Alfredo.
He was the sole butler serving the Noctus barony and a longtime friend of the baron.
Their bond, which had been passed down since the baron’s grandfather’s time, was deep and enduring. Although the baron was merely the lord of a small territory, his inherently kind nature and sincere care for his people had led Alfredo’s ancestor who was once a commoner to willingly devote himself to the baron’s family.
Though of common birth, Alfredo was highly capable in handling affairs and managing documents, and his business skills were exceptional. Thanks to that, the barony was able to sustain itself with a modest level of prosperity.
Perhaps because of this history, the baron and the butler had maintained a friendship-like relationship since their ancestors’ time, always keeping that respectful closeness.
Alfredo took great pride in his role, and he lived a happy life serving the baron with genuine devotion. Still, there had been one concern weighing on his mind lately.
“…Ahem.”
Knock knock.
Crash, clatter!
When he knocked on the door, a commotion erupted from within, as if someone was doing construction work inside.
The room’s owner had left the territory, so there should have been no sound at all. Yet Alfredo, who knew all too well the source of the noise, could only feel a complicated tangle of emotions.
Creaaak—
“Ah, Father? Wh-What is it?”
A young woman greeted Alfred. Her face flushed and she was sweaty from whatever she had just been doing.
The one stepping out of the young master’s room was none other than Alfredo’s daughter, Luna.
It had been several months since young master Mars had left for the academy.
Luna who harbored feelings for him had taken every chance to sneak into his room and pine for his presence.
Well, Alfredo didn’t particularly want to meddle in his daughter’s love life, and if it was Mars, he wouldn’t object anyway…
But this was a bit much…
“You’re in the young master’s room again, aren’t you…”
“I-I was just cleaning! Even if the room’s empty, s-someone still has to clean it, right?!”
Her words flowed like honey, but really…who spent two to three hours cleaning an unoccupied room every other day?
Alfredo was itching to call her out on it, but he chose instead to chalk it up to the antics of love and brought up the real reason he had come to find his daughter.
“Actually, I came to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“I heard the academy will be going on break soon. As you know, because of all the rumors surrounding the young master, it’d be a bit uncomfortable for him to spend the holiday in the city. So, by the lord’s orders, he’ll be spending the break here.”
News that Mars had become an Aura Lord had spread even to the Noctus territory.
Naturally, the people of the region, who had known the young master personally, were abuzz with talk, wondering how he had managed to keep such a power hidden all this time.
“R-Really…? Hmm~”
She tried hard to act indifferent, but Alfredo could easily tell just how long his daughter had been waiting for Mars to return.
After all, as her father, it was hard to know what to say when he kept catching his daughter sneaking out of the absent young master’s room, drenched in sweat after “cleaning” for quite some time.
“It’s been a while since you’ve seen him, so… try not to act too prickly toward him.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Even as she spoke that way, Luna couldn’t suppress the pounding of her heart.
As childhood friends, Luna had already known Mars had reached the level of Aura Lord. But at his request to live a quiet and ordinary life, she had forced herself to keep it secret, even when she had wanted to brag about it all over town.
But now, there was no need to hold back.
The person she liked… was an Aura Lord?
Luna was already lost in daydreams. She was imagining how she would respond to his confession, and envisioning herself as the future lady of the Lord’s territory.
“H-He mentioned that some of his friends would be coming as well.”
“Really? Then there’s quite a bit to prepare. Were there enough spare rooms at the mansion?”
Alfredo could already picture the expression his daughter would make the moment he said it, but as both a servant and a father, he couldn’t bring himself to lie.
In the end, he steeled himself to tell her the truth.
“The guests the young master is bringing… they’re women.”
Freeze!
Luna, who had been happily preparing to clean the guest rooms, stopped dead in her tracks at those words.
“Wo… men?”
“…I hear there are three of them.”
“…Ha… hahahaha…”
Luna let out a chilling laugh; her eyes were vacant and hollow.
Haah… Young Master…
Though Alfredo had sworn unwavering loyalty to House Noctus long ago—
At that moment, he couldn’t help but resent his clueless young master.
***
“So… you’re all really coming with me?”
For some reason, the volunteer club members had somehow formed a party for a return-home trip.
Now, we were all crammed into a large carriage, headed for my hometown.
The duke’s daughter, the saintess, and the imperial princess.
If any bandits dared to attack this carriage, they’d likely be wiped from the face of the Empire without leaving so much as a trace of bone behind.
Even the coachman, tasked with driving the carriage for such a formidable lineup, was visibly trembling with nerves.
I’m sorry, Mr. Coachman… I couldn’t stop them…
“But how did the Duke and His Majesty even agree to this?”
