Chapter 23

Chapter 23. We Are Going to the Marquess's House (1)

After the carriage carrying the Duchess left, Elena left the manor a few days later as well.

I trained under Miguel too.

Life was not much different from before.

The people who whispered while looking at me had not changed, and the way the two brothers deliberately ignored me was the same as ever.

Miguel, however, said something different when he looked at me.

"Are you perhaps learning separately from some knight other than me? There is no way your skill should be rising this suddenly...."

"Hngh, calling you a genius is not enough to explain it. Your understanding of the sword is clearly different now."

Having become younger again, I found it frustrating that my body would not move as I wanted, but Miguel apparently saw it very differently.

Then again, although my body had returned to that of a six-year-old, the training I had received up to the age of ten and my combat experience remained intact in my head.

If things were exactly the same as before, there would have been no point in returning.

Perhaps because of that, I grew far faster than before.

The time I needed to grasp swordsmanship had shortened, and since all I had to do was strengthen my body, I was able to surpass my previous growth in no time.

Unlike before, even the Knight Commander began to show his face, and the Duke seemed to pay a little more attention to me as well.

Rumors were going around that perhaps I was not merely clever, but a genius at swordsmanship too. I paid no attention to such talk.

I had too many things to investigate and prepare besides training.

In my last life, I had been so preoccupied with learning the sword that I had paid too little attention to the situation around me.

Objectively speaking, these were not matters a brat under ten years old ought to have worried about, but since that negligence had gotten me killed, this was no time to care about what others thought.

First, I went to the study and examined every book there was on the history of the kingdom.

Most of them were books I had already read once before.

Even after reading them again, there was very little of substance in them. They were little more than strings of praise for the Hero who founded the kingdom and glorification of the royal house that inherited his blood.

Worse, there was nothing at all about the current state of the kingdom, which was what I actually wanted to know.

"There are no newspapers or broadcasts here, so I suppose I have no choice but to ask people...."

"You mean the kingdom's present situation?"

Miguel's answer was far more miserable than I had expected.

"There is the King, His two sons, and one daughter. There is also the Duke, and the other nobles."

No, even I knew that much.

"I am a knight. Knowing that much is enough for me. More importantly, this is training time. Please focus on your training."

A sigh escaped me at Miguel's words.

"...Well. I can tell you the basics, but I do not think they will be of much use."

I heard a few more things, but even the Head Steward was not much help.

Fortunately, I was able to hear something more detailed from the scribe.

"You must not say that I was the one who told you this."

"Do not worry. You know very well that I can keep my mouth shut."

At my words, the scribe nodded.

All my efforts to curry favor with him from every angle had paid off.

"If one looks at it broadly, the nobility of our kingdom can be divided into two groups. If one divides them more precisely, then there are three."

He lowered his voice as much as possible and continued.

"There is the royalist faction, which believes that more power must be placed behind His Majesty the King, and there is the noble faction, which believes the rights of the territories and the nobility must be preserved. Broadly speaking, those are the two sides. However, not long ago, the royalist faction split into the First Prince faction and the Second Prince faction."

"Because of His Majesty's age?"

"Exactly."

The scribe nodded with a satisfied expression when he heard my answer.

"There is also the Princess, isn't there?"

"In the end, she will either marry into one of the high noble houses or be sent to another country."

At moments like this, I was once again reminded that this world was closer to the Middle Ages than not.

"Then the Gresia ducal house stands with the First Prince."

"Oh, correct. Why do you think so?"

I had heard it before I died, but there was no way I could answer like that.

"Since we too are of the royal line, we would naturally belong to the royalist faction, and the First Prince would possess the stronger legitimacy, so of course we would support the First Prince."

There was no way the Duke, a man of orthodox nobility to the marrow, would support anyone else.

"You understand it well. The Gresia ducal house belongs to the First Prince faction. Even so, His Majesty is still in good health, and the princes have only just come of age, so things have not yet split sharply."

Which meant that, four years later, that would no longer be true. Matters would have grown serious enough for the First Prince faction's Gresia ducal house and the Second Prince faction's Marquess of Hierro’s House to form an alliance by marriage.

But by that point, should the noble faction not also have been currying favor with both princes?

"Does the noble faction have a separate leader?"

"Yes. Grand Duke Julian de Carlos. He is the younger brother of His Majesty the current King."

Haah. What a complete mess.

"He is an extraordinary man. One could almost say that the grand duchy itself was built by his own hand."

He seemed to be quite a popular noble. This was the same scribe who had sounded indifferent even when speaking of the princes, yet now his voice brimmed with respect.

In any event, there were two princes aiming for the throne, and an uncle who had gathered the nobles under his banner to build his own strength.

In the end, there were three people aiming for the king's seat.

Then where did the ones who killed Adria belong?

"Which side does Count of La Palma belong to?"

Count of La Palma. The noble served by the one who had killed me.

"Count of La Palma is a little ambiguous.... There is talk that he belongs to the Second Prince faction along with the neighboring Marquess of Hierro, but even so, he is probably closer to the noble faction."

I looked at the scribe again. Had he always been this sort of man?

"You really do know a lot."

"Ha ha, if one is going to teach a genius, one ought to know at least a few things."

Having to live through being six years old once more, I ended up keeping the nickname of genius in my studies as well.

No, more importantly, for a mere scribe, he knew an awful lot about the kingdom's political situation.

Other than teaching me, he was just an ordinary scribe who handled the territory's paperwork.

And yet he knew the kingdom's political landscape in this much detail. Did even an ordinary scribe harbor some ambition in his heart?

I kept my eye on the young scribe and tucked that conversation firmly into my heart.

