Don't Touch My Thorn (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16
“No, I already told you! Idrish—you said you really hoped Rodrio would live.”
Rodrio looked up at him with a face full of worry yet brimming with hope.
Idrish put on an intentionally serious expression.
Are you really hesitating? Why overthink this? Just say yes! It’s not like it costs you anything!
I frantically made faces behind Rodrio’s back, trying to speak through my expression.
“Say yes! Say yes, I’m telling you!”
Idrish’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Really, Idrish?”
Idrish slowly turned to look at Rodrio. The boy’s face showed both anticipation and anxiety.
“Yes.”
“R-really? You mean Idrish actually…?”
Rodrio seemed to be holding back, but the joy rising in his peach-colored cheeks was impossible to hide.
“Yes. But Nightburr, I have something to do—come with me.”
“Something to do? Okay. Rodrio, sleep well. Starting tomorrow, you’re allowed to walk around again. If you can even go outside, let’s all go on a picnic together—you, me, and Idrish.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Won’t it be fun?”
Idrish tried to protest, but I cut him off first.
“Yep! Great, Cecilia.”
Rodrio didn’t notice a thing. Phew.
So is this mission to comfort Rodrio finally over?
Just then, Rodrio murmured softly.
“But Lord Tesmilion probably won’t come, right? Even though Cecilia said so, I honestly can’t believe it. Lord Tesmilion wouldn’t do that. Well… maybe he would…”
Darn it. How can I possibly ignore that poor little kitten?
“No, seriously—Rodrio’s real grandfather, right? How can he not visit even once? Even the old man next door wouldn’t be this indifferent!”
I grumbled alone in my room.
Should I have never told that white lie in the first place?
But how could I not?!
Seeing that adorable, chubby-cheeked face say, “Nobody likes me or worries about me. They don’t care if I live or die…”—even a demon from another world would feel compelled to tell a kind-hearted lie.
Because I fell for that pitiful, heart-melting expression, I’ve now ended up in a situation where I must take responsibility for my lie and summon Tesmilion himself!
Ugh! Tesmilion scares me a little too.
Considering that last time I made all those weird “blee-bloo-bloo” noises in front of him, he probably thinks I’m half-mad already… Can I really do this…?
Ugh, maybe I should just pretend I don’t know?
But something still felt off. Besides, Tesmilion actually seemed to genuinely care about Rodrio.
When Rodrio first came back injured, Tesmilion’s expression as he looked at him was clearly not indifference or anything like it. He looked more worried and fearful than anyone else—terrified of losing Rodrio.
Then why, once Rodrio started recovering, did he flip his behavior like flipping a pancake? Is it just, “As long as he’s not dead, everything’s fine”?
“Fine. Then I’ll go find him myself and ask—why hasn’t he visited even once after his grandson nearly died and came back to life?”
I immediately went to look for Zeros.
Unless someone summoned him, Tesmilion spent his time alone in his study. He reportedly disliked other servants coming and going, so they only cleaned his room at night after he’d left. Honestly, what a fussbudget!
Anyway, among everyone, Zeros was said to visit the study most often, since even minimal communication went through him.
“Zeros, I’d like to visit Lord Tesmilion.”
“Huh? Why—why would you want that?”
“I have something to tell him.”
“No!”
“What? You’re refusing without even hearing what it’s about?”
“No matter what it is, it’s not allowed. Lord Tesmilion truly hates visitors. Besides…”
“Besides what?”
“Lord Tesmilion said you seem strange, Lady Cecilia, and ordered that you not be allowed to meet him.”
Ah, so it’s because of that “blee-bloo-bloo” nonsense I made in front of him last time.
Ugh, of all people, why did it have to be in front of Tesmilion?
“That’s exactly why I need to clear up that misunderstanding.”
“No! Absolutely not. Don’t go—seriously, you’ll really get thrown out of this house.”
Tch. What a finicky old man.
Then what should I do?
I rubbed my chin.
I had no intention of barging into someone’s room when they clearly didn’t want visitors. Gaining Lord Tesmilion’s hatred wouldn’t help me at all.
“So as long as I don’t barge in, but just happen to meet him by chance—that should be fine, right?”
So I decided to wake up extremely early.
No matter how much Tesmilion holed himself up in his study, he surely didn’t sleep there too.
I’d catch him right as he moved from his bedroom to the study in the morning.
With Zeros’s help, I roughly learned Tesmilion’s wake-up time. It was incredibly, unbelievably early—before sunrise, even. No wonder.
Idrish was very displeased about it.
“Haaam…”
I stepped into the dark hallway and crouched down. Sleepiness crashed over me.
“Since he’s old, maybe he doesn’t sleep in the mornings… But why isn’t he coming out yet…?”
My eyelids grew heavy.
Just then, a door opened. Tesmilion slipped silently out of the darkness like a ghost.
If I spoke to him the moment he came out, he’d be startled, right? Better to casually greet him along his path.
But Tesmilion walked faster than I’d expected.
