“Brother.”
“Did your conversation with Father go well? Would you care to have some tea?”
With a gentle smile on his lips, Berdan turned halfway around and tilted his head in invitation.
Ian happened to have something to give him, so he followed without objection. Neither of them spoke as they walked.
It was probably because things felt awkward.
Ian could not think of anything to say, and in the end, they did not exchange a single word before entering a room.
However, Ian had been mistaken in thinking that Berdan felt awkward. His brother addressed him in a perfectly relaxed tone.
“This is your first time here, is it not? This is my office. Come and visit from time to time whenever you are in Lus. Sit wherever you like.”
Ian accepted the invitation and took a seat.
On the square table that rose to knee height were steaming cups of tea and a generous assortment of cookies coated in chocolate.
They appeared to have been prepared in advance.
Berdan soon sat across from him.
“You look well. I take it you have been doing fine.”
“I spent my days leisurely in a place with clean water and fresh air. It would have been difficult not to feel well.”
“Oh, I am a little envious.”
“You look rather… haggard, Brother.”
Ian was not teasing him. Berdan’s eyes were so sunken that he looked pitiful.
Berdan smiled bitterly.
“It cannot be helped. There is a great deal of work, and I am still learning what I lack. I cannot seem to grow accustomed to it. New problems arise every time as well. It is fortunate that an established system is already in place. Otherwise, it would have been truly difficult.”
“Perhaps things will improve by the time you become the family head.”
“Yes. That hope is what keeps me going.”
Ian gave a faint laugh, picked up a cookie, and placed it in his mouth.
CRUNCH CRUNCH.
It had a satisfying texture.
“I heard you jumped from a cliff.”
Ian’s previously relaxed expression hardened the moment he heard Berdan’s words.
“Do not misunderstand. I did not jump intentionally.”
“That is what Diol said.”
“…Hah.”
Berdan clearly did not believe him at all.
“Do not do anything so reckless again. Mother would have been furious if she had known.”
They truly were brothers.
Berdan was saying exactly the same thing Diol had said.
In that case, Ian had no choice but to give him the same answer.
“It was a mistake. Truly. I swear.”
“It had better have been a mistake.”
“…Did you call me here just to ask about that?”
“As your brother, I wanted to see with my own eyes that you were unharmed. Although it is rather late for me to say that.”
“It happened last year.”
Berdan nodded, lifted the teacup before him, took a sip, and set it back down.
“What did you discuss with Father?”
“He said I had handled the recent incident well and told me to ask if there was anything I wanted.”
“And?”
“I told him I would speak to him later. There was nothing I needed immediately. Oh, and he asked whether I wished to enroll at Akashic.”
“Akashic? That is an excellent opportunity.”
“It is, but I told him I would not go.”
“…What?”
Berdan stared at him with utter incomprehension.
For a moment, he seemed unable to speak. Then he asked why.
“I did not think there was any particular need for me to go.”
The moment Ian answered, Berdan looked at him as though he had said something incredibly foolish and released a heavy sigh.
“You are sitting there spouting utter nonsense, Ian. I may not know everything, but there is one thing I now know for certain. You understand nothing about how the world works.”
“……”
“Akashic employs the most exceptional people in the empire as instructors. It is a place where you can learn things far beyond anything you can imagine. Do you think education is all it offers? Not at all. The connections you form there can bring meaningful changes to your life and influence it for years to come. More importantly, it provides a legitimate opportunity to recruit proven talent. Yet you sit there so calmly after throwing away such an opportunity.”
Ian knew all of that.
Berdan himself had graduated from Akashic. Ian also knew that Berdan had brought several friends he had met there into the family and entrusted them with important positions.
From that perspective, it would be difficult to find a better place than Akashic for recruiting talented people.
Ian understood why Berdan regretted the decision as though it were his own.
However, Ian did not have enough time.
