17
Episode 17
* * *
“Don’t answer.”
It was the coldest and most sinister voice Belinda had ever heard.
Leo thought she was furious because he had rashly intervened.
If he hadn't felt the trembling in her hand that was tightly gripping his, Leo wouldn't have even thought to look at Belinda's face.
A marble-like, cold, expressionless face.
Fierce eyes staring straight ahead.
A cold and barren atmosphere that showed no sign of weakness.
Nowhere was Belinda's anxiety or fear evident, except for her faintly trembling hand.
Only then did Leo realize that he hadn't misheard.
“You still haven’t killed me yet.”
Belinda's voice was low.
Leo couldn't understand the complex situation it contained, but he knew at least one thing.
Belinda was in some kind of danger.
And that was probably…
Leo glanced back, but Schwebel was already gone.
Suddenly, Toma's advice from a while ago echoed in his head.
“Assisting is doing what your superiors tell you to do, and sometimes protecting your master, you know.”
Assisting is protecting the master.
He felt like he had finally found what he had to do here.
‘I want to protect Belinda.’
Leo's hand, holding Belinda's, tightened.
* * *
The rain that had been pouring all afternoon finally stopped in the evening.
Leo couldn't concentrate on his studies at all. And for good reason.
A woman who had smashed someone's head was sitting right in front of him, saying, "Okay, let's start the test," and even he would be anxious that his own head might be smashed if he failed the test.
Of course, the smart Leo got a perfect score of ten out of ten and received a sweet dessert as a reward.
Anyway, Leo seemed so mentally unstable that I handed him his healing item, the cleaning tools, and left the mansion.
Recalling what happened in front of the study in the morning made my hands tremble.
Wow, even thinking about it now, I was pretty awesome.
For that moment, I didn't know if I was Belinda or Belinda was me, and I just poured it all out. It was like finding a vocation I couldn't find in my past life.
‘I was the villainess type in the game.’
I opened my mouth, savoring the new realization.
“Quest Window.”
[Quest] Where am I? Who am I?
▼[new] Obtain Mid-Reward
The 'new' part was shining particularly brightly.
I checked once again to make sure there was no one around.
This was the backyard of the annex, the graveyard that looked even more gloomy because of the rain.
I came here on purpose, to a place with few people, because I didn't know what kind of anomaly would occur when I obtained the reward.
I passed the bleak tombstones and stopped near a tombstone that looked like it hadn't been there long.
“Belinda's Memory Fragment, huh.”
Just by the name, I could tell what kind of reward it was. What I was looking forward to was the special reward I would get when I obtained the Fragment of Memory.
I whispered 'Obtain' with a light heart.
Immediately after that, my vision went black as if someone had hit me on the back of the neck.
* * *
The rain that started drizzling from dawn didn't stop even in the afternoon.
Young Belinda, wearing a jet-black dress, was heading to the annex to avoid the annoying adults.
Then she found him.
The back of a middle-aged man squatting in a corner of the garden without an umbrella.
It was hard to hear because it was drowned out by the sound of the rain, but it sounded like he was sniffling.
He looked so pathetic.
Belinda approached him and asked.
“Mister, are you crying?”
“Eek!”
The man was so surprised that he fell on his butt, covering his clothes in mud.
The man pointed at Belinda with a pale face and shouted.
“Gh, gh, gh…!”
“There are no ghosts here. Everyone believes in things that even children don't believe in.”
Whether he came to his senses at those words, he stared at Belinda's face for a while, then turned his back and squatted down again.
Then he muttered a crude excuse that even a child wouldn't believe.
“This isn’t te, tears… it’s rainwater.”
“I’ll pretend that’s what it is.”
Belinda answered nonchalantly and glanced at the sniffling adult's wet back.
Belinda knew who he was.
The chief manager in charge of the Blanche family's largest business, the casino business.
No one told her about the man's origins, but the clever Belinda had already noticed.
That he was her father's half-brother.
How could she not know? He looked just like her father and had inherited all the characteristics of the Blanche family.
Belinda hesitated for a moment, then tilted her umbrella over her squatting Uncle.
And she said something she would never have said normally.
“Uncle, don’t cry.”
Then the man was startled and turned to look at Belinda.
His dark, dead face stared at Belinda for a long time before he began to cry out loud.
