Chapter 29: I Didn’t Know They Cared This Much

The moment Elias came to, he felt a sharp ache in several parts of his body, especially his chest and his head.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a room prepared by the Aurelle family.

As he tried to sit up, his entire body screamed in protest, obviously.

On top of that, his right hand felt strangely heavy, like something was pressing down on it.

"Ugh..."

He tried to glance down to check, but the pain made him think better of it.

"What happened?"

Elias tried to piece together what had happened before, but no matter how hard he tried, the memory stayed frustratingly hazy.

"If I’m remembering right, I was fighting Lady Elysia, then... Ugh!"

Elias pressed a hand to his throbbing head, groaning in pain.

"Elias...?"

"Ah..." Elias turned his head to the side and found Evelyn standing there, holding a basin filled with warm water.

"Lady Evelyn."

"Don’t move. Stay lying down. Your body’s nearly destroyed, and I’m sure it hurts like hell."

Evelyn wasn’t wrong. It felt rude to just lie there while his employer stood over him, but given the state his body was in, it hardly mattered, Evelyn was the one telling him to stay put anyway.

’She actually gets it? What the heck...’

"What happened?"

"Hmm? You don’t remember?"

"I remember, but only in pieces. After I got hit and fell, everything after that just goes blank."

"So you don’t remember continuing to attack Elysia over and over?"

Elias scratched his cheek, trying hard to dig up the memory.

"That... that’s hazy too. I do remember throwing attack after attack at Lady Elysia. But out of everything, I don’t think I actually landed a single hit."

Evelyn wrung out the cloth sitting in the basin, then took a seat in the chair beside Elias and gently wiped his face with it.

"Then why’d you keep attacking her, when not a single one of your attacks ever actually connected?"

Hearing that, Elias could only laugh weakly, since he genuinely had no idea why he’d kept pushing the attack like that.

"Ahaha... I just felt like... maybe if I kept throwing attacks, I’d eventually find an opening. But I’m honestly not even sure if that was really what I was feeling or not..."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, confused by how uncertain Elias sounded.

"So you’re saying you were only half conscious at the time?"

"Hmmm... Maybe, maybe not. After I fell, my head hurt so badly it felt like my brain had actually shifted slightly out of place... maybe."

"This isn’t the time for jokes... Elias."

"..."

Elias suddenly noticed something, Evelyn’s usual gentle smile had vanished, replaced by something dead serious, the skin under her eyes tinged red despite the makeup covering it.

"Sorry..."

"..."

Elias couldn’t be entirely sure, but the mood had turned incredibly awkward with Evelyn sitting there, head bowed, saying nothing at all.

Feeling the silence close in around him, Elias forced himself to pick a new topic.

"Where’s Lady Elysia?"

Evelyn raised a hand, pointing to the side of Elias without lifting her head.

"On your hand."

Elias finally forced himself to glance down, and sure enough, the reason his hand had felt so heavy turned out to be Elysia, fast asleep right on top of it.

’Good grief. That explains it...’

"Please..."

"W-what is it, Lady Evelyn?"

’Why does her voice suddenly sound so shaky?!’

Elias turned to face her, confusion written across his face, and found Evelyn still bowed with her head down, her voice soft and trembling, her whole body shaking slightly.

"Please... Don’t ever do something like that again... I... I don’t want..."

"...my Lady...?"

"You know... I... I was so worried about you. And Elysia even more so... Because of her, this happened to you. I’m sure she feels guilty, and terrified something might happen to you.

And so do I... I..."

A single tear slipped from her eye, falling onto her clenched hands resting in her lap.

"I’m so scared something might happen to either of you. I was so worried, I absolutely hate watching the two people closest to me fight like that."

’Closest...?’

"I was worried about you, and I was worried about Elysia too. But I was also furious at Elysia, because of her, you ended up like this.

Seeing you lying there unconscious covered in wounds made me so angry. So furious I actually drew my sword, ready to teach Elysia a lesson myself.

But... I changed my mind when I saw her crying. The moment you collapsed and lost consciousness, she just broke down sobbing. She cried her heart out while cradling your head in her lap.

Watching my little sister cry like that made my heart hurt even more. Like being stabbed with a thousand needles all at once."

"..."

Elias’s expression slowly softened, a flicker of sympathy crossing his face as he watched Evelyn, still bowed, tears still streaming down.

He stayed silent for a moment before slowly raising his right hand.

Pain shot through his entire body again, but he forced himself to keep moving until his hand finally found Evelyn’s, resting on her lap.

"My Lady..."

"Please... Don’t ever do that again! I don’t like it! I hate it! I hate watching you and Elysia fight like that! I don’t want to see you hurt! I don’t want to see my sister cry! I... I..."

Once she’d let everything pour out, Evelyn buried her face against Elias’s chest. Both her hands gripped his shirt tightly, fistfuls of fabric clenched in her hands.

"I hate it, Elias..."

Evelyn broke down sobbing again, her grip on his shirt tightening further. Watching her cry against his chest like that, all Elias could do was stay silent.

He raised his right hand, about to touch the top of Evelyn’s head, but his hand froze midair.

’I’m just her Caretaker... Am I even allowed to do this?’