He could not afford to spend several leisurely years devoted to his studies. Before long, Dark Mages and the forces of the Outer Sea would begin to move, and the world would gradually descend into chaos.
At most, he had only three or four years.
He had to grow sufficiently within that short period. Only then would his range of choices expand, and only then would he have even the slightest chance of reaching Level 6, the Ascendant realm sought by countless people.
Only after achieving that would he earn the right to stand beside her, the Champion.
While Ian considered these things, Berdan continued speaking.
“It is not too late. Go to the family head—no, go to Father and tell him you have changed your mind.”
“There is no need.”
“Ian, if you find it difficult to bring up the subject, I will speak to him on your behalf.”
“You do not have to. Even if Father asked me again whether I wished to enroll at Akashic, my answer would remain the same.”
“Why?”
“I intend to use this opportunity to learn Evilbane properly. How could someone of Berger blood fail to wield even Evilbane?”
“…Evilbane?”
Berdan remained silent for a moment before nodding.
“Very well. If you have a goal, I cannot force you to choose otherwise.”
He hesitated briefly, apparently still reluctant to let the matter go, but eventually seemed to accept Ian’s decision.
Ian grinned and searched through his pocket.
He took out an object he had placed there without even wrapping it, as casually as though it were an ordinary coin, and set it on the table.
“What is this?”
“A gift from Mother.”
“?”
Ian explained what had happened at the Garden of Rest to the bewildered Berdan.
By chance—or perhaps not entirely by chance—he had channeled mana into a particular section of the gravestone, revealing a hidden compartment.
Berdan regarded the story with considerable suspicion.
“Go and see for yourself when you have time if you do not believe me. Diol checked it as well, so the mechanism probably was not designed to work only once.”
“…I will verify it separately later, but for now, I will believe you. Still… Hmm. Diol was not beside you, and there were no witnesses. If you had simply kept quiet, could you not have taken all three Mana Stones for yourself?”
Even at a glance, the Mana Stone was clearly of exceptional quality.
It was difficult to obtain, so Ian must surely have coveted it. Yet he had handed it over as casually as though he had picked it up along the road.
“Do you not regret it?”
Ian’s indifferent answer was enough to stir Berdan’s heart, which had been dry for some time.
“We are brothers.”
It would have been a lie to say Ian had not wanted them.
It would also have been a lie to say he had not hesitated.
They were Mana Stones.
Grade 5 Mana Stones, no less, valuable enough to rival Elixirs.
Had he closed his eyes to everything else and swallowed all three, he could have grown faster than anyone.
But he could not do that.
In Ian’s previous life, Berdan had been presented with the same choice, yet he had not taken all the stones for himself.
They had occasionally exchanged letters to ask after one another, and one day, Berdan had sent Ian a Mana Stone, explaining that he had discovered it within their mother’s gravestone.
It had helped Ian greatly in many ways.
This was his way of repaying that kindness.
“……”
Unable to speak, Berdan picked up the Mana Stone and stared down at it for a long time.
Just then, someone knocked on the door and entered.
“What is it? Unless it is urgent, return later.”
“The family head is asking for you.”
Ian, who had been listening, lifted his now-cold tea, took a sip, and set it down.
“It seems our conversation will have to end here.”
“I am sorry. We should at least have shared a meal. I will make time for you soon. And this… thank you. I will put it to good use.”
Berdan held up the Mana Stone before retracing his steps.
After watching him leave, Ian also returned to Lampas Castle.
He left the station and was about to follow the central road toward the main castle when he saw several people approaching from the opposite direction.
They were Diol, Mael, and Marie.
“Ian? Judging by where you are coming from, it seems you went somewhere early this morning.”
“Ah… I went to Lus for a while.”
“What for? Did you go to see Father?”
Ian nodded at Diol’s question.
“Truly? Well, it was about time for him to return. In any case, if you have only just come back, you have not eaten yet, have you? Come with us.”
There was no need to ask where they were going.
