The Daily Duel and the Throbbing Headache
The mock battle had ended in a total mess.
After one clash that drained a fair amount of stamina—maybe because my sister was holding back on purpose, or maybe because she was just pissed at me—I naturally fell into close-quarters fighting.
I tried to drag the whole thing out by using the black spots as much as possible. I’d slap “Reflection,” “Slip,” and “Flexibility” onto them to deflect her attacks, or when I was countering, I’d hit her with “Paralysis” or some angle that was practically impossible to land on and land “Accuracy” for a surprise strike. But every time we closed in, the odds were stacked so heavily against me that I had no choice but to surrender.
She was terrifyingly relentless. I was actually scared for a second.
When I asked if it was because I’d ambushed her, she kicked me right in the shin.
“Wha…? …! Stop!”
Of course I knew why she was mad, but…
She was the one who was embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, so she was mad that I’d ambushed her? Honestly, that question of hers was kind of ridiculous.
When that happened, the best thing to do was just close my eyes and pretend I didn’t understand.
Anyway.
Even though I’d lost, I hadn’t been hit once. Looking at my sister, she looked perfectly fine.
No, of course she was fine physically. She was a high-ranking vampire. As long as she didn’t run out of blood, she was basically immortal. What I meant was…
Her tights.
Yeah. The tights. I’d deliberately drawn a line of black spots on them—basically a “thorn line”—and put “Sharpening” and “Sharpness” on them to create spikes that stabbed her several times.
How the hell was she still untouched?
I knew the reason. It had to be some fantasy nonsense. Like auto-recovery or something…
Still, it was annoying.
I felt her eyes on me again, so she lifted her head, still scowling and poking her shin with the tip of her shoe.
“Why?”
“Um….”
If I asked why the tights didn’t tear and stay perfectly fine, how would I answer?
Blush and act all shy? Or casually brag about how amazing her clothes were?
Probably the first one.
And since I wanted her to be embarrassed, I asked as flatly as possible—pretending it was nothing.
“I stabbed you a lot on purpose hoping to tear the clothes, but they didn’t rip at all.”
“Eh? It has an auto-recovery function, but… huh?”
She answered like nothing was wrong, but the moment I asked it, she froze, eyes wide, and stared straight at me.
Her cheeks, ears, and neck turned bright red.
“Wh-wh-wha…?”
If she was embarrassed, she just pretended not to hear. That was our sister’s habit.
So I bowed, trembling a little, took a step back, then grabbed her and whispered right next to her ear.
“I was trying to rip your clothes, and I’m really disappointed they didn’t tear.”
“…Hic!”
Thud!
She was shoved away. It didn’t hurt, but with her superior strength she couldn’t even resist and flew backward.
“Don’t—don’t talk to your sister like that! I can’t use you anymore!”
She wrapped both arms around her chest, crossed them, and shrank in on herself.
…Even though she was wearing full-body tights. She had no idea how meaningless that was.
And.
+++++
Leticia Tepes
….
Status: Excited. Happy. Nervous.
+++++
This was too much of a cheat.
My sister was desperately trying to hide her feelings, but she couldn’t hide them at all.
Still, how was I supposed to raise her favorability to 70? Every time I looked at her, I just sighed.
We only had a little more than a month left. I had to do something.
*
From then on, every day or every other day, I dueled with my sister. It was for my own real combat experience and to spend more time with her.
And one more thing.
After receiving the title of head butler from her and returning to Tepes as the new head of the territory, I started handling administrative work too.
I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it properly, but my body remembered everything, and since this body had a great head, I adapted quickly.
Adapting didn’t mean I liked it. I just did it because I had to.
Plus, Daisy made it easier. No matter how much of a martial-arts daughter she was, she came from a count-level family.
She wasn’t just loyal to Tepes by name. Blackwood—the family that had served Tepes formally for hundreds of years—wouldn’t send a low-level child there.
In short, Daisy was a capable talent.
