Chapter 29

Chapter 29. Illegitimate Son vs. Illegitimate Son (1)

If I were to reduce Adria’s long-winded explanation into simple terms, it went like this.

Unlike me, who had been born and raised in the ducal estate, Martin had been born and raised outside the lord’s castle.

His mother had been a maid of the marquess’s house, and after becoming pregnant with him, she was driven out of the lord’s castle.

With the money she had been given when she was cast out, she worked tirelessly, gave birth to Martin, and raised him.

Then she met another commoner man, married him, and gave birth to Martin’s younger sister.

He had spent an ordinary childhood, but at the age of six, he was summoned to the lord’s castle by the marquess.

That was because the marquess, who had come out on an inspection, recognized that Martin was ready to Awaken.

Fortunately, he Awakened an inherited ability, and since his mother and younger sister had been struggling to survive after the commoner husband died, he was able to bring them into the lord’s castle with him as well.

However, since his mother had been a former maid and not even a concubine, Martin’s standing was bound to be even worse than that of an ordinary illegitimate son.

He had no choice but to polish his abilities with all his might.

"Brother Martin trained very hard. He learned diligently from the knights, and he studied hard too."

Adria’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.

Was Martin the reason she had come to dream of becoming a knight?

"He was envied a lot, and there were many among his older brothers and even the adults who disliked him, but even so, everyone had no choice but to acknowledge Brother Martin’s skill."

As he listened, Simon stole a glance at me.

Perhaps he thought Martin’s circumstances looked similar to mine.

But as things stood now, I did not hold any particular resentment toward Duke Gresia’s ducal house.

The one person I had held resentment toward had already been driven out of the house.

"Everyone had started to acknowledge him, and he was even winning his sparring matches against the knights, but then something happened."

It was the most commonplace sort of incident in a noble house.

Martin’s younger sister, the daughter his mother had had with her commoner husband, became pregnant.

"No one knew whose child it was, but because of Brother Martin’s mother, people talked even more."

Martin’s mother had been only a maid who ended up carrying the marquess’s child, and now the same thing had happened to her daughter as well, so the marquess’s house could hardly have ignored it.

"There were even rumors that something strange was going around. In the end, Brother Martin’s family was forced to leave the house."

It was a result I did not quite understand. To drive out an illegitimate son who had obtained an inherited ability over something so minor?

Rumors could be silenced, and if necessary they could have kept only Martin and arranged a separate house outside the lord’s castle for the other two. So why had they done it?

As I continued thinking, something Adria had said a moment ago came back to me.

'That’s right. There were rumors. Naturally they would have been malicious ones, and if they were the worst kind of rumor possible... then they must have involved the marquess’s family.'

In the worst-case scenario, one of the marquess’s sons might have been the father of the unborn child.

'Or maybe it wasn’t just a rumor.'

If that was the case, the family line would have become hopelessly tangled.

The nobles of this world also sometimes had polygamous households and complicated family lines, but those were all matters between nobles.

Because of inherited abilities, the nobles here regarded noble blood as something absolutely vital. Relationships with commoners, who diluted that blood, were nothing but a stain on their honor.

Adria and Simon still had not grasped it. They were still fresh-faced youths who did not yet know of such things.

'Then I suppose I’ve figured out why he was driven out....'

But even so, I still tilted my head.

It did not seem likely that Martin would harbor such intense fury merely because he had been expelled.

In my previous life, he had burned down the estate, massacred the marquess’s family, and even sent people to kill Adria, who had survived.

Even from the little I had heard about him on the way to the marquess’s house, I had been able to feel the strength of his hatred.

I had not known him long, but Martin was not the sort of man who would carry such violent rage simply because he had been cast out of the estate.

Most likely, there had to be another story that Adria did not know.

"After he left the estate, it became hard to see him. I had people search for him, but a lot of the time he wasn’t even in the territory, and it felt like he was avoiding me too. Before he left, we were really close...."

Adria’s voice softened with a gloomy look on her face, but then she brightened again.

"So I was curious about Brother Martin, and I heard the inn where he’s staying is also on tomorrow’s outing route. I wanted to know whether I might get to see him, so I invited you."

