Bastard vs. Bastard (1)
Bastard vs. Bastard (1)
To sum up Adria's rambling explanation, it came down to this.
Unlike me, who had been born and raised on the Duke's estate, Martin had been born and raised outside the Lord's castle.
His mother had been a maid in the Marquis's household, and when she became pregnant with him, she was driven out of the Lord's castle.
Using the money she received when she was expelled, she worked tirelessly to give birth to Martin and raise him.
Later, she met and married another commoner, and gave birth to Martin's younger sister.
Though he had a normal childhood, when he was six, the Marquis summoned him to the Lord's castle.
This was because the Marquis, while out on an inspection, recognized that Martin was ready to awaken.
Fortunately, Martin awakened his inherited ability. He was even able to bring his mother and younger sister, who had been struggling to make ends meet after her commoner husband passed away, to the Lord's castle.
But since his mother had been a former maid, not even a concubine, Martin's standing was bound to be worse than that of an ordinary bastard.
He had to work hard to hone his abilities.
"Brother Martin trained so hard. He learned diligently from the knights and studied just as hard."
As she spoke, Adria's eyes sparkled.
Was Martin the reason she'd dreamed of becoming a knight?
"He had to put up with a lot of jealousy, and many of his older brothers and the adults disliked him. But in the end, everyone had no choice but to acknowledge Brother Martin's skill."
Simon, who had been listening along with us, stole a glance at me.
Perhaps he thought I was in a similar situation.
But right now, I had no particular complaints about the Gracia Dukedom. The person I actually held a grudge against had already been kicked out of the house.
"He was earning everyone's recognition and even winning duels against the knights, but then something happened."
It was a common enough occurrence in noble families.
Martin's younger sister, the daughter his mother had with her commoner husband, had become pregnant.
"No one knew who the father was, but because of Brother Martin's mother, it caused an even bigger stir."
Martin's mother had been a maid who ended up carrying the Marquis's child, and now the same thing had happened to her daughter. There was no way the Marquis's family would let it slide.
"Some say strange rumors started going around. In the end, Brother Martin's family had to leave the house."
It was a somewhat incomprehensible outcome. They'd kicked out a bastard who had acquired an inherited ability over something like that?
They could have just quieted the rumors. They could have kept Martin and given the other two a separate house outside the Lord's castle. Why hadn't they?
As I continued to ponder, Adria's words from a moment ago came back to me.
'Right. There were rumors. Naturally, they would have been malicious, and if they were the worst sort of rumors, then ultimately... they must have involved the Marquis's family.'
In the worst-case scenario, the father of the unborn child could have been one of the Marquis's sons.
'And it might not have been just a rumor, either.'
If that were the case, the family tree would be incredibly tangled.
Although nobles in this world also practiced polygamy and often had complex family lineages, that was strictly an affair among nobles.
Because of their inherited abilities, the nobles here considered noble blood absolutely vital. Relations with commoners, which diluted that blood, were nothing but a stain on their honor.
Adria and Simon hadn't caught on yet. They were still innocent youths who knew nothing about such things.
'Well, I suppose I've figured out why they were kicked out...'
Still, I tilted my head in doubt.
It didn't seem likely that Martin would harbor such intense rage simply because he'd been kicked out.
In my past life, he'd burned down the mansion to annihilate the Marquis's family, and even sent people to kill Adria, who had survived.
Even in the brief stories I'd heard about him on my way to the Marquis's estate, I could sense his intense anger.
Though I hadn't observed him for long, Martin didn't seem like the kind of person to harbor such deep-seated wrath just because he'd been kicked out of the mansion.
There was undoubtedly more to the story than Adria knew.
"After he left the mansion, it wasn't easy to see him. I hired people to look for him, but he was often out of the territory, and Brother seemed to be avoiding me, too. We used to be so close before he left..."
Adria's voice trailed off, and her expression turned melancholy. Then she brightened again.
"That's why I was curious about Brother's story. I heard the inn where he's staying is included in tomorrow's outing, so I called you because I wanted to know if I'd be able to see Brother."
