Chapter 321.
I took Hillis and Arwen to my workshop. Agravain, whom I had sent to Duke Asteria to protect him, had sent a thought transmission informing me that he was protecting the duke in my workshop. There was no safer place than that right now.
"I’ve noticed this for a while, but I can’t feel any mana from you,” Hillis said as she followed me, looking at me strangely.
"Oh, it’s nothing. I used the skill I used while fighting Arietta two years ago at Shellen Fortress,” I replied.
Hillis had also been there when the Firefly’s Bright Annihilation had been used, so she was well aware of the power and aftereffects of the skill.
"You struggled enough to use that skill? Did you get hurt anywhere?” Hillis glanced at my body with a worried look.
"I didn’t get particularly hurt. If I had to say, it would just be that I overloaded my mana circuit, so it’s not easy to recover my mana,” I explained. I smiled and entered the mansion I used as a workshop. These two had only entered this place a few times.
Because of the dangerous experiments that went on inside, I tried not to let others in for safety’s sake. But for Arietta, who lived here, it didn’t matter. She was a superwoman who’d be fine even if the entire workshop were destroyed.
"I’m here, Arietta...?” I began. I had been about to ask how she had been while I was away, but I couldn’t finish the sentence in my surprise. In the living room on the first floor of the workshop, I saw something I never would have imagined possible. "Father...?"
My father was sitting on the sofa in the living room... No, my father’s presence by itself wasn’t that surprising. The reason I couldn’t help but be surprised was that my father, who was usually always confident, had his head lowered in a cold sweat and was being nagged by Duke Asteria.
"How did you get here?" I asked.
"Y-Youngest... You’re here!" My father gave me a look that suggested he needed help urgently.
Duke Asteria stared at my father with a “Tsssp!”[1]
"What’s the situation?" I asked as I looked at Agravain.
"I was escorting Duke Asteria secretly when I saw black dolls full of death aura wandering around the temple, so I took care of them all and brought Duke Asteria here as you ordered, just in case,” Agravain replied.
Come to think of it, I remembered that Libra had summoned the shadow dolls. He seemed to have disappeared while running away, but apparently, he had aimed for Duke Asteria from behind. It was a good thing I had sent Agravain to the duke.
"Good job. So why is my father here?" I asked.
"When I brought Duke Asteria here, Her Majesty the Holy Queen and Master’s father were chatting."
My dad had already been in my workshop? Regardless of the fact I lacked mana, there was no way I wouldn’t have known if someone tried to invade my workshop by force. That meant Gwalchavad or Arietta had let him enter.
"Gwalchavad,” I called.
"Did you call me, Master?" In response, Gwalchavad came out of the kitchen with simple snacks.
"Why is my father here?" I asked.
"I went grocery shopping with the Holy Queen during the day and ran into him. I was going to report it to Master with a thought transmission, but there was no response, so I delayed the report because I thought Master was busy,” Gwalchavad explained.
The message had probably been sent right when thought transmissions were blocked due to the temple’s barrier. Well, I could understand why he hadn’t reported the matter urgently, because my father had gone to the workshop before I ordered Caradock to search for him.
"So why is my father like that?” I asked.
Gwalchavad replied with an awkward smile. "It would probably be better to listen for yourself."
I was curious about Gwalchavad’s answer, and offered for Hillis and Arwen to sit on the sofa. "Let’s postpone what we need to talk about and sit down for now. Gwalchavad, could you serve some tea?"
"I’ll serve it quickly." Gwalchavad put the snacks on the table and quickly went back into the kitchen, and the two readily nodded.
As I sat on the sofa, I put a fruit in my mouth and asked, "But do you two know each other well? I’ve never seen my father in this state."
Duke Asteria looked down at my father as if it were natural. "If he has a sense of shame, he should."
"I’m sorry." My father bowed his head as if he were ashamed and avoided Duke Asteria’s gaze. It was very refreshing to see my father appear so weak.
"Khmm! This old man would lose face if I kept nagging in the presence of guests, so I’ll stop here." The duke coughed dryly, suggesting he would let things slide.
My father smiled. "Ahahaha, of course. Guests have arrived, but we didn’t even say hello. Youngest, will you do the introductions?”
Amused by my father’s new appearance, I looked back and forth between him and Duke Asteria while introducing Hillis and Arwen. "This is my friend, and this is my disciple."
"I am Den’s friend... Hillis." Hillis introduced herself with an ambiguous smile, perhaps because of her sister.
-I am Arwen.
Arwen bowed her head to greet them.
"Ahahaha! Youngest is surprisingly popular with women. Arietta says she’s also your friend.” My father looked at me with a wicked smile.
I waved my hand while smiling. "Popular with women? It’s not really like that."
Arietta was a friend, but if I thought about it, it would be more accurate to see her as my grandmother from nine generations ago than as a friend. Of course, she hadn’t married my ancestor, Caron Blade, but Tristan had said they liked each other. In addition, I had looked at her family tree in the past, and it seemed she hadn’t gotten married.
"Hmm, is that so?" my father muttered, wondering if he had thought wrong.
"But what is the relationship between you two?" I asked.
Duke Asteria stared at my father grumpily, and my father broke out in a cold sweat. "That, that’s..." he stammered, glancing at the duke.
Duke Asteria snorted and grumbled. "Tell him. Apparently, only Den doesn’t know."
