I Thought I Healed the Villain’s Sickly Younger Brother

Ariel completely disappeared from Merrien’s sight.

She lowered her hand that had been waving casually as if nothing was wrong.

Then she covered her face with both hands.

She wasn’t worried about Ariel getting hurt at all.

It would be a waste of time to worry about someone who kept the highest-grade magical beast, known to be the strongest among existing magical beasts, as a pet.

However, when she returned to her room, she noticed the remnants of bracelets she hadn’t managed to clean up on her desk.

Rose stems with thorns that had been cut halfway, crafting tools, and such.

It was because she had hurriedly headed to the secret garden after filling her healing quota.

“This is truly embarrassing……”

She slightly lifted the remnants to clear them from her sight.

Wow…. When she was passionately making them, consumed by her emotions, she had admired her own work.

But looking at one nearly completed bracelet now, it was incredibly sloppy.

Her face turned red even though no one was watching.

Merrien hastily shoved all the bracelets into a drawer and sat at her desk. At least with them out of sight, her embarrassment lessened.

But there was one more problem.

“What am I going to tell Charlotte?”

In terms of ranking, the letter she sent to Charlotte was number one in embarrassment.

She unconsciously took out paper and pen, but the pen didn’t move at all.

Charlotte, who knew nothing, would be worried about what this was all about. She couldn’t just write that nothing had actually happened.

Aack! Merrien screamed while squeezing her head.

Her luscious pink hair became completely disheveled, but she didn’t care at all.

Her mind was in even more disarray.

Just then, the sound of someone running frantically outside was heard.

“Saint. Are you here?”

Soon, the butler’s urgent voice was heard.

“…Huh? Yes.”

Was this something to come looking for just because she screamed once? Merrien stammered in confusion.

Even that was in a very small voice, and she hadn’t invited him in, but the butler immediately flung the door open.

He was even panting, having apparently rushed here urgently.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. When did you return? More importantly, why did you scream… Why is your face so red?”

He spoke so rapidly that it was difficult to understand what he was saying, then belatedly noticed Merrien’s face and expressed his confusion.

In his hand was a hastily scribbled note from Ariel.

[Going to kidnap Merri, be back soon.]

“……”

Surely he hadn’t come looking for her with just that single note?

More than that, she couldn’t understand why the butler was holding it so neatly.

She hadn’t intended to look at it, but the large letters naturally caught Merrien’s eye.

Thanks to that, her rising heat quickly cooled down.

The butler had asked her several questions at once, but there was only one she could reasonably answer.

“I was… enjoying a brief escape, I suppose.”

Even as she said it, she found it ridiculous. Merrien trailed off and avoided his gaze.

“As long as you’ve returned. That’s what matters.”

Unexpectedly, the butler gave a serious response unlike himself. He didn’t seem to have any intention of teasing her.

He just caught his breath and smiled as usual, lifting his monocle.

Merrien, completely avoiding his gaze while brushing back her hair, suddenly opened her eyes wide.

“…Yes, I’m back.”

And broke into a bright smile.

Whether he knew something or had just said that, she couldn’t tell.

But she was grateful he didn’t ask any further questions.

The butler, who was about the same age, smiled warmly as if looking at his own daughter.

Then suddenly he began to make a fuss, exclaiming, “What am I thinking!”

He promptly placed Ariel’s note conspicuously on Merrien’s desk and slapped his hand hard on top of it.

“Saint. We have a serious problem.”

“W-what is it?”

She could tell it was an urgent situation. But did he really have to put that note right here, as if wanting her to see it?

Merrien, unable to concentrate, rolled her eyes and glanced at the note. The word [kidnap] kept catching her eye.

Meanwhile, the butler rushed somewhere and returned with a rolled-up newspaper.

Fortunately, he placed it on top of the desk, covering the uncomfortable note that bothered her every time she looked at it.

“Please look at this. It’s a special edition just published.”

He pointed to the front page of the newspaper.

[Duke ‘Ariel Hartez’. Is he actually in league with dragons?]

[Dragons are known to be closely related to magical beasts……]

The warm feeling she had just moments ago plummeted straight to the ground.

…No, that can’t be true.

‘Then Nes wouldn’t have been so excited to go along on the magical beast subjugation.’

She almost doubted Nes for a moment.

She shook her head vigorously. The dance instructor, Agnes, and Nes she had known until now, were not that kind of people.

When he explained at the Magic Tower earlier, he said they were far from being related to magical beasts and had been hiding from people because of such misunderstandings.

Suddenly, a piece of paper teleported into the air.

It seemed to flutter down slowly from the sky, then settled in Merrien’s hand.

[Merri, I’m sorry. There are more magical beasts than expected, so I’ll be a bit late.]

It was a short letter that Ariel had sent, trying his best to write neatly despite being busy with the magical beast subjugation.

“Is that a letter from the Duke?”

The butler, who had been waiting with his hands behind his back for her to speak, finally approached, seemingly impatient.

Merrien stared at the short letter in her hand for a while, then showed it to the butler.

