“…What?”
For a moment, I wondered whether I had misheard her.
However, Ainsera’s next words confirmed that I had not.
HUMMMMM―
‘This is….’
At some point, an exceedingly thin membrane of mana had formed around us, preventing our voices from escaping.
‘She is only ten years old, yet she can control mana with this much precision?’
I was still too bewildered to make sense of the situation.
“You asked where this place was earlier, didn’t you?”
Could it be…!
A piece of information suddenly flashed through my mind.
Three months ago, a massive fire had broken out in the slums of the territory’s northwestern district following a mysterious explosion.
Sure enough.
“This is the neighborhood where you were said to have lived for ten years before being formally acknowledged by House Verdin.”
When I looked around, I saw shattered black brick houses and charred pieces of timber strewn carelessly across the ground.
Her sharp voice continued.
“Evan Verdin. What are you?”
“…….”
I stared silently at Ainsera for a moment.
A heavy silence descended between us.
‘Interesting. I did not expect her to catch me off guard like this….’
However, there was no reason to panic.
This had merely happened a little sooner than expected. I had always known that a situation like this might arise someday.
“Ainsera Luke.”
“Speak.”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something… I really am Marquis Verdin’s son.”
My soul was not his son, but the body I occupied was unquestionably Pervan Verdin’s child.
“The Magic Tower already confirmed it with Bloodline Verification Magic. What exactly are you suspicious of?”
“Urgh, even so….”
This was one point that even Ainsera could not easily dismiss.
Of course, there was still a possibility that an exceptional mage had manipulated the spell or interfered with the result….
“Surely you are not going to insist that my father, a ‘knight,’ somehow tampered with it using ‘magic,’ are you?”
It was equally implausible to claim that House Verdin had somehow pulled strings through the Magic Tower or the Imperial Palace.
House Verdin had virtually no connections of that sort, given how little it participated in outside affairs.
Ainsera frowned at my point-by-point rebuttal.
“Then do you think it makes sense that you do not recognize the place where you lived for ten years?”
Her question cut sharply to the heart of the issue, but I already had an answer prepared for this as well.
“That is because I lost a considerable portion of my memories after being caught in the explosion.”
“What…?”
“Partial amnesia.”
That was right.
There was no better excuse when one did not know something.
I had used a similar explanation when I first fell into Murim.
In fact, that was exactly what the marquis and the other residents of the lord’s castle believed.
“Ha! That is a contradiction. Then what about your memories of clove?”
“Fortunately, those remained.”
“Do you seriously think that makes any sense…!”
“It does. It is ‘partial’ amnesia, after all.”
“That is absurd!”
“If you cannot believe me, you may ask our Knight Commander, Sir Randolph, who is standing behind us.”
Had she not expected me to respond this shamelessly?
Ainsera stared at me blankly.
However, she quickly regained her composure and brought up another point while glaring at me fiercely.
“Then what about the source of your information regarding clove’s effects? You claimed that you learned it from the residents here, but in reality….”
“Wait.”
She went that far?
I simply could not understand it.
Why was she so determined to uncover my true identity?
‘But that is not the most urgent matter right now.’
Ainsera appeared rather agitated, so I cut her off before the situation could escalate any further.
“Do not tell me… Duke Luke secretly planted spies in our territory behind my father’s back and had them question the residents?”
“Th-That…!”
Ainsera’s already large eyes widened.
It was checkmate.
‘She cannot admit that here.’
If she did, it would become a serious political and diplomatic issue, regardless of whether my claims about clove were true.
I decided to press her further.
* * *
“Ainsera.”
FLINCH.
She trembled slightly at his chilling voice.
Evan Verdin continued in a flat, emotionless tone, paying no attention to her reaction.
“It seems that because I am a lowborn illegitimate child, you keep finding absurd faults with me… I am disappointed.”
At first glance, the statement might have made it seem as though the boy suffered from an inferiority complex.
‘No. That is…….’
He was thoroughly calculating the situation and ‘using’ everything available to him.
His current social standing.
His lowly birth.
Even the political circumstances surrounding them.
It was the seasoned conduct of a battle-hardened veteran who had survived countless struggles.
‘Is he really ten years old?’
Moreover, he had supposedly spent his entire life as a commoner and had only been formally accepted into a noble family around three months ago.
…It was impossible to believe.
Perhaps Ainsera found it even more difficult to accept because she herself was a regressor.
‘As I thought… did he return from the future, just like me?’
She had her suspicions, but she could not yet be certain.
He might possess some other unusual ability that was not ‘regression.’
However, one thing was certain.
There was something unusual about him.
In that case….
「Maintain a close relationship with him and continue observing him.」
That was the conclusion she reached.
She needed to gather more information before she could determine whether he would become an enemy or an ally.
“I only asked because I was curious. I was not trying to pick a fight.”
“It did not seem that way to me.”
“Really? Sorry. I suppose there was some misunderstanding.”
Ainsera offered an apology and lightly shrugged her shoulders.
A faint smile rested on her lips, but her eyes were not smiling at all.
‘Oh….’
An unusual gleam passed through the pitch-black eyes of Evan Verdin, the black-haired boy with sharp, sculpted features.
‘She changed her stance that easily?’
Just as Ainsera had sensed something unusual about the boy, he had now begun to regard her as someone far from ordinary.
The astonishingly precise soundproof barrier she had created with magic.
The way she had caught him off guard and probed into his identity.
Even the remarkable ‘political instinct’ she was displaying now.
‘So she is no ordinary little lady after all….’
