Part 1

“So, they’ve made their move?”

The Head of the Cinage House sat on the couch in the living room with two other figures.

Those two figures were Lukyus and Runo, both heads of their own branch families.

But there was one more person.

Me!

Puahahaha!

Aethet Mort, the Exquisite-Class Duelist!

And I’m waiting for the bounty for this catch~

“Yeah yeah, I caught this dimwit trying to poison your grandchildren, you can do what you want with him.”

I threw the idiot in front of Old Man Segast’s feet, who was currently unconscious.

There was without a doubt everyone knew who was responsible for this attempt.

The Tyrat House.

Even I knew that before I questioned the idiot.

“…Lukyus, Runo come here.”

The Head of the Cinage House, Segast Art Cinage, called to Lukyus and Runo in a scary tone.

“Pwah!”

“Argggh!”

Both of them were punched in the gut.

Uwah, I feel bad for both Lukyus and little Runo.

“-Sit down.”

Old man Lord Segast hasn’t changed at all.

A devastating blow to anyone who failed to do something important. And in this case, protect their family.

After receiving the order, both Runo and Lukyus, grasping their stomachs, slowly sat down.

They hid their groans and kept a tranquil smile on their faces as the pain slowly subsided.

It was clear that they were used to this.

Of course, back in the day, I got punched like that too. It wasn’t great.

We were all buddies back then, Lukyus, Radyn, Runo, myself and the other boys, and we would all hang out- Ah, that’s a story for a different time.

Oh well, I’m still waiting for my reward money~

“Aethet, your greed for money is that only thing different about you since you were a boy.”

Ah, the people-reader Lord Segast figured out my intentions right away.

“-But what you did was admirable, you’ll receive your reward in a few days.”

“Thank you very much, Lord Segast.”

Without noticing it, the corners of my mouth reached my ears.

I now have enough money to gamble. I swear I’ll triple the amount.

I won’t lose it, okay?

Part 2

My name is Titus Mont, I am the Head Servant of the Tyrat House.

How do I say this, I was pretty much forced into this position.

Why?

It would take hours to explain, but to put it very very simply: I’m an extraordinarily talented person, the stupid Tyrat dogs caught on to this and kidnapped my daughter, my only reason for living and held her hostage saying:

‘Work for us, or we’ll hurt her.’

Go die.

Piece of trash.

You want to utilise my magical prowess? My knowledge? My versatile skills?

Then hire me properly, you Tyrat dogs!

Trash trash trash trash. Go die go die, piece of trash.

My ‘boss’ is the head of the Tyrat House, Mr I-love-children- I mean Lord Irwys Fynn Tyrat.

In front of him, I maintain a calm and tranquil composure. Though my thoughts are usually about how best to kill him.

And get this, this piece of waste of air ordered me to kidnap some children.

Of course, I followed in with this order and hired some guy to put sleeping pills in their meals when the chance arose.

But could you say I put effort into it?

Of course not!

Everything he tells me to do, I do it at a minimum but satisfactory level.

Even though I wanted to rebel against the Tyrat House and hurt Lord I-Love-Children, if I did that, my daughter would be in grave danger.

Of course, my daughter lives safely in the Fynn Tyrat Estate under my care when I take a break from work, but even so, she’s still a hostage.

Lord I-Love-Children took many precautions in the case I did anything suspicious, which I’ve tried many times. I did many things, like grab my daughter and bolting out, trying to escape.

But I found a letter saying: ‘We’ll put you and your daughter on the wanted list’.

I know that sounds pretty petty, but listen:

Putting me on the wanted list is okay, but not my daughter.

I don’t even want to say what happens to women on the wanted list who are captured, or even men in that same matter.

Of course, killing the Head of the Tyrat House is out of the question, fleeing the country is also out of the question because the influence of the Kingdom itself extends beyond its borders with the mere saying of “Give a foreigner an Aorath Coin, and they shall slave”.

This basically meant the coins of the Aorath Kingdom was tremendously valuable compared to other currencies and anyone with word would work their spines bent to earn it, even to kidnap or murder.

The saying should more realistically go: “Give me an Aorath Coin, and I will lick your boots, abandon my wife and murder my children” but even that’s an understatement.

So no, fleeing the country is unreasonable as long as the Tyrats are on me.

And fleeing the continent is outright unreasonable.

Even though I’m both a talented magician and swordsman, even I can’t do anything about it.

And I’ve yet to think of a way to escape without any repercussions. But I’ll think of something, soon.

It’s only been about three years.

So it’s work or something happens to my daughter.

My daughter is everything to me.

In the case, if anything happened to her, I wouldn’t hesitate to make the entire world into my enemy.

Well, as long as my daughter is safe, I guess working here isn’t that bad.

Although if a chance arose, I’d flee with my daughter.

“…Aah, I can’t wait to see you again, Rose.”

I sighed as I muttered under my breath.

“Something the matter? Ah, if you wanted to see your daughter that much, I’ll take over.”

