The Ashtar Legacy

The Ashtar clan.

Seria? What kind of relationship did we have? Honestly, I'd never given it serious thought before. What were Seria and I to each other? She'd said she liked me, but calling it a romantic relationship felt off. So maybe she was a subordinate? Yeah, that worked.

“For now… yeah. My subordinate?”

If she followed my orders well, that made her a subordinate, right?

“The Magic Tower people cannot be trusted. Especially since you are an Ashtar, my lady. You should only trust the Ashtar Magic Division, who would lay down their lives for the Ashtar name.”

Still, no one could match Seria when it came to enduring the Ashtar family's harsh training. But it looked like Kise had some kind of grudge against the Magic Tower—maybe they'd screwed her over financially. Just look at that expression. It was genuinely terrifying. No matter what, this went beyond normal rivalry. This was a sickness. And above all, it was annoying.

“That's enough. I need to rest a bit and take a bath.”

This was plenty. I'd heard that fights between women were vicious, but when factions got involved it seemed even worse. If Seria jumped into the mix, what would happen then? Just imagining it was horrifying. Fighting itself was fine. I just didn't want to be caught in the middle of it.

Unfortunately, Seria was connected to me from my days as Noah, while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kise was tied to the original Olivia. There was no need to spill blood over this.

“Understood.”

Kise turned away with a sullen expression. As long as she didn't start fighting with Seria, that was good enough for me.

The room assigned to Olivia was far larger than I'd expected.

“So this is Olivia's room.”

It was mine now. My room in the main family estate.

“As expected of a girl's room, I suppose.”

It had everything one could want. A vanity, an enormous wardrobe, and a bed easily twice the size of the one in the dormitory. Compared to the barren days I'd spent in the Land of Destruction, or the time I'd wasted with that useless hero party, it really felt like I'd struck gold in this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life.

“Nothing particularly interesting to see here.”

It wasn't just that the room was simply feminine—it was surprisingly devoid of excessive decoration. Back at the academy, when I'd been under that succubus's influence, I'd indulged in every luxury imaginable. This was markedly different from that time.

And then… I found Olivia's diary tucked away in the desk drawer. It seemed to be from before she'd been ensnared by Lily's succubus. Reading through its contents gave me a glimpse into the first Olivia's past.

Kise's mana circuits were smaller than the original Olivia's. Considering that the first Olivia hadn't specialized in magic, this might not have been an exaggeration.

It seemed she hadn't held a very favorable impression of Aslan. Enough to consider going after the assassination guild instead.

Olivia had been a girl who knew how to see reality for what it was. If not for Lily, she might have become empress without issue, or at the very least, she wouldn't have ended up so isolated.

For now, her relationship with Kise seemed to go back quite a long way. Digging further into the past turned up quite a few entries related to her.

Kise was the daughter of the Hart family, a baronial house. If one traced their roots, they had originally been commoners, but thanks to the Ashtar family's patronage they had risen to nobility. Even now, they remained a loyal vassal house to the Ashtars out of gratitude.

“Well, that should be enough to get the general picture.”

I continued reading the diary anyway.

“Grandfather?”

Sword Magic was the unique magic of the people who lived in the Land of Destruction, yet the head of the Ashtar family had been able to use it? Even without the succubus, it seemed the first Olivia and I—Noah—might have been connected in some way. Then who exactly was the first Olivia's grandfather?

This was something worth looking into. For any number of reasons, he might have been connected to the Land of Destruction. Fortunately, Olivia seemed to have been interested in her grandfather as well. The diary contained notes from her investigation into him.

In the corner of the room was a box secured with a lock. It was designed to open only in response to Olivia's mana. According to her notes, it contained information about her grandfather.

I unlocked it with her mana and examined the contents. There were documents and a portrait of a certain individual.

“She even prepared for the servants cleaning the room. Impressive.”

The 62nd head of the Ashtar family.

Eldacrad Lapa Ashtar.

A tragic figure who had brought both the Ashtar family's golden age and its greatest turmoil at the same time.

In the portrait, Eldacrad appeared majestic, clad in armor and mounted on horseback. Looking closely, he bore a resemblance to the current head of the family. The main difference was that he looked far younger.

When Eldacrad had become head of the family, the Ashtars had been in decline. Local nobles and central aristocrats had joined forces to drive the Ashtar faction out of the imperial capital. The number of Ashtar-born officials remaining in the capital had dwindled.

Upon ascending, Eldacrad had decided that rather than fighting a bloody battle in the capital, it would be better to build up his own power base. Even if they were driven from the capital, once Eldacrad grew strong enough, the nobles would bow their heads of their own accord.

That choice had been successful. He placed the capable officials who had been sent to the capital into key positions within the Ashtar territory, stabilized internal affairs, and immediately turned his eyes outward. He cooperated with the kingdom's army to lead monster subjugation campaigns and achieved victory against the Demon King's forces, which had just begun to stir at the time.

Both domestically and internationally, the Ashtar name rose in prestige, becoming powerful enough that other central nobles could no longer touch them. I'd heard that the Saint Bernoa, who had been dispatched from the kingdom at the time, had served Eldacrad. That alone spoke volumes about how impressive he had been.

“The problem is right here.”

The information Olivia had gathered about Eldacrad was relatively sparse. Eldacrad, together with Bernoa, had ushered in the Ashtar family's golden age. Then one day, he was defeated in battle against the Demon King's army and died in combat. That was the end of the record.

