All's Well in the Lord's Household — Family Affairs
Before the Manager joined the guild and shaped it into what it is today, the place had apparently still thought of itself as a kind of armed force.
Even now, watching Elesa treat dungeons like her own living room, it was hard to claim that bloodline had been cut off entirely.
And when a band of fighters like that plants itself in your territory, the people in charge cannot simply look the other way. That is just how the ruling class thinks. The lord who governed the land where the guild had settled — the same lord who ruled over Shaimin — offered them two choices.
Bend the knee, or be erased.
Wanting no trouble whatsoever, the guild bowed. In exchange for official recognition of their business, they agreed to treat any request from the lord as top priority, no matter how unreasonable. Drawing a blade on him, of course, was something they never even dreamed of.
That arrangement, they say, has continued even after the Manager remade the guild's entire character.
"Seems the lord's daughter has just come of age. He wants the kind of cultivation carved into her that befits a future lord. Everything else his retainers can handle on their own, but for magic, he wants to bring in someone from outside."
"And that someone is me. How should I put this... I'm honored."
She said it modestly enough, but Luxria's face was plainly lit up. If things went well, she might take on another disciple besides me — of course she was excited.
Luxria was without question an outstanding mage. The trouble was that her looks, and her personality besides, left a strong impression of immaturity, so nobody ever volunteered to become her student — nobody except me. Having herself recognized as a mage was always going to make her happy.
"Honored, she says. Well, if you take it at face value, I suppose you could see it that way. But I smell something rotten here. The stench of a filthy conspiracy."
"A conspiracy, you say...?"
Luxria tilted her head, clearly lost. I, on the other hand, saw the whole backstory the instant he said it.
Because I had already played this event.
The shadowy struggle over the territory's heir.
The current lord had an older brother. Originally, that brother was supposed to inherit the title, and the younger one — the man sitting in the seat now — was meant to leave for a distant university and study law or medicine. Then one day, not long after the elder brother had become lord, he died an abrupt death, and a hole opened in the line of succession.
You might think the title would simply pass to the younger brother. The problem was that the elder already had a son. Naturally, the faction backing the younger brother and the faction backing the boy tore into each other, and the compromise they reached was this: since the son was still a child, the younger brother would take the seat for now, and when the nephew came of age, the lordship would be returned to him.
The nephew had come of age. And the person now souring on that old promise was the lord's wife. In her mind, the agreement was a hollow formality. Her husband had no reason whatsoever to give the seat back — and even if he died, the succession ought to go to their only daughter.
The scheme she had cooked up to make that succession go smoothly was to have the girl taught magic. In a world whose temperament had been hardened by monsters, personal martial power was influence in itself, authority in itself, justification in itself. Before they ever sent a request to the guild, they would already have finished assessing the daughter's magical aptitude.
"I see. That's... a little unsettling, honestly. I'm hopeless with that kind of power struggle. Though it does seem a bit strange. If that's the goal, wouldn't it be easier to just quietly kill the nephew?"
A fall from a terrace. A carriage accident. Poison. There was no end to the ways you could erase a rival — especially one who had no power of his own, nothing but a bloodline. This was not the world I came from, where a few dead bodies brought the police kicking down your door.
"Here's the thing. Word is already going around that the previous lord didn't die of illness at all — that it was a plot by the current one. If that man's son dropped dead on top of that, the territory's mood would turn ugly, wouldn't it?"
So they would pick an heir in a direction that looked legitimate, wait until people's attention drifted away from the nephew — and then, snip. No more loose ends.
Noble politics really were terrifying.
Players could steer their characters to help the lord's wife and daughter, or they could help the nephew instead. Unfortunate as it was for the boy, the people who played this kind of game were mostly men, so most players sided with the daughter and left the nephew to die. The rewards were better on her side, too.
"So we just need to help the lord's wife, then?"
"Mm. About that..."
The Manager scratched his chin.
"Truth is, I don't particularly care which of them becomes lord. Either one is fine. It's just—"
"Just?"
"It's a pain if the lord notices what this guild has become — and what Shaimin has become. Once someone of a lord's stature starts throwing his weight around, all kinds of things get annoying."
We understood what he meant at once.
"So we go in under the pretext of teaching the lord's daughter magic, and eat away at the family's minds little by little?"
"That's right. Doesn't matter who ends up lord, so long as they move the way we want them to. Well? Think you can handle it?"