It was obviously the dining hall used separately by the knights and servants.
Ian did not refuse.
The food he usually ate was prepared by the same cooks who worked there, and he was also curious about what everyone else ate.
Thinking it was a good opportunity, he readily followed them.
When they arrived at the dining hall, many people were already eating.
They glanced repeatedly at Ian as he entered behind Diol, then began murmuring loudly.
“Good heavens, is that…? No, is that gentleman…?”
“That is Young Master Ian.”
“Truly? When did he return?”
“The day before yesterday, I think. I heard Mael and Marie brought him back under Vice-Captain Diol’s orders.”
It had only been two days since Ian returned to the family estate, so it was only natural that many people still did not know.
From this moment onward, however, everyone would likely learn that he had returned.
In any case, the gazes directed at him were far from welcoming.
Ian did not shrink beneath them.
Whether they openly stared at him with displeasure or not, he held his shoulders straight and remained confident.
Diol soon swept a dissatisfied gaze across the room.
Everyone who had been looking at Ian immediately turned or lowered their heads, pretending they had done nothing.
“Tsk.”
After clicking his tongue, Diol called to Ian.
“Come here.”
He handed Ian a tray.
“This is your first time here, is it not? There is nothing difficult about it. Take as much as you want from the food over there. It is self-service, so do not worry about anyone watching you. And I doubt you would do such a thing, but do not become greedy and take more than you can finish.”
Ian answered that he understood and inspected the food.
There was not a great variety, but everything one might need was available.
He took a reasonable amount and followed Diol to a table.
The food tasted better than he had expected.
The only mildly troublesome part was that every time Ian tried to eat, Diol kept speaking to him.
His main question was what Ian had discussed with their father in Lus that morning.
With no other choice, Ian stopped eating and briefly explained what had happened.
When Ian mentioned that he had rejected the offer to enroll at Akashic, Diol reacted exactly as Berdan had.
“Have you lost your mind? You rejected that?”
Ian let the words enter one ear and leave through the other.
Eventually, Diol grew so frustrated that he slammed the utensil in his hand onto the table.
CLATTER.
“This will not do. Let us return to Lus.”
“There is no need. Will Akashic put food on my table?”
“You truly do not understand, do you? It will. Akashic is the finest educational institution in the empire. Merely graduating from there would ensure that you could make a living no matter what you chose to do. Do you think that is all? It also comes with benefits beyond anything you can imagine.”
“And obligations equal to those benefits.”
“……”
“Besides, are they not the ones who should be attending Akashic instead of me?”
Mael and Marie flinched in the middle of their meal.
They stopped eating and cautiously watched Diol’s reaction.
Diol sighed.
“Pay him no attention and continue eating. In any case, you are absolutely determined not to go?”
“Yes. My current priority is not receiving an education and building connections at Akashic. It is learning Evilbane here. On that subject, would you consider teaching me?”
“Me?”
Caught off guard by the proposal, Diol frowned and considered it.
“If you wish to learn Evilbane, Father will assign someone to teach you.”
“He will. However, even though I have lived like a worthless wastrel, I am still of Berger blood. He would not assign just anyone to me.”
“…And?”
“He would assign someone highly capable, which would be a waste of valuable manpower.”
Whoever was assigned would certainly teach Ian properly.
After all, it would be an order from Granod Berger, the hero and idol of countless knights.
“So you want me to teach you instead? I am also valuable manpower. I am the vice-captain of the Fourth Squad. That is not a position you can dismiss so lightly.”
“So, you cannot do it?”
“…Will you be fine with the arrangement? I can teach you. However, you will have to train alongside them. They have now become full members, so it is time for them to learn Evilbane as well.”
Mael and Marie.
Ian nodded.
“I see no problem with that.”
“Truly? Then let us strike while the iron is hot. We will begin as soon as we finish eating. Make certain you eat well. You will burn through it soon enough.”