Part 1

“You did a good job, Reign, Aerich.”

Papa patted both my and Aerich’s shoulders, praising us for our performance last night.

After being notified of the attack yesterday night, Radyn and a few house servants quickly made their way down to investigate.

Apparently, something important was happening so Papa couldn’t go down himself.

It would make sense though, putting myself into Papa’s shoes… Hmm, if I were to be informed that something had happened and was solved immediately after, it wouldn’t be necessary for myself to look at it.

I would ask someone else to investigate and tell me the details after.

After Radyn had loaded the prisoners into a carriage, he said his goodbyes and left for the night.

This morning, Papa himself had arrived.

“Thank you, Papa!”

“It’s only natural, Lord Lukyus.”

Papa’s face contorted into a wince as he saw Aerich bowing himself.

“Hah… Aerich, don’t bow. It’s embarrassing to have the son of my best friend lower their head towards me.”

“Is that so? Please forgive me.”

Papa’s face contorted again, he muttered: “You’re not getting the point.”

Though Aerich didn’t hear it.

Regardless, Papa continued:

“Anyways, it looks like Radyn finished the repairs for the Estate. I’m here to bring you back.”

“So fast?!”

My head bopped upwards and my mouth opened without me noticing, looking Papa straight into his eyes.

Papa replied with a smirk.

“That’s only expected of Radyn, he’s a Saint-Class Magician. He gathered his magic reserves and cast a spell with a super long incantation and fixed the house. I’m clueless into what spell he used though.”

It must be some weird magic Radyn cast, Rebuild Magic?

I had learnt this in classes with Radyn, Rebuild Magic revolved around restoring things to their original state.

But there weren’t many people who cast it.

It’s because of the spell’s lack of versatility in use, there weren’t many people who learnt it, if that’s the case then Radyn must have picked it up because he had nothing else to learn.

But that’s something I’m not completely sure of.

“As expected of Father.”

Aerich had a satisfied grin and a content expression as he gripped the handle of his sword.

He must be really proud of his Papa.

“Hm? You guys are leaving already? Didn’t Justice Man say that you would return after a few days?”

Justice Girl who was standing behind us with Ariel interrupted with a disappointed expression on her face.

She bit her lip and crossed her arms.

It looks like she wanted us to stay here for a while longer.

“Ahaha, that’s my bad, sorry~. I had underestimated the powers of Radyn, so these boys have to return earlier than expected.”

Papa mindlessly scratched the back of his head and gleefully replied.

“That’s not fair! That’s not fair at all!”

Surprisingly it was Ariel who shouted at Papa.

As she did, Papa was carefreely and absentmindedly looking up at the skies, giggling with a “Hehe…”.

Though after hearing the angry-sounding Ariel, Papa crouched down and put his face closer to hers.

“W-What do you want?”

He glared into her eyes.

Surprised by the sudden closure, Ariel’s head tilted away as her face went red.

“…Could it be, you like one of my boys?”

…Aah, Papa hit the mark.

I don’t know where he got it from but, Papa was very skilled at reading others.

“N-N-N-No! That’s not true! Stop joking around, you idiot! Go die, you liar!”

Papa lost his balance and fell on his back after being head-butted by Ariel, who flusteredly kicked him afterwards.

“Puahaha! Who is it? Is it Reign? Or is it Aerich?”

Papa giggled and pointed towards Aerich and myself.

We have another devil in our hands.

I hope someone smites this evil being down.

“Uwaah?! That’s not true!!”

After looking into Ariel’s eyes intensely, Papa’s eyebrows raised and he scoffed

Ariel reacted particularly at the mention of Aerich’s name by making a weird sound and covering her face.

He figured out it was Aerich she liked.

“Alright alright~ I believe you, I was wrong.”

Papa sat back up and patted Ariel’s shoulder, comforting her.

After admitting his “defeat” Ariel uncovered her face and replied:

“Good, as long as you understand.”

Ariel puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms, glaring at Papa with a defiant look on her face.

…So she’s the gullible type.

Aerich cluelessly looked on, under the assumption that the one she liked was me.

That’s wrong, Aerich! The one she likes is you!

From the sidelines, Justice Girl’s mouth puckered into a devilish grin.

But before she could say anything that could worsen the situation and make Ariel even angrier, I smacked her behind the head.

Justice Girl fell to her knees, rubbing the back of her head whimpering.

