The Battlefield (Part 2)
After my deployment was decided, conversations among the family members had followed. Most of them, however, had been emotionless business talks.
The scale of the troops, the selection of the staff and auxiliary personnel including servants, advice on the deployment ceremony in two days and the route after that, my position and precautions at the Western Command once I joined, and everything else—all of it had been talk purely about going to war.
No one had worried about my safety at all, which had only made my mother’s face even more gloomy.
“If my father’s decision is final, there’s nothing to be done about it. But if you ever dishonor the family name, I won’t let you off the hook.”
Cedric gave me that kind of condescending warning in a particularly condescending tone. At twenty-three—Korean age twenty-five—it wasn’t such a young age, yet somehow his actions felt so foolish. Was it because I had been too coddled?
“I’ll do my best.”
Cedric’s expression showed he wasn’t satisfied with my half-hearted reply. He was about to add something else when Father interrupted at just the right moment.
“Adrian, let’s talk for a moment.”
Even in the study, besides the family, many servants and retainers were present. Father, who had already removed his bodyguards to talk privately, led me to the outdoor balcony.
Father gazed at the nightscape of the fief visible below and spoke. “Once this situation is truly resolved, I plan to transfer you and Sylvia to the King’s Dominion. If there’s a city you want, tell me. I’ll support you generously.”
It was an unexpected proposal. This time the justification was war, so it was unavoidable, but Anna—someone who hated moving to places beyond my sight—would she really approve?
“Consider it compensation for you stepping in for Cedric instead. From now on, you can live doing exactly what you want without worrying about others’ eyes.”
It seemed the talk had extended to Anna too. But because my trust in Anna and Cedric had already hit rock bottom, I couldn’t accept Father’s suggestion at face value. If Anna caused trouble, Father—who always watched his own background closely—wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“Understood. I’ll think about it.”
I replied formally without putting much meaning into it. But parents are parents, right? Father smiled bitterly at my reaction. “It seems you don’t trust me.”
It was only natural. At seven years old, when I was poisoned, Father’s response had been utterly disappointing.
“Whether you trust me or not, all of this will be discussed after I safely return from the battlefield.”
“That’s true.”
“Thank you for worrying. Let’s talk about the rest after I come back.”
Father nodded in agreement with my words and took out two rings with blue gems from his pocket, handing them to me.
“What are these?”
“Artifacts containing a 5th-class auto-shield and a 7th-class great-shield. They’re high-grade artifacts that will significantly boost your survival ability. Especially the 7th-class one is such a precious item it’s almost like a treasure.”
Since they were quite valuable, I had to show a surprised expression.
“Thank you.”
I didn’t refuse and kept both rings.
In recent times, space-movement interference systems had become standard on the battlefield, making journeys via blink or teleport almost impossible. That was why Father had gifted me defensive artifacts.
“For survival, you’ll have to act carefully.”
“Yes.”
If fortune was good, it might end in a localized battle, but if it turned into a full-scale war after the declaration, my body would be something I had to protect myself. But even the Croisen Empire wasn’t on the level of Lheinhatz Kingdom, which was a powerful nation recognized across the Defteron Continent. They would form a united front with allied kingdoms again, so it wouldn’t lead to a crisis where the fate of the nation hung in the balance.
“Let’s go back inside.”
The moment I turned from the balcony into the room, I saw Anna and Cedric staring at me intently. When our eyes met, Anna flashed me a kind smile. It was a disgusting smile, but I smiled back. Father looked at her cautiously and spoke. “Don’t worry about Sylvia. Go with peace of mind.”
I had disappointed her several times already, but among the people who still deserved my trust, Father was the only one left. I shot him a cold gaze full of meaning and replied. “Of course I will. Thank you, Father.”
“……Right.”
* * *
After Adrian and Sylvia, both full of resentment, returned to their mansion, only Cedric and Anna remained in the lord’s study.
“Don’t interfere with the two of them. Got it?”
“You……”
“I hope you don’t disappoint the lady any further.”
