Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Bucky's father is a small...
Bach's father was a businessman of some renown.
From as far back as Bach could remember, he rarely saw his father, who was always on the go doing business.
Bucky's mother died of illness shortly after giving birth to him.
The responsibility of caring for Bach as he grew up naturally fell on his sister, Mabila.
Mabila was only eight years older than Bucky and was still a child herself. At first, she was quite flustered when taking care of Bucky.
However, with the help of her servants, Mabila gradually became more familiar with the job and successfully cared for Bachi until he was six years old.
The sudden bad news shattered the peace of the family: Mabila and Bachi's father tragically died on their way home.
Upon receiving the news, the girl collapsed into the maid's arms and wept uncontrollably. However, upon seeing her younger brother, she quickly wiped away her tears and, while suppressing her grief, began to handle her father's funeral arrangements.
Fortunately, their father left behind a considerable fortune, enough for the two to continue living a relatively affluent life, and Mabila remained one of the girls in town with the highest dowry.
“If I were your sister, I would be keeping my eyes peeled and scrutinizing every man who tries to get close to me,” Mela suddenly interrupted Bucky’s narration. “Young and wealthy girls are most likely to attract wolves with ill intentions.”
Moreover, according to Bach's description, Mabila is gentle, quiet, and well-mannered, and must have been very bad at refusing other people's advances. Even if she sensed that the other person had ill intentions, she would only express her refusal in a tactful way.
According to Mela, this trick only works on people who care about their image. Once you encounter a shameless scoundrel who doesn't care about his image, it's like scraping away layers of mud from the sole of a shoe.
Although Mela's words made a lot of sense, Silas, who was engrossed in the story, covered his head with his wing in annoyance and scolded her, "Oh Mela, you're really not a patient listener. Although we all know it will end in a frustrating way, I would still rather hear Bucky finish the whole story."
Instead of listening to your constant interruptions.
Silas dared not say this aloud, but only muttered it to himself.
"Alright, alright, whatever you wish for. I'll try not to express my opinions so easily from now on." Mela compromised, and casually instructed Lex, who was standing to the side, to make her a cup of herbal tea.
Bucky glanced at Mela's reaction and, seeing that she didn't seem impatient, weakly defended his sister, "It's not that my sister isn't vigilant enough, it's just that Groot is too good at sweet talk and used despicable and underhanded methods to successfully gain my sister's trust."
Marbila was, after all, just a fifteen-year-old girl. When a young and handsome man suddenly started to fawn over her and try all sorts of tricks to please her, she inevitably lost her usual composure and fell into the fantasy of a young girl longing for romantic love.
However, remembering the inheritance left by her father, Mabila became somewhat suspicious of Groot's closeness, so she sent her most trusted maid to find out about Groot.
When the maid returned, she praised Groot's character highly, saying that although he was born into wealth, he had no interest in women and had never shown any interest in any other girl except Marbila.
The maid also advised Marbila to accept Groot's advances, since both of them came from merchant families and were a perfect match.
Besides, Marbila does have feelings for Groot, doesn't she?
After careful consideration, Mabila felt that the maid's suggestion was correct. She approached Groot, hoping that the two could get engaged first, since Buggy was only seven years old, and she was worried about leaving her young brother to marry alone.
Groot, of course, said no problem, and even thoughtfully suggested that Mabila could marry him when Bucky turned twelve. It was only five years, and he was willing to wait for Mabila with all his heart.
Marbila was deeply moved upon hearing this, but at the same time felt a great deal of guilt towards Groot. If it weren't for her, Groot would be at the perfect age to get married, and in five years, their child might already be running around.
Therefore, when Mabila heard Groot ask her for money to try her hand at business, she handed over half of her dowry to Groot without hesitation.
Of course, besides trusting Groot, Mabila also considered that money, if it only goes out and never comes in, will eventually run out, and what will happen to their little family then?
In particular, Groot said that his father valued the eldest son who could inherit the family business, while his mother doted on the youngest son, so he probably wouldn't give him, the middle son, much of the inheritance.
Groot said this with a melancholy expression, clearly saddened by his parents' favoritism, but he still tried to cheer himself up and comforted Marbila, promising that he would never let her live a life of poverty where she could not afford servants.
Mabila smiled and agreed, but a trace of worry still lingered in her heart.
Now that Groot has offered to go into business, if he can actually make something of it, Mabila will naturally be happy to see it happen.
However, since it was Groot's first time doing business, he inevitably encountered many unexpected situations. For example, the quality of the goods he bought was inconsistent, he was tricked into selling good goods at a low price, and his business partner ran away with the money.
