Chapter 13

Chapter 13. The One Who Tied the Knot Must Untie It (1)

Scratch, scratch.

The Duke remained seated at his desk, continuing to review his documents.

Even though his young son had come to his father’s study for the first time, he did not appear interested in the slightest.

If I had been a son who came seeking a father’s affection, I might have cried or stormed out in anger at such a cold response from my father, but that was not why I had come.

I waited quietly. I had experienced this sort of push and pull many times in my previous life, so waiting was not difficult at all.

Several minutes passed.

“What is it?”

At last, the Duke opened his mouth. He did not lift his eyes, nor did he put down his pen, but it seemed I could now speak with him.

“There is someone trying to kill me. I came to request protection.”

Tap.

The pen moving over the documents came to a stop.

The Duke lifted his head.

The Duke’s cold eyes rested heavily on me.

“That is an interesting thing to say. I heard you were not a child befitting your age. It seems that was true.”

Neither his expression nor his eyes changed in the slightest. The complicated expression I had seen before I died was nowhere to be found. Only an icy coldness showed on his face.

“Someone trying to kill you... Are you saying you know who it is?”

“Yes.”

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

“No matter how young you are, if you slander someone without certainty, the responsibility for that will never be small!”

The Duke’s heavy voice rang through the study.

The humming force of it sent a shiver across my skin.

From the content of his words and his tone alone, it seemed more than enough to terrify an ordinary person.

But I had died too many times by now to be frightened by something like that.

“If you demand that I take responsibility, then I will. I heard it directly from the person trying to kill me.”

Only then did the Duke set his pen down. He leaned back in his chair. The expressionless face that had shown no emotion now began to look tired.

“You heard it directly... You are saying something difficult to believe.”

He gazed into empty space for a moment, as though tracing some fragment of the past.

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

When he lowered his hand, the face that had softened ever so slightly had already returned to its expressionless state.

He leaned forward and looked straight at me.

“It may be difficult to believe, but let us set that aside. Why should I protect you?”

It was absurd. It was not the sort of thing a father should say to his son.

Looking at the way he stared at me, it seemed like some sort of test, but hearing those words made the little affection I had left for him turn to dust.

My answer could only come out stiffly.

“Because I am worth it.”

“Hm. So you awakened as well.”

He said it as though it were nothing much.

“If it is the [Physical Optimization] ability, then it is certainly an inherited ability worth taking an interest in, but it is not even certain yet that it is truly that ability. And even if it is, there is no way to know whether it will grow as much as I expect.”

Unlike his first remark, that was still a fairly detailed explanation.

For some reason, it was an ability the Duke took an interest in, and if things went well, it might grow far more than expected...

Had I just picked up another clue?

The Duke continued.

“In any case, that alone is not enough reason to waste manpower.”

The Duke picked his pen back up.

He looked as though he had lost all interest completely.

Is this what seasoned authority looks like? When the one in power acts like that, whether I mean to or not, I have no choice but to lay all my cards on the table.

Tap, tap, tap.

I walked toward the suit of armor standing in one corner of the study.

It was a gleaming suit of plate armor set up for display. Mounted like a person, the armor wore a sword at its waist.

Shing.

I drew the sword.

Thankfully, it came free without trouble.

But it was heavier than I had expected. I forced the wavering sword up and looked at the Duke.

He was staring at me with one brow raised.

He remained expressionless, but I could plainly feel the incredulous look in his eyes.

Still, this was fortunate. If I had not been a child, the moment I took up that sword, the Duke might well have rushed over and cut off my head.

As I had said before, this world was a rather frightening place.

Even among nobles and royalty who prided themselves on their courtesy, sons killing fathers and fathers killing sons was hardly rare.

Well, the person trying to kill me was, nominally speaking, my mother as well... By that logic, it was not very different after all.

“Are you trying to show me that you secretly learned swordsmanship? I already heard the full contents of your test.”

If I swung the sword around like an amateur, it felt as though I would be beaten and thrown out immediately.

But I intended to show him something else.

Something he did not know.

I awakened the power hidden deep inside my body.

Move!

Twitch.

A small force rose from deep within me. I began to move that rising force.

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

As expected, it was difficult. But though slow, the mana obeyed me.

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

At the end, it flowed into the sword.

Wooooooong.

The sword began to tremble.

“Aah!”

The sword nearly leaped out of my grasp. I clung to it desperately, but at this rate, forget swinging it—I could barely even hold onto it.

I had believed only the claim that a steel sword accepted mana better than a wooden sword, but I had never imagined this kind of problem would arise!

“That is enough! Stop there.”

I was clutching the shaking sword, drenched in cold sweat, when the Duke’s voice rang out.

I stopped forcing mana into it, then leaned against the sword and looked at the Duke.

He was staring at me with a grave expression.

“You obtained mana? Since when?”

“I felt it after the test.”

“And you did not learn any separate training method?”

“No.”

With a thoughtful expression, he muttered,

“After the test... Then did you obtain it through your inherited ability?”

“I do not know.”

“No, I was not speaking to you.”

As he followed his thoughts, he suddenly frowned.

“Do not tell me... that was after you met her?”

He did not say whom he meant, but I understood at once who he was talking about.

