Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 8. To the Tolome Family (1)
The office of the family head, which could be called the central part of the Tolome family.
It was a greyish-white space that felt neat although not fancy.
It was a frugal office to the extent that even a person seeing Bartomyu, the head of the Tolome family, for the first time could roughly notice what kind of person he was if they entered that office.
And inside such an office, there was a white-haired old man with disheveled hair like a lion’s mane.
“You manifested Aura?”
“Yes. Family Head.”
“Hmm…….”
The Cadmus family that was exterminated less than a week after his daughter died.
In front of the incident like a disaster encountered without even having time to properly mourn his daughter’s death, Count Tolome Bartomyu did not bother to hide his anger.
Even yesterday, he had stopped by the royal palace and passionately argued that those wicked Gartaria bastards who trampled on a baron family of the Kingdom of Felix must be caught and beaten to death.
Even he had already heard and knew the rumor that the whereabouts of his grandson, Blanc Cadmus, were obscure.
If only he was alive, he was a blood relative he naturally had to embrace, so he released people to search for him for the past two months, but he was a grandson whose tracks couldn't be found at all after the Free City Baywood.
But not only did such a grandson come on his own feet, but he even intimidated guards manifesting Aura.
“Aura…… Aura……. Was there ever a time the Cadmus family produced an outstanding knight?”
“I know them as a family with very strong physical conditions.”
“A knight?”
“There has never been a known knight produced. There is a record that the first family head of the Cadmus family manifested Aura, but even that was said to be at a middle age…….”
“It means it’s not a family possessing genius?”
But a grandson who is certainly thirteen years old already wields Aura?
“Is it a definite story?”
Bartomyu, who couldn't believe that fact at all, asked the family’s escort knight Aiden again.
“Not only the guards but all personnel watching nearby testified. They said he emitted white lightning.”
“Hmm…….”
Blanc’s mother, Nedrian, was the child most loved by Bartomyu.
It was understandable since Nedrian was the only daughter and the youngest among 5 children, so she was literally a child who wouldn't hurt even if put in his eye.
Bartomyu used to exchange news constantly through letters even though she married far away into the Cadmus family.
“Surely Nedrian lined up boasts about Blanc, but that was boasting any mother with a child would do. If it was talent enough to manifest Aura, she surely would have mentioned it differently.”
Bartomyu’s eyes sank deeply.
“He might not be my grandson.”
***
“He says to come in.”
As the butler of the Tolome family permitted entry, Emilia, who was biting her nails restlessly, jumped up.
“Young…… Young Master!”
“Calm down. Did you catch stuttering from Rakshar or something?”
The faithful gamekeeper who stutters would be waiting for them endlessly returning to the place they camped by now.
Although he wanted to bring Rakshar too if possible, since it was a situation where identity verification wasn't certain yet, he had unavoidably left him behind.
Because the existence of a werewolf was something that induced wariness in people that much.
“Can I! Can I not go in?”
“No.”
Emilia was a maid who served his mother for close to 20 years and the only person who remembers her well.
Even more than Blanc.
“But! Would I be helpful!”
“Unconditionally yes. If it really doesn't work, you can just cry next to me.”
“That…… I can do!”
Looking at Emilia clenching her fist, Blanc doubted if she would really be helpful.
“Then this way.”
The butler watching the skit of the two guided them raising his hand quietly.
It was a huge mansion incomparable to the Cadmus family.
Passing through long hallways and crossing several doors, the place finally arrived.
That place was a drawing room boasting a huge and magnificent size, not Bartomyu’s humble office.
‘Seems he doesn't think of me as a grandson.’
It was understandable since armed knights were lined up on both sides of the chair where Bartomyu was sitting.
If he really thought of Blanc as a grandson, a fancy banquet would have been waiting, not knights wearing swords.
“Are you really Blanc Cadmus?”
Bartomyu spoke quietly, but perhaps due to the high ceiling and wide space, that sound echoed like an echo giving the feeling of a beast growling right next to him.
“Sob…… sob…….”
Perhaps because the intimidating atmosphere and echoing sound were too scary, Emilia shedding tears drop by drop without being told.
However, the black-haired boy standing next to her answered staring straight at the old lion with a white mane as if it was nothing.