In short, six months later, a dejected Groot borrowed the remaining half of Mabila's dowry from her again.
"Is this the time he ran off with half of your sister's dowry and his lover?" Mela asked.
“No.” Bucky shook his head, indicating that Groot was far more greedy than Mela had imagined; he had his eye on Bucky’s share of the inheritance.
According to the kingdom's laws, daughters can only receive four-tenths of the inheritance left by their parents, while the majority must be left to their sons.
If the couple has multiple daughters, the daughters will share four-tenths equally. If they have multiple sons, the eldest son will inherit two-thirds, and the other sons will share the remaining one-third equally.
In other words, the bulk of the inheritance left by Bucky and Mabila's father is still in Bucky's name.
However, because Bachi was too young, the money was temporarily entrusted to Mabila for safekeeping.
"And then what? Your sister wouldn't be so foolish as to give your money to a scumbag like Groot, would she? He's already swindled all of her dowry, and she still hasn't realized it?" Silas angrily flapped his wings, feeling powerless as if he couldn't reach out and slap Groot twice.
“This time, I’m not the one interrupting the story,” Mela casually remarked from the side.
"Is this the time to be arguing about this?" Silas jumped around on the perch in anger.
Mela chuckled smugly, signaling Bach to continue.
"...Groot did not succeed. Although her sister hoped to provide money to help Groot's business through its difficulties, she believed that she was only holding the money for me and that once I came of age, the money must be handed over to me in full. Therefore, no matter how much Groot pleaded, her sister would not budge."
"When he realized he couldn't get any more money out of my sister, Groot made an excuse to go out and find someone willing to lend him money, and then he never came back."
After saying this, Bach lowered his head in frustration.
When Groot left, Bach noticed that Mabila looked worried and managed to find out the reason from her most trusted maid.
Knowing that lending money to Groot would make his sister happy, Bucky happily approached Marbila and said he was willing to lend all the money to his future brother-in-law, since they would be family in the future and there was no need to be so particular.
Upon hearing this, Mabila gave a forced smile and firmly refused Bucky, saying that she believed Groot would find a way. If he couldn't find a way in the end, it meant that Groot wasn't cut out for business, and they would find another way.
Then Mabila waited anxiously for three months, but did not receive a single letter from Groot.
Even when he was away from home for long periods of time, Groot would still send Mabila a long letter every two or three days, expressing his longing for her.
With her father's example in mind, Mabila couldn't help but imagine the worst-case scenario. Then, she couldn't wait any longer and spent a lot of money to send people to try to find Groot.
Of course, the money was borrowed by Mabila from Bachi. Not only that, she also insisted on signing an IOU with Bachi, promising to repay the money after marriage.
As a result, although Mabilla's men did not find Groot, they brought back news that Groot had eloped with his lover long ago.
Even more shockingly, Groot never used Mabila's dowry for any business at all, and the terrible situations he described to Mabila in his letters were all fabricated.
As for the lover who eloped with him, she was someone he had his eye on before Marbila. Rather, it was precisely because Groot's parents couldn't accept him marrying a woman with little dowry that Groot set his sights on Marbila, who was famous for her generous dowry in the neighboring town.
Mabila was so shocked that she fainted on the spot and was helped back to her room by her maid.
Her most trusted maid resigned from her job when Mabila sent people to inquire about Groot's whereabouts.
When Buggy realized something was wrong, he sent people to investigate the maid who had left. They learned that she had actually been bribed by Groot, which was why she had spoken highly of Groot to Marbila and facilitated their engagement.
At this point, Bucky's expression turned indignant. "That maid served my sister for five years. We always paid her a good salary and never beat or scolded her. Yet she betrayed my sister so easily for such a small amount of money."
On this point, Lex, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, clearly having a different opinion: "A good master, while being kind, must also establish sufficient authority among his servants. Otherwise, excessive kindness will only increase the servants' contempt, making them reckless and even daring to offend the master's interests."
Judging from the fact that even her most trusted maid could be bribed by Groot, Mabila was undoubtedly a failed master.
Conversely, it was Mabila's indulgence that allowed her maid to accept Groot's money, lie to her, and not worry about being exposed.
Upon hearing this, Bucky realized his and his sister's mistake, and his expression darkened even further.
"Why does this herbal tea taste so weak? Did you put sugar in it when you brewed it? You dared to serve it to me without sugar. It seems I need to establish my authority as the host."
Mela crossed her arms and stared at Lex, telling him to finish the herbal tea, which wasn't sweet enough, and then brew a fresh one.
Lex, remembering what he had just said, took the empty teacup away with a sullen face.
“Alright, continue. What exactly is going on with your sister’s illness?” Mela looked at Bucky.
