Chapter 13: Unraveling the Knot (1)

Rustle, rustle.

The Duke sat at his desk, continuing to review documents.

Even though his young son had come to his study for the first time, he seemed completely uninterested.

If it were a son who came out of longing for his father's affection, he would have cried or stormed out in anger at such a cold response. But that wasn't why I had come.

I waited quietly. Having experienced such push and pull many times in my previous life, waiting was not difficult at all.

A few minutes passed.

"What is it?"

Finally, the Duke spoke. He didn't lift his eyes or put down his pen, but it seemed we could now have a conversation.

"There are people trying to kill me. I came to request protection."

Click.

The pen, which had been moving over the documents, stopped.

The Duke raised his head.

His cold eyes fixed on me.

"You're telling an interesting story. I heard you were a child beyond your years, and it seems to be true."

His expression and eyes didn't change at all. There was no trace of the complex emotions I had seen before his death, only the coldness of ice on his face.

"To kill... Do you know who they are?"

"Yes."

At my answer, a crack appeared in the Duke's cold expression.

"Even if you are young, making false accusations can have serious consequences!"

The Duke's heavy voice echoed through the study.

The rumbling sound made my skin crawl.

By the content and tone of his words alone, an ordinary person would be terrified.

But I had died too many times to be scared.

"I will take responsibility. I heard it directly from the person trying to kill me."

Only then did the Duke put down his pen. He leaned back in his chair. His previously expressionless face began to look tired.

"Directly... That's hard to believe."

He gazed into the air for a moment, as if recalling a fragment of the past.

But it was only for a moment. He rubbed his face as if washing it.

When he removed his hand, the slightly crumpled face had returned to its expressionless state.

He leaned forward and looked at me directly.

"Even if I find it hard to believe, let's say I do. Why should I protect you?"

I was taken aback. This was not something a father should say to his son.

Looking at him, it seemed like a kind of test, but hearing his words, any affection I had for him turned to dust and disappeared.

My response came out stiff.

"Because I am worth it."

"Hmm. So you've awakened, have you?"

He spoke as if it were no big deal.

"If it's a physical optimization ability, it's a rather interesting inherited ability, but it's not yet certain that it is. Even if it is, whether it will grow as I expect is unknown."

Unlike his initial words, he explained in quite some detail.

For some reason, the Duke was interested in this ability, and if it grew well, it could be more than expected...

Did I get a hint?

The Duke continued.

"Still, that's not enough reason to waste manpower."

The Duke picked up his pen again.

He seemed to have completely lost interest.

Perhaps it's a matter of experience. If the superior acts like this, whether it's genuine or not, you have to lay all your cards on the table.

Tap, tap, tap.

I approached the armor standing in a corner of the study.

It was a shining plate armor, displayed as if a person were wearing it, with a sword at its waist.

Swoosh.

I drew the sword.

Fortunately, it came out smoothly.

However, it was heavier than expected. I struggled to lift the wobbling sword and looked at the Duke.

The Duke raised an eyebrow and looked at me.

Though his expression was unchanged, I could feel his gaze of disbelief.

Still, it was fortunate. If I were older, the moment I drew the sword, the Duke might have rushed over and cut my throat.

As I said before, this world is quite terrifying.

Even among the nobility and royal family, where etiquette is observed, sons kill fathers and fathers kill sons not infrequently.

Well, the person trying to kill me is nominally my mother, so in that sense, it's not much different.

"Are you trying to show me some secret sword skills? I've heard all about the test."

The atmosphere suggested that if I swung the sword poorly, I would be beaten and chased away.

But I had something else in mind.

Something he didn't know.

I awakened the hidden power deep within my body.

Move!

Twitch.

A small power rose from deep within. I began to move the power that had risen.

I still remembered how mana moved through my head and eyes. This time, I moved it through my hand and then the sword!

It was difficult, but the mana slowly responded to my commands.

Through my arm, to my hand, and to the tips of my fingers.

Finally, it flowed into the sword.

Rumble.

The sword began to vibrate.

"Ugh!"

The sword tried to shoot out. I clung to it desperately, but it was hard to even hold it, let alone swing it.

I had only believed that steel swords were better at accepting mana than wooden practice swords, but I hadn't expected this problem!

"Enough! Stop there."

Sweat poured down my face as I held the trembling sword, and I heard the Duke's voice.

I stopped forcing the mana and leaned on the sword, looking at the Duke.

The Duke looked at me with a serious expression.

"Have you obtained mana? When did you start?"

"After the test."

"Did you learn any special training methods?"

"No."

He mumbled, lost in thought.

"After the test... So you obtained it through an inherited ability?"

"I don't know."

"No, I wasn't talking to you."

As he pondered, his face suddenly furrowed.

"Could it be that you met someone after obtaining mana?"

