Chapter 18: Sorry, Your Grandmother is Godlike
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Not only Accius, even Benjamin had his mouth wide opened in shock.
With the unfolding of events, he did not require much intelligence to comprehend the madame's intentions.
The madame tripped Dick on purpose because she wanted to save Benjamin.
Just look at the motion of the swinging cane. Accius was standing in between the madame and Dick Fulner. It was not an easy feat for the cane to bypass Accius and hit Dick. If the madame had not done that intentionally, the swinging of the cane was truly an artistic form of coincidence.
The madame must have done that on purpose. She deliberately tripped Dick to let the chamber pot fall on him again. That would make her as guilty as Benjamin, and if the Fulners wanted to punish Benjamin, they would also need to punish her. Or else, they would be acting against the famed 'honour of the nobles'.
These people would never hit the old lady with a chamber pot. If she was hurt somehow by the chamber pot, it would escalate and alert the church. They could not afford to joke around with this. Even if Accius was willing to take the risk with throwing the chamber pot at the madame, Claude would never in allow that to happen.
Thus, the Fulners had no means to penalize the madame, and naturally they could not find any reason to incarcerate Benjamin too.
All in all, the madame flaunted her seniority perfectly to rescue Benjamin.
Benjamin was relieved as he thought about this.
Fortunately, although his grandmother had a unique temper, she was more dependable than his worthless father. Without her, he would have no idea on how to get himself out of this predicament. Evidently, there were still people in this world that knew the importance of shielding the shortcomings of a family. Not all of them were turncoats.
He was thankful, very thankful….
If Benjamin was aware of the truth, there was no doubt that the others could, too.
Based on the chagrined faces of the Fulners who were headed by Accius, it was obvious that they would not let this down without a fight.
"Duke Claude, the madame is elderly, senile, and didn’t know what she was saying. We wouldn't mind these words of the madame. Certainly the Duke will know how to resolve this appropriately."
Accius’s speech was aimed directly at the conservative Duke Claude. He must have known how difficult it would be if he dealt with the madame, thus he decided it was best to ignore her and talk to Benjamin’s father.
"Hmm…."
Claude’s face was somber. He did not respond with an immediate answer.
Upon seeing this, his relieved heart felt tensed again.
This family was so haunting. They refused to compromise despite the madame’s actions. Accius’s actions could be sabotaging the familial relations within the Lithurs.
Hopefully Benjamin’s father would not agree with them….
"What’s the matter? My mind is still working well and don’t underestimate me based on my old age and clumsiness. I know clearly how to solve this matter, and I definitely would not leave this hanging without a proper explanation."
While Claude hesitated, the old lady blinked and interrupted. She held herself in a respectable manner, and spoke with righteousness.
Although Claude was once again interrupted by the madame, he did not lose his cool. Instead, he remained his silence, as if he did not plan to express any further opinions regarding this matter. He seemed to allow the madame to do whatever she willed.
Accius frowned.
"Would you please stop messing around, madame."
"Messing around?" As if the madame had heard of strange news, she seemed shocked and made an innocent expression, "Duke Accius, what do you mean? You were the one who came to our family and started a mess, why would I be the one who is messing around? Now, Duke Accius, be reasonable."
Accius retorted in annoyance, "We were not the ones who were messing around!"
He realised his inappropriate manners after that. He took a deep breath, controlled his emotions and, then displayed his smoothness as a noble. He continued.
"Madame, my child was humiliated by the child of your family when he was a guest in your manor. As his father, I have the obligation to seek justice for him. Moreover, we are teaching your child a lesson for making a mistake so he would not repeat the same mistake in the future. Never mind that you were not appreciative of our actions, instead you’re falsifying the facts. Madame, who is being unreasonable here?"
"Oh, is that true?" She looked bewildered now, with a hint of confusion colouring her cheeks. It was as if she heard this statement for the first time, and she said "I thought it was us who invited Dick over as a guest out of goodwill, but unfortunately his sleepwalking habits recurred in the dead of the night, which caused him to kick the thing like how he would kick a ball? He injured himself and dirtied the hallway because of that. As it was an unintentional mistake, we did not take it up to you. How could you behave so irrationally still?"
Wham!
Once she said this, Accius slammed his palm on the table and jumped up, furious.
"You…."
His eyes were as wide opened as he pointed at the old lady, but he did not speak a word. The flesh on his face twitched, and his expression was very much alike the one of his son’s last night, when the latter was hit by the chamber pot at night and became speechless.
Everyone was exchanging looks, and the atmosphere was strained. Even Claude looked wary as if he wanted to say something, but the madame turned and shot him a look. It looked like a meaningless glance, but Claude retreated once again, with no intention to speak anymore.
She turned to the crowd, standing in the limelight. However, her face was still one of naivete, as if what she said was just common everyday conversations.
Benjamin’s jaw gaped wider.
Apparently, his grandmother had a much higher status in the Lithur family than he imagined. It was so high, he lost sight of it.
Also…. His conservative, ancient father. He was actually a mama’s boy?
"Your grandfather passed away early in his age, and she was the one who raised your father. The early Lithur family was solely led by her, and according to the rumors you knew previously, she has a special status within the kingdom, but you have no idea exactly what it is."
