Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5.
Clunk!
The moment I opened the main doors, everyone who had been buzzing with conversation turned to look in the same direction, then began whispering among themselves.
“That child? The one from House Nordiar, that battle-crazed Northern Grand Duke’s...”
“Shh. He’ll hear you.”
‘Tch. It’s not that I might hear you. I can hear every word, you damned nobles.’
Outwardly, I kept my face expressionless, but inwardly I clicked my tongue.
Whether they had called me a genius or a scoundrel, I had never once found these nobles likable.
I had always despised them as a pack rotting in hollow formalities, and had been the one to keep my distance first.
Even so, there was a separate reason I had come here in person.
Today was the day of the noble social gathering hosted by my third brother, Cannon Nordiar.
-Bastard or not, you are still a member of House Nordiar. You will attend social gatherings from now on. Go and at least learn some etiquette. You must not be used to it, having lived as a street orphan, but it would be good for you to learn. Otherwise it will only hinder you later in noble society.
...Since it had been an order from the august Grand Duchess Marie, I had no choice.
As someone who had lived as a scoundrel in my previous life, I loathed social gatherings like this.
Still, even if I had to go out of my way to come here, it was not as though there was nothing to gain.
‘An alchemist.’
I probably could not yet recruit the fellow who would one day make his name through alchemy, but I thought I could at least make contact with a family already famous for it.
As I surveyed the wine, drinks, refreshments, and the many people seated about the hall, a few figures caught my eye.
For one, the young lady of Count House Maron, famous for alchemy.
Or the Marquess House of Marlesto, which maintained close ties with the Mage Tower and stood at the forefront of magical research.
Not only that, but even the Archbishop in charge of the diocese of Eterna, the imperial capital, was here.
‘The Archbishop is a little unexpected, though.’
Still, it was not strange for him to appear. Luminous, the holy nation that served Shine, the God of Light, was not on bad terms with the Empire.
“What are you standing there in a daze for? Come with me. At the very least, do not bring shame upon the family.”
Cannon roughly seized my hand, dragged me around, and introduced me here and there.
The reactions generally fell into two categories.
First, there were those who pitied me for having been rescued by the Imperial Knights Order.
Perhaps because they felt sorry for me, their attitude toward me was not all that bad.
Then there were those who openly looked down on me for being a bastard.
They did not spare me so much as a glance and spoke only to Cannon, so blatantly eager to curry favor with him that it was painful to watch.
Unlike the way he treated me, Cannon seemed perfectly accustomed to putting on a mask in public, chatting and laughing with practiced ease.
‘At this rate, staying here is just a waste of time.’
Leaving Cannon, who was all smiles and shallow pleasantries with the other nobles’ children, I quietly slipped away.
What I needed was an alchemist, not a crowd of people who looked down on me.
‘Let’s see... where was Count House Maron again? Ah, there.’
In the distance, I spotted the young lady of Count House Maron, talking with several other noble ladies, her golden corkscrew curls impossible to miss.
I snatched up a random glass without even checking what was in it and headed her way.
The contents did not matter. So long as I could raise it in a toast, anything would do.
“...A pleasure to meet you. Are you perhaps the young lady of Count House Maron?”
‘Trying to act polite doesn’t suit me at all. This feels unbearably awkward.’
It was not that I did not know etiquette, but compared to my previous life, when drinking and causing trouble had been my daily routine as a scoundrel, acting refined felt utterly unnatural.
The young lady of Count House Maron seemed sharp enough to notice my strained manner as well, because she lifted her eyes slightly and asked my identity.
“And you are?”
‘...There is no way she doesn’t know.’
I was the infamous bastard of House Nordiar, the talk of every noble in the room.
So it was easy enough to see what lay behind that answer.
‘She means to make use of the fact that I’m a bastard.’
It meant she intended to use me as a way of probing House Nordiar, whose military strength no noble house could hope to rival.
There were clearly no small number of nobles who had long been crushed beneath Nordiar’s authority, because the treatment I received was abysmal.
‘The Grand Ducal House’s sole blemish. That was what I was.’
