TCRVP 14

Chapter 14

“……?”

A look that seemed to say, So what? appeared on the Marquis’s face.

“It means that we have a duty to protect children regardless of their status. Timothy is included in that.”

“Hah.”

The Marquis let out a hollow laugh before continuing in a disgustingly gentle voice.

“I know Director McGuffin quite well. I can easily imagine how he would react if he found out what his subordinate had been doing.”

“My superior would have done the same thing.”

The Marquis laughed aloud.

“Ha, haha…… ha.”

Then he abruptly stopped and glared at me.

“Let’s stop the jokes here. Fine, Deputy Director. From now on, I’ll be careful about how I treat Timothy. So, could you stop this ridiculous talk about separating him from his family?”

I shook my head.

“I’ve witnessed Timothy being abused more than once. And from what I’ve seen, Timothy has been suffering abuse for far longer than that. So my decision will not change.”

“That may be true.”

The Marquis replied coldly.

“But you can’t simply take Timothy away by force. You’ll need my son’s consent, won’t you……? Timothy, what are you going to do?”

Timothy was trembling so violently that I was beginning to worry about him.

Poor thing.

Just as I leaned slightly toward the child, trying to reassure him and give him some courage—

Leopold kicked me with all his strength.

The violence came completely without warning, and I staggered heavily before falling to the floor.

“Lady Tessa!”

Timothy screamed and tried to catch me, but I crashed my head directly against the marble floor and collapsed.

……Fuck, that hurts.

There was no way I could stop myself from cursing.

When I instinctively touched the injured area, my fingers came away wet with blood. It seemed I had cracked my head pretty badly.

“Call a doctor! Quickly!”

“What the hell, what a disgrace! Miss, are you all right?”

The people who had merely been watching the situation unfold until now came rushing over and spoke to me, but my head was spinning so badly that I couldn’t say a word.

Plop.

Something fell onto the floor.

I rolled my eyes toward the spot and saw a heavy-looking money pouch lying right beside my right hand, which was supporting me against the floor.

“……That should be enough to cover the medical expenses. Timothy, let’s go.”

The Marquis tapped Timothy’s shoulder with his cane.

Just as I tried to overcome the dizziness and say something—

“……I won’t go.”

“What?”

Timothy spoke in a clear, steady voice.

“I said I won’t go. I’m going to stay with Lady Tessa.”

“You must have finally lost your mind, Timothy.”

The Marquis tried to remain calm, but he couldn’t hide the agitation in his voice.

“Is it because you’re worried about this woman? A doctor will be far more capable of treating her than you are.”

“……No. I’m going to follow Lady Tessa. Because Lady Tessa…… can protect me. Even though I’m Father’s son, she can protect me…… from Father.”

My chest tightened.

I had thought he was merely trembling in fear, but Timothy had been listening carefully to everything I said.

The Marchioness intervened.

“Timothy, do you really think this commoner will treat you well after taking you away? You’re not related to her by blood. She’ll simply send you to an orphanage and consider her job done.”

“That’s right, Timothy. Are you really going to make the foolish choice of choosing a stranger over your family?”

Timothy’s answer came a little late.

“……Lady Tessa.”

Timothy took a deep breath.

“She was the first person to care about me. The first person who asked what I wanted and what I liked…… and she respected my opinion.”

Tears streamed down from his large, light-green eyes.

“On the other hand, my parents, Regina, and Leopold…… have never treated me that way. Not even once.”

Timothy’s voice was quiet, but clear.

Clear enough for everyone in the lobby to hear.

“I’m…… not stupid. I know what Leopold thinks of me, but I’m not an idiot.”

Timothy tightly clasped my hand.

As though he were begging me to give him strength.

I squeezed his hand firmly in return.

“F-for all this time, I kept thinking of Mother and Father……. Regina and Leopold…….”

His voice began to tremble.

He was finally putting into words a truth he had known all along but had desperately wanted to deny.

“I thought of them as my family.”

The child raised his head and looked at the Marquis and Marchioness.

His gaze was straight and unwavering.

“So please stop sending away people who aren’t family anymore, Your Grace.”

At that exact moment—

A title suddenly popped into my mind.

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I barely managed to stem the blood pouring down my face with my hand as I struggled to think through my dizziness.

What kind of title…… is this?

At the same time I had that thought, the memories of reading that novel came rushing into my mind.

You’re being way too unnatural.

The title appearing in my mind.

And the memories of having read it flashing through my head like a passing panorama…….

It was exactly the same as when I remembered 『Save the Villainous Older Brother』.

But there was no time to think about it for long.

The plot flooding into my mind was far too vivid.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Diber were an ordinary married couple. They had married without much love between them and simply fulfilled their duties toward one another.

But since love between noble couples was little more than a luxury, they were satisfied with their life.

That was until they had Regina and the Marchioness was effectively informed that she was infertile.

The Marquis of Diber could not even tolerate the possibility of raising his only daughter disguised as a boy.

<You absolutely must have another child! Surely we’ll succeed next time.>

In the end, the Marchioness of Diber managed to become pregnant again through sheer force of will, but paid the price by suffering from severe preeclampsia.

Everyone in the marquisate firmly believed that the second child would be a son.

But, naturally, the result was another daughter.

And all the resentment was directed at Timothy.

Not only the Marquis, who desperately wanted a son, but also the Marchioness of Diber, who had been bedridden for some time after giving birth to Timothy, resented her.

But the heir was necessary.

So the Marquis announced Timothy as a son and, unlike other families, went to great lengths to conceal his daughter’s true gender.

Even after the Marchioness of Diber miraculously became pregnant again the following year and finally gave birth to Leopold, the hatred and resentment toward Timothy did not disappear.

The reason they continued to treat her as a boy was also a form of punishment.

A punishment meant to remind her:

Never forget what you almost did to our family.

If that’s the case, there’s only one genre this can be.

That’s right.

Timothy was the heroine of a family-regret story.

A story where an utterly vicious family eventually beats their chests and desperately regrets what they did!

But 『The Heroine Who Dies After Everything』 wasn’t merely a family-regret story that ended there.

Because one of its keywords was #Revenge.

After being pushed around from one side to another and growing up through all of it, Timothy joined the Border Knights at the age of twenty.

Her family pressured her into it, saying that she was surely better suited for it than Leopold, who had never even held a sword.

Timothy never even questioned whether it was strange for her to be sent to the Border Knights.

But Timothy’s body had become even weaker than that of an ordinary noble young lady due to years of abuse.

There was no way she could survive in the military.

And so Timothy was torn apart alive by monsters……

And returned five years into the past.

To the year she turned fifteen.

I staggered as I looked at the Diber family.

Only now did everything make sense.

From the moment Leopold was born, Timothy had been the scapegoat.

A scapegoat they had carefully cultivated for years, so that their precious “real” son would never have to enter the Border Knights and risk getting hurt.