On top of that, all the simple repetitive labor went to the ghoul maids and butlers, so Daisy, who only helped me from my side, actually enjoyed helping with my work.
She seemed to genuinely like helping me.
Hmm.
And until now I hadn’t cared, but the territory’s affairs were being handled perfectly by the steward. Tepes had always used talented administrators as steward, so I asked if it was possible. Turns out the steward was a Blackwood person.
Blackwood. How sincere were they toward Tepes…
The reason Tepes didn’t handle territory affairs was obvious. A vampire had to understand human life and human needs to run a proper territory, but Tepes was a vampire, after all.
One of the Three Great Noble Families, too.
Unless it was a big issue like a war with another territory, she seemed allergic to the common people. She didn’t know how much tax was fair. Unlike a starving vampire who could just drink blood for nutrition, humans needed a balanced diet.
She didn’t know how to set up laws either. Judging how guilty a human was would be impossible for a vampire like Tepes.
So whenever I tried to do anything, I ran into walls. That’s why we’d been using a reliable Blackwood person for hundreds of years.
Now that Tepes understood humans a bit and the steward job was doable without her, she still kept the old custom. Instead of changing it, she started receiving daily reports from the steward like before.
She didn’t have to worry about the steward lying. A Blackwood person who had shared the blood pact couldn’t lie to Tepes.
So every day, as the head, I handled work—honestly, it was just checking that the money was being managed properly—then dueled with my sister, talked, listened to the steward’s reports, and called Daisy to the room.
That routine went on for several days.
While I was stressed because I wanted to seduce my sister already, I kept getting the same results and felt frustrated.
I couldn’t show it in front of her, so I just stayed silent. Day after day, those feelings piled up.
Then the steward came to me.
“Night Master, I greet the great Tepes Lord.”
Honestly, that greeting felt weird. It was over-the-top.
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
The “Lord” trait was a higher-tier version of the “Noble” trait.
When I opened the status window, the fact that I was “Tepes Lord” was the highest honor for my identity, so only “Lord” showed up. In reality, it included the Duke of the Empire, Lord of Tepes Territory, and all the minor traits.
Here, the “Tepes” in “Tepes Lord” referred to the vampire designation, while the “Tepes” in “Lord of Tepes Territory” referred to the title granted by the Empire.
Since the Empire had granted the title, they proudly said they turned the Tepes surname into a noble one. That’s why Tepes the vampire and Tepes the noble were distinguished.
By only displaying the “Tepes Lord” trait as the highest honor in the status window, it showed that Tepes, a vampire, had a higher status than the other Three Great Families—Nosferatu and Draculai.
I rambled on a lot, but anyway…
In the lower traits of “Lord” there was “Noble,” which had “Dignity” and “Nobility,” so ever since I got the title from my sister, I unconsciously acted noble in public meetings, except for her and Daisy.
Like now.
When I met the Blackwood person who came to see me, the person staring back from the mirror was a cold, icy man.
Was that really me? It was so different from my usual self. My sister blushed when she saw it.
Anyway. When I was about to finish thinking, the steward sitting across from me opened his mouth hesitantly.
“Recently, the neighboring territory… meaning the Hailey Territory, has had constant border disputes.”
“Hmm.”
I nodded. He wanted me to keep going.
By the way, Hailey?
“Yes. …The disputes only started two months ago, but since you were ill, I couldn’t report to you.”
“Since I came back?”
“It was quiet for a while, so we assumed you received our warning and left. We’re sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. …Hailey.”
“Yes.”
I thought I’d heard that name somewhere…
Since it was familiar, I racked my brain. It was definitely somewhere I’d seen it.
Hailey… Hailey…
Ah.
“Christina Hailey.”
The cousin and supporter of the protagonist, Luna Taylor.
I heard she was the only woman who protected Luna when the protagonist was bullied by the other noble daughters in the academy.
My sister had once asked me to draw a yuri illustration of Christina and Luna because they both liked BL, so I knew who she was.
Anyway, disputes?
“Our territory has no power?”
