Rohan looked around as if frightened. It was an entirely deliberate move.
'They're all wondering what huge demand I'm about to make.'
After a brief pause, Rohan carefully spoke.
"My first request is the right to freely enter the library the family head uses."
A murmur rose for a moment. Did a Baltran of the direct line need any special right to enter the library?
Even knights could go in if they wished, with a permit stamped with the family head's seal. The administrator kept that seal, and unless there was some problem, he stamped permits right away.
Hearing the murmurs, Gion spoke in their place.
"You already have the right to enter it."
"Not after dinner, though, right? I want the right to enter even during the hours when entry is forbidden."
The room fell silent for a moment. Rohan wasn't wrong.
The library entrance was sealed at dinnertime in the castle.
It could count as a request, if you stretched it. But the faces of those gathered in the hall looked odd.
"Haha. That is far too modest for a Succession Ceremony gift. Rohan, ask for something bigger than that."
When even Gion laughed, the people around him, who had been reading the room, laughed freely too. He had achieved something great, opening a stone gate at ten, but a child was still a child, they thought.
Rohan laughed inwardly as well. Because they were reacting exactly as he wanted.
'That's it. The more they treat it as nothing, the easier it'll be for Father to grant it.'
But what he meant to do once he got into that library would be anything but nothing.
Everyone assumed he was asking because Rohan, still a trainee, would only have time after dinner to come all the way to the main castle once training was over. But in truth, Rohan had a reason he needed to be alone in the library.
"Then does that mean you can grant both requests?"
Creases formed on Gion's forehead. It was proof that he, who met most things with a blank face, was actually deliberating.
If it were up to his heart, he wanted to count the first request as nothing and grant it. As a father, he was proud of a son who wanted to come all the way to the main castle after training to gain knowledge from books.
But on the other hand, as family head, the rules had to be kept. If he made little exceptions like this, things would one day end up looking completely different from now.
"State your next request."
Unable to bring himself to refuse, Gion decided to hear the next request first. Rohan spoke with a hopeful face.
"Please grant me the district of the 12th Fortress, at the far eastern end of the Wall, as my territory."
Once again the hall filled with murmurs. Everyone seemed to be busily analyzing Rohan's request in their heads.
No matter how they analyzed it, the answer was the same.
"Heh heh. He really wants that land?"
Snickering laughter rang out. This time no one even checked Gion's face first.
"The youngest young master has grand ambitions. Wanting a fief already."
It was open mockery. Even the collateral relatives gathered here knew it well. That land was worthless.
It was far from the main castle, the soil was barren, and few people lived around it.
"He must think any land is good land."
"Isn't he still at that age?"
Their scorn seemed natural. Rohas, who coveted the headship, had asked at his Succession Ceremony to be made 1st Corps Commander of the Black Wolf Knights.
Roselin, more interested in her achievements as a swordswoman than in a faction, had asked for a weapon ranked a grade above the one she'd gotten from her cave.
It was an uncommon opportunity. No, a very, very rare one, so it was only natural to ask for something of at least that caliber at a Succession Ceremony.
But Rohan's request fell far too short of that standard.
Rohan enjoyed the mockery aimed at him.
Having come back across nearly 30 years, Rohan had no reason to rush to prove himself. In a few years, everyone who had laughed at him would be pounding the ground in regret over the ground they had let slip away.
And that place would become a fine base from which his faction would grow.
'Thanks to them, Father's decision will be easier.'
Hiding what he really thought, Rohan put on a crestfallen look and gazed at Gion.
For a moment their eyes met.
'Huh?'
Rohan was caught off guard. It lasted only a brief moment, but he felt warmth in that gaze. It was a look he had never once received in his entire past life.
"Hahaha!"
Gion suddenly burst into loud laughter. The chattering onlookers all shut their mouths at once.
"Requests like these, I do not think anyone would object if I granted both. Isn't that so, Lady Jaymin?"
Named, she nodded. Gion then looked from his eldest son to his eldest daughter and back.
"You agree as well, I take it."
"Yes, sir!"
"I have no objection."
The corners of Rohan's mouth rose. Everything had gone according to plan.
He had gotten everything he wanted and even lowered his siblings' guard.
***
After the Succession Ceremony ended, the family head and the elders left the hall first. The siblings stayed behind to offer their congratulations as a formality.
Rohan went over to his siblings. Apart from his fifth brother, who was away carrying out an assignment, seven siblings were gathered. Some he had met right before his regression, if only as corpses, and some he hadn't seen in a long time.
Honestly, Rohan's heart was fluttering too.