I had the feeling this would have dragged out even longer than necessary if she said anything weird like “But it’s true, she does like Aerich. Fufufufu~”.

Part 2

We had returned to the Osoric Estate.

The tall and thick walls surrounding the Estate looked brand new along with the gardens and grass within.

The Estate itself looked as if it was newly built, there were no signs of any combat or fighting.

As expected of Radyn.

So this was the power of advanced Rebuild Magic.

I heard from Papa that the enemies consisted of 50 Exquisite-Class swordsman and a few magicians of Intermediate-Class.

According to Papa, if he or Radyn weren’t there then there would have been no chances of survival for anyone else.

Papa told me to think of it this way: A normal noble Estate would naturally have guards, although the Osoric Estate compensated that with its combat house servants, and those guards would have been demolished by even 2 Exquisite-Class swordsmen.

Radyn and the house servants held off 50 Exquisite-Class swordsmen until Papa had arrived.

Radyn carried the team though.

But when Papa arrived, the tide turned.

As expected of Papa.

But why would they go through so much trouble to hire that many strong swordsmen?

I asked that question in the carriage before we arrived here.

…I already knew the answer to that question, in truth, I was boosting my ego.

Papa replied with: “I interrogated them afterwards, they told me their goal was to kill Radyn and destroy the Estate.”

If that was the case then it would make sense, it aligns with my hypothesis clearly: Kill Radyn and destroy areas of the Signe Region, including the Osoric Estate.

Though they failed.

Also, just outside of the walls separating the Estate from the outside was a large and crude-looking building.

Those 50 Exquisite-Class swordsmen and other magicians who attacked were imprisoned in there.

Though before I could think of anything else, I saw a figure of a certain someone.

“Mother! I’m glad your safe! Is my little brother okay?”

I ran towards mother, she brought me into her arms.

She stood just outside wearing a green home dress, waiting for us to return.

Her pregnant belly was swollen up, the baby had yet to be born but I assumed it was a little brother.

“Haha, the baby is alright. I heard of what happened, you conducted yourself very well.”

She’s talking about when Aerich, Justice Girl and I fought back our attackers in the village.

“Mother, what happened when those Tyrat dogs attacked?”

Whoops, I accidentally said “Tyrat dogs”.

I had already figured out that the attackers were hired by the Tyrat House, but calling them “dogs” was a habit after listening to Radyn and Papa.

“It was a surprise, the house servants quickly got me out and Radyn held them back until your father arrived. Besides that, although it’s late, breakfast is ready.”

And so we began to eat.

Part X

“By the way, why were you found in the forest by Radyn? I thought I told you not to go near the forest.”

Sometime after we finished eating, I was approached by Papa alone.

Ah, that’s right, I was pressured into the forest by Justice Girl.

So I recounted the events that led to myself entering the forest.

Hence making this the first time ever that I was smacked in the face by anyone since I was born.

My face remained red with the mark of Papa’s palm for the entire day.

Papa was furious.

Part X End.

—

It felt just like any other day with the house servants nonchalantly walking around and doing their duties.

The look on their faces almost said that the fight that happened yesterday never happened.

They prepared the meals and we all sat down to eat.

Aerich, myself, Papa and mother were eating the food served to us.

Mother ate special food because she was pregnant.

The thing is, Radyn stood beside Papa, talking with him.

“Although some of them confessed, most of them still won’t talk.”

Radyn reported, he adjusted his glasses as he read from a sheet of paper.

“That doesn’t matter. As long as a few of them confess, it doesn’t change the fact that we’ll be sending them to the capital and confront the Tyrat dogs with them.”

“Lord Lukyus, do you intend to pay the capital a visit personally?”

“That’s right, I also intend to bring everyone else who was involved along. Like Reign and Aerich.”

My head bopped upwards towards Papa as gestured towards me.

Naturally, so did Aerich’s.

“Papa, what do you mean?”

“I mean what I say, as long as you were involved you’ll testify against the Tyrat House when we file a protestation of treason.”

It seems that Papa plans to shed light on the situation to the Royal Capital, testifying the case in court to bring down the Tyrat House.

Thinking about it from a political perspective, this was the perfect chance.

The Tyrat House left themselves wide open.

If the ones hired just confessed to being hired by the Tyrats to attack the Singe region, the Kingdom won’t take it so lightly.

“Then does that mean Ariel and Juliette will come too?”

It would be great if they came.

“No, as long as they are commoners, even if we back them up no one would listen.”

