CH 32

What kind of situation is this! Once again, I opened the door just a little bit, maintained an impossible position, and peeked through the crack.

I found myself getting closer to the door than before. The end of the ritual was now in sight, and my heart was racing.

One of the three people staring at each other was a woman I recognized, her beautiful cherry-red hair and, most importantly, her ample breasts. Wasn’t she Count Piazon’s daughter, Mist? However, unlike before, her lax eyes had a somewhat cold glow to them.

Also, the other two were a short, overweight man and a tall woman with shoulder-length black hair. I changed my painful position to a more demanding one and took a closer look.

The short man wore uninspired clothes with gold and ornaments all over them, and did nothing to hide his grumpy face. The dark-haired woman, unlike the short man, wore flashy clothes, but her whole body was in harmony and looked fashionable. Furthermore, she was looking down on them from above and seemed to be arrogant.

Why is this happening to me?!

“Master Chris! What’s going on?”

“Aah!”

Suddenly, I was startled by Macbeth calling out to me from behind, and I fell against the door, pushing it open. I looked up and saw a man with a surprised look on his face, a dark-haired woman with a dumbfounded look on her face, and a cherry-red girl holding back her laughter. The cherry-red girl approached me and opened her mouth.

“That’s quite a bizarre entrance. Is this part of the ritual? Anyway, congratulations on your coming of age!”

“No, that’s not it…haha. Thank you very much.”

I wobbled to my feet and let out a dry laugh.

“Hey, Pierzon’s third girl. Can I assume that this is a slip-up?”

The dark-haired woman approached and asked Mist a question in a foolish manner. Up close, she looked like a beautiful woman with big, slightly upturned eyes that sucked you in, and a smooth nose and lips.

“This is a place of celebration. Shouldn’t you be ashamed of yourself for not congratulating him sooner?”

“Damn, you’re still a pain in the ass.”

After staring at each other for a few seconds, she spat out a discarded line, turned to me, and said, as though regaining her composure.

“My name is Claire Alcarra. Congratulations on your coming of age.”

“Oh, yeah. Thank you very much.”

I timidly thanked her.

“I didn’t know the arrogant daughter of Alcarra could be so polite.”

“There was never really an opportunity to congratulate him. If only some house hadn’t gone to the trouble of spying on my family’s carriage.”

“No, no, no. You were lost and trying to take the long way around to the lord’s mansion, so I just told you the shortest way.”

“Ah! By chance, I was at the gate of the street, belonging to the Piazon family!”

“In that case, is it just a coincidence that every time I send a messenger, the messenger is attacked by wild thieves and comes back?”

“It’s just a coincidence.”

“I thought it was strange, so I did some research and found out that a rat had gotten into our house. He told me that he grew up in Alcarra territory.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a talking rat.”

“I had a good reason to come today, unlike you.”

Mist and Claire are arguing with each other. If I listen to the conversation, I can see that they are also interfering with each other, and the fact that they don’t let me know about it means that they are not only highly skilled, but they are playing the highest level of information warfare in the nobility.

My family will surely be destroyed if we don’t learn to win this information war. If I don’t do something about it, I’ll be too scared to sleep at night…….

I could see a new problem, and as I was thinking about how to solve it, a man of short stature approached me.

“Hey! Are you Viscount Dreschord?”

“Yes, I am.”

You didn’t have to bother to ask because you heard it earlier…….

“I’ll be blunt. Join my family. I’ll treat you well.”

“What?”

The man’s words were too direct and I was shocked.

“Ha-ha-ha! Alfred Orrard doesn’t know the first thing about diplomacy! It seems that the Duke of Orrard has chosen the wrong man!”

Claire couldn’t hold back her laughter and smiled broadly.

“Ha! This is bullshit! They watch each other like idiots, and if there’s a slip-up, the two families will try to destroy each other. Furthermore you’ve caused this territory to grow in power! You’ve come this far and are still planning to continue!”

Alfred said angrily.

“How dare the duke, who to this day has been diligently sending me secret letters about destroying the two houses that have been sneaking around, say that?”

“That’s just silly. Don’t you see how the value of the Dreschord family jumps as they gain power?”

“You don’t have to write it down, it’s implicit! And I’m well aware of that! I’m just saying it’s a matter of risk!”

“Hmm? What’s the risk of the Viscount family getting stronger? Do you have something not good in mind?”

“Tsk! You scum!”

The three of them and their three cronies were getting extra heated. In proportion to this, the people of the Viscount family were only getting colder.