The House of Aepheros (1)

Having seen Flora off in the carriage, Claire was left with a heart weighed down by worry.

Flora's reaction could only mean one thing — something had happened here. And if that something had hurt Karsein, then it was serious indeed.

Flora already knew she had wronged Karsein. Claire couldn't exactly offer advice, not with the situation being so personal, but there was a good chance her youngest sister had tried to say something to him. And whatever it was, it had happened at the Gelgeton Viscount's villa.

"...And yet those two are still going home separately?"

By the time Flora had stepped down from the carriage, Karsein was nowhere to be seen. There was only one ducal carriage, which meant the two of them had ridden here together.

But one stall in the stable stood empty. Karsein had chosen to ride back alone.

Flora wept as she said she had hurt Karsein. And Karsein, rather than riding back with Flora, had simply left on horseback by himself. It was only reasonable to conclude that some kind of incident had taken place at the villa.

"I have to go. I won't know anything unless I do."

She had no wish to see her two siblings fall out with each other like this, so she needed to get some answers from the nobles who had attended the tea party. She hadn't received an invitation, but as family to two of the attendees, she could at least ask a few questions.

The tea party wasn't far. She didn't even need to search for it — the voices of the nobles carried all the way down.

"It's strange, isn't it? Lady Flora didn't eat a single thing."

"So it's Karsein's fault, then?"

"That seems the most logical. Obviously, he was simply dissatisfied with the service."

"No, then you'd have to explain why he left. Neither of them ate. If he'd had a bite or two before storming out, that would at least make sense."

"So what on earth happened that made Lady Flora—"

"E-excuse me... everyone? One moment, please."

"What could possibly—EEP!"

The moment Claire stepped into the room, the chattering tea party fell silent in an instant.

Another Bagrand. Her mere presence was enough to set every noble's nerves on edge.

"L-Lady Claire... what brings you here?"

Pitea asked, cold sweat running down her face.

"Nothing much. Two of my younger siblings were here — Karsein and Flora, that is."

Gulp.

The nobles in the room swallowed in unison.

"Y-yes... that's correct."

"Would any of you care to tell me what happened between the two of them at this tea party?"

Claire asked, but no one offered an answer.

"Why is everyone so quiet?"

"Oh, um, well..."

It was all a delicate matter. For these nobles, Karsein and Flora were people delicate enough to warrant long, whispered deliberations over every raised word — and even now, they hadn't gotten a handle on the situation.

Wh-what do we do?

What do you mean, what do we do? What else is there but to make something up?

We can't say Lady Flora got angry because Karsein just left without satisfying her...

The young ladies began whispering among themselves, picking out a story to feed Claire.

Claire narrowed her eyes.

"I already know Karsein left first — I ran into Flora on the way. So let's start with why Karsein left early, shall we?"

As for Karsein, the truth was hazy at best. He had avoided every trap the nobles had laid out for him, and when dishes containing Kelvia fruit appeared, he had poured some kind of bottle over the food, declared himself an uninvited guest, and walked out. She couldn't imagine what reason drove such behavior — but to the rest of the room, he had simply passed up a golden opportunity.

In other words, they knew nothing.

When the nobles only exchanged glances and mumbled evasively, Claire simply strode into the room itself. She swept her gaze across the table.

"I heard something earlier. Apparently there were dishes prepared for today. Where are they?"

"E-excuse me?!"

"It was a tea party, so it was a light meal, surely? Though this time of day seems more suited to a proper meal than mere tea."

"Th-that is... the servants already took everything away. Nothing remains here, my lady."

Of course they couldn't leave the food out in the open. Flora had clutched her stomach after eating it and left in tears. She'd barely touched it, which left that side of things murky — but no one would have kept something so unpleasant on display.

However, as Claire listened and cast a sharp eye over the tablecloth and the surrounding table, a familiar color caught her attention.

"Lady Claire?"

Ignoring the nobles' confusion, Claire walked briskly forward, and with every step the object came into clearer view.

And then—

Rage began to boil up in her eyes.

"Ha. Fuck."

A coarse curse slipped from her lips.

She had seen a liquid of this color once before, back at the ducal estate. It was the shade the reagent turned when it met Kelvia fruit — the fruit that triggered Karsein's extreme allergic reactions.

Which meant food containing Kelvia fruit had been laid out here.

That alone would have been enough. But what had Flora said, clutching him to her chest?

That Karsein had been hurt.

The moment she saw those few paltry drops of liquid, every piece of the puzzle clicked vividly into place for Claire.

"Hoo."

Exuding a murderous aura, Claire blew her bangs upward with a breath.

The nobles were instinctively crushed under that charisma. The moment anyone so much as added a single word in this room, they would earn the hatred of the Bagrand Ducal House — and there was only one person that hatred would fall upon.

"I'm simply at a loss for how you managed to prepare all this so precisely — as if you'd matched it exactly to a guest's allergy. Pitea Gelgeton?"

"Y-yes...? Matched exactly... what do you..."

"Don't play dumb. For that reagent to show a color that dark, the food must have been loaded with Kelvia fruit."

"K-Kelvia fruit? Th-that's a c-culinary ingredient..."

Pitea stammered, pale with fright. But Claire's anger showed no sign of subsiding.

