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Chapter 66 Part 1 – A little happiness and the prelude to the tragedy.

It was a small townhouse.
Similar luxury houses stood neatly and seamlessly in a row.
The series of white walls looked like the corridors of the imperial court.
Rather than the size of the mansion, the location where it’s located showed its status.
It is a villa section on the part of the town that is only permitted for nobles and the very rich.

The streets are packed with fine cobblestone paving and there is not a single puddle of water.
There are no children sweeping the streets or picking up scraps.
It is an ideal place where everything is clean and quiet.

In order to maximize the use of the limited site, there are no yards, but each house has plenty of space for a carriage to pull up in front. Therefore, there is no need for the gentleman who drives the two-wheeled carriage to impress the lady sitting in front with his brilliant parallel parking through the crowd.

「…… Marielle!! Please!! Open the door!! Marielle!!」

The thick oak door was shaken by a voice that shattered the quietness of the neighborhood.
It was the voice of an old man, but it had the power to shake the earth.
Irritated by the lack of immediate response, he began pounding directly on the door with his fist.
His quick temper made it seem as if he was on fire.
If this scene happened in the downtown area, all the curious inhabitants would have peeked out of the windows.

The man calling out is Brian, the old white-bearded warrior.
He has lost all his usual calmness.
The hinges creaked from the great physical power of the battle-hardened warrior.
Just as he was wondering whether he should force his way in, the door opened and showed a person with a grim expression.

「…… Who the heck is this idiot? A barbarian that doesn’t even use the door knocker.」

A woman with black hair and black eyes, who looked to be in her early thirties, was peering through the half-opened door like a cautious cat. The front collar of her nightgown was seamlessly and tightly fitted. Her attitude showed that if the person that attempted to trespass into her house is an insolent intruder, she would immediately use the door as a shield. But then, her large, slightly slanted eyes widened in surprise.

「…… Brian!? What the hell!! You should’ve just yelled and said that it’s you.」

The rude way of speaking was the same as before, but her voice had a joyful tone.
Noticing that her hair was unkempt from sleep, she blushed and hurriedly tried to comb it with both hands.
Her expression suddenly turned young, giving her the impression of being in the early twenties.

A long-handled axe fell behind her with a thump.
It was the axe used for chopping wood.
If the visitor is an insolent and rude guy, she would use the axe hidden behind her back to whack the intruder.
Not even looking at the weapon of excessive self-defense that would make an ordinary man shudder, Brian grabbed the woman’s slender shoulders.

「Marielle!! I have a request!!」

「W-W-What is it? So suddenly.」

The woman named Marielle looked flustered, but her bodyline softened in anticipation. She even nearly buried her face in Brian’s thick chest, but her expression immediately turned serious when she saw the black-bearded Bobby and the brown-bearded Bill who came in afterwards.

「Bobby and Bill …… A girl ……!?」

The black-bearded Bobby was holding a brunette-haired girl wrapped in a blanket.
She was pale and limp.
That girl is Rona.
Wendell is holding her hand to encourage her.

Rona had been pushing herself too hard both physically and mentally. She relaxed and fainted in Wendell’s arms shortly after their encounter on the bridge.
Her complexion rapidly turned pale and her body temperature began to drop.
Her pulse also weakened.

「It’s as you can see. Please help us. We need your healing skills as the former member of the ’Lawless Crew’.」

The white-bearded Brian pleaded as he kept his voice low so as not to be heard by those in the surroundings.

The three old warriors had guessed the nature of Rona’s injuries.
They could not let a male doctor examine her.
But they were also worried if it would be okay to bring her to a midwife.
They were afraid she would be questioned because of her age.
In the first place, would there be enough time to look for a midwife?
The old men’s intuition, which they had developed on the battlefield, told them that this was a considerably dangerous situation.
They had no time to lose.
After much deliberation, they rushed to Marielle, whom they trusted the most.
Because they had personally witnessed Marielle, who was from the ‘Lawless Crew’, saving many lives with her blood-control healing art.

And Marielle splendidly lived up to their desperate hopes.

「Bill!! Don’t be a dawdler and move that couch over there to the front of the fireplace!!」

「G-Got it.」

「Bobby, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and put that girl on the couch!」

「B-But, this is expensive, isn’t it? Don’t you need a sheet or something to cover it ……」

The three old warriors are also prominent people when they return to their hometown.
Even though they act frank, they are of the intellectual class.
Of course, they can also see the value of the furniture.

This furniture is an expensive one.
If the poverty-stricken Rona was conscious, she would have rubbed her forehead on the floor, firmly refusing to sit there.
Not to mention that Rona was currently covered in blood.

Marielle laughed it off.

「Out of all people, I never thought I’d hear the black-bearded Bobby saying something like this. It’s fine, furniture is for humans to use. What’s wrong with people getting it dirty? When I was a young vagrant, you’re the one who said that and escorted me to the expensive chair. Don’t be so anxious about getting it stained with a little bit of blood. If I get all worked up over something like that, I won’t be able to stand being a woman.」

「You haven’t changed at all.」

The black-bearded Bobby smiled nostalgically at her outspoken words.

「I wish you’d at least tell me that I’ve become a good woman. Ah, Brian, Keep a few lit coals for me. I need to light the stove and prepare hot water.」

「Got it, I’ll prepare that for you. Marielle, please examine the child. Is there firewood in the kitchen?」

「Yeah, use it however you like.」

The white-bearded Brian had been crouching in front of the fireplace, shoveling out the ashes and taking out the coals that had been buried in the fire and transferring them to the wood he had added to the fireplace. After hearing her voice, he looked up. Then, he tossed a few coals into the fire pan that resembled a single-handled pot and slowly moved to another room.

Looking at his behavior that showed that he is familiar with the house, the black-bearded Bobby and the brown-bearded Bill exchanged glances with each other.

Sensing what they were thinking, Marielle laughed.

「It’s nothing like what you guys are imagining. He just comes to visit me once in a while …… If he was gutsy enough to lay his hands on me, we would have had a family by now. Well, I also wouldn’t have minded it if either of you two married me.」

「O-Oh. Hey, Bill.」

「Eh, I, um, Bobby.」

They kept pushing each other, but they had no idea what they should say.
Marielle lightly glared at the black-bearded Bobby and the brown-bearded Bill, who were flustered and at a loss for words.

「How cruel of you to teach a young girl who doesn’t know anything and make her fall in love with you and then all three of you pretend to be ignorant of the situation. Thanks to that, I’m now the favored mistress of the mayor and a social outcast.」

The smile on her mouth showed that it was a lighthearted remark, but the two old warriors that were unmatched in the battlefield were pitifully shaken.

「C-Can you please stop using words that can cause misunderstandings ……」

Their eyes swam in all directions, partly in front of Wendell.
But their gaze was not of a man looking at his former lover, but of a father who was unable to raise his head in front of his daughter.

「This time are you planning to raise such a little girl to become a woman? You three still haven’t gotten over your womanizing habits, have you?」

Marielle continued to talk as puts more firewood in the fireplace and made the flame bigger.
She was careful not to let the smoke drift over the unconscious Rona.
The young Wendell hesitantly tugs on the sleeve of the squatting Marielle.

「…… Um …… Don’t badmouth Brian, Bobby, and Bill. I was the one who asked them to help the girl. Please don’t blame them.」