How Did I End Up Inheriting All That Crap When There Was Nothing to Inherit

Chapter 95

Plod, plod.

I walked down the hall toward my father's office.

My steps were as heavy as lead.

Standing before the office's thick wooden door, I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Creak.

I cautiously turned the knob and stepped into the office.

Hunched up and shrinking my shoulders like a guilty man.

To put it bluntly, yes, the trouble I caused today was huge, but in the end hadn't I basically played the perfect fixer, crushing the church's subversives and restoring the prestige of the Imperial Family and the Academy?

So normally, I could have strutted over to the sofa, planted both feet on the table with a bang, and lifted my chin proudly.

'Hmm. Then tomorrow morning my head will get smashed like an ashtray and end up in the papers.'

Of course, I wouldn't actually do something that shameless.

Still, I should be able to act a little confident inside, and there was only one reason I was this scared.

Because that encounter earlier was awkward as hell.

Just this evening, when I denounced Cardinal Barneo's crimes before the Pope and Princess Iveline—

"Damn, today really went well! I'll sleep with my legs stretched out!"

...or so I thought.

Who could have expected all that quasi-affair nonsense to spill out of that visit to the Rosenberg estate, which I thought would be nothing more than a light epilogue to the day, or maybe a bit of therapy?

Tsk.

If I tell him this, what kind of face is Father going to make?

That I'd spent the dead of night alone with a woman engaged to the Crown Prince, in the sort of situation practically guaranteed to be misunderstood?

As the head of the Intelligence Bureau, a man who puts the Empire's stability and balance above all else, there was no way my father would just let me live after hearing that.

'I'm so screwed.'

If this had been before, even if he asked something like that, I should've been able to shoot back, "No, that's not it. She was just feeling down, so I put on a little monkey show to cheer her up and that was it."

But right now, with Elysia's scent still lingering at the tip of my nose, my face still felt strangely hot.

Thud.

"...You've come."

While I stood there in front of his desk, trying to read his mood, Father, who had silently been looking over paperwork, spoke heavily.

Glancing up at Father's face, I could tell that, just as that old Alfred had said, his usual blank expression made it impossible to tell whether he was angry or not, and that only made me burn up inside even more.

"Yes. Sorry I'm late."

"If everything's been sorted out, shouldn't you have come straight home and explained yourself? That's just basic courtesy as a family member."

"...I have no excuse. There were a few minor tasks to take care of outside."

The problem was that those "minor tasks" involved wandering around Star Tree Forest with the young lady and having tea.

Father let out a long sigh and rested his chin on his interlaced fingers.

"I've already received a rough report on the standoff at the academy's main gate and what happened inside the grand hall."

As expected of the head of the Intelligence Bureau.

It must've been reported in real time the moment that chaos ended.

"However, since you experienced and directed every last detail yourself at the scene, I need to cross-check it from your perspective. From now on, explain the entire situation to me accurately."

"Yes."

"And by tomorrow morning, separately organize a minute-by-minute timeline and submit it on my desk."

"Ah."

Damn it, there's no escaping this paperwork.

"Understood."

After answering obediently,

I immediately steadied myself and began briefing him on the full story, from when I ran into Cardinal Barneo and the Knights of the Eastern Cross at the academy's main gate to when Lily denounced the cardinal's abuse in the grand hall.

Including the part where I deliberately baited him by calling him a fake child abuser to trigger Professor Iris's lightning, and the timing of Princess Iveline's intervention.

And then sneaking the saintess away to the lab.

Even the conversations that were exchanged in the grand hall.

I stripped out my own feelings and opinions as much as possible and boiled it down to dry facts.

"...And that's how His Holiness the Pope personally apologized, and the matter was resolved."

Scratch, scratch.

After my explanation ended, Father tapped the paper he had been taking notes on with his fountain pen and slowly nodded.

"There's no difference from what I was briefed on. No, the details of how you laid everything out were far more viciously cunning than I expected."

No difference from what he'd been briefed on?

Who on earth had he learned about it from?

Did he plant an informant in the Knights of the Eastern Cross or something? Just how far does my father's intelligence network go?

But Father set down his pen and continued with more questions, giving me a cold look.

"Beyond the details of that incident, there are two more matters I need to hear about in more detail."

"...Two matters?"

"Yes. Those matters don't exist in our own investigation records, so I have to understand them entirely from your explanation."

What?

I had a rough idea about one of them.

It was probably that utter five-minutes-before-disaster mess when Lily burst out of the lab.

