This Is My 'Assault Settlement'

Every time the Duke flicked his finger, the Viscount was slammed into the ceiling and the floor. Debris rained down from above and scattered across the ground below.

Viscountess Patricia Dorset let out a scream.

"Husband!"

"Apologize right now. Tell her you're sorry for raising a worthless son into an even more worthless man."

"Hhk, hck... P-please, let go of..."

"Still haven't come to your senses?"

CRASH!!

This time the Viscount's body was flung into the wall. The picture frame hanging there clattered down with a tremendous noise.

"Soldiers! Soldiers!! Somebody fetch the guards, quickly!"

No matter how loudly he shouted, not a single soul came running. The Viscountess shrieked once more.

"Duke Carseido!! Your Grace, you're being deceived! This girl has been cunning since she was a child—she toyed with every man she met and threw over the engagement her own parents arranged for her! She's a wicked, wicked girl!"

Everlein's sword was faster than any reply from the Duke. Before I'd even noticed him move, he had the blade pressed flush against Patricia's throat, and he turned to me.

"Personal Physician. What would you like to do? Personally, I'd recommend cutting out her tongue rather than her Achilles tendon."

He was faithfully honoring my request to consult with me before committing any act of violence, no matter what it was.

I shook my head.

"Don't cut anything off. It's nothing but a pathetic last flail anyway."

Everlein shot Patricia a ferocious glare and lowered his sword.

Patricia, who had been thrashing around like a demon possessed, now trembled in abject terror.

Still dangling from the ceiling, Viscount Dorset finally surrendered.

"Hck, hck... S-spare... spare my life... please..."

Heaving ragged breaths, he forced the words of apology out of his mouth.

"Ugh... Your Grace, hck... I was... w-wrong..."

"No, you weren't."

Thud. The Viscount dropped to the floor once more. The Duke turned away from him as he retched, regarding him with cold indifference.

"Your apology isn't owed to me. It's owed to Lionel."

The Viscount flattened himself against the ground. Having tasted that overwhelming power, nothing remained in him now but fear.

"L-Lionel! I— I'm... s-sorry. I raised my son badly, and he caused you so much grief...!"

"Husband, why are *you* apologizing? It's all that sly little witch's fault!"

"Shut your mouth, Patricia!! If you don't want to die, keep your head down and grovel!"

The Viscount roared his wife into silence.

Then he crawled over on all fours, seized her by the hair, and slammed her face into the floor. He paid no mind to her screams of protest.

"Lionel, I'm apologizing like this—see? Like this! So please, please spare us, Your Grace!"

I looked down at the wretched, ruined couple.

Before I'd recovered my memories of my past life, the memories of being abused in the Frencia household had come smoldering back to the surface.

"Look at her, vicious as her whore of a mother. Just looking at her makes me sick. Lavienne, hurry up and take her to the Count, like I told you. He's paying a hefty bride price, isn't he?"

"Patricia, believe me, I want nothing more. But she's still far too young for that."

"Then sell her off to some slave trader or other. Adrian keeps whining about her. What could he possibly see in a filthy little brat like that..."

My chest ached, and my fists clenched on their own. I wanted nothing more than to grind this couple into the dirt right then and there.

The Duke, who had been watching me closely, spoke up.

"Physician. Hit them as much as you like. If you want them dead, I'll help you do it."

"...Believe me, part of me really does want to kill them. But I still have unfinished business."

I raised my head and looked for my next target. Feeling my gaze, Adrian shrieked and scuttled back into the corner of the room.

"Adrian. At long last, you and I can finally have our little talk."

"L-Lionel, I—I, well... that is..."

I took my time, raking my eyes over him from head to toe.

His condition was pitiful. The skin hung loose where water and muscle had melted away, and the hollows around his eyes had sunken so deep he looked like a man in his eighties. His hair had come out in clumps, leaving bald patches of exposed scalp here and there.

He had quite literally lost everything that made up a human body, along with his flesh.

"Adrian. I'm about to ask you a very important question. Listen carefully, and answer."

Every eye in the room turned to me. I opened my mouth slowly.

"The strawberry on top of a strawberry cake. Can you give it to me?"

"S-strawberry? Th-that's..."

Adrian's face twisted with agonized indecision. I pressed on with the next question.

"Then here's another. Can you give me just the caramel part of your pudding?"

"N-no, that's..."

"Can you pick the fruit out of your fruit sandwich and hand it over? No, you can't. Which means you're a lost cause. What kind of love confession is that, from a man who won't even give up one strawberry? A passing dog would laugh."

Technically, it wasn't a dog laughing—it was a very handsome Duke. I kept right on flaying Adrian.

