TOM Chapter 38

'Father.'

Gavotte squeezed his eyes shut tight.

Due to his father's sudden death, Minuet would need to receive approval from the Council of Elders to become a count.

However, even though several days had passed since she went down to the territory, there was no news.

It was all too clear how the Council would respond.

But if he went down himself and renounced his right to inherit the title, they would have no other choice.

'The Council wouldn't want to pass the title to a collateral line either.'

Though anxiety surged that things wouldn't go smoothly, Gavotte tried to reassure himself that everything would work out.

Having finished preparing to go down to the territory, Gavotte mounted his horse.

Behind him, four guards followed on horseback.

Gavotte was about to spur his horse when he briefly looked back at the mansion.

The truth was...

"Should I come along too?"

'I wanted to rely on her.'

Though her personality was peculiar and hard to understand, Siora Bonetti was a solid person.

Like a great tree with deep roots in the earth.

Even if that weren't the case, having someone's warmth beside him at times like this would be a great help.

But how could he ask for such a thing?

Not long ago, when he had visited Minuet's room to share their grief.

"Do you really not know? Why Father went into your waiting room that day."

The conversation he heard from inside the room pierced his ears with cruel clarity.

Worried that someone else might overhear the conversation, Gavotte had stood guard outside the door until it ended.

Even as the ground beneath his feet seemed to drop away into an abyss, he continued.

Thinking about it now, he found it so absurd that he laughed.

"How could I ask for help."

He didn't understand.

What kind of thinking would drive someone to try to kill an adopted daughter who had helped resolve a troublesome marriage proposal?

Why was he grieving the death of such a father, even knowing this?

How could he, even for a moment, resent the innocent Siora?

The little shame he had left kept his mouth shut.

Resignedly, Gavotte said,

"Let's go."

"Yes, Young Master."

Five horses galloped away.

Dust clouds rose hazily, covering the path they had taken.

And if you moved your gaze about 50 meters back from that point, there were two people watching them.

"Wow, he's leaving. They're departing!"

One was Siora Bonetti.

"He really must cherish her deeply. To even handle all the messy aftermath for her."

The other was Kruelo Whitedesert.

At the man's indifferent comment, Siora clicked her tongue.

"I'm not going because of Gavotte right now. And who told you to follow me?"

"You can't go without me. Darling can't even ride a horse."

"No, that's because I never had a reason to learn...! In the first place, if you hadn't instigated this, I wouldn't need to borrow a horse to ride, would I?"

"You're right, I was the one who instigated it. Sorry."

"Ah, come on. If you're going to argue, at least stick it out to the end. How boring."

"Is it really boring? I find it fun."

Seeing his sly smile, Siora bumped her head against Kruelo's chest.

It didn't seem to have any impact at all.

"Let's just get going, we'll lose them."

"As my love commands."

The horse carrying the two of them kicked up dirt, chasing after the dust cloud ahead.

To understand how things had come to this point, we need to go back a few hours.

When Gavotte was busy preparing to go down to the territory.

I sat on my bed, lost in thought.

What kind of problem had befallen Minuet, and what was Gavotte planning to resolve?

Even knowing that we should become distant, my curiosity soared uncontrollably.

I considered visiting Kruelo's information guild, staring at my ring and pretending otherwise several times, until I grew tired from just thinking and collapsed onto the bed.

"The ceiling..."

The ceiling was pure white.

What was pure white was Gavotte.

The words that came from Gavotte's mouth were:

"You guard this mansion, Siora."

Rejection.

"That's strange."

I was the one who wanted to create distance, so why do I feel like I'm being pushed away?

Wasn't he a bit cold earlier?

No, he's probably just having a hard time right now.

When he comes back from the territory, he'll return to being the original Gavotte.

The Gavotte who was easy to tease, naive, and would get flustered whenever I pretended to be even slightly hurt...

"He shouldn't come back like that!"

I grabbed the pillow that was supporting my neck and threw it.

What am I doing, really?

I said I was creating distance because I was scared of getting involved and dying, so why am I feeling disappointed?

Being adopted doesn't suddenly make us actual family!

Oh Phebula, please purify this poor believer's heart.

Don't ignore me just because I only seek you when I'm in trouble—if you're a god, please be generous!

"Huh!"

Just then, a fierce wind blew, making the curtains flutter dramatically.

Ugh, why is the sound of fabric so loud?

Sitting up abruptly, I muttered quietly,

"Phebula, I didn't say anything..."

Suddenly, a person popped out from behind the curtains.

Huh.

"Excuse me, just because it ends with 'door' doesn't make a window a door."

"Is that so? It ended with 'heart' so I thought you were my heart."

Sky-blue hair sparkling in the direct sunlight.

The tall man sat leisurely on the windowsill, crossing his legs.

"Hello, sweetheart."

What if someone sees from outside?

Just as I was about to scold him, the curtains moved like they were swimming, hiding Kruelo's figure from behind.

Look at him throwing magic around so carelessly.

I'm so envious.

