I Cured the Mastermind and Failed to Run Away - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 14

When Count Etheliohn mentioned he’d learned of the accident several days prior, Count Faille let out a brief, hollow cough.
Then he spoke in an artificially gentle tone.
“My daughter suffered from trauma at that time too—she couldn’t leave her bedroom for days and was tormented by nightmares. Wasn’t it determined to be an accident caused by the Academy professors’ negligence? The responsible instructors took accountability and resigned, if I recall. I don’t understand why you’re bringing up that matter again.”
“I thought the problem lay with the graduation examination itself, as you said, but this is the first I’m hearing that someone deliberately provoked the Magical Beast. And that it was a student who’d already finished the test, entering the examination grounds a second time.”
“My daughter had left behind an item, so she re-entered after finishing the test. Is that something to make an issue of?”
“Is that so? You just said your daughter suffered from trauma, couldn’t leave her bedroom for days, and was tormented by nightmares—didn’t you?”
Count Etheliohn’s face drained of warmth, turning glacial.
“My daughter suffered for months afterward and was so terrified she couldn’t even get out of bed.”
The previously confident Count Faille’s eyebrows shot up in an instant.
“The reason I’m handling this incident quietly rather than making it public is not because it’s a matter of the past, but because that’s what my daughter wishes. However, as her father, I cannot simply pretend it never happened.”
Count Etheliohn took a step backward. He brushed dust from his wrinkled coat with sharp taps, then continued in a flat, toneless voice.
“What your daughter did will one day consume her.”
“Count Etheliohn, what do you mean—!”
“There will come a day when she understands just how terrible an act it was. I assure you of that.”
“Count, are you cursing my daughter!”
“As a Grade Three Purifier, she’ll have many occasions to enter Contaminated Areas in the future. I suggest you make thorough preparations in advance. Ah, and should she bear scars from a Magical Beast’s bite, I have medicine that effects a complete cure. I’ll send it specially when you return home.”
Count Etheliohn passed Count Faille by without a glance, his demeanor ice-cold.

