Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: An Offer
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He had planned to deal with the Chimera Sorcerer right after finding Linbelle's mother.
However.
‘But it would be strange to pinpoint the man's location less than a day after arriving in the city.’
Julius might have deceived the former Baron Vellon with talk of family visions or instincts, but Allen didn't think such tricks would work on the current baron.
What if he was just as Allen suspected?
What if he had only pretended to fall for Julius’s excuses, using his supposed incompetence as a cover?
‘A better excuse would be that I found him by a stroke of luck shortly after the search began.’
Allen reined in his wandering thoughts and considered the value she would bring if she accompanied him.
‘Is she useful?’
Yes.
She was certainly more useful than bringing soldiers along.
A mage's detection range increased fivefold with each Circle.
Even though Allen possessed an unusually large ring of the circle, his own detection range was a mere three meters, whereas Francisca, a 4th-Circle mage, had a range of 375 meters.
Her presence alone meant she could be used as a tracker.
‘What if, though.’
While Allen was contemplating, Francisca had already approached Linbelle and started a conversation.
“Your skin is so clear. Do you have a special way of caring for it?”
“Oh, um… I-I don’t really know.”
“So it’s genetic. You have good parents. What is your mother like?”
“Yes. Th-thank you… Sh-she’s completely different from me, she’s so beautiful. But what does genetic mean…?”
“Hmm… Well, genetics is…”
Perhaps.
‘It might be a sense of kinship.’
Allen shook off his idle thoughts and answered her.
“Then please, come along. However, I have much to do, so I will be moving quickly.”
* * *
The area around the western gate's wall was quiet, with few soldiers present, as most seemed to have headed into town that morning.
The entire force, save for a minimal guard, had been mobilized.
Allen had worried if he could find her in such a place, but…
“Young Lord Allen, is this the woman you were looking for?”
His worries proved to be unfounded.
He hadn't even needed to bring Francisca. By the time they reached the western gate, the soldiers had already found the woman and were holding her.
“Oh, Mom! *Sniffle*…”
The moment Linbelle saw the woman with the soldiers, she ran straight into her arms.
“Linbelle…?”
The woman, looking rather bewildered by the situation, stroked the head of the daughter who had just jumped into her embrace.
The soldiers immediately stepped back as Allen approached.
Her gaze then turned to Allen.
She appeared to be in her early thirties. She had the same violet eyes as Linbelle, and her black hair flowed down to her waist. Just as Linbelle had said, she had the sturdy build of a hunter.
She observed the behavior of the surrounding soldiers and asked cautiously.
“My lord…?”
“I am Allen Reinhardt, the eldest son of the Reinhardt family.”
Allen slowly approached. One step, two steps.
As he entered his three-meter detection range, the ring near his heart vibrated faintly, and he could feel everything within that radius.
‘Her heart is beating fast. Why? Her thighs are tense, and her eyes are scanning for an escape route.’
Allen found her existence quite intriguing.
The fact that she had raised a daughter alone as a hunter, and that she was alive, unlike before.
However, in contrast to Allen's intrigue, she had been tense for some unknown reason ever since he appeared.
It wasn't the kind of nervousness a commoner felt before a noble, but a feeling that she was hiding something.
‘I am curious, but…’
That was all it was.
He had no intention of digging any deeper to uncover it.
His purpose was to protect her secret, not to expose it.
“Mom, the young lord helped find you.”
Just then, Linbelle, who had been in her mother's arms for a while, spoke in a small voice.
“He did…?”
“And he stopped the soldiers from touching me… Oh, right. I even ate at the estate…”
But no matter how much Linbelle chattered on, her mother’s expression remained stiff, and she eventually noticed, sealing her lips.
Allen slowly walked toward the tense woman.
“Even if I told you to relax… it would be useless, I suppose.”
Allen smiled, but she did not.
“What is it that you want?”
“Mom!”
“You stay quiet.”
Linbelle cried out, but a child could not win against a parent. At her mother’s single command, Linbelle fell silent again.
“I do not believe that you helped us out of mere pity, my lord.”
In truth, her thoughts were natural.
The eldest son of a count personally coming to help a girl from a rural village with a task he could have simply ordered his soldiers to do? And a girl with whom he had no connection?
Her daughter might have been naive enough to believe it, but she was not.
“I don't know what you want from us, my lord, but we have nothing.”
“What I want…”
“If you desire a body, then instead of my daughter, I…”
“Mom!”
Unable to hold back this time, Linbelle shouted again.
“The young lord isn’t like that. He just helped…”
“Be quiet, Linbelle. There's no such thing as a free favor in this world. Even if they pretend otherwise, everyone gains something unseen.”
Linbelle seemed dissatisfied with her mother’s response, but her mother didn't look at her.
“How rude!”
A soldier shouted loudly.
“Watch your tongue before the young lord! Do you know who you are speaking to—?”
“That's enough.”
“But…”
When Allen waved a hand, the soldier glanced at him and reluctantly closed his mouth.
“Ha, yes. You're right. There's no such thing as a free favor in this world.”
Allen nodded in agreement with her words.
It was the same with his return to the past.
There were no free favors. Allen believed that he would one day pay the price for his return.
He just didn't know when that would be.
‘It would be nice if I could postpone it until after I’ve killed him…’
He didn't think the world would unfold so conveniently.
“However, you're wrong this time. No, wait. To be precise, I do have a purpose.”
She nodded as if to say she knew it, while Linbelle’s eyes went blank with shock.
