Saving My Bias from Mishaps (6)
It happened when I was having lunch.
My appetite wasn’t the best because of what happened yesterday with Abel, but I knew my fragile body couldn’t handle me skipping a meal and wouldn’t even be able to walk if I didn’t eat.
In front of me was a big table full of dishes that the duke’s cook prepared with care, but unfortunately, no one was here to enjoy them with me.
I was all alone in the big dining room.
Because the silence felt stifling, my hands occasionally paused in midair as I stared at the empty chairs around me.
Was this what it was like for Abel every day?
“Huh….”
I resisted the urge to just get up and walk away after stuffing my mouth full of food.
It was then that somebody entered the dining room.
I turned around at the noise and saw Abel standing a few feet away from me, holding a bowl of soup.
“Childe Louvremont…?
Gah!”
I almost choked to death on a piece of meat that I’d forgotten to swallow.
Abel rushed over to me, worried as I coughed with my hand wrapped around my neck.
“L-Lady Heathcliff!
Are you okay?”
He put his soup bowl down on the table and looked up at me with worried eyes.
I managed to finally swallow the meat I’d hardly gotten a chance to chew in one big gulp.
“Y-yes….
I’m okay,” I said, my gaze inadvertently moving to Abel’s feet.
I was worried that he came all the way to the dining room because I knew his feet couldn’t have healed enough for him to walk around yet.
Abel noticed my gaze and said after a moment of hesitation, “May I… join you for lunch?”
“Huh?
Oh, of course.
Please sit.
But be careful…,” I said with Abel’s injured feet in mind.
Abel nodded and took a seat next to me unvexed.
I glanced at Abel, trying to gauge what was going on inside his head.
He must have seen the bandages around his feet when he woke up in the morning.
He knew there was no one else under this roof but Hades that looked after him, so he seemed to already have guessed that I had stopped by his room yesterday.
“Umm… Lady Heathcliff?”
“…Yes?”
“If it’s alright with you….”
“….”
“C-could we have all our meals together from now on?”
Abel’s voice was trembling as if he were afraid that I’d turn him down.
Worried that I might suddenly burst into tears, I took a moment to gather myself before answering him, “…Of course.”
“And after our meal… would it be okay to… have some tea with you in your room?”
“…Of course we can.”
“A-and when my feet are all healed….”
Abel bit his lips, but couldn’t fight back the tears.
Tears rolled down his tiny cheeks and fell into the soup in his bowl.
He asked again, with crying breaking his voice, “C-Can we… go on walks together every day…?”
Abel looked at me with his eyes red from crying.
“Mommy, are you coming home today?”
“I miss you.
Can you come home early today so we can sleep together?”
I could see my younger self in him.
“Yes.
Yes, that would all be wonderful.
Let’s do everything you want to do, together.”
And finally, tears began to flow from my eyes, too.
Abel snuggled into my arms, and I hugged his head and held him against my chest.
Then we cried in each other’s arms for a long time.
“You shouldn’t cry, Childe Louvremont.
You’re going to ruin that cute face of yours,” I said jokingly, even though I knew Abel’s face was perfect regardless of whether he was crying or not.
Abel laughed, then wrapped his arms around my waist again and buried his face in my stomach.
“As for you, Lady Heathcliff, even your crying face is beautiful.”
I smiled because I remembered what Abel told Deborah in the original novel.
He told her not to cry because her crying face wasn’t cute.
Of course, he probably said so because he didn’t want the heroine to cry, but I decided to take his words however I wanted.
Abel said my crying face looked beautiful, unlike Deborah’s!
“Childe.”
“Yes…?”
“From now on, if you’re hurt, you have to tell me, okay?”
“Okay….”
“Whether it’s your health or your feelings, if you feel pain, you must tell me.
Just come straight to me and tell me everything, okay?”
“….”
Abel pulled himself away from me, then looked up at me hesitantly.
He was probably thinking about Agatha.
I added with a cheerful voice, so that Abel wouldn’t worry.
“You won’t need to worry about the countess.
I gave her a thorough scolding so she won’t harass you ever again.”
“H-huh?!” Abel’s face paled.
“You really don’t need to worry.
