Something’s Not Right About This Transmigration - Chapter 19
Hanging awkwardly from the wall, Frey’s eyes widened as the dagger flew toward him.
His mind knew he had to dodge, but his body refused to obey.
Frey squeezed his eyes shut.
Thunk!
The chilling sound of flesh being pierced rang out as a large arm pulled Frey into an embrace.
“Ah, I meant to knock it aside.”
At the indifferent voice, Frey snapped his head up, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Bright golden hair streamed through the air.
Golden eyes fixed on Isaac burned with disgust and rage.
“Your…… Grace?”
Samuel had been watching Isaac, but lowered his gaze at Frey’s call.
Unlike usual, dark circles lay beneath his eyes. He looked like someone who had gone without sleep for several nights.
“If you wanted to tour the country so badly, you should have told me in advance.”
“……What?”
“I see you were bold enough to come alone because you thought I wouldn’t like the countryside……. But newlyweds generally take their honeymoon together.”
“…….”
“I believed you disliked physical activity, but considering how thoroughly you’ve been knocked around, it appears that may not be true.”
Frey’s lips moved at the pointed remarks.
Samuel had not directly asked why he fled, yet Frey felt as though he were being beaten with every word.
“Even so.”
“……?”
“I am glad I found you before it was too late.”
Samuel spoke lightly and examined Frey’s face. Isaac, who had been standing in a daze, moved his lips and muttered.
“Someone fell from the sky……. H-how did……?”
“What in the world is that……?”
His appearance, his clothes, even the way he stood.
The boy’s appearance unmistakably resembled someone.
Samuel frowned at the inexplicable displeasure surging within him.
“Considering he threw a dagger, he doesn’t appear to be a friend.”
“…….”
“And since the blade is coated in a paralytic poison, he seems to have intended something sinister.”
Samuel crooked his fingers several times as he looked at Isaac. No sooner had he finished speaking than his control slipped, and thick, threatening pheromones poured from him. Isaac, apparently a Beta, remained unaffected, but when Frey trembled beneath the scent, Samuel quickly reined in his pheromones.
“……Give that person back.”
“……?”
“He is someone I absolutely need.”
Samuel quietly looked at Frey after Isaac spoke.
“For someone you claim to need, you’ve left him in tatters.”
“……It was unavoidable for the greater good. He is alive, isn’t he? I didn’t do much. He only looks like that because…… the Young Lord is weak.”
Overwhelmed by Samuel’s presence, Isaac blurted out things he had not even been asked about, then stepped back half a pace.
‘I’m certain…….’
He remembered what the Count had said while drunk during a visit to hear about the research results.
“The research is finally taking shape. At this rate, there could be a treatment within a few years. Then I can discard that useless Frey.”
“Frey……?”
“There’s an idiot who doesn’t have a single friend even at his age. Tsk. If only my son could do one thing properly like you…….”
Isaac had replayed the Count’s every word so often that he remembered them clearly.
Twenty-two-year-old Frey still had no close friends.
The Count had said Frey was so pathetic and weak that no decent household had even proposed a marriage.
Yet the man now holding Frey as though he were precious seemed extremely close to him.
Close enough to be a friend or something more.
“Why…… do I keep getting everything wrong……?”
Isaac clutched his head and retreated another couple of steps.
“Why didn’t the Count give me accurate information? He clearly said Frey knew no one……. He said Frey couldn’t do a single thing and was so stupid no one remained around him. Then why……?”
Why did Frey’s eyes look so clear and focused?
Why did Frey seem so desperate to survive and keep living when he was supposed to be indifferent to his own fate?
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, but…….”
Samuel held Frey close and lightly jumped down from the wall. Only then did he pull the dagger from his arm.
Without hesitation, he threw it into Isaac’s shoulder.
“Ah!”
The dagger cut through the air in the blink of an eye.
The instant Isaac staggered and collapsed, more than ten soldiers surged through the main gate almost as though breaking it down.
“Young Lord!”
Frey heard Leo’s voice calling for him among them.
“N-no…….”
Isaac looked at the people rushing in. The soldiers surrounded the mansion in an instant and subdued the people running out one after another.
“The research materials…….”
Isaac staggered to his feet and ran toward the mansion, as though refusing to lose the results of all his work.
“Your Grace. We found a banner bearing the crest of House Rubellia inside the mansion.”
“Find out whether he is an impostor as well. The Young Lord is unwell, so bring the medical staff quickly.”
Frey reached out and caught Samuel’s arm while he issued rapid orders. He pulled Samuel’s sleeve down and pressed it firmly against the wound.
“Treat this injury before mine. The bleeding won’t stop…….”
“Your own fingers are in a terrible state, Young Lord. Your arm as well.”
“It hurt terribly earlier, but it’s bearable now. Wh-what about the poison? You said the dagger had paralytic poison on it. Are you alright?”
At Frey’s reply, Samuel silently searched his face. The words were not spoken to win his favor or because Frey was gauging his reaction.
They contained only unguarded concern and guilt toward Samuel, who had been injured while protecting him.
“……That kind of poison has little effect on me. The paralysis has already faded.”
“But…….”
Frey was about to say something when the healer ran over. Frey quickly pointed to Samuel.
“He was stabbed by a dagger. You said the dagger was coated in paralytic poison too…….”
Samuel silently watched Frey fuss over him, checking Samuel’s injury first even as his knees weakened now that the tension had broken. Despite Samuel saying the paralytic poison had no effect, Frey emphasized it again to the healer.
‘How unpleasant.’
A hard-to-explain emotion surged within him and made his stomach churn. Samuel watched silently for a moment, then reached out, covered Frey’s eyes, and pulled him into his arms.
“Y-Your Grace?”
The startled Frey tried to catch Samuel’s arm, then hurriedly released it when pain shot through his fingers.
Samuel watched him, then spoke with a short sigh.
“Showing concern for me now won’t erase all the anger that’s built up.”
“…….”
“If you’re going to disappear with the Imperial Crown Prince, you could at least stay unharmed.”
His voice was sharp, yet held a subtle note of relief.
With his vision covered, it suddenly occurred to him that the danger was over.
All the tension left Frey’s body, and he sagged helplessly into Samuel’s embrace.
“Rest. You’re safe now.”
Samuel’s voice was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness as though falling asleep.
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