I Reincarnated As the Third Son of a Count’s Family, Only To Find a Series of Funerals - I Reincarnated As the Third Son of a Count’s Family, Only To Find a Series of Funerals chapter 39

39 – Selennor and Godmilla

I really dislike my brothers, Christopher Oraboni and William Oraboni.

It’s because they killed the teacher who took care of me and treated me well just like that, at the command of Ava Mama.

Of course, it’s true that we had a lot of studying to do compared to our peers. From the age of eight, we had to learn not only simple Lutenian studies and literature but also etiquette, dance, and other things. My brothers had to undergo rigorous training to become excellent knights in the future. Compared to knight training, mine was less demanding, but I still had my own hardships in learning activities such as household chores.

Moreover, whenever Ava Mama showed a great disappointment towards us for making even a slight mistake or not knowing something properly, she didn’t directly blame us. Most of the time, she blamed herself for not being able to teach us properly.

But because we loved Ava Mama, the more she blamed herself, the more hurt we felt. It made us think that it was our fault that Ava Mama became a miserable person. I even think that it would have been less painful for us if she had directly cursed or physically punished us.

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Furthermore, every time Ava Mama blamed herself saying, ‘I raised you poorly because of my shortcomings,’ our teacher became increasingly irritable and touchy. I believe this was because the teachers thought Ava Mama blamed them for not teaching us properly.

From that moment on, whenever we made mistakes, which led to Ava Mama’s disappointment and our teachers getting angry with us, this vicious cycle continued.

As a girl, I had relatively fewer responsibilities and obligations as a royal than my brothers, so even though it was difficult, I could bear it to some extent. But my brothers had too many tasks to fulfill as princes. And having many tasks meant making more mistakes or wrongdoing.

Especially Christopher Oraboni and William Oraboni, who had many more tasks than other brothers, must have struggled a lot.

I shouldn’t admit this, but when the two of them killed the teacher for the first time, I was greatly shocked by their actions, but deep down, I felt a slight sense of satisfaction.

Because the teacher used to get really angry whenever we couldn’t meet Ava Mama’s expectations. Moreover, when we couldn’t give a proper answer to the questions she posed, she would hit our cheeks with her knuckles or strike our heads with her fists or palms. Before that teacher, the worst punishment we experienced was getting slapped with a thin stick on our palms or calves when we made a big mistake. So, such severe punishment was shocking to us, like experiencing it for the first time.

Because of the fear and pain caused by the disciplinary actions, whenever the teacher asked me a question, my head would turn pale, and I couldn’t answer properly, which sometimes led to being hit by the teacher throughout the day.

However, despite all that, the fact that my two brothers killed the teacher whom Ava Mama referred to as “a great teacher who teaches you many things to become great adults” was incredibly shocking to me, as I mentioned before.

Ava Mama, too, was in the same state. After it was revealed who were the perpetrators behind the teacher’s murder, she intensely lectured my brothers, even lifting them up and hitting them. It was the first time I witnessed something like that. Previously,

Perhaps it was even more shocking to me than the fact that the two brothers killed the teacher. It is because, even before, I could anticipate an accident due to the unsettling look in the eyes of the two brothers when they looked at the teacher.

After that, I avoided the two brothers for a while. It was due to the instinctive fear and dread that arose from the fact that the two brothers had killed the teacher, but also because the looks in their eyes had become much more frightening since they had agitated the Duchess.

But, unfortunately, the passing of the teacher was not entirely a bad thing for me. Thanks to the disappearance of the teacher, who always harassed us and the studies, I was free from murderous amounts of study for a few weeks. Oh, what freedom it was to be able to wake up at three in the afternoon.

I used to wake up at three in the morning to attend morning prayers, so I was usually very tired. However, during the time the teacher was absent, no one cared when I woke up. And the reason why I was busy despite waking up late was because of the incidents that my two brothers caused and the aftermath that took place.

But after a brief period of happiness, the real problem arose when a new teacher began to serve as our tutor at the palace.

The two brothers received lessons quietly from the new teacher for about two months. Then one day, they got into an argument with the teacher over their achievements in class. Also, because the Duchess pointed out their many shortcomings.

However, the very next day, the teacher was found dead in a cold, lifeless state. Yes, my two brothers had killed the teacher once again.

I don’t have many memories of the teacher who was killed by the two brothers for the second time. It was such a short time.

But I know for sure that the second teacher was not as bad as the first one. I don’t know how things will turn out in the future, but at least up until the point of being murdered, that was the case.

The teacher, who had done no wrong, was killed by my two brothers. From this point on, I began to feel truly afraid of my two brothers.

Of course, the aftermath was worse than before. The palace always heard the sound of screaming or something being broken, or on the other hand, eerie silence prevailed. Laughter or servants chatting were no longer heard as they used to be.

From then on, the Duchess and the two brothers entered into a state of war. The Duchess appointed increasingly strong and eccentric people as the palace tutors as if they were competing, and the two brothers began to kill the palace tutors with bizarre methods, mocking the situation with a scoff.