First, he faced his eldest brother. Rohas held out his hand to him without hesitation. Rohan took it.
"Congratulations. You have made early progress."
Rohan knew Rohas had noticed the two rings settled inside his body. It didn't matter.
As long as he didn't know they were rings of fire, not ice.
"Thank you, Elder Brother."
The corners of Rohas's eyes lifted slightly. Rohan was flustered.
'Did I used to just call him "Brother"?'
What was said couldn't be taken back anyway. He decided to just brazen it out.
"I will work hard to follow in your footsteps, Elder Brother."
When he kept acting consistently grown-up, Rohas nodded calmly too.
"Rather than simply following behind me, find your own path."
It matched his memory of his eldest brother exactly. He was never affectionate, not even to the youngest, but he was a man without a single crooked streak who fulfilled his duties as the eldest son of the Baltrans.
'That's why he got stabbed in the back.'
Tsk, tsk. Clicking his tongue inwardly, he moved on to the next.
Next was his second sister, Roselin. Seeing her force the corners of her mouth up, Rohan smiled without meaning to.
"Why are you smiling?"
'When I was little, I was terrified of Roselin.'
Unlike his fourth sister, she always wore a cold expression. In that she resembled Rohas, but unlike him, who never cared what Rohan did, Roselin had often scolded him.
But to Rohan's eyes now, she was still young at twenty-two. Seeing her try for the youngest's sake to smile, which she rarely did, was rather touching.
"You smiled, Elder Sister, so I smiled along."
"I smiled?"
"Of course. It suits you. Please smile often from now on."
She blushed, flustered. To anyone else her face would still look as cold as ever, of course, but Rohan could see she was flustered.
"Th-That's for me to decide. Anyway, congratulations on your achievement."
"Thank you!"
He took her hand whether she liked it or not, gave it a light shake, and moved on to the next in line.
The moment he saw the face, a sigh nearly escaped him.
He took one short, deep breath and spoke.
"Greetings, Elder Brother Tiok."
Pointedly avoiding Rohan's eyes, he offered a formality.
"Yes, congratulations."
Still, seeing that what Rohan had taken from the cave was an egg seemed to have cooled his anger a little. Tiok would have wanted a weapon rather than an egg.
'It was the Spirit Beast born from that egg that let you stab our eldest brother in the back. In this life, you'll never know.'
No, wait. Maybe I'll tell you at the decisive moment.
That wasn't all. Tiok thought Rohan, being so young, had pointlessly thrown away the one request he could make of the family head at the Succession Ceremony.
'If he knew what kind of land that is, he'd be rolling on the floor, sick to his stomach with envy.'
Rohan knew his third brother better than any of his other siblings. That was how deep his grudge had run in his past life.
"Pardon? What did you say?"
I can't really hear you.
Rohan leaned one ear close to his face and pretended not to have heard the congratulations.
"Are you trying to toy with me, brat?"
His gaze, which had been pointedly avoiding Rohan, turned straight at him. His face was flushing red and pale by turns.
Rohan stepped back.
"Of course not. I hope you can hold your own Succession Ceremony soon too, Elder Brother."
Again he grabbed the man's hand whether he liked it or not and shook it. Only this time he shook it a little longer. He'd secretly hoped the guy would lose his patience, but he held out better than expected.
'Well, he did have enough patience to stab our eldest brother in the back.'
He was no incompetent. In his past life, the final winner of the contest for the headship had been Tiok.
Next, when he saw his sister Tina, his face brightened without his realizing it. It felt like moving from hell to heaven.
She too welcomed Rohan with a bright smile he couldn't find on any of the other siblings.
"Congratulations. Holding your Succession Ceremony even before me. Our little one's amazing."
She pinched Rohan's cheek. The siblings around them frowned at the sight, but the two of them didn't care.
"I got lucky. Lightning struck the cave and cracked the stone gate. All I did was pull out a few pieces of rock."
Tina's eyes went round. Her pupils darted here and there, checking the other siblings.
She was flustered that Rohan had revealed something that could become a weakness.
Rohas and Roselin nodded slightly. They had privately been wondering how the youngest had opened the stone gate.
'This way should lower their guard, if anything.'
Tiok, on the other hand, looked furious. Being pushed down the order by mere luck felt all the more unfair to him.
Rohan paid him no mind, exchanged some empty small talk with Tina, and moved on to Yohana.
"Fight me."
Faced with Yohana challenging him to a duel out of nowhere, Rohan scratched the back of his head.
"Haha. How could I possibly beat you right now, Elder Sister?"
Yohana started to say something and then shut her mouth again. Rohan had just revealed how he'd come to open the stone gate.