With Mela's interruption, Bucky breathed a sigh of relief and finished the last bit of the story.
Unable to bear such a heavy blow, Mabila developed severe delusions. In her mind, Groot disappeared while on a business trip, and no matter how many people she sent, she could not find him. She could only spend her days in tears.
Bachi couldn't bear to watch any longer and tried to shatter his sister's illusions and force her to accept reality, but instead, Marbila closed the door and refused to see him.
“This is probably just excessive grief; you should give her more time to process it,” Mela said, resting her chin on her hand.
“If only we had more time,” Bach said with a wry smile. “Before I left with the servants, my sister was already lying in bed, very weak. Besides constantly weeping, she had completely lost her appetite. No matter how delicious the food was, she couldn’t eat it.”
But how can a person live without eating?
As Bach watched Mabila grow thinner and thinner each day, he was terrified of losing his only remaining loved one. But he knew very well that the church priests couldn't cure the disease; instead, they would call Mabila a madwoman and demand that Bach send her to a convent.
Bach would never do that.
He remembered the rumors about witches he had heard before. Not far from the town was the Dark Forest, and everyone knew that an evil witch really did live in the Dark Forest.
So Bucky, accompanied by several strong young servants, escorted himself to the vicinity of the Dark Forest, then casually made an excuse to send them away and ventured in alone.
“Why did you send the servants away? If you had taken them with you, you might not have been attacked by wild beasts and fainted by the river. You know, if you hadn’t been lucky enough to run into us, you probably wouldn’t have survived,” Mela said.
“I won’t tell anyone about the deal I made with the witch. If they accidentally leak it to someone else, my sister and I will be finished.” Bucky glanced at Lex.
His caution stemmed from the fact that the royal decree against witches stipulated that anyone associated with a witch would have all their property confiscated and be imprisoned.
Despite all his careful planning, Bucky never expected to run into the royal family at the witch's cabin. Although he didn't know Lex's identity yet, he figured that since both sides had leverage over each other, Lex would likely maintain the same understanding and pretend they had never met before.
Lex ignored Bucky's meaningful glance and calmly handed Mela the herbal tea that had been re-sweetened and brewed.
Mela took the teacup and sipped, but her mind was elsewhere. Despite Bach's words implying that Mabila was hurt, he was actually quite affected as well; otherwise, he wouldn't be so wary of his servant.
Indeed, it is through falling down that one grows.
"When can I get the potion I want?" Bucky asked cautiously.
"I can make the potion you want tomorrow. Now, it's too late, everyone should go to sleep."
Mela put down her half-finished herbal tea, stretched, and realized it had been a long time since she had listened to a bedtime story like this. Although the love parts were infuriating, the family parts were at least decent.
However, there was one problem. Mela never thought that someone else would move into her cabin. After Lex joined, Mela gave him the only extra blanket and cleaned out a corner in the cabin for Lex to sleep on the floor.
But now that there's another Bucky in the house, it's clear that Bucky and Lex will have to squeeze in for one night.
“I can go sit and sleep by the door.” Rather than sharing a blanket with Bucky, Lex would rather voluntarily go to the door.
“No way, aren’t you afraid of catching a cold if you leave the door to be exposed to the cold wind all night?” Mela rejected Lex’s suggestion.
Lex wanted to say that he wasn't that delicate, and that his years of martial arts training with Cherge hadn't been for nothing, but Mela didn't give him a chance to speak. "Sit down next to my rocking chair, and I'll share half of my blanket with you."
"You're not allowed to refuse. Do you want to defy your master's authority?" Mela mischievously brought up Lex's earlier words to punish him.
Lex remained silent.
Lex reluctantly accepted it.
So Bucky took Lex's blanket, Silas stood on his perch, and Lex reluctantly leaned against Mela's rocking chair, with the edge of the blanket taken from behind him draped over his knees, covering his entire upper body to prevent him from getting cold while he was asleep.
To better care for Lex, Mela slept on her side facing him, and she quickly fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the rocking chair.
Before long, two other distinct breathing sounds came from inside the room.
Only Lex remained with his eyes open.
Mela doesn't like to spray perfume on herself, so only at this close range can you smell her faint fragrance.
Lex didn't understand the origin of this fragrance, but could only guess that all women were like this, since his mother, who had passed away many years ago, was the same.
Clean clothes, a warm atmosphere, and soft, long hair exuding a natural fragrance—as young Lex nestled into his mother's arms, he was met with a slightly surprised laugh: "My prince, would you like to spend an afternoon with your mother in the garden today?"
How did you answer when you were a child?
Lex sank into the depths of his dream, weaving together with distant memories.
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