Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 166
>Chapter Title: That Thing...?
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A guest room in the Blandoga Family estate.
Henji had stepped out of the magical academy for the first time in ages to fulfill a request from Aster.
Jilroksa Family Patriarch Carmel von Blandoga graciously made time for Henji's sudden visit.
"So, what brings you here?"
"Should I get straight to the point? Or would you prefer I beat around the bush a little?"
Carmel's lips curled into a faint smile at Henji's cryptic response.
"What's the difference between the two?"
"It might put the Patriarch in a slightly different mood."
"Hmm."
Carmel leaned back in his chair, eyeing Henji with evident interest.
His face wore a broad smile overall, but his gaze gleamed with sharp intent.
"This almost sounds like... a threat. Is that what you mean, Henji?"
"Haha, did it come across that way? Then that's exactly right."
Both men were grinning brightly, but the air in the room turned icy cold.
Anyone watching would have clapped a hand over their mouth in shock.
Carmel was the Jilroksa Family Patriarch. The current Blandoga Patriarch's elder brother and a ruler who had carved out his own power.
No matter how impressive Henji's status as a Blandoga bloodline member and vice principal of the magical academy, it didn't excuse such rudeness.
The suffocating tension dragged on like that.
"Patriarch, the refreshments are ready."
"...Come in."
At the servant's arrival, the two men instantly shed their chilling demeanor as if it had never been.
"Well then, I'll be..."
"Oh, by the way, could you spare some cigars? I just ran out of mine."
"I'll provide some."
"Ah, no need then."
"...Understood."
As the servant backed out of the room, Henji pulled a cigar from his pocket and offered it to Carmel.
Carmel took it without a word, lit it, and took a drag.
"You're not having one?"
"You're still my senior, aren't you?"
"How touching."
It wasn't the least bit amusing.
One moment he was threatening with a smile on his face, the next refusing a cigar out of respect for his elder?
"Never mind that. Get to the point. For you to come here like this, it must be something big. Let's hear it. And... I'm curious just how you plan to threaten me."
"Haha, there are quite a few methods, but shall I start with the lightest one?"
"Go ahead."
"Shall I begin with the Jilroksa Family's business ventures? I hear you're awaiting the Engineering Association's safety test results ahead of the artifact product's launch."
"I didn't know you were so interested in Jilroksa affairs."
"Why wouldn't I be? We're all under one roof. Anyway, did you know? I have a lot of classmates at the Association."
"..."
"You put a lot of effort and investment into this one... but safety tests can't be rushed or taken lightly, can they?"
"...So?"
Carmel twitched an eyebrow and glared at Henji.
It was a fiercely piercing look, but Henji brushed it off with ease and continued.
"I was just thinking. What if the Jilroksa project gets delayed by half a year... no, just a month or two? Haha! Isn't that terrifying? You seem to have borrowed quite a bit from various places to fund it."
His face was all friendly smiles, but the implications were far from light.
Disrupting a project a family had poured its heart into was tantamount to shaking the family itself.
Of course, Carmel was no pushover either.
"Do you think my connections are weaker than yours? Even if it's delayed, do you think Jilroksa would crumble that easily?"
He had a point.
Carmel's network might not be as tight-knit as Henji's school ties, but it was no less formidable. In fact, Henji's paled in comparison.
Above all, Jilroksa wasn't some fragile house that would topple from one failed venture.
But for some reason.
Even with his prepared card rendered useless, Henji didn't lose his composure. If anything, he seemed amused.
"Didn't I say it? This is the lightest one."
"So there's more?"
"I'll leave that to your imagination. Haha."
It was a jovially pleasant laugh, but Carmel's face twisted in a scowl.
That's when the fierce glint in his eyes softened.
"Henji, you damn snake."
"Yes, speak your mind."
"So what are you getting at? Seeing you act like this, it seems you want something from me."
His tone had shifted to a strikingly familiar one compared to before.
It wasn't just Carmel who had changed.
"What I want isn't difficult. And compared to the matters I mentioned, it's quite trivial."
"You're saying you're choking your big brother over something trivial?"
"Choking your windpipe? You're exaggerating. No matter what I've prepared, do you think it'd make you blink?"
That was true enough.
He might be just a vassal family patriarch now, but Carmel was once a man who vied for the Blandoga throne.
What he had built in Jilroksa was no small feat, and his personal foundation dwarfed any other vassal house.
Whatever schemes Henji cooked up, Carmel could likely swat them away.
However.
"I've always known you hide your fangs. You're the type who could lop off one of my limbs without hesitation."
"Haha, you're overestimating me."
"Enough. Just tell me what you want. If it's trivial, I might indulge you as your big brother."
He meant it.
Though one direct line and one branch, with a significant age gap between them, Carmel thought of Henji like his own brother. Whether Henji felt the same was another matter.