“Yes. Once I was able to move mana, my affection for the Duchess vanished. After that, I spoke with her, and that is when I heard it.”

The order was a little different, and the way I had learned the truth was not exactly the same, but the difference was not a large one.

“...”

After hearing me, the Duke quietly looked up at the ceiling.

“Was it really that easy to break free of it...?”

The Duke muttered blankly.

A weary, exhausted middle-aged man sat at the desk. The mask that had covered his face had now been completely stripped away.

I continued to wait.

Time passed. After staring blankly for quite a while, he looked at me.

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

“When do you need protection? When did you think they would come to kill you?”

It was not the sort of thing a father should say to his son, but it was at least the sort of thing one might say to a subordinate or a business partner.

Was that better than before?

Even so, it was a relief. The Duke had accepted my words.

“I need it immediately. Tonight is the most likely time.”

I went on quickly. There was still one final request remaining. It might have been the most important one of all.

“I need a true expert. At least two sworn knights, or someone of senior-knight caliber.”

It would have been best if the Knight Commander came himself, but there was no way he would guard an illegitimate son like me.

I looked at the Duke with a tense expression.

Even to me, it sounded like a ridiculous request. What would a six-year-old child know, that he would choose the knights assigned to guard him?

It was the sort of demand that could very easily be dismissed as the whim of a childish brat.

But anything less than that would only end up being cut down by the assassin, just like Miguel had been.

After hearing me out, the Duke shook his head.

I am finished.

“Knights cannot be used for this sort of family matter. We are done here. Return to your room.”

And with those words, I was dismissed from the study.

---

It was the dead of night, with little time left before dawn.

The room of Alex, the illegitimate son, lay half-drowned in darkness.

Creak. Creeeak.

The window hanging in the moonlight began to open, little by little.

It opened so slowly that it became almost tedious to watch, and before long, a figure in black slipped soundlessly through the open window.

Landing by the window, he swept his gaze across the room.

The table and chairs, the clothes stand and shelves, and the bed.

When he looked at the bed, he frowned.

“I knew I should have refused a job done in such haste. It has turned into a nuisance.”

There was someone sitting on the bed he was staring at.

But the shadow of the person seated there was not that of a child.

The masked man swiftly swept the room again. No one else was visible. Nor did it seem possible for an adult to be hiding inside any of the furniture in the room.

The masked man glanced back over his shoulder.

“Tch, it would not be easy to get away if he had a proper knight glued to his side. Still, perhaps this is some small blessing amid misfortune. Just one knight.”

The masked man drew his sword. He held the blackened blade low at his side.

At the same time, the pressure inside the room began to surge and roll.

Hngh.

Hidden beneath the bed, I let out a groan at the overflowing mana.

“Oh, so you were down there? Then I can finish the job after all. My luck really is good, is it not?”

The masked man was talkative now, unlike before. Was he someone else? The voice sounded the same, though...

Once I began moving my mana, I was able to move my body as well. I slightly poked my head out from beside the bed and looked at the masked man.

I understood at once why he had become so talkative. His face was covered in cold sweat.

The figure sitting on the bed rose to his feet.

WHUMP.

The mana crushing down on me vanished. No, it had been driven back by another mana altogether.

“An assassin of knight rank or above... I shall have to confirm that.”

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

The face of the Duke, lord of the manor and lord of the territory, emerged beneath the moon.

“Damn it! So my luck was not good at all! How did you handle this job?”

The masked man shouted and hurled himself toward the window.

But the Duke moved faster. Before the masked man could even reach the window, the Duke had already cut him off.

The masked man swung his sword like a madman.

The sword he wielded scattered light as though it were shining by itself, but—

CRUNCH!

The instant it struck the Duke’s blade, it folded in on itself as though it had been crumpled.

Unlike the masked man’s sword, the Duke’s blade gave off no light at all. And yet even in the dark room, the air around it trembled visibly.

“To block my sword at all—you are skilled. An assassin of this level would not open his mouth even under torture.”

The Duke swung his sword again, and the masked man swiftly moved his other hand.

Thunk!

A dagger shot out from the masked man’s hand.

At the same time, the masked man’s head was severed from his body.

The dagger the masked man had thrown nearly pierced the bed.

I had already moved elsewhere just in case, but the assassin’s final struggle still sent a chill down my spine.

The Duke cast a sidelong glance toward where I was, then opened his mouth.

“See to the cleanup.”

“Understood.”

At the Duke’s words, the Head Steward answered from the doorway.

I had no idea when he had opened the door and entered. As expected, someone like the Head Steward seemed to have many things he kept hidden.

“And send the child to his mother.”

Now that the assassin was dead, I no longer needed to serve as bait.

Still, the fact that he told them to send me to Mother meant he was not utterly made of iron after all.

“Understood.”

The Head Steward looked at me, and I looked at the Duke.

It was not over yet. For things to be truly settled, I needed the Duke’s definite word.

The Duke stood there for a moment, his sword still in hand.

He looked again at the headless corpse lying on the floor.

A moment later, the Duke spoke.

“Go to Amanda without worry. It will be settled today. Starting tomorrow, there will be no one left in this manor who wishes to kill you.”

Sheathing his bloodstained sword, the Duke left the room.

Neither I nor the Head Steward asked where he was going.

There was only one place he could be going.