If it was mere chance, as he said, there was no way the youngest could beat her.
"Then let's fight once you're a bit bigger."
"Yes, let's."
Rohan smiled and took the hand she offered first. Young as she still was, he could feel calluses on her hand.
'In my past life, I had a pretty hard time beating my sixth sister.'
Recalling memories of her from a past that had now ceased to be, he exchanged congratulations with the other two brothers as well.
Mehais, wary of Tiok, seemed to want to offer a quick congratulation and slip away, while Leon was visibly struggling to hold back his jealousy.
To Rohan's eyes, what the two of them were thinking was plain as day.
When the formal congratulations were over, the siblings scattered to their own business.
Rohan moved briskly for the next thing he had planned. He had to head back to the villa early the next day.
'I should drop by the library before I go.'
He wolfed down dinner and headed to the library. The library in the castle's basement. A place he had entered only once in his past life.
'Still, thanks to going in even that once, I know what books are in here.'
Rather than blame his lazy past self, he decided to praise him.
Rohan went down to the basement and came face to face with the soldiers guarding the library. They saluted the moment they saw him.
Seeing them recognize him at once, it seemed Father had already passed the word.
'He sure gets things done, I'll give him that.'
Marveling at how quickly his father handled things, Rohan went into the library. The moment he stepped inside, the smell of old paper hit him.
"Who'd have thought I'd come here of my own accord."
When he went into the cave, the library hadn't even been part of his plans. He had only meant to ask for the land at the eastern end of the Wall.
But after hearing about the Succession Ceremony and taking the sword lessons, he had changed his mind. There was a limit to how far he could build his swordsmanship in a child's body.
No matter how excellent the swordsmanship in his head, his body couldn't fully handle it. The magic power needed to execute it was also absurdly lacking.
With his current body and magic power, an hour or two of training a day was enough to reach the most he could draw out.
There was no need to hurry until he reached at least the 5th Stage. But then, waste his time?
Even if he mastered all the swordsmanship in his head, he'd only be heading back toward his past self.
Even now, whenever he went to bed, he faced the giants coming over the Wall. Beings his past self couldn't even find a way to counter.
'Just recovering my old skill won't come close.'
Since he couldn't raise his swordsmanship right away, he decided to spend his time broadening his range instead.
'I think the magic books were somewhere around here.'
Rohan followed the classification numbers on the shelves deeper inside. As he dimly remembered, the magic books were kept deep in the library.
The Baltran family did not learn magic. The library kept magic books anyway because you had to know magic to learn how to counter it.
Of course, reading magic books blindly wouldn't teach anyone magic. So naturally no one looked for them anymore, and they drifted further and further into the corners.
'It's probably just for show.'
Rohan figured that countering magic was just an excuse. His ancestors had probably collected magic books as trophies from the mages they hunted.
Either way, thanks to that, the library of the Baltrans, a great house of swordsmanship, held no shortage of magic books.
Rohan wasn't ignorant of magic like his siblings. Unlike the Baltrans, the Andelian family was open to magic and turned out many magic swordsmen. Rohan too had learned the basics of magic while he was taking shelter with the Andelian family.
'The problem is I hardly ever used it, so I've forgotten most of it.'
Especially after meeting Meikan, he'd had no use for anything beyond basic magic.
Rohan passed the time pulling out a few books and leafing through them. Thanks to his fire rings, flame magic came easily.
Fwoosh. A spark flared up on Rohan's index finger. It was basic magic he had only ever used to light mana candles in his past life.
Still, since it was a spell he'd used regularly, he hadn't forgotten it.
After leafing through a few more, Rohan moved to where a book he'd noted earlier was shelved.
Standing on tiptoe, he took the book from the shelf.
It was a book with an unusual cover. Not a title, but a portrait of a man.
This book had been Rohan's goal from the start. After studying the cover with an indifferent look for a moment, Rohan narrowed his eyes.
"I think it just blinked?"
Before he met Meikan. Back when Rohan was still just a somewhat known mercenary, he had come across a commission with an enormous reward.
The black mage Doflamingo.
A criminal of the century who had killed the King of the Deren Kingdom and fled. At the time of the commission, he had gone uncaught for over 30 years.
'How shocked I was to find out he'd been hiding in our family's library in the past.'
Now was exactly that past, when Doflamingo had been hiding in the family library.
Having caught this guy in his past life, Rohan knew Doflamingo's abilities.
Rohan raised his index finger. A flame blossomed on it.
"Come out! You bastard!"
With a shout, Rohan set the book on fire.