I'll Save This Damn Family! - Chapter 3

I had to be calm. Calm.

 

I quickly took a deep breath and organized my thoughts. If I lost this chance right now, then I could already see all the tiresome situations that would follow.

 

“I-I am using the Elias Family name officially. Just now, you never mentioned having to be a currently participating member of the Elias Family. Not to mention, the most important of the many reasons the Elias Family has been able to grow to this extent is faith.”

 

“Faith?”

 

“Yes. Faith.”

 

I took a big breath and continued speaking. As my brain started to work, the initial nervousness slowly melted away, and my voice slowly gained strength.

 

As expected, an 18-year-old’s brain was totally different.

 

“Faith that prevented suspicions of exchanges with the Elias Family head. Your words, Father, as the head, are no less trustworthy than a written promise of a contract, so I trust you will protect it this time as well. Not to mention, Father has never once broken your word. As such, I would like to think that you would not withdraw the words you have already spoken on such an important event. As such, this is an equal chance with no prerequisites attached. That is the right that any child of Father, who holds the family’s name, should be given. In addition, the problem of whether I am entitled to hold this name can be proven through this examination. As you said earlier, I am someone who imprisoned myself. That was both my illness and my will. However, I have now escaped the grips of that illness, and my will has also changed. I believe just by voicing my will to participate is more than enough to express this. That’s why. That’s why I would have given permission to participate in this examination if I were Father.”

 

The sitting room was quiet as though time had stopped.

 

An expression close to disgust had settled on everyone’s expression. That included my father’s.

 

Ah… I spoke too much. I should have been moderate.

I hurriedly hid my flustered expression and awaited my father’s next words.

 

That appalled face changed to astonishment, then to confusion, and finally to interest.

 

Aha. I thought he was a person without expression, but his expressions were especially diverse today.

 

“Is it your third month?”

 

For a moment I had no idea what he was questioning, but I soon realized and answered, “Yes. That should be about how long it’s been since I woke up.”

 

“…Is that so? What great luck.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“No. Alright, fine. Your words are also correct. But you should note this. That faith you mentioned is not something that can be created through the words of a moment. That is the result after measuring a relationship that cannot be expressed with words. In other words, the confidence in your words was determined by your previous actions in relation to the Elias Family’s reputation. Though I am unsure if debating faith and confidence would be of immediate reward to you, the premise of having to withstand the weight of the consequences remains true. I will watch you. I will watch to see your words of faith and confidence indeed weigh true.”

 

“…”

 

“Everyone, go to the butler to choose your teachers. Tara, you should do so as well.”

 

My name was spoken for the first time by my father.

 

“Yes.”

 

That was how the meeting in the sitting room ended. Afterward, the gaze with which my family looked at me all changed a little.

 

However, they did not seem to be expectant. They merely seemed to think I had spent my days so pent up in my room with only books around like a hikikomori to the extent that my skill with words had grown better.

 

***

 

“What do you think?” the count asked, a long time after Viscount Dylan Gabriel had entered the head’s study.

 

“I had heard that it was an addiction to print. I’m not entirely sure. But there’s no doubt that she seems much better than she was three months ago.”

 

“You’re saying the obvious. Well. Since she fell from the tree and woken up, she has started to go outside more frequently, talk with the servants, so I also thought she had gotten much better, but I had not thought she’d be able to speak so well.”

 

“According to the family doctor, Sir Oliver, there were no problems with her health. There were no particular aftereffects, and her stuttering has improved a lot. It’s just that her physical abilities have decreased to the point that she sometimes experiences heart pain or respiratory instability, and symptoms like joint pain may worsen. He did say that it’s likely because she had barely moved in the last seven years.”

 

“Hm… That body. Right, that’s the problem. Exercise…”

 

“She’s already started to train twice a day at the exercise field. She started a month ago.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

The count had already been surprised twice.

 

Having experienced various events, and meeting numerous people, his ability to feel shocked had slowly decreased over time. After becoming an old man who had experienced all sorts of hardships, the most surprising thing to him was the wrath of the emperor or the sinking of a merchant ship. Or things like the death of merchants within the guild who had been kidnapped by an enemy nation.

 

Expectations that he thought had long died within him started to squirm inside his heart once more.

 

But he grasped hold of himself again.

 

Count Lloyd started to tap the desk with his thumb, an unconscious habit he had when he fell into thought.

 

[He entered a forbidden district. It was a district believed to be infected with plague, so the Dukedom forbade entry, but communication was inadequate and he entered with a soldier.]

 

That day, seven years ago. The once-healthy first son, Brandon, returned as a cold corpse.

 

[Why did he go to such a place?]

 

The secretary, who had followed him into the Gawain Dukedom, hesitated as if awkward before opening his mouth with difficulty.

 

[He said he was going to go buy Milady’s birthday present…]

 

[What……?]

 

Lloyd had doubted his ears. His oldest, who was brighter than any other, was the heir to succeed him. However, his nature was the problem. The nature of being unable to pass over the weak quietly.

 

He had always been slightly disappointed in that weakness of heart, but in the end, his nature had become a knife and swallowed his eldest whole.

 

The hands that handed him a heavy, red silk pouch trembled. When he had carefully opened the pouch, a finely carved document box showed itself. The sun-kissed document box was an artifact so old it was hard to determine when it had been made. It exuded an elegant beauty that was worth a lot.

