Chapter 57
Burg=Varmington, head of the Varmington family, hurled a bitter curse at the morning sunlight streaming through the window, then rose, shaking his aching head.
His headache was from drinking too much the night before. No, not just last night. Lately, Burg had been spending night after night unable to sleep unless he drank heavily.
The cause was clear: news that Kinsley=Imbubey had died of an illness. There was no way Kinsley had died of an illness. He had been eliminated.
He had completely misjudged the situation. He should never have antagonized Roa=Stein. He had gone along with the proposal because he thought it would be safe if it came from Kinsley, the man who coordinated the Noble Council. He had never imagined things would turn out like this.
Since the Tenth Knight Order stood in the way of restoring Hummet-sama, Burg should have welcomed anything that would weaken it.
And forming ties with the Zodiac family was not a bad proposition, either. Even if they refused, he could put the powerful Zodiac family slightly in his debt. That had been his plan.
But he had been too naive.
Kinsley himself had said, 'If it came to it, I would handle it.' Yet that man had been easily eliminated by the King.
Burg had sensed that the nobles' position was worsening, but he had never imagined matters were bad enough for Kinsley to be dealt with so quickly...
Burg shuddered violently. According to rumors he had heard recently, Roa=Stein had been the one who killed the former head of the Beroza family and his son. It was even said that he had moved the King to have the entire family exterminated.
Considering how rapidly Roa=Stein had risen afterward, it might not have been a mere rumor. If so, could Roa=Stein have orchestrated the Kinsley incident as well?
No, now was not the time to investigate that.
Whether the order came from the King or Roa=Stein, Kinsley's removal could mean only one thing: their plot had been exposed.
What would become of the Varmington family?
The thought made his stomach churn first thing in the morning.
"Someone, bring me some water!"
At the head's irritated shout, the butler hurriedly prepared some water and brought it to him. Burg snatched the glass roughly and gulped it down, spilling water around his mouth.
"...What is Terenza doing?"
The butler hesitated at Burg's question, but when Burg glared at him, he hurriedly spoke.
"I haven't seen him leave his room today, either..."
After Roa threatened him, Terenza fled home in a pitiable state and had barely left his room since.
He was curled up in bed, trembling. His condition had grown even worse after word of Kinsley's situation reached him.
As the heir to the family, he couldn't go on like this... In the first place, Terenza had apparently acted extremely high-handedly toward the Zodiac family. Burg had instructed him to be forceful, but in the end, he had completely misjudged how to approach them.
To think he had been threatened by Roa=Stein and ended up in this state—it was an act that dragged the Varmington family's honor through the mud.
Though he was angry with his own son, that anger lasted only a short while. Soon, the same thoughts filled his mind once more.
What should the Varmington family do to survive...?
Should I go to the King and plead my case? Say that Kinsley threatened me and I had no choice.
It wasn't impossible, but would the King believe me if I suddenly showed up? Would I be arrested on the spot?
The safest option would be to ask a noble in the capital to mediate, but when it came to a powerful noble capable of calming the King's anger—or one who could stand up to Roa=Stein...
It would be difficult. The nobles close to our family are mostly those with deep ties to Hummet-sama. There are few such nobles in the central aristocracy to begin with, and they keep their distance from the current King.
I doubt the King has seen through Hummet-sama's scheme, but there is a strong possibility that he has grown more vigilant. If I handle this poorly, it could easily backfire.
For the past several days, he had considered the same matter over and over, but his thoughts always went in circles.
"Um..."
"What? You're still here?"
Burg realized that the butler was still standing there. Annoyed at having his thoughts interrupted, he glared at him.
"My apologies. Actually, there is a young woman at the gate asking whether the family might employ her."
"Employ her? There's no need. Turn her away."
"The thing is, she has a letter of introduction from a noble-sama from the capital. She apparently comes from a nearby village and, because her parents are elderly, left her previous household to look for work around here."
"A noble from the capital? Whose letter of introduction is it?"
"It is a letter of introduction from Lago-sama."
"Lago... the Demisus family..."
It was not a family with which Burg had any particularly close ties, but it was reasonably well known in the central aristocracy. If he remembered correctly, its origins could be traced back to a family founded by a relative of the King.
"...May we turn her away?"
"No, wait. It would look bad to treat someone with a letter of introduction so cavalierly. For now, give her some work. Then retrieve the letter of introduction."
"Yes. Very well."
After watching the butler leave, Burg began racking his still-heavy head, wondering whether he could use this opportunity to somehow establish a connection with the Demisus family.
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Four days after Burg hired Sivi.
Two people slipped smoothly through the window of the inn where Nelfia was staying, one after another with some time between them.
"Good work. Shall we begin?"
Nelfia thanked the two in a voice she had trained to be audible only to those nearby.
In the dim light, Little Bird (Sivi) and Wheat Ear (Uno) silently nodded.