Chapter 64
Chapter 64
"Let's leave the heavy talk here."
As she set down her teacup, she gently eased the mood.
"With the Legion tour ending early, we've got ourselves a sweet little vacation, don't we? Ten whole days. Casian, do you have any plans?"
A plan?
There's no such thing as a hardworking plan in my dictionary.
"I'll save even my breathing time and lounge around in the lab."
"Hmm?"
"I'll show you what a perfect full-time bum looks like. I plan to become one with the bed and live by nothing but photosynthesis."
A saintly plan to coast through life. What do you think?
Just as Viscountess Müller was about to let out a chuckle.
Fidget.
Lili, who had been sipping tea beside us, cautiously raised her hand.
"U-um... Young Master Casian!"
"Yes, go ahead."
"Could I... come to the lab too?"
Lili's pink eyes sparkled with anticipation.
This pink puppy. The way she waits for my permission makes me want to just take out a leash and walk her.
"Why are you asking something so obvious?"
"...Really?"
"Of course. It's your lab too, after all. Come by, eat lunch with me, and let's photosynthesize together."
"Hehe! Yes!"
A broad grin bloomed on Lili's face.
If she had a tail, it would definitely have been spinning like a fan propeller.
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
"Anything is fine!"
"All right then. I'll pack a tasty lunch myself. Plenty of meat, nice and filling."
"Yes!"
Nod, nod!
Lili shook her head up and down vigorously.
It was a truly peaceful and harmless conversation.
I suddenly felt a gaze on me and turned my head.
"……."
Viscountess Müller was resting her chin on her hand, staring straight at the two of us.
A very gentle curve had formed at the corners of her lips.
Not the sharp, calculating smile of the businesswoman she usually wore, but a very motherly one—the kind that watches grown children flirting and looks on fondly.
That noona is guilty as sin.
* * *
Creak—.
As I opened the heavy office door and stepped inside, a chill brushed my cheek.
My father, seated in the middle of the office, spoke without taking his eyes off the documents.
"I hear there was quite a commotion during the Legion tour."
"It was just, well. Nothing that impressive."
"You renovated an entire village. You found a dungeon that didn't even show up on the detector."
Wow.
He knew everything.
My father set down his quill and looked straight at me.
"Aside from those two matters, is there anything else to report to me separately?"
That sharp gaze was already certain I was hiding something.
It was obvious a lie wouldn't even be worth trying.
Since I'd already secured a solid backer, I threw the truth straight at him without holding back.
"I drank a Haste Potion."
"……."
A heavy silence fell over the office.
My father's eyes, usually as steadfast as a mountain, wavered ever so slightly.
Wow.
I actually managed to fluster that bloodless father of mine.
Feels like I really pulled off something amazing.
My father stayed silent for a long while, then parted his lips as if trying to act indifferent.
"......Tell me in detail."
"I was a little sloppy with magic and almost got caught in a mana overload, but a saintess named Lili who was with me gave me a Haste Potion, so I drank it and survived."
"......"
A deep wrinkle carved itself between my father's brows.
His face went cold in an instant.
"Who else knows about this?"
Shit.
That's fucking terrifying.
Why does it feel like you're about to commit murder and hush up the witnesses?
My shoulders jolted before I even realized it.
I could see why people in this world found our father hard to deal with and feared him.
"I shared the situation with Viscountess Müller, Lili's guardian. And she said she'd take care of the matter herself."
"......Viscountess Müller?"
"Yes. She said she'd gladly cover it up."
"Anyone else?"
"I haven't told anyone."
My father stroked his chin a few times.
He was probably running through simulations of the situation in his head.
I'm reminded once again that I really did swallow something insanely precious.
Viscountess Müller and my father.
If you were to count the people with influence throughout the entire capital on both hands and feet, these two would naturally be among them.
Which means even those two are getting rattled.
Just as the tension was creeping up to my throat.
"I see. You may go."
"Yes. Rest up."
Bang!
Fearing I might get caught in the crossfire for no reason, I hurried out of the office without looking back.
If I stayed in that suffocating space for even one more second, I felt like I'd choke.
My steps toward my room were feather-light as I walked down the hall.
'It's really over.'
Now all the reports were done, and all that was left was a proper vacation.
By the time I got near my room at the end of the hall.
Aunt Mari, who was replacing the mana bulbs in the hallway, smiled and greeted me.
"Young master! You made it back safely!"
"Yeah, Aunt Mari. Nothing happened, right? Ah, looks like you've been using your cosmetics every day without missing one."
"Hoho. Can you tell? You're tired, aren't you? I've got your bath ready, so go wash up quickly."
Ah.
A bath.
I really needed that.
Washing with cold water had been so fucking miserable.
"I was already desperate for it. Thanks!"
* * *
Thud.
The heavy office door shut.
Corint, who had been staring at the spot where Casian had left, finally let his rigid back slump.
'This is an utter mess.'
Corint dragged a hand over his dry face and let out a deep sigh.
The report that had just come out of his son's mouth was enough to shake even the common sense of the court count in charge of the empire's intelligence network.
"...Gale."
Corint murmured low toward the air.
Swish.
The shadow in the corner of the office rippled, and a masked man silently appeared.
It was Gale, the House of Parne's shadow independent of the Intelligence Bureau and Corint's trusted retainer.