“No way! Tepes is one of only seven dukedoms in the Empire. The other dukedoms have had their lords change several times, but Tepes has never. The territory is richer than any other in the Empire. Tepes is….”
He was praising Tepes again. If I let him go on, he’d talk for over half an hour, so I cut him off.
“Then is Hailey so powerful that she looks down on us?”
“No. Hailey’s family is also a count family, just like us. We are marquess, so in terms of actual influence, we might be weaker than Blackwood. We’re not particularly wealthy either.”
“Then what do you think is the reason?”
“I… I heard there’s been a lot of chaos inside the Hailey Count family over inheritance. Probably some greedy people are acting as bandits to take advantage of the confusion.”
“I see.”
I nodded, thinking that made sense, told the steward he’d done well, and ordered him to send another warning letter to Hailey Territory. Then I told him to go.
The sight of a prestigious Blackwood family bowing and leaving was a little pitiful.
But he was doing it because he wanted to…
When I asked if there was any complaint, he said he’d come because he was the one who applied.
He’d wanted to come to Tepes since he was a child, so he’d shown his talent in the administrative department and various other things within the family.
So had Blackwood been sending talented people from every field to other territories?
…
I wondered what would happen if I went there later.
Going myself sounded annoying, so I decided to send my sister instead.
*
The Hailey Count family had been living in constant chaos for the past six months, with no peaceful day at all.
After the Count suddenly collapsed, the two sons greedily expanded their power, and the youngest daughter played both brothers against each other to fatten her belly.
Even the countess was pushing the sons and daughter from behind while treating Christina Hailey—someone who genuinely worried about the count family and territory—poorly. Apparently the rumor that only Christina wasn’t her real daughter had spread among the servants.
Christina, with only a few retainers on her side, was trying to look for a way to become count, but all she did was struggle with political intrigues day after day. Her headache never went away.
Meanwhile, the half-sister had started bullying Christina the moment their father collapsed, carrying her mother on her back.
She looked more and more worn out every day.
If Christina had been a bastard child and lost her legitimacy, she might have been sad, but she wouldn’t have felt wronged.
Instead, the stone that rolled in was the other brother and sister.
Originally, the Hailey Count had married Christina’s mother, but before that he had fathered twins with a one-night stand. He kept that a secret and married the daughter of a prestigious viscount family, giving birth to Christina. Then he secretly took the mother of the bastard as a concubine.
Christina’s mother had strongly opposed it, so he couldn’t make her a concubine and left her as a mistress, but the Count secretly regretted it.
But a one-night stand partner compared to a woman he truly loved and a viscount daughter as his wife?
The Hailey Count truly loved and cherished Christina and her mother.
Unfortunately, the mother died young, and although the Count remarried the mother of the bastard, a woman from a frontier baron family…
At least he cherished Christina even more. Christina had never hated her father.
But right now, at this moment, she hated her father.
She hated him, but there was nothing she could do, so she swallowed her tears and stayed up all night in the study to protect the count family and territory with her retainers.
She was leaving for the academy soon. What would she do then? That worry blocked her vision, but she didn’t have time to worry about it because she was busy with the immediate situation.
As Christina was slowly withering away day by day, one document arrived in the territory.
『Tepes Lord Notification.
Despite having the duty to investigate thoroughly and sincerely the multiple border conflicts that occurred at Tepes Territory’s boundary with Hailey Territory, the Tepes Territory Steward ignored the Tepes Territory Lord’s request for cooperation twice and ignored the Tepes Territory Lord’s warning letter sent afterward.
This is trampling on the Tepes Territory Lord’s goodwill shown as a last favor to the Hailey Territory. From one week later, the Tepes Territory Lord will personally visit Hailey to protest this matter.
If no satisfactory and acceptable answer is obtained at the visit one week later, Tepes will hang the red crow flag and carry out revenge on Hailey.』
Looking at that paper filled with straightforward, insulting language without any noble rhetoric, Christina felt like she was about to faint.