Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 59

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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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59.

His expression hardened by degrees, and his voice emerged low and measured.
“I hear you visited the Welfare Center.”
Axid knew the Welfare Center’s location well enough.
Though he rarely conducted personal inspections of the civilian quarters, the Welfare Center held meaningful significance in the Grand Duke Territory.
Yet to think she had set foot in a place where hazards lay scattered everywhere.
‘Should I reassign her guard?’
It wasn’t merely because Lumiere had remained close to Kaiden’s side, as he’d been told.
That he had taken no one less than Lumiere to such an unsanitary place was a dereliction of duty as her escort itself.
He’d confirmed with his own eyes that she bore no wounds, and yet his mood had not improved.
Because of that, his voice carried lower and rougher than usual.
“The next time you mean to visit such a place, you will inform me first.”
“If I had told you, would you have permitted it?”
“…….”
His silence was answer enough.
Lumiere smiled softly.
“You leave for the Fortress whenever monsters appear.”
“That is my duty as it stands.”
“And this is mine. While you guard the borders, I guard within the castle walls. I am your consort, after all.”
Isn’t that so?
At that small question, as if seeking agreement, tension seized Axid’s jaw.
…….
He was furious.
And yet it infuriated him more that she was not wrong in the slightest.
To confine her within the castle walls on grounds of danger was no different from reducing her to a mere ornament.
After a long moment, he spoke.
“Then I will alter the terms.”
“How so?”
“Next time, I will accompany you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Whether it’s the Slum District or anywhere else. Wherever you must go.”
Lumiere’s eyes widened.
“Are you not occupied?”
“My schedule is mine to arrange.”
He spoke with finality, as if he would brook no objection.
She opened her mouth, then swallowed her smile and nodded.
“Very well. I’ll feel far more at ease if you accompany me. But Your Grace—aren’t you cold, dressed like that?”
Lumiere gazed at his thin shirt and shivered as if chilled merely by the sight, then seized his hand with sudden warmth.
The same hand, dusted with soil as always.
Yet at that unhesitating grip, his rigid shoulders relaxed and fell.
It was a strange thing.
Moments before, he had been undeniably angry, but at the small gesture of her hand drawing him closer, his rage crumbled to nothing.
How had it come to this?
Unable to fathom how her slightest gesture could sway his mood so entirely, a hollow laugh escaped him.
Yet it remained an unchanging fact that Kaiden had neglected his duty and led Lumiere into danger.
He recalled Kaiden, who stood watching from a distance as if aware of his transgression, and swallowed back a chill of anger.

***

The Gentlemen’s Club was both a salon where the powerful gathered in secrecy and a closed space where premium intelligence was exchanged.
It was perfectly natural for Count Fendro to move through it as though it were his own home.
Yet the news he had heard at the Gentlemen’s Club today was nothing like the sort of premium intelligence that would serve him well.
In the thick darkness of night.
A carriage drew to a halt before Fendro Manor.
Count Fendro descended from the carriage with a set expression.
Of late, his nerves had been razor-sharp on account of the official correspondence sent to the Weizer Empire’s foreign office.
He had returned the empire’s arrogant notification in kind, by order of His Highness, yet the thought of what pretext they might seize upon next made bile rise in his throat.
And yet in all of this, the girl had gone and caused a scandal.
Fendro pushed through the front door of his manor with heavy strides.
“Where is Belia?”
“Miss is currently enjoying refreshments in the Conservatory, sir.”
At the butler’s answer, the count’s face twisted with displeasure. He clicked his tongue and made his way toward the Conservatory.
“Father, you’re back?”
Belia, who had been leisurely enjoying tea and reading a book in the Conservatory, rose from her seat.
“Your mother left you one of her heirlooms, I hear?”
“Pardon?”
Belia flinched.
“There was an heirloom I didn’t know about?”
“That is…”
Fendro raised his voice, his gaze cutting across his daughter’s rigid frame.
“You cause an uproar at the palace, of all places, when you should be keeping your head down, and now I’ve had to listen to the Minister of Finance prattling about it. Do you have any idea what I’ve been hearing out there?”
The situation was already tense enough—friction with the Weizer Empire was all but certain—and he was in no mood for gossip.
Yet because of this foolish daughter, he’d had to endure remarks he’d never wanted to hear from the Minister.