Unconsciously, one of my brows raised in reaction to what Papa said.

“Papa, didn’t you teach me to treat everyone equally without regard for their status?”

“I did, but those people in the capital think very differently than us. They’ll most likely dismiss the court if we bring in people like Juliette and Ariel.”

Ah, that makes sense.

“Then, when are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

Papa immediately replied.

“Tomorrow?!”

The chair I was sitting on screeched back as I suddenly stood up.

I don’t know a lot about politics but I was taught the amount necessary during Radyn’s Mixed classes, so isn’t tomorrow a bit too soon?

Whoops, unexpected reaction.

I looked over to everyone else present, they looked a little surprised by my sudden action.

Mother didn’t seem conflicted about me going to the Capital, nor did Radyn.

“The earlier the better, besides, it’ll take about an entire week on our fastest carriage to reach the Capital. If we wait anymore, those Tyrat dogs will come up with something that could prove their innocence.”

“I see, then I have no objections.”

I accepted the situation and we all continued to eat.

Part 3

The next day I packed my things, prepared to head into the carriage.

The people going with us were some house servants, one of them being Cella who is someone I know closely.

Along with Papa, Radyn was tagging along.

Aerich also stood beside me, holding my things.

When I took a look outside, I saw about four carriages.

The first carriage would hold Papa, Radyn, Aerich and me.

The second carriage would hold the other house servants.

And the third and fourth carriage would be tightly packed with those prisoners.

Radyn cast Barrier Magic on the prisoner carriages to prevent any of them from escaping, along with this a security measure of other household servants acted as guards.

I only found out about this recently but, Papa either only hired Magicians or Swordsmen/Swordswomen as his servants or he would take someone from the streets and train them up as a house servant.

Cella was brought up by Papa because he found her on the streets in some city.

So these people were perfectly qualified for this.

By the way, the prisoners also included Aethet Mort, the Exquisite-Class Dualist that I first met in the forest with Justice Girl, Ariel and Aerich.

He popped his head out from the bars.

“Hey kid, how’s it going?”

His beard looked more scruffy than the last time I saw him and he looked pretty relaxed with a sleazy expression on his face.

I take him as the type of person to not care about what others think of him.

I had only seen him with a straw hat on so I couldn’t get a glimpse of his hair but it was just as expected; long black hair, with a few strands covering between his eyes.

“I’m doing well, is it uncomfortable in there?”

Right now, Aethet was squished between the other Exquisite-Class swordsmen in the carriage, it was pure coincidence that he was able to stand beside the bars and talk with me.

“Of course it is after my arm got sliced off by that frightening butler, just being here is a hassle.”

Despite this, Aethet sounded as if he was in a good mood.

“Say, what happened after we left?”

I asked him that curious question.

Radyn had cast a spell that would certainly kill at the men with Aethet, but Aethet is here still alive.

“Aaah… I passed out from blood loss, but straight after waking up, I found myself in a cell. Though I heard from that scary butler that he had killed all my comrades.”

Aethet nonchalantly replied.

“…You seem to be taking the death of your comrades pretty lightly.”

“Well, they weren’t really my comrades. They were just other mercenaries hired by the Tyrat House and happened to team up with me for a few weeks, so I had no special connection to them.”

How cold.

“-Well then, what about you? What happened with you after I passed out?”

We were having cordial and friendly conversation despite the context.

Well, I didn’t mind.

I then went on to recount all the events that happened after, of course, I concealed information that didn’t need to be said.

I just oversimplified it a bit.

“Ah, I see. Well, there’s a happy ending for you at least. I don’t know what would become of me though.”

Despite the melancholic words, his facial expression was that of carefreeness, it didn’t look like he was worried about anything at all.

His face and words were completely contrasting with each other.

Now that I thought about it, he wasn’t angry at all.

Even when we fought back then, it sounded and looked like it was out of obligation than spite.

And even now, he didn’t harbour any hard feelings.

He had the mindset of: “Well, it doesn’t matter. Why should I get angry?”

Well, that just makes him a cool and down-to-earth person.

Though before I could say anything else, I was signalled over by Aerich and was told the journey to the Captial was about to begin.

—

On the first day, we had all managed to move successfully, most of what happened were conversations between Papa and Radyn regarding the situation.

With us in the carriage was also Cella, a maid sitting with the family wasn’t so bad Papa had suggested.

So I spent most of the time laying my head on her lap and resting.