I was reminded once more of a fact I had long known.
“The new... no, never mind. Unfortunately, I’m not quite so oblivious when it comes to this sort of thing.”
‘I even came back in time and meant to keep my temper in check and live decently this time.’
...And yet she was dragging the old scoundrel out of me again.
The alcohol I had taken in little by little while following Cannon around was probably to blame.
The young lady of Count House Maron, who had been quietly watching to see how I would react, smiled as though she did not understand and asked again,
“What exactly do you mean?”
“And second, I hate people talking in circles. It seems your family is not particularly fond of House Nordiar?”
“Oh my.”
Perhaps sensing that I meant to confront her head-on, the others who did not want to get dragged into the matter began slipping away one by one, clearing their throats awkwardly.
Even as the people she had likely thought were on her side drifted away, the young lady of Count Maron did not lose her composure. She simply raised a hand to her mouth and hid her expression.
“Not fond of them? Why, they are the First Sword defending the Empire. If anything, I am always grateful.”
At her false smile, irritation flared in me, and I blew a breath upward through my bangs.
“...Who taught you to spout such laughable nonsense? I’m keeping my temper in check and only saying this much, but if you want to challenge House Nordiar, you had better hold tightly to that precious lifeline called alchemy. Your house is nothing special without it, is it?”
“...What?”
“...Be more careful in the future.”
At the blunt speech, the utter lack of manners, and the complete disregard for courtesy or formality, the young lady of Count Maron looked so flustered that I could practically read her expression even behind the fan covering her mouth.
But whether she was flustered or not was none of my concern.
‘She tried to make me say the word bastard with my own mouth and humiliate myself first, didn’t she?’
As far as I was concerned, I had already been more than polite enough by that damned standard of etiquette.
Time was precious.
There was no point investing any more of it in something that was clearly going nowhere.
Even now, the emperor was racing toward the Empire’s destruction.
Of course, preventing it in advance would be ideal, but one had to prepare for the worst as well.
And Count House Maron was not the only family famous for alchemy.
I had simply hoped it would work out with the house currently considered the best.
‘They may be the best right now, but the future is a different matter. ...There’s a family I want to find.’
The problem was that the nobles were not wearing plaques on their chests with their family names written on them, and if I had to go around asking one by one, even an entire night would not be enough.
Frustrated, I headed for the terrace.
A number of the other young nobles had come outside as well, perhaps because the pleasant spread of alcohol had warmed them.
...Though the moment they saw my face, they subtly avoided me.
“You seem to be carrying many worries. It is an honor to meet the fourth son of House Nordiar.”
‘Hmm?’
Until now, the nobles’ attitudes had fallen into one of two categories.
Either they pitied me, or they looked down on me.
So seeing someone greet me properly while observing courtesy was something new, and I raised an eyebrow.
“...It seems my face has gotten around already.”
“Gotten around? I saw you standing with Young Master Cannon, so naturally I assumed you were House Nordiar’s new young master.”
“I see.”
“What should I call you? I did not hear your name.”
“...Please call me Kairun.”
It was the name Father had once bestowed upon me.
At the same time, it was the old name I had been called by all through my previous life.
“Yes, Young Master Kairun.”
“So then, what is your purpose? Did you come to mock me for being a bastard too? To call me a commoner who hit the lottery?”
Perhaps the tension from my clash with the young lady of Count Maron had not yet fully faded.
I answered in a sharp tone that sounded far too much like my old self.
I am tired of it now.
I had already heard the words commoner who hit the lottery until I was sick of them in my previous life.
That was why I had struggled.
And that was why I had been betrayed so spectacularly.
At my sharp response, the young man shook both hands and said,
“No, I have not the slightest intention of that. In fact, I only approached because I wanted to be friendly with you.”
“There is not much to gain from being friendly with me. Shall I introduce you to Brother Cannon instead?”
“Honestly, no. That isn’t it.”
“......”
Was I truly that distrustful of people? I asked myself inwardly.
