"You can read the price of your family's lives as well, can't you?"
Viktor's voice was low.
No one else would have heard it. But to Kael, it was far too clear.
The price of a life.
The moment those words lodged in his ears, the ledger from his past life opened.
Father. Treatment expenses unavailable.
Mother. Loss of residence rights.
Ria. Debt guarantee settlement.
Ian. Number 418 on the Eastern conscription death list.
In his past life, Kael had seen those entries. He had seen them and turned the page. Even after he turned it, the ledger closed.
That was why it was all the more terrible.
Even when people died, the ledger closed.
Back then, Kael had believed that once the ledger closed, the matter was over. But the names of the dead remained outside the ledger.
Kael's fingers stopped over the wax.
Rowan took a step forward.
"Young Master."
Kael raised a hand.
It meant stop.
Mira bit her lip when she saw Kael's face. She had seen him angry before. But this was different. It was not anger, but the look of something quietly closing within him.
Viktor smiled very faintly.
"Was that joke too much?"
"You said jokes were cheap."
Kael slowly raised his head.
"That one was expensive."
"How expensive?"
"To set a price, we first have to see the item."
Kael looked toward the corridor.
The people from the banquet hall had gathered in front of the cold storage room. Dominic Hyrun was sweating, Orban had shut his mouth, and Marco's eyes were darting about busily.
None of them had heard Viktor's words.
Good.
Kael could still choose the board.
"Viktor Seradin."
Kael deliberately said his name clearly.
This time, everyone heard.
"What is it?"
"You just made a good proposal."
Whispers ran through the group.
Viktor immediately recovered his smile.
"Did I?"
"Yes. You told me to calculate the price of my family's lives."
Mira's face hardened. Rowan's eyes grew cold. Edric tightened his grip on the record sheet.
Viktor was smiling.
As though he had never said such a thing. As though Kael had suddenly made a rude remark.
"Young Master Kael. The banquet's atmosphere has grown a little heated."
"That can happen. The price of a person's life is hard to hide behind an atmosphere."
The banquet hall fell silent.
Kael took the folded invitation from his coat. White paper bearing the Seradin crest.
He remembered the look on Ria's face as she stared at it at the breakfast table. Her voice, apologizing first because she knew she would be a weakness.
Because of me.
Ria had not done anything wrong. And yet the weak always apologized first. Because the strong calculated that apology.
[Pressure Item: Ria Riorden Marriage Proposal]
[Execution Preparations: Bracken Barony]
[Supplementary Costs: Brokerage Fee, Dowry Offset, Debt Pressure]
[Purpose: Reduced Negotiation Resistance from Kael Riorden]
Just as expected.
It was not a mere possibility. Preparations for execution were already underway.
Kael unfolded the invitation.
"Ria Riorden."
At the name, several noblewomen looked at one another.
"The Bracken Barony."
This time, the reaction was greater.
An old barony at the eastern edge. It had money, but a bad reputation. Its last remaining heir was a widower of more than forty.
A good house to take the daughter of a fallen noble.
In the worst sense.
Mira said quietly,
"That house is out of the question."
Rowan asked,
"Why?"
"It's not a marriage proposal. It's a disposal."
That was enough.
Kael looked at Viktor.
"The Seradin Accounting Office has priced the cost of arranging a marriage proposal between Ria Riorden and the Bracken Barony."
Viktor's smile remained.
"An interesting imagination."
"Then deny it."
"Deny what?"
"Deny that House Seradin ever budgeted for brokering Ria Riorden's marriage proposal."
The banquet hall froze.
Denial was easy. But in noble society, a public denial could weigh more heavily than a ledger. If documents appeared later, it would become a lie.
Viktor raised his glass.
"It is not polite to speak publicly about another house's marriage arrangements."
"Is it polite to enter another house's marriage arrangements as a budget item?"
Someone gulped.
Kael looked at Edric.
"Write it down."
Edric immediately took up his pen.
"The title?"
"Confirmation of Prohibition on Using Family Members as Items."
Mira blinked.
"Is there even a document like that?"
"There is now."
Kael fixed his gaze on Viktor.
"House Seradin shall not use members of the Riorden Barony as items in debt adjustment, marriage brokerage, negotiation pressure, or guarantee offsets."
Edric's pen moved quickly.
"Upon violation, such items shall be considered unlawful pressure costs against the Riorden Barony."
Orban spoke almost instinctively,
"Such a confirmation has no legal force..."
"Then would you like to write a confirmation that it has no legal force?"
Orban shut his mouth.
Mira said very softly,
"Those words will really stick around."
Kael felt it.
Viktor wanted Kael to lose his temper. He wanted Rowan to draw his sword, Mira to shout, and Edric to drop his record.
Then this banquet would have been settled like this.
A fallen noble caused a disturbance at a marquess's banquet.
Kael did not hand that ledger to Viktor.
"Viktor Seradin. Will you witness this document?"
"Why would I?"
"It is a confirmation that family members will not be used as negotiation items. If you have nothing to hide, it will not be difficult."
"Are you demanding that I sign something at my own banquet?"
"No. I am offering you the opportunity to witness it."
"And if I refuse?"
"We will write down the reason for your refusal."
A very faint laugh slipped out from somewhere in the banquet hall, then vanished.
Now people were remembering these phrases.
