Chapter 167

Alexander was holding Dad’s hand, which had gone pale and stiff.

For some reason, thick tears were falling plop, plop from Alexander’s eyes.

“I said let go a little……!”

“Don’t do this, please. Just this once, let’s talk a bit. Father is waiting……”

Father?

It wasn’t only Tie whose mouth fell open at the conversation whose contents she could not understand.

Aleric, Victor, Livia, even Veil too, all poked Basto with their eyes wide round.

“What? What’s this? What kind of situation is this, huh?”

But Basto likewise knew nothing at all.

At that moment.

The main gate of the Luminen estate flew open, and Leonardo revealed himself.

Approaching Tesetan and Alexander with a stiff face, he said,

“Theseos.”

Everyone was bewildered for a moment at the strange and familiar name.

“I’m sorry in advance.”

Leonardo removed the swordsmanship gloves he had on.

Then with the edge of his hand, thickly condensed with holy power, he struck the back of Tesetan’s neck.

Tesetan, who had still not fully recovered from the injury she sustained in the duel of honor with Tie, staggered badly.

“Uh?!”

Shocked, Tie immediately tried to run over there.

But Edmund, who had come closer, embraced the child.

Tie struggled and looked at Edmund.

“Un-uncle! Uncle Leonar hit Tie’s c, no, Vice-Captain!!”

Tesetan had been knocked unconscious by what Leonardo did.

Edmund nodded as if apologetic.

“I know. He’s your vice-captain, but he acted violently.”

Tie nodded with aggrieved eyes.

Edmund continued.

“But if we don’t do even this, it doesn’t seem like there will be any way to bring him inside the house.”

Tie’s lips closed slightly.

Edmund smiled somewhat sadly.

“Just for today, can’t Tie let it slide. He’s a younger brother who unilaterally cut ties and disappeared without a trace…… we can’t let him run away before our eyes this time either.”

‘Younger brother……?’

Tie stared at Leonardo’s back as he carried Dad on his back and went into the estate with creaking steps.

Younger brother, younger brother……?

The words Edmund had said a moment ago kept echoing at his ears.

Tie blankly looked at Edmund’s face.

* * *

“Ha……”

In the broad drawing room, Aleric raked through his own hair.

Victor, looking at Aleric like that, clicked his tongue.

Aleric raised his head and glared at Victor.

“Did you know.”

Victor slowly crossed his legs and asked back,

“Know what?”

“That the little commander, th, I mean, Luminen……!”

Even while speaking, his words jammed.

Aleric, who stammered over the sentence for a long time, only barely shouted after wasting several seconds.

“I’m asking whether you knew the little commander is Luminen’s fourth young master!”

Victor shrugged.

“No? I didn’t know. But the fact I learned it in this situation isn’t exactly surprising.”

Aleric let out a “Huh.”

Victor continued speaking.

“Wasn’t the suspicion that the little commander might be a noble one we all had at least once.”

Aleric cast his gaze down with a troubled face.

As Victor said, even Tesetan’s swordsmanship was aristocratic.

The fact that he used only restrained movements without unnecessary motions.

The fact that the sword strikes he had honed were each and every one precise and meticulous.

The fact that his movement when thrusting was exactly similar to the holy knights too.

It meant that from the very foundation he was different from commoner swordsmen who learned swordsmanship in a rough way while wandering all over the place.

“I had already suspected it. The appearance of Luminen’s fourth young master and the little commander overlapped considerably. Starting from the black hair and green eyes mixed with brown.”

“If you had thoughts like that, to me…… let’s not even talk.”

Aleric closed his mouth.

Beside him, Livia too sat with her mouth tightly shut as if she had many thoughts.

Veil, who had been watching them with interested eyes, said,

“So. Right now that guy Tesetan is the fourth of this house, that’s it, right?”

His face was completely spread with a look as if he found it amusing.

“I should’ve known this back when I worked as an information broker. Did people wonder only a little about where the fourth young master who disappeared without a trace was going around and what he was doing.”

Veil bent his waist toward Tie, who had been speechless at his side from a while ago.