At those words, Henji let out a thoughtful "Hmm," pondered for a moment, then spoke.
"Do you know Aster?"
"The Black-White Slums alley rat?"
"I'd appreciate it if you backed off him."
Carmel exhaled a puff of smoke and shifted in his seat. Wariness flickered in his eyes right after.
"This isn't trivial. You know my intentions well enough. Did the Matriarch send you?"
He shook his head midway through.
"No, she wouldn't. So it's your own judgment? Have you decided to side with the Matriarch?"
The Blandoga Family wasn't free of factional strife. And currently, the factions had solidified to some extent.
Carmel assumed Henji was preparing a gift to join the Matriarch's faction.
New faces needed sufficient leverage to blend in, no matter how trivial.
As Carmel probed Henji's intentions, Henji shook his head as if it were absurd.
"I'll always remain neutral."
"Then why?"
"Call it a purely personal errand."
"And what that errand is... you won't tell me even if I ask. Fine, you've always been one to keep secrets."
"Haha, thank you for understanding. Oh, and of course, I'm not just asking you to do it for nothing."
"Then?"
Carmel's momentum eased.
Henji was inscrutable, but he wasn't the type to make empty requests.
If not "just," then he must have come prepared with something.
Frankly, Carmel was more than a little intrigued.
As he waited for Henji to speak.
"If the concerns you're worried about come to pass, I'll lend my voice to support yours then."
It was an answer that exceeded Carmel's expectations.
"You're saying... you'll step to the front lines?"
"Yes, if that's what you want."
Carmel burst out laughing with a "Ha!"
"What wind's blowing this way? I thought you'd just rot away munching on books forever."
"Does the reason matter?"
"The reason... yeah, it doesn't. If you're lending a hand, who cares about reasons."
Many underestimated him for never stepping forward, but the Henji Carmel knew was no lightweight.
A serpent hiding its fangs, as the saying went.
In a pinch, more reliable than anyone else.
Still, he couldn't help his curiosity.
"Then, I'll take my leave with that understanding."
Carmel called out to Henji, who rose without lingering now that business was done.
"By the way."
"...?"
"Does that Aster kid have something I haven't seen?"
"That's..."
"Never mind, get going."
Henji didn't answer, but to Carmel, it was as good as one.
Henji rarely hesitated without responding.
If the kid had no value, he'd have flatly said no and left without a second thought.
"Aster, Aster... Guess I need to keep an eye on him in a different light. Or maybe meet him myself."
"Hmm."
Henji paused and glanced back at Carmel.
"I wouldn't recommend that approach."
"Why? Have you marked him as your successor or something?"
Carmel's eyes sparkled.
His gaze plainly showed intent to test Henji's motives. Henji seemed to choose his words carefully before speaking.
"Please don't say such horrifying things."
"Horrifying...?"
The bewilderment was brief.
"Oh, right. About Miss Lana."
"What's Lana got to do with it?"
Carmel furrowed his brow at his daughter's name popping up out of nowhere.
"You should tell her sooner rather than later. She's clever, always getting ahead of things on her own, isn't she? Like that mess with the Tulkga Family vermin."
"You knew about that?"
"Who wouldn't?"
Fair enough.
Carmel nodded and waved him off.
"Got it. I'll talk to her properly."
"That would be wise."
With that, Henji left the room.
Thud.
Carmel stared at the closed door, stubbed out his nearly burned cigar, and lit a fresh one.
Unlike what he'd told the servant earlier, it was a new pack, seal unbroken.
Anyway.
"Aster, Aster..."
Just what did that kid have to make Henji go this far?
The Matriarch's decision had been puzzling too, but her judgment never erred, so he'd trusted it.
But if even Henji was like this, there must be something.
'I'll need to pay closer attention.'
In a positive sense, not negative.
An exceptional talent joining Blandoga, regardless of status, was cause for joy for Carmel as well.
Of course, Carmel had no idea.
...That what Henji worried about wasn't Aster.
In any case, after his conversation with Henji wrapped up.
A servant came to announce the banquet's start, just as Carmel's third cigar was burning low.
"Carmel Patriarch, it's time to head to the banquet hall."
"Mm, got it."
Carmel stubbed out his cigar, dispelled the smell with magic, and left the room.
Guided by the servant into the banquet hall.
Ignoring the usual butler announcement of "Jilroksa Family Patriarch, etc., etc.," Carmel scanned the surroundings.
He was looking for Aster, and spotting him wasn't hard.
For good reason.
"...Hoo, damn."
In a corner of the banquet hall.
Squatting on the floor despite perfectly good chairs nearby—it was the epitome of a Black-White Slums alley rat.
Even in the opulent hall, that spot felt like a back alley, and Carmel's eyes narrowed for a moment.
'That thing... is Aster?'
What the hell could that guy possibly have?
It was the first time he doubted the Matriarch's and Henji's judgment.