“You show such keen interest in other families’ affairs, and yet you pay so little attention to your own household.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I heard your daughter caused a disturbance at the Princess’s Tea Gathering. She lost her grandmother’s heirloom and nearly had an innocent attendant accused of theft.”
“Even if such a thing occurred, it hardly seems a matter for a count to concern himself with.”
“If you have the leisure to worry about another man’s daughter’s health, perhaps you should first concern yourself with your own—the one who carelessly loses her mother’s precious heirlooms.”

His daughter had fallen into such disrepute that even that man had grown cowed in his presence before.
And yet she’d managed to invite his mockery.
“What possessed you to behave like that at the Princess’s Tea Gathering?”
If her mother’s heirloom had been mentioned, it meant his daughter had deliberately engineered this disaster.
She had always moved with such care, never putting a foot wrong—and yet she had chosen to do this. He couldn’t fathom it.
“It was an excellent opportunity to cast suspicion on the Princess. I thought the risk was worth taking.”
“Your position would come to you naturally if you simply waited. Why create a stain on that woman’s reputation when she’s already a dead weight?”
“Because we cannot simply leave things as they are. If the Grand Duke were to become truly enamored with her…”
Belia’s eyes grew cold and sharp.
Should the Grand Duke’s wife die and she fail to slip into that vacant place quickly enough, her father would sell her off to another house without hesitation.
“If you’re going to meddle, you should do it without being caught. You were a match for Countess Mobert, yet you played at her level—how pathetic.”
Belia’s mouth tightened.
She regretted that incident herself, in truth.
And now he was forcing her to relive it.
“For the time being, conduct yourself with restraint. I don’t want to hear another word about attending these frivolous social gatherings and the like!”
“Father, but surely that’s a bit too—”
“That woman, whom you view so lightly, holds proper Tea Gatherings and even oversees the Fundraising Events, yet you sneak into such affairs and attempt your pathetic schemes?”
……
Fendro swept his gaze down his daughter as he continued.
“You’re being called an incompetent fool who can’t even keep her grandmother’s heirloom safe. And you don’t even know it.”
“Father!”
Belia’s expression hardened, and she clenched her fists.
“Stop your idle scheming and obey me. The rumors will die down once you’ve withdrawn from society for a while.”
Judging by the Minister’s behavior, he could well imagine the whispers circulating about his daughter.
That she couldn’t even keep her own possession safe—an innocent attendant had nearly been branded a thief for it.
Worst of all, it was her grandmother’s heirloom she’d lost, which meant the gossip would haunt her for some time.
If he was to preserve the carefully cultivated image of his household, she would need to lie low until the storm passed.
He regarded his daughter with contempt, then left the Conservatory without another word.
……
Left alone, Belia silently closed the book that lay in her lap.
Her fingers trembled.

“That woman, whom you view so lightly, holds proper Tea Gatherings and even oversees the Fundraising Events, yet you sneak into such affairs and attempt your pathetic schemes?”

…Pathetic schemes?
An incompetent fool?
Me?
She rose from her chair, trembling, her face drained of all color.
Even without her father’s words, she’d resolved to keep to herself for a while.
It had been only days since she’d sworn to act with prudence.
And yet.
In the moment his crude reproach echoed in her ears, followed by the Grand Duchess’s mocking reminder to guard the Ring well, the memory surfaced—and with it, the rage she’d fought so hard to suppress.
Fury rose like a tide she could no longer hold back.
“…….”
Belia’s fingers blanched white around her fist, and her eyes glinted with cold, coruscating rage.

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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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