The Northern Grand Bear 3
Apparently "let's talk man to man" meant leaving Kayden behind and going just the two of us, because Arthur, the Northern Grand Duke, set off at a long, purposeful stride.
"L-Loyalty!!"
"Is there anything you require, sir!!!"
Thanks to that, the soldiers stationed around the guest building started scrambling in every direction like ants swept up in a monsoon flood. A high-ranking noble they'd assumed was quietly holed up in his quarters had suddenly stormed out looking furious, so of course the soldiers were having a collective heart attack.
"I'd like a word. Mind lending us a spot."
"Yes, sir! Under! Stood!!"
Ah, I can feel it…
Not as Roland with ten years of adventuring under his belt, but as a discharged soldier turned returning student, I could practically read the thoughts behind those soldiers' eyes. They were cursing us with their stares — why the hell are you coming all the way out to the barracks when you could talk in the guest quarters?
Regardless, this bear of a man commandeered what looked like a soldiers' rest tent and dropped himself heavily into a seat at the table.
"Haa… First, there's something I need to tell you."
Perhaps conscious of the nearby soldiers, Arthur's mana rippled outward in a spreading wave. After carefully confirming that no one was within earshot, he scratched his head out of habit and began.
The soldiers, well trained in the art of looking the other way thanks to nobles who came north for recuperation, quickly put distance between themselves and the tent. Now the only ones left inside were me, the Northern Grand Duke, and Han Se-ah's camera drone, which had stubbornly tagged along.
"Kayden is not my son — she's my daughter. So I'd appreciate it if you'd be a bit careful about that."
"You're saying Kayden is a woman?"
Whoa. Leading with that, huh.
From the way he launched into an explanation under the firm assumption that I couldn't possibly already know about Kayden's cross-dressing, I could sense some kind of inexplicable pride. Almost as if he thought cross-dressing were some secret technique of House Wellesley.
Arthur Wellesley nodded, apparently taking my bewildered expression for something else entirely.
"It's a bit complicated to explain, but our family has a magical tool bestowed by the royal family. A disguise artifact, mainly used when gauging public sentiment…"
"A royal gift would be a precious item, wouldn't it?"
And you're letting your runaway daughter use it for cross-dressing?
"Hahaha, well, it's a long story. You're the only man in the party, aren't you? Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't bring this up, but as a father, I worry that if you think of her as a fellow man, something… unfortunate might happen."
He swallowed back whatever he'd been about to say and gave another sheepish laugh. Still, he didn't seem intent on hiding anything — he fidgeted restlessly before starting up again. Fidgeting fingers, a twitching jaw, and a tongue that clicked with embarrassment.
For a Northern Grand Duke and knight commander, he looked more like a bear waiting for a snack.
"Where should I start… I have two daughters. The older one is Anne Wellesley, the one you met in the forest earlier. The younger is Katie Wellesley, who's in your party under the alias Kayden. The two of them got along wonderfully when they were little."
His eyes grew distant with old memories, and he really did look like a bear curled up before its trainer. Whether or not I was having these ridiculous impressions, Arthur Wellesley's words continued, and the viewers' chat poured in like a flood.
"If this were a K-drama plot, we'd be getting a love triangle and a stepmother by now. But since Vivi Games doesn't seem like a Korean company, who knows how the story will go."
It felt like watching the opening of a drama. The viewers and Han Se-ah were both eagerly eavesdropping on our conversation. Of course, I was curious too. What kind of story would lead the youngest daughter of a northern ducal house to cross-dress and become a mercenary?
Everything from secret parentage to political feuds among blood relatives seemed ready to spill out, and every outrageous plot device I'd only ever heard about from K-morning dramas before coming to this world sprang to mind unbidden.
"If there's a problem, it would be after both daughters completed their coming-of-age ceremonies, when their opinions diverged. They'd always gotten along so well that I never expected them to fight so fiercely over succession."
"They fought over the heir's position?"
"Fought over the heir's position… in a manner of speaking, yes."
But Arthur's next words went in a direction I never could have imagined.
"Both of them fought over how much they did not want to succeed me as duke."
"…Excuse me?"
The nobles of Heroes Chronicle were essentially European aristocracy dressed up with K-fantasy titles — the kind of freewheeling mix of Chinese-style five ranks and European peerages you find in fantasy and romance fantasy.