Only Bridgette, Christopher, and I suffered between them.

Then one day, the Duchess changed her strategy, appointing a young and beautiful 20-year-old lady as the palace tutor.

Unlike the previous teachers, she was very considerate and kind. My brothers couldn’t treat her lightly.

I also liked the teacher very much. She showed me a lot of love unlike the previous teachers. She taught kindly, in a warm tone, unlike the previous teachers who were always strict and commanding.

It was probably the time when I studied the hardest and did well. I remember that Christopher and William also followed the teacher well because the Duchess often defended them when they were severely reprimanded. I was truly relieved that peace had finally come to the palace.

But that peace didn’t last long.

The two brothers who fell for the teacher actively pursued her, which led to their first fight since the murder of the first teacher, because the teacher rejected their advances.

Having such a relationship between master and disciple was not considered desirable.

But after being rejected for the first time, their relationship with the teacher cooled down.

Even the terrifying look that hadn’t been visible since the second teacher’s appointment reappeared.

I was very scared that the two brothers might kill the teacher again, but I knelt in front of them every day and begged them not to do it. But unlike before, they did not give me the assurance that they would not kill any teacher. They just chased me away with phrases like, “It’s late, go home,” or “Let’s talk about it later.”

Eventually, things exploded. One day, the teacher who was teaching me suddenly had a messenger come and tell her that the two brothers had called her somewhere.

I somehow felt a sense of unease and tried to persuade the teacher not to go, but after the teacher ruffled my hair and assured me that everything would be fine, they eventually followed the messenger.

And they never came back to me.

It was also around this time that my two older brothers began to harass the maids and servants.

They even tried to pick on my precious childhood friend, Doris. Fortunately, Doris fiercely resisted, and when I heard her screams, I hurriedly went to rescue her. It ended there for now, but from then on, I lived without even looking at my two older brothers’ faces.

Since the teacher passed away, the palace turned into a battlefield once again. Queen Mother no longer appointed tutors to teach us, abandoning the idea of education altogether, and instead started selecting tutors who could suppress my two older brothers. And my brothers, even more than before, began employing inventive methods to kill the tutors.

Looking back now, it seems that my brothers were mechanically killing the tutors, not with the noble cause of revealing our suffering and hardships to the Queen Mother by assassinating them, but rather as part of a prideful struggle between the Queen Mother and themselves.

Of course, the Queen Mother had long forgotten her original intention of raising us into admirable individuals through the appointment of tutors.

Eventually, at some point, there were no more teachers appointed as tutors.

It happened because my two older brothers made quite a spectacle by killing several tutors. Eventually, the country became noisy. And so, the Queen Mother gave up on us.

Now, there was no one paying attention even if I woke up at three in the afternoon, let alone nine o’clock in the morning. But I wasn’t happy at all.

How much time has passed? That day, just like any other day, I slowly got out of bed at noon and felt that the palace had become extremely chaotic.

When I asked Doris what was happening, she told me that a new tutor had been appointed for us.

A middle-aged woman named ‘Godmilla.’

Internally, I thought that one more teacher who would be killed by my two older brothers had been added, and I went back to bed. This was because the taste of food vanished when I thought of the deceased teacher.

But that teacher was different.

Even after a day, a week, a month, six months, or a year had passed, they didn’t die.

Despite the countless strategies and assassination attempts by my two older brothers!

Although the Queen Mother paid particular attention to the protection of this teacher, it didn’t hold much meaning since she hadn’t done so for the previous teachers. After all, my two older brothers were not people who couldn’t kill a teacher just because they had some protection. It was amazing that even when they beat my two older brothers severely, to the point of assaulting them every day, not a single hair on this teacher’s head was harmed.

In the end, Godmilla succeeded in breaking my two older brothers. Not only did they refrain from touching the maids and servants anymore, but they also stopped resisting Godmilla and became submissive.

It was a tremendous change in the palace. Nowadays, while the Queen Mother used to be gloomy and depressed whenever we met, she couldn’t stop smiling ever since Godmilla became part of the palace.

Myself, Bruce, and Michael, my older brothers, were the same. The servants were very pleased with the peace that had finally arrived at the palace thanks to Godmilla.

Except for Christopher and William, everyone else became happy.

So, I followed Godmilla diligently. I was very grateful to the teacher who brought peace to the palace, and unlike other middle-aged wives, there was something about her that reminded me of generals leading soldiers on the battlefield.

Godmilla also cherished me a lot. Although she wasn’t as kind as the old teacher who was killed by my two older brothers, she still cared for me.

On a day that marked about a year and a half since Godmilla came to the palace and brought peace, I was lying in bed, about to fall asleep when I heard a knocking sound at the door.

It was Christopher and William, my older brothers.

I asked them in a cold voice why they had come in the middle of the night. I hadn’t properly spoken to my older brothers since they tried to scare Doris, but seeing them crying and begging, my heart weakened.

Curious about what favor they were asking for, I agreed to listen. They abruptly handed me a delicious-looking cake and asked me to give it to Godmilla as a gift.