"Minuet Bonetti is being detained."

"Magic... What?"

"It seems your Council of Elders is being quite aggressive too."

What is he talking about?

When I blinked in confusion, Kruelo explained Minuet's situation.

To summarize:

"Power struggle? Taming Minuet? They won't allow her to inherit the title unless she marries my son?"

"Exactly right."

Then what was Gavotte going there to do? Did he have some plan to persuade the Council?

Just as I was about to ask—

"Of course, darling wouldn't be curious. You decided to distance yourself from your siblings."

"R-right. I'm not curious at all. I don't know why you'd bother coming all this way to tell me such pointless stories!"

Knowing I was being teased yet going along with it was sadder than I thought.

Kruelo's eyes curved into a smile.

"I figured as much. That's why I brought another excuse too."

"...What is it? No, well, just a tiny bit of curiosity arose."

"I personally investigated because you seemed too concerned about the evil god theory."

Oh right, the Phebula evil god theory! I had forgotten!

I'm someone who has trouble thinking about multiple things at once, so it can't be helped.

Outwardly showing no bewilderment, I crossed my legs pretending to be relaxed.

"And I discovered something interesting."

"Mm-hmm."

"Did you know that Bonetti originated from one of Phebula's religious orders?"

"...Are you thinking I can't verify this and just saying whatever?"

"It's true. It was a bit hard to find, but before establishing themselves as the Bonetti family, they were head priests managing a parish."

Kruelo added that he could provide proof if I wanted.

Setting aside not wanting to see the proof, it didn't feel real.

How should I put it—isn't this too much of a contrived coincidence?

My faith was too poor to just cover it all up and marvel at it as God's guidance.

Knock knock, Phebula, are you there? How about giving me even one word of revelation?

"Timing-wise, the evil god theory also emerged around that time."

"When the Bonetti family was established?"

"Before that. They lived as tribes before the Empire was founded."

"Ah."

"I heard that the founder's diary remains in the count's castle."

Mentioning a diary made me more curious.

It would be much more vivid than stiff records.

And I was confident I could read it no matter what language it was written in.

However...

I glanced sideways at Kruelo and naturally rolled my eyes.

"Then... I should check it out, right? The Bonetti founder's diary—it would be in the territory, wouldn't it?"

"Of course."

"I need to find out if there's really a connection with Phebula. That's also a believer's responsibility, isn't it?"

"That's right."

"I'm not going to interfere with Bonetti affairs, but if necessary, I could visit Whistle."

"Of course, it can't be helped."

The predetermined answers came out smoothly.

Satisfied, I left the count's mansion.

I lied to the head butler, saying I was going on a date with Kruelo.

Worried that Gavotte might see and misunderstand that I was following him, I wore a hooded robe and cast an invisibility spell.

After finishing my preparations, I mounted a horse with great enthusiasm.

I had never learned horseback riding, but there's nothing in this world I can't do!

But.

"Really, what kind of body is this..."

There was something Siora Bonetti couldn't do.

Among all the bodies I'd used, this one had particularly poor athletic abilities.

While reflexes could be compensated with holy power, technical aspects didn't work at all.

I should have realized when my swordwork came out all wrong.

I had no choice but to ride with Kruelo, who had been watching me with a mocking smile.

And so, returning to the present moment.

I was saying goodbye to my lower body.

Horseback riding—it meant death to the buttocks.

Even the stamina I had carefully built up wasn't much help.

To forget the pain, I devoted myself to other thoughts and remembered something I had forgotten.

"Come to think of it, I didn't say thank you. Thank you for looking into it."

"Hmm. It's embarrassing to receive thanks after doing background research."

"Oh, that sounded like you were really embarrassed and making excuses."

"..."

"Why were the other fiancées so afraid of Kruelo? He's actually pretty nice."

Though Kruelo's attitude had become friendlier after learning I was a Phebula believer, it hadn't been particularly bad before either.

If he had been this way with others too, they probably wouldn't have begged for broken engagements.

Had the Council's interference been significant?

"Well. I wasn't mean to them personally, but they'd get scared and cower at everything. It wasn't fun."

"Ah."

Come to think of it, exposing family corruption was his hobby.

Since I had witnessed this myself, I couldn't blame everything on the Council.

"Did you really go easy on Bonetti? You didn't do much."

"Exposing corruption was venting anger. My opinion was rarely reflected in previous marriage proposals."

"This time..."

"Darling proposed it, but I made the choice, didn't I? I'm satisfied."

Is he aging backwards?

He actually seemed more mature when he was really young.

Back then I wished he'd act more childish, but now I don't know if I should like or dislike this.

"Come to think of it, it would have been good to meet someone strong from the beginning. Then they wouldn't have been afraid of me."

"What... Do you think I'm not scared because I rely on holy power?"

"Isn't that it?"

No.

There are various reasons, but most fundamentally, it's because this isn't my body.

Even if Siora dies, even if the world ends, I will survive.

But I couldn't say that, so:

"Let's just say that's it!"