He wasn’t heading straight to the study?
Tesmilion headed outside the mansion.
In the small, slightly unkempt garden stood an old bench. He slowly sat down on it.
Had he just come out for some fresh air?
Maybe this was the perfect moment to pretend we’d met by chance.
I started to step forward.
But before I’d taken even a few steps, I stopped again.
Tesmilion’s motionless back, like a stone statue, seemed to scream with his whole body, “Don’t come near me.”
Though his frame remained massive, his back somehow looked shabby. A loneliness and desolation I hadn’t noticed before now radiated from him.
His white hair fluttered weakly in the wind. Because of that, Tesmilion looked like a solitary pile of silver ash left after a fire had burned everything away.
What could he be thinking about?
Was he reminiscing about past glories?
Or perhaps his lost kin and family?
What must it feel like to have stood at the peak of power, only to lose both family and honor? I couldn’t begin to imagine.
Maybe Tesmilion wasn’t visiting Rodrio not out of indifference, but for some other reason.
I leaned against the mansion’s stone wall and stared for a long while at the same sky Tesmilion was gazing at.
Before I knew it, the sky had brightened. A faint sun peeked through thick clouds.
Smoke rose from the mansion—breakfast preparations must have begun. Only then did Tesmilion rise from the bench.
Once again, he moved slowly like a ghost toward his study.
Having missed my chance to speak, I watched helplessly as he walked inside.
“I can just wake up early again tomorrow. If I did it today, why not tomorrow? Haaam… I’m so sleepy I could die.”
But the next day, and the day after that, speaking to him remained difficult. Anyone who saw Tesmilion in the morning would’ve felt the same as I did.
About a week had passed since I’d unintentionally started tailing Tesmilion.
As usual, Tesmilion sat on the bench, quietly gazing at the sky, while I secretly leaned against a corner, watching him.
Because I’d slept so little over the past few nights, my eyelids kept drooping. My head began swaying uncontrollably—until suddenly, a shadow fell over my closed eyes. Sensing something ominous, I opened them.
Tesmilion stood right in front of me, looking down. All traces of the earlier loneliness and sorrow were gone—he now looked like a fearsome beast.
“Uh… Good morning.”
“Why have you been following me?”
“You knew? I don’t mean any harm—I just have something to tell you…”
I smiled awkwardly and scratched my head.
“If you follow me even once more, know that you’ll be thrown out of this mansion immediately.”
Tesmilion turned away on the spot.
Huh? That’s not how it’s supposed to go! Normally, when someone says they have something to tell you, you’re supposed to say, “Alright, let’s hear it.”
In a split-second decision, I jumped up and grabbed Tesmilion’s hand.
He said he’d throw me out if I followed him again—but he never said anything about grabbing his hand right now!
“What are you doing?”
Tesmilion’s face darkened as he looked at the hand I’d seized.
But I clasped his wrinkled hand tightly with both of mine.
“You said you’d throw me out if I followed you again, so I have to say it now.”
“What is it?”
“My lord, you know Rodrio has woken up, right? Rodrio Artigrado—your grandson.”
“I know. Is this really why you’re grabbing me—just to tell me that?”
“Just? Rodrio waking up isn’t something you can dismiss as ‘just’! You saw him that day—he was practically at death’s door! Isn’t it a miracle, a blessing, that he survived?”
“So what exactly do you want to say?”
“Rodrio is waiting for you so much.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For his grandfather—Lord Tesmilion Artigrado, of course.”
Tesmilion frowned, as if unable to grasp my meaning.
“I have no interest in such pointless talk.”
I was furious.
Rodrio’s feelings and wounds were far too big to be brushed aside as “just” or “pointless nonsense.”
“How can you say that? If you only knew how much Rodrio longs for your affection and attention…”
“You’re utterly weak.”
“Weak?”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
His own blood-related grandson, barely more than a child, had died and come back to life—and was waiting for him—and he called that weakness?!
I felt my temper starting to flare.
“My lord, I know I’m just a guest here, so I’ve tried not to say anything too harsh—but honestly, this is too much! I knew you’d practically neglected Rodrio before, but now that he’s literally come back from the dead, are you saying it doesn’t matter how sad or how hard it’s been for him—as long as he’s still breathing?”
“You’re insolent.”
“Yes, I may be insolent, but I still have to say this: you lack even a speck of the responsibility and affection an adult and guardian should have! That’s exactly why both Idrish and Rodrio turned out so twisted!”
“What?”
“It’s true! If you’d given them abundant love, would Idrish have later gone ‘blee-bloo-baparaba’?”
Ugh, why won’t the words come out again!
I mean—would Idrish have become the villain who sets the world ablaze?!
I spun around and walked away from Tesmilion. He seemed to stand there for a long while behind me, but I didn’t look back.
Did I go too far? It is someone else’s family matter, after all.
But still—it’s child neglect, and that counts as abuse! How hard can it be to visit a sick kid living under the same roof when you’re holed up in your study all day?!
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
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