Chapter 10
How amusing.
The moment I saw April, my desire for vengeance against the duke's household became crystal clear.
“I told you not to open the curtains!”
April's voice trembled with fear, a palpable sense of unease creeping in.
“You need to see the wound to treat it. Just calm down, alright?”
Barack’s soothing words came softly.
The anxiety of a leg that refused to heal and the shame of exposing it to others weighed heavily on her.
I could have easily called the priests charlatans for their lack of divine power. Even with divine power, this wouldn't have been an easy fix; without it, it was impossible.
The leg was marred by scars, both large and small, and twisted slightly as if the bones hadn’t set properly after the accident.
“With divine power, surely it can be healed, right?”
Barack asked, his voice laced with desperate hope.
I gently ran my hand over April's leg.
We’ll see.
“Say something, will you?!”
April screamed at me, glaring as I silently examined her leg.
“How does it feel?”
“Can't you see? Are you a quack too?”
Not the tone one should use with someone trying to help. I suppressed a bitter laugh.
This was the attitude she showed only to me back at the duke's residence. Perhaps the injury had made her more irritable, but she didn't seem to care that Barack was watching.
“…It hurts so much I can’t walk. It’s been a month and a half since the accident, but it still hurts.”
“……”
“Is that answer enough for you?”
I suppose so.
“Allen, can you make a painkiller?”
“Why do we need a painkiller if you have divine power?!”
“You need to sleep at night. You can’t sleep if you're in pain.”
As Allen gave a slight nod, April glared at me with wide, angry eyes.
“Yes, it’s possible.”
“So, can you heal it with divine power or not?”
April’s sharp voice broke through again as I straightened my slightly bent knees and answered.
“Divine power can’t heal it completely. You’d likely hear the same thing at the temple.”
Her condition was beyond the reach of most divine power, but that didn’t mean there was no solution.
In fact, with the divine power I possessed, I could heal her, but I had no intention of doing so. Not an ounce of desire to help her.
And I had no obligation to either.
April might already think she’s in a hopeless situation, but I wanted her to taste despair even deeper, as deep as the one I had endured.
“However, I didn’t say it was impossible.”
As I placed my hand on April’s leg, a clean, white light began to softly radiate from my hand.
I could feel two pairs of eyes intently focused on my hand, as they watched the twisted bones slowly realign themselves.
The bones were setting, but the scars remained.
“The bones…”
Though the leg remained scarred and uneven, its shape had returned to normal, and April quickly lifted her head.
“Does it still hurt?”
At my question, her blue-gray eyes blinked slowly a few times before she vigorously shook her head.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“That’s a relief.”
“You said you couldn’t heal it! But you did?”
“Complete healing is difficult, even with divine power. The pain has only subsided temporarily.”
“...Temporarily?”
“Until the bones fully mend, it will hurt. And you’ll need to be careful when moving.”
The sharp, arrogant attitude from earlier had completely vanished, and the siblings now nodded obediently, like children.
I wanted to savor this moment, to make them trust and depend on me entirely.
“If the tendons were severed, we’ll need to monitor the condition for a while longer.”
I forced my lips not to curl into a smirk.
April, lying on the bed, moved her toes as if marveling at the absence of pain before attempting to get up.
She didn’t succeed.
“Ah!”
She quickly lost her balance, but Barack was there in an instant to gently support her, wrapping her in his arms.
“April, you must be careful.”
I clenched and unclenched my hand at the tender concern in his voice. Seeing this display of affection tied my stomach in knots.
So this is what it’s like to have a family, to share a blood bond.
After the duke’s household took everything from me, my family had been gone for a long time.
Although I eased the pain and realigned the bones, she wouldn’t be able to walk. I hadn’t healed the tendons.
“I won’t be able to come often, so I’ll return when the condition worsens.”
I gently pushed Allen forward.
“Allen will take care of the pain and any remaining scars.”
“So it can be healed.”
April touched her leg and let out a sigh of relief, seemingly content with the progress so far.
Just the absence of pain and the realignment of her bones seemed to satisfy her.
“Thank you.”
I expected April to express her gratitude, but to my surprise, it came from someone else entirely.
I coldly met the warm gaze of Barack, who looked up at me while supporting April.
His eyes were filled with gratitude and trust, and I wasn’t sure how to react to that.
We had lived together for nearly ten years, and I recalled how I once desperately wanted to help him, no matter what.
I had done everything, from menial tasks that made me seem like a maid, to studying alchemy just to earn a bit of his approval.
All of it was pointless, of course.
How absurd. I struggled for eight years, just to hear a word of thanks, and now I hear it, after all that time, over something like this.
“You’re welcome.”
“But you’re still a great benefactor to the Rise family.”
“I simply fulfilled the contract.”
And I hadn’t even fully healed April.
As I turned my head to the side, I caught Allen’s gaze. He seemed to have many things to say, but he held his tongue.
“Still, it’s only right to be thankful.”
April, who had been looking at her leg with a face full of emotion, suddenly grabbed my hand.
“I’ll trust you. If my leg returns to normal, I’ll repay you however you wish.”
This was the moment I had longed for.
To be treated kindly, to have someone be grateful to me.
This was the same desire I had when I was at the duke’s residence, yearning to somehow become a part of their “real” family. But that wish had been completely overturned after being cast out three years ago.
All I had hoped for was a moment when the Rise family would desperately need me, and it seemed the gods had granted that wish.
My desire wasn’t a naive hope to return to a family’s embrace, but rather, a single-minded determination to drive a dagger into the Rise family’s back when they least expected it.
“Yes, Allen and I will do our best.”
They’d never know just how much I had longed to bury a knife in their backs.
* * *
“Why did you do that?”
As the warm orange glow that had enveloped us disappeared, I slowly opened my eyes.
The first thing I saw wasn’t the shop, but Allen’s perplexed expression.
“What?”
Allen let out a crooked smile, a look that said he knew he was being deceived.
He slumped into a chair and looked up at me.
“You could have healed the leg completely, but you left it as it is.”
“Your observation skills are impressive.”
It was remarkable how much he understood, despite only having witnessed my divine power once.
“Maybe I couldn’t heal it.”
“I’ve been healed by your divine power before, so I’d know.”
He spoke with confidence.
Can someone really understand so much from a single healing?
“You know them, don’t you? What’s your relationship with them?”
He narrowed his eyes slightly as he asked the question, his tone casual, but the intent clear.
True, he might be suspicious after seeing April, who looked just like me.
“Although her face was different, it seemed like they didn’t recognize you.”
“……”
“And that restraining order... It doesn’t seem like you’re doing this just for the money.”
The only criterion for taking on clients who required divine power was money.
Without money, there was no reason to accept them.
I needed the money to live with Alicia, and to repay her for taking care of my father while I was gone.
“Do you hold a grudge against the duke’s household?”
“……”
“If not, you wouldn’t need a restraining order.”
Was Allen always this perceptive, or had I shown too much?
The longer the silence stretched, the more it confirmed Allen’s suspicion.
Maybe the duke’s household brought me here because they needed a temporary substitute, but my reason for coming was clear.
To make the duke’s household regret ever bringing me here, to take away from them what they took from me—just as they took my father, I would take their precious daughter.
Yes, what I felt was more than mere resentment; it was the deep-seated grudge that Allen spoke of.
“…You must have guessed from her face. Because of that resemblance, I suffered much at the hands of the duke’s household.”
“So you really do know them?”
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