Chapter 18

Chapter : 18

To Lord Raphael,

I have heard the news that you took first place in the Academy entrance examination for the Swordsmanship Department. I offer you my heartfelt congratulations, and I write to convey several matters concerning the family.

The letter began like that, and before getting to the main point, it spent an absurd length of time gilding my face with praise, going on about how exceptional, magnificent, and admirable I was.

Just reading the sentences made my face heat up, and I found myself setting the letter down on the desk over and over again.

Knowing Koromang’s personality, there was no way she had written all this merely to compliment me.

There had to be something in the letter that I absolutely needed to know.

I had to finish reading it.

But it was painful.

Half of what was written was praise directed not at me, but at Raphael, and yet my skin still crawled as I read it.

Ugh. How embarrassing.

Only after I had forced my curling fingers and toes to uncurl did the letter finally get to its point.

* Lord Raphael has restored the Isaac family’s honor and spread its name, and the people of the family are delighted. However, there remain some who do not believe it.

Do not believe what?

My top-ranked admission was already a settled fact.

The idea that I could somehow manipulate information officially announced by the Academy was laughable.

Anyone with a brain would not think that, so realistically speaking, they must have meant the process.

That I had not earned first place through proper means.

She had not even named them, yet I could picture them vividly in my head.

Raphael’s two younger siblings.

Those bastards.

They had been plotting rebellion in order to steal the position of Head of the House. But if it were true that I had taken first place through swordsmanship alone, then that dream would shatter completely.

The first reason they had for trying to take the position was simple: for the eldest son of a martial family, Raphael was weak.

In families that prided themselves on being martial houses, the strongest person usually claimed the position of Head of the House. Raphael had inherited it without competition only because his two younger siblings had been too young. One could not very well fight children who had not even entered puberty yet.

And over the past few years, Raphael had put down the sword.

On top of that, he had neglected physical training.

That was completely different from the path of his younger brother, who had trained in swordsmanship without pause.

Once the two younger siblings recognized that difference, they had begun planning to take the position through a legitimate duel.

But then Raphael had taken first place in the Swordsmanship Department?

They were aware of Jefrin’s existence.

They knew he had taken the entrance examination to enter the Academy that year.

Though they somewhat underestimated Jefrin’s talent, even they admitted that he was a genius.

So it was only natural that they would suspect something when they heard I had beaten him.

If it were true, then the method of rebellion they had been building toward would have to be reworked from the ground up. For them, confirming that truth must have become the highest priority.

* For that reason, when the term ends and the Academy enters vacation, I hope you will return to the family estate and display Lord Raphael’s abilities once more. I pray that Lord Raphael will continue to grow splendidly while preserving his health, and I await the day we meet again.

Even if Koromang had not written this letter, I had already intended to visit the family estate once during the vacation.

Now that I had gained a fair amount of strength, I might as well crush those two younger siblings who dreamed of rebellion. No matter how insignificant they seemed, troublesome elements were best dealt with early.

It was not a particularly difficult matter, so I resolved to handle it during this vacation and wrote a reply to the letter.

* Thank you for your letter. I will do as you suggest. I shall come down during the vacation. I will see you then.

And then I promptly got stuck.

If only I had Koromang’s ability to write several lines from a single word like congratulations.

That was beyond me.

But sending back a letter less than a quarter the length of the one Koromang had sent felt too insincere.

Not that the length of a letter truly measured the weight of the feeling inside it, but still. It felt wrong.

Of course, I was her employer, and rank was rank, so it was entirely possible that Koromang would not complain, or even feel offended.

Someone in the position of head of a family could probably get away with that.

It just felt... off.

I wanted to remain on good terms with Koromang for a long time, so could I not at least put in this much effort?

So I awkwardly asked after the well-being of those siblings who existed only because the setting said they did, purely to fill out the page.

* Is Evelyn receiving her lessons properly? Is Jericho in good health?

I added things like that just to pad out the letter.

“For things like this, a telephone really is more convenient.”

Writing was inconvenient in many ways.

If I could say things face to face, then even speaking a little vaguely usually got the point across perfectly.

Nonverbal things like expressions and tone helped communication along.

---

As Koromang read Raphael’s reply, she could feel her lips drying out.

When she touched them with her thumb, they were split as if it were deep winter rather than spring. And when she swallowed, her throat burned.

This was fear.

“How in the world?”

Raphael had not tried to hide the displeasure he felt.

In words, yes, he thanked her for the praise directed toward him, but that was all. He conveyed nothing but facts, bluntly, without any decorative phrasing.

Through those sharp sentences, he had warned her not to try anything foolish.

And beyond that, he had even revealed an intention to punish his two younger siblings now that he knew they had been dreaming of rebellion.

The proof was in the way he asked whether Evelyn was receiving her lessons properly and whether Jericho was in good health.

When she reached the part that alluded to the agreement Evelyn and Jericho had made after taking the estate from Raphael, she nearly dropped the letter.

Originally, when Evelyn and Jericho had secretly agreed to steal the estate from Raphael, that had been the exact arrangement.

Jericho would take the position of Head of the House, while Evelyn would wield the real power.

