Chapter 21
Translator: True Detective
### Chapter 21: Situation Terminated (2)
I made eye contact with Duke Cassian.
*'I'm fucked.'*
Even if I'm a physicist who enjoys observing a new world.
I didn't want a variable with such low survival probability!
*'Wait a minute, Your Grace. This is a misunderstanding. Yveline lunged at me first!'*
A scream mixed with unfairness rose to my throat, but I barely swallowed it.
Because telling the truth here that your daughter grabbed me first would obviously only scratch the temper of a father with a daughter more.
It was when I was swallowing dry saliva in the taut tension.
Cassian slowly approached me, and contrary to expectations, politely bowed his head.
"......Thank you, Teacher Rihan."
"........."
A voice containing sincere gratitude, completely different from when I sparred with Delmar.
Yveline, who was holding my sleeve next to me, also opened her eyes wide as if surprised.
It seems even she is seeing her father's low posture like this for the first time.
"If it weren't for you, I would have crossed a river of no return."
"........."
Actually, it's not wrong.
Because he would have touched black magic and walked the path of family extermination.
But I can't just say 'Since it's true, show proper courtesy', right?
I replied as plainly as possible.
"You don't have to mind it much. Please be careful next time."
Actually, courtesy or whatever doesn't matter.
My interest is only one thing.
*'Please just be careful not to get exterminated later and go on a picnic near the guillotine, please.'*
If the family disintegrates in mid-air according to the scenario of the original work.
I have no face to see Senior Selene again.
"Thank you once again."
Cassian raised his head and stared at me.
"By the way, I didn't know you were already in such a relationship with Yveline. If the partner is Teacher Rihan, I am totally in favor. I permit it as the family head."
What relationship is he talking about.
Nothing has even started yet.
"......No, what exactly are you saying you are in favor of?"
When I asked back in fluster.
Cassian gives a strange smile instead of an answer.
His usual cold-headedness is nowhere to be found, and it's the pleased look of a father marrying his child off to a good place.
Looking to the side, Yveline's face was already dyed bright red.
From the doll in my arms, Eleanor burst into a cheeky laugh, thinking this is the time.
[Hehe, to think young ones are already in this state. Kids these days are truly fast!]
"It's not like that. Just as a teacher and disciple for a moment......"
[Didn't they say such forbidden relationships are trending these days?]
"No, how on earth does a person from a thousand years ago know recent trends."
At that time, Yveline quietly opened her mouth.
"Dad. Don't say useless things. Who said anything about getting married? It's not at that level yet......."
"........."
Yveline tightly gripped my sleeve.
With the momentum as if it would be torn off, the affected area throbbed a bit but.
Seeing the tips of her ears dyed red, I just decided to endure it.
She's cute, so it's fine, well.
The villainess who didn't hesitate to cut off others' necks in the novel is now stuttering, not knowing what to do in front of me.
Besides, 'yet'.
Does that mean if some time passes and the right time comes, she would even consider marriage?
*'Hmm. Not bad in its own way?'*
Since Senior Selene and Cassian already have a permitting atmosphere, there are no particularly big obstacles either.
Above all, this soft sense of temperature she shows only to me, while being like a knife to others, is quite not bad.
No, actually, to admit it, it's a bit addictive.
But only up to here for now.
Because for me, Spirit Vessels to find and magic experiments I want to do are piled up like a mountain.
Duke Cassian, who was pleasingly looking at Yveline not knowing what to do out of shyness, opened his mouth lowly.
"I am glad Teacher Rihan led my daughter well. She has such a hard-to-handle temper that my worries were deep, but she seems to open her heart quite a bit to you, Teacher."
"No, Your Grace. Actually, I am also receiving a lot of help from Yveline."
It's not empty talk.
Yveline is the unrivaled super ace of our lab.
She skillfully handles everything from bundles of annoying administrative documents to complex calculations I throw at her.
To be honest, I know better than anyone from my past life experience that finding a graduate student of this level is like picking a star from the sky.
So I definitely shouldn't lose her even more.
Yveline blinked her eyes as if flustered and slyly poked my side.
"......Who asked you to praise me? Stop saying embarrassing things, idiot."
For a grumbling voice, it's soft.
Cassian watched the scene, cleared his throat, and set the mood.
"......Yveline, step back. I have something to discuss privately alone with Teacher Rihan."
"......Got it."
Yveline left the room with her head bowed deep.
The door closed and silence arrived.
****
Cassian's eyes sank seriously in an instant.
Cassian brings up the main topic.
"Teacher Rihan. Is what I witnessed back then truly true?"
As expected, an unavoidable question.
True, no matter how much of a doting father he is, he is a Duke responsible for a family and a Grand Mage who reached the 7th Hierarchy.
As one who directly faced the Founder, he must have needed certainty.
*'Speaking honestly would be the most efficient.'*
Clumsy silence is just a waste of time.
I took the old doll out from my bosom and placed it on the table.
"This person is the one named Eleanor who knocked Your Grace down in one blow. I didn't particularly do anything."
[Rihan! Are you introducing me as if tattletaling! And 'the one named', your words are rude!]
