bark the loudest.”
“What? Frightened animals?”
“Yeah. You’re yelling because you’re scared, Brother. I get it. You couldn’t awaken your black magic—of course you’re scared of me.”
Elforten’s face turned pale. Then, in a flash, he pulled a dagger from inside his coat and swung it at me.
I dodged backward, and in a frenzy, Elforten began swinging the short blade wildly.
“What are the guards doing?! Take him away already!”
When I turned my furious gaze toward them, the people watching froze in shock.
I suddenly felt hot blood dripping down. When I touched my cheek, sticky red liquid flowed freely from my face.
“What… is this…?”
Before I could even cover it, the pale pink dress Luna had picked for me that morning was soaked in red.
The terrified Elforten started stumbling backward. My cheek began to throb with pain, but it all felt too unreal—I was stunned.
“Milady! Milady!”
Luna ran to me in a panic and pressed a handkerchief to my cheek. The guards finally sprang into action, chasing after the fleeing Elforten.
“Are you okay? Where he hit you?”
I looked at Luna’s red, swollen cheek and asked. She burst into tears.
“Hic… I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have stepped in…”
As I caught a glimpse of the blood flowing from my cheek, I closed my eyes with a strange feeling.
Please, let this awful wound heal.
And just like that, I could feel the bleeding stop.
“Milady? The bleeding just… stopped?”
Luna tilted her head in confusion, still holding the handkerchief. I was just as baffled by the strange occurrence.
Didn’t the Count once say there was something unusual about his bloodline? Did my blood possess some kind of power?
“Should I try something else while I’m at it?”
I reached my hand over the spilled blood on the floor and imagined everything becoming clean.
Suddenly, the stained floor and even the handkerchief in Luna’s hand sparkled like new.
Even my blood-soaked dress and hands were now spotless and pristine.
“This is the second time.”
Luna murmured in awe, and I tilted my head.
“What do you mean?”
“The second time I’ve seen you heal like that. I saw it once before… when the late Madam coughed up blood.”
Come to think of it, there was no information about Elufe Inferna’s biological mother.
The only thing I knew was that she died before the main quest began. I didn’t know anything else about her.
“So Mother coughed up blood… Did you ever tell Father?”
“No. The Madam told me to keep it a secret until the day she died, so I never told anyone.”
I nodded slightly at her words.
“Do you also think it’s right for me to hide my powers from Father?”
“…The Madam just wanted you to be safe. She said that if your powers were revealed, even the Imperial Palace would try to suppress you—it would be dangerous.”
Though I had never met Elufe’s mother, I somehow felt it was best to follow her advice for now.
After all, the Count—the other parent—was someone who harbored ambitions to overthrow the Emperor. There was no telling how my black magic would be used—or abused.
After that, Elforten locked himself in his room, terrified.
He must have thought my face would be completely ruined and cause a huge uproar.
The mercenaries assigned as guards panicked and resigned, afraid they’d be held accountable for the incident.
As a result, even though the Count was informed of what had happened, he couldn’t take any real action.
‘Maybe that’s actually a good thing.’
Thanks to that, the strange things Elforten told the doctors were dismissed as delusions.
Sometimes, when our eyes happened to meet through the window, he’d go into a full-blown panic. Maybe he thought I was a ghost.
‘Unbelievable. Anyone watching would think I was the aggressor.’
I was annoyed that Elforten hadn’t apologized even once, but I wasn’t stupid enough to stir up the hornet’s nest on purpose.
Once I entered the palace, I probably wouldn’t see him again anyway. All I could do was hope that day would come quickly.
Still, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. If I wanted to avoid the story unfolding like the original, I needed another plan.
Like proving that I wasn’t the villain.
‘If I’m going to the palace as a companion anyway, maybe I can prove there that I’m a good person.’
If I couldn’t stop Count Inferna’s relentless ambition, then I needed to go to the Imperial Palace myself and steer things in another direction.
Even if the Count later tried to push me toward becoming the Crown Princess, if I could clearly show I’d cut ties with the family, I might at least be able to avoid death.
With that resolve, I began counting down the days to my entrance into the palace.
A few days later.
I was stuck watching Rekanon throwing a tantrum from his bed. I thought being his “conversation partner” meant some occasional small talk—not this.
If I’d known it’d be like this, I would’ve waited a bit longer before entering the palace. Sigh…
Maybe “conversation partner” was just a polite name for personal assistant? Or a term made up to avoid accusations of child abuse?
For now, I had to attend all his lessons with him.
Despite the world’s advanced magic, their math was surprisingly awful. For example, Rekanon—thirteen years old—was twisting in frustration because he couldn’t multiply fractions.
Is this really a proper empire?
“Was following me around not enough? Why are you even in my bedroom?!”
Even as he shouted, Rekanon didn’t shove me like he used to. As if I wanted to be here in the first place.
He was the one who brought up the “conversation partner” role, so I couldn’t exactly refuse. And for some reason, the Emperor kept me in the palace under that title.
“Then why didn’t you show up to class? Because of you, Mr. Kroon was furious.”
Look at this pile of homework he gave us. Do I really need to be solving a hundred fraction problems at my age?
“Sigh. I am the sun of the empire. Just because Mr. Kroon teaches me doesn’t mean our statuses change. Therefore, I must endure his rage.”
I watched Rekanon spout nonsense with a straight face and quietly nodded. Then, I handed him the stack of homework Mr. Kroon had given.
“He said to finish all of it by the next class.”
