Tiendavis - For Perfect Salvation - Chapter 53

“I clearly told you not to underestimate me.”

Ibi’s reproach was calm. So Cassel missed the chance to get angry.

“Besides, it’s too late to say it’s a misunderstanding now. By now, other nobles must have noticed too. That I was the one who exposed the Marquis’s misconduct.”

“That’s because you brought it upon yourself.”

“If I hadn’t done this much, would I even have had the chance to talk like this? I would have been left neglected like a child who can’t even cry after being beaten.”

Cassel, who had been growling, slightly furrowed his brow at Ibi’s valid rebuttal.

“Thanks to that, my reputation has completely crumbled. Until yesterday, I was the kindest saint candidate, but now they’ll think of me as a viper who will strike at weaknesses and attack at the slightest chance. So isn’t it just mocking to suggest we pretend none of this happened?”

Ibi asked back in a voice that was calm to the point of indifference. So a strange glint appeared in Cassel’s eyes, which had been fiercely raised.

He forgot his anger and stroked his chin as if intrigued.

“…Indeed, I underestimated you too much. If it wasn’t a reckless attack but a gamble, that’s a different story.”

Cassel muttered that and then looked at Ibi with a hollow laugh.

“Ha, I was completely fooled. How hard did you work on that act?”

“As much as necessary to become a saint.”

Cassel finally laughed properly at Ibi’s answer.

Being shrewd, he readily admitted his own mistake. He had thought Ibi was just a common vixen with only looks and pretense. He was irritated that she seemed to be challenging him despite that, but hearing her now, Ibi’s judgment and resolve were more decent than he had expected.

How could simply sweet-talking work in this case? Ibi was not someone to be coaxed and soothed, but an opponent to negotiate with.

Realizing this fact, Cassel changed his attitude once again.

“I failed to recognize an ambitious person. Now that I know, I’ll treat you properly. So what is it that you want…”

“Nothing.”

Cassel was speaking seriously for once, but Ibi cut off his words. So Cassel was taken aback in a different way.

“I don’t want anything from you anymore, Marquis. The certificate and seal were just to test how much I could flatter you.”

“Test?”

“I was going to let it go once if you apologized properly, but you’re really useless, Marquis.”

Ibi’s voice saying this was still monotonous. It was as if she was simply stating facts.

“You asked if I wanted to become a saint, right? I answered honestly earlier, but I’ll answer again to match the intent of your question. Of course I will, but it has nothing to do with you, Marquis. So don’t think you can manipulate me with that.”

Ibi’s words were getting more and more outrageous. So Cassel wondered how far this would go and asked back, stretching one corner of his mouth long.

“How can that have nothing to do with me?”

“Because you won’t be present at the saint selection ceremony, Marquis.”

Cassel was dumbfounded.

“I’m serious.”

“Huh.”

Ibi’s added assurance finally drew a hollow laugh.

Saying he wouldn’t be at the saint selection ceremony meant one of two things. Either “I’ll kill you” or “I’ll have the Marquis of Montra replaced.”

“Setting aside whether that’s possible, is this really worth all that?”

It was such a far-fetched story that Cassel wasn’t even angry. So he asked curiously instead.

“I get that you’re upset about yesterday, but is this really worth risking your life over? You’re not an idiot, so why are you acting like this?”

“It is worth risking my life over. I’ve always been that way. And the real idiot is the one who doesn’t even know what they did wrong.”

“Watch your mouth.”

“You should assess the situation first, Marquis.”

Cassel warned in a low voice, but Ibi shot back without even blinking.

So Cassel felt very strange.

He was no longer angry, nor did he feel like sweet-talking or attempting to negotiate with Ibi. Instead, only unpleasant and uneasy feelings dominated him.

As he struggled with this odd signal, Ibi calmly chattered again.

“If I had been thinking of backing down moderately, I wouldn’t have written the letter in the first place. I would have sought you out separately. Blackmail is much safer than exposure. I wrote the letter intending to go all the way.”

‘Then why go all the way!’

Cassel wanted to shout this at Ibi, who kept taking a hard line.

Until now, he had been angry that Ibi had ‘tricked’ him. Apart from being furiously angry, his perception was just this much.

But Ibi really seemed intent on attacking without backing down, and Cassel now truly felt he had touched something too harsh.

‘Damn it, where did this thing come from…’

Of course, he didn’t think Ibi could threaten his position or life.

However, if she was determined to cling on like that, it would surely be troublesome. Just imagining having an untouchable enemy collecting his weaknesses gave him a headache.

So Cassel began to think he wanted to get rid of Ibi, forgetting about revenge or anything else.

“Alright, I get it. I understand you’re angry at me, but…”

“Really?”

As Cassel tried to negotiate once again, Ibi promptly asked back.

“Do you really know what you did wrong, Marquis?”

She even changed her words to sound like she was demanding an admission of guilt.

Cassel considered Ibi annoying again, but honestly recalled the answer to the question.

It was playing with Ibi using the saint position as leverage and then discarding her at the end.

Also, failing to properly grasp Ibi’s fangs before discarding her.

Cassel counted these two as his mistakes. The answer Ibi probably wanted was the former.

But Cassel didn’t want to speak as if confessing. So as he kept his mouth shut, Ibi smiled softly and gave the answer.