Honestly, for someone who was still only Meat Toilet rank, it was a heavy mission. But if my master Luxria was coming with me...
"I'm ready. Whatever it takes."
"To tell you the truth, I'd been thinking Astera alone was disciple enough... but if it's for the guild, I'll roll up my sleeves and pitch in!"
"Excellent. Both of you, stand up."
The moment we rose, the Manager stroked both our heads with a gentle hand. That tenderness alone was enough to set my womb throbbing — squeeze, squeeze! — crying out already.♥
"Consider this an advance on your praise. Finish the job properly and come back, and I'll give you the rest of it with my cock in person."
"Aaaah♥ If you say things like that, our wombs will get so overexcited that ovulation won't stop♥♥"
"Haaahhh♥♥ I'm already going crazy wanting to suck on even just your toes, Manager♥♥ And we don't get to be praised with your cock until after we come back from this trip... c-couldn't we have just the tiniest taste right now?"
He shut our wheedling down without the slightest hesitation, of course.
"No. Do the work, then look for your reward. Understood? But look forward to it. If you pull this off, you'll have done this guild an enormous service. Astera especially — your merit would outstrip even the Shaimin Village affair. Just how big a prize do you think I'd give girls like that, hmm?"
"A big..."
"Prize..."
Master and student both swallowed the drool that had welled up on its own. We knew perfectly well that serving men — and the Manager above all — was already a reward in itself, and that we had no business hoping for anything excessive. But even so... when a man told you he was going to give you a prize, expecting it was only human nature.♥
My eyes met my master's. We didn't need words. We made the vow together, firm and silent.
Let's give it everything we've got.
"So you two must be the mages the guild dispatched. I knew you would be women, but... you're rather younger than I had imagined."
The castle we had just stepped into was nothing like the village houses I was used to — a colossal structure that drew a hard line between itself and anything ordinary. The voice had come from high atop a grand staircase. When I craned my neck to look up, a woman stood there with a maid in attendance, gazing down at us with an ease that said looking down on people was the most natural thing in the world.
Nobody had introduced her. We knew at once that she was the lady of this territory.
"We present ourselves before Countess Sinclair."
We bowed our heads where we stood. The Countess accepted the courtesy as nothing less than her due, then bade us rise.
"I ought first to thank you for coming such a long way. The trouble you have taken on Seras's behalf will be rewarded, I assure you. ...That said, I requested one person. Why have two of you come?"
"Yes, Countess. Astera here is my disciple. An attendant to assist her teacher, if you like."
"Your disciple? This one?"
The fact that I was the student, and not Luxria, seemed to startle the Countess considerably. Fair enough — judging by appearances alone, I looked like the much older sister.
"Then the mage I asked for would be you... Forgive me if this sounds like doubt, but might I see a little of your skill?"
Judging a person's ability by their looks is foolishness... or so they say. But looking at Luxria, who could easily have passed for not-yet-grown, a little worry was only natural. A parent wants nothing but the best for her daughter. A mother's heart wants the unproven things weeded out.
Luxria seemed used to this kind of treatment. She showed no sign of taking offense. She simply stretched out her hand.
Light gathered along the line of her arm. Perhaps because she was drawing in the light around her, the shadows inside the mansion grew steadily deeper and wider. If the spell had kept unfolding without end, eyesight itself would soon have lost all meaning in this house.
When roughly half the mansion had sunk into shadow, Luxria closed her fingers around that radiance.
"Astera. Would you open that door for me?"
"Ah — yes!"
I ran to the door at once and heaved it open, grunting with the effort. Toward the opening, Luxria extended the hand that held the light, and let it go.
In that same instant the light became a destruction beam in the truest sense of the word, ripping through empty air with a tremendous roar and a blast of energy before vanishing. The shadows that had swallowed half the mansion shrank back as if cowed by the light's majesty.
"That's about as much as I can show you on the spot... I have any number of smaller-scale spells as well, of course, but would that be tedious?"
"...No. That will do. You didn't break a single thing — and that is precisely how I know your level. You are stronger than any mage I have ever seen."
Deeply impressed, Lady Sinclair allowed a thin smile to touch her lips.
"You will make Seras an excellent teacher. I am certain of it."
It was then that a somewhat vacant voice cut in.
"Um... Auntie? I heard a tremendous noise... do you know what happened?"