The System reappeared and explained, just like it was in an anime.
"You didn’t mention this before," Benjamin grumbled secretly.
"Ah, these are mere details. How could I include everything in the summarized version of your memory? Ugh, you’re so troublesome," the System offhandedly commented.
"...."
Benjamin felt empty, and he could not even muster the desire to complain.
When he snapped back into reality, Accius was still choked by the madame’s words. Thus, she showed her ‘reasonable side’ and once again hit back at Accius while she had her chance by adding further comments to put the final hand.
"Come here quickly, Benjamin, and tell Duke Accius what you saw last night. We should not leave him in the dark."
Benjamin was taken aback for a second, but snapped into acting mode immediately after.
He plastered on a sullen face and acted as if he was wronged, and spoke with innocence, weakness, but also some determination, "I….I woke up yesterday night and was hungry, so I got up to find some food. I saw Sir Dick, and he didn’t look normal, so probably he was already sleepwalking. He held that thing in his hands, and before I could wake him up, he fell down by himself, and…. Everyone saw what happened after that."
He thought to himself as he was talking, ‘Ah, my acting skills are improving steadily. Even I will be afraid of someone this shameless!’
After Accius heard what Benjamin said, he immediately regained his ability to articulate and scolded Benjamin sternly, "You’re lying!"
Benjamin promptly looked frail and powerless, as if he was going to burst into tears.
"I…. I'm not, it really happened like that."
The madame also joined in to send help and hammer the last nails, "How could you not believe this, Duke? Was there another side of the story to this incident? Ah, where is Dick? We should ask him what happened last night, he was the only one left who knew the whole truth!"
Where was Dick, oh, where was Dick?
Dick was lying in the fragrant pile of feces.
Accius glared at the unconscious Dick, his fat cheeks trembling, his eyes spouting fire.
"Ah, how could I only remember this now?" The madame also glanced at Dick, and she suddenly looked enlightened, "I remember hearing from someone that a sleepwalking person will not remember what they did during that time. Oh, what should we do! There’s no use in asking Dick now. Duke Accius, I’m sorry, but I think this unsolvable case will not have any resolution. I feel bad for this."
Ultra kill.
Benjamin nearly applauded. If the madame was making up nonsense before, these last few sentences were the ones that hit the nail directly on the right spot. A sleepwalking person is unconscious, and Dick actually had no idea who was the one who hit him with the chamber pot. All he did was wake up and see Benjamin, and assumed that he did it.
Actually, no one saw the moment when Benjamin threw the chamber pot at Dick. In other words, the only one who could explain what happened last night was Benjamin, and even if somebody else suspected him, no one could prove him wrong.
If he said Dick spilled the chamber pot himself, then Dick spilled the chamber pot himself.
Poor Dick….
What the madame concluded made Accius appear like he was dumped with a pail of cold water. He gradually realized this. He looked at the unconscious Dick, and the sympathetic madame. His desire to be defensive died down like deflating balloon.
The Fulner family members shared a look, and they looked furious but also helpless.
Finally, Accius admitted defeat.
"Madame, Sir Duke, we will meet at the ball next month. I hope on that day, you would be as energetic as you were today," he growled out like a cage lion, "Let’s go."
At his command, the Fulners looked dejected and prepared to leave. They started cleaning up Dick, who was still unconscious.
"Wait, how could you leave like this? This is not appropriate," Surprisingly, the madame called them to stay.
Accius, who was close to the door, turned and looked confused. He remained silent.
"You came here without a valid reason, brought that thing into our living room, and even spilled filth all over the place. As a noble family, shouldn’t you give us a proper apology? I am reasoning with you. Don’t you agree with me?" The madame spoke slowly. There was no accusing tone in her voice, only such impression that she was convincing through reason.
Accius was triggered once again, and the other Fulners were red with fury.
"Madame, do you think we’re easily bullied?"
The madame covered her mouth in surprise and said innocently, "How could I? I think this is a reasonable request. Just apologize, and we could resolve this privately without involving the church. Just think about the consequences if the Pope gets to know about this. How would he see the Fulners? I’m thinking for your own good, so you wouldn’t be humiliated outside these walls. Do you agree?"
Every member of the Fulner family including Accius showed a look of terror when they heard the words ‘the Pope’.
The madam’s spoken words caused the anger on their faces to dissipate immediately.
If this incident got to the church…. Benjamin thought about it. The church would stand on his side because they still needed him for Michelle’s capture. In actual fact, the Fulners already had no valid reason to blame Benjamin, as no one could prove it was him who threw the chamber pot. The Fulners came here to make a mess, and it was the Lithurs who were generous enough to resolve this matter privately. If this goes to the church, the Lithurs would have a huge advantage.
Benjamin understood this, and Accius did too. He looked at the madame, his expression shifted from one to another, but it stopped at a bitter one.
"Madame, aren’t you slightly unreasonable with this now?"
The madame turned her eyes after he spoke. Suddenly, she smiled confidently, as if she was as harmless as a grandmother who was cheated by a salesperson in her past life.
She said, "I’m an old woman who will be turning 70 soon, I don’t reason."
"...."
When you talked to her about age, she would reason with you; when you spoke reason with her, she would talk about her age.
Accius’s face was bleak.