Chapter 143
Chapter 143
But Lucius was an excellent actor.
"An accident, you say?"
As always, Lucius wore an inscrutable smile on his face like a painting.
"I'm not sure what you mean, Uncle."
"Don't pretend you don't know!"
Baron Hamel rapped his fingers, thick with jeweled rings, harshly against the table.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
"Why has Sophia started meeting and going around with another man? And in broad daylight, right in the middle of the capital, flaunting herself and flirting around!"
At the vulgar language directed at Sophia, Lucius's cheek muscles subtly stiffened and relaxed.
He wanted to pick up the teacup and smash it into that forehead for insulting his sister, but Lucius answered in a gentle tone without the slightest sign of agitation.
"Flirting around? You're going too far."
"Oh? Too far?"
"They simply happened to cross paths and are engaging in proper, wholesome interaction. How is it an accident for her to have one meal with the second son of House Farne?"
"Heh heh, wholesome interaction? Hahaha!"
Baron Hamel snorted.
"Marquis Sven himself asked me. What on earth am I doing teaching a woman, and what was going on!"
Marquis Sven.
At that name, Lucius's eyes narrowed further.
'So what?'
Lucius swallowed a cold sneer to himself.
That decrepit Marquis Sven, a man old enough to be his grandfather and nearing the grave.
The position that greedy old man had offered his younger sister Sophia was not even that of a primary wife, but of a secondary one.
He found his own situation disgusting enough already, unable to prevent such a vile marriage proposal from being made because he had lost control of the family.
And that man calling himself his uncle was proudly blathering about it as though it were a lifeline.
Baron Hamel frowned deeply, exposing his yellow teeth.
"Tsk. I clearly told you she was already riddled with defects and could not afford a single blemish beyond that. If she was born defective, she ought to stay quietly in her place."
Riddled with defects.
Defective product.
Grind.
"How could you make the situation this noisy! The marquis is extremely displeased!"
Lucius's vision flashed red for an instant.
Killing intent.
Pure killing intent surged up through his chest.
He wanted to grab that snake-skinned pig by the collar and tear his mouth apart right then and there.
How dare he call his sister riddled with defects.
However.
'Endure.'
Lucius pressed down with such force that his hands folded over his knees turned white, suppressing the emotions threatening to run wild.
If he let his anger explode here, every plan he had endured through gritted teeth would come to nothing.
Now was not the time.
Until that disgusting man, whom he had never once considered true family despite living under the same roof, was destroyed after losing every last scrap of his paltry usefulness without even realizing it.
He had to endure solely for that moment.
"……I'm sorry, but."
Lucius slowly opened his eyes and stared straight at Baron Hamel with calm blue eyes.
"I don't think Marquis Sven would call off the marriage over something this trivial."
"……Ha. Do you call that something to say?"
"Of course it makes perfect sense."
What Marquis Sven truly wanted was a young and beautiful trophy wife.
The reason Sophia was shunned by high society was because she was 'Sophia von Rohanna.'
If the only irresponsible condition attached was that he merely get to enjoy Sophia's beauty, then, ironically, she was beautiful enough for her popularity to soar to the heavens.
Lucius was certain that Marquis Sven's targets did not include the 'Rohanna County title' or the 'trading company' owned by the count's family.
Above all, if Marquis Sven were after the family and the trading company.
'There was no way this man would cooperate with that.'
Because that was exactly what this man was after.
'He only wants to gnaw away at the heir's legitimacy and honor, bit by bit, by any means necessary.'
His plan was to sell Sophia off in disgrace, tarnish the family's authority, and somehow push Lucius further and further down an irreversible path of decline.
"Uncle."
Lucius narrowed his eyes again and smiled.
"Even if Rohanna's name has lost some of its luster compared to ten years ago, Sophia hasn't exactly been going around embroiled in any fatal scandal."
"How is that not a scandal……!"
"If merely associating in broad daylight with the son of a Court Count, a family every citizen of the Empire knows to be fiercely loyal to the Imperial Family, is enough to count as a blemish…"
Lucius raised the corners of his mouth even higher.
"Then every other young lady in the capital would have to call off her marriage prospects, enter a convent, and grow old single. Wouldn't you agree?"
Flinch.
At that sound argument, laden with the weight of undeniable facts, Baron Hamel's shoulders jerked.
