What Was Bound to Come
Well, well! Isn't this just perfect.
I carefully unfolded the letter.
And as I slowly read through its contents....
If you do not wish to be dragged home by force, present yourself at the main estate by the end of this week.
A carriage will arrive tomorrow. Skip your classes and come at once.
— Andres Frelia
"....So it's finally come."
The flutter of excitement that had briefly taken hold of me — the half-hope that it might be a love letter — cooled in an instant.
It was a letter from Andres Frelia. Shion's father.
The message, more or less: if you don't want a thrashing, get yourself up to the main house by the end of the week. A carriage would arrive tomorrow, so I was to skip class and come running at once.
Word of me publicly humiliating Pascal last week must have reached Andres's ears.
I'd expected as much, but being summoned like this still left me at a loss.
What am I even supposed to say when I get there?
This would be the first time meeting Andres in Shion's body.
How was I supposed to face a father who wasn't mine at all — Shion's father — when I had no idea how to treat him?
Good thing I've still got the amnesia bit going. Would've been a real disaster without it.
I'd just lean on the memory-loss act again. Bluff my way through, the way I always did, and that would be that.
That would be enough...
That would....
— I hate them.
"....That's strange."
Andres was clearly not my real father. He was nothing more than a figure I'd only ever known from a game — someone whose face I still hadn't seen in the nearly two months since possessing Shion.
And yet.
Why was my chest burning so hot right now?
It felt as though I were becoming someone else. The alien sensation raised goosebumps along my skin of its own accord.
The more I repeated the name Andres, the more a deep sorrow and a thick, bitter resentment surged up — familiar feelings I had not known in a very long time.
"....Haa. Looks like I'm about to cry all of a sudden."
These emotions were similar to the last ones I had held toward my parents on Earth.
I had lost my parents. In the worst way imaginable.
When I was young, after a particularly vicious fight, I had run away out of pure stubborn pride.
The words I threw at them as I stepped out through the front door:
I wish Mom and Dad would just disappear.
That horrible sentence was the last conversation I ever had with my parents.
They went out looking for me and died in a traffic accident.
Yes — they left this world after hearing their own child say he wished they would disappear.
As time passed and I finally understood how terrible what I had done was, I could only grit my teeth and shed burning tears.
"..........."
I had been a worthless, unfilial son.
At the resurfacing of that terrible, aching memory, I squeezed my eyes shut and threw myself onto the bed.
I wanted to fall asleep just like this and never wake again.
But the resentment toward Andres that kept rising unbidden was so similar to the guilt I had once carried toward my own parents that all I could do was shed a few small tears.
"Mm.... It really is ridiculously grand."
After a four-hour carriage ride from Luin Academy, I arrived at the estate of Marquis Frelia.
Compared to the Divos Estate — the villa where I had stayed with Chloe and Shina before the term began — this place was on an entirely different level of scale and beauty.
I stepped down from the carriage and headed for the main gate. A well-dressed middle-aged man was already waiting to receive me.
"It has been a long time, Young Master Shion."
The man bowed stiffly at the waist.
I knew who he was. Butler Ivo Harvester — one of the people who had looked down on Shion ever since Shion's mother fled House Frelia.
"It has been a long time, Butler Ivo."
Naturally, I held no particular grudge against him. I had only run into him a handful of times while clearing Chloe-related quests.
Whether he ignored Shion or not, a casual greeting was enough to move past it.
The fact that the butler had greeted me while standing ramrod-straight, without proper deference, shouldn't have been any problem at all.
And yet.
"By the way — is it considered proper etiquette these days for a butler not to bow to his young master? How fascinating."
Ever since yesterday, my body had not felt like my own. Truly strange.
"....My apologies. Please forgive me."
Only after I pointed it out did the butler finally lower his waist.
A faint sense of satisfaction drifted through my mind.
"Be more careful in the future. Where is Father?"
"He is waiting for you in the Great Hall, Young Master."
"Lead the way."
The butler bowed again and took the lead.
Following behind him, I tried to reason out what was happening to me.
No matter how I looked at it, I was not in a normal state right now.
....The various emotions I'm feeling right now are probably the ones Shion held before I possessed him.
Otherwise there was no explaining this searing flood of feeling directed at Butler Ivo and at Father Andres.
Perhaps the resentment Shion had carried toward them was so intense that it was bleeding through to me. I ventured the guess carefully.
Even if I tried to stay cold and rational, human emotion was not something you could simply control at will.
Cooling a head that heated itself of its own accord was difficult.
....This kid really is pitiful.
At the same time, sympathy for Shion rose in me.
What kind of treatment, what kind of life, must he have endured to harbor resentment this fierce?