When asked why, they said it was because of Mr. Godmila’s “True Education” that they realized their mistakes. However, Mr. Godmila, despite having such a brilliant reputation himself, always believed that they couldn’t truly repent and would always hurt them severely whenever he saw them. So, the two brothers asked me to deliver this cake to the teacher as a substitute and ask him to hear their repentance.

Honestly, I thought about refusing, but knowing how much the two brothers were suffering from the teacher’s severe punishments, I found it difficult to decline without hesitation.

Although the beatings the brothers are receiving from Mr. Godmila are their own fault, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them, considering the state in which they come to the teacher, covered in bruises and blood, as if they were beaten mercilessly.

Furthermore, I had doubts in my mind, wondering if there was any need for such harsh punishment when the two brothers had already stopped committing any more evil deeds. So, in the end, I decided to fulfill the brothers’ request. After all, there was nothing I wouldn’t do if it meant that the brothers could truly repent and go back to before the day they first attempted to murder the court teacher.

Instead, I made a condition for the brothers. They promised not to attempt to kill the teacher or touch the maidservants and attendants, and to respectfully attend the teacher’s lessons in the future.

The two brothers readily accepted my conditions. They had planned to do so anyway. In return, they asked me for one more favor.

If they claimed that they themselves had given this cake as a gift, the teacher wouldn’t touch it, so they wanted me to act as if I were giving the teacher a gift initially and only reveal the truth when he had eaten enough.

Considering Mr. Godmila’s strong aversion and hatred toward not only the two brothers themselves but anything related to them, it was a reasonable request that I could understand.

So, after making that promise, we parted ways.

The next day, when I woke up in the morning and checked the cake that I would give to the teacher, it had become cold and hardened overnight.

Realizing this, I asked Doris to warm the cake in the kitchen. When Doris brought the cake heated, I visited the teacher with a cake that looked somewhat edible compared to when the brothers first brought it.

When I presented the cake as a gift to the teacher, he seemed slightly surprised but patted my head, thanked me, and started eating the cake.

When the teacher had eaten about a quarter of the cake, I attempted to explain that my two brothers were the ones who had given the cake as a gift to him.

However, at that moment, the teacher suddenly started coughing and struggling to breathe. Surprised, I approached him to check if he was okay, but he pushed me away and shouted.

“Traitor!”

Taken aback by the teacher’s words, I couldn’t find the words to explain that it wasn’t me who did it.

Finally, when the teacher collapsed in front of me, foaming at the mouth, I started crying and ran to plead with Bishop Clement to save the teacher.

Fortunately, before it was too late, they treated him, and the teacher barely survived. (According to Bishop Clement, it was because I reheated the cake in the oven again, which eliminated the poison that was in the cake.) However, from that point on, the teacher no longer looked at me with gentle eyes but began to treat me like Christopher and William O’Rabuni, hitting me.

To the teacher, I became the same as those two brothers.

Even later, when Bruce and Michael O’Rabuni suffered abuse from the teacher just like me, I cried every night, holding onto my legs for hours. But nothing changed.

**”…”

“…So, it’s better for you not to know. After all, Godmila is someone who will soon disappear, and the Earl cannot do anything to the princes, right?”

I couldn’t suppress my anger towards Christopher and William. Should I just dismiss them as insignificant?

Noticing my demeanor, Doris grabbed my arm and advised me.

“Stop these wild thoughts. Doesn’t the Earl himself know that it’s impossible? Even if the Earl were Duke Lurain himself, it would still be impossible. Don’t throw away your precious life for pointless actions.”

“…Regardless of what I do or what happens, it doesn’t concern Doris, does it?”

“That’s not true!”

Doris suddenly shouted, which startled me. No, this woman occasionally acts like this.

Doris herself seemed surprised by her own actions, briefly avoiding my gaze. But soon she composed herself and earnestly spoke to me.

“The Viscount is not someone who would risk his life for such people. Especially since the Viscount is someone the princess admires. We cannot let him die recklessly.”

“…”

“And… I, too…”

“Yes…?”

“Oh, no. It was just a slip of the tongue. Anyway, please remember that the Viscount is much more precious and valuable than he thinks of himself.”

“…Thank you.”

Knock knock!

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Oh, Viscount! So you were here after all! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, wondering where you went…”

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I heard a familiar voice from beyond the door. It was a butler from the palace with whom I had spoken several times.

As soon as the butler confirmed that I was inside the room, he opened the door and came in.

“Oh, you were talking with Doris, I see. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything…”

“That’s not it. By the way, what’s the matter?”

“His Majesty has summoned the Viscount. Not only the Viscount but also other princes and princesses. There’s something they want to discuss about Lady Godmilla…”

Not only me, but Doris’s expression changed as well. Finally, we felt that the time had come.

“Show me the way immediately.”

Well then, shall we go to decorate Godmilla’s demise?

**

…I once thought.

“No way!”

Until Princess Celenor desperately tried to protect Godmilla.