“Your mistake, Marquis, was mercilessly starving, beating, and tormenting poor young me, abandoning me at the bottom of hell.”

“…Me?”

When did I ever do that much?

Cassel barely held back from making this excuse. At the same time, the unpleasant and uneasy feeling that had been creeping up his nape since earlier grew stronger.

Meanwhile, Ibi arbitrarily brought up an old story.

“When I was young, struggling day by day on the streets of the lower continent, I always wondered. With so many people in the world, why does no one see me? When I feel like I’m about to die right now, why does everyone so desperately pretend not to see me? But now I know. It was all because of you, Marquis.”

Cassel felt somehow chilled by this nonsensical accusation.

Because Ibi’s eyes were full of sincerity as she said that. At that moment, Ibi’s gaze was filled with nothing but conviction and belief, without a trace of pretense.

“How is that because of me, I didn’t even know you back then.”

“You said so yesterday. That you’re withdrawing support for Ibi Ariate because she acted presumptuously in Bis.”

This is true. Cassel did say this.

—Seeing her act so presumptuously, I decided it wouldn’t work.

—I heard she played the saint’s role quite well there, but that’s not okay.

—She doesn’t know why taboos are taboos because she’s uneducated. What if someone like that becomes a saint as is? The vermin from the lower continent would come looking every other day, wouldn’t they?

This is what Cassel said in front of his friends.

Setting aside how this reached Ibi’s ears, he wondered what on earth this had to do with that pauper’s innate misfortune.

As Cassel remained frozen, unable to understand Ibi’s bizarre leap in logic at all, Ibi kindly explained.

“I thought long and hard after hearing those words. If that was reason enough to be cast aside for being presumptuous, what should I have done? Should I have pretended not to see when someone was dying right before my eyes? Or should I have avoided setting foot in such dangerous places from the start and avoided troublesome things as much as possible?”

What is this saintly nonsense?

Cassel frowned, thinking Ibi was trying to criticize his cruelty.

He absolutely hated it when people spouted nonsensical idealism, saying things like how can you turn a blind eye to those poor people’s lives, all lives are precious.

But fortunately, Ibi’s following words weren’t very saint-like.

“After thinking long and hard, I came to a conclusion. I decided to kill Cassel Montra after all.”

“Kill… what?”

“If Cassel Montra hadn’t declared that helping others is presumptuous and useless, I wouldn’t have lived like a beggar. But because Cassel Montra even set an example that doing unnecessary things will ruin you, the whole world treated me like a bug and trampled on me.”

“What nonsense, I was just a kid then too!”

“That’s not my problem.”

Cassel protested at the absurd accusation, but Ibi just smiled brightly.

“What’s important now is that it was all because of you, Marquis.”

Ibi pinned the blame on Cassel with an expression like she was about to say the weather is really nice today. And she showed not a hint of hesitation.

Cassel sensed a subtle madness in that appearance, and finally realized the true nature of the unpleasant feeling that had been creeping up his nape.

It was a signal sent by his intuition detecting a crisis. It was an instinctive plea saying this person seems crazy, so don’t provoke her any further.

Cassel was honestly a bit scared. It was the reasonable fear one feels when encountering a lunatic.

“…What crazy talk is this, who are you blaming for being born lowly?”

“That’s right, that’s my fault. It’s all my fault for being terrible at drawing lots, being born as a commoner in the slums, and struggling desperately to survive.”

‘Shut up! Don’t admit it!’

As Ibi muttered with an eerie laugh, Cassel wanted to get rid of this strange girl right away.

No, he thought it might be better for him to leave instead. So just as Cassel was about to get up, Ibi added with a gentle smile.

“And your mistake, Marquis, was messing with someone who has nothing to lose.”

At Ibi’s sweet voice, Cassel suddenly recalled the events of the previous night.

—You messed with the wrong person.

—Today’s incident is just the beginning, and you’ll keep getting punished by me from now on.

—Until you’re completely ruined.

Ibi said this yesterday too. Sitting on top of him, with a strangely dignified face backlit by moonlight.

The bewilderment he felt then came back to life. And Cassel felt humiliated by that fact. Bewilderment? Me, feeling bewildered by a girl like this?

Cassel, who had been looking for an escape, finally became enraged again.

“Sounds like there’s no end to this. I can see you’ve lost all reason, but what do you think you can do? You think you can stir things up with what you overheard like a little rat?”

“I think it’ll be enough, don’t you?”

“Cut the crap, you think I’ll keep letting this slide? Ah, are you relying on the Count? He may have taken a liking to a young thing acting coy, but you should know your place. At best you’re just a few months’ plaything getting cocky, you should graciously accept the treatment given…”

“Are you afraid of Count Laurel?”

Cassel stopped mid-sentence at Ibi’s question as he was hurling insults.

“You don’t need to worry. That Count won’t recklessly touch an innocent high noble either. He wouldn’t do such a thing for the sake of a mere few months’ plaything.”

As Cassel’s face showed he had been hit right on the mark, Ibi offered words that were not quite consolation. So his brow furrowed even more severely.

He couldn’t understand what Ibi was relying on to act like this. So as he looked at her suspiciously, Ibi smiled brightly and asked.

“By the way, where did you sell the salt?”

At the same time, Cassel’s heart sank.