“…Yes. He says the magical beast subjugation is taking longer than expected.”

“This is serious…. Unless the Duke explains himself directly, these absurd rumors will continue to grow.”

The troubled butler stroked his chin.

“The Duke has never taken this long when going out for magical beast subjugation. It’s also strange that the special edition was distributed precisely at this time.”

Until now, this newspaper had never published a special edition.

‘Even with fairly big news, they only distributed at dawn.’

Merrien kept alternating between looking at the newspaper and the letter.

It was hard to see it as a coincidence that strange incidents were occurring one after another, all at once.

“You’re saying someone might have intended this.”

“That’s right.”

The letter crumpled in Merrien’s hand, just like her chaotic mind.

…And Ariel had sent it with such care!

Belatedly realizing this, she spread out the letter as much as she could, but there was no way to restore the already crumpled paper.

With tears in her eyes, she placed the letter, spread out as much as possible, neatly on her desk.

Underneath, she noticed the blank paper she had taken out to write to Charlotte.

‘Let’s postpone writing to Charlotte.’

Resolving this issue was the immediate problem.

But how exactly?

Merrien gritted her teeth and even chewed the inside of her lip.

Seeing her in such distress, even messing up her hair, the butler nodded his head.

Without his master’s consent, he couldn’t bring up certain topics, not knowing what might happen later. Still, he had to prevent the unfortunate situation of the Saint misunderstanding and running away again.

He began with a deliberately serious voice.

“I want to make this clear to prevent any misunderstanding from the Saint. The dragons who accompany the Duke….”

After saying that much, he paused to think.

Merrien thought that the dance instructor and Agnes in his child form were different people. So he should explain accordingly.

He decided to summarize and continued speaking.

“The dragon gentlemen, if anything, detest magical beasts rather than having any connection to them.”

“I know that. There’s no way. I’ve seen enough myself.”

Though they all seemed to have a screw loose somewhere with strange personalities similar to Ariel.

“That’s a relief then.”

The butler exhaled in relief.

“All I can tell you is that a dragon gentleman who misunderstood that the Duke had come to capture him once had a big fight with the Duke before they became friends. It was understandable given the Tower Master’s sudden appearance.”

Merrien’s hands, which had been frantically pulling at her hair, froze in mid-air.

“Wait. Butler, you knew Ariel was the Tower Master, too?”

The butler had naturally referred to him as the Tower Master.

Come to think of it… he had also casually mentioned that the magical beast subjugation had never taken this long before.

The butler, trying to resolve the immediate situation, had ended up tripping over his own feet.

Oh dear. He deliberately avoided eye contact with Merrien.

“……Yes, that’s correct.”

In that brief moment, thousands of thoughts floated through the butler’s mind.

Surely his master must have made every effort to bring the Saint back.

At the very least, he must have knelt down….

Thud-!

The deliberation didn’t take long. With the determination to break either the floor or his bones, he knelt down.

“I apologize for hiding it all this time, Saint.”

“Ah, no. Well, you don’t need to go this far…”

It was fortunate that he immediately knelt down just as feelings of betrayal were beginning to frost over in her eyes.

As expected, after showing action first, Merrien waved her hands in confusion.

“Please understand this one thing. Everything was on the Duke’s orders.”

The butler, with a cunning smile, struck his left chest hard with his fist. As if making a firm resolution or oath.

Now, the real power holder in this mansion was Merrien.

He didn’t hesitate to completely sell out the master he had served since childhood.

“…I see. Alright. Now get up, butler.”

Success! The butler’s eyes briefly sparkled, but only for an instant.

He maintained his gloomy expression and slowly stood up.

Merrien deliberately didn’t look at him. It was time to read the newspaper which she had only checked the headline of before turning away.

With trembling hands, she picked up the newspaper and read down.

[The late Duke and Duchess of Hartez died the year Ariel Hartez turned ten.

That was when the Duke first met the dragon.

The Duke, who contracted with a dragon that controls the minds of magical beasts, became sickly as a result.

The Duke’s goal is to use magical beasts to dominate the Empire.]

“What kind of nonsense is this…!”

Merrien couldn’t finish her sentence and threw the newspaper onto the desk.

“Because the Second Prince announced that dragons control magical beasts when he was actively involved in magical beast subjugation…. The Empire’s citizens will react strongly.”

The butler pointed with a trembling hand to the very bottom of the newspaper.

[▲ Duke Ariel Hartez and the dragon]

“Because of this photo, everyone will believe the newspaper’s content to be true.”

The attached photo showed Agnes, who had stayed at the Duke’s mansion during “that month” recently, in his small dragon form together with Ariel.

There wasn’t even time to wonder who had taken it or how.

With a photo as evidence, the Empire’s citizens wouldn’t just let this go.

Even she had doubted him for a moment just from the headline.

It was only a matter of time before everyone turned their backs on Ariel.

‘Ah, wait a minute.’

Suddenly, something flashed through Merrien’s mind.

[Tower Master. I apologize for contacting you again so soon.

Strangely, the number of magical beasts within the Empire has increased exponentially.