Chapter 30
If You Don't Want to See Something Nasty
"......"
"Answer me! Answer! Do the people here know about your ability?"
My uncle was beside himself, his eyes rolling back in his head.
Yuan glared at him without answering, eventually shaking him off roughly.
"Am I crazy? Why would I reveal it and invite suffering? How do you think I lived in Pellieresse?"
My uncle, who had flinched as if about to raise his hand, froze like someone about to fall off a cliff, then let out a sigh of relief.
"God..." he muttered, then quickly scanned the chaotic surroundings, thanks to the injured Klaud, and lowered his voice.
"Don't reveal your ability and get used, you little fool! Fulfill your duty to your family!"
My uncle, his mood changing as easily as flipping his hand, spoke as if he were a kind adult scolding her.
"Mind your own business. Don't contact me or come looking for me again."
My uncle, as if he didn't hear Yuan's words, tapped her white cheek with his finger.
"I'll leave it at this for today. If you come back home, I'll listen to anything you say this time."
Yuan wiped her cheek with a disgusted look, and her uncle smiled kindly, just like he did ten years ago when he first came to the Pellieresse Mansion. His thick chin wobbled, folded in three layers.
"Your aunt and cousins were hard on you, weren't they?"
My uncle bid her farewell as he headed to his carriage, only after most of the uninvited guests from the Imperial Palace had left through the Iron fence.
"If you come back this time, I'll make sure that never happens again."
"Geret Pellieze seems to have told his niece something firmly. I think we need to find out what he's plotting again."
Marquis Compagni slammed the carriage window shut and frowned, displeased.
"I don't know if we should believe that slippery merchant again."
"We don't have to believe him, do we?"
Bolonico sprinkled feed for his most beloved parrot, Lorenzo, in a palm-sized golden dish.
As Lorenzo opened his mouth to say something, Bolonico stroked his colorful feathers as if to reassure him.
"No need to try to throw it away. Sometimes you have to embrace the trash."
"Yes?"
"Bolonico, it's amazing."
The 1st Imperial Prince Bolonico crossed his arms and looked out the window, continuing.
"This party was a success, Marquis Compagni."
"Weren't you hoping to see how the Emperor treats the Pellieresse people? You're returning to the Imperial Palace earlier than planned, without even looking into that."
"Today isn't the only day. Instead, I got to see something interesting."
Bolonico chuckled, recalling how Euphris's treasure, his cousin, had instantly turned into a Crow and writhed in agony.
It was a rare and precious sight.
Meanwhile, Marquis Compagni looked at Bolonico's doll-like face and immediately recalled the terrible accident that had occurred at the hunting grounds this morning.
It was horrific.
Three arrows for hunting monsters.
It was so terrible that even a strong man who trained every day could have died from the shock.
Perhaps because they deliberately avoided vital points, the Deposed Emperor would not die but would wail.
It was too cruel to someone who already lived in pain every day.
Marquis Compagni suppressed his uneasy feelings and listened to Bolonico's words with an indifferent face.
"And for some reason, His Imperial Majesty has taken an interest in the Pellieresse woman. Right?"
"Yes, well... it's not that uncommon, but..."
It was well known that Emperor Igor didn't discriminate between a minister's wife or a commoner's daughter as long as they wore a skirt.
That's why the Empress's stomach had been turned upside down a million times.
If anyone else had failed to hide their lust for their niece's wife, they would have been called a damned bastard, but because it was the Emperor, it was just "disappointing but not surprising."
If you had to say, in the end, nothing happened except for unpleasant contact, and instead, the Deposed Emperor, her husband, was the one who got the brunt of it.
But Bolonico seemed to see something different.
"Bolonico's eyes can't be fooled."
"As you ordered, I'm still trying to dig into the Count Pellieresse side. That man babbles as if he'll say anything, but when it comes to stories about his family, he clams up."
"Hmm-?"
Bolonico's well-groomed eyebrows rippled softly.
"What should we do? Should we torture him or-."
"Bolonico. I detest such ungraceful things."
"Then-."
"There's another daughter in that house."
Bolonico rubbed his cheek against the parrot Lorenzo and hummed.
Marquis Compagni jumped up and shook his withered fist.
"Yes? Did that shameless Geret Pellieze deceive Your Highness again?"
"Not the previous Count and Countess Pellieresse, but that fat Count's daughter."
"Ah."
"I like her eyes."
The 1st Imperial Prince Bolonico, who had sufficiently adored Lorenzo, tucked his hair behind his ear and his eyes sparkled.
His smooth lips, with no white spots, twisted.
"Presumptuous eyes."
"E, eyes?"
"Bolonico likes people with those eyes."
Marquis Compagni bit back the urge to ask if there was anything this obnoxious Imperial Prince liked and waited for the next order.
Bolonico smiled brightly as if responding to that wait.
"That daughter seems more useful than the fat Count."
Klaud's bedroom was crowded with unexpected people.
The vast room was filled with servants lined up with dry cloths, ropes, warm water, and more, creating a commotion.
Most of the servants were fidgeting at Klaud's screams, but they quietly peeked around, as it was their first time entering Klaud's bedroom.