I spoke while glancing at the duke’s daughter and the imperial princess seated on either side of me.
Honestly, I wasn’t that curious, but if I didn’t start some sort of conversation, I’d get drowsy in no time.
I had planned to lean against the wall and take a quick nap during the ride, but so much for that….my sleep schedule was completely ruined…
“Dad? When I said I was spending the night in your territory, he just told me to have a good trip. I guess the name ‘Lord’ carries more weight than I thought~”
“His Majesty said it would be better if I stayed by your side. The Imperial Family is already overwhelmed preparing for the subjugation of the Heavenly Cult. His opinion was that it would be safer for me to evacuate externally.”
Ever since learning the truth, the princess still hadn’t fully sorted out her feelings.
Even if she understood the Emperor’s actions with her head, accepting them with her heart was no easy matter for her.
– The Emperor… I don’t know. Now that I feel there’s no need to gain his approval, everything just feels meaningless…
– Then let’s start by graduating from the academy. While we’re there together, I’ll be by your side, helping you figure out what to do.
– This isn’t even your problem… why would you…?
– Hmm… no real reason? Do I need one?
– …Pfft! Haha! Right, you never really were the type to think too deeply.
– Excuse me?
The Emperor had said that if she wished, he would help her enter the battle for the throne again, even at great personal cost.
However, since the princess had yet to discover what she truly wanted to do, she put the offer on hold, saying she needed more time to think it over.
Instead, she asked if he could occasionally spare some time to have tea with her.
Although forgiveness was still difficult for her, the Emperor, moved by her willingness to at least start a conversation, tearfully vowed in his own name that he would make time no matter what.
But was it really okay to just let such a precious daughter go off to a baron’s household like that?
“Well, it seems His Majesty did assign some pretty strong guard. I can feel their presence from here.”
“You… you can sense that? That’s impressive…”
A group of people was following them from about 400 to 500 meters behind.
They were most likely imperial knights assigned to protect the princess.
“…Why aren’t you asking if I’m okay?”
Oh, right….there was this one too.
Across from the three of us sat the Saintess who was puffing out her cheeks in protest as she sat alone with Pollo.
While I worried about the two others coming to our territory, I hadn’t expressed any concern for her, and she clearly wasn’t happy about the perceived favoritism.
“Well, you’re not even going to be staying at our mansion, are you? You’ll be with Count Helios who is an Aura Lord. So is there really a need for me to worry?”
“…You’re not wrong, but couldn’t you at least ask out of politeness?”
…Maybe I should just ditch her halfway through.
Unlike the noble ladt and the imperial princess who were staying at our house during this vacation visit, the Saintess had said she would be staying at Pollo’s place.
So, I had gone out of my way to tell her a ton of important things, like Count Helios’s personality and his food preferences, but she just threw a tantrum instead.
As I tried to ignore the whining of the Saintess who deserved a flick to the forehead, drowsiness began to wash over me.
“Yaaawn… Everyone, please wake me up when we arrive… I’m just going to close my eyes for a bit…”
***
“Wooooaaaah!!!”
Good grief, that startled me.
I had been deep in a dream when loud cheers from outside jolted me awake.
“W-What’s going on?”
In response to my question, the club members traveling with me silently pulled open the curtains that had been covering the window.
“…Haah, this is exactly why I didn’t want to come back…”
Outside, all the residents of our territory had gathered, surrounding the carriage and cheering loudly.
“The pride of Noctus, Young Master Mars!!”
“We’ve got an Aura Lord from our own territory!!”
Oh wow? They even brought a banner?
“Mars, your territory’s a pretty entertaining place, huh?”
“In a tiny little territory like this, there’s not much to do… This is probably the only time they’ll get to tease me like this…”
Our territory wasn’t large, so we were close enough with the residents to know them all by name.
Maybe it was because of my personality in my past life, but even as a noble, I had always mingled with them without reservation. As a result, they treated me like the local kid next door, full of mischief. And once again, they were giving me a headache.
“Young Master brought a girl!!”
“Huh? Young Master Mars?”
“He never even glanced at the pretty girls in the territory….wasn’t he supposed to be, you know…?”
“Pollo, let me go. Just let me smack that guy once and I’ll go home. Hey, let go!”
***
After barely managing to refuse a flood of handshake requests, I somehow made it to our house.
Still, it had been months since they’d seen their son, so I was hoping for a touching reunion with my parents. But instead…
“Welcome home, our next Aura Lord!!!”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
“Kukukuku!”
Ah, right.
That’s the kind of man my father was.
“What about Mother?”
“Your mom? Off chatting with the other ladies. She probably won’t be back until dinner.”
…Yeah, I guess it was my fault for expecting anything different.
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