“Ha.”
I trembled with anger, my lips tightly pressed together.
To think that he would dare to utter such unimaginable words towards my children with that filthy mouth of his.
It was fortunate that I didn’t sever Dorothea’s neck like my broken patience.
Ah, that was too violent an expression.
Well, in any case, that ended the conversation.
Besides, it seemed impossible to continue talking to her as she writhed and ranted.
“How did it go?”
Lord Joseph finally broke his silence. When I delayed in answering as I caught my breath, he asked urgently.
“What did she say?”
“Well……”
I was about to open my mouth to reassure him, who spoke with an anxious voice, having barely calmed down.
That’s when it happened.
“Wait.”
Lord Joseph, his face hardening, uttered in a resolute voice.
What’s going on? My head turned quickly, following his gaze.
“……It seems there was someone eavesdropping.”
“Pardon?”
What……
What did he say?
The moment I understood those words, the warmth instantly vanished from the nape of my neck.
The conversation we had just had was related to Lord Joseph’s background, truly his most fatal weakness.
Setting aside issues of slum origins or being the lord of Alperon, wasn’t it a person’s dark past!
“I apologize for this, my lady……”
The air around Lord Joseph vibrated strangely.
Along with a chilling coldness, a ringing echoed in my ears. This strange tremor was the use of magic.
“I’m afraid I can’t let this go quietly.”
The fingers that had gently held my hand slipped away softly.
As if enchanted, my gaze followed him, and his long fingers curved gracefully in the air, as if winding an invisible thread.
I didn’t quite know what he was doing.
But I could tell in which direction he was performing this strange art. And then, a moment later.
“Kuh……!”
Someone’s presence was detected from a dark corner untouched by light.
Even I, with my dull senses, could perceive the low groan filled with bewilderment.
Of course. Even I, knowing he was a magician, felt fear at the trembling of this mysterious power, so I could imagine how terrified someone experiencing magic for the first time would be.
Eventually, the figure struggling in the shadows of the tomb was dragged into the light.
Literally dragged in.
The figure’s arms and legs were pulled along unnaturally as if bound by something invisible… Wait.
“……?”
“……!”
But the moment we confirmed the face of the person so constrained, Lord Joseph and I couldn’t help but freeze.
That completely unexpected person was…….
“Kardiel?”
“Young lord?”
In Kardiel’s blue eyes, which alternately looked at me and Lord Joseph, rare clear emotions were visible.
And those were resentment and hostility.
“Stepmother. And Lord Joseph.”
“……Would you care to explain the situation? And also what’s happening to my body right now.”
[This is the timeline separator]First, I must acknowledge my mistake.
Suggesting to Lord Joseph to temporarily block his hearing during the conversation with Dorothea could be said to be the cause of this situation.
Because of that, Lord Joseph, with his extremely sensitive perception, failed to notice Kardiel, who had approached close enough to listen.
As evidence, Lord Joseph sharply detected Kardiel’s presence as soon as he lifted the hearing restriction.
‘So, the problem is how it turned out……’
Instead of breathing out a worried sigh, I took another sip of cold water.
What good have I done to make excuses? I should just drink in the pouring blame.
“……So.”
Sitting in front of me was Kardiel, his face coldly set.
From the child who sat with his arms crossed in an exclusive posture, his back ramrod straight, emanated a chilling dignity that made it difficult to believe he was only fifteen years old.
The proof of this was how Lord Joseph and I were frozen stiff in front of Kardiel right now.
This place is the marble room in the south where the young lord and heir of Daiern has traditionally resided.
And the time is past midnight.
It’s a secretive hour when not only the other children but everyone in Daiern Castle and the estate is asleep.
With even the direct servants all dismissed, the three of us were quietly conversing.
No, rather than a conversation, this would be more accurately described as an interrogation.
Of course, I’m the one being interrogated.
“So Lord Joseph was originally named ‘Joseph’, the child of an underworld criminal.”
Child of a criminal. That’s too harsh.
Lord Joseph was unfortunate in that he couldn’t choose his parents. He never actually did anything bad himself…….
“And he was the one who saved you 20 years ago, stepmother……”
I nodded.
Kardiel was already showing a particularly hostile attitude towards Lord Joseph.
So if there was anything that could earn Lord Joseph even a few points, I should actively affirm it!
“And Lord Joseph himself doesn’t remember that fact at all?”
That’s because there’s a rather painful circumstance…….
“And the reason for that is because his memories from that time were paid as the price for recklessly using a magic called ‘chronomancy’?”
“Calling it ‘reckless’ would be insulting to Lord Joseph. He must have used it when he felt it was necessary.”
He didn’t use chronomancy out of other greed. It was solely to survive.
Above all, he has been protecting me, Daiern, and my children with chronomancy all this time.
Just looking at the recent incident, if it weren’t for Lord Joseph, Kardiel would have lost his young life in the burning Daiern mansion.
“Please don’t defend Lord Joseph, stepmother.”
“I’m not defending him……”
“I’m saying this because it seems you’re taking my current questioning of Lord Joseph personally.”
Oh, you weren’t?
I must have blinked stupidly. Kardiel clicked his tongue shortly and said,
“I’m just confirming the facts. Whether I’ve understood correctly.”
“……Then?”
Please continue.
If Kardiel says so, then that must be right.
He’s a son who rarely shows expressions or reveals emotions, so honestly, I don’t know well what he’s thinking.
“Anyway, since you said it was an insulting expression, I’ll apologize for that. You said he used it for a long time.”
For an apology, the sharp gaze directed at Lord Joseph remained as cold as ever.
“Chronomancy, if I understand correctly, is a magic that the emperor who ruled the magical era passed down only to his successor. So does that mean Lord Joseph, who inherited it, is the current Mage Emperor?”
Lord Joseph, who had neither affirmed nor denied anything until now, finally gave an answer that sounded like a sigh, “That is the system.”
Kardiel’s brow twitched. I thought I heard him mutter, “Then I can’t even question his status.”
“But is the power of this inherited magic tormenting Lord Joseph? And only you, stepmother, can alleviate that pain, so he approached you from the beginning with the intention of marrying you?”
Uh, well…….
“At the same time, he pretended to have no personal interest in you to lower my and my siblings’ guards, and has been using chronomancy to help us all this time. Is that how it goes?”
Actually, Lord Joseph initially told me he didn’t want childish games like marriage or romance.
He said it would be enough just to have a relationship where physical contact with me was natural.
‘It was as good as asking to be taken as a lover.’
……I’d better not say that.
I’m even afraid of how Kardiel, who is more conservative than me, would react.
“Now I understand Lord Joseph’s excessive kindness that didn’t make sense before. I also understand what he meant when he said he owed you a ‘life-saving debt’.”
……So you even talked about that. It wasn’t wrong, but it was an embarrassing thing to say.
Even if it was a life-saving debt, all I did was let him hold my hand for a moment.
“I was foolish. I should have been most wary of Lord Joseph, not Prince Raphael or other suitors.”
Saying that, Kardiel stretched his lips horizontally and inhaled.
The child’s eyes, which held a sound like ‘sshup’ like regret, were full of cynical anger.
Fortunately, there was no distrust in those eyes as if dealing with a con artist.
Well, Kardiel had just experienced the mysterious power of magic firsthand. He probably doesn’t need to go through doubt and tests like I did.
“……To think the real enemy had already infiltrated like air and completely permeated internally from the beginning… Indeed. As expected of you, Lord Joseph, the teacher I respected. I’ve learned another lesson this time.”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”