Chapter 94…………………………
They say Lloyd’s life was hard from the moment he was born, but there was a particular time when it truly began to get rough.
It was right after his first party, when he had a seizure.
After returning from that party, Lloyd was scolded harshly by Priscilla.
“You’re all like this because your resolve is weak.”
And another panic attack followed.
Priscilla, unable to stand it, tried to force him outside, but each time Lloyd couldn’t even take a step before passing out.
After that happened dozens of times, Priscilla seemed to give up — she stopped berating him for not being able to go out.
Instead, she took it upon herself to educate Lloyd from start to finish.
By then, Lloyd felt guilty toward Priscilla.
“What am I going to do, my only son being this useless…”
There were only the two of them left as family, and Lloyd felt sorry for Priscilla for having someone like him as a son.
So he studied even harder.
He still couldn’t go outside, and meeting people remained difficult.
But after he began learning the sword and met his teacher, he acquired some tricks that helped him avoid having seizures as often.
Lloyd’s sword instructor looked gruff, but he was a very good man.
When panic came, he helped Lloyd calm down; he was always a support, so Lloyd never had a seizure with him and was able to hold normal conversations.
Five years passed in that state.
That day was particularly pleasant.
Priscilla had watched Lloyd practice swordsmanship and praised him warmly.
“Your swordsmanship has improved a lot, Lloyd.”
Praise from Priscilla was precious.
She was always busy, so there were few occasions when she watched him steadily.
But that day she watched him practice until the end — and even praised him.
Because of that, Lloyd went to bed that night in a good mood.
‘If I do better from now on, maybe Mother will finally be able to relax.’
He still couldn’t go outside, and talking to people was awkward, but that day he felt like he could do anything.
Step by step, slowly — keep trying.
That night he had a very good dream.
He dreamed of mingling naturally with people at a party, and walking with Priscilla under the sunlight.
Priscilla smiled at him very kindly.
He didn’t want to wake up —
“…Hah!”
“As expected, you’re sensitive. You noticed even though I suppressed my presence.”
The sudden sense of killing intent snapped Lloyd out of his dream.
What was happening?
He hurriedly gathered the information that came into view.
A sword that his teacher always kept by the bedside was in his hand, and because of that he barely managed to block the blade that was trying to pierce his throat.
Rolling his eyes to look straight ahead, he saw a large man pointing a sword at him.
The man wore a mask — clearly an assassin.
The problem was that even with the mask on, his face looked terribly familiar.
“Ma—Master…?”
“I’m not here as your teacher, so please drop the honorific. I am an assassin from Keihel. I was hired to assassinate the Grand Duke’s son.”
Keihel? An assassin? My teacher would—?
There was no time to think.
The man who claimed to be an assassin attacked Lloyd with the intent to kill.
Lloyd had always thought the teacher taught a particularly aggressive style of swordsmanship — teaching you to stab vital points that would fell someone in one strike, showing how to kill silently.
He wasn’t the kind of person Priscilla would pick as a sword instructor, so there were many oddities about him.
Still, Lloyd had relied on him, and he wanted to believe this was a dream as the blade came for his vital point.
The assassin warned the crying Lloyd coldly.
“Crying won’t get you off.”
And in a hair’s breadth, Lloyd’s throat would have been sliced.
Luckily he dodged in time — otherwise he would have been dead.
‘He really wanted to kill me…’
Now he realized the reality.
A fear gripped him: he could die here.
A skilled assassin stood no chance against a fifteen-year-old boy.
But Lloyd’s desire to live produced a miracle.
Using the agility and strength his teacher had trained into him, Lloyd stabbed the vital point the teacher had taught him.
The man died without even managing a cry.
“Ma—Master…”
The immediate relief of surviving lasted only a moment.
The fact that he had killed the man who had been his benefactor swallowed Lloyd whole.
“No, that’s not true. I didn’t do it.”
Breathing became difficult; his head rang. His vision wavered.
People here and there were accusing him of murder.
At that moment, Priscilla’s voice sounded clear.
“Lloyd.”
When he turned, Priscilla was indeed standing in front of him.
She seemed to be assessing the situation, checking the corpse and then Lloyd.
Had she come because of the commotion? Lloyd grabbed Priscilla and confessed his sin.
“Mo—Mother. I, I—”
I killed someone.
Please spare me, Mother.
I feel like I’m going to die.
Priscilla’s thin hand touched Lloyd’s cheek, imploring with her eyes.
Her fingertips stroked his cheek, and then a gentle voice fell.
“At least there’s one thing you’re good at. That’s a relief.”
“…What?”
When Lloyd looked up, Priscilla’s face wore a smile he had never seen before.
“If you’d died, that would have been troublesome. I couldn’t possibly make another heir.”
The buzzing sound that had been ringing in his ears stopped at once.
Priscilla’s calm voice became even clearer.
“But it doesn’t end with just killing him, Lloyd. There’s a token inside his body that marks who commissioned the assassination. We must find out who did this and avenge them to the end. There’s no time for crying.”
“Wa—wait. Mother. What do you mean…”
“I’ll show you.”
Priscilla forced Lloyd’s frozen hand to move.
Even though he held a tool, the horrible sensation of cutting a person transmitted fully into Lloyd’s hand.
Each time she made his hand move, Lloyd swallowed sobs.
Something snagged his hand.
Priscilla put a small object taken from the assassin into Lloyd’s palm.
“Here — this is the token that represents the client.”
He wanted to run, but if he did Priscilla would be furious, so Lloyd forced himself to look at what had been placed in his hand.
‘I can’t see it.’
His vision was blurred and he couldn’t make it out.
Something blue was edged in gold.
His hands and sleeves were too bloody to wipe his tears and see the details, but Lloyd recognized it at once.
An earring set with a blue sapphire.
It was the very thing Lloyd had saved allowance to buy and gave to Priscilla for her birthday.
Priscilla had liked it and wore it often; seeing it always filled Lloyd with happiness.
Now that earring was soaked in blood and held in Lloyd’s hand.
His hand trembled madly.
He was afraid to look aside.
He feared that the Priscilla holding his hand beside him might suddenly kill him.
Yet her hand gently stroked his head.
Only then, when Lloyd relaxed and turned to look at her, did his mother speak the truth with the kindest face in the world.
“I was the one who commissioned it.”
“Ah—ah…!”
He couldn’t even scream properly from terror.
The fact that his only family — his mother — had tried to have him killed was enough to make Lloyd feel as if he’d lose his mind.
“Don’t feel guilty. She was someone who made her living off the value of other people’s lives; it was bound to end this way.”
What on earth was this woman saying?
Lloyd’s mind could not comprehend it.
Priscilla, regardless of Lloyd’s screams, forced the words into him.
“Lloyd, you must have thought this: it’s okay if you can’t go outside. You can just work hard at home. If you do that, I’ll recognize you. No. That’s nonsense, Lloyd. My son mustn’t have any illness. All the patience I showed was only to give you time to learn swordsmanship.”
Her voice seemed to overlap and echo.
Yet those cruel words lodged firmly into Lloyd’s head.
“Now that you’ve realized that home isn’t a safe place, you must behave properly from now on. Or else something like this will happen again.”