Jericho had the swordsmanship talent to overwhelm Raphael within a few years, and Evelyn, with her superior intellect and winsome manner, had earned the trust of the vassals.

If the two of them joined forces, they could certainly drive Raphael out.

Even Koromang had agreed with that.

The reason she had stopped them and delayed their move was only in case the impossible happened.

If, by some chance, Raphael came to his senses.

If, by some chance, Jericho might lose to Raphael and die.

That was all.

“Things have gone wrong. Can this still be repaired?”

Koromang shook her head.

First of all, Raphael had realized that his younger siblings were dreaming of rebellion.

That much, perhaps, could happen.

Even a fool ought to know that his footing within the family was not secure.

From Jericho and Evelyn’s point of view, it would have been stranger to give up on taking the position of Head of the House quietly.

But Raphael had pinpointed matters with frightening precision.

He knew that it was not just one of the siblings, but both of them, who were plotting betrayal, and that Koromang herself was half involved in it.

Most astonishing of all, he even knew the contents of Jericho and Evelyn’s agreement.

There were only enough people in the family who knew that to count on one hand.

This was not something one guessed by instinct.

It meant he had planted vassals within the family who trusted him and believed in him.

And he had done it without Koromang noticing.

“Who? Who on earth is it?”

Several vassals flashed through Koromang’s mind in an instant, but she dismissed each of them just as quickly. None of them had ever shown Raphael any favorable attitude.

With the information she currently possessed, finding the right answer was impossible.

So instead, Koromang tried to uncover the method.

How had Raphael made people his own?

How had he won their hearts?

“I don’t know that either.”

How Raphael had accomplished all of it remained a mystery.

Koromang began to wonder whether Raphael might have realized the rebellion far earlier than she had calculated.

Judging from his response, it was a plausible deduction.

“If that was the case, then why was he in such a hurry to leave for the Academy?”

That too made no sense.

If he knew such a thing, then all the more reason to remain with the family and strengthen his own standing.

Why?

Raphael was not a fool.

If anything, he was sly as a fox.

“Ah!”

The last part of the letter.

The part asking after Evelyn and Jericho.

Reading it again, Koromang finally thought she understood.

Raphael intended to kill his younger siblings.

He had deliberately left for the Academy, exposing a weakness. He had lured his siblings into moving more boldly. He wanted to catch firm evidence and then kill them.

Raphael had written that he would return to the estate once the Academy entered vacation.

When rebellion was brewing within the family, would anyone simply wait until vacation?

It was absurd.

So what did that mean?

Was Raphael acting that way because he was an idiot?

No.

Before he entered the Academy, she might have thought him a fool doing something stupid, but now she could only admit that was not the case.

Then what did it mean?

He was giving Koromang a chance.

He was telling her to settle the matter herself before he returned.

“Koromang, what is it? Why did you call us all here so late?”

Evelyn jabbed Jericho in the side as he yawned widely.

It was her way of telling him to behave with some dignity in front of Koromang, and Jericho grimaced at the pain.

“I’m sleepy. If it’s nothing important, let’s do it tomorrow.”

“Idiot, she wouldn’t have summoned us at this hour if it weren’t important.”

Koromang showed them the letter she had received from Raphael.

“I think it would be best if both of you left the estate for a while.”

“Why should we?”

“It seems Lord Raphael has realized what the two of you are planning.”

“Hmph. So what? What can he do?”

Evelyn tapped Jericho in the back with her elbow.

“Idiot, can’t you tell from the letter? It means you probably can’t beat him in a fight anymore.”

“Oh, come on. Me, lose to Brother? He’s been away from the sword for years. We’re not children anymore. I don’t even need to see it to know how he took first place. He must have bought it. Aren’t you always bragging about how smart you are? And you can’t even tell that?”

“And if not?”

With a grave expression, Evelyn shot the question back at Jericho.

“What if Raphael really did discover some hidden talent of his? Or if he happened to get his hands on some remarkable Elixir? What if he really has grown strong?”

“Then... uh...”

Evelyn poked him in the chest with her index finger.

“Then you die.”

“Come on... no way...”

Having watched the exchange, Koromang spoke.

“I think it would be best if both of you left the estate for a while. Once the Academy enters vacation and Lord Raphael returns, I will speak with him myself.”

Evelyn nodded at once.

“Fine. I’ll go stay in the Kingdom for a while. There were things I wanted to study there anyway, so the timing works out well.”

“I don’t want to.”

Imagining the discomfort of living in a foreign place, Jericho shuddered with disgust.

“First place? I could do that too.”

“You think you could beat Jefrin?”

“He must have bought him off. They know each other, don’t they? Even if they were on bad terms, money can solve anything. If I just bought off Jefrin, I could beat all the others beneath him.”

Jericho clenched his fist.

“Evelyn, you never learned swordsmanship, so you don’t know. No matter what happens, nobody suddenly makes a leap like that overnight. I know that better than you do.”

“So what, then? Are you actually going to fight Raphael when he comes back?”

“Yes. I’ll fight him.”

Evelyn let out a long sigh and replied,

“Fine, do your best. If you win, send me a letter. See you next time.”

Evelyn gave up trying to persuade Jericho.