The Damn Family Is Back Again chapter 73

73 – 73. CHAPTER 1 (7)

-Thud. Thud.

A chilling sound reverberated through the floor.

In this dark and gloomy place, every drop of liquid that trickled down sent shivers down her spine.

The chill creeping up her back soon spread goosebumps throughout her body.

Theo spoke.

“Oh. I see. Since your mouth is gagged, you can’t speak. How foolish of me. Making such a mistake.”

The wall, accustomed to darkness, illuminated the approaching figure.

He lowered himself slowly.

“But miss, can’t you scream? Got it?”

The gag was removed from her mouth.

Immediately, she screamed for help.

“Help me!!”

This must be inside some building.

If so, someone would come to help.

Considering her voice wasn’t exactly faint, and she even shouted for help after screaming, it was likely that someone would hear her.

If they knew she had touched the youngest daughter of the Viscount of Bargrand, anyone would step in to help.

However, despite shouting with all her might, the surroundings remained silent.

There was no response at all.

Except for Theo, who was laughing maniacally in front of her.

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“Miss, what are you doing now? If you keep this up, I might end up being the culprit who kidnapped you. Well… even if I say that, no one will hear us around here, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, this isn’t the Viscount’s residence.”

Flora’s pupils started to tremble.

In the darkness, her fully dilated pupils began to discern Theo’s expression clearly.

“Don’t worry, Flora. You’re not guilty of anything. Ultimately, it’s that scoundrel’s fault, right?”

Theo Ramstair, who always smiled kindly at her.

His gentle attitude and kind smile always put her at ease.

But the smile she was looking at now with her own eyes…

It wasn’t the kind and gentle face she had always seen.

‘Have I not noticed this person all this time?’

Now, she feels a sense of unease.

Now, she sees what was hidden behind that smile.

It was all a deception, concealed beneath that artificially created face.

And thus.

Unaware, she had been deceived by Karssane…

Theo stepped back, sat on a chair, and began to bandage her wounds.

“I didn’t want to bring you here like this.”

“What?”

“I told you. I only had intentions to deal with the guy gracefully. I only had intentions to handle him gracefully, but since you didn’t show up at the trial, my innocence couldn’t be proven, right?”

“…”

“If you had helped, if you had stood by my side at the trial, proven my innocence, and condemned his crime, I wouldn’t have been pushed this far. Why didn’t you come?”

Nonsense.

Even if she had been there, she wouldn’t have sided with Theo.

“Oh. Come to think of it, I heard from the guy who got kicked out of the 2nd Order for acting foolishly, that you couldn’t even enter the trial. Is that it?”

Flora remained silent.

Theo responded with a disgusting smile, “Well, it seems like that’s the case.”

“He must have pulled another trick. Yes. Despite how devoted I was to you, you wouldn’t have tried to betray me like that.”

“Don’t speak such disgusting words as devotion.”

“…Miss?”

“What you offered me wasn’t devotion, it was merely a gesture to win my favor!”

Even if her arms were tied behind her back.

Even if her legs were fixed to the chair.

Flora had to say these words.

“You jerk. I shouldn’t have trusted someone like you from the beginning…!”

Upon which, Theo grabbed her shoulders with a menacing expression.

“No. Miss, you shouldn’t speak like that.”

“Remove your hand!”

“You need to speak. Miss Flora. I’ve loosened the restraints, but if you stay silent, I might lose my temper, you know?”

Theo, struggling, held onto Flora’s shoulder more firmly as she tried to push his hand away.

Approaching, he showed her the wound where blood was flowing from the cut inflicted by a blade.

“Thanks to you, I ended up like this. I was kicked out of the 2nd Order for foolish behavior, brought the guy who kidnapped you to escape, and had to deal with all the eyes watching. I spent money to avoid the stigma for you, escaped before being taken to the hellish Tulea Mines…! You shouldn’t act this way. Right?”

With eyes that seemed to bulge out, he spoke.

“hahahaha, yes. Yes, you could fall for Karsein’s tricks too. But with your words, everything will be resolved. We can get rid of Karsein, clear my charges.”

Lowering his stance.

With the hand that had killed guards, Emma, and subordinates.

“Let’s start again. Your one and only knight, Theo Ramstair, will kill the heinous criminal Karsein Vagrand here. And face the consequences. Receive a reward for eliminating the one who kidnapped you.”

This should be easy, right?

Theo said with a sinister grin.

-Thud!

Spit, filled with betrayal, splattered on Theo’s face.

“What, Miss? What are you doing?”

“You… a scumbag…!”