Surprisingly, Francisca remained silent, merely observing the situation.
Was it because it wasn't her business?
“I want a handmaiden…”
“So you did want our bodies… What?”
Allen’s expression momentarily went blank.
Francisca covered her mouth to stifle her laughter, but the corners of her lips twitched uncontrollably until she finally burst out laughing.
‘Like mother, like daughter, I see…’
Linbelle’s face turned red, as if she remembered yesterday’s events. She subtly took two steps back.
The woman finally seemed to grasp the situation, her face turning beet red.
“Ah, I, um, that is…”
Her eyes darted around rapidly as she stammered, unable to form a coherent sentence.
With superhuman patience, Allen kept his expression from crumbling and continued.
“Ahem, my intention is to take you both as handmaidens.”
Allen gave the answer to the dilemma he had been pondering since coming to Hivelo.
“What?”
“I said I will take you and your daughter as my handmaidens.”
History was being twisted even without any direct intervention from Allen.
Despite having no conflict with Julius, Linbelle had almost suffered a terrible fate.
If he hadn't been walking around at that time, it was clear she would have met a miserable end, even if the outcome was different from before his regression.
In that case.
‘I'll bring them in.’
Of course, he would give them a choice when it came to participating in battles or on the warfront.
But since he couldn't be sure that a tragedy like the one in his past life wouldn't happen again, he would bring them in.
That was the conclusion he had reached.
The countless disasters that would unfold in the future.
What if they died because of one of those disasters while he had left them alone? Then, whose fault would it be?
His, for not intervening? The disaster itself? A god who may or may not exist?
‘In the end, all this worrying was pointless.’
If he had known it would turn out like this, he would have just acted rashly like Julius.
However, this deliberation helped establish a standard for his future actions.
Time flows whether one acts or not, and the outcome of that choice is unknown.
Was there any guarantee that a better result would come from not intervening?
‘There isn't.’
In the end, he was not a god, but merely a human who knew a little about the future.
The black book was just a fragment of a differently-unfolded future, not the whole story, was it not?
His eyes sparkled with clarity.
In that moment, there was no change in his Circle. But he was certain that with a little more understanding, he could achieve a new level of attainment.
‘An understanding of the future…’
He shook his head. For now, the conversation came first.
“Us…?”
Feeling the urgent need to meditate, Allen spoke forcefully to her.
“Then, would you permit me to take only Linbelle?”
“That’s…”
Her expression darkened.
“That's why I'm saying this. It's obvious you would worry, so I offered to take you both as handmaidens. I have no other intentions.”
“…I, I’m,”
“I’ll do it!”
Linbelle immediately agreed to the offer of becoming a handmaiden. But her mother objected.
“…No!”
“Mom, what is it now! The young lord is a really good person, I’m telling you! He even…”
Linbelle subtly whispered into her mother’s ear. Out of courtesy, Allen dispersed his detection and waited. The woman looked at him with a surprised expression, then slapped her daughter.
“Ow! What was that for!”
“…You, we’ll talk later.”
She glared at her daughter before stepping forward to face Allen.
From the moment he said he would take them as handmaidens, she knew it wasn't a request but a declaration.
There was no way she could refuse the offer of a noble, especially one who would one day rule this land.
The fact that he had phrased it as a request, at least for appearance's sake, suggested he was a decent person.
She could only hope… that all the actions her daughter had told her about were a reflection of his true nature.
She thought deeply for a moment, then lifted her head as if she had made a decision.
“I, Inellia, and my daughter, Linbelle… will become the young lord’s handmaidens. In exchange…”
She came closer and whispered softly.
“You may do as you wish with me, but please, do not touch my daughter.”
I have no intention of doing so.
Allen couldn't even be bothered to correct her, feeling it was too much of a hassle, and simply replied.
“Fine. I won't.”
He hadn't even found a way to get his younger brother back yet; he had no intention of foolishly indulging in women.
Perhaps he might have considered it when everything was over, but.
‘Will such a day ever come?’
“…Yes, thank you for granting my request.”
Francisca, who had been watching the entire exchange, looked at Allen with an ambiguous expression. She had clearly heard the whisper.
Allen ignored her gaze and spoke to the mother and daughter.
“Inellia, Linbelle. First, I will have a room prepared for you. You can catch up there. As for your training as handmaidens… it will begin when we return to the main estate, so be prepared.”
Taking commoners as handmaidens was a choice he would have never imagined making in the past, but he didn't care.
Not only would he be gaining a potential member of the continent’s Eight Strongest, but his mother would surely support him, as she had always hoped he would take on a handmaiden, regardless of who it was.
Allen immediately turned to Francisca and thanked her.
“Miss Francisca, thank you for coming with me.”
“…No, I wasn't much help.”
“Simply being here as insurance was more than enough. Thank you.”
Allen gave a slight bow and turned away.
He needed to organize the inspiration and thoughts that had just come to him.
“…But, um, Young Lord.”
“My apologies. I'm in a hurry.”
After finishing his farewells, he assigned a soldier to escort Linbelle and Inellia to a room in the estate, then immediately made his way to a room in a nearby inn.
“Welco— Eek…!”
“A single room. Any one. Now.”
“Y-Yes! Here you go.”
The innkeeper's hands trembled so much that he dropped the key once, but Allen paid it no mind, immediately grabbing it and heading to the room to sit down.
Until he entered the inn, Francisca watched his retreating back with an unreadable smile.
She watched until he disappeared from sight.