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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: A Messy Confrontation
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‘What if she’s already cried herself unconscious? She could just collapse like she did before.’
Karayan’s pace quickened as he headed for the drawing room.
His mind was filled with the image of Lumina, utterly devastated by Arabelle and bursting into tears.
She looked as though the slightest poke would cause tears to well up in her large, round, pink eyes.
It was, therefore, an easy thing to imagine.
Besides, compared to Arabelle, Lumina was nothing more than a flimsy puff of cotton that could be blown away with a flick of a finger.
‘She should have just stayed quiet since she only just woke up. What a pain.’
Normally, this was not a matter he would have involved himself in. Furthermore, there was no reason Karayan had to be the one to step in.
Unaware of this fact, Karayan heard the sound of sobbing as he stood before the door.
His imagination had become reality.
For a moment, his mind went blank.
Assuming the source of the crying was Lumina, Karayan’s body moved before his mind could catch up.
His hand shot out and yanked the doorknob.
And the scene that unfolded before Karayan’s eyes was quite different from what he had imagined.
For one, the person crying was not Lumina, but a complete stranger.
“……?”
His reason finally returning, Karayan frowned and scanned his surroundings.
The drawing room was a mess, as if a wild animal had been let loose.
At the center of it all was a small girl. It was Lumina, the very one he had worried might be in a terrible state.
“Young Duke?”
Their eyes met.
Her eyes wide like a rabbit’s, Lumina seemed to think Karayan’s appearance was unexpected.
Regardless, Karayan felt a surge of irritation.
It was because Lumina looked as if she’d been completely crushed. Just as he had feared.
“Young Duke Heart!”
And who could have crushed her?
The culprit, Arabelle, beamed.
The moment she saw Karayan, she broke into a wide smile and shot up from her seat.
She looked ready to run to him at any moment, but Karayan didn’t even glance at her.
He walked over and stood in front of Lumina.
“Why do you look like this?”
She was soaked from head to toe. Judging by the smell of tea, it seemed she had been doused with it.
Fortunately, there were no traces of tears in Lumina’s eyes.
It seemed that, small as she was, a Legion was still a Legion, and she hadn't burst into tears.
Still, worried there might be an injury he had missed, Karayan carefully inspected Lumina’s face.
As Karayan’s golden eyes remained fixed on her, Lumina subtly shifted her gaze to a vacant spot in the air.
It was because Karayan had asked a rather difficult question.
“Um…”
*Why do I look like this, you ask?*
*See the princess’s maid sitting over there? I got into a hair-pulling fight with her.*
*If I answered so bluntly, I’d be treated like a lunatic.*
*In the worst-case scenario, Karayan might be disgusted and avoid me.*
‘I have the ability to heal him, but I can’t do that if the patient runs away.’
Her deal with Lucius was to heal Karayan.
If she couldn’t meet Karayan and thus couldn’t heal him, there could be no situation more absurd.
Lumina opened her mouth to deliver a suitably embellished version of the situation.
But Arabelle, unable to wait a moment longer, cut in with a sullen tone.
“Young Duke Heart. Isn’t this your first time meeting the Duke’s ward? I would have preferred you to keep more of a distance and act like strangers. You seem far too close right now.”
“First time?”
Karayan looked at Lumina as if to ask what she was talking about.
Even though Arabelle was the one who had spoken. His determination to not look at Arabelle’s face was palpable.
‘Come to think of it, earlier…’
“By the way, what is your relationship with Young Duke Heart?”
“There’s not much of a relationship to speak of.”
“Really? You’ve never met?”
“No.”
She had just had that conversation with Princess Arabelle.
‘I lied because I didn’t think the three of us would end up in the same room, and now I’ve been caught immediately.’
Even now, she could feel a prickling on her back.
Princess Arabelle, having been blatantly ignored by Karayan, was glaring daggers at Lumina.
Right now, Lumina was a pathetic crumb caught between predators.
A cookie crumb crushed under someone’s bottom would be more significant than Lumina was at this moment.
‘Just because Princess Arabelle hates me doesn’t mean I should do something to make him hate me too.’
Openly showing malice is only possible when you’re confident you’ll face no consequences. Otherwise, it’s the move of an amateur.
She needed to maintain a precarious balance, as if walking a tightrope.
“It’s practically the first time. Since I am the Duke’s ward, we’ve probably seen each other in passing.”
“……”
“Right, Young Duke?”
Her eyes sparkled.
Lumina looked at Karayan desperately.
“…Right.”
Karayan affirmed.
But Arabelle, unconvinced, narrowed her eyes and studied the two of them.
A cold sweat trickled down Lumina’s spine.