 

Click. 

 

When he opened the golden latch, pieces of a cypress papyrus paper, also sun-kissed, lay inside. It was filled to the brim with old letters, so it must have been worth a lot.

 

[Who…?]

 

His voice had trembled as he tried to hold his anger inside.

 

[The fifth, Lady Tara…]

 

That was right. His precious eldest had entered the forbidden area to fulfill an 11-year-old’s spoiled request, wandered for several hours, finally contracted the infectious disease originating from animals, and died before anyone could do anything.

 

Because of the disease, they were unable to honor him as he was immediately cremated.

 

The death of his eldest, who had already been chosen as his heir, became the unimaginable truth, and the rage of his death was delivered directly to the 11-year-old Tara.

 

However, that daughter did not allow her father to express his rage and hid inside her room.

 

Lloyd rubbed his aching temples from the reminder of his eldest’s death for the first time in the last few years. “…Ha. She was quite shrewd seven years ago. That’s right, I had forgotten.”

 

A long moment later, the viscount asked carefully, “What should I do?”

 

“Do what?”

 

“…”

 

At the wrathful rhetorical question, the viscount’s lips hesitated before they closed firmly.

 

The count’s chilly expression looked like a signal that he would not forgive any word.

 

“…Though it was the fault of her illness, it was also a fault of her will? How absurd. Just watch her for now. I have no expectations for the child. She had only returned to the child she was before she fell into illness. It’s no more and no less than that. She had requested a teacher. Ha. That’s right. Let’s see who she brings.” At the count’s hand gesture, the viscount quietly slipped out of the study.

 

Though he had said all that, Lloyd grew blank at the odd feeling of deja vu.

 

[…If they have skills, regardless of their societal position, we must appoint them to an important position. If we carry out a hierarchical system where the father’s identity helps the promotion of their child even if they exerted little effort, then just how many do you think would do their best at their job right now? The point where the Elias Family’s guild is different from all other guilds is this very principle…]

 

Could it be a coincidence that he thought of his eldest and passionate gaze and voice for the first time in years?

 

“It seems I, too, have grown old.” The count brushed aside his thoughts, shook his head, and picked up the account book for his territories.

 

***

 

The next day.

 

I lost 2kg within a day. Yesterday evening, I forwent dinner with superhuman patience, and I exercised this morning with an empty belly for the first time. I thought I was dying.

 

And today was a day I had to be especially healthy for.

 

“There’s no doubt I’m loathed.” I propped up my heavy chin with two hands and fell into various thoughts. “Could it be that he died because of me…?”

 

There were only three lines of description about the eldest son who had died in the book. He was a youth who was bright, smart, merciful, and kind. He was a cheat of a character, or somewhere along those lines.

 

Not to mention there was the young Tara who followed after her brother like a baby. No, me.

 

When I was young, I think I had read books to the point I was a print addict or something like that.

 

Her memory was so good that all that information had been piled up nicely within this head.

 

I shook the leg crossed over, no arduously placed on the thigh of the other.

 

“Hmm… It was written that the brother I had followed obediently had died and I stopped speaking… ing… Hmm…!” I stopped suddenly. 

 

The cookie went within my grasp at some point in time. And that half-empty plate of cookies with a bottom smeared with chocolate syrup.

 

“My god. I’m sick of this. Beth. Beth!”

 

At my call, Beth came running. “Gasp. Yes, milady!”

 

“What is this? I don’t think I ever asked for this?”

 

“That’s what we place in the lord and ladies’ rooms every day as a snack.”

 

A truly wronged face.

 

“Ah… I’m going to go crazy.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“No. Don’t ever give this to me in the future unless I ask for it. You can have it for yourself. No, even if I ask for it, say that there isn’t any. Especially this cookie filled with moist chocolates that are so tasty that they seem to melt in my mouth!”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why do you keep responding with yes? Hey From now on, this is forbidden from my room. Instead, bring me lots of water. 1 liter. No, give me more than 2 liters every day.”

 

“Yes, milady.” Having turned around, Beth secretly pouted. 

 

I wonder if I was a bit too harsh.

 

What was this with taking my anger out on someone else? Wasn’t this what you had experienced with those producers back then? What was with the sudden abuse of power?

 

I sighed deeply and called Beth. “I was a little sensitive, so I went a bit overboard. I’m sorry.”

 

“Yes?” The face filled with astonishment.

 

“Because you’re my only personal maid, I always end up calling you over and asking for too much.”

 

“I’m not your personal maid.”

 

“What?”

 

“That’s… Milady had spent such a long time inside, and after that incident, you kept lying in bed. Hmmm. So we were each in charge of milady by rotation under Madame’s orders.”

 

“Is that so? So I don’t have a personal maid?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then why did you come the most frequently?”

 

“That’s, of course, because milady called me frequently.”

 

“Ah… I just assumed such because you were there when I woke up…”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

Just what kind of pointless conversation was this?

 

“How many maids does Chloe have?”

 

“She has three.”

 

“Aria?”

 

“Also three.”

 

“What about Jason?”

 

“Four.”

 

“And Logan?”

 

“Two because he’s at school.”

 

“And I have none?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

Why did she look awkward? The person who should feel awkward and embarrassed was me.

 

Hm. It looked like I should solve this first.