Flora couldn’t contain her anger at the repulsive act.

The liquid sticky on her hand.

As she wiped it away with her sleeve, she revealed her true colors.

“Bastard. I treated you as a lady, and you do this to me? You dare to do this when I ask to see you!”

“Ugh!!”

Flora’s golden hair was roughly grabbed.

“Because of you, I made so much effort, you wench. Do you know how annoying it is to take care of a clueless girl like you who doesn’t understand the world?”

“Let go! Let me go!”

“Among the nobles, you whining girl is the worst. But I stuck around all because of Vagrand Count. Just for your lineage. You damn wench.”

Unable to endure, Flora spat on Theo’s face again.

“What, this girl still hasn’t come to her senses?”

Theo’s hand rose high.

-Slap!

Except for his mother, no one had touched his precious cheek, now marked with a red imprint.

“You damn wench. Still not getting the situation? You’re the youngest of Vagrand, you know that, right? You’re trapped here now. Unless I release you, you’re just a girl trapped where no one will find you.”

“…!”

“Because you’re willing to accept everything I say with ‘Yes, yes,’ do I seem like I’m truly beneath you? Compared to my other two sisters, I don’t possess anything remarkable or exceptional.”

She couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Both of her sisters were capable individuals who could handle Bagrand’s affairs competently.

In contrast to such sisters, Flora, in her wretched state, refused to read a single word and distanced herself from books, appearing like a fool who didn’t know how to do anything.

Therefore, when such a situation arose, she didn’t know what to do.

Upon seeing an opportunity, she should have shouted for help.

She should have called out for someone to assist her.

She didn’t know how to do anything.

“Yes… That’s true.”

Outside the mansion, it was a harsh world.

Nothing that could happen would be considered strange.

At this moment, she felt as if she had been kidnapped.

The splendor of being the daughter of a duke caught Theo Ramstare’s attention.

With no status to speak of, she was helpless.

In the cold, dark, and frightening place, the touch that reached out to her held remnants of malice beneath its facade of kindness.

And it sought to exploit her.

To make Carcine a criminal.

There wasn’t a single falsehood in Carcine’s words that she had heard before.

The fact that this world was incredibly cruel.

She was only realizing it now.

That’s why, despite trembling, Flora could respond firmly to Theo.

“Yes. That’s right. I can’t do anything. But I won’t help someone like you. Never.”

“What did you say?”

“To scoundrels like you, I’ll ensure that Carcine can’t pin any crimes on you. I’ll testify that you, who tried to deceive and use me, are the real culprits!”

She wouldn’t be fooled any longer.

“Just because you’re trying to side with that scoundrel.”

A thick vein bulged in Theo’s neck.

“Well, yes. If you come at me like that, I have no choice. I didn’t plan to go this far.”

“Hmph!”

“Being a mediocre woman like you, you’d be perfect to sell as a slave. If you seek asylum in another country and dedicate yourself, money will flow in.”

“…!”

“It’s your own doing. Live the rest of your life as a beggar in a foreign land.”

Theo raised the whip once more.

“Ah! Let go! Let me go!”

“Stay still, you wench! If the merchandise is damaged, its value decreases!”

Flora writhed and struggled as best she could.

– Thwack!

“Eek!”

“If I knew this would happen, I should have targeted your more useless sisters instead. Tsk!”

The rough hand once again cruelly grabbed Flora’s chin and forced the whip down.

Blaming her own helplessness, tears streamed down her cheek.

As the single tear reached the ground.

A ray of light suddenly pierced the darkness.

Clang!

Accompanied by a heavy metallic sound.

***

Flora’s kidnapping.

Theo Ramstare, who succeeded in escaping for some reason.

To me, that signifies one thing.

I will bring him down.

I could only speculate.

In Episode VI, Carsein completely eliminates two enemies as a duke.

Unless that is resolved, the next chapter will not progress.

So, merely finding Flora will not be the end.

The status window passing this hidden episode tells me it’s not just exploration I desire.

The elimination of enemies.

Clearing obstacles blocking Carsein’s path.

It meant showing results not only internally but also externally growing.

From the moment I caught on, I had already grasped the situation.

This situation is nothing but an advancement of Chapter 2’s content.

The appearance of a serial killer in the early part of Chapter 2.

The culprit surprisingly turned out to be Theo Ramstair, who successfully escaped. In the worst-case scenario, Flora would be held hostage, and there was a scene where one had to go alone to rescue that hostage.

Since the reason was not revealed, I didn’t know well.

Only the words remained that Theo Ramstair escaped with someone’s help from the duke’s prison and then eliminated all witnesses.

