The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 21

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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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The carriage arrived at the Exhibition Hall. I took Everaine’s hand as he stepped down first, and together we made our way toward the Botanical Garden.
“Wow…. It’s much bigger than I expected.”
“I’ve heard the royal family invested considerably in its construction.”
At the entrance to the enormous glass conservatory, built high in a pyramidal shape, I spotted a gatekeeper checking invitations from the arriving guests. Watching them present their cards, I felt an unexpected flutter of nerves.
“Everyone’s dressed so lavishly.”
“These sorts of events are usually meant as social occasions, so people arrive adorned like peacocks.”
“Ha, that’s an amusing way to put it. Have you attended social gatherings like this before, Everaine?”
“I attended a few parties in my teens, accompanying the Duke. However…….”
“However?”
“I couldn’t simply overlook a lecherous old man who kept his hands on ladies’ posteriors.”
“Surely you didn’t hit him? At a party?”
“I didn’t hit him.”
Which meant he’d done something equally bad or worse.
I wondered if the Duke realized the stray kitten he’d taken in was actually a tiger with hidden claws.
Exchanging this and that, we passed through the entrance and into the glass garden.
Among the lush green plants crowding the space, paired peacocks strolled about. Watching them, I whispered softly.
“Do we have to greet people like they do as we walk around?”
“There’s no need for that. Our task is simply to attend, enjoy some good food, take a stroll by the Riverside afterward, and return home.”
I hadn’t time to answer what a relief that was, because someone passing beside me called my name.
“Lionel?”
Bright blonde hair and blue eyes—my half-sister Ruen stood before me, having inherited every dazzling quality from her mother.
“Ruen, what are you doing here?”
“That’s what I should ask you. What right do you have to be here……?”
Ruen had begun to pick a quarrel with me, but she flinched upon noticing Everaine at my side. Everaine turned to ask.
“Teacher. Who is this person?”
“My half-sister.”
At my matter-of-fact reply, Everaine nodded and offered a formal greeting.
“I am Everaine Karseido. So you are the teacher’s sister.”
With that, Everaine simply stated the fact and fell silent.
There was no pleasantry about being delighted to meet her, no comment about how well her dress suited her, no polite “it’s my pleasure”—none of the small courtesies that flow so easily from high society.
“K-Karseido… Lord Karseido…. I’m Ruen Fresia. My sister has been such a help. I, I heard there would be many gentlemen today, so I, I dressed up a bit…… How, how do I look?”
‘Oh…. Interesting.’
The aloof half-sister I remembered was not here.
Disarmed by his handsome face, Ruen made her pitch with flushed cheeks.
Everaine glanced at me with a troubled expression, then looked back at Ruen.
“You’re… wearing a hat.”
“Yes.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Is that all?”
When Ruen asked, Everaine looked at me again. He seemed extremely uncomfortable.
Unable to help it, I stepped in as mediator.
“Ruen. What you want to hear is so transparent it’s painful to watch. Just back off now. If you retreat while you’re ahead, you might at least stay in Everaine’s memory as the woman in the hat.”
“Y-you……! How dare you act superior when you have no standing!”
Ruen pulled off her hat in irritation and tossed it aside. Everaine bent slightly at the waist and whispered to me—softly, but loud enough for all to hear.
“The way she keeps calling her sister ‘you’ shows neither courtesy nor breeding. It’s best to avoid those without breeding, regardless of sex. Shall we move elsewhere?”
I agreed with Everaine’s assessment and had no desire to spend more time looking at Ruen, so I turned to leave. That was when Ruen let out a shriek and reached for my head.
“Don’t go! We’re not finished talking!”
She was going for her signature move—seizing someone by the hair…….
But Everaine moved like lightning, catching her wrist. Ruen cried out.
“W-what are you doing!”
“Please compose yourself, Miss in the Hat. Do not lay your hands on the teacher’s lovely hair.”
“What?! Let go of me!”
As her voice grew louder, the attention of nearby guests turned toward us. A voice rose above the murmuring crowd.
“Ruen Fresia! Stop this at once!”
The flailing movements of Ruen and Everaine, who was restraining her, came to an abrupt halt.
An elderly man dressed in ornate clothing loudly reprimanded Ruen.
“How dare you behave so recklessly! Is that what your mother taught you!”
