He's My Real Brother, Duke

Several puzzle pieces, which were as vague as a light mist, have been clearly changed.

If Bazel was suspicious of me, I guessed that he would definitely take some action on the day of the swordsmanship competition.

But I wasn’t quite sure what the action was…

The question was finally answered.

He intends to get rid of me by using a successor, Bell, a silver fox beast with whom I have been close lately.

‘How dare you think of using a child?’

I grit my teeth and carefully observe the situation.

‘… Bad guy. I will definitely punish you.’

In the situation of Bell, who fell with a thud, the head of the Silver Fox family jumped up.

“Bell!”

The atmosphere turned even more turbulent with his shrieking screams.

Bell was taken down center stage in the Colosseum and began to be treated by healers.

“Is the swordsmanship tournament temporarily suspended?”

“… But the Duke isn’t here. Then, will Lord Ricardo make the decision to proceed with the tournament?”

At those words, Ricardo moved and stood up.

I shook my head resolutely, eyeing him.

Ricardo coughed a few times and nodded.

“Let’s treat him first, and let’s proceed quickly.”

It was shortly after Ricardo’s words were over.

I could see Bazel, who had been staying by Bell, who was undergoing treatment, getting up neatly.

He approached Ricardo and me.

In the meantime, I passed Lune to Sally and Jenny.

Lune whined momentarily but soon followed them out of the Colosseum.

“Sorry, but I have one thing to tell you.”

“What do you mean?”

Bazel said, unyielding to Ricardo’s scolding, pretending to act good.

“Looking at the situation, it seems that Bell’s accident was deliberately staged by someone.”

I smiled inwardly at Bazel, who looked sorry while saying that.

Everything was going as expected.

Bazel glanced at me, who hadn’t answered much, and looked confident.

“I hope that Director Miles will testify… Oh.”

Looking around, he muttered for a moment, looking panicked.

“The director of treatment isn’t here right now.”

However, it seems that the head of the treatment center was not a very helpful card for Bazel either.

Bazel, who quickly regained his composure, shrugged and said in a somewhat theatrical tone.

“Yes, Director Miles, who is not here, showed me the 《 Medical Chart 》 the day before.”

“A medical chart?”

While the healers gathered to give Bell first aid, Bazel drew everyone’s attention to himself.

“Yes, I could never believe it, but the head of the treatment showed me some evidence.”

It was quite a serpentine tongue.

He was just pretending to deliver the facts and handing over all the burdens and responsibilities to the head of the treatment center.

If someone were found guilty of being involved in the case, he, too, would pay the price, but not as much as the head of the treatment center.

I had my eyes on Bazel.

“Miss Astel, who is here…”

Everyone’s eyes were on me.

As a timid person, I was a little nervous about this situation which drew attention, and I’m at the center.

“Yes, I am.”

I coughed for some reason. I thought this might seem very suspicious to those who are looking at me now.

“The fact that I prescribed something called a ‘courage potion’ for Bell.”

“Yes, that’s right. I gave it to him personally.”

When I confidently accepted, Bazel’s chin was raised even higher.

He looked triumphant, saying, ‘You got caught!’

“As you’ll know from Bell’s medical chart, the potion of encouragement contains cacao beans and hallucinogenic liquid.”

The atmosphere in the audience became tense at Bazel’s explanation.

I just stared at him without answering.

When I didn’t respond, Ricardo ranted angrier than I did.

“Don’t talk nonsense. How could this little girl have done that?”

Only then did I open my lips, 

“If Bell really drank ‘the liquid’, he would wake up within an hour. It’s a hallucinogen.”

“He will wake up, but there will be permanent side effects in the future. Mortina liquid is dangerous even in very small amounts.”

Everyone’s cold gazes were fixed on me.

Perhaps it was because the primitive beast men hated humans, but the hostility I felt on the spot was stronger than I expected.

If I said anything, it seemed like they would jump right in and bite me.

In fact, some shouted to drag me out of this place and kill me.

At that, I rubbed Sam’s fraudulent artifact in my pocket with a trembling hand involuntarily.

“As you know, medical charts can be fully manipulated.”

With my eye blinking lightly, I looked around and continued to speak in a calm tone.

“As I said, if it’s really a mortina liquid, we only have to wait an hour. Even just before the competition, hours went by in a flash. An hour is faster than that.”

I took a quick look around.

Fortunately, the hostility of several beats gathered at the meeting seemed to dissolve gradually.

“For now, shouldn’t I pay the price for my sins after an accurate diagnosis comes out and Bell wakes up?”

A wonderful artifact that turns me into a fraudulent, eloquent speaker.

Thanks to this, the eyes of the beasts glaring at me viciously as if they were going to tie me to a rope were broken.

As the atmosphere calmed down, Bazel’s expression stared at me distorted.

‘I guess you were planning to publicly screw me in this place and deal with it before I could even make excuses.’

Tick, ​​Tok— Time passed.

Bell was receiving treatment surrounded by healers in front of the head of the Silver Fox family.

Until the results came out, neither Bazel nor I had anything to do with it.

While everyone’s eyes were on Bell, Bazel leaned over to me and whispered in a bloody voice.

“I have the wind catcher’s thing. How did you use it here?”

Only then I flinched.

Come to think of it, no artifacts can be used here.

Because I was caught up in the beast’s gaze, my hand unconsciously went to Sam’s artifact.

Then in the end… I plucked up my courage and changed public opinion.

It was a true placebo effect.

Fortunately, the situation that seemed to grab me by the collar immediately eased a little.

‘This is enough.’

There was no need to overdo it any longer.

I didn’t do anything, just waiting for Bell to wake up.

It was better to sit still and contemplate the situation than to show an excuse and be caught up by overdoing it.

As a result, the crowd started whispering and doubting me again, but I did not intervene between the healers.

After half an hour had passed.

The healers who were treating Bell stood.

“What Bell ate was definitely Mortina liquid.”

After that, public opinion deteriorated sharply.

Countless beasts spewed out words of distrust of me, but I remained silent.

“Are you crazy?”

“What did you do? How can you be so shameless!”

Fortunately, Ricardo, who participated as the general manager of the swordsmanship competition, stood by my side and protected me reassuringly.

“Shut your stinking mouths. It’s noisy!”

At his words, everyone sat down without a word, but the face of the head of the silver fox family became even more terrifying.

If only we were in the capital, but in the north, it was nothing more than a scoundrel and a secretly despised race, humans who dared to touch the successor of the 4th vassal family, something that shouldn’t have happened.

Then a one-eyed healer, who was sitting in the bleachers right in front of me, briefly summarized the situation.

“If it weren’t for being His Excellency’s benefactor, it would have been a summary decision, but you’re lucky.”

“Why don’t we put her in prison and interrogate her there?”

Obviously, negative comments about me were spreading very well.

Of course, it was all expected and prepared, but it hurt my heart to hear the backlash against me directly.

‘So I prepared earplugs!’

I tucked the earplugs I had asked Sally to do in advance into my ear.

Now, no matter what anyone says in front of me, I am invincible.

Thirty minutes had passed since all sorts of slander about me had passed, and it was only after Bazel, the swordsmanship master, wiped the sweat from his forehead dozens of times.

Bell woke up rubbing his eyes.

“Ugh…”

The weak kid had his shoulders drooping. Then I finally took out my earplugs.