The Price is Everything of Yours - Chapter 49

Judging from the glass windows showing the starry sky and the expensive brocade curtains, it seemed that even with a broken kite string, there would be no trouble living here.

However, as far as I knew, there were no servants, which might explain why it was so quiet all around.

Neris asked incredulously:

“Why are you scanning the room of your life’s savior like that?”

“I thought it might be heaven.”

“I told you it’s senior Ren’s room.”

“You could be lying.”

“You really don’t trust people’s words. How could it be heaven with me here?”

Neris retorted so confidently that it was hard to respond. This time, it was Cledwin who was dumbfounded.

In fact, he had been dumbfounded since earlier. Hadn’t his investigation clearly shown her to be ‘clean’? That she grew up normally.

Just how did they raise children in this girl’s hometown that she could deceive the Crown Prince’s confidant and freely use the former Pope’s brother’s bedroom?

“How did you know I was there?”

“I didn’t. I just wanted to interfere with Abelus and Nelrysion, but you happened to be there. What happened?”

Neris’s voice was so confident as she casually spoke the Crown Prince’s name that it was difficult to even point it out. Of course, Cledwin had no intention of doing so.

He sighed and said:

“I was betrayed by someone I trusted.”

As he pronounced ‘betrayal’, sparks flew from Cledwin’s gray eyes.

No matter how exceptional, he was still a boy in his mid-teens. Try as he might to get used to betrayal, he couldn’t help but be hurt.

Neris frowned and asked:

“Was it Marquis Tifian?”

Marquis Tifian.

At that name, Cledwin’s eyes, which had momentarily drifted to the ceiling, fixed directly on Neris. An icy silence fell.

Marquis Tifian was someone with no connection to Neris. His children didn’t attend the Academy, and he was too high-ranking a noble to have casually encountered. Cledwin asked frostily:

“How did you know?”

“You were muttering deliriously with fever. You said you’d kill Hudis Tifian.”

It was a lie.

The reason Neris had deduced the culprit behind this incident was that she had spent enough time diligently searching through her past memories and piecing together various clues while Cledwin was unconscious.

Marquis Tifian ruled the gateway between Maindlant and the rest of the Empire. He himself was a wealthy high noble, and after marrying his daughter to the former Grand Duke of Maindlant, he had become unstoppable.

In the end, the aforementioned daughter died young, and her husband also died long ago by the standards of that time. But what did it matter? Now his grandson was the Grand Duke of Maindlant.

In Neris’s previous life, he frequently visited the imperial capital and was close to the imperial family. The person who had drawn him to the Elandria family’s side and made him useful to the ducal house was none other than Neris.

Thinking about it now, while the Grand Duke of Maindlant hardly ever left the north, there must have been a reason why his grandfather, claiming to be the Marquis, kept coming and going to the imperial capital.

The previous Neris had thought that Marquis Tifian had a habit of flattering those in power, so he came to the capital to pick up bigger scraps instead of staying beside his stiff grandson. But upon careful reflection, something came to mind.

“If you had done your job properly then, you wouldn’t need to have such a headache now.”

“Who knew the young one would be so tenacious. You’re in no position to talk about that matter either, are you?”

There was definitely a time when Joseph and Marquis Tifian had such a conversation, blaming each other.

At the time, Neris didn’t know what issue they were discussing. However, thinking that the family might need leverage against Marquis Tifian someday, she had kept that conversation in memory.

If there was a connection between that conversation and what happened earlier?

‘The young one’. ‘Someone I trusted’. ‘Betrayal’. ‘Joseph has no right to speak’.

If the imperial family had decided to kill the sole heir of the Grand Duke of Maindlant to claim his inheritance, couldn’t Marquis Tifian have sold out his grandson to share in the profits?

And Nelrysion tried to help Abelus to curry favor in the process?

It wasn’t without basis, but it was largely speculative reasoning. However, judging from Cledwin’s reaction, it seemed not to be wrong.

Even if Neris had interfered in this life, it was unclear why Joseph had failed to find and kill Cledwin in her previous life.

Believing Neris’s words, Cledwin sighed. Neris thought for the first time that he looked like a person, that is, someone like her who harbored despair, sadness, and regret.

“…There was something we were going to do together. At least, something I was going to do. I thought that person wanted the same thing as me, but it seems that wasn’t the case.”

Having said that much, Cledwin coughed several times, his throat dry. Neris handed him the water she had prepared and said coolly.

Whatever he had intended to do, that wasn’t important right now.

“You have to live because you said you’d fulfill what I want. If you stupidly die here, I’ll chase you to the afterlife and demand what happened to your promise, so get your act together.”

“It’s cold.”

As he received and drank the water, Cledwin frowned a little more with each swallow due to the pain in his throat. Of course, his assessment wasn’t about the temperature of the water.

Neris snorted. She had thought he was a smart man, but it seemed he was actually a fool to let Marquis Tifian live on into the future even after suffering such an incident.

“Do you know how much I’ve entrusted to you? Anyway, which dormitory do you live in? Senior Ren needs to sleep too, so go back when you get the chance. Your wounds were deep, so your clothes were all bloody. Senior Ren cleaned your body, changed your clothes, and even treated you, so make sure to repay that kindness.”

“Nagging.”

Cledwin grumbled but didn’t say he wouldn’t. His eyes, which had been gauging the remaining pain, sank for a moment.