"You've always been like this. So lost in your own self-aggrandizing fantasies that you never listen to a word anyone says. And the moment things get inconvenient for you, you slip away. Just now, too—when your mother was cursing me out, you stood there and said nothing."

"Th-that's... you know how she is. Mom's a little scary..."

Adrian scrambled to make excuses, but none of it landed.

"When you were twelve and got caught trying to strip my clothes off in front of the adults, what was your excuse? You said I seduced you. Seriously—why on earth would a seven-year-old girl seduce a perverted piece of trash like you?"

"That was... my fault, I..."

"Don't apologize. Where do you get off, trying to make *yourself* feel better? Don't you dare apologize, not even on your deathbed."

All the curses I'd bottled up in my chest for years came pouring out in one unbroken torrent, like a rapper at a freestyle competition.

"You'rearemarkablyobliviousindividualwithnoperspectiveonhygieneandapervertedstreakthathasbeenevidentsincechildhoodwithpoorsocialskillsandyouassumedaSOCALLYHOMELESSillegitimatechildwouldbeanEASYTARGETsoyouwavedacheapcandyinmyfacetellingmetolickitwhileactingallhighandmightyandeventhenthingsyouwerebrimmingwithbrutalitytowardtheWEAKandwhenevertheadvantagesturnedyouhidsnivelingbehindmommyanddaddyandthatPATHETICPOSTUREofyoursMAKEMESICK."

Silence fell over the room once more. Even though I'd spat out that entire monologue without taking a single breath, my breathing was, remarkably, perfectly calm.

"But out of the kindness of my heart, I graciously condensed all that and simply called you 'ugly.' So never again—not once—do you even think about losing weight with some shady drug. That's my final advice as your physician."

Having said everything I wanted to say, I spun on my heel and addressed the men.

"Let's go."

"Will you be all right?"

I nodded at Kaylen.

"Yes. I can't stand another second in this godforsaken house."

And with that, I stomped toward the door. Or rather, I tried to.

"L-Lionel! Wait!"

Adrian thrust his hand high into the air. Clutched in it was my pocket watch.

"Don't go—don't you go! Or else... I'll throw this—I'll throw it right in there! I'll burn your mother's keepsake to ashes!"

He was pointing at the fireplace, roaring with flame.

I stopped in my tracks. Then I turned around and walked straight toward Adrian.

He flinched, stumbled backward, and fell.

I looked down at him and spoke, cold as ice.

"Throw it."

"...What?"

"Do I look like a sniveling seven-year-old who still begs for candy? Wake up. Whatever you threaten me with, I won't bend."

"B-but that's— that's your mother's keepsake..."

"So what? You stole something precious from me like a coward, and now you're threatening me with it—what exactly do you expect me to do for you?"

Adrian's face crumpled.

It seemed he had finally accepted the truth: there was nothing, absolutely nothing left, that could make me his.

"Little girls don't stay little forever, Adrian. That little girl grows into a powerful woman... who comes back to break your face. Like this."

I raised my fist.

WHAM!

My fist, swung with every ounce of strength I had, flattened Adrian into the floor. He lay sprawled there for a long moment, then popped upright like a roly-poly toy and screamed.

"Ow— that HURT! I'll never forgive you! Lionel... I'll never forgive you!"

That was the exact moment the watch flew from Adrian's hand.

The watch, tracing its arc through the air, was faster than Everlein and Kaylen diving for it.

The roaring flames swallowed it whole.

"Tongs—where are the tongs? If not tongs, anything!"

I could see Kaylen shouting desperately, grabbing at Everlein's sword.

The glass face cracked with a sharp, brittle sound. The watch began to melt in real time, glowing cherry-red.

"A-ahahaha... This is what you get... for mocking all my hard work... serves you right, Lionel!!"

To the soundtrack of Adrian's jeering, I squeezed my eyes shut and endured.

It had been my most precious keepsake.

I'd acted tough about it. It was supposed to be my declaration—that nothing would ever be used to jerk me around again.

But the moment I actually saw the watch go into the fire, my whole body shook.

It felt like the only thing in the world that remembered my mother was screaming in the flames, and it was agony.

"Lionel Frencia."

And then—the Duke, who had held his silence the entire time, laid a hand on my shoulder.

"That was a magnificent right hook. Any regrets left?"

I answered with a wry smile.

"None. I feel completely cleansed."

"Then I suppose I'd better keep my promise, too."

The Duke brushed past me and walked toward the fireplace. The scarlet flames carved delicate shadows across his face.

"Watch closely, Adrian Dorset."

What happened next was something even I—a transmigrator who thought she knew how these stories went—never saw coming.

"This is my 'assault settlement.'"

In the heart of the blood-red flames, the Duke reached in with his own bare hand and picked up the pocket watch.