Chapter 61: A Well-Deserved Scolding

The sun had climbed high into the sky. Its light shone over the Nocturne Mansion’s garden, where lilies were in full bloom, their fragrance drifting on the wind.

Some of the sunlight also slipped through the window of one of the rooms, lighting up a fairly quiet space. The atmosphere felt so peaceful, completely different from just a few days ago.

On the bed, a man was still lying there with his eyes closed.

There was no need to ask who the man was. It was obvious that he was Elias.

Before long, his fingers began to twitch a little. His eyelids slowly opened too, though his vision was still blurry from the light coming through the window.

"...Ugh."

Elias blinked a few times, trying to adjust his sight to his surroundings. His head felt a little heavy, but his body was much better than before.

"Ah, you’re awake?"

A soft voice, one that warmed the heart, flowed straight into Elias’s ears.

Hearing that voice, Elias started to raise his hand to rub his eyes. But the moment he moved even a little, an awful pain spread through his whole body.

"Ugh!"

"Don’t move yet, you haven’t fully recovered."

The woman raised one hand to shade Elias’s eyes from the dazzling sunlight. Thanks to that, Elias could clear his vision bit by bit, and he could make out the silhouette of a woman smiling down at his face.

"Did you sleep well?"

Elias knew the woman was smiling at him, but he couldn’t see her face clearly.

Elias parted his lips a little before speaking in a very low voice.

"...Mom..."

’Why did I say that?’

"..."

The woman was a little startled when Elias suddenly called her "Mom." She bit her lower lip lightly before giving Elias a sympathetic smile.

"Thank goodness you’re awake, Elias. Everyone was so worried about you," the woman said while gently stroking his hair.

Elias didn’t understand what the woman meant. His memories were still hazy. To show he didn’t get it, Elias raised his eyebrow a little while tilting his head.

Noticing Elias’s reaction, the woman just responded with patience and a small laugh. Her hand never left his hair.

"Evelyn, Elysia, Arhan, Alistair. Even Seraphina and her father are here."

’Evelyn... Elysia...?’

Elias still couldn’t remember when the woman started listing those names. But it didn’t take long before the hazy memories suddenly cleared up.

He was shocked and jumped up from the bed on reflex, and was about to head out when,

"Right! I have to find the Heartbloom for—"

*Thud!

He collapsed limply onto the floor, because his body still hadn’t recovered.

"Ouch! What is this, why does my whole body hurt? Why can’t I move my body?"

Seeing Elias in such a pitiful state, the woman let out a small sigh before pointing her index finger at him.

A green light appeared at the tip of her finger and slowly drifted toward Elias’s body. The light then wrapped around his whole body.

Before long, Elias’s body began to lift off the floor. Slowly, the woman guided him back onto the bed and laid him down carefully.

Elias’s head ended up resting on the woman’s thighs again.

The man was a little confused about what had just happened, so he turned his head upward to look at the woman’s face.

Whether his soul had been yanked out of him or something, the moment Elias could look at her face, his eyes froze on it and his body went stiff.

"Eh...?"

That was all he could say when he saw her face.

Realizing that Elias’s vision had cleared, the woman smiled softly and went back to stroking his hair.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

Seeing her wide smile combined with the warmth of the morning sun, Elias couldn’t hold back his tears.

"Ma-Madam... Valeria..."

Seeing Elias start to cry, the woman wiped away his tears with her thumb, without telling him not to cry.

This was the first time Elias had seen Valeria’s smile this bright and gentle. It was as if the burden she had been carrying all this time had vanished.

Even though he hadn’t been able to get close to Valeria before. Normally, someone who isn’t that close wouldn’t feel so emotional. Maybe they’d feel sad and concerned, nothing more.

But for some reason, Elias wasn’t like that.

"Thank goodness... Madam... I’m so grateful..."

As Elias’s crying turned into sobs, Valeria began to pat his head gently.

*Sob... Sob...

The tears got harder and harder to hold back. All the tension, fear, and anxiety he’d been bottling up seemed to spill out all at once. From the very beginning, he had kept forcing himself to hold on, even when his body was at its limit. He was afraid of failing, afraid of losing his own life, afraid of Evelyn and Elysia getting hurt, and of course afraid of not being able to save Valeria.

It had been an incredibly heavy experience for Elias, and it felt so long even though it was only 5 days. But now it was all over. The woman he had only ever seen as weak and often lying in bed was finally showing him her smile.

"Hic!... Waaaaaah!"

The overwhelming relief made his crying burst out even more.

Elias’s wails echoed through the whole room.

* * *

After crying loudly for a few minutes, Elias finally stopped.

He then looked at Valeria, who was covering her mouth as she laughed at him. Elias had no idea what she was laughing at.

"Done crying?"

"Yes..."

’My eyes are stinging.’

Because he’d cried for so long, Elias’s eyes had turned red and swollen. Maybe that was what made Valeria laugh, but no matter how long it took, Elias would never realize it.

He then tried to sit up, because lying there with Valeria’s thighs as a pillow felt a bit awkward for him. Especially since she was the Marquis’s own wife.