Also, I had learnt that when we reach the Captial, we would stay at the Aran Estate.

I mentioned this before but when I was 7 years old, someone important had visited.

That person was Runo Aran Cinage, the head of the Aran Branch family.

I already knew the Osoric Branch Family was the weakest branch in the Cinage House, the Osoric branch family was the one Papa was the head for.

The determining of “power” and the “Weakest to strongest” was limited to your connections, political power in the Captial, the amount of wealth you had and your manpower.

Papa’s house was the weakest because he lacked in these areas, his political power is nonexistent, he uses most of his wealth for the betterment of the Signe Region and his manpower only consists of his house servants.

But this was different for Runo Aran Cinage, the head of the Aran branch family.

Runo Aran Cinage, he excels in all of these areas.

How?

Pure charismatic leadership.

Runo Aran Cinage is the best leader according to Papa, Papa even said that if he were to be King, then the Kingdom would be thriving even better than it is now.

He was also a very nice person when I first met him.

He patted my head and called me a child genius.

I like him.

When we arrive at the Captial of the Aorath Kingdom, we’ll be staying at his estate.

At his mansion.

That’s cool.

—

All the way until the fourth day was uneventful, we had stopped a few times for maintenance and to rest and conversations were had. At times bandits tried to attack us, but the house servants swiftly dealt with them.

Nothing that important had happened besides one thing.

Something very serious:

“Lord Lukyus! Head Butler Radyn! There’s trouble!”

One of the house servants ran towards the carriage door, swinging it open.

“What is it?”

Papa stood up and jumped outside and Radyn followed him silently.

“The prisoners! They…- S-Something’s happening to them!“

The servant’s chest rose and lowered very swiftly, and by the time he tried to say something else, he ran out of breath.

“Calm down, I don’t understand what you’re saying. What do you mean something’s happening to them?”

Taking a final deep breath, the servant quickly replied.

“T-They’re dying!”

“What?!”

Papa and Radyn bolted towards the prisoner’s carriages, Aerich and I curiously followed from far behind.

With sounds of metal clanking, Papa had broken the chains and opened the cell door leading into one of the carriages.

“-H-Help…”

“-It hurts…”

“-…Arggk!”

The horrid smell of iron and blood flew out of the carriage as the men were coughing out blood and curling into balls, clutching on their stomachs.

“Radyn! What the hell is this?!”

“[Substance Analysis]!”

Radyn cast an analysis spell.

After closing this eyes for a few moments, he opened it back again.

“…Poison, it’s poison.”

“Poison? What do you mean poison?!”

Papa stomped his foot, his expression between confusion and anger as the hairs on his arm rose, grabbing the shoulders of Radyn.

“L-Lord Lukyus, it’s as I said, this is poison belonging to the Musto Mushroom.”

“I don’t remember ordering anyone to poison them!”

After learning that the cause was poison, Papa scarily shook Radyn’s shoulders.

Radyn was the one in charge of their meals.

A cold sweat dripped from Radyn’s forehead.

“N-No, my lord. I didn’t feed them any poison nor did I order anyone else to, according to the spell the poison dates back to almost an entire week ago. No one in the Osoric Estate could have fed them it.”

“A week ago…?”

Controlling his breathing, Papa’s face returned to its original colour, following this, Papa continued to speak:

“…Is that so? Then it’s my fault for getting mad at you, I’m sorry.”

Papa lowered his head.

“Please don’t lower your head, it’s my fault for not specifying the details earlier.”

Radyn interjected, saying something very Radyn-Like.

“Then, what do we do about this now?”

The men inside the carriages were dead by the time Papa had calmed down, only listlessly laying there inside the carriages with blood everywhere.

“There’s nothing we can do, they’re already dead.”

Radyn sighed as he glared at the corpses.

“Can you heal them?”

“It’s no use, Healing Magic isn’t the same as bringing back the dead.”

While this was happening, Aerich and I stood beside another carriage behind.

Papa and Radyn had noticed us but put their minds to the more important situation at hand.

“Then, we don’t have time to bury their bodies, burn them. It’s the only way.”

Papa’s face looked conflicted, but he ultimately judged that burning the bodies was the most efficient decision.

Radyn nodded and walked in front of the entrance of the first carriage, raising his arms prepared to cast a spell.

“Wait wait wait! Don’t do it! I’m not dead! You might burn off my other arm!”

A familiar voice came out from the death-filled carriage.

“Who the hell are you?”

