He Who Tied the Knot Must Untie It (1)
He Who Tied the Knot Must Untie It (1)
Rustle.
The Duke sat at his desk, continuing to review documents.
Even though his young son had come to his office for the first time, he seemed completely uninterested.
If I'd been a son seeking his father's affection, I would have cried or stormed out in anger at such a cold reaction. But that wasn't why I'd come.
I waited quietly. I'd experienced plenty of this kind of push and pull in my past life, so waiting wasn't difficult at all.
How many minutes had passed?
"What is it?"
At last, the Duke spoke. He didn't even look up or set down his pen, but it seemed we could finally have a conversation.
"Someone is trying to kill me. I've come to request protection."
Tap.
The pen moving across the document stopped.
The Duke raised his head.
His cold eyes fixed intently on me.
"You say interesting things. I heard you were a child wise beyond your years, and it seems that's true."
His expression and eyes didn't change at all. The face that had shown such complex emotions before my death was nowhere to be seen. Only icy coldness remained.
"Someone is trying to kill you... Are you saying you know who it is?"
"Yes."
At my answer, a slight crack appeared in the Duke's cold expression.
"No matter how young you are, if you slander someone with unconfirmed claims, the consequences will be anything but light!"
The Duke's heavy voice echoed through the office.
The reverberating sound gave me goosebumps.
The content and tone of his words alone seemed more than enough to terrify an ordinary person.
But I'd died too many times to be frightened by this.
"If I must take responsibility, I will. I heard it directly from the person who's trying to kill me."
Only then did the Duke put down his pen. He leaned back in his chair, and his expressionless face began to look weary.
"Directly, you say... You speak of hard-to-believe things."
He stared into space for a moment, as if tracing a fragment of the past.
But it lasted only a moment. He rubbed his face as if washing it.
When he lowered his hands, his slightly crumpled expression had returned to its usual blankness.
He leaned forward and looked straight at me.
"It's hard to believe, but setting that aside, why should I protect you?"
It was absurd. It wasn't something a father should say to his son.
As he stared intently at me, it seemed as if he were testing me. But hearing his words, I felt what little affection I had left was on the verge of turning to dust and vanishing completely.
Naturally, my reply came out stiffly.
"Because I'm worth that much."
"Hmph. So you've awakened too, is that it?"
He spoke as if it were nothing significant.
"If it's the Physical Optimization ability, it's quite an interesting inherited ability. But it's not yet certain that this is indeed the ability. Even if it is, there's no telling whether you'll grow as much as I expect."
Contrary to his initial words, he still explained it in quite some detail.
For some unknown reason, the Duke was interested in this ability, and if things went well, it could grow far beyond expectations...
Had I gained another clue?
The Duke continued.
"In any case, that alone isn't enough of a reason to waste manpower."
The Duke picked up his pen again.
He looked as if he'd completely lost interest.
Is this what they call experience? Since the person in power is acting like that, whether he's sincere or not, I have no choice but to lay all my cards on the table.
Step.
I walked over to the suit of armor standing in a corner of the office.
It was a polished suit of plate armor set up for display. Arranged to look like a person, it had a sword sheathed at its waist.
Shing.
I drew the sword.
Fortunately, it slid out smoothly.
But it was heavier than I'd expected. I forced the wobbling sword upward and looked at the Duke.
The Duke was watching me with one eyebrow raised.
Though his face remained expressionless, I could clearly sense his bewilderment.
Still, it was a relief. If I hadn't been so young, the moment I picked up the sword, the Duke might have rushed over and slit my throat.
As I've said before, this world was a pretty terrifying place.
Even among the polite nobility and royal families, it wasn't uncommon for sons to kill their fathers, and fathers to kill their sons.
Well, since the person trying to kill me was also nominally my mother... in that sense, it wasn't much different.
"Are you trying to show me you've secretly learned swordsmanship? I heard all about the test results."
If I swung the sword clumsily, I felt like I'd be beaten and kicked out immediately.
But I intended to show him something else.
Something he didn't know.
I awakened the power hidden deep within my body.
Move!
Wriggle.
A small power welled up from deep inside. I began to move the surging power.
I still remembered how mana moved through my head and eyes. This time, I would move it the same way—to my hands, and then to the sword!
As expected, it was difficult, but, though slowly, the mana listened to me.
Through my arm, to my hand, and then to my fingertips.
And finally, it flowed into the sword.
Hum.
The sword began to vibrate.
"Aaargh!"
The sword tried to fly out of my grip. I held on desperately, but at this rate, I'd struggle not only to swing it but even to hold on.
I'd trusted the saying that iron swords accepted mana better than wooden swords, but who knew there'd be a problem like this!
"Enough! That's far enough."
As I held the trembling sword, breaking out in a cold sweat, the Duke's voice rang out.
I stopped forcing mana into the sword and leaned on it as I looked at the Duke.
The Duke was watching me with a serious expression.
"Did you acquire mana? Since when?"
"I felt it after the test."
"Without learning any separate training methods?"
"Yes."
He muttered, looking thoughtful.
"After the test... Then does that mean you obtained it through your inherited ability?"
"I don't know."
"No, I wasn't speaking to you."
As he retraced his thoughts, he frowned at some point.
"Don't tell me... You met her after you acquired mana?"
