After Being Reborn, My Wife Sapped Away the Game's Female Lead - Chapter 5

Lilica heard Cynthia asking every single word with her back turned: “Speaking of which, I seem to have forgotten something. Why is it that when I walked over here, I got hit in the head by a women’s long dress?”

The fairly large bedroom instantly plunged into a dead silence. The two pairs of masters and servants involved looked at each other, their eyes filled with despair. Hadn’t this matter already passed? Weren’t you about to leave, Cynthia?

Ella had originally assumed Cynthia was going to check on the patient first, so she had waited by the door the entire time. Hearing her young lady speak up now, she carried the long dress and strode proudly into the room.

Behind Cynthia, Lilica began making frantic hand gestures toward Carlo, hoping her good buddy could bail her out one more time.

However, Carlo’s gaze drifted away. Then he heard Cynthia ask, “Carlo, where are you looking? Look into my eyes and tell me what is going on here.”

“I.” Carlo closed his eyes in agony. “I don’t know.”

He genuinely couldn’t help with this one. Lilica, you had better pray to the gods yourself.

Dell chimed in: “This dress clearly belongs to a lady, Miss Cynthia. I believe Young Master Carlo is not suited to participate in an exchange between ladies, so please allow me to tender his apologies to you.”

Carlo nodded frantically at his side.

Cynthia glanced at the two of them and said nothing.

Ella cleared her throat, speaking with a crisp and loud voice: “My lady means that she does not believe your leaving right now is a suitable choice given the current situation, but if you insist, she will not stop you.”

Carlo had no choice but to pull up a chair and sit down, abandoning all hope as he said, “Seriously, Cynthia, why don’t you turn around and ask Lilica? She is right behind you!”

“Where is your gentlemanly demeanor, Carlo? You must remember that Lilica is not only your guest, she is also a patient.”

“Oh, come off it, I don’t have any of that stuff.”

“Sister Cynthia.” Lilica propped herself up slightly, trying her best to make her tone sound a bit weaker. She hadn’t faked being sick in years, and her acting skills were a bit rusty. “Don’t give Carlo a hard time. That really was my dress.”

Tina immediately cooperated by helping her up to lean against the headboard, not only tucking in her blanket properly but also thoughtfully placing two thick, soft cushions behind her back.

Carlo was finally vindicated: “Hear that! Just hear that!”

“Quiet, Carlo.” Cynthia maintained her cold attitude toward Carlo, but the moment she turned around to face Lilica, she instantly softened. “Lilica, you don’t have to take the blame for something that isn’t your fault just to protect him.”

Carlo rolled his eyes without the slightest bit of concealment.

“No, Sister Cynthia,” Lilica slowed her speech, throwing in a cough or two for good measure. “It’s just that my father prepared some new clothes for me, so I asked Tina to take them out for Brother Carlo to see.”

Hearing herself call him brother gave Carlo instant goosebumps.

“And then Tina was careless, and the dress slipped out the window.”

“Yes, Miss Cynthia,” Tina tearfully took on the responsibility that did not belong to her. “It was my carelessness. As you know, this dress is a bit heavy.”

Although this excuse was full of holes, Cynthia accepted it entirely as if she had been struck by dark magic: “So that was it? It seems this was just a misunderstanding.”

“Then, Sister Cynthia,” Lilica blinked her eyes, saying pitifully, “can you forgive me?”

“Of course, this isn’t such a big deal.” Cynthia affectionately stroked her cheek and then raised her hand, knocking Lilica’s sleeping cap right off, revealing a mess of short hair that defied description underneath.

Cynthia: “…”

Lilica: “…” Just kill me now.

The bedroom once again plunged into a suffocatingly tense atmosphere.

Lilica desperately tried to weave a reason in her mind for cutting her short hair, searching for a way to say it out loud, but she didn’t expect Cynthia to turn her gaze toward Carlo standing nearby.

Carlo felt a great sense of impending doom: “Why are you looking at me?”

“Naturally, I hope you can provide an explanation,” Cynthia said calmly. “You must realize that Lilica is running a fever right now, and we shouldn’t let her talk too much. Tina, go pour some water.”

“!” Lilica stared in disbelief at Cynthia, feeling dizzy from such blatant favoritism.

Carlo shouted, “Cynthia, don’t you think this is terribly unfair to me?!”

“First of all, you are the master of this house,” Cynthia said, completely unaware of her own lack of impartiality. “Secondly, you are Lilica’s childhood friend, and everyone is already considering whether your engagement should be announced right now. Taking everything into account, I don’t think anyone understands the situation better than you do.”

Carlo felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as well. He deeply realized that he shouldn’t have tried to help Lilica in the first place.

Yet Lilica cast a pleading look at him while holding up a single finger, signaling that she owed him a favor.