The more I looked at her, the clearer it became that Adria was not the kind of person who could tell even the smallest polite lie.

She could have at least said that she had invited me because she was curious about me too, even just as a social courtesy, but she did not say anything of the kind, not even a little.

Not that it hurt my feelings, but unlike my previous life, it felt a little unfamiliar to see her looking only for her brother.

"I’m not sure. I don’t know whether he’ll be at the inn tomorrow."

Perhaps because it felt so unfamiliar, my answer came out more curtly than I intended.

An awkward silence lingered in the room for quite some time, and that was how teatime came to an end.

The next day, Adria, Simon, I, Bianca, and several escort knights went out together on a city outing.

Simon and Adria rode in one carriage by themselves, while I ended up in another carriage with Bianca and the other maids.

It was rather blatant differential treatment, but since there was the perfectly valid reason that it was for the sake of the two who were soon to be engaged, I quietly climbed into the maids’ carriage.

I do not know about the others, but for me this city outing was an exceedingly dull stretch of time.

It was not cleaner than the ducal house, nor did it have more sights to offer.

Just as expected, since we were inside the city there was no danger at all, and I had nothing to do but listen to the maids chatter.

By the time it ended, the outing had turned into a complete disaster for all three of us.

First of all, Adria did not get to meet Martin.

We stopped by the inn, but Martin was not there, and since we could not keep waiting forever, she had no choice but to leave word with the innkeeper that she had come and gone, then step back outside.

As a result, Adria remained gloomy for the entire day, and Brother Simon, still inexperienced in such matters, could not even enjoy a warm, intimate time alone with her. Instead, he spent the whole day floundering helplessly, unable to comfort her.

And as for me, I gained no information at all during the outing.

The soldier Juan did manage to find out where the Red Bear Mercenary Company was staying, along with a little more information, but that was the extent of it.

There was only so much a soldier from another territory could do while investigating.

I wanted to move around and investigate on my own, but I could not do that while under escort.

And even when I was not under escort, my age still made it difficult to move freely.

After that meaningless outing ended, Adria asked me as we were parting.

"He’ll come back tonight, right?"

I knew at once who she meant.

"I suppose so. He’s already paid for his lodging, after all."

The maid standing beside Adria turned a fierce glare on her.

"As you know, you are not permitted to go out at night."

Ignoring the maid’s icy stare, Adria asked me again,

"You want to see Brother Martin again too, don’t you?"

Why was she asking me that? I found it odd, but answered ordinarily for the time being.

"I do, but there’s no way."

Before I had even finished speaking, the maid shouted at Adria.

"Milady!"

"I was only asking."

Adria waved her hand at the maids, then said her farewells to Brother Simon and me.

"You’ve worked hard today. I hope you have a peaceful night."

With one hand lifting the hem of her skirt, she bowed politely.

Brother Simon placed a hand on his chest and bowed as well, and I copied him.

At my greeting, Adria and the maids smiled.

It seemed they found it cute that a little child was imitating an adult’s formal bow.

"Hmph!"

A snort came from beside me.

Brother Simon, whose mood had been sour all day, had finally let his twisted temper show.

The moment Adria vanished from sight, Brother Simon whipped his head around and headed for his own room without a word.

It was probably his aristocratic way of ignoring an illegitimate son like me, but to me it only looked cute.

I also returned to the guest room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

The sun had already set, and beyond the window it was dark.

"There are more obstacles than I expected...."

No, it was not simply that there were many obstacles. I had run headlong into a dead end.

I had gathered some information, but with this much I could do nothing at all.

I needed more detailed information, and I needed to hear the hidden stories, but trapped inside the lord’s castle like this, I could do nothing.

It was difficult for a guest visiting the lord’s castle to go outside alone. And for a child like me, it was even harder.

The very idea of going out at night was something I could not even bring up.

When I met that assassin, I really should have learned a trick or two.

I did not particularly want to learn how to kill people with a dagger, but sneaking into an estate in secret was definitely something I should have learned for times like this.

As I was thinking about what to do next, I heard a knocking sound.

Tap. Tap.

Was there someone who would come looking for me at this hour?

