How To Save A Time Limited Young Master - Chapter 41

“A beautifying potion?”

At the words, ‘beautifying potion’, the noblewoman that criticised the evening party showed interest.

But the man shook his head and waved his hand.

“Please don’t pay it any mind, Madam Patella. Rumour has it that the beautifying potion is a liquid that kills people.”

“How would a liquid that kills people be rumoured as a beautifying potion? Gosh, Viscount.”

The man, who’d become an untrustworthy person in an instant, started to release more information.

“Apparently their skin will turn whiter and they’ll lose weight, but that’s not the only process in becoming prettier. There’s rumours that they’d have a pale complexion like that of a sickly person, and experience unbearable pain, as well as problems occurring when people that are advanced in age consume it.”

“Goodness. Did you actually believe that kind of rumour? How boring.”

Although the man lost his temper at the lady’s words, as they were in front of Marquis Velks, he didn’t try to argue further.

“Truly, what a useless rumour. There’s too many people with nothing better to do.”

It’s because even the marquis firmly dismissed it as such.

Marquis Velks lost interest in the meaningless chatter and made eye contact with his daughter.

His daughter, who’d finished a dance with the grand duke, was approaching him.

The one that irritated the Marquis, who had been composed up until then, was a man that squeezed through the sycophants.

“Marquis Velks! It has been a while!”

That man was Count Infanta, who’s famous for having a daughter that’s more beautiful than anyone else in Ballide.

Although it’s someone that he’d occasionally meet at the ‘rally’, there weren’t many opportunities to meet outside of Kashuaism in the open.

As the Infanta family didn’t have anything that stood out other than their daughter, and also because Marquis Velks was usually surrounded by many people in public.

After giving his daughter a gesture to go somewhere else for a moment, Marquis Velks answered.

“It’s nice to meet you, Count Infanta.”

As the internal ranks within Kashuaism were naturally exposed, no one would find it strange even if Marquis Velks openly ignored him.

Count Infanta also didn’t show any signs of being offended.

Rather, he had an excited expression, as if he wanted to deliver some kind of good news.

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been well. I’d intended to meet with you at the temple, but it seems that you’ve been quite busy these days, so I took the liberty of extending my greetings to you.”

The Marquis’ raised his eyebrows when the temple was mentioned.

For them, the temple wasn’t the place where Ballide’s one and only god stayed.

Since this signified the Kashua Order, Marquis Velks couldn’t understand why Count Infanta was commenting about the temple in an open place.

“As the Count is probably aware, my daughter has recently had her debut. As such, I’ve been distracted by this and that.”

But he couldn’t understand what he couldn’t understand, so Marquis Velks allowed Count’s tactlessness to slide gently.

“Oh! I see.”

“If there’s something you have to say to me, shall we continue after shifting locations?”

“That would be great.”

The marquis moved to a corner of the hall, and asked in a low voice with a slightly sensitive countenance.

“Why did you bring that up here?”

“My apologies. All I wanted to do was to inform you that the large donation that we’d received this time was all due to our Julia’s contribution……”

Marquis Velks frowned at the sight of Count Infanta’s awkward smile.

“Donation? What does that mean?”

“It’s the 45,000G from Ducal Princess Bigelow. It was all thanks to Julia’s evangelism.”

“……”

“A—also, I’d heard yesterday that the ducal princess gave the sacred blood’s effectiveness quite high praise after seeing it.”

Upon hearing Count Infanta’s words, the expression on the marquis’ face gradually disappeared, and he suddenly grabbed the count by the collar and asked again.

“Sacred blood? Ducal Princess Bigelow? What’s all this about?”

“Yes?”

“If you can’t explain clearly, your life will be on the line.”

At the mention of his life, Count Infanta was so frightened that his chin started to quiver.

At the sight of Marquis Velks’ glinting eyes, he began to tremble belatedly.

“Don’t you know about the s, s, s—sacred blood? I heard that the Marquis of Velks made holy water. It’s a miraculous liquid that has a reddish-hue…”

“Stop spouting nonsense. When have I ever made that kind of thing?”

Dazed, Count Infanta stammered while his eyes darted around.

“That can’t be true… I—It’s quite popular amongst the noblewomen because drinking that liquid would make them lose weight and have pale skin.”

Then, Count Infanta’s dazed eyes wandered around in midair.

Marquis Velks noticed what he was trying to say was the beautifying potion that appeared in previous conversation.

It was ridiculous that he was the one to make the beautifying potion, when he’d just heard about it.

“I had never thought about doing that. But how amazing it was that it could cure an illness… I’m so proud of my daughter, who’d preached to Ducal Princess Bigelow.”

After hearing the unfamiliar name being stammered out by Count Infanta, Marquis Velks gripped his collar even tighter and shouted lowly.

“And who’s this ‘Ducal Princess Bigelow’ that you’ve been talking about since a while ago?”