Seeing her like this again, I realized Adria really wasn't the type to offer empty pleasantries.
She could at least have said, out of politeness, that she'd called me because she was curious about me, but she hadn't said anything of the sort—not even a little.
Well, it wasn't as if my feelings were hurt, but it felt a little unfamiliar to see her looking only for her brother, unlike in my past life.
"Well, I don't know if he'll be at the inn tomorrow."
Perhaps because the situation felt unfamiliar, my reply came out rather bluntly.
An awkward silence lingered in the room for a long while, and just like that, tea time came to an end.
The next day, Adria, Simon, Bianca, a few escort knights, and I set out for an outing in the city.
Simon and Adria rode in a separate carriage, while I ended up in another with Bianca and the other maids.
It was a rather blatant act of discrimination, but there was a justifiable reason—that it was for the sake of the betrothed couple—so I quietly boarded the maids' carriage.
I don't know about the others, but the city outing was tedious for me.
The city was no cleaner than the Duke's estate, and there weren't many sights to see.
As expected, since we were inside the city, there was no danger at all, and I only had to sit there listening to the maids chatter.
The outing, which ended that way, turned out to be a complete failure for all three of us.
First of all, Adria didn't get to meet Martin.
They stopped by the inn, but Martin wasn't there. Since she couldn't wait indefinitely, she had to leave after asking the innkeeper to pass along word that she'd visited.
As a result, Adria was depressed all day, while Brother Simon, still a novice and far from enjoying a sweet time together, spent the whole day flustered because he couldn't comfort the gloomy girl.
And I didn't gain any information during the outing.
Soldier Juan had found out where the Red Bear Mercenary Corps was staying and gathered a little more information, but that was all.
There was only so much a soldier from another territory could investigate.
I wanted to go investigate myself, but I couldn't while I was being escorted.
And even when I wasn't being escorted, it was still difficult to get around because of my age.
When the pointless outing ended and we were about to part ways, Adria asked me:
"He'll be back tonight, right?"
I immediately knew who she meant.
"Probably. He already paid for his room."
The maid standing beside Adria glared at her, eyes blazing.
"As you know, you cannot go out at night."
Adria ignored the maid's razor-sharp gaze and asked me again.
"You want to see Brother Martin again, too, don't you?"
Why was she asking me that? Though I wondered, I answered normally for now.
"I do, but there's no way."
Before I could even finish, the maid shouted at Adria.
"My lady!"
"I was just asking."
Adria waved to the maids, then said goodbye to Brother Simon and me.
"Thank you for your hard work today. I hope you have a peaceful night."
She politely curtsied, lifting her skirt with one hand.
Brother Simon placed a hand over his chest and bowed, and I followed suit.
At my greeting, Adria and the maids smiled.
They seemed to find it cute that a little kid was performing an adult's greeting.
"Hmph!"
A snort came from beside me.
Brother Simon, who'd been in a foul mood all day, finally let his twisted temper show.
As soon as Adria was out of sight, Brother Simon whipped around and headed to his room without a word.
It seemed like a noble's way of ignoring me, a bastard, but to my eyes, it was just plain cute.
I went into the guest room too and sat on the edge of the bed.
The sun had set, and darkness had fallen outside the window.
"There are more obstacles than I expected..."
No, it wasn't just that there were a lot of obstacles; the path ahead was completely blocked.
I'd gathered some information, but I couldn't do anything with this little.
I needed to gather more detailed information and hear the secret stories, but trapped in the Lord's castle like this, I couldn't do a thing.
It was difficult for a guest at the Lord's castle to go outside alone. And for a young child like me, it was even harder.
I couldn't even suggest going out at night.
If only I'd learned a trick or two when I met the assassin.
I didn't really want to learn how to kill people with a dagger, but sneaking into a mansion was something I needed to know how to do in situations like this.
As I contemplated my next move, I heard a knock.
Knock. Knock.
Was there anyone who would come by at this hour?