Confirmation of no authority.
Reason for refusal.
Some weapons became funnier the more they were repeated, and because they were funny, they remained longer.
Viktor said,
"Fine."
Edric's pen stopped.
Viktor held out his hand.
"I will witness it."
It came too easily.
[Willingness to Witness]
[Surface Effect: Preservation of Dignity]
[Hidden Effect: Change in Route for Family Pressure]
[Alternative Items: Servant Wages, Medicine Supply, Ian's Conscription Record]
Ian.
Something inside Kael turned cold.
In his past life, Ian had been on the Eastern conscription death list. In this life, he was still twelve years old. He was not subject to conscription.
But documents could deceive people about a person's age before the person had even reached it.
Kael looked at Viktor's outstretched hand.
Just as expected.
Interest always attached itself to another item.
"Wait."
Viktor's hand stopped.
"I will add one more clause."
"What is it?"
"House Seradin shall not make minor members of the Riorden Barony the subjects of conscription, service orders, status guarantees, or guardianship contracts."
This time, Viktor's smile stopped.
Only for a moment.
But Kael saw it.
That was the answer.
Ria had been the bait in plain sight.
Ian was the blade kept hidden.
It had been the same in his past life. When his family scattered, Kael had seen only the big events. The seizure of the house, the marriage proposal, the sickbed, the conscription. But in truth, small papers had moved first.
Age confirmation.
Confirmation of eligibility for service.
Deferral of status guarantee.
Documents always set out before people did.
Rowan realized it as well.
"Young Master Ian?"
Kael did not answer.
An answer was unnecessary.
Mira's face went pale.
"A twelve-year-old?"
Marco hurriedly said,
"Such a thing cannot happen."
"Then write it down. Write that you will not do something that cannot happen."
Edric's pen began moving again.
`Minor Family Member Protection Clause.`
A sentence that had not existed in his past life.
The first shield he had created in this life.
It was thin. But a shield did not have to be thick from the start. What mattered was putting one in front of you first.
Kael waited for the ink on the document to dry.
This time, he had to return.
Viktor stared at Kael for a long time.
"How much can you really read?"
"Not all of it yet."
"And when you read it all?"
"I will bill you."
Viktor smiled.
"Frightening."
"All the better if you are frightened."
"Why?"
"Because frightening debts are repaid, even if late."
This time, Mira did not laugh. Rowan did not joke either.
Viktor finally took up the pen. He wrote his name in the witness field of the confirmation.
Viktor Seradin.
House Seradin Accounting Office.
[First Family Pressure Route Blocked]
[Ria Riorden Marriage Proposal Route: Cost Increased]
[Ian Riorden Conscription Falsification Route: Cost Increased]
[Possibility of Alternative Pressure by Opponent: High]
It was not a complete victory.
But he had stopped, at least once, the hand that had been trying to write his family down as numbers.
Kael let out a breath. Only then did he realize that his fingertips were trembling slightly.
It was fear that had arrived late.
If he had not seen the red letters.
If he had let Viktor witness it as he held out his hand and smiled.
If Ian's name had moved first across someone's papers once again.
Kael might have repeated the same mistake as in his past life.
Mira quietly came closer.
"Are you all right?"
"I am."
"That's a lie."
"Like a merchant."
"I learned it dearly."
Rowan said in a low voice,
"Young Master. What happened just now was more dangerous than a sword."
"I know."
"Yet you endured it."
"I did not endure it."
Kael folded the confirmation.
"I calculated it."
Rowan looked at him for a moment.
"That sounds a little sad."
Kael could not answer.
Viktor stepped before the others again.
"Good. Tonight has been interesting enough."
He raised his glass as though nothing had happened.
"Young Master Riorden cares for his family. A fine thing."
It sounded like praise, but Kael knew.
It meant he had confirmed the target.
Viktor continued,
"The four bottles of Fever-Reducing Distillate have been preserved. But as you said, fourteen bottles are still missing."
Kael looked at Viktor.
"Do you want to know where they are?"
"Of course."
"Then come to the Seradin Private Clinic tomorrow morning."
Mira said quietly,
"It smells like a trap."
"It does."
Kael replied loudly enough for Viktor to hear.
A clinic.
It was a good name. A place that saved people. That made it an even more suspicious name.
The number that had still not vanished lingered before Kael's eyes.
[Remaining Risk: 308 People]
That number was colder than the family confirmation.
Viktor smiled.
"You will come even knowing it is a trap?"
"Traps cost money too."
Kael looked at him.
"I need to see what you spent."
Viktor nodded as though satisfied.
"Good. Then I will see you tomorrow."
He turned to leave, then stopped.
"Ah, and."
Viktor added very softly,
"Do not put too much faith in a family protection confirmation protecting your family. Documents may block the door, but they cannot block the windows too."
Kael tucked the folded confirmation into his coat.
The paper was thin.
But it bore Ria's name and Ian's age. Names he had remembered far too late. Names he had pushed to the side of a ledger in his past life and been unable to look at for long.
This time, he kept them close to his chest.
Documents did not protect people.
But the moment a person resolved to protect another person, a document could become a shield.
"Then I will write down the windows too."
Viktor's smile did not disappear.
But this time, there was a tiny crack in it.
Kael saw it.
And remembered it.
Cracks were assets too.
Because they could be widened later.