Ever since I transmigrated into this world, I had never properly seen the family head’s face—not to mention entered his room.
As soon as we returned to Dreamland, we had to leave straight for the banquet hall, so there had been no time to talk.
In Ian’s memories, he had seemed like a perfectly ordinary man, but with Dolnesia’s arrival and the past having been revised...
Ian’s memories could no longer be trusted.
Fuck, the updates to those memories weren’t even being applied properly.
Still, thinking of his illustration in the game, he was...
I remembered him having closely cropped hair and a striking, sharply trimmed beard.
That was how he appeared in Ian’s memories as well.
Not some Northern Grand Duke who looked as though he had stepped out of a romance fantasy novel, but an old, battle-hardened border marquis from an ordinary fantasy novel.
If Cassian got a few wrinkles and grew a beard, wouldn’t he have that sort of look?
In short, he had the style of a general.
More importantly, why had this old man called for me?
Could word that I had challenged the Second Prince to a duel have reached the family head?
That would be a bad ending, then.
He had probably built up a great deal of public goodwill by being one of the Five Pillars, staying out of politics, silently defending the north, and so on.
But then his son goes and lays hands on royalty?
That would put cracks in all the goodwill he had painstakingly built.
Besides, from the Emperor’s perspective, he likely would not be pleased to see a grand duke gaining influence by building such favor.
And now that man’s son had touched his child, the Emperor would have an excuse to make an example of him and crush him.
In other words...
It was a fucking headache of a situation for the family head.
He had sent me to a banquet to make an appearance, only for me to come back after making an appearance with a glove on someone’s face.
Still, that was assuming the absolute worst.
There was also a chance he had called me over for something trivial.
Only four people knew about that entire shitshow: me, Isabella, Angelica, and the Second Prince.
And none of the four seemed like the type to tell anyone.
There was no way they would expose it behind our backs after we had settled it amicably, just because they were holding a grudge.
Angelica, whose thoughts I could never read, was an unsettling variable, but...
Lost in such thoughts, I had somehow arrived before the family head’s door.
My arm felt particularly heavy today.
I really did not want to go in.
Knock, knock.
"It’s Ian."
"Come in."
Just from his voice alone, I could sense an overwhelming concentration of testosterone.
It was naturally so deep that I could not tell whether the man was angry or not.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Beyond it was an office.
And the stale scent of wood mingled with cigar smoke.
Though the lights were not particularly bright, the snow beyond the window reflected the sunlight, making the room bright enough that it did not feel dark.
Bookshelves packed with books stood in neat, angular rows along the side.
A desk sat in the middle of that somber office.
Someone sat at that desk, piled high with documents, working through paperwork.
He exuded the aura of a veteran soldier who had survived countless battles, with short black hair and a neatly groomed beard.
A single scar running over his left eye completed his face.
A man who was clearly smaller than me and seated in a chair, yet radiated such immense presence that it felt as though I were looking up at him.
Marshall de Logres.
The owner of this body’s father, and the head of the Logres family.
【Marshall de Logres】
◈ Level: 87
And a Sword Master who had reached the realm of superhumans.
Unlike Alfred, who had long since passed his prime, Marshall still possessed the staggering level of 87, even if his skills had declined slightly from spending his days holed up in his office.
As befitted someone brought up every time people started arguing over who was the strongest on the continent, he had the highest number of anyone I had seen thus far.
But he was not the only one here.
"You have arrived, Young Master Ian."
On the left, Alfred, the head butler who had arrived before me, was looking over documents.
And on the other side...
"You’re here, Ian."
The protagonist, Cassian de Logres, was seated in a guest chair, skimming through documents as well.
The family head in the center.
Alfred on the left.
Cassian on the right.
In other words, there was no escape route.
Of course, it was a scene I had often seen in the game, but back then I had been Dolnesia.
Now, I was Ian.
Which meant none of that bright, bubbly Pinkfong atmosphere Dolnesia received was here.
From Ian’s perspective, the office was utterly frigid.
In wordless, silent stillness...
All that could be heard was the turning of pages and the scratch of signatures.
The only human speech came when Alfred showed someone a document.
This was not a warm, harmonious Northern Grand Duke family from a romance fantasy novel.
It felt more like watching a cold war within a swordsmanship family from an ordinary fantasy story, where the family head and his heir were testing each other’s nerve.
This patch was seriously wrong.
How was this a romance fantasy?
Damn it, should I have come with Dolnesia?
#
Cassian de Logres.
The legitimate eldest son of Logres.
The male lead of Dawnstar Academia and a character occupying the Northern Grand Duke position.
【Cassian de Logres】
◈ Level: 69
◈ The target has only one wall remaining.
And a Sword Expert only a few steps away from becoming a superhuman.
On Dolnesia’s route, he appeared less as a male lead than as a helper.
But I remembered Cassian taking a rather unusual path on this route.
A harem.
Cassian was the one who built a harem in a romance fantasy.
His personal maid, and a female knight who was both his childhood friend and swordsmanship instructor.
Later, he even seduced the barbarian chieftain’s daughter—the true alpha male of this age.
That was why the barbarians did not appear as enemies in the latter half of Dolnesia’s route.
It could be said that Cassian de Logres seduced even the barbarian chieftain’s daughter and stopped the barbarian invasion of the Empire without spilling blood.