He didn't name the person he meant, but I immediately understood who he was talking about.
"Yes. Once I was able to move mana, my affection for the Duchess vanished. After that, while we were talking, I heard her say it."
The sequence of events and the way I'd found out were slightly different, but it didn't make much difference.
"..."
Hearing my words, the Duke quietly looked up at the ceiling.
"Was it really something that could be peeled away so easily..."
The Duke muttered with a blank expression.
A tired, weary middle-aged man sat at the desk. The mask he'd worn was now completely stripped away.
I continued to wait.
Time passed. After staring blankly for a long while, he looked at me.
He had returned to his expressionless face, but it looked different from before.
"Since when do you need protection? When did you think they would come to kill you?"
It wasn't something a father would say to his son, but at least it was something he might say to a subordinate or business partner.
Was it better than before?
Still, it was a relief. The Duke had accepted my words.
"I need it immediately. The odds of them coming tonight are highest."
I quickly continued. There was still one last request. It was perhaps the most important one.
"I need someone skilled. At least two regular knights, or someone of senior knight rank."
It would be great if the Knight Commander came, but there was no way he'd guard a bastard like me.
I looked at the Duke, my face tense.
Even to me, it was an absurd request. A six-year-old child choosing the knights who would guard him as if he knew anything. It would be easy to dismiss as the childish demand of an immature kid.
But unless they were at least that good, they'd just end up sliced to pieces by the assassin, like Miguel.
Hearing this, the Duke shook his head.
I was screwed.
"I cannot use knights for this kind of family matter. Our conversation ends here. Return to your room."
With those final words, I was kicked out of the office.
Late at night, with not much time left before sunrise.
The bastard Alex's room was also half-submerged in darkness.
Creak. Creak.
The window, bathed in moonlight, began to open bit by bit.
It opened so slowly it was tedious, and after a moment, a figure clad in black silently slipped through.
Stepping down from the windowsill, he scanned the room.
A table and chair, a coat hanger and shelf, and a bed.
Seeing the bed, he frowned.
"I knew I should have rejected a job put together in such a rush. This has become troublesome."
Someone was sitting on the bed he was looking at.
But the shadow cast by the person sitting on the bed wasn't that of a young child.
The masked man quickly scanned the room again. No one else was visible. It seemed impossible for an adult to be hiding inside the furniture.
The masked man glanced slightly behind him.
"Tsk, escaping with a proper knight on my tail won't be easy, but I suppose it's a blessing in disguise. Just one knight."
The masked man drew his sword. He let the black-painted blade dangle at his side.
With that, the aura in the room began to surge.
Ugh.
Hiding under the bed, I couldn't help but let out a groan at the overflowing mana.
"Oh, so you were there? I guess I can finish the job. My luck isn't so bad after all, is it?"
Unlike before, the masked man was quite talkative. Was it a different person? The voice was the same, though...
Once I moved my mana, I was able to move my body. I peeked out from the side of the bed to look at the masked man.
I could see why he'd become so talkative. His face was drenched in cold sweat.
The figure sitting on the bed stood up.
Crackle.
The mana pressing down on my body vanished. No, it was pushed away by another mana.
"An assassin of knight rank or higher... I'll have to verify this."
As the figure took a step forward, his face came into view in the dim moonlight.
The face of the Duke, the master of the mansion and lord of the territory, was revealed in the moonlight.
"Dammit! It wasn't good luck at all! How did they plan this job?"
The masked man screamed and threw himself toward the window.
But the Duke moved faster. Before the masked man could reach the window, the Duke blocked his path.
The masked man swung his sword frantically.
The sword he swung scattered light as if it were glowing on its own, but...
Crunch!
The moment it touched the Duke's sword, it crumpled as if it had been folded.
Unlike the masked man's sword, the Duke's sword emitted no light. Yet even in the dark room, the air around the blade could be seen trembling.
"To block my sword, you have decent skills. An assassin of this caliber wouldn't open his mouth even under torture."
The Duke swung his sword again, and the masked man quickly swung his other hand as well.
Whiz!
A dagger shot from the masked man's hand.
At the same time, the masked man's head was severed.
The dagger he'd thrown almost pierced through the bed.
Although I'd avoided it in advance just in case, the masked man's final struggle made my hair stand on end.
The Duke glanced at where I was, then spoke.
"Clean this up."
"Understood."
At the Duke's words, the Chief Butler replied from the doorway.
I couldn't tell when he'd opened the door and entered. As expected of someone of the Chief Butler's standing, he seemed to have many secrets.
"And send the child to his mother."
Since the assassin was dead, there was no longer any need for me to act as bait.
Still, seeing him tell them to send me to my mother, it seemed he wasn't a man with molten iron flowing through his veins.
"Understood."
The Chief Butler looked at me, and I looked at the Duke as well.
It wasn't over yet. For the matter to be fully resolved, I needed the Duke's confirmation.
The Duke stood still for a moment, holding his sword.
He looked down at the headless corpse lying there once more.
After a moment, the Duke spoke.
"Go to Amanda without worry. It will be settled today. From tomorrow, the person trying to kill you will no longer be in this mansion."
Sheathing his blood-stained sword, the Duke left the room.
Neither the Chief Butler nor I asked where he was going.
There was only one place he could be heading.