I Regret The Kindness I Gave You - Chapter 22

“Try touching even a fingertip on that kid. Then I’ll crush this family or whatever to pieces.”

Threats full of murderous intent burst out as if he had never shut his mouth before.

Genovefa just laughed, not minding it at all.

Her round, softened eyes were exactly like her son’s, but they sparkled with a completely different light.

“You don’t even know where your heart is heading. How pitiful. This father understands you.”

“Shut up.”

“You want Merche to give her heart to you, but Merche could never do that. That child loves everything, but she can’t give you the love you want. In the end, she will leave you behind.”

“Close that mouth before I rip it apart.”

“Isn’t that why you went out of your way to provoke even Elizabeth while tormenting and driving Merche away? Because you hate Merche who has no intention of giving you even a bit of her heart. You hate her so much that you want to kill her, but you still want to have her.”

“Shut up, I said shut up!”

Rude, who had lost his reason and was overtaken by murderous intent, rushed at Genovefa. However, with just a trivial touch of her hand, he was stopped before he could even reach her.

The owner of the wolf gains transcendental martial power befitting that dominance.

A brutal strength that should be called that of a ferocious beast pressed down on Rude’s forearms where veins were popping out here and there.

Rude, gritting his teeth, let out a suppressed groan.

“You are overconfident in your power. It is true that you are of the genuine Lupinus bloodline, but even so, you are still a young wolf that has not fully ripened. Do not crawl up to an opponent you cannot defeat. In truth, I advise you that there is nothing more foolish than rushing in without knowing your place.”

Nevertheless, the raised violet pupils still flickered like flames.

As if he would not submit even if suppressed, his will to rush in again and again to tear out the throat was evident.

Ah. What should I do with this naive and foolish thing?

Genovefa did not hide her sigh and let it flow out as it is.

Yes, I shall admit it. He hastily misjudged his son’s matter.

More than he had thought, Rude’s desire for Merche was deep.

What Elizabeth tried to hide in her own way over the past few days. He had already heard everything from the butler from the beginning.

Yet the reason he just watched without intervening was to gauge the extent.

Whether the love his son was openly showing was a facade or real. And if it was the latter, which he hoped it wasn’t, to what degree it reached.

Yes. Now I see. Only now am I convinced.

That was love. Desperate and blind. Thus, a love that will be trampled even more miserably.

Rude himself didn’t even know what his feelings were.

No, perhaps he knew but couldn’t admit it, constantly denying it.

So how fortunate this is. There is still room for Genovefa to set it right.

Before Rude names his feelings as ‘love’, he must step up and cut off that bud in advance.

“If you desire it so much, I will tell you how to have Merche.”

With just one word. With that alone, the rough heaving of his chest subsided.

“…Don’t bullshit.”

A way to have Merche? There’s no way that exists.

Rude savagely curled his lip.

The feeling of his heart being crushed, even after he said it himself, was shitty beyond description.

How could a lowly bastard like him have that noble woman by any means? It’s impossible.

The ulterior motive of this so-called family head was obvious. It wouldn’t be much different from his own, right?

The method of forcibly confining and tying Merche down.

He had already tried to attempt that, and where he ended up was here.

The moment he saw Merche collapsing lifelessly, such methods were as good as shattered.

No matter how much he tried to hold her his way, threatening to kill her if she didn’t do as he wished. Merche, that damn noble woman, would not easily comply.

Unless she would rather die to escape his clutches.

Pushing a method that had already failed as a path. Or spewing out empty threats to tame her. It was one of the two.

Rather than wasting time on such things, he should just leave here. When he made that resolution, it was then.

“Drive Merche to a dead end and lock her up so she can’t run away.”

“…What?”

“From those ridiculous acts you’ve been doing to torment that child so far, just add one more step and that’s it. Frame that child with false charges and bring her to the brink of death. So that she can only beg you for her life. Thus, become Merche’s only hope.”

“…What. …What kind of crazy nonsense are you spouting? Have you lost it?”

“Why. Are you afraid Merche will abhor you? What does it matter if she abhors you? Whether she abhors you or not, just keep her by your side and tie her down so she can’t leave. Did you actually hope to win Merche’s heart as well?”

Genovefa tapped Rude’s shoulder, telling him not to say such naive things.

