That Piece Of Trash Was Me - Chapter 69
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 69
“As expected…!”
“There’s no way such a defect could come from a magic tool directly crafted by the Magic Tower!”
“Exactly!”
“And earlier, he even tried to frame the late Marquis’s wife as someone obsessed with dark magic.”
“To speak such false rumors directly out loud. Isn’t this far too discourteous?!”
The nobles chattered excitedly as if riding a rapid current.
Only Viscount Lilius and his wife Aubrey had turned pale beyond recognition.
“This can’t be, this can’t be happening…!”
Step by step, Lilius staggered backward as if being cornered.
But Leon Frazier didn’t spare them even a glance.
Striding toward Tulia Frazier, he lifted her up from the wheelchair in one swift motion.
Her thigh, wrapped in several layers of bandages, dangled in the air.
Even so, the bottom of her dress was faintly red, as if the sutured wound had reopened.
Damn it.
Leon Frazier, swallowing his curse, shouted loudly.
“Call the personal physician!”
* * *
It really hurts.
It truly hurts.
When a person is in pain, their heart becomes weak, and when the heart becomes weak, buried memories tend to surface.
So, desires like those of Han Ina.
Perhaps if I had been just a little more wicked in nature.
I might have wished for everyone to disappear.
My older sister and brothers with such a large age gap.
And even my younger sibling, who was the ‘real’ child of Mother and Stepfather.
If they had all been gone.
If my older sister, brothers, and younger sibling had all been gone.
Could I, who was only allowed to linger forever in that awkward position, have become someone important to Mother?
Someone more important.
The most important person.
Someone irreplaceable.
If that had been the case, could I have lived without feeling emotions like envy and hatred?
‘Who knows.’
Still…
I once thought about it.
That my heart was like a small balloon.
A balloon that needed long breaths pushed into it every single day.
When the surface expanded with each breath, the existing wounds would become invisible too.
So I could pretend nothing happened, pretend I wasn’t envious or lonely at all.
A fragile balloon that seemed like it could endure forever.
As long as I pushed deep breaths into it every day, my wounds would remain invisible.
Until that thin, thin balloon burst, it would have been fine.
Before the balloon could burst, Mother died and I died too.
Since everyone died, I couldn’t know what would happen after my heart burst.
I could only guess forever, never truly knowing.
“…lia.”
A disgustingly familiar voice woke me, so I pretended not to hear.
“Tulia. Hey. Tulia. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. …Hey.”
A voice more annoying than an alarm clock on Monday morning.
Pouring ashes from burned letters over my head.
Spouting childish words saying he never thought of someone like me as a younger sister.
That effort.
That effort to hurt me was so admirable.
The damned bastard who ended up hurting me with that admirable effort kept trying to wake me.
“Just… shut up.”
“…Ha.”
I spat out the words like chewing them, unable to open my eyes properly.
I know I need to manage this bastard’s affection level.
I know I have to dance with this bastard at Grandfather’s birthday banquet.
Because that’s the Quest.
The Quest had to be completed.
So I tried my best to please him and worked hard to grovel, but when a person is in too much pain, they end up snapping like this.
I don’t know.
‘Ah, whatever.’
I really don’t know.
If you’re going to kill me, just kill me!
I’m in this much pain, surely it can’t get worse than this.
My whole body feels like it’s burning with fever.
My thigh is completely numb, I can’t even tell what kind of sensation it is.
“Get lost, Leon.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll get lost.”
After that, I seemed to sleep for a while.
My throat was dry, and as I fumbled around, water flowed into my mouth.
When the lukewarm liquid moistened my parched insides, I felt like I might live.
Only then did I have the strength to lift my eyelids that couldn’t open properly.
“What, what…”
I was startled as soon as I opened my eyes.
“…Why are you here?”
Still?
Because Leon Frazier was sitting on my bed with his legs crossed.
Leon Frazier, looking down at me with his arms folded, wasn’t as neat as usual.