After Cedric said he would abandon all kinds of threats including surveillance regarding Adrian and Sylvia, Anna clicked her tongue shortly and stood up from her seat.
“Have you understood?”
“Yes!”
And as Anna left the study grumbling in anger, Cedric sank deep into the sofa.
“Ugh.”
But at that moment, a severe headache struck him. The butler, who entered the study in turn with Anna, was startled and rushed over at Cedric’s unusual appearance. However, Cedric raised his hand to stop the butler and spoke coldly. “Wait outside.”
“But……”
“Hush!”
“Ah, understood.”
As the butler left the study in a hurry, Cedric alone checked the ring on his right hand’s ring finger. “Pain relief.”
Blue light began from the ring and enveloped his whole body, and Cedric’s expression gradually softened. Then, as if he had been a corpse leaning on the sofa, he soon combed his tousled brown hair into a slick back and stood up from his seat.
“It seems I was right to have acted as a scapegoat.”
Cedric walked to the bar, poured whiskey into a glass, and recalled his second son Adrian. The child who had absorbed knowledge fiercely after hearing the term genius. After the poisoning attempt, he was no longer a genius, but the gaze he showed while discussing Sylvia’s safety had carried an aura incomparable to Cedric, the successor. It was enough to make even someone ruling a region shudder. If Anna had received that gaze, she would have tried to eliminate Adrian sooner or later.
“The brat……”
That gaze shouldn’t have been directed at his parents, but at the moment, Cedric’s mood was quite pleasant. Late interest in his second son could stir up a storm within the family, but Cedric was someone who found Adrian interesting.
* * *
Upon returning home, Mother poured out the tears she had held back all this time. She said she was sorry that she was too lowly to be of help, as if my participation in the war was her fault.
“You are.”
I patted that Mother and ordered the servants to leave the room. “Huh? We……”
“If it’s due to Grandmother’s order, don’t worry. Even if I vent my anger on you now, she’ll probably close her eyes.”
A few people planted by Anna tried to mumble, but as I glared at them like I would kill, they left the room like they had been burned. My current anger was very justified. Anna had no reason to provoke my nerves by sending me to the battlefield instead of Cedric.
After confirming the servants had left, I smiled at Mother. “Mother, you don’t have to worry. You know how well your son handles himself.”
“But dragging me unnecessarily far away to harm you……” Mother already knew that the once-clever me becoming a fool wasn’t due to the aftereffects of the poisoning. That was why she thought I had hidden my abilities to survive and pretended to be incompetent to please Anna or Cedric, which was why she reacted this way.
“If that’s the case, then I’m actually the one who benefits.”
“What?”
Was my reaction different from what I had thought while talking? Mother wiped her tears and gave me a puzzled look. “The more sins we have to process the two of them, the better, right?”
A line that destroyed Mother’s thoughts. Her bright eyes widened, and she shook her shoulders in surprise. “A- Adrian? What are you saying?”
And she kept looking around nervously, worried someone might be listening. “Don’t worry. The outside of the door is guarded by Arsia.”
“Still……”
Don’t worry about listening devices or surveillance cameras. No matter how I acted incompetent, the only thing I had never allowed was listening devices and surveillance cameras. I had found those devices and reported them calmly to the fief’s security office each time they were discovered. Even if I had no power, as the lord’s son reporting on the main line, they would have to do something about it somehow. This would surely reach Father’s ears.
My report had been unexpected, so Anna hastily cut ties, just like last time she had framed some random person for the poisoning attempt. And from then on, every time surveillance equipment was discovered, the same thing happened, so it was inevitable that bad rumors spread among the fief residents.
In the end, Anna gave up on equipment and had to monitor me through personnel. That is, surveillance but keeping within a certain line, and we had reached a silent agreement.
“I have no intention of enduring it. There aren’t much time left. Please wait just a little longer.”
“You, what are you……?”
Was it because the innocent son had disappeared, or because of the declaration directed at Anna and Cedric? Mother, with dried tears, puckered her mouth like a fish, then soon broke into hiccups.