Papa called out to the voice.

The source of the voice walked out of the darkened carriage.

“It’s me, Aethet Mort. The High-Class Dualist!”

I couldn’t see it before because only his head was popping out but he was wearing the same clothes he wore when we had first met.

Except all accessories and weapons were stripped off.

He had long black hair which looked unkempt, most likely from being squished between other prisoners.

As always, he had that carefree smirk on his face.

“Aethet…? Aethet Mort? Wait, it’s you! Aethet!”

After muttering his name a few times, Papa seemed to come to a realisation.

“Lukyus!”

Despite being drenched in blood, Aethet approached Papa and patted him on the back, giving a sweet and manly hug.

…They were old friends?

I looked over at Radyn, if anyone would be able to recognise any friend of Papa’s, it would be Radyn.

But even Radyn had a puzzled expression on his face.

“I always wondered where the hell you were, and here you are, as my prisoner.”

“Don’t kid yourself, you were about to kill me. I was about to be Radyn’s kill.”

Aethet looked over to Radyn.

“-But man, I’m hurt, even though you saw me you didn’t even recognise my face. I even let you cut off my arm so you can get a closer look at me.”

As Radyn inspected Aethet, a light bulb suddenly appeared from his head.

“Ah, so it’s you, Aethet. It’s only natural I couldn’t recognise you, your hair is too long.”

So Radyn knew him too.

After that, all three of them laughed.

Well, since they are old friends I should leave them be.

“Let’s go back.”

I grabbed Aerich’s shoulder and we both walked back into the first carriage.

Part 4

After about thirty minutes, Papa and Radyn returned.

But not with Aethet.

Where was he?

Papa had explained the situation.

How Aethet Mort was an old friend.

What happened to the prisoners.

And that Aethet was staying in the second carriage holding the other house servants. Following that, Radyn had burnt the bodies of the dead prisoners after making sure that everyone was dead.

So, if everyone was poisoned and died, why didn’t Aethet die too?

I had asked this question, and the answer was surprisingly simple.

Aethet didn’t drink it.

Apparently, the poison was given to them by the Tyrat supervisor who fed them wine exactly a week ago, fitting in with Radyn’s analysis.

Aerich didn’t like nobles, especially the Tyrat house.

So he didn’t drink the wine.

There was a particular reason why he doesn’t like nobles but that’s something only Papa and Radyn knows.

But that stills leaves the question, why were they poisoned?

Papa and Radyn were discussing that right now.

…Well, I had already figured out why but I’m curious about what Papa and Radyn thinks.

“And here I was thinking it was too easy, well, it is the Tyrat dogs we’re talking about here. If they see even a small chance of losing, they prepare countermeasures against it. And in this case, killing the mercenaries even if they won or lost.”

That’s right, the Tyrat House sensed that whether or not they won or lost, as long as anything is connected to them, the Cinage House can use that against them in the Royal Court.

As a result, the poison countermeasure was put into place.

Aah, I’m an idiot for not thinking of that!

Of course, it wouldn’t be as simple as bringing the prisoners to be questioned in the Capital!

“Then Lord Lukyus, if the prisoners are all dead and unable to testify, what’s the point of going to the capital?”

Radyn pointed out a very important point.

Papa had intended to give these prisoners to the King and squeeze out information about the Tyrat’s scheme, by doing this, weakening or even abolishing the Tyrat House.

But without the prisoners, it’ll be difficult to believe with only the word of mouth.

Even if Aerich, myself and Aethet testified, it wouldn’t be that reliable.

…Is the extent of my knowledge of the law, which is not even including the tampering and strings pulled by the Tyrat House behind the scenes.

“Mm… You’re right, if I can’t hand over these prisoners, then there’s no point… But it doesn’t change the fact that the Tyrat House schemed this. We’ll figure something out when we reach the Capital.”

Papa decided to persevere and figure it out by the time we reach the capital city.

Radyn did nothing but lower his head in agreement.

Throughout this entire conversation, I didn’t say a thing.

I don’t want to be involved with political struggles.

Papa didn’t seem to be the type to be overly interested in it either, but it seemed that if he had the chance to do something, he’d do it.

Oh well, please leave me out of it.

With that said, I slept on Cella’s lap, who was also silently listening in.

What I’m most looking forward to is reaching the Aran Estate and talking to Runo Aran Cinage.

I heard he has a daughter.

I hope to be friends with her too!

And so, our journey continued.