When the doll opened and closed its mouth and scolded, Cassian's pupils shook violently.
Cassian got up from his seat as if possessed and bowed his waist deeply.
The courtesy the Empire's highest authority holder takes in front of a mere cotton doll is polite to an unrealistic degree.
"Teacher Eleanor. Are you truly...... the teacher of our family's Founder, Lady Selene?"
Eleanor lifted her chin arrogantly despite being a doll.
[I am none other than Selene's teacher, and 10th Hierarchy Mage, Eleanor Aeterna. Perhaps because you are a descendant, you resemble that child's eyes quite a bit.]
"......You really existed. Seeing the existence called the Founder's teacher recorded in the family's top-secret documents, I considered it merely a distant myth. It is infinite honor to meet the legend in person."
Awe is imbued in Cassian's voice.
Certainly, if it's Senior Selene, it's obvious she would have plastered the name of Eleanor she respects the most here and there in the family records.
Since she's a big sister who even enshrined the first staff she received as a national treasure-level treasure.
Cassian asked carefully.
"Then our Founder...... where is Lady Selene?"
[Selene is currently sleeping soundly inside Rihan's body. Protecting the seal for 1000 years took a toll on her.]
Cassian's expression darkened in an instant.
Soon after, he looks down at his own hands with a face imbued with guilt.
"It is because of me. If only I hadn't forcibly touched the seal with the excuse of the family's safety and caused trouble for the Founder......."
[Do not blame yourself. Since Selene was worrying about you too. That child is simply taking a long sleep and restoring magic power.]
"......I am truly only grateful. For accepting the family's karma so mercifully."
The subsequent conversation flowed quite deeply.
The dimensional rift and Eleanor's role.
And detailed stories about the threat that will strike the Empire went back and forth.
Of course, not all cards were revealed.
Because no matter how favorable Cassian is, I cannot trust him entirely.
For your information, I also slipped the story about Delmar.
What that bastard thinks of Yveline.
What he tried to do in front of the treasure vault.
As soon as the words finished, Cassian spat out briefly to the Knight Commander outside the door.
"Dispose of Delmar."
Not a shred of hesitation, nor an inch of anger.
Just an extremely businesslike tone ordering to discard an item that has exhausted its usefulness.
*'What a refreshing personality.'*
4th Hierarchy Chief Mage.
To be able to throw away a talent who would receive VIP treatment anywhere in the Empire like a disposable consumable like that.
It made me realize anew the fact that he was the villain Duke in the novel.
****
Around the time the conversation was wrapping up.
Duke Cassian suddenly got up from his seat.
And without notice, he knelt on one knee in front of me and politely bowed his head.
Very flustering.
"Your Grace?"
I stepped back in fluster, but Cassian did not bend his will.
A powerhouse within the top five of the Empire is showing a knight's courtesy at the feet of me, a mere researcher.
What in the world is this.
"I swear here today. The Estal Duke family will offer all the family's strength for Teacher Eleanor and Teacher Rihan."
[Isn't it troubling for the Duke family if you do this? There is no need to necessarily follow.]
Eleanor deliberately pretended to refuse, but Cassian did not raise his head.
"No. You are the ones who saved the family from the crisis of extermination and took care of the Founder's soul. To answer that grace and fulfill our duty, that is the way of our Estal."
[Well, if you insist so much, I will not stop you either.]
When Eleanor's permission fell, Cassian's gaze headed to me.
It means it's time to hear my answer now.
If so, what do I think.
Honestly, there is absolutely no reason to refuse.
Because I'm not a magnanimous person steeped in heroism.
Rather, I struggled to hold back the corners of my mouth trying to go up.
*'Isn't this a total huge profit?'*
Following the 10th Hierarchy mage named Eleanor, now the infinite capital and martial power of the Duke family have become my backing, right?
It means worries about experiment budget or materials as a researcher are over for the rest of my life.
Besides, it means I put the villain Duke, who would have led the family to ruin in the original work, under my control.
It couldn't be more perfect than this.
"I am fine with it too. It's not a bad thing. Instead, I have a condition."
I said, looking straight into the eyes of the kneeling Cassian.
"Please keep the identities of Senior Eleanor and myself thoroughly secret."
There is no reason to blabber and get annoying.
Being known to the world is sufficient when I can protect myself perfectly.
"Understood. I will keep my mouth strictly shut. I promise to be the bastion of the path you walk. Of course... regarding that ring as well."
He smiled faintly looking at the ring on my finger.
Actually, it's no different from stealing, so I wondered if I was wearing it too brazenly but.
Seeing him let it slide willingly, it seems he already noticed that Selene gave it to me.
"Thank you."
"Then Teacher Rihan."
Cassian got up from his seat and returned to his Duke-like eyes again.
Certainly befitting a family head, his actions were fast.
"When would it be good to proceed with the marriage talks with Yveline?"
"......Yes?"
"The most certain way to pour all the family's strength into you is for you to be tied to Yveline and become a member of our family. I have already finished my mind's decision."
What kind of sudden development is this.
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