Chapter 41: Making Him A Scapegoat

Chapter 41: Making Him A ScapegoatLara frowned. She went to the front door, the Lenard siblings trailing behind. "What’s wrong?" She asked indifferently to the group of people who were crowding the closed gate. It was not sturdy enough to keep the people out. A little shove will surely bring it crashing down. From within the mob, a woman in her early forties shoved forward, her face twisted in grief and fury. "It’s you! You caused my son’s death!" she screamed, her voice raw from sobbing. Abel immediately stepped in front of Lara, his stance protective. "Aunt Lucia, what are you talking about? Sir Kane hasn’t left our house since last night. What happened?." Lucia fell to her knees, clutching her chest as fresh wails tore from her throat. "My son! My eldest son! He went to the mountains this morning to hunt, and now he’s dead—mauled by a tiger!" The murmuring crowd erupted into hushed gasps. Lara’s expression remained unreadable. "And what does that have to do with me?" Her voice was steady, but the weight behind her words silenced the whispers around them. "I didn’t send him there. I didn’t even know him. Unless..." her eyes narrowed slightly, "...he was one of the men who tried to steal from me last night." A ripple of shock spread through the crowd. Lina sucked in a sharp breath. Abel and the others stiffened. Something like that happened? Lucia, however, refused to back down. "My son wasn’t a thief! He only went to the mountains with his friend to hunt because of you! If you hadn’t flaunted that tiger, he wouldn’t have been tempted to seek one out himself!" Lara scoffed. "So you’re blaming me for your son’s greed? What does it have to do with me? I did not ask your son to go to the mountains. Didn’t you see Darius unconscious from the wounds he sustained because the tiger attacked him?" The words struck Lucia like a slap. She did not have a comeback when Lara retorted, but after a few minutes, she flared back. "If you did not bring that tiger back and sold it for 12 silver ingots, my son and his friends would not have been tempted to hunt in the mountains." Lucia still placed the blame on Lara. She would not accept that she nagged her son about how much money they could make if they caught a tiger. "Madam," Lara enunciated. "The death of your son has nothing to do with me. I did not instigate him nor have any contact with him. You cannot blame me for his death." "Mother, stop humiliating yourself," a younger woman said coldly, stepping forward. "It wasn’t Sir Kane who sent a brother to his death—it was you. You’re the one who pushed him to go, nagging him about how much money we could make from a tiger pelt!" A loud slap reverberated in the air. The woman, who seemed to be Lucia’s daughter, covered her stinging face with her hand. Despite the stinging pain, the young woman bowed before Lara. "Sir, please forgive my mother. She’s struggling to accept my brother’s death." Then, turning to Lucia, she added, "Let’s go home and prepare his body." Lucia trembled but let herself be led away, her sobs growing distant as the villagers began to disperse. Still, some stayed, curiosity and unease lingering in the air. An elderly man with snow-white hair stepped forward. "Soldier, is it true? Thieves tried to steal from you last night?" "Yes, Grandpa," Lara confirmed. "Two men. I don’t know if they were from this village, but if they were, it shouldn’t be hard to find them. I beat them badly. They should have visible bruises." Just then, the village healer, U-Mao, arrived with his wife. His expression was grim as he addressed the growing tension. seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Healer U-Mao, you are here. The soldier said that there were two thieves who attempted to break into Lina’s house, where he spent the night. Since the chieftain has not returned, can you help look into this? Our village is normally peaceful. Who would be so brave to steal?" Healer U-Mao smirked. "I am here to check on the boy and Delia. If someone tried to steal from you, it’s because you made yourself a target," U-Mao muttered. "Flaunting wealth invites danger." "Grandpa, no need to trouble yourself to look into the theft. I am just a passerby in this village. I will be leaving in a while." Lara respectfully addressed the old man who asked about what happened last night. The conversation shifted as U-Mao turned his attention to the injured. Abel and Lina accompanied the healer and his wife into Darius’ room. Healer U-Mao was surprised that the wound had already been cleaned and dressed. Glancing at Lara, he felt a flicker of envy. Lara’s handiwork was precise, almost too skilled for someone her age. It took him years to learn the right concoction to speed up healing and prevent inflammation. "Healer U-Mao, I already cleaned his wound. You can come back tomorrow." Lara said non-challantly. His wife wanted to say something, but U-Mao glared at her, and she clamped up. "In that case, I will return tomorrow. How about Delia, how is she?" "She is doing fine. She still has a fever, but it is low-grade. She suffered from malnutrition, which impeded her healing process. The healer nodded as if he agreed with Lara’s observation even though he did not understand what the soldier was saying. Lara stayed with the healer the entire time while he fussed around Delia. He checked her pulse and noted the improvement as compared to yesterday. When they were done, they gathered at the living room. Melba’s eyes widened with greed when she saw Lina cutting a black fabric. "Lina, you have so much fabric," she said, her voice dripping with forced sweetness. "Why not give me the scraps? I can use them to make sachets for medicine." Lina hesitated, glancing at Lara. "This fabric doesn’t belong to me..." Melba’s lips pressed into a thin line. "Hmph. Stingy. What do you need fabric scraps for anyway?" Lara met her gaze evenly. She could tell Melba was lying, but it was just scraps. "It’s fine. Give her a few." Melba snatched the scraps quickly, a flicker of something unreadable passing through her eyes before she turned away. Just as Lara was about to brush off the encounter, a loud knock echoed through the house—sharp, urgent, demanding. Everyone froze. The door rattled under the force of another pounding knock.