Evan reached a conclusion that was not greatly different from Ainsera’s.
The boy smiled, just as she did.
“I am glad you do not dislike me.”
“Oh my, dislike you? I want to become even better friends with you.”
“Hehehe… what an honor.”
What did he find so amusing?
The smile that had undoubtedly begun as a formality gradually deepened.
It became bright enough to seem chilling.
SLIDE.
“Then let us get along from now on, Ainsera.”
Evan extended his hand and offered her a handshake.
Even in that simple gesture, she sensed an indescribable air of dignity.
“…All right.”
Ainsera quietly stared at the boy before clasping his outstretched hand.
The boy and girl smiled as they faced each other.
However, the thoughts hidden within them were anything but simple.
* * *
“Phew―”
A deep sigh escaped him.
Pervan Verdin carefully contemplated the coming negotiations.
Originally, he had wanted to live quietly on the frontier, barely drawing any attention, while raising Evan as discreetly as possible.
‘But… there is no turning back now.’
It was a case of riding the tiger.
He had already climbed onto the back of a tiger in full sprint.
In that case, he needed to change his course entirely.
‘We have no choice but to ride the tiger properly and make certain that no one can catch up with us…!’
The first step would be the current meeting with the Imperial Court and the Magic Tower.
The official dispatched from the Imperial Palace was Duke Luke.
He was the leader of the Emperor’s Faction among the nobility.
‘What sort of plan has he brought with him?’
In truth, Evan had already warned him about what to expect.
As Pervan and his butler, Sebas, entered the meeting, they secretly wondered how closely the negotiations would match Evan’s predictions.
For the uninformed words of a child, his explanation had sounded remarkably plausible.
SLURP―
Duke Luke took a sip of the coffee on the table.
He was the first to speak.
“First… His Majesty described this discovery as an event of tremendous importance and praised you highly.”
“Thank you. May the glory of Asron endure forever.”
“However, as there are several critical matters that must be coordinated in relation to this affair, His Majesty has delegated the necessary authority to me.”
“Please speak. I will listen closely.”
“Ahem, then….”
According to Duke Luke, the Imperial Court had expressed its approval of a business that purified monster corpses at a low cost.
However….
“Since this is a business in an entirely new field, and a misstep could have a profound impact on national security, I believe certain restrictions will be necessary.”
The conditions proposed by the Imperial Court were―
“Ordinary people cannot reliably determine whether a monster corpse has been fully purified, so I believe it would be best to have it verified by the Magic Tower.”
“The Magic Tower would like to charge a fixed fee for that service.”
Judging by Yandel’s words, the Imperial Court and the Magic Tower appeared to have coordinated their positions beforehand.
The fee was set at twenty-three percent of the assessed price.
“The Imperial Court will also impose a tax on this specialized industry. After all, we will need to establish and operate a new department responsible for overseeing it.”
“What figure have you discussed?”
“Nothing has been finalized yet, but… a tax rate of thirty-four percent of total revenue seems appropriate.”
“Ahem… I see.”
A low groan escaped Pervan.
Judging from his expression, he appeared deeply shocked.
The same was true of Sebas, who stood beside him.
“Ahem. If paying the tax in cash proves burdensome, it may also be paid in tribute.”
“The Magic Tower has also agreed to accept its safety-verification fee in kind.”
“Neither the tax rate nor the fee rate has been finalized.”
“It may seem somewhat high, but a similar tax rate is also imposed on the mining industry.”
Duke Luke and Yandel assumed that the marquis’s expression had darkened because he considered the taxes and fees excessive.
They therefore hurriedly offered various explanations in an attempt to soothe him.
However, the real reason Pervan and Sebas had frozen was entirely different.
‘The numbers are slightly different, but isn’t this exactly what Young Master Evan predicted?’
‘Good heavens. Just how far does that child’s ability extend…?’
That was right.
Every condition presented by the Imperial Court and the Magic Tower had fallen entirely within Evan’s predictions.
‘Even the exact percentages of the taxes and fees are remarkably close.’
Evan had predicted a tax rate of approximately thirty-five percent of revenue.
He had also predicted that the Magic Tower’s fee would be twenty-five percent.
―They will probably make an outrageously high demand at first. Then they will pretend to be generous and lower it slightly.
It was almost as though Evan’s voice from several days earlier were sounding vividly in their ears.
Meanwhile,
Duke Luke sighed as he watched the wavering gazes of Pervan and Sebas.
‘Damn… they seem far more shocked than I expected.’
The figures had already been decided during preliminary meetings in the Imperial Capital, leaving him with no choice but to present them….
Even he, who was responsible for the negotiations, considered the demands somewhat excessive.
How much worse must it feel for those directly affected?
“Now, now. As I said earlier, none of this has been finalized.”
He showed them the documents he had prepared and explained how much each listed item would cost.
Yandel then described the safety-verification procedures that would be conducted by the Magic Tower.
“Duke Luke and I have coordinated this as much as possible, and I believe we can reduce the fee to twenty percent and the tax rate to thirty percent….”
“Verdin will need some time to consider the proposal, so why do we not continue the discussion tomorrow?”
In the end, every detail, from beginning to end, matched Evan’s prediction.
What was there to fear in a situation like this?
GRIN.
A faint smile appeared beneath Pervan’s thick mustache.
“No.”
“Hmm? What do you mean….”
“Let us continue.”
He spoke to the bewildered Duke Luke and Yandel.
Verdin had also prepared several requests that it intended to make of the Imperial Court and the Magic Tower.
The true negotiations were only now beginning.