“Yes, Count. I am Blanc Cadmus, the son of Pallard Cadmus and Nedrian.”
‘Ho-oh.’
Bartomyu’s eyes shining seeing Blanc bowing his head and introducing himself.
Although he couldn't be sure if the boy in front of him right now was his grandson, Bartomyu figured out at least he wasn't ordinary.
Moreover, according to the report earlier, isn't he a boy who manifested Aura.
Bartomyu, fascinated by Blanc’s confident attitude, was trying to find traces of his daughter in the boy’s face before he knew it.
‘Eyes seem similar, lips are a replica, that black hair seems to have the unique feeling of the Cadmus family alive too.’
“Count.”
As Bartomyu was staring intently only at Blanc’s face blankly, his escort knight Edwin refreshed the surroundings.
“Hm, right. However, as you know, I heard over 100 things claiming to be Blanc Cadmus are outside right now. However, you say you have evidence to claim you are real unlike them?”
“When the wicked Gartaria bastards were trampling on the mansion of Cadmus, I brought my mother first above anything else. Even more than the family seal.”
Actually, if he had just brought the seal of the Cadmus family, he wouldn't have gone through such a rough process. Since it would have been just a matter of comparing the pattern of the seal recorded in the royal family and Goddess Order.
However, his father’s office was on the 2nd floor, and it was too dangerous a situation to break through that place where soldiers stormed in and retrieve the seal, so he only took his mother’s spirit tablet.
“Give it here.”
Blanc handed Nedrian’s spirit tablet he cherished deep in his chest to the knight beside him.
Bartomyu receiving Nedrian’s spirit tablet from the knight.
Perhaps because he treated his mother’s spirit tablet preciously even in that turmoil, it was a spirit tablet rolled in white cotton cloth.
Unraveling those cloths one by one, what appeared was Nedrian’s spirit tablet made of jade stone with a bluish tint.
However, there was no way to be sure if this spirit tablet was truly the spirit tablet containing his daughter.
But to break the spirit tablet right away, the spirit tablet the vagrant called in last time brought weighed on his mind.
Bartomyu had various political enemies as much as the size of power he possessed befitting a count of a country.
Inside the spirit tablet brought by the black-haired vagrant called in last time, a curse sent by one of the political enemies was contained.
Because of that incident, a knight who broke the spirit tablet instead of Bartomyu was greatly injured once, so he intended to interrogate if the boy in front of his eyes was truly his grandson before breaking the spirit tablet.
“I heard you handled Aura.”
“That is so. Count.”
Blanc felt it was the start of interrogation from now on.
If he didn't answer Bartomyu’s questions properly, his head could be cut off immediately for the crime of impersonating a noble.
Tolome Bartomyu. Because he was a meritorious noble with summary punishment rights.
“Did you learn the unique Aura cultivation method of the Cadmus family?”
“I did learn the cultivation method, but manifesting Aura is not because of the family’s cultivation method.”
“Then?”
Blanc organized his thoughts while controlling his breathing. Because what he says from now on will become his background in this life.
“My father thought he couldn't achieve a high realm with the cultivation method of the Cadmus family so far. So he invited a famous swordsman from the Kingdom of Anton and told me to learn a new cultivation method.”
“Is that so?”
Actually, it wasn't that cases of discarding the family’s unique cultivation method and accepting a new cultivation method didn't exist.
Moreover, since the Cadmus family wasn't a family possessing an outstanding cultivation method either, it was a sufficiently plausible answer.
“What is the name of the cultivation method?”
“It is called the White Thunderbolt, the Aura cultivation method of the Assinsao family of the Kingdom of Anton, a family now exterminated.”
‘Hmm…….’
It was an unknown cultivation method of a family he never heard of.
If Pallard Cadmus actually acted like that, it couldn't have been found with ordinary effort.
Bartomyu pouring questions constantly to Blanc even after that.
How he escaped, how he escaped from Baywood, how he came here.
And although Bartomyu mixed in questions about Nedrian and the Cadmus family in between to induce confusion, Blanc, who had nothing particular to hide except the part about the cultivation method, answered the questions without blockage.
‘Seems correct?’
Confident attitude, talent manifesting Aura at the age of thirteen, even a brilliant head answering without a bit of disarray even in front of him.
