When A Villain Meets A Villain - Chapter 43

Lionel finally moved to the scene of the accident after Paul practically wailed out his request.

Apparently, it would be strange if the present head of the family didn’t make an appearance when the young lord of a County was run over by a carriage bearing the emblem of the grand ducal family.

“Ouch, I’m dying!”

As soon as he spotted the man that was yelling loudly in front of the gate, Lionel’s already frowning face crumpled irreversibly.

“What is the Grand Duke of Blanc doing when his carriage ran over a person?”

Tross’s groans grew in volume when he noticed the grand duke’s silver hair from a distance.

Their eyes had clearly met, but Tross audaciously pretended that he was unaware.

“From the way that young lord is courting death, it seems that he wants to die quickly. Let me help him out personally.”

With a cold smile, Lionel reached for the sword that’s at his hip.

“Your Highness, please calm down! As I’ve said before, that person is Young Lord Tross Evita, Count Evita’s eldest son. Apparently he had visited the Grand Duchy before!”

“I don’t know about that, but I do know that the Young Lord will breathe his last before the Count and his wife today.”

After he made an outrageous remark, he finally drew his sword.

“Hiik! Wait a moment, Your Highness! It’s right to say that we are responsible as his injuries were caused by the grand ducal family’s carriage. We should allow him into the mansion to receive treatment first.”

“You said that that person got hurt while hanging around the mansion’s gate. Why is that my carriage’s fault?”

He wanted to refute it, but what he said was the truth. The person that ran at full speed and knocked against the carriage that was undergoing repairs was clearly Tross.

However, there was something called ‘circumstances’ in this world, and even if 100% of the fault belonged to Tross, as the owner of the carriage, he had to feign concern.

Especially if Tross was shamelessly screaming,”I’m going to die,” at the top of his lungs.

“From how he still has the energy to scream like that, it doesn’t seem like he’s that hurt.”

‘Actually, I do think so, but there’s something called obligation!’

Paul forcibly swallowed down the words that had risen up his throat, before sticking to the grand duke with earnest movements.

“But, Your Highness, it would be better if you greet him out of courtesy. Even if you only said to receive treatment first…!”

“Very well.”

For some reason, he agreed readily.

Paul’s eyes widened roundly, and he started to tear up, under the impression that Lionel was finally recognising his efforts and dedication.

However, the words that followed immediately shoved all the happiness that welled up into the mud.

“I’ll injure him enough for him to require treatment.”

The grand duke made an alarming declaration, and approached Tross with his sword drawn like he was about to carry out those words.

Unable to come up with a way to stop him, Paul had no choice but to pull out a secret card that he had never wanted to use in his life.

“M–Miss Atalante would hate that!”

At his shout, the grand duke’s feet, which were moving forward unhesitatingly, stopped like it was a lie.

“What?”

“S–she told me something like that before. M–men who are thoughtlessly violent are the worst!”

In a way, it was contradictory as she was also someone that uses violence to suppress others. However, for Paul, who was only thinking about how to stop the grand duke, things like probability did not matter.

“Miss Atalante said that?”

The grand duke stopped mid-stride and looked back, asking with a stiffened face.

If he was caught lying, the one that would be skewered by that sword would be Paul.

‘I’ll have to speak with her separately later.’

Thinking that this request of his would be accepted, Paul risked his life and nodded shamelessly.

“Yes! Miss Atalante said that a man who is kind, generous, and magnanimous to others, especially the lord chamberlain that serves him in close quarters, is attractive.”

Without missing this opportunity, Paul listed his wishes one after another.

Looking at his lord chamberlain’s determined expression with narrowed eyes, Lionel sheathed his sword with a sigh.

“……She’s so nice that it’s a shortcoming.”

What? Who?

Don’t tell me the person with the shortcoming of being nice is that villain?

Although Paul’s mind was filled with question marks, Lionel didn’t wait for him to ask any questions.

“Young Count Evita.”

Lionel strode up to Tross, and looked down at him, who was seated on the floor, indifferently.

Tross, who at first glance seemed uninjured other than his dirtied clothes, raised his head as soon as his name was called.

“Grand Duke!”

The grand duke looked down leisurely at the green eyes that were filled with protesting light, before opening the conversation with a light greeting.

“What brings a squalid person to this venerable place?”

“What did you say?”

“Oh dear, I’ve misspoke. I was wondering what brings the Evita family’s noble successor to the gate of another person’s house in broad daylight, so I came to take a look.”

Lionel folded his arms, like he didn’t have any intention of helping him up.

“Can’t you tell after looking at this? I was hit by a carriage from the Grand Duchy and was seriously injured.”

“Seriously?”

The grand duke’s brows furrowed irritably. Since Tross also had a shred of conscience, he couldn’t bear to press further.

“……Sometimes, the wounds that are invisible are deeper.”

It was an excuse that made Tross himself want to smile wryly at.

‘God, why am I doing something like this?’

But he had to do this in order to secure his position next to his beloved sister.