"The host of a gathering didn't know her invited guest's allergy? Ha. House Gelgeton is a renowned name in the food industry. Something like this could never happen by accident — not unless it was done deliberately. Am I wrong?"

"M-my lady... I-I never...!"

"I'm afraid House Gelgeton and I will have no further dealings from now on."

Smack!

Claire's handkerchief — stained vividly by the reagent — struck Pitea Gelgeton squarely in the face.

Tossing the handkerchief away without a backward glance, Claire left the room. The sharp report of her heels rang through the hall. The room was that silent.

Everyone there, holding their breath as they listened to those footsteps, would have understood.

From this day forward, House Gelgeton would not be permitted any activity at all.

One of the two main episodes had been resolved.

It was an episode that had sprung up out of nowhere at the tea party, but looking at this window, the standard verdict was that it had been neatly resolved. And yet my mood was inexplicably foul.

Because for me, being the uninvited guest had always been the norm.

It wasn't just at home. At school, I never became a true classmate. During group projects, I never became an equal member. Even at private gatherings or company dinners, when I ran into other kids from my class or met juniors and seniors — the children of my coworkers — I never shared their table. Retreats were the same. School trips were the same.

And at the birthday parties I was forced to attend because my family would be there — far more often than not, I was treated exactly like today: as an outright gate-crasher. Enduring one awkward ordeal after another, just as Karsein had.

But as I sifted idly through these shitty memories, there was exactly one place where it had been different. The one place where I could stand on equal footing with others was...

My part-time jobs... was it?

It was the odd, random workplaces — unconnected to family, school, or hometown ties — where I could finally stand at the same level as everyone else. Customers seeing me for the first time. Store managers watching to see whether I worked hard.

And—

There had been one single person who knew I was working part-time.

A thought occurred to me out of nowhere. I was here in this game, struggling tooth and nail just to survive — but how was she living her life?

...If I told her I'd ended up inside that game, she'd probably think I'd lost my mind, huh?

Imagining her reaction made me chuckle, and the filthy mood lifted just a little.

"Right. First I've got to figure out how to clear this bitch of a game before I can do anything else."

Just as it shimmered on the status window, one more episode still remained for me.

The goal of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this episode was to revive the Rusmayer Territory. How far the territory prospered depended on my management as its lord — but if this game had ended with simply managing the land, it wouldn't have been nearly so difficult.

This route forced two things upon me.

The first was trade. Trade with another family was mandatory; as lord of Rusmayer, Karsein was required to conduct trade with a designated house. And along the way, choices would inevitably arise.

The second is... the condition required to actually carry out that trade.

When I turned my attention to my stats, the situation I had been dreading was right there waiting.

As I thought — I don't have enough.

In RPG games, wasn't there a term for it — the minimum requirement for taking down a strong monster? The bare minimum spec needed to beat it.

This game had stats too, so there was a minimum requirement for killing any given mob. And if you fought a stronger opponent without meeting it, Karsein would simply end up dead.

But right now, I hadn't filled those stats sufficiently — blocked by not one, but two restrictions.

The first was the developer's measure to prevent players from clearing the game on stats alone: from Level 20 onward, the stat gains per action point spent on exercise dropped drastically. That one didn't bother me. It was a feature from the start.

The second, though — by choosing to take over Rusmayer Territory from the very beginning, I'd lost my free action time, and my training hours had plummeted as a result. Having a second episode spring up and eat into my time was the cherry on top.

"Clearing the episodes too fast really did leave me short on time to raise my stats, huh."

In that case, I couldn't start this episode right away.

"Getting to the West and making contact with the Marquisate of Aepheros a day sooner would obviously be better, but with these stats... it's not happening."

Their terms for accepting a first trade were unique, after all.

Neigh!

I left my exhausted horse to rest for a while and stopped by a nearby shopping district. Just in case my leftover money could buy something useful. I'd synthesized the Kelvia fruit reagent with my own two hands this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time, so who knew what else might prove handy somewhere.

Besides, there might be things Rusmayer Territory needed too. If I bought them with my own money now and had them sent to the territory, there'd be no interference from the system, either.

"Hm?"

As I entered the shops and was about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to browse the goods, I suddenly blinked at one stat that had changed on my status window.

The ??? Stat. It was still an unknown — even raising it told me nothing about what it did, and pouring every other stat into it changed nothing either.

But now, a tiny change had appeared in that stat.

"Twenty-five percent?"

Like every other stat, it had always been shown as a plain number — but now it read 25%.

"Man. I haven't got the faintest clue about this one."

Just as I was sighing over how I couldn't figure out what it changed, laughter drifted out from a café nearby, where a group of young women were chatting.

"What's Lady Harnie going to do, though? For this Eastern Noble Conference, she can't even rely on her family's power, so having her lover look after her would be a real comfort — except her fiancé can't look after her at all, can he?"

It was a fairly brazen remark. Mocking how Karsein Bagrand's abilities lagged so far behind that Harnie couldn't even count on her own fiancé's help.

Anyone would scoff at hearing something like this. The ones at the tea party had been bad enough, but apparently people were chewing me up out in public too?

Whatever. I was in a foul mood already, and shouting a few words here ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wasn't going to change anything. Even if word reached Arina, I could simply say they'd insulted my fiancée and leave it at that.

Thinking I might at least settle my stomach, I stepped into that café.