Even after hearing about the political situation from the scribe, I continued asking people questions whenever I found the chance.

I asked knowledgeable people about the kingdom's politics, and ordinary people about the territory.

Then, one day while I was going around asking questions, I ran into Manuel in the corridor.

He had always been the little brat who deliberately turned away so he would not cross paths with me, but today we met squarely in the middle.

After seeing the twelve-year-old Manuel before, looking at the eight-year-old Manuel again made me smile without meaning to.

The exaggerated scornful look on his face was both ridiculous and adorable.

"I hear you've been going around asking strange things. You should be careful. Mother's expression wasn't very good when she heard about it. Just because you're being favored these days, don't get carried away."

Ah!

Though Manuel spoke in a thoroughly mocking tone, his words jolted me awake.

That was my mistake. In my eagerness to ask questions, I had been making far too much noise.

I had been going around asking people about the kingdom's political situation, which was exactly the sort of thing that invited misunderstanding.

Especially if the Duke, or the Duchess who was Manuel's mother, heard about it, they might suspect that I was aiming for Simon's place.

Now was not the time to invite that sort of misunderstanding. I had died several times because of similar suspicions, and I had not the slightest desire to go through that suffering again.

"Thanks, brother! I'll be careful. I'll make sure no rumors start, so do not worry. Thank you for telling me."

"Y-yeah, a-as long as you understand."

Manuel made a face that clearly said, This is not how this was supposed to go, and then hurried away.

I had gathered a fair amount of information by then, so now was the time to restrain myself.

I continued training, and this time I began a different investigation.

I started investigating the emblem on Mallorca Fortress and the one on the tomb I had seen beneath the fortress.

I overturned the entire study looking for that emblem, and as I began asking scribes and others about the emblem and the fortress, the rumors that I was after Simon's place gradually died down.

People started to regard it as nothing more than the curiosity of a genius stretching in all directions.

Thanks to that, stories began to spread that I was an eccentric genius, but that was a price worth paying.

I heard many interesting legends about Mallorca Fortress, but unfortunately, no one recognized the emblem.

Just in case, I even checked the emblems used by the Heroes, but they were not in any of the books I had.

And so I passed through days that were not all that different from my former life, keeping my ears open the entire time.

Then three years passed.

At last, I was able to stand as an even match for Miguel.

"Grrrk! This is utterly ridiculous!"

Miguel said it through clenched teeth. His arms were bulging, and his face had turned bright red.

I could not answer him.

If I opened my mouth, the mana I had linked to the earth would surely scatter.

Miguel's sword and mine were pressed directly against each other, completely motionless.

"No, with this much difference in body weight, how are you not being pushed back?!"

I could understand his complaint.

There was a clear gap in our height, and he outweighed me by no less than three times, yet I was holding my ground against his sword.

That was all thanks to the new way of using mana I had learned, but since I had not told him my secret, it was only natural that he was frustrated.

"Let us stop here."

He stepped back.

"How in the world did you do that?"

"It is technique."

"Haah, technique.... In that case, I suppose this is as far as I can teach you. Our skill is already even, and you are using techniques I do not know. It is no longer feasible for me to remain your instructor."

Damn, that hit me right where it hurt.

That would be a problem. If my sparring partner ran away, it would be disastrous.

Where else was I supposed to find such a useful fool?

"This was only a contest without mana, was it not? I still have to learn how to obtain mana, and I still have to learn a mana circulation art."

I had already obtained mana, and I was confident that I would not lose even in a match using mana, but since Miguel did not know that, there was no problem.

"That is true. Even so, if it is you, young master, you will surely learn quickly, and before long you will defeat me in mana bouts as well."

That worked this time too. He truly was my wonderfully gullible knight.

"At any rate, training ends here for today. There has been a summons for the knight order, so I must go."

"What is it about?"

"In a few days, the Knight Commander and Young Master Simon are going to Marquess of Hierro’s House. He told us to gather because of that. They are probably going to choose who will accompany them and rearrange everyone's duties."

Was this the moment?

At last, the event I had been waiting for had begun.

After returning to the manor with Miguel, I requested an audience with the Duke.

"He says you may enter."

Perhaps it was because my skill had grown further. This time, I was not made to wait.

When I entered, the Duke put down his pen and looked at me.

"What is it?"

My treatment seemed to have changed slightly, but the chill in his expression had not.

I had never expected anything from him in the first place, so there was no disappointment either.

"I would like you to allow me to join the party going to Marquess of Hierro’s House this time. I will protect Brother Simon discreetly."

It must have been an unexpected thing to say. The Duke's expression shifted slightly.

"Hm. It is a fairly useful idea...."

Just as I had expected. The Duke received it positively. All my hard work training and making sure it showed had been worth it.

"What made you think of such a thing so suddenly?"

"I have seen the world only through books. Now I want to go outside and experience it for myself."

Ugh, that sent goosebumps down my skin.

It was exactly the sort of cringe-worthy line a dreamy boy shut up inside a manor might have shouted.

"...I see. You are nine now, aren't you?"

The Duke, who had worn a blank face until then, looked at me with a faintly hollow expression.

Damn it, that made the embarrassment twice as bad.

"Whatever your reason, it is not a bad idea. I grant permission."

Yes. All that effort had been worth it.

As expected, the Duke was a cold, rational... trash of a nobleman.

"However, you have already told Amanda about this, I presume?"

"Ah...."

"You are the one who asked for it, so you can be the one to tell your mother as well."

I was doomed. The image of my tearful mother rose before my eyes.

It seemed that the corner of the Duke's mouth had lifted ever so slightly.