[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 238: Damn rich

Xion wasn’t sure how it had happened, but it somehow did. One minute he was wandering the halls like a nosy ghost, and the next, he found himself seated at an absurdly fancy dining table.

Even without the system’s high-pitched shriek of admiration, he could tell this hand-carved masterpiece of a table probably cost more than anything he would earn in his entire lifetime.

Why a whole lifetime, you ask?

Because of the glass bowl sitting right at the center.

Not the bowl itself, no. It was the crystals inside. Those tiny, gleaming, and clearly not just for decoration mana candies.

Fire crystals. Refined to such a high quality they could keep meals warm for hours. Maybe even through a blizzard.

Xion stared at them blankly.

’Damn rich.’

The system, naturally, chimed in like it had been waiting for the cue.

[Exactly, host. Why don’t you ask the Archduke for a few? Based on all available data, His Grace will not only agree... he may be delighted to provide them.]

’That sounds like a bribe.’

[That sounds like efficient resource acquisition. I can even offer you mana points in exchange. How about it? Or directly rob them?]

’None of that.’

Xion reluctantly tore his gaze away from the shiny gems. For a moment, he was sure he looked like a greedy little dragon hoarding treasure.

Steam curled lazily from his teacup, fragrant and warm. Several pastries were elegantly arranged nearby, well within reach.

He took a careful sip, and the honeyed tea slid smoothly down his throat. Delicious.

"Lord Xion, how are you finding your stay? I hope no one has made you uncomfortable." freewebnoveℓ.com

Lady Nazia sat across from him. Her red hair was tied in a neat, familiar bun, with a single curled strand enhancing her beauty. Even at such an age, her posture was graceful as always.

When she smiled, wrinkles formed at the corners of her equally gleaming red eyes, and they gazed at him with the warmth of an elderly woman greeting her children.

"I’m perfectly fine, Lady Nazia." Xion felt relaxed in her company just like how he would with Serena.

"Ah," she laughed softly. "I would be happier if you dropped the formalities. Please, call me Nazia just as His Grace does."

They were all quite aware of their master’s borderline obsessive affection for this marvelous healer.

Sooner or later, Lord Xion would become the second master of the North. Better to adjust old habits now.

More importantly, Nazia didn’t want to come off as overly formal, or worse, as if she were using her authority to keep Xion at a distance and ’bully’ the prospective concubine of His Grace.

There had been far too many accusations of that already. After all, with the power, wealth and perfect health, there hadn’t been a shortage of beauties of both genders throwing themselves at her master.

"How could I?" Xion replied sincerely. "You’re my elder, like my aunt. I wouldn’t feel comfortable addressing you so casually."

That made Nazia’s eyes soften, and strangely with similar-looking red hair, she somehow looked a bit like Serena.

While asking Nazia about the abnormalities of the weather in the specific region, Xion nibbled on a soft, creamy pastry that tasted like something out of a dream.

Just as he was torn between eating another one and looking like a glutton or restraining his taste buds, Nazia asked, "Are you perhaps wondering why I look like her?"

The sudden question made Xion’s eyes widen. Suddenly he wondered if Nazia, just like Serena, also had some special power. Like hearing the internal thoughts?

"I don’t have that luxury, my lord." She chuckled, amused at his stunned expression. Despite how charmingly mature and composed he’d become, he was still so easily readable. Still so adorable.

No wonder he can make His Grace smile like a love-sick fool.

"Forgive me, but you are very easy to read, my lord."

Ah. That answered it. He indeed had been staring too intently.

"Have you found another similarity between us?" she asked, setting her cup down with a mysterious smile as if silently daring him to figure it out.

Much to his dismay, he couldn’t.

"I give up," he frankly admitted. Other than the red hair and the vaguely similar curve of their eyes, he couldn’t think of anything else.

"Do you still remember the Duke of the West, Claude Nocturne? And his deceased son, Klein Nocturne? He once... well, forgive my bluntness, he desired you."

Xion’s eyes widened. Of course, he remembered that vampire. It had just been so long that the memory hadn’t surfaced instantly.

Now that he thought about it, didn’t they all have something in common?

"You’re right. We all share red hair. It’s an emblematic trait of the Nocturne bloodline. Though none of us here are from the main branch..."

She halted when he noticed how Xion’s eyes had grown so wide that they looked like two perfectly round circles. Cute, like a cat.

"Wait... are you one of them too?" Xion blurted out.

Nazia burst into laughter at his horrified tone.

"No, no, my lord. I’m not one of them, if that’s what you’re worried about."

Her smile twisted slightly with distaste at the mention of her own bloodline. "Only the main family produced those blood-hungry monsters."

"Oh," Xion’s tense shoulders visibly relaxed. "That nearly gave me a heart attack."

"What I meant," Nazia continued gently, "is that your godmother, Serena, and I are distant aunt and niece. Though..." she gave a wistful shrug, "that child left home at a very young age, and we hardly had any interactions."

So to say, his Aunt Serena had an aunt called Lady Nazia? That was kind of a weird family loop.

Wait a minute. Wouldn’t that make him...

"If we go by that relation, you are indeed my grandson, my lord."

Nazia looked far too pleased with the title.

"...Do you want me to call you Grandma?" he asked, half-joking, half-serious.

He had accepted Serena as an aunt, maybe even a mother. Though he’d never said it out loud, the past few years had given him the kind of care only a loving elder could offer.

So, unexpectedly gaining a grandmother... felt more like a surprise than a shock.