How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 300

“W-what?”

“Wh-what do you mean, my lord!”

 

“You just said it yourselves: nobles who enjoy privileges must help the weak. Surely you’re not about to abandon that duty?”

 

“O-of course not! That would stain our family’s honor!”

 

“Honor? I doubt your family has any worth speaking of. Now that I think of it—I still don’t know your family’s name.”

 

Leonhard, with his arms crossed, looked at the young men intently.

 

Even though it was just a glance, the young men felt a shiver of pressure.

 

One of them, who was actually struggling to breathe and gasping slowly, cried out for help.

 

“I-I’ll do it! Anything! If it means helping the weak, then of course I must!”

 

“What about you?”

 

“U-us too! Of course we’ll do it!”

 

“Please, give us work right away, Head Butler!”

 

Logan simply nodded to the young men who had changed their attitude in an instant.

 

“As it happens, we’ve had so many wounded that piles of bloody sheets and bandages are waiting to be washed. If you’ll help, that would be reassuring.”

 

“B-bloody sheets…?”

 

The young men gaped in surprise, as if they had never expected that they would be asked to do such a difficult task.

 

Brilliana stepped forward as if she knew they would react that way.

 

“I’ll make sure these guys don’t slack off. Brother-in-law, go ahead and do your work.”

 

“Is that okay?”

 

“I’m already relying on my younger sister. I should at least do this much.”

 

Brilliana, who had been carefully stroking the magic stone embedded in the wand, moved off with the young nobles, saying to Logan:

 

“If there are any more nobles who are causing trouble, bring them here. I’ll give them a good beating.”

 

* * *

 

“And that’s how Benny and I ended up supervising those troublesome nobles…”

 

Fortunately, aside from those five, no more nobles acted up.

 

Rather, there were many more people who rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward, saying thank you for providing them with a place to hide and asking to be helped with anything they needed.

 

“But what family are these people from? I’ve never seen their faces before.…”

 

“We haven’t seen them either. They probably haven’t even made their social debut yet.”

 

‘So that’s why they felt entitled to special treatment?’

 

The saying goes that ignorance breeds boldness—how perfectly it fits.

 

‘Still, to come to someone else’s home and cause such a ruckus…’

 

‘I’ll have to remember their family names carefully and send a formal complaint later.’

 

As I was imprinting the faces of the young men one by one in my mind, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

 

“Nell!”

 

“Brother Alex?”

 

His face was covered in sweat, as if he had been running around all day.

 

His uniform was torn, wrinkled, and stained with blood and dirt, making it difficult to tell that it was the uniform of a knight.

 

…Wait a minute.

 

“You’re not hurt anywh—”

 

“Brother, are you hurt?”

 

“Huh? N-no?”

 

His voice cracked suspiciously at the end.

 

I was just about to glare at him for lying when another voice came.

 

“Did you sprain your ankle? Take off your shoes.”

 

“What? I’m still on duty, I can’t just take off my shoes.”

 

“Is there a rule against taking off your shoes while on duty at Red Lion? I’ve never heard of it.”

 

“I’ve never heard of it either.”

 

Benjamin chimed in, swung the wand lightly.

 

At once, my brother’s body floated into the air, his bent knee giving away which foot was hurt as the shoe slipped off.

 

“Hey! What the—let me down!”

 

“I’ll let you down once I’m done checking.… Hmm.”

 

As expected, my brother’s ankles were swollen. Just looking at them made me gasp.

 

“What? You said you weren’t hurt.”

 

“As a knight, this much is nothing… Argh!”

 

I poked the swollen spot, and a scream erupted.

 

“Even knights feel pain, huh? Why put on pride in front of your own family?”

 

“It’s not pride—Ahh! Don’t poke it!”

 

“Oh my, who else would take care of you if not me? Just stay still.”

 

“Hey, wait a minute. What are you doing? Stop it!”

 

He struggled fiercely, enough to break Benjamin’s wind magic for a moment.

 

Benjamin seemed a little surprised, but he swung his wand with determination and caught my brother with an even stronger wind.

 

This time, thinking that he couldn’t escape, my brother shouted loudly.

 

“Your healing magic is terrible, Sis!”

 

He actually called Lillie “Sis”—a sign he felt real danger.

 

“Hehe, don’t worry, I have this wand. I can use any magic.”

 

Lily’s eyes, which were flashing with madness as she raised her wand, flashed for a moment.

 

From behind, I heard gasps and the frantic scrubbing of sheets quicken.

 

“Benjamin! Stop your fiancée!”

 

“Don’t worry. It’s a multi-attribute wand. Lily won’t fail her magic.”

 

“Easy for you to say! She once promised to mend a broken bone and ended up shattering it completely! Nell, your brother’s going to die!”

 

The atmosphere was agitated as everyone else seemed to be agitated by the sight of my brother screaming that he was going to die.

 

In the end, I stopped Lily and called Sage to heal my brother.

 

“All done. The treatment’s finished.”

 

“Thank you… Thank you. You saved a life.….”

 

“Huh? It wasn’t that serious an injury, though…”

 

I patted the bewildered Sage on the shoulder.

