She wondered what he was trying to do, but then he drew the decorative sword and swung it as if he were about to cut off Luzbel’s neck at any moment.
“Kyaaa!”
Startled, Aisha screamed and tightly shut her eyes.
Luzbel didn’t flinch at all, calmly offering his neck as if he were ready to accept everything.
Slash, but it was nothing more than a decorative sword.
With a dull blade, it couldn’t cut a neck, not even radish. Still, a sword was a sword, and a thin line formed on Luzbel’s neck as blood slowly seeped out.
When no sound followed, Aisha, trembling, opened her eyes and saw the Marquis staring coldly at Luzbel.
She had known that he didn’t think well of Luzbel, but he had never once shown such a cold gaze as now.
“I trusted you.”
“…I am sorry.”
Trusted?
The Marquis trusted Luzbel?
Before Aisha could even grasp the situation, the Marquis roughly tossed the decorative sword onto the floor and issued an order to expel him.
“Get out. I don’t even want to look at you.”
“I’m sorry. But still,”
“I said get out!”
In the end, Luzbel rose from his knees, bowed deeply, and tried to leave the room, and Aisha hurriedly tried to follow after him.
“You stay.”
But the Marquis stopped Aisha.
What should she do?
“…I have a lot I want to say. Please stay.”
The tone shifted from an order to a request, sounding somehow drained of strength, and Aisha, her heart aching for some reason, froze in place.
***
Luzbel went out after giving Aisha a reassuring smile, and only silence flowed in the room for quite a while.
“So, you don’t have any memories?”
“Yes…”
“…I did think something was off.”
After confirming whether Aisha had memories or not, the Marquis fell into thought again and tightly shut his mouth. Aisha, unable to tell what the Marquis was thinking, spoke first.
She was worried that if she just left things like this, it might spiral into the worst thoughts.
‘I need to leave him no time to think.’
“I heard from Luzbel that we weren’t on very good terms.”
“What? That brat said that?”
The Marquis’ eyes widened.
Ah, it looked like she stepped on a landmine.
“I-I was just curious, so I asked! About what kind of person you were, Marquis!”
“You were curious about me?”
When she hurriedly spoke as if making an excuse, his expression finally softened a little.
“Hm. I can’t say we were on good terms.”
‘No, then why did you get so emotional about it?’
“Aisha, you were very shy around people.”
…Shy even with family?
“That side of you was very cute too, you know. Heh heh heh.”
The Marquis let out a cheerful laugh as he recalled Aisha from those days. But Aisha couldn’t understand at all what was supposed to be cute about it.
“But if I had known it would turn out like this, I should never have married you off, even if it meant seeking asylum. I should have left this damned Empire, whether the Emperor threw a tantrum or not.”
The Marquis, who had been laughing, saw Aisha’s bewildered face and quickly grew dejected, muttering to himself.
His face was filled with regret.
But somehow, it seemed that Marquis Lisellon hadn’t been included in her father’s thoughts.
“What about the Marquis?”
“Which Marquis are you talking about?”
“Marquis Lisellon.”
“…You remember that man?”
When the name Lisellon came from Aisha’s mouth, the Marquis’ face changed like a yaksha. An even more murderous aura poured out than when he had looked at Luzbel.
At that, Aisha quickly answered.
“No! I just heard about him!”
“…Do not even put that thing’s name in your mouth.”
Calling a person a thing.
Whatever it was, it seemed he had been firmly blacklisted by her father.
She had already felt no affection for him just from hearing about him, but what on earth had he done to make the Marquis recoil like that?
And yet, for some reason, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
“Rather, the fact that you forgot that thing could be considered fortunate…”
Marquis Selturode seemed genuinely relieved.
“Uh…”
Come to think of it, she still hadn’t told the Marquis about her diagnosis.
Before she could say anything more, the Marquis had drawn his sword and issued an order to expel Luzbel.
Aisha rolled her eyes around.
‘I should be the one to say it.’
“Marquis.”
“…Marquis? Try calling me Dad.”
“Sorry?”
“You lost your memories, so is it difficult…? Before you lost your memories, you did call me Dad too… Doesn’t ‘Marquis’ make us sound too distant…?”
Dejected.
The Marquis drooped, sticking out his lips in a pout that didn’t suit his large frame at all.
“Dad. Yes, I will call you Dad.”
The attack of a handsome middle-aged face was formidable.
Whatever their relationship had originally been like, Aisha didn’t want to see that sad face. The current Aisha was a severe face enthusiast.
“Heh heh.”
At the word “Dad” that came out right away, the Marquis smiled as if he had the whole world.
***
‘It’s better to get the beating over with first.’
Aisha wholeheartedly agreed with that saying.
More than anything, this was someone who had drawn a sword and swung it just at the words that she had lost her memories, so if he found out it wasn’t just memory loss, it didn’t seem like it would end with just the sword.
“Um… Dad.”
“Heh heh. Yes, yes. What is it?”
