Chapter 309
“I know your skills, Arthur. It’s not bad, but you lag behind me a lot. You’re not the only one who can cure her.” Elspeth didn’t believe Arthur one bit. If he was the only one who could heal her, then what would that make all the other doctors in the world? Useless?“Hey, I can’t do anything if you don’t believe me, but I’m indeed the only one who knows how to treat her at the moment.” Arthur smiled. “There’s a reason your grandfather asked me to help out.”Elspeth’s heart sank. She had to say he had a point.“However, the pacing of the treatment is under my control. I decide when she gets better, if ever.” Arthur approached Elspeth, looking down at her. He then said with a smug smile, “Get on my bad side, and I might just slip during the treatment.”Elspeth crossed her arms. Proudly, she said, “You fail my mother, and you’ll have the whole Joneson Family after you, not just me. Don’t even try to threaten me.”Arthur wasn’t intimidated by that threat. Instead, he laughed maniacally. “You think I care? You think I care after all you and Callum did to me?”“What about Emma, then? Don’t you like her anymore?”The mention of Emma broke something in Arthur. “You don’t deserve to say her name.”Elspeth snickered. “Simp. You do her every bidding even though she doesn’t like you, and for what? Nothing. Nothing at all.”Infuriated and livid, Arthur took a step forward and grabbed Elspeth by her neck. “I said, you don’t deserve to say her name. Slander her once more and I will wipe you off the face of the earth.”Suffocating, Elspeth coughed and sputtered, her face red. Arthur let her go right away. He was still at the Joneson Residence and hurting Elspeth might mean trouble. Elspeth fell to the ground.“You go against Emma again, and I will come after you.”He looked at Elspeth, whose clothes were disheveled, from head to toe, and then he froze. “W-Why do you have that pear blossom mark on your chest?”“Are you mad?” Elspeth glared at Arthur angrily. She quickly straightened her clothes and was about to stand up, but then Arthur hunkered down and tore her collar open to have a closer look at the birthmark. When Elspeth realized what he was doing, she slapped him. “Are you crazy, Arthur?”Yet, the slap didn’t make Arthur snap out of it. He looked at the angry Elspeth, and with a trembling voice, he said, “W-Were you in Damoria eight years ago?”Elspeth thought he was insulting her, but then she realized he was serious, and her fury subsided. “What does that have to do with you?” “Just tell me!” Arthur seemed to be in a hurry, and he was agitated.“Yes.” Elspeth nodded. “I was going to go abroad, and Damoria was one of my stops…”“Did you save a chubby boy under an old pagoda tree in rural Damoria, then?”That was a specific question. Elspeth had to wrack her brain to dig up that memory. She was about fifteen then, and she was on a long trip from Langford to Damoria. Back then, she could be considered a decent fighter, though she looked frail. She was an introvert at school and a top student, which made her the target of bullying. The headmaster’s daughter pulled a few strings and got her expelled. Left with no choice, she took some money out of her father’s inheritance to study abroad.She had to change trains at the Damoria-Langford border, and it was there she noticed a young man getting ganged up on. He was chubby, but he was cute. Since Elspeth was a victim of bullying herself, the sight made her furious. Fortunately, there weren’t a lot of boys among the group of bullies. Most of them were just high-school girls trying to be edgy. Elspeth easily kicked one of the boys down, then she stood in front of the chubby to protect him. “Anyone who wants to bully him must get past me.”The boy who got kicked groaned in pain, and the other bullies quickly ran off. Some of the timid girls even burst into tears.“You come after him again, and I’ll whoop your sorry butts.”That scared the bullies. They didn’t think a girl younger than they were could be so strong, and she had a small frame too. They fled at once lest the girl tried to hit them. Once the bullies were gone, young Elspeth turned to the chubby boy. “They should stay away from you for a while now.”The boy sat up and started crying, and he thanked Elspeth at the same time.Elspeth noticed the wounds on his face, and she felt sorry for him. “They’re just trying to be edgy. If they come after you again, tell your parents and scare them off. That should help with your case.” After that, Elspeth’s ride was about to arrive, so she hopped onto the train, leaving the boy behind.Elspeth looked at Arthur and noticed the scar on his forehead. “So, what are you trying to say? You were that boy who got bullied?” Arthur stood there without a word while Elspeth chuckled. “Really?”It was unbelievable, but Arthur’s reaction, or a lack thereof, told her what she needed to know. She couldn’t imagine the chubby, crying kid had grown into a handsome man like Arthur, though his personality was rotten. Wonder if that’s because of the bullying. She felt sorry for him for some reason. Such a pity.A long, long time later, Arthur finally snapped out of it. “Impossible. There’s no way it was you!” That was Emma. Emma saved me! Not Elspeth. No… No way!
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