"You called for me, Head of the family?"
"You heard everything from above, I assume. That shameful second son of mine is out there risking his neck."
"A very spirited move worthy of the young master."
At Gale's shameless answer, Corint's brow creased hard.
"Spirited? He upended an entire slum, then walked into a dungeon that didn't even show up on the detector and nearly got trapped in a barrier."
"......"
"He nearly died twice, or nearly ended up in a state no different from dying."
Corint tapped the desk lightly and continued.
His voice was laced with unmistakable disbelief.
"For someone who almost died twice, that boy's expression was awfully calm just now."
"Big shots don't fuss over little scratches."
"That wasn't a scratch; he nearly lost his head. Of all things to learn, he had to pick up something that reckless."
Corint clicked his tongue and leaned back in his chair.
His head throbbed.
Because, in truth, that recklessness wasn't anyone else's; it had been Corint del Parne's own temperament in his younger days.
"Even if he's my blood, he really is disgustingly similar."
Corint clicked his tongue bitterly.
What Casian had accomplished there was completely outside the norm.
"Head of the family. But perhaps this is actually a good thing."
"What part of it?"
"Didn't this give us a way to pin his feats on something else, since the young master has only been learning magic for a few days?"
Corint understood what Gale was trying to say.
For a single individual to display that level of ability, especially at a young age, would draw enormous scrutiny from the imperial court.
"It's incredibly lucky he drank a Haste Potion, at least."
The fact that the mana overload had been prevented wasn't the only lucky part.
Normally, an ordinary noble child swallowing such a sacred potion without permission would have been a mad act tantamount to treason, but...
"In a situation like this, drinking the potion has actually become the better excuse."
"Because we can wrap the young master's abnormal magical accomplishments up as a miracle of a holy relic."
"Exactly. It won't solve the root of the problem, though."
The plan was to bury the abnormal attention Casian would draw beneath the mystique of a holy relic's power.
The problem was how to browbeat that stubborn church.
"Didn't Viscountess Müller boldly say she'd handle that part herself?"
Even with Gale's reassurance, Corint snorted.
"That woman was just spouting nonsense. I don't know why she felt the need to do that, though."
"You think it was bluster?"
"Do you think a Haste Potion is something you can just smuggle out by bribing someone a few coins up the chain? One wrong move and it could become a matter of being handed over to an inquisition and burned at the stake."
Corint opened a desk drawer and took out a secret report.
More than anyone, he knew how sensitive the church was to that potion.
To smooth that over, even the Müllers would probably have to pull out a couple of their family's pillars, and even then it might not be enough.
There was one more person he didn't understand.
'That saintess.'
Even if Casian himself didn't fully understand the weight of a Haste Potion, the saintess surely had to.
"I don't know why she would commit such a thoughtless, insane act."
"Because love knows no borders, no status, and not even the laws of religion."
"......Shut up. I'm not in the mood for jokes."
As Corint growled, Gale lowered his head slightly.
But the smile on Gale's lips didn't disappear at all.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Corint tapped another parchment he had placed on the desk.
It was the result of an independent investigation he had had the Intelligence Bureau carry out in preparation for unforeseen circumstances after the conflict with the crown prince.
"First the Rosenberg young lady, and now the saintess."
"The young master's popularity is through the roof."
"What's so funny about that? It was only a few days ago that I reported that Lady Rosenberg's interest in my son was anything but ordinary."
Corint gripped the parchment so tightly it looked as if he might crumple it.
The young lady and the saintess.
He knew very well how absurd and delusional it would be to even posit a theory that the two of them were simultaneously interested in his son.
Even so, there was only one reason Corint was worrying about this.
"Didn't you yourself practically retire from high society in your youth because of all the young ladies swirling around you? That kind of blood doesn't just disappear."
"I told you to keep that mouth shut."
The only time he had been able to escape that mad, contextless, impossible attention and obsession was after marrying his current wife.
'What a headache, honestly.'
Even if it were just a bunch of ordinary young ladies, coordinating them would be a headache, and now it was a young lady and a saintess.
What's more, it was being inferred, by coincidence, that both of those women had strong ties to the crown prince.
As a subject, he hadn't gone snooping through the crown prince's daily life, so there was still no confirmation.
"It seems the young master has unintentionally touched His Highness the crown prince's reverse scale twice now."
"If it were intentional, that'd be one thing, but that guy probably doesn't even realize what he's doing as he goes about his business right now."
Corint let out a deep sigh and looked out the window.
If he kept staying in the capital like this, he might really become the lead in a scandal that would split the empire in half.
"...Should I just send him back to the countryside?"
"Pardon?"
Gale lost his usual composure and widened his eyes.
"It suddenly occurs to me that letting him live the life he wants so badly might be better for the family's peace."
"Are you serious?"
"Half-serious. I never imagined I'd be having this worry the moment my son started showing the potential to become the greatest archmage in history."
Corint let out a bitter chuckle.
'So this is why raising children is the hardest thing in the world.'
But Corint felt a little aggrieved.
No matter how he thought about it, his second son wasn't just difficult because he was his own child; the boy was genuinely dozens of times more of a pain to handle and raise than someone else's kid.
"For now, keep an eye on Viscountess Müller's movements. If she's really planning to batter the church with money, we need to prepare support from our side as well."
"Understood, Head of the family."