 

“You worked hard. Aren’t you tired? I heard you were in charge of treating the injured.”

 

“Not at all. I have this wand that the Marquise gave me!”

 

Sage’s gaze, as she raised the wand in her hand, was similar to the gaze Lily had shown a moment ago.

 

“Oh my, you also have a multi-attribute magic stone wand?”

 

“Yes. I have received a great favor from Marquise.”

 

“A great favor? You have always suffered a lot because of me.….”

 

“So how does it feel when you use it? Doesn’t it feel like your skill level’s gone up a rank?”

 

“And the magical power efficiency is amazing!”

 

While Lily, Benjamin, and Sage were chatting away with each other over the multi-attribute magic stone wand, I sat with my exhausted brother.

 

“I heard you were busy evacuating people. Is that all finished now?”

 

“More or less? Not just here—Duke Khalid and other nobles opened their mansions too… But there still might be people who haven’t escaped, so I’ll go back out.”

 

“Are you sure you’re okay going out alone? What if you run into a monster?”

 

“That’s my duty. I’ll manage somehow.”

 

“You never think about the people who worry for you.”

 

I grumbled and thought to myself.

 

‘I need to send a few wizards and knights to guard him.’

 

That would be best—unless the monsters were cleared out before then.

 

“Have you heard any news from the palace?”

 

“Not really. But it seems the east wall has been secured to some extent.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah. Duke Khalid and his knights went there, plus the wizards and knights of Ajas… and Violet, now a Sword Master.”

 

‘Sword Master?’

 

“Did Lady Violet become a Sword Master? When?”

 

“A few hours ago? You could tell her sword aura was different. She pierced right through the monster’s ridiculously tough hide in one strike.”

 

My brother was so excited that he boasted about his colleague’s achievements, but then he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of regret.

 

“I feel like I was just dragging everyone down with my lack of strength. …I really need to dedicate myself to training harder from now on.”

 

Honestly, my brother was not lacking in skill or effort at all.

 

But the fact that he spoke that way meant he truly believed he had been of no help at all.

 

‘So a strong monster attacked the capital?’

 

Now I understood why so many people had fled here.

 

Still, it was fortunate that the eastern wall was cleaned up.

 

‘Then all that’s left is to defeat the chimera in the imperial palace, right?’

 

‘I hope Leonhard and Rake return safely.’

 

I put my hands together and prayed.

 

* * *

 

“Kyaaaaak!”

 

“Got it!”

 

The Needle Gnome, already small in stature and so quick that even tracking its movements with the eyes was difficult, was finally caught.

 

No larger than an adult man’s handspan, it was ensnared in the watery net conjured by Duke Khalid.

 

“Keeeek!”

 

The Needle Gnome shrieked, spraying needles from its body like a hedgehog as it struggled desperately to escape. But once caught, there was no way out.

 

The water binding its stubby arms and legs thickened in an instant, fusing into a prison of liquid jade. Submerged entirely within the massive sphere of water, the creature thrashed and gagged in agony before Violet’s sword pierced through it, ending its life.

 

“Phew… that’s the last of them.”

 

Finally, Violet, who had destroyed the magic stone embedded in the needle gnome’s crown, wiped the fluids off her sword and slid it back into its sheath.

 

Having confirmed the kill himself, Duke Khalid commended her achievement.

 

“You’ve worked hard, Lady Violet. If it weren’t for you, the damage would have been much greater.”

 

“Your words are too generous. If you and your knights hadn’t drawn its attention, I never would have had the chance to strike.”

 

“All we did was barely manage to draw its gaze.”

 

Duke Khalid smiled bitterly.

 

Aside from himself, empowered by divine authority, his knights had only been able to act as distractions against the rampaging monsters.

 

‘Their lack of experience played a part…’

 

These weren’t ordinary monsters, but rampaging ones. Some had even been further modified, their hides so reinforced that swords hardly bit into them.

 

Unless you’re a sword master, you’d have to attack by focusing on the weak points to avoid the strong shell, but there wasn’t a knight in the Khalid Knights who could do that.

 

‘If it had been the knights stationed in the Duchy, things might have gone differently.’

 

Although not as numerous as in the North, Khalid’s duchy also had several dungeons, so the knights guarding the territory had considerable experience in subduing monsters.

 

In contrast, the knights of the capital mostly served as escorts and bodyguards against humans, leaving them utterly ineffective against monsters.

 

‘I don’t know if this will happen again.…. I’ll have to rotate the knights in shifts from now on.’

 

Duke Khalid, having finished his thoughts, raised the knights who were exhausted and lying down, and after excluding the wounded, he had them help clean up the mess on the eastern wall.

 

Although the gate was defended, it was meaningless because part of the eastern wall had collapsed and left a hole.

 

If Ajas’s wizards and knights had not positioned themselves in the collapsed wall and blocked the gap, many more monsters would have entered the capital.

 

Duke Khalid approached the wizards and knights of Ajas, who were burning a pile of monster corpses in front of the collapsed wall, and praised their efforts.

 

* * *