“How many times do I have to say it for you to understand? Merche, that child will never love you. Even if Merche is from a branch family, unlike you, she was born and raised as a noble since infancy. Do you think Merche, who has not only seen your lowly origins as a slave but also your rock bottom, would even spare you a glance?”

The only way for you to have Merche is to push that child into the most terrible abyss, my son.

Drive her to a dead end so she has no choice but to die if she doesn’t follow you. Thoroughly trample her and corner her.

“Then Merche will be tied down and trapped under your feet. Forever.”

[Timeline separator]

In the early dawn when several family doctors stayed up all night to treat the unconscious Merche, the butler entered the office of the family head who had been working late.

“Lord. As you ordered, I have bribed a civilian couple and a mercenary to give false testimony.”

“Good. You’ve worked hard. Keep a watch on them so they don’t dare run away, and have them ready to be brought in at any time.”

“Yes. …But if I may ask one thing, Lord.”

“You, butler? This is unusual. Speak.”

“Do you truly believe the young master will follow as you say regarding Lady Merche? If his feelings for her are deep, the young master may not wish to bring harm to her.”

Genovefa burst into laughter as he lifted his head after stamping the last document.

“No. That is precisely why he will follow my words even more so. Rude is terribly afraid of Merche leaving, you see.”

-I’m warning you, don’t call me out again to spew this kind of bullshit. I’m so disgusted seeing your face that I can’t stand it.

-Fellow, you really don’t know how to be honest. If you change your mind later, come find me.

-That will never happen. Have you gone senile with age, you lunatic?

His son ultimately rejected the proposal and left, but could not hide his eyes that shook aimlessly like a boat fragment swept by waves.

“Having seen the slightest possibility of having Merche, when he becomes desperate to the point of suffocation, he will have no choice but to grasp onto even that possibility.”

It was an easy conviction. A beast starved from being unable to devour its only savior. How long could it endure suppressing its desires?

In the end, desire wins. Even if it sinks quietly under the surface now, when the time comes, it will rise above the water and devour everything.

“If the young master accepts your proposal, do you intend to keep Lady Merche by his side?”

“What? …Haha. Butler, you are quite naive too. You know nothing about Merche, that child, above all.”

“…Then do you plan to kill her?”

“No. I don’t need to dirty my hands. Even without that, Merche will choose death herself.”

Rude’s biggest mistake and irreversible error is that he does not properly know Merche and only tries to pursue his own desires.

“Given the choice between death and submission, Merche would rather die.”

A person who would break rather than bend. That kind of person was Merche.

Merche would never be tied down and trapped by Rude’s side, even if it means throwing away her life.

Genovefa knew this, so he readily pushed his son’s back.

“The reason Merche collapsed? What did the doctors say?”

“While it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause as various reasons are intertwined, the biggest factor is poisoning, they say.”

“Poisoning? …Poison, is it. It seems we have a rat that entered the castle.”

“Do you believe there is a spy?”

“If not, there would be no reason to deliberately poison a useless branch member. But I cannot fathom what they are aiming for…”

If they were targeting someone, it should be Rude, so why target Merche who is in a state of having her ties cut?

Genovefa clicked his tongue in doubt, but smiled coldly.

“Now that it’s come to this, I hope she doesn’t wake up and just dies.”

“Yes. Lady Merche is not a beneficial existence to the young master. She must never become his companion either.”

“It doesn’t matter whether that child becomes his companion or not. The problem is what comes next. If they commit incest, defects will arise in the offspring that follow. If a flaw forever mars the authority of Lupinus like that, what will we do?”

Genetic disorders occur in children born of incest. Such insignificant blemishes cannot be allowed to eat away at Lupinus for generations.

“It would be a huge problem if Rude were to imprint on her. So she must be killed before then, without fail.”

Genovefa stood up, pulling back his chair. Through a window in the office, an unusually blue moon could be seen.

It’s soon. The succession announcement ceremony is approaching in not much time. Until then, he had far too many things to do.

[Timeline separator]

Merche was gasping from the heat.

A heat that seemed to burn her entire body kept rising, and she couldn’t easily open her eyes due to the sharp pain pressing down on her consciousness.

Someone was calling her. A voice that constantly held her hand and talked to her, could it be Karin? She wanted to soothe her, telling her not to worry, but she couldn’t do that.

All she could manage was putting strength into the grasped hand, so she weakly held hands back.

“…rche.”