"Still hurting, right?"

"Yes... But it’s not as bad as before."

Of course that was a lie. There was no way Elias could say that just sitting up made his muscles scream. Then, sensing that Elias didn’t want to say anything more, Valeria started the conversation first.

"I’ve heard everything from Evelyn and Elysia. You must have had a really hard time back there."

Elias’s face reddened a little when Valeria brought it up. He hadn’t expected her to show him this much care, regardless of his current status.

"I’m so grateful to you, Elias. Thanks to you, I can feel what it’s like to have a healthy body again. I can still feel the joy of being with my family a little longer."

"That was just my job, Madam. It was nothing."

Valeria shook her head at Elias’s words, then took his palm and held it tightly.

"No, Elias. It’s truly something so precious to me. You didn’t just save my life, you even looked after Evelyn and Elysia, and they must have been a burden to you, right?

Poor you. It breaks my heart to think about what you went through out there. I’m sure they were naughty, stubborn, and impossible to lecture."

Seeing Valeria’s eyes start to tremble as if she might cry right then and there, Elias panicked and shook his head.

"No, no! That’s not true. If they hadn’t been there, all of us would have had a hard time fighting the monsters. With just the team captain and a few soldiers, it wouldn’t have been enough. In short, they were a huge help to us."

Valeria fell silent for a moment as if she were thinking about Elias’s words. Then she let out a long sigh before saying:

"You two. Come in."

*Creak...

The door to Elias’s room opened, and Evelyn and Elysia walked toward them with their eyes pointed at the floor.

Elias looked at Valeria for a moment before looking at the two girls in confusion. Their expressions looked like they were holding something in.

’Do they need to pee?’

"Did you hear that? Elias said you two were useful to him. But Elias, if they were so useful to you, how did you end up losing your left arm and getting seriously hurt everywhere?"

Valeria pointed at the two girls, who still had their heads down and didn’t dare lift them. She seemed to be asking a question, but in a firm tone with irritation behind it.

Sensing the tension in the room, Elias broke out in a sweat, and he looked at Valeria while scratching the back of his head.

"That’s because both of their lives were under threat. So, I had no choice but to make a kind of barrier for them to recover in, while I fought the commander of the Everhart Family and its pet.

Besides, that’s already my duty as a Caretaker, aside from looking after them, I also have to make sure they’re safe and protect the—"

"Don’t bring up your status as a Caretaker."

Elias stopped talking when Valeria cut him off. Then she continued:

"Whether you’re a Caretaker or whatever else, you’re still a human being, Elias. A strapping young man like you still has a future. If you had an illness like mine, that would still be better, because in the end I’d die without suffering any longer.

And you..."

She fell silent for a moment, her hand starting to tremble as she held Elias’s hand.

"You went and lost your arm..."

Her tone dropped a little then, and suddenly she turned to the two girls beside her and pointed at them.

"And also, they are much stronger than you, Elias. You know that! So how can they end up lying there helpless after just one or two attacks, while you, with your head split open, ribs broken, three internal organs crushed, and even your left arm gone, could still fight?

And you two?! What exactly were you doing? What’s the point of training every day? What’s the point of Mother and Father teaching you to swing a sword and use Magic? What’s the point of the title Twin Genius? Why do you still use that title?

Aren’t you ashamed? A Genius wouldn’t just pass out or end up helpless because of a few attacks, are you listening to me, huh?!"

"!!!"

The two girls flinched when Valeria started yelling at them. Their heads stayed down, and only Elysia, startled, shifted slightly behind her big sister.

Not only Evelyn and Elysia, even Elias was shocked.

’The pressure is insane!’

"Evelyn! While you were gritting your teeth through the pain, Elias was getting hit! While you were crying! Some of his bones were breaking!

And you, Elysia! What’s wrong with you, huh?! You passed out from a single scratch from that cat? Did Mother ever raise you to be this weak? Do you know that while you were out cold! Elias’s head was split open! And at the same time, 3 of his internal organs were crushed! And then when you woke up, you were sobbing because you saw how pitiful Elias looked!"

"Shut up!"

"!!!"

Elias was startled again when Evelyn yelled back at Valeria.

"Shut up, Mother! I know that! I know all our mistakes! So stop yelling at us! Besides, Elysia passed out because she was ambushed, and that enemy was also stronger than us!"

"That’s exactly the point. They were stronger than you, and Elias could still fight them! And by the way, you’ve got some nerve now, huh?..."

"You didn’t feel it yourself, what right do you have to say that to us?! You don’t know anything! While I was passed out, Big Sis tried with everything she had to break the barrier, until her palm was badly hurt!"

Elysia added to Evelyn’s words, raising her voice just like Evelyn, except her face was now streaming with tears.

Elias, caught in the middle of it, was completely lost. He felt like he shouldn’t be listening to any of this, since it was a fight between a mother and her daughters.

But the problem was, even moving a little hurt, let alone walking, which was clearly impossible! Besides, the whole fight was about him.

Elias could only give a bitter smile, sweat still pouring down his face.

’What do I do?’

* * *