"Ahem, ahem!"
Baron Hamel forced down his embarrassment and let out an exaggerated cough.
With his face flushed red and purple, he glared at Lucius and issued a threat.
"……This once, I will graciously smooth things over."
"How kind of you."
"However! If you care about the family's survival, remember this."
Baron Hamel placed a hand on the armrest of the sofa and heaved his massive body to his feet.
"Don't make the complacent assumption that since all the capital's young ladies do it, Sophia can too! Understand clearly that this marriage is a major family matter, and keep such vulgar noise from being heard again!"
Baron Hamel finished speaking with his face blazing red and filled with fury.
Lucius quietly watched his back as he strode toward the parlor door.
He knew.
The reason Baron Hamel was so angry was that his display of confidence, claiming Rohanna's name as something that rightfully belonged to him, had provoked jealousy and an inferiority complex.
'Disgusting.'
Lucius let out a cold sneer as he heard the door slam shut.
Family. Kin. Bloodline.
If one spread Rohanna's genealogy out wide, the tangle of people connected to it was so vast that counting them was meaningless.
However.
Strangely, in this vast and splendid world, the only true family he had to protect with his life was Sophia, and Sophia alone.
* * *
"All right, that's all for today's lecture. Make sure you all review thoroughly."
Thud.
As the professor closed the door and left, the tension filling the lecture hall abruptly dissipated.
The students began gathering their things and rising from their seats.
I, too, released the stretch I had been holding over my desk and twisted my neck from side to side.
Crack, crack.
'Now I should head over to Iris noona.'
Since the skill cooldown hadn't even started ticking, I could use needing time to adapt to this body with its brand-new mana circuits as an excuse to skip class for a while.
It was just as I was about to get up from my seat.
"……?"
A person's silhouette suddenly approached and stopped in the aisle beside me.
The moment I turned my head to check, my brow furrowed sharply.
"……What?"
"Now that I see you again, isn't it nice to meet you?"
"You don't know what 'nice to meet you' means, do you? Why are you here?"
Despite my gruff reaction, Lucius stood there wearing his slick, narrowed-eye smile.
We were in a steeply tiered lecture hall.
I was sitting at an angle in my chair, while he stood on the aisle steps beside me.
However.
'Huh.'
As our gazes naturally met, I felt a strange sense of incongruity.
Lucius was standing, yet his eye level was exactly the same as mine while I was seated.
'But he's surprisingly a little short, isn't he?'
I narrowed my eyes and discreetly scanned his build.
Even compared with the other male students in the Academy, he definitely seemed to be half a span to a full span shorter.
His bone structure was also unusually fine and delicate for a man.
Well, for him to look exactly like his twin sister Sophia, almost as though they had been made from the same mold, their physiques had to be somewhat similar or the resemblance would feel off.
'It's obviously a complex and an Achilles' heel, so I shouldn't mention it.'
Whether in my previous life or this one, you don't casually bring up height among men.
While I was keeping my mouth shut out of profound consideration, Lucius answered with a sunny smile.
"I just came."
……Is this bastard for real?
"Hey."
"Yes."
"Just say it."
"Say what?"
Th-That annoying mouth.
He really said, "Say what?"
'I'll smack him.'
I wanted to give him a good knock on the head, but there were still students nearby, so I lowered my voice.
"Don't beat around the bush. If you have something you want, just say it."
"You're being too harsh. I had no idea I was such an insincere person toward Lord Cassian."
"Until now, all your actions seemed to have shady motives and meticulous calculations behind them, which made you seem more sincere, if anything."
I rested my chin on my hand and snorted at him as he pretended to be hurt.
"When the word 'just' comes from your mouth, do you really expect me to trust you?"
"Hmm."
What's with the hmm?
You're asking to get killed.
"It's such an indisputable point that I have nothing to say. What remarkable insight."
What bullshit.
Yeah, right.
"So. What is it? Did you bring another troublesome quest to dump on me?"
When I pressed him, he leaned forward slightly and whispered,
"How about we go get something to eat and I give you a little preview of this weekend's schedule?"
"A preview?"
"Yes. Sophia is extremely excited, you see. Since you're the one receiving help, I thought I might give you a few tips so you can complete the escort without incident."
In the end, wasn't this just a siscon's idea of getting a pre-briefing and inspection from me before meeting his little sister?