Carlo remained silent.

Lilica added a second finger.

Carlo still remained silent.

Lilica raised the offer further.

Carlo gave a dry cough, wanting to hold out for a bit more.

Lilica rolled her eyes at him, flopped backward, and said weakly, “Ah, I feel a bit dizzy.”

Seeing that Cynthia was about to turn back to fuss over Lilica, Carlo refused to give up this hard-earned chance to squeeze out some benefits and quickly said, “Well, it’s like this, Cynthia. Madam Doyle, that’s Lilica’s mother, has been worrying about Lilica’s health for a long time, so she previously hired a very brilliant healer to treat Lilica. And so, although I don’t understand the principle behind it, Lilica’s original long hair had to be cut off.”

Cynthia listened with a grave expression: “To resort to such extreme methods, has Lilica’s health really deteriorated to this extent?”

“It got a lot better after that,” Lilica quickly chimed in.

“But you’re still running a fever right now.”

“That’s because I forgot to close the window properly when I went to sleep yesterday, so I caught a bit of a cold.”

Cynthia was convinced: “True, the evenings are indeed getting a bit chilly lately.”

Carlo was left staring in utter disbelief. Wait a minute, how cold could an August night possibly get? Is Cynthia alright? Why is she believing literally anything Lilica says?

Once Cynthia was finally led out of the room by Carlo, both Carlo and Lilica let out a massive sigh of relief.

Dell and Tina wasted no time in confiscating and whisking away the troublesome dress, executing the removal so swiftly that Ella was left holding thin air before she even realized what was happening.

Although Cynthia was older than Carlo by a few months, she rarely acted like an older sister toward him and almost never lectured him.

Even though today’s events made her seriously doubt Carlo’s gentlemanly upbringing, she didn’t dwell too much on the past incident. She cared far more about something else.

“I heard the academy opened up a humanities and history course this year, and the entrance requirements are quite low,” Cynthia told Carlo before stepping into her carriage. “Perhaps you could persuade Madam Doyle to send Lilica to study?”

Although Carlo asked himself a million variations of whether she was out of her mind in his head once more, he barely managed to keep his expression steady: “About that, I’d rather not, considering her health condition.”

“It’s just a suggestion,” Cynthia said casually. “Though from what I’ve seen, Lilica hasn’t managed to improve her health after all these years in the countryside. Perhaps she might meet a truly exceptional healer in the capital? You never know.”

“…” Carlo kept his face neutral. “I will help pass the message along.”

In the carriage on the way back, Cynthia sat with her eyes closed, resting and organizing the events of the day.

Setting aside the matters concerning Fiona and Mita, there were simply too many suspicious things between Carlo and Lilica. The two of them were clearly hiding something from her, even willing to make up clumsy and ridiculous lies to cover it up.

Cynthia was somewhat puzzled. She didn’t consider herself a rigid conservative, and her friendship with the two of them was reasonably good. So what on earth could they have encountered that made them prefer being interrogated by her over telling the truth?

It was truly baffling. However, Cynthia was never one to trap herself in a dead-end train of thought.

She opened her eyes: “Ella.”

“My lady, I’宁 here.”

Cynthia thought for a moment, then asked, “I recall you have a younger sister?”

“Yes, my lady, her name is Jane, and she turned ten this year.”

“Do you two get along well?”

“Yes, we are very close.”

“If, and I mean if,” Cynthia chose her words carefully, “you suddenly discovered one day that your sister, well, let’s say Jane, suddenly hid something from you, and then to keep you from finding out, she lied…”

Ella thought about it. “Jane would never do that, but maybe a few years from now she might, since girls start liking boys around that age, right?”

Cynthia looked thoughtful: “You mean Jane might hide a romance from you?”

Ella smiled sheepishly. “Girls are quite shy after all. I wouldn’t tell Jane which boy I liked either.”

Cynthia suddenly asked, “So who do you like?”

“Joe from the farm.” Ella blushed furiously the moment she finished. “My lady!”

“Matters of the heart, when you really get down to it, are still spoken aloud,” Cynthia mentally eliminated that possibility. “Then is there anything someone would absolutely never talk about?”

Ella thought for a moment, then answered hesitantly, “Well, I heard there was a girl at the farm who wasn’t married yet, but she was already expecting a child. She wanted to keep it a secret, but eventually she couldn’t hide it anymore.”

“!!!” Cynthia was struck as if by lightning. She forced her voice to remain steady and asked, “What are the characteristics of someone who is pregnant?”

“Um, I heard they love to sleep, and their body feels quite heavy.” Ella struggled to recall what she had heard. “They also seem prone to getting sick and things like that.”

Cynthia went black in the vision.

Everything matched up.

Lilica’s symptoms all matched!