It was widely known, albeit unofficially, that the new Pope, Omnitus III, was eyeing the young brother of the former Pope. Everyone thought Omnitus III was showing excessive anxiety symptoms, but.

‘At least cardinal level.’

It was a fatal wound from an ambush by several skilled individuals. A doctor of ordinary skill would have given up treatment. Yet after Ren’s treatment, he only felt discomfort from the throbbing pain.

To reach this level before even graduating from the theology department. There was some basis for Omnitus III’s concerns after all.

However, the strangest thing in this situation was not Ren Feyel’s unexpected potential.

Neris raised her eyebrows at Cledwin’s gaze, as if she didn’t care what he was thinking. Her face was practically urging him to get up, but Cledwin didn’t budge.

“I came here for class. There’s supplementary lessons for exam preparation. Other first-years are attending too, so the teacher got special permission.”

“Don’t swallow it. It’s not harmful, but it tastes bad.”

A firm and brazen lie, a joke delivered with feigned coldness to ease the other’s pain.

Cledwin had some idea of how Neris thought of herself. Because of the anger and sadness she had revealed about herself, and because of the report he had received when he first investigated her.

“I’m dissatisfied with the me they ruined.”

Early in her enrollment, Cledwin had her room inspected to see if there were any traces of contact with a specific background.

According to the report he received then, her room was excessively sparse.

Regardless of how much wealth one had, everyone usually brought at least a flower or a pretty stone to decorate their room.

Yet there weren’t even the minor decorations one would normally expect. As if she thought it would be better if no trace of her life remained in the place she stayed.

As if shouting that even if she disappeared from this world right now, no one would care.

As if expressing anger towards everyone around her by doing nothing at all.

As if saying, don’t worry, I know very well that the me you hate is not precious at all!

Cledwin was someone who had dealt with many subordinates with unusual circumstances. And through several conversations with Neris, he knew more about her values than others.

That’s why he could focus on the fragments of clues that had only fleetingly appeared and disappeared.

The fact that she, who seemed unable to see a single good point in herself, was actually a kind person.

When he heard Neris’s voice in the bushes, he had resigned himself to the possibility that she might immediately sell him out.

What need was there to speak of her intelligence? From the moment he was surrounded, deceived by words that weren’t even plausible, he had already prepared himself for death.

How worthless a partner must that be in the eyes of the clever Neris Trude?

Back there, she only needed to say two words. In the bushes.

What would it matter to do a small favor for Abelus and Nelrysion? Wouldn’t that little girl have been able to devise a way to trick them anyway?

If she had actively handed over Cledwin Maindlant’s corpse to gain trust, it would have been even easier.

Yet she plucked some tasteless weeds—thinking about it now, it was a kind of folk herb that poor mercenaries chewed to stay up all night—and pushed them into his mouth.

And with her frail body, she really overdid it bringing him here. Risking all the threats they might have encountered along the way.

Cledwin’s subordinates were blindly loyal to him. But in their relationships, they gave and took something from each other. This was the first time he had received such one-sided help.

Anyway, it was a world where even his grandfather betrayed him.

Not knowing how to think beyond that point. Cledwin forcibly raised his body. Neris made a cold assessment of his graceful movement.

“You seem fine. From now on, make sure to bring along subordinates with holy power.”

When Neris returned to her dormitory building, it was just before dawn.

The first-floor hall of the old public dormitory was so narrow it belied its name. It was crammed with one window leading to the management office, one door leading to a tiny storage room, and one narrow, steep staircase.

The management office, usually guarded by the caretaker, was empty, perhaps because it was too early. That was fortunate. After all, the clothes Neris had worn when she left her room this evening were half-soaked in blood.

She was wearing an outer garment borrowed from Cledwin—originally, when they arrived at Ren’s dormitory, Ren had provided an outer garment, but when they reached Cledwin’s dormitory, he said blood had seeped into that too and gave her a new one—but who knew what might be visible through the gaps. She wanted to avoid having to explain today’s events to anyone.

Having stayed up all night with her young body, and having practically supported a man much larger than herself while moving twice, her small feet were almost numb.

‘It’s fortunate that it ended there.’

When she learned that the great Cledwin Maindlant had sustained injuries so severe he could barely breathe, Neris truly prepared herself to dispose of a corpse.

It wasn’t that she had never read herbal or medical books before, but that was at an amateur level, not enough professional knowledge to treat someone badly injured.

It was fortunate that she had at least clearly learned about the herb with awakening effects in her past life.

Right after being adopted into the Elandria family, Neris had to quickly master the education of a noble lady to perfection. And at the same time, she had to learn political knowledge that would be helpful to the family.

Back then, she often stayed up all night chewing that herb.

It was also truly fortunate that Ren, whom she had approached on a long shot, unhesitatingly offered help. After all, Neris had several ways to make Ren listen to her, but they were all desperate measures.

To tell the truth, Ren tended to follow her strangely. Since who knows when.

Creak, creeak.

The sound of someone coming down the stairs was heard.

Neris complained inwardly as she carefully hid herself in the darkness beside the stairs. Who could be this fool unnecessarily active before dawn?

It must be someone who sat at their desk claiming it was exam period but didn’t actually study as much as they aimed to, and so stayed awake until this hour.

Heavy, measured footsteps regularly trod the stairs. Creak, creeeak.

The stairs, trodden countless times by poor students, certainly creaked. However, the students living in this building knew the trick to reducing that noise, but the sound now was too loud.

Sensing something strange, Neris instinctively checked the face of that ‘fool’.