A butler who was just passing by, the now-best-person-in-the-world, offered to take over my position standing outside Lord I-Love-Children’s office.

“I appreciate it, you might see your week’s pay rise just a tiny bit.”

With that said, I went to find my precious daughter.

Part 3

Good morning, my name is Rose.

I live a very comfortable life under the mansion of my Papa’s boss, it’s almost as if I’m not being held hostage, just kidding~

I’m definitely being held hostage, both Papa and the Tyrat Boss told me that personally.

Papa is now working as a Head Servant in the Tyrat Estate and is trusted by all the servants in the house.

Though I’m living very comfortably, I don’t like seeing Papa work his back hard just because I’m here.

It makes me feel like I’m holding him back.

If I wasn’t born, would Papa be free?

Papa would complain in his room sometimes about the current situation and think of plans to escape somehow.

…I’m probably just holding him back.

As I sat on the grass outside the Tyrat Estate, I looked on.

This was the Noble District, and I was just sitting outside the walls of the Tyrat Estate.

My eyes comfortably trailed towards the pure blue sky, I was so focused that I could even see the strips of clouds moving.

But my ear caught attention to some noise.

I turned my head.

“…Three kids, around my age?”

There were about three kids. Even if I didn’t know them, the boy up front leading the two walked confidently with a bright smile on his face, he was clearly leader material.

The other boy behind him walked rigidly, his eyes darted everywhere though his head was kept straight, he was a bit older than the two others there and looked very fit, uwah, muscles.

He also had a sword.

Beside him was a girl with a very individualistic side ponytail and blue hair.

What these people had in common were their noble-yet humble clothing.

As the leader came closer I realised his eyes were on me.

Ahhh how embarrassing.

I can’t talk to other boys properly yet-

“Hi.”

The leader boy with dark blue hair and a confident contented expression on his face placed two fingers on his forehead and bent down.

This putting two fingers between your forehead and temple was an informal salute?

I don’t really get it but I’m sure it’s a greeting.

“Hi, is something wrong?”

I managed to blurt that out without stuttering.

“We were just passing by, but you look bored and something’s clearly troubling you, is something the matter?”

My face froze.

How could he tell that something was bothering me?

Eh?

Are you a mind reader?

There’s no time to be thinking, I’ve got to respond-

“E-Eh? No, nothing’s wrong, I’m just bored.”

I pulled through!

“Ah well, my name is Reign, this is Elaina and that’s Aerich, it’s nice to meet you.”

They seem like nice people. Although the leader was doing all the talking.

So I replied:

“My name is Rose, Rose Mont. It’s nice to meet you too.”

Part 4

We met this new person named Rose, she was pretty cool.

She had yellow eyes and short brown hair, at shoulder length. She was also about 10 years old, the same age as us… Except for Aerich.

After we met, we all sat beside Rose on the grass and began to talk with each other.

Elaina was closest to her, probably because they’re both girls.

“So, that’s a huge house you’re living in, what noble house do you belong to?”

I pointed behind her, past the walls and toward the huge structure just about the same size as the Aran Estate mansion’s size.

“…Ah, that’s complicated, I’m not part of the house but I live in the Tyrat Fyrell Estate.”

“…” x3

My eyes widened as our heads slowly and robotically tilted towards Rose with a blank look on our faces.

…Eh?

Eh?!?!?!

Tyrat House… You mean that house Papa and Lord Runo are fighting with now? The hell?!

Uwah!!!

And Fyrell, if I recall, that’s the strongest branch in the Tyrat House. Doesn’t that make this the headquarters of the Tyrat House then?

How did we find ourselves here?!

Wait, this isn’t time to be so shocked, I need to relax.

“T-Tyrat House, huh? Are you a daughter of a servant here?”

I managed to blurt out, though I stuttered just a little bit.

“Yes, my Papa works and lives here with me.”

I looked over to Aerich, who was glaring at her intensely.

They must share some sort of kinship, being children of servants in a noble house.

But feeling the gaze on her, her figure shrunk a tiny bit.

Which was especially because of the following attributes of Aerich:

1 - Seriously tall

2 - About 6 years older

3 - Is a teenager but looks more like a young adult

4 - Has a sword

5 - His eye patch

6 - Emotionless appearance

7 - Hasn’t said a word since meeting her

8 - His body is rock solid

9 - Please say something

But before thinking about any of that, isn’t making friends with the child a servant of the Tyrat House a bad idea?

I mean, it’s not illegal, right?

No one will hate me, right?

We’re just children, definitely, no one will care, right?

I’m not in the wrong here, right?

Of course not, making friends is the first step of life, is what I read in a book.

From the way the conversation is heading now, we might just become friends with his Rose person in no time.

Especially Elaina, who despite having no social interaction with anyone but her Papa’s servants and few visitors, is smiling and giggling well with Rose.

Oh well, let’s just do it.

Nothing’s wrong, I won’t let the political situation stop me.

“Ah, I see-“

And with that, we spent a few hours chatting about ourselves, though it was mostly introductions and stories.

…

…

…

…That was until, I was captured.