“Hic, sob, Brother. How could you leave this young one so soon…”
This time, even the sound of the rain couldn't hide his crying.
It was the first time she had seen an adult crying so openly.
She was flustered, saying, "Uh, uh," and somehow Belinda also began to feel sad.
Only then could she accept reality.
That her mom and dad were really dead.
Now her parents would never come back. All of this was not a nightmare but reality.
“Hic, sob. Mommmmy, waaaaah, Daddddy!”
“Brotheeeeer.”
That day, the two hugged each other and cried for a long time.
And after that day, Belinda didn't see her Uncle for a while.
Relatives she had never even seen before prevented her Uncle from even attending the funeral because he was a bastard.
Then they flocked to Belinda, who had become the sole heir to the Blanche family, whispering sweet words and explaining how suitable they were to be Belinda's guardian.
‘Hmph, maggots. As if I don’t know you’re trying to stick to my family like mosquitoes!’
Without being swayed by all kinds of sweet talk, Belinda calmly sorted out the situation.
‘I need someone who will just be my guardian.’
Someone who is sound, timid, and compassionate.
Someone who is so weak that they can't steal her assets and will return them intact.
‘And someone who liked our parents and will… be nice to me too.’
As soon as she listed the conditions, the right person came to mind.
‘Uncle was the only one who cried for my parents.’
Even if it was secretly hidden in the bushes.
So Belinda chose her Uncle.
“I want Uncle to be my guardian.”
Her Uncle looked like he was going to throw up from the pressure, and eventually, he really did vomit.
In the end, Belinda's choice was right. Or maybe it was wrong.
On a bright summer day when her parents' death anniversary came around, Belinda said to her Uncle, who had taken time out of his busy schedule to have dinner with his niece.
“Uncle, be my legal father.”
Clang.
Her Uncle, who was cutting Belinda's steak into bite-sized pieces, dropped the knife.
“Uh…”
With a loss of words, but diligently putting the steak in Belinda's mouth, her Uncle shook his head, sweating profusely.
“You can’t, you can’t say things like that carelessly.”
He even looked around as if afraid someone would hear. Fortunately, it seemed that no one had heard her words.
Letting out a sigh of relief, her Uncle said soothingly to Belinda.
“Bel, I’m satisfied enough just with you calling me Uncle…”
“No! No, no, no!”
Belinda suddenly screamed. Normally, he would have thought of it as his young niece's tantrum and would have granted her anything.
But this request was one that he could not easily dismiss.
He quickly sent the servants out and shook his head with a stern expression.
“No. Belinda, this isn’t such a simple matter. Me becoming your legal father means that the inheritance rights of this family…”
“Do it, do it, do it, be my dad instead of my Uncle!”
Belinda flopped down on the floor and started flailing her arms and legs.
It was the final method she used to get what she wanted when her parents were alive.
…Her parents were always annoyed and would summon the nanny to pass her off.
But it seemed to work on her Uncle. He was at a loss and stayed by Belinda's side, sweating profusely.
Belinda made even more of a fuss until her arm hit the table leg.
“Belinda!”
Her Uncle raised his voice for the first time. Belinda was so surprised that even her fake crying stopped.
“What if you get hurt! Let me see, you’re not bruised, are you?”
Her Uncle sat Belinda up and carefully examined her arm.
“It’s dangerous to throw a tantrum like this. So from now on, yes, throw a tantrum on the bed.”
Her arm started to hurt belatedly.
Belinda bit her lower lip tightly because she felt like she was going to burst into real tears.
“…I’ll wait until you’ve calmed down and feel like talking to me. But Belinda, I can’t grant your request this time.”
Her Uncle's kind words hurt more than her bumped arm.
Belinda lowered her head and mumbled.
“…Nice to me?”
“What?”
The young niece's venomous eyes, which she raised sharply, were filled with tears.
“If you were going to be like this, why were you so nice to me!”
Why did you stay by my side all night when I was sick?
Why did you always try to have dinner together?
Why did you kiss my forehead every night and tell me to sleep well? Why, why…
“Why did you make me so weak! I, I would have been fine on my own if it weren’t for Uncle!”
Belinda knew very well what it meant to become his family.
Since her Uncle had a son, her right to inherit could be pushed back.
But she didn't care.
If she could call her Uncle Dad and be a family within his fence.