Well, given that the foundation was Heroines Chronicle, a Korean mobile game, that was only natural. A setting perfect for princess knights and noble young ladies of every stripe to pop out of the woodwork.
And so the Northern Grand Duke held a whole stack of titles at once. Just like the self-introduction he'd abbreviated for being too long — Grand Duke of the North, Commander of the Frost Wolf Knights, Army General leading the soldiers, lord of his estate, master of the northern mountains…
"My daughters look exactly like their mother, but somehow their behavior is the spitting image of me. Watching them fight over how they had zero interest in a grand ducal title that would entangle them in politics — you have no idea how much of a headache that was."
So becoming the Northern Grand Duke meant becoming master of the vast North — but it also meant wearing a dozen official titles and being inevitably bound up in politics.
Even women who'd lost their husbands, whose power had waned, and who now just gossiped at social gatherings were politically connected to dozens of people. How many more would the Northern Grand Duke be tied to? Anne Wellesley and Katie Wellesley, the two sisters of the North, could not accept such a future.
Whichever sister became Northern Grand Duke would be tormented by politics. Countless men would approach wanting to become her husband for political reasons, and she'd have to manage political diplomacy for trade between the North and other regions.
Conversely, the one who didn't become Northern Grand Duke could freely roam the world. Since the political titles all went to the Grand Duke, she could enjoy a free life as deputy commander of the Frost Wolf Knights and the sword of the North, kept at a comfortable distance from politics.
"So what happened?"
"Anne, the older sister, insisted her younger sister was smarter than her and tried to assign Katie a tutor for heir education right after her coming-of-age ceremony. Anne said she was more interested in economics than politics, so she planned to yield the grand ducal title to her sister and take charge of the North's finances."
"And Kayden — Katie, that is…?"
"Said she'd rather learn swordsmanship than politics, grabbed a sword and a set of armor, and ran away. Claimed she wanted to look over the family's magical tools to commemorate her coming of age, then raided the secret vault for an ancestor's armor and the disguise artifact and bolted that very night."
Watching Arthur mutter with the hollow look of a man half-resigned, a corner of my heart filled with pity. He looked just like some family man crying into his hangover soup at a late-night eatery after a night of drinking. I'd imagined a young lady forced into a mercenary company to save her life after losing a power struggle to her sister… but it was the complete opposite.
An older sister trying to force the heir position onto her sibling, and a younger sister who absolutely refused and robbed the family vault to run away.
As Northern Grand Duke and father of two daughters, his head must have been spinning and his heart heavy. Well, those two certainly had distinctive character designs.
"Still, at least it wasn't some blood-soaked family feud, so that's a relief… but this is the moment my image of Kayden completely shatters. She always kept her distance, so I thought she was a cool, composed, ice-queen type swordswoman."
I wasn't the only one reeling from this absurd family drama — Han Se-ah's stream was heating up. For a father tormented by his daughters' bizarre quarrel it was a genuine headache, but for spectators it couldn't have been more entertaining.
"Wait a second — that means I absolutely have to push for Kayden's sister to become Northern Grand Duke, right? Otherwise our party's reliable rear-guard swordswoman Kayden gets force-class-changed into Northern Grand Duke and leaves the party. If a 4-star character disappears for a reason like that, I'd be too bitter to sleep, seriously."
In the end, there was no cold beauty harboring a tragic past. Just an older sister trying to dump the title and live easy, and a brat who ran away rather than get stuck with the job.
"So tell me — my daughter, as an adventurer… she doesn't lack talent or anything, does she?"
"As a swordswoman and as the vanguard of an adventurer party, she's outstanding. She never lets her guard down on adventures, always protects her companions reliably, and her combat ability grounded in swordsmanship is excellent."
"I see… so that's how it is…"
Like hell I was letting him take our party's reliable blade. Finding a 3-star archer was hard enough — where was I supposed to find another 4-star swordswoman to entrust with the rear guard's safety? I didn't care about the Northern Grand Duke title — Kayden needed to stay in our party.
…According to the viewers, the older sister was a 3-star, so keeping the 4-star in our party was the better play.
Arthur's deep sigh cascaded onto the table where only awkward silence hung.