Hille, who was dealing with Klaud, who looked like he was on the verge of death in the secluded bed, was beside himself with a face as if he had been shot with an arrow.
"Everyone, get out!"
"Your Highness, Your Highness! Show me! Don't move! It'll get worse!"
"Get out, all of you!"
The servants, intimidated by his fierce energy, left the items and left, leaving only Hille to persevere.
Yuan, who was standing at the doorway watching the scene, gripped the hem of her skirt tightly with trembling hands.
Klaud's condition was terrible.
The brutal arrows for hunting monsters were demons that dug into flesh and bone the more one struggled.
Yuan gasped, recalling the patient who had been hit by those arrows and had to have his shoulder cut off, and her childhood when she had taken on the patient's pain and screamed.
"What's going on?"
A man's voice, breathing even more roughly than Yuan, was heard from behind. When she turned around, Lancelot was there, his face pale, as if he had heard the news.
He was supposed to attend from the second day of the party, so he seemed surprised by the sudden commotion.
"What's going on? Huh?"
Lancelot asked urgently, perhaps because he couldn't let a guest enter before his wife when she was standing at the doorway.
Yuan opened her mouth as if choked, then closed the bedroom door after seeing Hille start to pull out the arrows.
The groans flowing out from beyond the door were ominous.
"...It's because of me."
Yuan explained what had happened from last night until now to Lancelot, who was puzzled.
By the time the pale man's face turned even whiter, Yuan asked a question that had been lingering in her mind.
"Have you ever met Louise Pelliesse?"
The reason for Klaud's injury seemed clear.
The shame of showing his transformed appearance to others and the current accident were pains that he wouldn't have experienced if he had not ignored Yuan in the hallway last night.
"Did Your Highness kill my sister, Louise Pelliesse?"
"Now, why, in this situation, would you say such a thing...!"
The only person to ask was the man in front of her now.
A man who couldn't chase Yuan away, a man from a family known for its integrity, and a man who had nothing to gain by deceiving her. One of the most trustworthy people in this mansion.
Yuan poured out her voice, seething with emotions that were reaching their limit.
"Tell me!"
Tears welled up in her large eyes.
The tip of her slender chin trembled, unable to bear the uneasy heart.
Surprised by her usually docile energy, Lancelot couldn't take his eyes off her, even as he fidgeted, wanting to see inside the bedroom.
"Where did you hear such strange rumors? Don't you know the answer?"
Lancelot slowly scanned Yuan, who was disheveled with cold sweat and tears, then gritted his teeth and answered.
"Was Klaud Euphris that kind of person?"
The tears that had swelled up in her dark eyes finally fell on her white cheeks.
Yuan shook her head without even realizing it.
She still didn't know much about her husband.
But she knew how much he was living in pain and how much he didn't want to share that pain with others.
"Did he seem like such a villain that he would ruthlessly chase away and kill an innocent person, as people say? Especially my wife?"
Lancelot's face looked like someone was strangling him.
"If you've had even a little bit of that suspicion, please let it end with what you've said to me."
His sweet caramel-colored eyes stared straight at her.
"Because if Klaud heard these words, he would be hurt even more than he is by the pain."
"M, Madam?"
"I'll help."
Leaving Hille, whose face lit up at the offer to help, Yuan looked down at Klaud. His eyes, glaring with labored breaths, were quite fierce.
One arrow had been somehow pulled out, but two more remained.
He had gritted his teeth so hard that the veins from his jaw to his collarbone were bulging, and his whole body was flushed red.
"You, get out."
An eviction order was mercilessly issued to Yuan.
The attending physician, Hille, was desperate to borrow even a cat's paw and gave her a pleading look.
But Klaud's eyes clearly expressed his refusal without a shred of mercy.
"Get out. You. If you don't want to see something nasty."
Hille stiffened at the warning that leaked out between his teeth along with a painful groan.
But Yuan defiantly turned to the opposite side of the bed and grabbed his hand, which was covered in hardened blood.
Klaud, who couldn't shake off her touch because it was the shoulder where the arrow was stuck, growled.
"Didn't you hear me? Get out."
"Sir Lancelot."
Yuan ignored his refusal and called Lancelot, who was standing at the doorway.
Lancelot immediately understood Yuan's words and sat next to Hille, who was trying to pull out the arrow in his shoulder, and held down Klaud's struggling body.
Klaud twisted his body.
"What are you doing? Get out!"
"Your Highness, when it really hurts, if someone holds your hand by your side, the pain is halved."
"Don't say such nonsense. Ugh!"
Hille, emboldened, carefully began to pull out the arrow.
As he carved into the flesh with a small medical knife and slowly twisted the arrowhead with strange protrusions, Klaud gritted his teeth.
Yuan held his calloused hand tightly and absorbed his pain.
'A year ago, Klaud was exhausted from the pain and took an overdose of sleeping pills. During the period when he was hovering between life and death, the Madam's sister, Louise Pelliesse, came to this house and lived here.'
'Of course, Klaud didn't even know of her existence, and she lived in this house as if she were dead for several months before suddenly running away. Then, news came that she had passed away, and when I checked, she was indeed dead. According to the attending physician at the time, there were no signs of homicide.'
'Did she have any underlying illnesses?'