Though he didn't specify who, I immediately understood.

"Yes. When I could move mana, my affection for the Duchess disappeared. After that, I had a conversation and heard the story."

The sequence and method of discovery were a bit different, but not significantly so.

"..."

The Duke, hearing my words, quietly looked up at the ceiling.

"Is it so easy to shed...?"

The Duke mumbled, looking dazed.

A tired and weary middle-aged man sat at the desk. The mask on his face had completely fallen off.

I continued to wait.

Time passed. After a long while, he looked at me.

His face had returned to its expressionless state, but it seemed different from before.

"When do you need protection? When do you think they will come to kill you?"

It wasn't something a father should say to his son, but it was something he might say to a subordinate or a business partner.

Was it an improvement from before?

Still, it was fortunate. The Duke was considering my request.

"I need it immediately. They are most likely to come tonight."

I quickly continued, as I still had one final request, perhaps the most important one.

"I need skilled people. At least two regular knights, or a chief knight level."

It would be ideal if the captain of the knights came, but he wouldn't protect a bastard like me.

I looked at the Duke with a tense face.

It was a ridiculous request, even to me. For a 6-year-old to choose the knights to protect him—it was easy to dismiss as the whims of a child.

But if not, I would end up like Miguel, cut down by an assassin.

The Duke, hearing my story, shook his head.

It's over.

"Knights can't be used for such family matters. That's all. Go back to your room."

With those words, I was kicked out of the study.

* * *

It was a deep night, with little time left before dawn.

The room of the bastard, Alex, was half in darkness.

Creak, creak.

The window, which had been caught in the moonlight, began to open slowly.

The window opened bit by bit, and after a moment, a person in black entered silently.

Standing by the window, he scanned the room.

A table and chair, a clothes rack and shelves, and a bed.

Seeing the bed, he frowned.

"Of course, I should have refused the hasty job. It's become a hassle."

On the bed, a figure was sitting.

But the shadow of the person sitting on the bed was not that of a child.

The masked person quickly scanned the room again. No one else was visible. It seemed impossible for an adult to hide inside the furniture.

The masked person glanced behind him.

"Tsk, it won't be easy to escape with a proper knight on my back, but at least it's a stroke of luck to have just one knight."

The masked person drew his sword, a black-painted blade, and held it to the side.

With that, the atmosphere in the room began to surge.

Sigh.

Hidden under the bed, I couldn't help but groan at the overflowing mana.

"Ah, you were there? I can finish the job. I must have good luck, right?"

The masked person, unlike before, was talkative. Was it a different person? The voice was the same, but...

As I moved my mana, I could move my body. I peeked out from the side of the bed and looked at the masked person.

I understood why he was talkative. His face was drenched in cold sweat.

The figure on the bed stood up.

Snap.

The mana that had been pressing down on me disappeared. No, it was pushed away by another mana.

"A knight-level assassin... I need to confirm."

As the figure took a step forward, the moonlight revealed his face.

It was the Duke, the master of the mansion and the lord of the estate, revealed in the moonlight.

"Damn! I don't have good luck! What did you do?"

The masked person shouted and leaped toward the window.

But the Duke's movements were faster. Before the masked person reached the window, the Duke blocked his path.

The masked person swung his sword wildly.

The sword, which the masked person swung, glowed as if it were emitting light.

Crack!

As soon as it touched the Duke's sword, it folded as if crumpled.

Unlike the masked person's sword, the Duke's sword emitted no light. However, the air around the sword trembled, even in the dark room.

"To block my sword, you must be skilled. An assassin of this caliber won't talk even under torture."

The Duke swung his sword again, and the masked person quickly swung his other hand.

Thud!

A dagger shot out from the masked person's hand.

At the same time, the masked person's head was cut off.

The dagger thrown by the masked person almost pierced the bed.

I had moved to a different spot in advance, but the masked person's desperate act made my hair stand on end.

The Duke glanced at where I was and spoke.

"Take care of the cleanup."

"Understood."

The butler, who had been standing by the door, answered.

I didn't know when he had opened the door and entered. Indeed, a butler of his caliber must have many secrets.

"And send the child to his mother."

Since the assassin was dead, the bait was no longer needed.

Still, the fact that he was sending me to my mother suggested that he wasn't a heartless person.

"Understood."

The butler looked at me, and I looked at the Duke.

It wasn't over yet. To conclude the matter, I needed the Duke's clear answer.

The Duke, still holding his sword, stood for a moment.

He looked at the headless corpse lying on the bed.

After a moment, the Duke spoke.

"Don't worry, go to Amanda. It will be resolved today. From tomorrow, no one in this mansion will try to kill you."

Putting the blood-stained sword back into its sheath, the Duke left the room.

Neither I nor the butler asked where he was going.

There was only one place he could go.