I got up and walked to the door.
Click.
I opened it, but no one was in the hallway.
Had I heard wrong?
Knock. Knock.
The knocking sounded again.
"It's not the door?"
The sound wasn't coming from the door.
It was coming from the floor.
"Alex... Alex..."
On top of that, I could hear a woman's voice.
Goosebumps broke out all over my body.
"Don't tell me there are ghosts here, too?"
Since mana, superpowers, and holy magic existed, it was entirely possible that ghosts did, too.
"No, please spare me from that."
But ghosts really weren't my cup of tea.
Well, even though I'd reincarnated from another world, ghosts were definitely a different matter.
"Maybe it's not a ghost. It could be an auditory hallucination. I must be too stressed."
As I muttered to myself...
Pop!
Suddenly, I heard a floorboard pop up from beneath the bed.
"Help me out a little. I've called you so many times, and you didn't even help."
The woman's voice followed. This time, unlike before, I heard it clearly.
"Adria?"
Startled, I rushed to the bed.
Thud.
I tried pushing the bed aside to check, but it wouldn't budge at all.
Adria's voice came from beneath it again.
"The bed doesn't move from this side either, does it? It can't be helped. Alex, you'll have to crawl in, too."
At her words, I lay flat on my stomach beside the bed.
When I looked underneath, the floor had disappeared.
I carefully poked my head under the bed.
A floorboard about a meter square had vanished, revealing stairs leading down.
At the bottom of the stairs, Adria, holding a lantern in one hand, waved at me.
"Ta-da! Surprised? It's our Lord's castle's secret passage."
She proudly pointed to the stairs and the passage visible behind her.
I carefully squeezed onto the stairs.
After climbing down a little, I was barely able to stand upright.
"Is this a secret passage?"
"Yeah. It was sealed off a long time ago, so nobody knows about it. I discovered it."
Her words sounded entirely natural.
Given the personality Adria had shown in my past life, she would definitely have roamed around tirelessly until she found it.
No one else could have discovered such an old passage.
"It's a relief you stayed in this guest room. There are lots of rooms that aren't connected."
"But why the secret passage all of a sudden?"
"Well, if we go through this secret passage, we can get outside the Lord's castle. The two of us are going to meet Brother Martin."
Looking at her again, I saw that Adria was wearing outdoor clothes and dressed like a boy.
Though, thanks to her figure and face, she didn't look like a boy at all.
"Me? You're going with me?"
"Yeah. I asked you earlier, didn't I?"
No, I hadn't realized that's what she meant.
But her invitation was incredibly welcome. It was exactly the help I needed now that I was completely stuck.
Fortunately, I was still wearing my outdoor clothes, so I grabbed my sword and followed her.
Rumble.
Adria touched a spot on the wall, and, as if triggered by a mechanism, the passage above the stairs closed again.
Guided by the light of Adria's lantern, the two of us walked through the secret passage.
The passage was extremely narrow and dark.
As Adria had said, it was covered in dust, likely because it was so old, and showed no signs of human use.
"Alex, you're the first person I've shown this to. You mustn't tell anyone else."
No, the fact that you'd shown it to me was the bigger problem, wasn't it?
To reveal the Lord's castle's secret passage to an outsider... If the Marquis found out, he'd surely clutch the back of his neck and collapse.
Still, I nodded and promised.
It was a matter between her and the Marquis's family, not my problem.
Now that a path to gathering information had opened up, I fully intended to make good use of it.
She walked ahead, continuing to speak.
"I plan to tell Brother Martin. If he uses the secret passage, no one else will know. I'm going to tell him to sneak in later."
Tell Martin?
No way...
The story I'd heard in my past life came back to me.
The story of how the Marquis's castle burned down and Martin became the successor.
I hadn't understood how a heavily guarded castle had caught fire, why the culprit had never been found, or how Martin had managed to succeed to the family.
But Adria was explaining the reason right now.
I pointed a finger at the back of Adria's head.
'You were the culprit all along!'