I looked at my father curiously. My father let out a long dry cough and said seriously, "Khmmm! Actually, Duke Asteria is your maternal grandfather."
"...What?" I asked. What is he talking about?
"So Duke Asteria is your mother’s father. My father-in-law,” my father continued.
...Crazy?
"I’m not crazy. So if you don’t want to get hit, don’t look at me like that.” My father read my thoughts through my gaze alone.
Duke Asteria roared in response to my father’s threat, "Uh-huh! Can’t you speak nicely!?"
When the duke scolded him, my father flinched and pouted unhappily. "This, this is an expression of affection."
Duke Asteria, no, my maternal grandfather, clicked his tongue. "Tsk tsk, it’s praiseworthy that he grew up right under you."
"No, Youngest isn’t particularly...” My father shrank back as my maternal grandfather glared at him.
"Then are you admitting that you’ve educated him incorrectly?”
"Ah, no. That’s..."
"It’s fine. You stay quiet."
"Yes...”
Wow, I’ve never seen anyone drive my father into a corner like this. Even when my grandfather, the former chief, nagged him, he was never this intimidated, so this was amazing.
"Since you said I was the only one who didn’t know, do the other siblings know?” I asked.
"Yes. I found out after I went out and saw Hestia working as the deputy chief,” my father said.
How mean to not even send me a letter even though you knew, I thought, dumbfounded.
My maternal grandfather sighed and apologized to me. "For some reason, I feel as if I’ve been hiding it, so I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d run away if I did.” He truly knew me well.
"Ahaha, no way. How would I leave my grandfather and run away? I would just go on a trip without saying anything,” I said.
"Huh-huh-huh, look at that. It was obvious that he’d run away.” My maternal grandfather laughed, seemingly having expected my response.
"Oh, and I nominate Second Brother as the successor,” I added. Naturally, I handed over the troublesome stuff to Second Brother.
I had considered nominating Eldest Brother according to the principle of having the eldest son succeed the position, but Eldest Brother was too much of a stonehead to deal with the kingdom’s old political raccoons.
Of course, that wasn’t to say that Second Brother was smart. Still, I nominated him because he was surprisingly good at psychological warfare and would follow Third Sister’s and my advice well.
"Not you?" my maternal grandfather asked.
I smiled lightly and shook my head. "Unfortunately, I don’t want to do anything bothersome. I refused to become Father’s successor, so I must refuse the title of Duke even more."
For the record, I hadn’t nominated Fourth Sister as the successor because if Leisha noona became a duke, she would 100 percent ruin the territory. Gallahad hyung would be better than Leisha noona, because if she took control of the territory, it was clear that she would overestimate her own intelligence and ignore Hestia noona’s and my advice. In the first place, Fourth Sister was suited to doing research, not leading or coming up with schemes.
Of course, Third Sister had to become the next chief and run the village, so that was out of the question anyway.
"Ahahaha! As expected, his personality is an exact copy of his mother. He’s selfish, does whatever he wants, calculates his interests, retaliates thoroughly, and has no greed for things other than freedom,” my maternal grandfather remarked.
"Hahaha, is that so?" I replied. It was a fairly severe, yet accurate evaluation. It was hard to think of it as an evaluation of one’s lovely grandson.
"That’s why I want you the most. Do you think that being able to both show mercy and trample others mercilessly when necessary, without taking a loss, is common?" My maternal grandfather sighed sincerely and shook his head. "Well, it’s slightly concerning that you don’t have ambition, but that’s useless as a duke. You only need that if your rank is lower."
A duke of the empire had more power and authority than a king of a small or medium-sized country. If one wanted to declare independence and become a king, one’s power would only weaken. If something were to go wrong, it might result in geographic isolation, as with the Republic.
One could become an emperor by attempting to rebel, but not without sufficient justification. In addition, even if one became an emperor, and one’s authority grew stronger, there would be severe restrictions on wielding it.
In other words, the position of Duke of Asteria could be described as a monster that could freely wield authority while already possessing the strongest power in the world.
"I wasn’t even thinking about it anyway. I didn’t expect Duke Asteria to be my maternal grandfather,” I said bitterly as I got up from my seat.
"Where are you going?" My father’s eyes trembled, seemingly with anxiety, when I got up from my seat.
"It seems to have been a while since you two last met, so please take your time and talk. I’ll get out of your way,” I said.
In response, my father shouted urgently, "Hey!"
"What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable being alone with me?" my maternal grandfather asked.
My father dripped with cold sweat as he replied, "Of-of course not, Father-in-law." As he spoke, he looked desperately at me.
I smiled in response to his gaze and said, "It’s still dangerous outside, so stay here tonight, Grandpa. There are many empty rooms, so don’t worry about a room."
"Thank you,” my maternal grandfather said.
"And Father, please stay by Grandpa and protect him,” I added. After saying that, I went up to the room where I usually stayed with Hillis and Arwen.
My father seemed to be shouting with his eyes for me to not abandon him, but unfortunately, there was no way to beat my maternal grandfather. "Hey, Youngest!" he cried.
"Have a good night,” I added as I left my father’s cry behind and closed the door. I sat on the bed and invited Hillis and Arwen to sit down in chairs.
I began, "Now, where should we start? First, I should tell you how I started stealing under the name of Lupin, right?” Then, I told many long and detailed stories I knew Hillis would be curious about.
1. The sound of sharply inhaling air angrily.
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