“How strange. The Young Duke I know is someone who has no interest in others…”
Arabelle’s voice was chilling.
“Why is he so protective of this child? Especially when they’ve only met for the first time today.”
“……”
“Is she precious to you, perhaps?”
“Nonsense.”
Karayan growled, his voice low and warning.
“Really? But you keep creating situations that invite misunderstanding, Young Duke.”
To Karayan, Lumina was nothing.
Just a pathetically weak Legion who had collapsed after healing him.
Yes. It was just because of that incident that he was slightly, just ever so slightly, concerned.
It wasn’t that he had a crush on her or liked her or anything of the sort.
There was no way he could like her in the first place. Wasn’t she a girl he suspected of being in league with the father he so despised?
‘Father must have sent her to me on purpose.’
The day of the great massacre his father had committed.
He had once told his father about the person who had helped him back then.
His father must have remembered and brought a girl who resembled her.
He seemed to expect that Karayan would fall for it just because of a resemblance, but Karayan didn't think he was that easy.
“Stop talking nonsense. More importantly, Princess. What are you doing, showing up at someone else’s house without any notice?”
Karayan really had no manners. Not for anyone.
It seemed his indiscriminate personality didn’t even spare royalty.
When Karayan spoke to her informally without a second thought, Arabelle replied with a nonchalant attitude.
Their ill-fated connection seemed so deep that this manner of speaking was not at all surprising.
“Someone else’s house? That’s such a harsh way to put it, seeing as we’ll soon be family.”
To be clear, Arabelle was not Karayan’s fiancée.
There had been no progress whatsoever on their engagement.
And yet, Princess Arabelle seemed to be under the firm delusion that she could marry Karayan.
“Princess Arabelle.”
Karayan, who had long known that Arabelle was someone impossible to reason with, changed the subject.
“What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything. Right, Eva?”
“Yes, yes…”
“Eva, did you do anything?”
“No!”
Eva, who had been sniffling quietly, answered Arabelle’s question faithfully.
“You did nothing, and she ended up like this?”
Questioning Arabelle only brought shameless replies. Karayan changed his target and looked at Eva.
“If you must know, it was an accident.”
“Speak clearly. Unless you want that deceitful tongue of yours pulled out. No, you’ll have to testify, so I suppose I should start with other parts of your body.”
“……”
“If all you do is lie, your tongue will be the last thing left.”
It was a threat.
Terrified, Eva desperately denied it.
“I was helping Lady Lanshuss up and I truly, accidentally let go! She has no strength, so she fell over dramatically on her own.”
Eva stubbornly pleaded her innocence. She even feigned injury, claiming Lumina had hit her hard.
She was desperate, as the atmosphere suggested she wouldn’t escape severe punishment if it were revealed to be intentional.
‘If I leave her be, she’ll just keep repeating the same thing. What a waste of time.’
Lumina, who had been listening to the excuses in silence, deliberately fidgeted with the hem of her wet dress.
“The Duke gave me this dress as a gift.”
Lumina murmured in a small, melancholic tone, as if her inner thoughts had slipped out unintentionally.
The maid who had brought the trolley heard her and quickly handed her a handkerchief.
“My lady, please use this to dry yourself for now. I’ll ask my colleague in the laundry room to make it look like new later.”
As expected, the maids of the ducal household were kind and quick-witted.
“You don’t have to go to such trouble. Thank you.”
The conversation took place in low voices.
And the sound of their voices was enough to draw Karayan’s attention.
“You were here then, weren’t you.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me. Was it really an accident?”
With a princess and a young duke present, a mere maid could not interject, no matter how wronged she felt.
But when Karayan gave her permission to speak, the maid spoke as if she had been waiting for the chance.
“There’s no way it was an accident. I saw her intentionally knock over the teapot.”
“……”
“That person claims she was unfairly struck by the young lady, but from what I saw, it was a perfectly natural human reaction.”
“Evidence! You have no evidence!”
Cornered, Eva cried out for evidence. But there was no need to search for any.
“I’ve heard enough. Take her away.”
At Karayan’s command, the waiting servants dragged Eva away.
As the situation escalated, the first person Eva looked to was Princess Arabelle.
But the princess showed no intention of actively helping Eva.
She was cutting her loose.
Realizing she had been abandoned, Eva said hastily.
“I was only doing as I was told. Her Highness the Princess told me to get rid of Lady Lanshuss, so…”
Backed into a corner, she lost all sense of what shouldn't be said.
It was the worst possible move she could have made, and Lumina clicked her tongue inwardly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Just as expected, the princess played dumb.
“As someone said, it seems I’m better off without a maid who doesn’t suit my dignity.”