“M-Marseya… Lord Marseya. No, that’s not…….”
“How could you possibly think you’ll become part of the Marseya Household with such frivolous conduct? Apologize at once!”
Marseya. The moment I heard that name, I turned to Ruen in shock.
“What? What’s going on? Why are you here with that man…? I mean, why are you with him?”
Tears welled up in Ruen’s eyes. The instant Everaine released her hand, she crumpled to the ground.
“Lionel… this is all because of you. You ran away, so now I’m supposed to become that man’s concubine instead!”
“What are you talking about? Why would you—?”
The seventy-two-year-old count who’d made my life miserable.
I had made a promise to him: if I couldn’t repay the tuition I’d borrowed from her mother, I would become his concubine.
‘But why would Ruen ever agree to this?’
Ruen sobbed silently. I pieced together what had happened from the scraps of information before me.
Ravienne, who had been so insistent that Ruen marry the count; our family, who despite owning little more than a modest trading company, indulged in extravagance.
Drawing the conclusion was rather simple.
“You accepted the bride price from the count in advance. And a sum far greater than my tuition.”
“…….”
“You were confident you could send me to become the count’s concubine, but when I simply repaid exactly what I’d borrowed and disappeared, the count demanded you instead. Your family, having already spent the bride price, had no choice but to send you. Am I right, Ruen?”
“H-h-hiccup… Wahhhhh!!”
Ruen began to wail uncontrollably.
People around us who had assumed the elderly count and Ruen were grandfather and granddaughter began to whisper among themselves.
“So that’s what their relationship was…”
“No wonder the young lady looked so young, and he kept touching her…”
Unable to bear the murmurs, Ruen fled the spot. I stood frozen, watching her retreating figure.
‘This isn’t what I wanted.’
Ruen had certainly been an insufferable brat of a sister, tormenting me relentlessly.
But I wasn’t cruel enough to rejoice in her becoming an old count’s concubine in my stead.
I would have felt more at peace tearing at each other’s hair in a proper fight.
“Lionel Frencia. You’ve grown beautifully.”
The count had sidled up beside me and spoken those words.
His yellowed teeth and age-spotted face broke into a leer.
“I’ve toured the empire’s orphanages and villages, and there wasn’t a girl like you anywhere… I should have taken you the moment I first saw you in that little hometown village of yours.”
As his gaze traveled from my head to my feet, my stomach churned.
When I looked at him with contempt in my eyes, he snorted.
“Yes! That look! I loved that look. A mere seven-year-old with such sharp eyes. My hobby is breaking the spirits of insolent little girls like you.”
“Enough, Marseya. I am no longer that seven-year-old insolent girl you once knew.”
At my warning, the perverse old man grew only more animated, his lips moving eagerly.
“It’s not too late, Lionel Frencia. Come to me as my concubine now, and I’ll treat you very well.”
“…What?”
“Or better yet, if both sisters came to me as concubines, you’d have each other for support, wouldn’t you? Let me see whether you can bear children well.”
The count reached out his hand. His target was my backside.
“Don’t you dare touch me, you wretched old fool!”
My sharp cry came out as my dress skirts fluttered.
It was the wind created by Everaine, who had moved with the speed of light and threw himself into action.
“W-what…?!”
The count’s cry was cut short.
Everaine seized him by the collar, and in an instant, the count’s body flew upward.
It was a flawlessly executed Suplex Throw.
“No, Everaine!”
From my lips came a torrent of the types of trauma I anticipated from this fall.
“Dislocated shoulder, broken clavicle, fractured wrist, broken ribs, rotator cuff injury, torn ligaments, concussion—stop!”
I lunged toward the count but stopped short. Something was wrong.
‘There was no sound of impact. Why didn’t I hear it?’
Looking carefully, the count’s body hung slightly above the ground. Something had caught him just before he struck the floor.
While the count lay unconscious, foaming at the mouth, at least no serious injury had occurred.
After observing him for a long moment, I noticed a blue light enveloping his body.
“Do I really have to hold their hands and guide them through every step of courtship? Why does it take so much maintenance?”
A tall man appeared with heavy footfalls. His overwhelming presence drew everyone’s gaze.
Karseido spoke with exasperation in his tone.
“Things weren’t like this in my day.”

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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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