His Grace gave me permission to punish anyone that hurts you.”
“…R-really?”
“Erm, I think so?”
Even as I said so, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried.
I was pretty sure Agatha would have yelled at Hades about kicking me out of the duchy by now.
After all, I did raise quite a ruckus last night.
Hades did tell me not to pull any punches, but like any person with common sense, I knew I still had rules to follow.
If Hades found out that I not only mistreated the countess but also mocked and ridiculed her, he might become furious.
Or perhaps he’d regret welcoming me to his duchy in the first place and order me to pack my things and leave immediately.
Then I’d have no choice but to venture alone into the freezing blizzard of the North….
“Nooo!”
I was so sure everything would be okay last night.
But today, I kept finding myself imagining the worst.
Abel was looking at me with worried eyes.
“I-it’s fine, really.” I reassured Abel because I didn’t want him to worry, but….
‘What will I do if I do get kicked out?’
If that happened, it would be next to impossible for me to admire Abel even from a distance….
Slam-!
“Oh my goodness!”
“Woah!”
It was then.
Both Abel and I flinched as someone stormed into the room.
Speak of the devil!
I got goosebumps because of his amazing timing.
It was Hades who opened the door with a bang.
The duke had the most frightening expression I had ever seen on his face.
Even though there was quite a distance between him and me, his terrifying aura forced me to freeze on the spot when our eyes met.
Hades glared at me for a moment, then strode toward Abel.
“F-father?”
Hades kneeled before Abel without saying a word.
Abel recoiled in confusion when his father suddenly pulled his shoes from his feet.
“Umm… I….”
The white bandages were stained red with blood.
Hades fell silent, staring at Abel’s feet.
“F-father, I….”
“Abel.” Hades called Abel in a low voice but said nothing afterward.
How did he find out about Abel’s condition?
I assumed that Agatha had talked to him about what happened last night and he was able to make the deduction.
This meant that he already knew I’d visited the countess and caused a scene in her room.
I didn’t expect that mean oldie to have told him what went on between her and me exactly the way it happened.
As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hades regarded me as some kind of crazy woman now.
In fact, I was sure that was already the case.
Hades stared down at Abel’s feet for quite a long time before lightly grabbing his ankles.
And at that moment—
Though I lacked mana to even hide my nexus, I could sense a strange flow of energy in the air.
I recognized immediately what he was about to do.
“Y-your Grace!
You shouldn’t!
There’s no need….” I tried to intervene as Hades stared at me with an indifferent gaze.
For some reason, he seemed terribly angry, so I had to give in to him in the end.
A bewildered exclamation of surprise broke from Abel’s lips as Hades gently rubbed his ankles.
He was using the power of absorption, the one ability shared among all cores regardless of attribute.
Using absorption, one could transfer the physical harm on one person to their own body.
To put it simply, Hades transferred the wounds Abel suffered to himself.
I didn’t want Abel to suffer, so it would have been all right for me not to stop Hades under normal circumstances.
But I was worried for him because I knew he’d have to suffer from the transferred wounds himself.
This was the reason why all the healers at the holy temple were of the light attribute.
The power of purification, which only people with the light attribute could wield, allowed them to absorb any mortal wound without suffering from the injury themselves by cleansing it before it could affect them.
And the reason I was able to recognize this ability so quickly was that in the novel, Hades lost his life by absorbing the repercussions of Abel’s uncontrolled power.
After Abel’s powers went berserk, Hades absorbed all the internal injuries as well as Abel’s mental breakdown and died soon after.
“F-father?”
Abel seemed both surprised and confused by the sudden disappearance of the pain.
And although it was very subtle, I saw Hades grimace with pain from the wounds he received from Abel.
But it only lasted for a brief moment.
Hades had an expression on his face as if it was nothing and soon stood up to scoop Abel into his arms.
Abel leaned forward to wrap his arms around his father’s neck in a familiar manner.
They shared a close bond, something that was far out of reach for me.
Hades looked at me with Abel in his arms.
He seemed to have a lot to say to me.
Was he going to question me why I threw such a ruckus at Agatha?
I couldn’t think of any answer off the top of my head.
And so, in the end, I simply averted my eyes away from Hades’s piercing gaze.