* * *

Days passed, and Etheliohn came to regret.
‘The rumor won’t die down!’
Etheliohn clutched at her head as if to tear it out.
It was baseless gossip—it ought to fade quickly and let High Society ignite with other scandals instead!
“Have you heard? The Grand Duke is keeping a secret fiancée hidden away.”
“I’ve heard as much. They say the two of them already have a child.”
“I heard a different version. It’s supposedly a forbidden love because the other side opposes it, so they’ve been meeting in secret to avoid notice.”
“A family that opposes a hero? I’m dying to know who she is.”
“She must be among the families present at that soirée. Everyone’s been frantic trying to figure it out.”
The rumor only swelled larger.
In the rumor’s telling, Etheliohn and Chedwin were recast as lovers steadfastly defending their affection despite fierce opposition.
‘That’s not how it is at all!’
Moreover, some nobles grew gleeful in their determination to identify Chedwin’s mysterious other from among the families who attended the soirée.
If she came forward to deny it herself, the rumor would vanish at once—but the problem was that Chedwin remained calmly silent.
Someone had once asked Chedwin if the rumor was true, and he’d merely said to stay quiet about it before moving on, or so she’d heard.
With the principal himself offering no denial, everyone treated the rumor as established fact.
‘Why is Chedwin doing this!’
His mental state was clearly in shambles. Or perhaps his mind had already been entirely corrupted by Magical Contamination.
Moreover, despite days passing, there was no rumor of Chedwin searching for a Purifier.
‘It seems he isn’t looking for me?’
By now, her earlier resolve to lie low in case Chedwin came seeking her felt embarrassing. The strange rumors just kept spreading!
Unable to simply stand by and watch, Etheliohn attended a tea party to try to quell the blazing gossip.
Such outings had been rare for her.
She’d received only a handful of invitations, and they were all merely formal courtesy—she’d agonized over whether she should attend at all.
But this was no time for such niceties, and she’d forced herself to accept.
When Etheliohn had sent her acceptance, the hostess had been so flustered she’d actually sent someone to confirm, wondering if perhaps someone had intercepted the letter as a prank.
“What do you think of the matter, Lady Etheliohn?”
One of the young ladies who had been discussing Chedwin’s rumor addressed Etheliohn directly. She seemed concerned about Etheliohn’s persistent silence and was trying to include her in the conversation.
‘Oh dear.’
Etheliohn felt the weight of all their gazes upon her and managed an awkward smile.
“I’ve simply heard the same story repeated so many times. ……But has everyone heard about this?”
As multiple eyes fixed upon her at once, her shoulders tensed slightly, but she reminded herself of today’s purpose and steered the conversation to safer ground.
Etheliohn was determined to bury the rumors about Chedwin and herself at this gathering, whatever it took.
“What sort of story?”
Young ladies tilted their heads and their eyes sparkled, thinking this was fresh gossip.
“The Marsh Family’s gardener apparently mutters the name ‘Rebecca’ every time he sleeps, and his wife heard it.”
“The Marsh Family, all of a sudden?”
“I thought it was an affair, but it turned out he’d named one of his plants ‘Rebecca’ and kept calling it in his sleep!”
The moment she finished speaking, silence fell over the gathering. Etheliohn wore a serious expression, while the young ladies who had been sparkling with interest now looked as if to say, “And?”
The silence stretched on. The young lady who had included Etheliohn in the conversation finally broke it.
“……Is that all?”
“Yes! He was a man who slept while calling out a plant’s name!”
“…….”
“A plant named Rebecca—isn’t that funny?”
A heavy quiet descended slowly, pressing down on their shoulders. The young ladies turned their faces away from Etheliohn.
They cleanly ignored her, as though they’d overheard a conversation they shouldn’t have, and resumed their own discussion.
“So then, who do you suppose Chedwin’s beloved is?”
Having perfectly forgotten what Etheliohn had said, the young ladies returned to gossiping about Chedwin’s romantic prospects.
‘I crashed and burned completely.’
When her carefully prepared tale of infidelity fell flat, Etheliohn closed her mouth.
‘It was the hottest topic among the servants.’
Etheliohn had no friends.
The trouble began when Mila, a high-ranking Purifier she’d met upon entering the Academy, openly despised her.
Young ladies of similar age all watched carefully and quietly excluded her.
So the only conversations Etheliohn heard were the rumors the servants gossiped about.
‘I didn’t mention the story about the cow that escaped from the Zeilly Family.’
Etheliohn rummaged through her mind for the most entertaining story she’d heard.
‘I need a different story, a different rumor.’
One that people would care about more than this ridiculous tale.
‘……A rumor? Wait.’
A name flickered through Etheliohn’s mind.
Sophia.
Her eyes gleamed.
She had suffered from false rumors spread with malice before, but she’d never spread a rumor herself.
‘I’d only thought that someday, in bitterness, I’d turn the tables and use rumors back on them!’
Today was that day!
“Then, have you heard that rumor?” Etheliohn asked, her voice trembling slightly as she ventured carefully into speech.
The young ladies, who had been guessing at Chedwin’s romantic interest, turned to her with bored expressions.
“We’re not at all curious about plant names, Miss Etheliohn.”
Since the beginning had already diverged from the original, she couldn’t make a spectacular entrance before everyone the way the source material depicted, but perhaps she could still emerge impressively as the rumored Second-Rank Purifier.
“There’s a rumor that a Second-Rank Purifier will appear soon.”
Her heart pounded as she tried spreading rumors for the first time.
It didn’t matter if they asked for the source. The rumors about Chedwin circulating in High Society now were lies anyway, and nobody knew who started them, yet everyone was enjoying them.
The air around her fell quiet again.
But the reaction was entirely different this time. Before, they’d fallen silent out of boredom and disbelief, but now everyone’s mouths fell open in surprise.
“A Second-Rank Purifier?!”
Voices erupted in unison.
Several pairs of eyes turned toward Etheliohn, as though wondering when she’d started talking about Chedwin.
‘I’ll build anticipation with the rumor first, then introduce Sophia as the star of the story!’
She could give Sophia the spectacular entrance from the original work. And on top of that, she could bury Chedwin’s rumors too!
‘How clever!’
Etheliohn praised herself and smiled with satisfaction.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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