I rose from my seat and walked to the door.

Click.

I opened it, but there was no one in the corridor.

Had I imagined it?

Tap. Tap.

I heard the knocking again.

"It’s not the door?"

The sound was not coming from the door.

It was coming from the floor.

"Alex....... Alex......"

On top of that, I could hear a woman’s voice.

A chill ran straight down my spine.

"Don’t tell me this world has ghosts too?"

There was mana, there were supernatural abilities, and there were holy arts, so ghosts would have been entirely possible too.

"No, give me a break on that one."

Ghosts, however, really did not agree with me.

Yes, I myself was someone who had been reborn from another world, but ghosts were clearly a separate issue.

"Maybe it isn’t a ghost. It could be an auditory hallucination. I must have been worrying too much."

I was muttering that to myself when—

Thunk!

From beneath the bed came the sudden sound of a floor panel dropping away.

"Help me out a little, would you? I kept calling for you, and you didn’t help at all."

The woman’s voice came again. Unlike before, this time it was perfectly clear.

"Lady Adria?"

Startled, I ran to the bed.

"Ngh."

I tried to shove it aside so I could look underneath, but the bed did not budge.

Adria’s voice came again from below the bed.

"The bed on this side won’t move either, right? It can’t be helped. You’ll have to crawl in too, Alex."

At her words, I dropped to the floor beside the bed.

When I looked beneath it, the floor had vanished.

I cautiously pushed my head under the bed.

A square section of flooring about one meter across had disappeared, revealing a staircase leading down.

At the foot of the stairs, Adria stood holding a lamp in one hand and waving at me.

"Ta-da, surprised? This is the secret passage in our lord’s castle."

She proudly pointed to the staircase and the passage visible behind her.

I carefully lowered myself onto the stairs.

Once I had gone down a little, I was finally able to straighten up.

"A secret passage?"

"Yes. It was sealed off a long time ago, so no one knows about it. I found it."

That sounded perfectly believable.

Judging from the Adria I had known in my previous life, she must have roamed all over the place until she found it.

If not for her, there was no way anyone would have discovered a dilapidated passage like this.

"But why bring up the secret passage all of a sudden?"

"Because if we go through this secret passage, we can get outside the lord’s castle. The two of us are going to meet Brother Martin."

When I looked at her again, Adria was dressed in men’s outdoor clothes.

Thanks to her figure and face, she did not look like a man in the slightest, but still.

"Me? You’re taking me with you?"

"Yes. I asked you earlier, didn’t I?"

No, I had no idea that was what you meant.

Still, I was deeply grateful for her invitation. It was exactly the help I needed, now that everything had been blocked off in front of me.

Fortunately, I was still dressed in outdoor clothes as well, so after picking up my sword, I followed behind her.

Rumble.

Perhaps there was some sort of mechanism, because when Adria touched one side of the wall, the opening above the stairs sealed shut again.

The two of us walked through the secret passage, guided by the light from the lamp Adria carried.

The secret passage was extremely narrow and dark.

As Adria had said, it was old and thick with dust, and there was no sign that human hands had touched it in a long time.

"Alex, you’re the first person I’ve ever shown this to. You mustn’t tell anyone else."

No, the real problem is that you told me at all.

To reveal the secret passage of the lord’s castle to an outsider. If the marquess found out, he would undoubtedly clutch the back of his neck and collapse.

Even so, I nodded and gave her my word.

That was a problem between her and the marquess’s house, not a problem for me.

Now that a path for obtaining information had opened up, I fully intended to make good use of it.

She kept talking as she walked ahead of me.

"I’m going to tell Brother Martin about it too. If he comes through the secret passage, no one else will know. Later, I’m going to tell him to come see me in secret."

You are going to tell Martin?

Suddenly....

A story I had heard in my previous life came back to me.

The story of how the marquess’s castle had burned, and how Martin had become the heir.

I had never understood how such a heavily guarded castle had ended up in flames, why the culprit had never been identified, or how Martin had come to inherit afterward.

And now Adria was explaining the reason for all of it.

I pointed a finger at the back of Adria’s head.

'So you’re the culprit!'