Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Translator: Kay

Olivia Chamberlain.

Countess Chamberlain, who was unable to come out of her room due to frequent illness, seemed to be a secret member of the Claudia Happiness Squad.

Olivia summoned Claudia, who was stuck to me like chewing gum, to her room today and pulled her from me.

When I arrived at the place Claudia was, there was a steam of loud laughter.

“Ahaha……! Oh my, is Irene here?”

I greeted her with my head peeking out from behind the door.

“Hello, Olivia. How was your day today?”

“It was a bleak day because Irene didn’t come.”

“Oh.”

A bleak day. I felt sorry for making her look gloomy, but she was too cute.

It was apparent why Hugo acted the way he did whenever he spoke about Olivia.

“Well, now that I’ve seen Irene, it’s been a great day!”

With a big smile, Olivia beckoned me to come in.

Olivia only ever appeared in the novel as the phrase, ‘Sick Mother’.

Despite her illness, she was still beautiful. I could imagine her glancing at the last leaf outside her window and saying, ‘If that leaf falls……’ But in reality, it was completely different.

She was a bright and cheerful person.

On the contrary, Claudia, who faced the spirited and energetic Olivia, had a depressed expression.

“Irene….”

Claudia spread her arms and called for me.

The appearance of her with her arms wide open seemed to tell me to come and hug her. I rushed into the exhausted-looking Claudia’s arms without hesitation and hugged her.

In the past, she said, ‘My mother’s a nice woman, but she sometimes tires me. Physically.’ It reminded me of that complaint.

From the beginning, she was a person who had extraordinary vitality, but because she had a hard time moving her body, she talked a lot instead.

“What about my older brother?”

Claudia must have thought Felix would naturally come with me.

She stared at me with a vigilant gaze and asked, wondering why no one was beside me.

“Well….”

I looked away for a moment and replied with a shudder.

“He’s getting hit like dirt on a rainy day.”

“What? My brother?”

Claudia looked as if she had heard strange noises.

“But Father has never beaten us before?”

That’s right. Both of you were so pretty and adorable, and you grew up perfectly well, so there was no reason to hit you.

Olivia made a similar expression and slowly narrowed her eyes.

“……This man.”

“Oh, don’t be too hard on him…….”

Actually, I didn’t want to say something like this. No matter the reason, you could not justify violence.

However, Hugo’s position was completely understandable. Even if there was no other option; to say that he would die in front of his parents…….

Until now, I had never seen Hugo raise his voice and be truly angry, but this time he became a burning sweet potato1 and beat Felix to the ground.

Felix had already prepared for everything and just said it with an indifferent expression. I couldn’t bear to watch or stop the scene, so I slipped out.

That was the result of Claudia’s Happiness Squad.

The problem was not about whether he would be totally eaten or half-eaten by the devil, but rather, Felix’s acceptance of the devil itself.

Mind you. The situation coming towards us was a total mess.

‘You should have told me earlier. Bad Felix.’

I constantly told him that he shouldn’t bear anything alone. But in the meantime, it turned out that he had been hiding this.

Of course, he didn’t ‘hide’ it. He just covered it up cleverly. If I had thought about it more carefully, I would have known immediately!

I couldn’t believe you confused my judgment by using strange words and saying that you would hurt me. I almost lost sight of the important thing!

I even thought that being half-eaten by the devil was cheap.

In fact, I thought the best way was to accept the devil’s power and then purify it with the power of the spirit. But, if the power itself was so controversial in the first place……..

As Felix said, the best option was for him to be a dead man. Then they wouldn’t be able to find any traces of him accepting the power of the devil.

‘I wish the three useless brothers died.’

I hoped that the three of them would suddenly die like a sunfish2.

I hoped that the writer became overwhelmed with the impulse to kill the three useless brothers after these 10 years3.

I hoped that they either got hit by lightning, died from diarrhea, or fell into the water where their legs would cramp, and they drowned.

For more,

Even though I knew everything, I couldn’t see an inch ahead.

In order to accurately implement the future I knew, I had to follow the original novel, but I distorted it from the beginning.

Still, I thought it would be okay. But, as it turned out like this, everything that I judged as in the palm of my hand4 was vaguely pushed out.

“Irene.”

“…….”

“Rin.”

“…….”

I stopped applying the potion, lifted my head, and looked up at him.

“It’ll be fine. I told you, I’m confident I can bear with it.”

“I’m sure I told you not to bear with it…….”

“Just this once, please.”

“Yes?” Felix smiled apologetically.

Even if I knew about it, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of helplessness.

So a month later, a week later, or maybe even tomorrow, the day would come where I would no longer be able to talk to him.

But I didn’t expect that this would be the last time I saw Felix.

1. The imagery of a ‘burning sweet potato’ is just the author trying to evoke the image of Hugo being super angry (like fiery rage).↩

2. This sunfish reference relates to a popular game in South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan called “Survive! Mola mola.” It’s a game where you have to try to keep the sunfish alive for as long as possible.↩

3. In chapter 2 it was revealed that 10 years had passed since she first read the book and she hopes that the author now has an impulse to kill them off now.↩

4. ‘To have something‘ in the palm of your hand’ means to have the thing under your complete control.↩