Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress-Chapter 686: Warned By A Friend

’It must hurt a lot!’ Arabella blinked repeatedly. She then turned to her husband.

{What’s the meaning of this? I thought he was not injured much?}

She formerly thought she would not see much of an injury since Ferdinand said it was just a bit. But this was clearly bad enough. After all, Benjamin always uses his hand for work, especially now that their parents are in Medeus.

[...]

Her husband froze for a second before speaking. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Those were from his sword when we sparred. We sparred for hours so it ended up hurting his hands that way," Ferdinand quickly clarified when he regained his composure.

"I... I see," Arabella accepted Ferdinand’s explanation and it made Benjamin pout.

’Right. Ferdinand had seen a lot of blood since he had been on the battlefield a lot. I can’t trust his measurement of hurt badly and not. What if one day he comes back from battle and tells me he just got grazed a bit when he was actually stabbed deeply?’

Just the thought horrified Arabella so she pushed it to the back of her mind and asked instead, "But why would you spar for hours?"

She knew Ferdinand wanted to spar with Benjamin to gauge what the latter could do so he could gift the latter an appropriate sword. But she did not expect it would have to take that long. With Ferdinand’s prowess, it would not have taken that long to gauge what kind of sword would be best for Benjamin.

Arabella did not understand much of Ferdinand’s explanation to her when they were in Riva, but he mentioned things like the weight and size of the sword that would be appropriate for Benjamin, how Benjamin holds and grips his sword, how he attacks or defends, how he balances his core, and so on.

There were a lot of things to consider, thus Ferdinand preferred seeing Benjamin spar with someone or spar with him directly.

[Arabella’s suspicious of me now?! But this was not my fault either. I tried to hold back as much as I could but her brother wanted to test what he could do against me.]

Ferdinand glanced at Benjamin and replied, "Your brother wanted to continue."

{I never meant it to end up this way. I swear he was the one who insisted that we continue. He said he wanted to improve.}

{I see. I believe you.}

{Thank you!}

Arabella saw from Ferdinand’s eyes when she looked at him. He was speaking the truth. Her siblings thought otherwise though.

[He’s blaming everything on Elder Brother!] Eloisa and Lei frowned.

Nicholas remained silent this time and watched as Alwin continued to remove the bandages. Alwin magically removed the bandages around Benjamin’s arm along with the cast and support.

"!!!"

It made Eloisa and Lei gasp since they still thought Benjamin had truly fractured a bone and yet Alwin did not support his arm first before making the cast and armsling vanish. However, when the cast was gone, Benjamin smirked and propped his hand normally.

"It wasn’t broken?" Eloisa and Lei asked in confusion.

"I told you it wasn’t that bad. My doctor just wanted to dress me like this," Benjamin said a blatant lie and their younger siblings looked like they wanted to hit him but could not.

"Brother?!!" Eloisa and Lei fumed and Benjamin just chuckled.

"That’s your punishment for excluding me last night, hmm?" Benjamin reasoned.

"What?!" Eloisa and Lei looked like they were getting a terrible headache.

"How petty? Did you really have to go this far?" Nicholas sighed deeply.

"Of course, I did," Benjamin smiled playfully with a confident grin.

[How can he play around like this when this could have caused a major conflict? And why did His Majesty even spar with Her Majesty’s brother when he was trying to get on their good side?] Alwin internally complained but maintained a neutral expression.

"Please pardon me," Alwin made Benjamin’s sleeve vanish.

Benjamin’s arm was then revealed and his forearm was wrapped in bandages. This time, it had hints of blood here and there unlike the fake ones.

"See? I’m still injured," Benjamin pointed out.

Alwin made the bandages vanish too and revealed Benjamin’s wounded forearm and swollen wrist.

Eloisa and Lei were silenced as they looked at all the painful wounds their brother had and spared him the scolding and complaints.

Arabella could tell the swollen wrist must have been one of the spots where Ferdinand gripped Benjamin when he flipped him. The wounds were from their sparring and bout.

Alwin healed it all and they finally sighed in relief as Benjamin’s arm and hands were back to usual.

"Wow! All of it is gone?! Does it not hurt anymore," Lei inquired.

Benjamin tried moving and nodded.

"Yes, it’s good as new. Thank you for your help once again," Benjamin sincerely thanked Alwin.

"It was my pleasure," Alwin replied neutrally and flinched when felt Eloisa and Lei’s astounded gaze.

[Nice. I can work like usual this way. I didn’t mean to get injured this much but it just happened in the heat of the moment. This guy is a monster. How did Ella tame him to be like this around her? If not for how he behaves around her, I would not believe he really had the time for love and whatnot. Just how long did he train to be so strong when we were just about the same age? Was his lineage simply that strong so he was born this way and even further honed it?]

Benjamin was puzzled at Ferdinand’s monstrous strength he experienced for himself during their bout.

Arabella learned from her brother’s thoughts that he lost himself from the excitement of learning from someone so much stronger than he was, so he kept asking to continue the spar and even wanted to have a glimpse at how good Ferdinand was in hand-to-hand combat. Thus, he asked for it as well. But he ended up getting injured due to how strong Ferdinand was.

[No wonder Icarus said that this person is still hiding his real strength. I would have been fooled if Icarus had not warned me.] Benjamin sighed deeply.