By the time of Eldacrad's death, the Ashtars had already secured a certain degree of influence. For a while afterward, the territory was managed by the clan without a formal head until the current duke took over, stabilized the Ashtars once more, absorbed the assassination guild, and placed the family back on solid ground.

“Even during the time when Eldacrad was active, there were no records of the Four Heavenly Kings.”

In an era where records of the Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King's army were scarce, the documentation on Eldacrad was similarly lacking. Was this mere coincidence? Or had something happened because Eldacrad had been killed by the Demon King's forces?

Perhaps this was something I needed to remember. It wasn't simply because Eldacrad was connected to Sword Magic. This concerned the Four Heavenly Kings. I would also need to search through the imperial archives.

In the duke's office, Katarina let out a deep sigh that seemed to come from the bottom of her soul.

“It seems my daughter rather despises me.”

“You should have been prepared for that.”

The duke nodded as if he'd expected as much. Given everything they had done to Olivia over the years, her reaction was only natural.

“What can I do? It is my sin, after all.”

“Pushing the child away so she wouldn't live like you. Wasn't that where it started?”

“……”

For a short time after giving birth, Katarina had cared for Olivia. But then she had arranged for her daughter to be educated separately. It was all because she herself was the leader of the assassination guild. She had wanted her daughter to live an ordinary life as a noble lady, not as part of that shadowy world.

Of course, as the crown prince's behavior grew increasingly strange, she had eventually decided it would be better to break the engagement and pass the assassination guild to Olivia. But until then, she had neither shown her daughter much affection nor told her what she was truly doing.

From that point on, the mother-daughter relationship between the noble house had effectively ended.

“If we're being honest, neither you nor I are qualified to call ourselves parents. I had to govern a chaotic Ashtar family, and you had to lead the assassination guild. Neither of us made for a particularly good mother or father.”

“……”

Unable to refute him, Katarina pressed her lips tightly together.

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“But that's simply how it is with nobles. Family information takes precedence over parental information. The house must come first. That's why nobles send their daughters off to marry into other families and invite every renowned professor in the country to tutor the son who will become the heir.”

That was the reality of noble houses. It was the fate of young lords and ladies born into them. At first glance, commoners might envy the nobles, but nobles had their own circumstances.

“Does that offer any comfort?”

“As I told you before, we aren't the only ones like this. If you want to start acting like a mother now, then do so. In any case, Olivia is a saint now, and I'm no longer in a position to restrain her.”

Not that he had any intention of restraining her even if she weren't a saint.

“Is that so.”

“At least you have some excuse.”

The duke laughed bitterly. At the very least, his wife had some justification.

“Pardon?”

“When Olivia was possessed by that succubus, weren't you busy dealing with the Pastia incident? I, on the other hand, slapped her across the face right in front of me.”

The nation of Pastia, founded by refugees from Kart, was little more than a small country compared to the empire. Yet Pastia had never forgotten its grudge against the empire. They had secretly trained anti-imperialists and infiltrated the empire with them. Although those agents had eventually been eliminated by the assassination guild, at the time the anti-imperialist agitation had grown so severe that Katarina herself had been forced to take action. Naturally, her attention toward her daughter had been pushed to the back burner.

In other words, Katarina had at least some excuse. More than the duke, who had slapped their daughter in the face at the academy.

“What do you intend to do, Your Grace?”

“As I said before. For now, the only compensation I can offer is to give her everything she wants. The Ashtar succession is clear at this point.”

Although Rockton had made a mistake this time, it was only because his opponent had been exceptional. Besides, the Ashtars needed time to rebuild their internal strength. They naturally hadn't been able to prepare for the arrival of one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

“Yes.”

“As I saw earlier, she's truly grown up now. Quite the formidable woman. According to the Light Sword, she defeated Pector. What more needs to be said? It seems my father has taken up residence within that child.”

“You mean the previous head of the family?”

The previous head of the Ashtar family—Eldacrad Lapa Ashtar. The greatest patriarch in the Ashtar family's history. He had revived a declining house and, using only the power of the Ashtar name, had driven back the Demon King's army before it had fully grown in strength. It had been an era when even Libelt wouldn't have dared to bark.

“That's right. And she possesses beauty that surpasses even yours. With that level of charm, nobles will be lining up to approach her. Make sure no man gets close to that child.”

He could not possibly allow any man near a daughter like that. Although she was a saint, everyone knew that the empire's saint lacked proper foundations. The current imperial Church of the Goddess didn't even have the pope's recognition, so they couldn't follow the doctrines of the Holy Kingdom's church. It was to the point that the pope was even considering founding a new religion. So even if she was a saint, men would still try to approach her, wouldn't they?

She was a daughter who took after her father in every way, a child he could never tire of looking at. Why had he only realized this now? How much burden and resentment must that delicate body have carried? Now, he felt he should give her anything she wanted.

If the fact that Pector had been repelled by Olivia spread, the nobles would swarm like flies. He could not allow her to be tied down by them.

“What do you mean?”

“She said she wants to learn magic, so I intend to teach her everything. No other family—not even the imperial family—will be able to touch my daughter. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

If the Ashtars were truly determined, they could suppress the nobles' complaints and protect their daughter.

“And you will have more opportunities than I do. You may yet be able to restore your mother-daughter relationship.”

“Understood.”

Perhaps a chance would come. Katarina thought so, unaware that another soul already resided within her daughter's body.