“Judging by your state, it seems high society has already treated you rather harshly. There are sometimes people who enjoy those little battles of pride, but I hope you will forgive them. Everyone does it to raise the standing of their own house.”
Standing beside me in a similar posture, arms crossed as he leaned against the terrace, the young man let the cool air soothe his face, which had gone red from drink.
“So this is pure goodwill?”
“Of course.”
“In that case, which house do you belong to?”
‘I don’t recognize his face, so I doubt he’s from a particularly famous house. He won’t be imperial either.’
As I muttered inwardly, he introduced himself as though he had only just remembered.
“My apologies. I should have introduced myself sooner. I am the third son of Count House Lumiere, Flanios Lumiere. Please call me Flan.”
“...Lumiere?”
“Yes.”
‘...Then he’s the son of the captain of the Imperial Knights Order. Was he really always this affable?’
If I recall correctly, he would be the son of the superior of Kurost, the knight I had met before.
Had he been the eldest son, I might have recognized him, but as the third son, it was not strange that I had not.
“That only makes me more suspicious. Are the Imperial Knights Order and House Nordiar not on poor terms?”
At bottom it was a matter of which side was better at protecting the emperor, but politically it still carried quite a bit of weight.
After all, the emperor had already designated House Nordiar as the “First Sword defending the Empire,” so it could not have sat well with the Imperial Knights Order.
“We are, at least officially. But only officially. Even so, I found myself wanting to get along with you in private. My father was mocked quite a bit as well for being of common birth. ...I thought we might be in somewhat similar circumstances.”
‘So he was simply a decent sort.’
Still, making a connection to the captain of the Imperial Knights Order was bound to prove useful later.
Thinking so, I asked him one question.
“Do you happen to know House Aureum? You seem rather well connected.”
“I know of them, certainly... though I cannot say why the fourth young master of House Nordiar would take an interest in them.”
“So you do know them.”
“They own mana stone mines. They are the baronial house that supplies alchemical materials to Count House Maron, famous for its alchemy, are they not?”
“In that case, would you introduce me to them?”
Flan scratched the back of his head, perhaps curious about my sudden request, or perhaps simply amused by how much like an old man I sounded.
“I mean, introducing you is no problem at all... but are you short on mana stones? I cannot imagine House Nordiar of all houses lacking mana stones.”
“It’s not the mana stones that matter...”
I swallowed the rest of the sentence.
I’m trying to meet the genius alchemist who will soon emerge.
This was about the time when that genius would have first opened his eyes to alchemy and begun absorbing everything from a master.
‘And that alchemist is going to shake the House Aureum to its foundations.’
A genius who would advance the history of alchemy by a hundred years.
He would narrow the gap with Count House Maron, which at the time boasted the finest alchemy, in the blink of an eye, and House Aureum, with its mana stone mines, would provide the perfect environment for endless research.
‘Even House Nordiar chose ties with Count House Maron because its foundations were more solid than placing its hopes on a single genius. And that genius was the one who proved that decision had been a mistake.’
“...In any case, I’m asking for your help.”
“Yes, well... it is not difficult.”
***
Solpis Aureum.
She truly disliked social gatherings.
Everyone flaunted their family names at the slightest opportunity, fenced for dominance, and came sniffing around whenever they needed connections for something.
She had been growing tired of these artificial, contrived encounters when a young man who looked to be in his mid to late teens suddenly appeared before her and greeted her without warning.
“I am Kairun Nordiar, the fourth of House Nordiar.”
‘Another one here for mana stones.’
By now it was so obvious that she could tell at a glance.
With a sigh, she responded coldly to the young man.
At the same time, she was somewhat curious why, out of all the nobles here, he had approached her specifically. But whatever the reason, it was surely because of the mana stones.
“What possible need could House Nordiar have for mana stones? No matter how I think about it, it makes no sense.”
“...It seems high society has treated you rather harshly as well. I do not need mana stones.”
“Then what do you need?”
The young man rubbed his chin for a moment as though thinking it over.
Then, having apparently reached a decision, he grinned.
“Not mana stones. A person.”