# 35
---
Elinor replied sharply.
“Put the baby safe now. He's crying.”
“I can't do that.”
Gilbert raised the corner of his mouth with a malicious look.
He placed the crying child under his armpit.
"I finally found your weak spot. I've never seen this expression on your face before. Do others know that you can panic like that?"
“Gilbert!”
“If you want the baby to be safe, stay still!”
Gilbert shouted menacingly.
“Otherwise, I don’t know where this knife would go.”
Elinor's mind went blank.
The sharp knife looked like it would be heading towards the child at any moment.
When I decided to escape from the annex, I had to leave the palace without looking back.
Why did you intrude into something I couldn't handle?
Gilbert looked at the terrified Elinor and smiled.
He felt ecstatic from the feeling of victory.
'This is just the beginning, you don't have to be like this already.'
When he raised the knife again to threaten Elinor, Gilbert suddenly screamed.
"Yes!"
Tidian, who had approached without being noticed, was biting Gilbert's ankle.
He didn't have the strength to stand up, but he crawled with difficulty and bit Gilbert like a ferocious dog, refusing to let go.
Gilbert shouted, trying to shake it off.
"Leave me! You madman, ah!"
"Waa! Waa!"
“My little one!”
Elinor rushed forward and snatched up the baby.
The child cried loudly in her arms, as if to express his sadness.
blow!
The sound of a human body being kicked was heard.
“You idiot! There is no point in teaching you because you are stupid!”
Gilbert was panting with red eyes.
There was an obvious tooth mark on his ankle, and it was even bleeding.
“He's bleeding!”
With madness in his eyes, he kicked Tidian lying on the ground.
“How dare you bite your teacher? You insolent!”
“Ah! Oh…”
“Okay, if you want to die, I will kill you first.”
Tidian curled into himf, hurt.
Physiological tears rolled down his round cheeks.
At that moment.
blow!
“Oh.”
Elinor, who was holding the child tightly, hit Gilbert's head against a bronze statue that decorated the room.
Gilbert stopped kicking and staggered in shock.
He held his bleeding head and muttered.
“You...”
“Gilbert.”
Elinor raised the statue again to the level of her head.
“Don't think that things will end easily for you.”
blow!
Another loud sound rang out, and Gilbert fell to the ground.
He didn't move, he seemed to have completely passed out.
Elinor stepped over Gilbert lying on the ground.
“Young master! Are you okay?”
“The child…?”
Tidian was covered in bruises, unable to open his eyes, but he asked about the child first.
“Is the baby okay?”
Elinor felt moved for a moment.
She nodded vigorously.
“Yes, he's fine. It's all thanks to you.”
“That's good...”
Tidian raised the corner of his mouth with a faint smile.
“I was worried something would happen to the baby... I couldn't stay still.”
“Wait a minute. I'll call a doctor now-”
“Tidian!”
At that moment, a voice was heard calling to him from outside.
blow! blow!
The door that Gilbert had closed shook several times and then broke like a tree struck by lightning.
Dozens of knights streamed in through the open door.
Matthias was among them.
He was shocked to see the chaos in the room.
“The baby’s mother? What’s going on...”
Xing!
The knights pointed their swords at Elinor, the only one standing unharmed.
An intense tension flowed through the sharp swords.
It was a much colder feeling than when Gilbert pointed his knife at her.
Matthias spoke with a hard face.
"What's going on here? You better explain well so I can be convinced."
His voice, filled with pent up anger, made her knees shake.
The baby continued to cry in Elinor's arms.
When Elinor tried to explain with difficulty, she opened her mouth.
“No…”
Suddenly, all eyes turned to Tidian.
Tidian raised his head with difficulty and muttered in a low voice.
“Don’t attack my sister-in-law and my nephew...”
“Sister-in-law?”
“Nephew?”
The knights were disturbed.
Some of them looked between Elinor and Matthias.
In shock, Tidian gasped.
“If something happens to my sister-in-law and my nephew...”
He let out a groan and continued with difficulty.
“I will hate my brother... all my life...”
Tidian, out of energy, fainted.
He left Elinor and Matthias to the others' screams and shock at his revelation.
* * *
After being exposed in front of so many people, escape became impossible.
“I'll tell you everything that happened.”
Tidian was taken to the doctor, and Elinor immediately cooperated with Matthias.
“Mr. Tidian visited me frequently.”
She revealed the truth about Tidian's visits to her through the secret passage.
Of course, she didn't mention that she was the one who used the corridor first.
“At first, I was just helping him with his homework. But over time, I noticed that his teacher was mistreating him.”
The doctor who treated Tidian discovered marks of beatings on his legs.
They were scars that indicated he had been beaten continuously for a long time.
"Master Tidian tried to hide it. But he was young, so I was worried about him. Then I discovered that his teacher, who was working under the name Wiert, was actually Gilbert Tyrone, a former classmate who had been expelled from the academy."
"eviction?"
“Wairt impersonated another person, whose real name was Gilbert Tyrone.”
She became worried when Tidian, who visited her daily, did not come.
So she went out through the corridor for the first time and saw Tidian being dragged by Gilbert.
I followed him to save him, and this chaos ensued.
Elinor's account, with some distortions, was enough to anger Matthias.
He immediately ordered a thorough search of Gilbert's office and room.
During this, Elinor was placed under surveillance in the principal's palace as a key witness.
After a few days.
“Sir, it appears that Wirt has been communicating with an outside party.”
The knights who searched Gilbert's room discovered traces of him communicating with someone.
Matthias read the contents of the letters.
Despite their form as letters, they were detailed reports on internal palace affairs.
Gilbert's powers, as an outsider, were limited.
Although the information was superficial, it was enough to prove that there was a problem within the palace.
“Huh.”
Matthias rubbed his face.
He suddenly felt guilty.
There was someone who sneaked in with malicious intentions and wandered into the palace without being noticed.
Even if he was busy looking for Charlotte Winston to solve the problem of feudal pollution, that didn't excuse him.
Due to his negligence, Tidian, the youngest, was attacked inside the palace, the place that was supposed to be the safest.
This was clearly his mistake.
“Did you find out who was helping him?”
“He seems to want to talk, but he can't. There seems to be a spell preventing him from revealing the identity of who supported him.”
"mascot?"
Charms are higher spells that can be imposed by magic or holy power.
Magic is linked to the Magic Tower, and Holy Power to the Temple.
Or perhaps both are available to the imperial family.