Even though he didn’t maintain the razor-sharp tidiness like Lisian, he always maintained the elegant cleanliness befitting a young master of the Marquis House.
Even the water cup was in his hands.
Did he just give me water?
Surely not Leon Frazier, that bastard?
Him?
‘How strange.’
I was certain.
Certain that Leon Frazier wouldn’t shoot me with an arrow, at least.
‘I became even more certain after checking his affection level.’
Leon doesn’t know.
That in that brief moment when Leon approached, angry at the order to shoot the arrow, I opened the ‘Status Window.’
That I checked Leon Frazier’s affection level, which I had been putting off and putting off.
[System] Would you like to check ‘Leon Frazier’s’ affection level?
[System] Leon Frazier’s Character Importance: ☆☆☆☆☆
And the affection gauge bar I checked was….
As clear and blue as a beautiful midday sky.
Ridiculously so.
‘…What did I even do for the affection level to get that high.’
Leon Frazier wasn’t the only one from the Main Quest who was supposed to ‘love’ Tulia.
I had already suspected as much.
Ever since Leon Frazier scattered the ashes of burned letters on himself.
Still, I never thought the affection gauge bar, which I assumed would just be red, would be such a vivid blue.
“….”
Of course, I never thought he’d go so far as to give me water like this….
Why is he acting like this?
‘Has he lost it?’
I hid my confusion and asked.
“Did you stay up all night?”
Here?
“Yeah. He stayed up all night. Here.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah. I don’t know.”
‘This bastard.’
Is he trying to pick a fight with me when I’m practically a corpse?
I was dumbfounded but had no energy, so I just closed my eyes for now.
But then a finger kept poking me.
“They said to feed you when you wake up.”
What Leon Frazier brought was a bowl of herbal medicine.
It seemed to have cooled down a bit, but steam was still faintly rising from it.
“I can eat it myself, so could you please leave?”
Leon Frazier didn’t even pretend to listen to me and stirred the herbal medicine halfheartedly with a spoon.
“For a marquis’s daughter, you don’t have many servants, but those few can’t do anything against you.”
“I’ll eat it myself, so could you please get lost?”
“The assistant butler is at least young, but the head maid is from the borderlands, and the personal physician is a renowned doctor with a high nose—how did you win them over? You have nothing going for you except your face. With that terrible personality, you managed to get three people to genuinely worry about you.”
“I’ll eat it myself, so could you really stop being a pain and get lost?”
“Why do you always get all the worry?”
Suddenly, the flow of air stopped completely.
“….”
It felt like walking leisurely on what I thought was flat ground, only to suddenly step down an unexpected ledge.
Because Leon Frazier’s voice had dropped by exactly that much.
Did this guy drink the medicine himself?
Just as I was thinking that.
“Is it because your hair is pink? Your eyes are like spring green too.”
Even while talking about me, he wasn’t looking at me.
Like a boy talking about spring while thinking of winter.
“Is it because you resemble Mother the most, so no matter how much I clung to Mother, it was useless?”
“…Huh?”
“You don’t know, right? You were just sleeping the whole time back then.”
The hand stirring the herbal medicine gradually slowed down.
“It was an incredibly dark night. No moon either.”
“….”
“Mother put on a robe at night and secretly went out through the back gate. I don’t know why I woke up at that late hour, but when Mother left, I quickly followed her.”
I could slowly understand what story Leon Frazier was bringing up.
The late Marchioness Frazier.
The biological mother of the twins and Tulia.
Their mother, who died while enjoying a secret affair with another man and became a subject of open taboo and ridicule in high society.
“Even though I was quite young, I instinctively knew. That Mother was going to abandon me and leave.”
“….”
“So I clung to her. I just clung. Because I was young.”
It was instantaneous.
Suddenly, colorful text appeared before my eyes, and content all too familiar to me flashed.
[System] Bonus Benefit Acquired!
[System] Playing back ‘Memory of That Day’!
Wait, you’re just starting playback without my consent?
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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