Chapter 520 - Butterfly Effect

While Howard had often chased away the young boy following him around in the Royal Academy, he had grown accustomed to his presence.

However, the letter which had arrived at their estate brought word of an unknown sickness taking over the southern fiefs and one of them was the fief belonging to that child's family.

This letter brought worrisome thoughts to Howard who did not wish for anything untoward to happen to the boy who was like a puppy, following him around each day while in the Academy.

'He seems really upset about this news.' Yvonne discovered after the room had fallen into a deep silence.

'Was the Jorbin fief mentioned during the plague incident?' She wondered and thought back to the script that she had studied in the past.

Searching her memories concerning the script Asmodeus wrote, she tried to find some information that might help her understand this situation better.

However, no matter how hard she tried, she found no answer to her question.

'What about in the dream I saw about Taylor's death during the plague?' She hopped to another means of finding clues about the matter at hand.

Her heart was in the right place, worrying for her elder brother who seemed affected by this news.

Yet she found no information from the vision she had in her dream, revealing the 'deleted scenes' from the point of view of 'Yvonne' in the script.

Therefore, she could only remain silent as there was nothing that she could contribute to this topic.

Rutherford had also noticed the stifling silence and raised his hand to pat his son's head, ruffling his soft midnight blue hair as well.

"Don't think too much about it. Your friend must be safe." He assured him with a smile.

Right now, there was only news of the commoners contracting the disease and falling sick with similar symptoms.

However, no word was heard of any noblemen or their family members being afflicted by the same.

In this world that they lived in, noble life was considered to be more precious than that of a commoner's.

Therefore, if something were to happen to any of the family members of the Fief Lords of these three fiefs then word would have spread about the same throughout the Capital.

Since none of that had happened, it was safe to assume that the noblemen belonging to the Lumex, Wescott, and Jorbin fief were unaffected.

Hearing these words of consolation from his father, Howard felt better and he nodded to prove it.

"Young Master Lyon would be happy to hear that you were so worried about him," Raylene added, trying to further ease his discomfort.

She had met the Marchioness of the Jorbin family a few times during the tea parties at Duchess Tanner's estate.

The Marchioness was a beautiful woman, a foreigner, who the Marquess had married during one of his expeditions to a neighboring kingdom.

Rumor said that Marquess Luca Jorbin had fallen in love at first sight with the pretty lady and had pursued her with all his might, trying his best to impress her with his charms.

He had worked hard to further their relations and only after the lady was sure of her feelings for him did she agree to marry him and returned to the Rosenhyde Kingdom with him.

The children of the Jorbin family had inherited the combined genes of their parents and the foreign blood in their veins was becoming more apparent as they grew older.

This was one of the reasons why the children, the triplet daughters, and the youngest son were often ostracized or bullied by the rest of the nobility.

While they belonged to a Marquess' family, the children and the Marchioness alike were often mistreated due to their foreign blood.

The other ladies at the tea parties would often ignore Marchioness Jorbin and disregard her opinions by stating that she knew nothing of the customs in this Kingdom.

After the first few instances, Marchioness Jorbin had stopped accepting invites to such parties where she was mistreated.

Thankfully, the Duchess was not one to stand silently while watching this injustice and had many times even chided the women who dared to treat the poor Marchioness in this way.

For this kindness, the Marchioness would only attend major parties organized by the Duchess while ignoring the other invitations that she received.

If the Marchioness was treated with prejudice then it was undoubtedly clear that even her children were treated the same way.

While her three daughters were safe as they stayed indoors most of the time, it was the son who faced the most backlash as he resembled the Marchioness the most.

Even the incident when Howard had met the heir of the Jorbin family was one where he was being bullied by the other boys.

Due to this, Marquess Jorbin often tried to keep them safe by asking them to stay in their fief where the other nobility would not be able to harm them.

As the Countess was lost in her thoughts about everything she knew of the Jorbin family, she had failed to hear the mutter that had escaped the lips of her son whom she had just complimented.

"Who's worried about him?" Howard's scoff went unheard by most except for one.

Yvonne raised her head from the plate and looked straight at the boy who was opposite her.

'He's denying it even when his fists are tightly clenched around the fork?' She sneered at the contradictory words and actions of her elder brother.

With her brows raised in amusement at his words, she let out a soft chuckle before returning to her plate.

'Maybe this is why Vince used to call Grandpa a 'Tsundere' whenever he behaved just like Howard had done earlier.' She remarked at this memory from her previous world with her family there.

Grandpa Leo would speak one way and behave the other so her younger brother Vince would often tag him as a 'Tsundere'.

Right now, Yvonne was wondering whether this name could be assigned to her elder brother in this world as well.

This thought brought a smile to her face as Howard was indeed a Tsundere based on how he behaved with her in the past and even now with matters concerning Lyon Jorbin.

The rest of the meal was completed in silence as each of the St. Claire family members had dived deep into their contemplative thoughts.

Rutherford was busy wondering how the disease would progress and the aftermath of its rapid growth.

Raylene's thoughts were centered around the social circles and how they were unforgiving and unwelcoming towards anyone they thought to be different from them.

This notion was making her worry about what the future held for her daughter who most certainly was different from the rest of the young girls and women in their society.

Howard's heart was still filled with contradictory thoughts concerning the young boy who had been mentioned several times during their conversation earlier.

He did not want to be bothered about him but at the same time, he did not wish for anything bad to happen to that timid yet sometimes feisty young boy who followed him around whenever they met.

Finally, the youngest of the family, Yvonne St. Claire had numerous thoughts in her mind.

First, she was worried about the safety of the citizens considering the rapid growth of the disease.

Then she was hoping that the King would act soon and assign the Royal Medical Association to look into this disease which might lead to hasty progress in creating a cure to heal the sick ones.

Lastly, her thoughts were focused on this boy from the Jorbin family who was a year older than her.

'Will Howard still have to experience the loss of a friend no matter what?' She frowned as this thought appeared in her mind.

In the dream, Howard had to mourn the death of Taylor, his best friend.

However, she had averted that disaster by stopping the group from the Tanner-Samed family from going on their trip.

Yet now a new trouble had arisen where Howard was once again facing the possibility of witnessing the death of someone he held dear to him.

'Is this the butterfly effect for saving Taylor?' The little girl's brows furrowed once this theory took root in her mind.

This disheartening conjecture was now making her mood sour as another question popped soon after.

Will Howard have to mourn the death of someone close to him no matter what she tried?