“Ah! It’s a ducal princess from the Northern continent. Apparently, she came all the way to the Eastern continent to cure her ill younger brother.”

“But?”

“After she obtained the sacred blood, she said that her younger brother had made a huge improvement, and donated 45,000G to the Order. I was just elated about that. Our Julia has made a great contribution, so it’ll be great if the Marquis could look favourably…”

Marquis Velks suddenly let go of the collar he had been holding tightly.

Count Infanta stifled his indignation and supported himself with the wall while coughing with a bent back.

Marquis Velks’ cold gaze was directed at the crown of his head.

“Doesn’t that mean that someone in the Order is doing business by selling my name?”

Count Infanta’s shoulders trembled.

“B…Business?”

“Then am I mistaken?”

“H—heok. That’s not true!”

Realising that the situation had gone wrong, Count Infanta inhaled deeply and changed his attitude at once.

The sacred blood, which had just been a source of funds that he’d been thankful for, has now become a vulgar item that tarnished Marquis Velks’ name.

“Don’t you ever speak of God’s blood with that mouth again.”

“I’m sorry!”

“Who dares to impersonate my name?”

“W—well, the place where ‘that item’ first appeared was at the Redford Gentleman’s Club, so I thought it’s connected to the Marquis……”

“Redford Club? It’s been a while since I stopped frequenting that place.”

“What? But Mr. Wants from the Langbert Mansion… So I’d heard from the butler there that you’re still actively frequenting that place.”

Count Infanta earnestly said with an earnest look in his eyes, saying to believe in this one thing.

But Marquis Velks merely rebuked him coldly.

“Then that fellow is involved.”

“Are you going to question him?”

“Why should I even ask that fellow politely about the source of those items?”

“That’s… I mean… I’m sorry.”

“It’s your daughter’s fault, so go and catch that b*stard personally and bring him before me.”

“U—understood.”

Cold sweat poured down Count Infanta’s face.

He bowed politely, but his eyes were spinning about, utterly confused.

“Also, I didn’t even touch those small change, so bring in that d*mned ducal princess. The illness got better? That’s absurd. They’re obviously colluding together.”

“Yes!”

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At the hour that the moonlight gradually becomes concentrated.

Not even a servant was walking about in Odelin Mansion, making it extremely quiet.

The silence was broken with the rattling noises from the opening window of the study.

In the cover of the darkness, a crow squeezed through a small window and entered the study that was lit by a small amount of moonlight.

“Young Master.”

Zenon, who was leaning on the couch with a pile of books beside him, slowly lifted his head while rubbing his tired eyes.

It was a sign that meant to speak.

The crow immediately turned into an ordinary girl with brown hair.

She bowed her head politely, with both hands folded before her.

“Christopher Wants has died.”

“What?”

The hand that was rubbing his eyes halted.

Once, he’d trusted and relied on the man, but now he’d been shaken off like an ant, his uncle’s surveillance measure.

It wasn’t difficult to kill him, but in order to prevent his uncle from getting a handle over him, he had to invest his time systematically.

But there were so many things Zenon had to do beforehand.

Not only did he have a good grasp on Odelin Mansion, which he’d newly moved into, and receive education as Lionerik’s successor, he also had to search through the study alone at such a late hour for his personal matters.

This was because he hadn’t forgotten about the suspicious pattern on Heloise’ wrist.

If she was cursed or being fettered by magic, the first thing he had to do now that he was free to use his power as he pleased was to liberate Heloise.

‘There weren’t any gains today either.’

Zenon shook his heavy head as he got up from the couch.

His entire body and bones hurt as he was growing taller.

“Who killed him?”

If the butler died, it meant that he didn’t have to take action, so it could be considered a good thing, but depending on the way he died, things could become troublesome.

Above all, he was most concerned about Heloise’s words, that there’s no one that wouldn’t reveal the skeletons in the butler’s closet.

Although she didn’t seem to have the strength or courage to kill someone, anyone that’s involved in a suspicious death would feel annoyed.

As long as he had the power to, he wanted to only show the good and beautiful things to Heloise.

He didn’t want any meaningless flies to stick together and bring noise to Heloise’ reputation. The brown-haired girl, who looked at him with an inorganic expression, opened her closed lips.

“It’s the Marquis of Velks.”

Zenon, who had been holding his forehead due to headaches and various muscle pains, slowly raised his head.

“……did you investigate it properly?”

“I’ve just confirmed it, so it’s unmistakable. He died at Marquis Velk’s behest.”

“Hah.”

Zenon recalled Heloise’s briefly smiling face and daring voice.

“No, is there a need for me to use my hands?”

Zenon’s gaze shifted to the disorganised pile of books.

Various patterns and complicated drawings were all over the books’ opened pages.

“Heloise, what the hell did you…?”

At the end of his sentence, a heavy silence fell in the study.

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