“If one were to consider that the escape had been foreseen somehow…”

I, too, could see this situation as foreseen due to one thing I had missed.

The day Claire came. One guy was abducted to the Second Knights.

If I had called him to escape, he might have been able to get out of prison in the same way. There must have been a hiding place between the duke’s mansion and the armory to take advantage of.

Also, rather than escorting them from the royal palace, they spent a day in the duke’s prison before being taken to the Tulea Mine.

That one day of reprieve would have been an opportunity for him. And the guard was also one of Emma’s people, so it would have been easy to bribe.

However, even if I had noticed it and dealt with it afterward.

Would this game have allowed me such a convenient development?

“No. That wouldn’t be the case.”

Since Theo was alive, he would have tried to progress the episode by distorting it in any way possible.

If the system had consistently shown such an attitude…

Theo Ramstair’s escape was an inevitable fate.

[Time Limit: 7 minutes 22 seconds]

Fortunately, I didn’t forget this and came alone.

If I had brought Harnier, the threatened person might have felt the need to kill the hostage and run away. Just like what happened when I faced a bad ending in Chapter 2.

“…Is this the place?”

A dim cabin.

I arrived at the place where the guy had been secretly trading.

As my body became increasingly sensitive, it warned me not to relax the tension.

Every hair on my body stood on end due to the smell of blood flowing here.

“Can I win this?”

Probably, if I go inside, I will also shed blood there.

Since the guy’s sword would be pointing at my neck.

So, to survive, I had no choice but to give it my all to win.

Against Theo Ramstair.

But, was that really possible?

I asked myself.

The answer came quickly.

So, I had to use every means at my disposal.

-Clang!

“What, who the hell…!”

Clang!

The guy drew his sword in response.

Even though I rushed in suddenly, I was expecting him to draw his sword. Carsein’s body was weak enough that there was no power to incapacitate him with a single blow.

-Clang! Clang!

-Phew!

“Argh!!!”

Despite that, seizing the moment of confusion, a strike landed on one shoulder. Blood spurted out.

Can’t stop now.

In this state of being unable to regain composure due to the sudden attack, one must keep pushing relentlessly.

If it were Bruce Iban, who underestimates his opponent and is overly confident, he could have closed that gap and brought him down in an instant. But even he is significantly inferior to Theo Ramstair.

Stats are already lagging behind.

With these inferior stats, even if one were to try to defeat Theo Ramstair, victory would be out of reach.

Excluding the systematic differences indicated by the numbers in the game, the same holds true.

Even if he’s not taking it seriously, can Carsein’s feeble body really win?

Highly unlikely.

So, without dragging it out, he surged forward.

Swish!

A cut on the left thigh.

Perhaps he wasn’t in normal condition to begin with, as the moment the thigh was cut, he began to give way.

It must end like this.

He had to render him unable to hold a sword and finish it.

However.

-Swish!

“…!”

“It’s just a temporary trick. Yes, even if you wield a sword, it won’t make a difference.”

I, too, had a strike on one shoulder.

He grasps the sword again.

In the dimly lit cabin, he revealed his unyielding spirit.

“You, dare to think, you can defeat me?!”

-Clang! Clang!

Relentless attacks continued.

Falling behind.

Clearly falling behind in strength.

Despite launching the attack, stamina didn’t decrease. On the contrary, my HP, already affected by a bleeding condition, was decreasing.

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One step faster. For every step I took, he took two. Even in a speed contest, there was a difference. It was likely that he was more fatigued, even though it was evident.

Without a moment to catch my breath, I had to taste not only the heavy weight of the sword but also the skill of the trained body as it relentlessly came at me.

When clashing swords in a strength battle, I couldn’t withstand the pressure from his sword and had to give ground.

After barely blocking, the next sword strike was already coming at me.

Before I knew it, while I was on the offensive, I found myself being pushed inside the cabin, breathing heavily to keep up.

Yet.

“It’s nothing. Many are suffering because of you. Huh? Hurry up and vanish, disappear─”

-Clang! Swish!

“Argh?!”

That’s when I realized.

I could win.

“I’ve figured it all out. A brat full of inferiority complex in his head.”

As Kim Minhyuk, not Carsein, I will never lose to him.

It was solely the power behind the sword.

Even though physically far superior, his sword was pitiful.

“Come on. Make my death as painful as possible. You’ll never get a clean win!!”

Clang-!

“You, you…!”

-Phew!

Therefore, it was easy to brush off.

With much less force. At a slower pace.

What was contained in that sword was nothing but inferiority.