I could not even begin to measure the scale of the anger that had accumulated — no, been forced upon him — over the past seventeen years.
A question struck me then.
From Shion's perspective, his body had basically been stolen out of nowhere.
So was it right for me, the one who had taken over that body, to simply ignore and leave untouched the knots of emotion Shion had carried all this time?
At the very least, wasn't it the bare minimum of respect to give those feelings a proper outlet?
In that case, I—
"We have arrived, Young Master."
While my thoughts wandered, the butler looked back and stepped slightly aside.
If I threw open this massive door before me, I would meet Andres Frelia.
".....Let's go."
With that single line — spoken to no one in particular — I flung the door open with force.
A vast space filled with a magnificent chandelier and a long table.
There, Andres Frelia sat in a stern bearing, and beside him a beautiful woman, both watching me from the great table.
My breathing quickened slightly.
"It has been a long time, Father."
I gave a casual nod in greeting.
"Hah, look at that unceremonious greeting."
At my halfhearted bow, the woman glared and clicked her tongue.
"Haha. I grew up without a mother, so I'm a bit lacking in household manners. But tell me.... might I ask who you are?"
"Seeing that you truly do not remember, it seems the amnesia is real."
Andres Frelia spoke without a single change in expression.
"....Then you do not recognize my face either?"
"No. I remember Father perfectly well. Even with amnesia, how could I forget my own father's face? However....."
I looked at the woman still glaring at me and continued with a sly smile.
"I simply have no idea who that lady over there is."
"Ah — 'lady'?"
"Scarlet Pariane. Your stepmother. And the mother of your brother, Pascal Frelia."
"Aha...."
Hearing Andres's explanation, I nodded slowly.
"So in other words — your precious son got thoroughly humiliated by the kid who always used to grovel before him, and you came all the way here as a parent over it? That explains why you've looked so angry since the moment I walked in."
"You insolent brat!"
Pascal's mother — Scarlet — flushed and raised her voice.
"Ahaha. As I just mentioned, I've lost my memories, so I don't really know how to speak politely. Perhaps you, as someone of breeding, could demonstrate proper manners first? I'll watch and learn."
"Hold your tongue! You lowborn thing — I've been soft on you and now you know no bounds! Looking at your arrogant behavior, it's no wonder you brought shame on the family's name at the Academy! How dare a disgrace to the family humiliate the house and belittle Pascal!"
I took Scarlet's rapid-fire assault with a scratch of my chin, then smiled and said,
"Have you finished speaking?"
"What?"
"Since you seem done, I'd like to ask a few questions. First — yes, I humiliated Sir Pascal. But does that automatically mean I humiliated House Frelia?"
"Of course it does! Pascal is the foremost child of House Frelia. He will inherit the headship next — and you humiliated that child!"
"Hmm~ So in short, Sir Pascal is essentially the face of House Frelia."
"That's righ—!"
"Then what do you make of this?"
Still smiling brightly, I began to recite Pascal's track record.
"The face of House Frelia has been persistently harassing female students in back alleys, beating them, leaving his fallen subordinates lying on the ground without a care, and using every scrap of power he scrapes together to torment his motherless younger sibling. Is that really the kind of behavior the face of House Frelia should display? Or did you, by any chance, teach Sir Pascal all of this?"
"......What?"
Scarlet's pupils trembled.
"Pa-Pascal would never do something so senseless!"
"Hmm. Judging by that reaction, Sir Pascal never told his parents about his adorable little hobbies. Well, I can understand that somewhat. Twenty is a sensitive age, isn't it? There are things one might want to hide."
Whether Scarlet was aghast or not, I shrugged and continued.
"And I think you're overreacting a bit. Honestly, even if Sir Pascal falls, I don't think House Frelia would so much as sway."
"What...?"
"I mean, just look at Lady Chloe — already approaching the 4-Star realm at only seventeen. Doesn't it seem a little ridiculous to single out Sir Pascal for special treatment?"
I looked at Scarlet, who had gone rigid, and went on.
"To be frank, if I dueled Sir Pascal ten times, I'd be confident of winning at least three. Even though Sir Pascal is 5-Star and I'm 1-Star."
"Ugh.... Shut your mouth, you lowborn mongrel!"
"Haha. If I accept that I'm lowborn, it would be the same as dishonoring Father's name, so I'm afraid I can't take that remark."
"Our Pascal is not someone the likes of you can tear down! He was a noble child from the moment he was born, unlike you...!"
Scarlet's veins stood out as she shouted, discarding any pretense of dignity.
As I was thinking of a suitable retort with a faint smile—
"That is enough, both of you."
Andres Frelia, who had been listening in silence to our sharp exchange of insults, finally opened his mouth.