In the end, Elias let the thought go and gently rested his hand on Evelyn’s back instead.

But right as he sat there, quietly patting her back, Elysia suddenly bolted upright and ran out.

"Wait! Lady Elysia!"

Elias called after her, but Elysia ignored him completely, sprinting straight out of the room.

Elias could only stare at the door, speechless. He had no idea what was actually going on, no idea why Elysia had completely ignored his call.

But one thing was certain...

"She was crying too..."

Elysia had actually already woken up, even before Evelyn walked into the room, and the moment Evelyn started crying and raising her voice, Elysia had been crying right along with her the whole time.

Proof of that sat right there, in Elias’s left hand, completely soaked through with tears.

All Elias could do was let out a long sigh, still patting Evelyn’s back.

For now, he’d just stay like this a little longer, waiting for Evelyn to calm down first. After that, he’d go find Elysia.

* * *

In Marquis Aurelle’s study, the Marquis sat at his desk, rubbing his forehead. His face looked thoroughly confused as he stared down at the sheet of paper in his hand.

Three days had passed since the incident between Elysia and Elias. After everything happened, every young noble had been sent straight back to their own estates, except for Evelyn and Elysia.

Thankfully, no young noble had actually gotten hurt during the chaos, but the fact remained that his daughter’s final party night had devolved into complete disaster.

Because of that, the tournament ended up getting canceled outright, with no winner declared at all. But thanks to a suggestion from Clara, the champions were eventually announced anyway.

Elysia, who should’ve rightfully taken first place, ended up disqualified instead, since she’d used power well above Grade D.

Even so, what gave the Marquis the biggest headache was figuring out how to explain all of this to Arhan Nocturne, Evelyn and Elysia’s father, and Elias’s employer, no less.

*SIGH~

"Shouldn’t I be the one demanding accountability here, considering it was his daughter who wrecked my own daughter’s party?"

By all rights, it should’ve been House Aurelle demanding answers and accountability from House Nocturne.

But the fact that he hadn’t been able to stop Elysia himself, and that the party had collapsed into chaos with someone seriously injured in the process, made the whole thing a lot harder to navigate.

"Damn it..."

Right as he sat there rubbing his face in frustration, the door to his study suddenly burst open.

"Father..."

"Oh, Seraphina. What is it?"

"Elias. He’s awake."

The Marquis jolted upright in shock before slumping back into his chair, letting out a long breath of relief.

*PHEW~

"Thank god he’s awake. If he hadn’t woken up, I’d genuinely have had that ’madman’ coming after me.

Let’s go see him."

"Yes, Father."

Aurelle rose from his seat and walked out of his study, with Seraphina trailing right behind him.

When they stepped into Elias’s room, they found him sitting up, with Evelyn feeding him a bowl of porridge.

Elias tried to get up to greet the Marquis, but held off when the Marquis told him to stay seated, given the state of his body.

Elias followed the Marquis’s instruction and remained seated on the bed.

The Marquis then took a seat in the chair beside the bed.

"Thank goodness you’re awake. Does anything still hurt?"

"Thank you for your concern, Lord Aurelle. A few things still ache, but after drinking a healing potion, I’m already feeling somewhat better."

*SIGH~

"Hah~ good to hear. The body does need some time to heal properly after all."

Elias let out a small laugh, watching the Marquis’s face flood with relief, like someone who’d just finally managed to relieve themselves after holding it in all day.

’Such a quirky noble.’

Seraphina’s gaze drifted toward Evelyn after looking at Elias. She studied her for quite a while, leaning forward slightly and rubbing her chin.

Then after a moment, she crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and nodded her head a few times.

"Well, it makes sense you’d cry. But it really is a miracle you’re actually capable of crying, Evelyn."

*THUD!

Evelyn immediately hurled the porridge bowl straight at Seraphina’s forehead, sending her crashing to the floor.

"Oh, goodness~ that was a total accident. My hand must’ve slipped, still wet from wringing out that cloth earlier."

Elias felt a chill crawl down his spine watching Evelyn throw that bowl at Seraphina’s forehead with a smile still on her face. What really got to him was the sound the bowl made on impact with her forehead.

’That had to hurt.’

"Ahem! I realize this isn’t exactly the time to be asking about anything else, given your current condition."

"Ah... Alright then..."

"...I realize it’s probably not the right moment to be asking about something, given the state your body’s in right now."

"Okay... So..."

"...I realize I probably shouldn’t be asking you anything at all, given how your body’s doing right now."

"Okay, it’s fine. If you realize that and feel bad about it, you can always come back once I’m feeling better. Why do you keep saying the same thing in different words? That’s just wasting your breath."

The Marquis could only sit there in stunned silence, completely flat-faced, since Elias clearly wasn’t picking up on what he was actually getting at. Normally, Elias was supposed to say something that would prompt the Marquis to just go ahead and ask his question now.

But for Elias, that wasn’t exactly common sense. Or more precisely, he genuinely had no idea what the Marquis was actually trying to imply.

"Ah, but I’m terribly sorry, my Lord, I won’t be able to walk you out, because, well... as you can see. My body’s really not in any shape to escort you anywhere."

Hearing that, the Marquis could only smack a hand over his face and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Oh, god..."

* * *