He had to enter the Grand Duke’s townhouse and carry out the Emperor’s orders.

However, even if there’s a goal, his feelings towards it didn’t change.

As Tross cursed at his father and the Emperor in his heart, he looked up at Lionel with a slightly more incensed expression.

“Are you just going to watch?”

“I think it was the Young Count who had appointed himself to be a spectacle.”

“Hey, Grand Duke!”

Paul, who ran up to them afterwards, paled as he looked at Tross. After spending a long time at the Academy, it was clear that the young count still didn’t understand the ways of the world.

However, considering his age, he should have instinctively learnt to hide his claws in front of the strong.

In comparison to Lionel Blanc, he was probably much more guileless.

Count Evita was a powerful family from the Imperial faction, and runs the Empire’s biggest merchant group. Therefore, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they took charge over the funds of the Imperial faction.

Touching such a family’s successor would cause enormous consequences, even if it’s Lionel.

‘Please, return back to where you came from! I’ll send a physician to your house!’

Though Paul looked at Tross earnestly, he opened his mouth again as if he didn’t receive Paul’s telepathy.

“Hah! I heard that the people of the Grand Duchy were generous, but it must have been a groundless rumour. I can tell just by looking at the Grand Duke.”

Paul could see it clearly at that moment. The shadow of death that was cast behind the young count.

However, the grand duke didn’t draw his sword, and instead tilted his head slowly.

‘A–are you planning to bludgeon him to death?’

It was very inhumane, but Paul’s master might actually do that.

Just as he was about to prostrate on the floor and ask him to reconsider, a pleasant voice came out of the grand duke’s mouth.

“Hah, generous, was it?”

“Yes, generosity!”

“Damn it! Young Count, please be quiet!”

Paul, who had given Tross an impolite look unknowingly, alternately looked at the two with a shocked look.

The strange silence was once again broken by Lionel.

“A man who is kind, generous, and knows how to be magnanimous.”

It was a familiar line. Wasn’t those words the ones that he had listed carelessly, on ‘Atalante’s taste in men?’

At those mysterious words, Tross exaggerated his pretence of injury, by wrapping his arm around his stomach.

“Paul.”

“Yes, yes!”

“From now on, I will be kind, generous and magnanimous to the Young Count.”

“What?”

After making a strange declaration, the grand duke extended a hand to Tross to help him up.

To be more accurate, he grabbed Tross by the collar and lifted him up into the air.

Lionel casually ignored Tross, who was struggling without being able to yell, gave a radiant smile and finished speaking.

“If you’ve understood, inform Miss Atalante about this immediately. The beneficence that I have personally bestowed to the Young Count.”

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The Emperor’s request to Tross was to leave ‘a certain object’ in the grand duke’s mansion.

“You definitely wouldn’t be able to enter through conventional methods, so you’ll have to do it, even if it’s a little ugly, Tross.”

He really didn’t like the suggested method to enter the grand duke’s townhouse, which was like an impregnable fortress, but there was nothing he could do.

It was still alright, from the pretence of injury he did in front of the gate, and even till his entrance into the townhouse. Tross was about to tear up at the thought that the day that he’d become his lovely sister’s debutante partner wasn’t far away.

However…

“Let me go home!”

“Didn’t you yourself say that you were ‘seriously’ injured? You said it hurt so much that you couldn’t walk or talk.”

“When did I say that! I was only seriously injured……!”

“It just so happens that the most competent physician in the capital has diagnosed the Young Count’s injury as serious, so please rest well at our mansion for the time being.”

Think of this place as your home, comfortably.

Was the line ‘think of this place as your home and rest well’ supposed to cause shivers to run down your spine?

The physician’s diagnosis was clearly a misdiagnosis. The physician, who was defeated under Lionel’s threats, did everything he could to find even the slightest injury on Tross’ body.

But as he was too healthy for a nerd, in the end… the physician  diagnosed that the Young Count was suffering from a serious mental illness.

‘I seem to have witnessed such a scene many times.’

Paul, who had suddenly made a mental connection with Atalante, could only avoid his gaze quietly.

“As mentioned previously, the Young Count’s deepest wounds are in places that aren’t visible.”

Tross couldn’t help but grit his teeth upon hearing that sentence from Lionel.

This was done on purpose, even when Lionel obviously knew that he was fine.

“I want to go home! Let me go!”

Just as the screeching Tross tried to get up, the knights bound his arms.

“Don’t overdo it. No matter what others say, I’ll let you rest in this mansion for about a month, so behave yourself and stay here.”

“A month? Never! Unhand me!”

“After a good rest, you’ll gain in health mentally such that you’d never think about diving before another person’s carriage like a madman again.”

After adding those chilling words, Lionel left the room with instructions to guard the Young Count so that he can rest well.

Though the word he said was rest, the order that Lionel gave was confinement.

‘I can’t stay locked up in here! The debutante will take place in three days!’

The mind that was ranked second in the Empire raced quickly, but he couldn’t think up of a way to leave this fiendish man’s mansion.

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