I decided to get ahead of it and asked first.

"One of them is about the situation in front of my private laboratory, when I got entangled with Your Highness the Crown Prince and the young lady, isn't it?"

"That's right."

Father confirmed it with a furrowed brow.

"Explain that part in more detail."

He really was a nitpicky old man.

So he really had strictly forbidden intelligence gathering on members of the imperial family under any circumstances.

"At that time, Your Highness the Crown Prince barged in and tried to take the saintess away, and just as I was blocking him, Saintess Lily backed me up and refused to accompany the Crown Prince."

"Hmm. And?"

"The Crown Prince had no intention of backing down, but right after that, Lady Elysia appeared and, no, used her status as an eyewitness to what looked like an affair to send the Crown Prince packing and sort things out."

My wording was a little rude, though.

He'd understand, right?

I reported the situation as dryly as possible, cutting out every trace of the subtle atmosphere between Elysia and me.

"I see. It went roughly as I guessed."

Father didn't seem particularly surprised even after hearing my report.

Instead, a complicated, unreadable shadow began to fall over his face.

"Then what's the other one?"

I asked cautiously.

"Hmm."

Father tapped his fingers on the desk, seeming a little hesitant.

'What is it?'

My father had never once dragged things out or hesitated like this when discussing official matters.

"Cassian."

"Yes."

"From now on, you must answer my questions with nothing but the truth, without a single excuse or lie. This may be a matter on which your life and the very survival of our family depends."

"...What? Why are you scaring me like this?"

I swallowed hard.

Father leaned forward, staring straight at me.

"The young lady and the saintess."

"..."

"Are you, perhaps, in a complicated relationship with those two?"

"...Huh?"

A stupid question slipped out of my mouth.

But Father drove the point home.

"I mean a romantic relationship."

If I'd been asked that yesterday, or even this morning.

'No, what the hell kind of absurd nonsense is that, Father? What skill do I have to seduce those two?'

...I would've said.

I would've jumped up and denied it as ridiculous.

But now—

I couldn't bring myself to say anything.

Because in my head, the image of Elysia wearing my cloak and blushing prettily, and Lily shouting, "He's my guardian!" in front of the Crown Prince, kept flashing by in tandem.

"..."

Even though I couldn't answer right away and kept my mouth shut.

Father, unexpectedly, said nothing and simply stared at me.

'This is terrifying as hell.'

It was a relief that he wasn't shouting at me immediately.

Still, scary was scary.

The atmosphere was so heavy it felt like he might throw a crystal ashtray at me any second.

I knew I should answer properly, but my lips just wouldn't come apart, like they'd been glued shut.

"Since it seems to be a difficult question to answer."

Father changed his question in a low voice.

"Let me make the question a little more precise."

"What...?"

"Not that you seduced them, but perhaps."

Hmm?

"Did those two first develop one-sided feelings for you?"

Wow.

Shit.

How the hell far did my dad know, and how did he know all this?

What, is there a spy among Elysia's maids or something?

Or am I being shadowed around the clock?

"Could it be..."

I asked in a tiny voice, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Did you secretly put someone on me?"

"Haaah..."

Father, still wearing that same impenetrable blank expression, let out a sigh so deep it felt like the ground might cave in.

But that sigh felt less like anger and more like the collapsing burden of a family head carrying all the world's troubles.

Why did he look so hopeless?

Father pressed a hand to his forehead and muttered quietly.

"How... with nothing to inherit, did I end up inheriting all that crap..."

"Huh?"

What on earth did that mean?

Inherit that crap because there was nothing to inherit?

What exactly had I inherited?

"That was just me muttering to myself. Anyway, answer me properly."

Ah...

This is fucking terrifying to talk about, seriously.

I scratched the back of my head hard.

But.

I couldn't lie at this point.

I wasn't an idiot; Father had already mobilized his entire intelligence network and had all the circumstantial evidence before asking this question.

If I tried to dodge it here and got exposed later, I could really end up struck from the family register.

And normally, even about Lily, I'd have brushed it off with something like, "Ah, she does rely on me a lot, but it's not romantic feelings between a man and a woman."

But after dealing with that silver fox named Elysia in Star Tree Forest tonight—

even Lily's blind devotion toward me over the past while had been sorted out objectively in my head again.

The painful realization that it wasn't just attachment to a guardian, but that she was looking at me as a man.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Probably..."

"..."

"Yes. I think what you said is probably right."

No point hiding it.

It was obvious he was asking because he already knew I'd met Elysia tonight.