“By the way, brat, as expected! Respect!”

Tie hesitantly raised her head.

Veil cackled and continued.

“Something came to you, huh? So that’s why you dueled and swallowed up Trevaga whole. Looking at it, it seems that guy Tesetan was the one unilaterally avoiding the Grand Commander.”

“……”

“I seriously can’t believe it. That bastard’s father is the Grand Commander, and his brothers are Luminen’s three young masters. Well, a guy’s arrogance couldn’t just come from nowhere. It’s because he has something to rely on…… huh? Brat!”

At that moment Tie sprang up from the chair.

Then he hurriedly left the drawing room, crying out,

“Tie bathroom!”

At the word bathroom, Veil, who had been about to rise, sat down.

Coming out and closing the drawing room door, Tie looked around the wide estate while feeling her heart pounding.

The Luminen grand estate was empty today too, without servants.

To minimize the eyes watching, the Grand Commander always emptied the house like this on days when Tie came.

‘Dad……’

Tie began climbing the stairs with her brows drooping low.

If Dad was really Grand Commander’s son.

If he was really the uncles’ younger brother, there was a place he could guess where he would be right now.

‘The room I entered by mistake while snooping around the organizational chart.’

The child’s steps grew increasingly urgent.

Panting, Tie finally stood before the room of Luminen’s fourth young master.

Then he quietly put his ear to the door.

As expected, voices were coming from inside.

“……I have no intention of interfering in your life. I have no intention of prying one by one into what you have been doing. But.”

“……”

“I judged that it would be good for us to have contact. It is not such a difficult thing, is it.”

“Ha……”

There was no doubt.

Grand Commander speaking in a sunken voice.

And Dad sighing.

“……It was my fault.”

Valentis’s heavy voice continued.

“After you left like that, I thought it over carefully. Why did you make such a choice. Why do you always point the tip of the sword toward yourself.”

Tie closed her mouth.

He knew nothing of the circumstances, but Valentis’s voice was very sad.

It was so sad that it felt like he himself might cry too.

“Theseos. I will say this clearly in this place today. That was not your fault. It was my mistake arising from my own foolishness.”

“……”

“I was an inadequate father, so I did not know your insides were rotting away. I did not know you were in such pain. I…… I was a fool.”

“Please stop.”

Dad cut off Valentis’s words in a heavy voice.

Tie swallowed hard and leaned her body slightly more toward the door.

Silence followed, and then Valentis’s voice was heard again.

“……I know today’s matter must be confusing. In truth, I have a personal connection with Agabert. I will tell you in more detail later, but the Order had targeted the Necromancer King.”

“The Order, you mean? Why the Necromancer King?”

“Did you not see his power as well. It is an unprecedented ability. It is only natural that the Order would take interest.”

“Ha, those bastards are the same now as ever……”

“Does it weigh on your mind?”

Tie, who had been listening, froze stiff.

Beyond the door, Valentis gave a faint laugh.

“He is one who is hard to hate. I thought you would take a liking to him.”

Without realizing it, Tie stepped one pace backward from her place.

“I……”

Inside, Dad began to answer.

Tie, frightened with a jolt, hurriedly ran back across the corridor she had come through.

‘I……’

That child is bothersome and I hate him.

Because he was afraid he might hear Dad’s voice saying that, or something like it.

Running absentmindedly until she reached the end of the corridor, Tie stopped before a large cabinet.

Between the cabinet and the corridor wall.

There was a small space that looked like he could barely fit into it.

Tie struggled into it, hugged her knees, and crouched down.

Dust puffed up and flew around, but there was only one thought in his head.

‘Grand Commander…… was Dad’s dad.’

Not only that.

Dad had as many as three older brothers too.

Suddenly an old memory came to mind.

‘You know, Tie says she doesn’t have even one family member besides Dad. Isn’t that strange?’

‘Gasp, how can you not have even one family member? You don’t even have a mom?’

‘I don’t know either. But on the family picture he only drew Dad and himself?’

The small hand clutching his clothes trembled.