The Marquis smiled like a doting fool, not knowing what to do.
He looked oddly cheerful, so she felt bad about ruining the mood, but it would be better for him to know everything now rather than finding out later.
She didn’t want Luzbel to die, so she had to say it. Swept up in a sense of duty she couldn’t quite explain, Aisha spoke.
“The truth is, it’s not just that I lost my memories.”
“Hm?”
The Marquis’ face, which had been smiling brightly, was colored with confusion.
“…I don’t know how this will sound to you, but I am a different Aisha, now.”
“…”
The Marquis’ expression hardened frighteningly.
“But even while living like this, the other Aisha suddenly comes out, and I don’t have her memories.”
“…”
“I figured you wouldn’t believe it.”
But what appeared on the Marquis’ face wasn’t distrust, but fear.
Aisha tilted her head without realizing it, wondering what that expression meant, and at that moment the Marquis seemed to collect himself and managed his expression.
“What did Luzbel say?”
There was no question like “what kind of nonsense is that?”
He seemed quite calm. But Aisha, failing to notice that, was simply cautious.
“…He says I should get treatment. He suffers a lot, blaming himself.”
“Treatment?”
“Yes. There’s a doctor specializing in psychiatry in the manor. He also does psychological counseling.”
“What’s that?”
The Marquis didn’t seem to know what a psychiatrist was.
When she first talked about it, Luzbel had reacted the same way. It was that unfamiliar a profession, with such a narrow standing and so few people who knew about it.
“He is a doctor, someone who treats mental issues.”
“What? Then are you saying he brought in some unheard-of doctor because you are crazy right now?”
The Marquis, who had seemed to have calmed down, jumped up again.
“I called him.”
“Why would you?!”
“Not because of me, but because of Jeron.”
“…Jeron? You mean that brat who looks exactly like Luzbel?”
“…He is your grandson too, you know?”
The Marquis was calling his own grandson with remarkable coldness.
When Aisha corrected him in disbelief, the Marquis asked with his brows deeply furrowed.
“Is he crazy?”
“Dad…!”
“…Ah, Dad? R-right… So then why are you saying he needs treatment?”
At the overly blunt question, Aisha raised her voice, but the Marquis was just grinning foolishly, fixated on the word “Dad”.
Then he quickly changed the subject and asked the question Aisha wanted.
It was absurd.
“He is not crazy, his heart is hurting.”
“…Yeah, well.”
“And what led to that is largely my and Luzbel’s fault.”
But the Marquis didn’t seem particularly interested in what kind of treatment Jeron would receive.
“Is that so-called doctor trustworthy?”
He seemed more concerned about whether the doctor treating his daughter was a verified one.
“Shall I introduce him to you?”
Thinking that talking about it a hundred times would be useless, she said that, and the Marquis immediately replied.
“Good. I’ll see him myself and make the judgment. But!”
“Yes?”
“If he seems no good, we will have to go to the Capital.”
“Sorry?”
Aisha’s eyes widened.
The Capital, all of a sudden?
“Wouldn’t the Capital be better for systematic treatment than Valencia? More than anything, if they stay in such a gloomy place for too long, even a perfectly normal person will go crazy.”
“…But…”
“I won’t act recklessly, so don’t worry.”
The Marquis spoke with great confidence, and Aisha wondered if it would really be okay, but then she said,
“I didn’t decide this on my own, so I will discuss it with everyone, and if it is okay, I will go along.”
“Good!”
The Marquis laughed heartily.
And just like that, a judge called Marquis Selturode descended upon Deikan.
***
Another clingy presence had been added.
Aisha sat on the sofa with a visibly drained expression, and around her, Jeron, Luzbel, and even her father were seated in a circle surrounding her.
It somehow felt very much like being besieged.
The moment the Marquis learned that Aisha was sick and had mental issues, he began hovering around her just like the father and son duo.
“Can you hold your spoon?”
“I’m not critically ill…”
“Shall I feed you?”
“I will feed Mom too!”
“…Can I… do it too…?”
Treating Aisha like a critically ill patient and trying to do everything for her, it was like looking at Luzbel from the early days.
No, even Luzbel hadn’t gone this far.
In the middle of that, when the Marquis brought up feeding her, everyone started sending looks saying they wanted to feed her too.
“I will eat by myself.”
If she allowed it even once, it felt like she would never be able to hold a spoon for the rest of her life, so Aisha cut them off sharply.
And while they were all gathered like that, Deikan was standing off to the side, trembling.
“I am done being looked at, so talk with Deikan instead, Dad.”
“Ohh, right. As Aisha’s dad, I should talk to that qua… no, that guy who only sounds fancy calling himself a doctor but doesn’t even have a license!”
Then he went on verbally beating him up, and whether he intended to or not, Deikan’s spirit seemed completely crushed before they could even properly talk.
He hadn’t outright said “quack,” but it was obvious he didn’t trust him at all.