Bartomyu was rooting for Blanc answering his questions without knowing from what moment.
If that talent he didn't want to miss was really his grandson, it would literally be icing on the cake.
However, if he was a scammer impersonating his grandson, it was a situation where he had to order execution directly.
“Then lastly…….”
‘He has more to ask?’
No matter if it is Blanc, reciting memories accurately in a tense situation where life goes back and forth had to be a burden.
His back was already soaked and his face was full of cold sweat, so he just hoped this interrogation would end quickly.
“C-Count…….”
The faithful maid Emilia seeing Blanc’s face turning pale.
Everyone in the drawing room began to pay attention to her who dared to cut off the words of Bartomyu, a noble of the kingdom, with the status of a servant.
However, Emilia, who was bowing looking only at the ground, rummaged through her pocket and took out a golden hairpin without knowing those gazes were directed at her.
Emilia crawling on her knees holding the golden hairpin she took out and handing it to the knight in front of her.
‘What are you doing now!’
It was a good atmosphere. If he endured just a little more like this, it would work.
But Blanc was speechless and his body stiffened at the sudden situation caused by that quiet and timid maid.
“I-I am a maid called Emilia…… I served Madam since she was four years old…….”
“Stop.”
Bartomyu cutting off Emilia’s words with a voice stiffened hard.
Perhaps because he was displeased that a mere maid blocked his words, Bartomyu looked at Blanc with a crooked gaze again.
“So what is that hairpin?”
As soon as Bartomyu finished speaking, the knight handing him the golden hairpin.
Bartomyu was feeling an unknown sense of incongruity while looking at that hairpin carefully.
“M-Madam said. This hairpin was passed down by Madam’s mother…… so the Countess. So the Count’s wife…….”
“Stop.”
Noble women passing down ornaments to their daughters was a common occurrence.
However, it was a story Blanc heard for the first time too.
Because Blanc, born as a man, didn't have an opportunity to hear stories about women’s ornaments.
“Ugh…… Uuugh…….”
“Count!”
“Lord Bartomyu!”
As soon as Bartomyu checked the golden hairpin, he grabbed his heart and started shedding thick teardrops.
The sight of him, a knight brave enough to be called the Lion of Felix, showing tears was beyond shock, it was terrifying.
A situation where everyone in the drawing room was stiff not knowing what to do with that shock.
Before long, Bartomyu wiped his tears and began to slowly break Nedrian’s spirit tablet Blanc brought.
Carefully. To maintain the original form as much as possible.
Nedrian’s spirit tablet broken in Bartomyu’s hand.
Inside it, along with Nedrian’s golden hair tied neatly, a small note was contained.
“When my daughter was born, my wife saw the moonlight seeping through the window and asked me to plant forget-me-not flowers in the garden tomorrow.”
That note was a ‘Birth Poem’.
Nobles had a tradition where parents or equivalent adults composed a poem for the born children when children were born.
That poem was a secret poem only the person and direct family could know.
‘Forget-me-not flower born receiving white moonlight. I waited for you anxiously.’
It was a poem Bartomyu composed directly for Nedrian.
The young forget-me-not that bowed its head shyly at his call returned as a small spirit tablet.
However, the forget-me-not he thought was frail eventually sprouted its seed and sent it to Bartomyu.
Bartomyu crying holding his broken daughter’s spirit tablet. In front of him was a boy with black hair.
That boy was the son of the forget-me-not.
The old lion with a white mane who finally stopped wailing rose from his seat and shouted loudly.
“My grandson! Has returned to Tolome with my daughter’s soul! And my wife’s keepsake! Everyone welcome him!”
Knights stiffened not knowing what to do.
However, as Bartomyu’s order fell, they knelt on one knee toward Blanc without delay.
“Welcome! Lord Blanc Cadmus!”
Blanc ‘Cadmus’.
The title calling him in the last life was Blanc ‘Scar’.
It was a nickname likening him covered in scars all over his body.
The surname ‘Cadmus’, his root he couldn't find until the end in the past life.
However, this life will be different.
From now on, he is the only and legitimate successor of Norington guaranteed by the Count Tolome family, a meritorious noble of the kingdom.
It was ‘Blanc Cadmus’.