Of course, if it was not Dolnesia’s route, Cassian went to the academy and became a devoted man who only had eyes for the protagonist.
In a way, it was fortunate that Cassian had not gone to the academy.
At least it meant we would not have to fight the barbarians in the future.
With the barbarians becoming allies, fighting the final boss would become easier too.
Though that was not the problem right now.
Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.
Fuck, I felt like I was going insane.
The constant scratching of pens was enough to drive me absolutely mad.
They had fucking summoned someone here, then said nothing while doing nothing but their own work.
And I could not exactly complain, because every one of these people could shove something straight through my eye.
Two superhumans and one half-superhuman.
Monsters who could tear me apart with a single finger.
If you were weak, you had to keep your mouth shut.
What else could I do?
Then...
Scratch, scrat—tap.
The sound of a moving pen stopped.
"Ian."
A deep voice that felt like I had been hit with one hundred percent pure testosterone crashed over me.
"Yes, Father."
"I heard about yesterday."
No way.
"Challenging the Second Prince to a duel. You certainly made a spectacular mess of things."
They say what you fear most comes for you, and the thing I had worried about most had happened.
Fuck!
I’m fucked!
I could not believe it had reached the family head’s ears!
No, why did he know about this?
Which bastard was the informant?
"No need to rack your brain. The Second Prince informed me directly."
Fuck, that Second Prince bastard was the informant!
No, weren’t we good?
We wrapped everything up cleanly without any hard feelings afterward.
And now he was stabbing me in the back like this?
Cold sweat soaked my back, and I swallowed dryly.
Was I going to be dragged off by the military police like this?
"Well done."
"...What?"
What the hell had this man just said?
Not that he was going to tear me apart?
To my astonishment, what came from his mouth was praise: well done.
"I do not know why you challenged the Second Prince to a duel, but..."
The family head glanced over at me before returning his attention to the documents.
"In the end, you brought him to his senses, so I will not rebuke you for it."
"You are not angry?"
"Why would I be?"
The family head turned his eyes from the papers back to me, his expression indifferent.
"You defeated the Second Prince and gave him an awakening, making that wastrel come to his senses. What is there to rebuke you for?"
"But the family..."
"Our family has already been passed around as gambling stakes several times. There is no need to concern yourself over it now."
Excuse me?
What kind of bullshit was that?
"More importantly, Ian, that is not why I summoned you."
After saying something incomprehensible, the family head resumed his paperwork.
"I heard from Alfred. You want to become a knight."
Alfred and the Second Prince alike.
Why were they so interested in someone else’s dream?
"A wandering knight bound neither to Logres nor the Imperial Family, bound nowhere at all. It was certainly an answer overflowing with romance, but..."
The scratching pen stopped.
"As you heard from Alfred, that is no more than delusion beyond mere fantasy. It has been centuries since tales of knights writing romances were buried in the earth."
"Well, that is true."
"Then let me ask you."
He no longer looked at the documents.
He merely stared directly into my eyes and declared:
"Why do you dream such fantasies?"
[Oath of Chivalry activates.]
[The Stars of Knights watch over your chivalry.]
Interview time had come around again.
The gaze of a superhuman.
The family head’s aura pressed down on me as if to say he would not tolerate lies.
[The Sword Master’s aura binds you.]
[Dragon Strength attempts to resist.]
The Dragon Strength I possessed had the effect of resisting status ailments.
But he was the head of Logres.
Of course he would know how Dragon Strength worked.
Which was why he had confidently inflicted a status ailment on me.
But there was something the family head had failed to notice.
[Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method strengthens Dragon Strength.]
[Dragon Strength partially resists the aura’s restraint.]
Dragon Strength was not all I had.
Maybe because the source was a Sword Master, I could not resist it completely.
Still, this was enough for me to think.
To be honest, I did not really know what knights were supposed to be in this world.
The only knightly deeds I had committed here amounted to rescuing Dolnesia and helping Isabella.
If I dug deeper, there was challenging a goblin to a duel?
The Stars of Knights were dopamine-addicted voyeuristic bastards who only wanted to see me get fucked over.
I had not seen anyone knightly since arriving here.
So this was what I thought.
Let’s take those voyeuristic bastards up there as a cautionary example.
"Because a knight, as I see one, is someone who embraces such a dream."
"Embraces a dream?"
"Yes."
I took a breath.
And greased up my tongue.
"Father said that the age when knights wrote romances has long since been buried in the earth. Then I would ask this: if you take chivalry away from a knight, what remains?"
"..."
"Does being strong make one a knight? Does using aura make one a knight? Mercenaries are often stronger than knights, and they use aura as well. Then what distinguishes them from knights?"
"Would it not be whether they have a lord?"
That voice had not come from the family head.
The person beside us who had silently been handling documents.
Cassian suddenly interjected.
It did not feel like mockery. It strongly felt as though he had genuinely been curious and joined in himself.
But...
"Ian is speaking with me, Cassian. Do not interrupt."
"Soldiers have lords as well."
Good point.
"Why do we call a knight a knight? Simply because he rides a horse? Then what is the difference between a knight and cavalry?"
"So what you wish to say is that, to become a knight, one must embrace the fantasy called chivalry?"
"That is correct."
"Sophistry."
The family head clicked his tongue.
"Knights are called knights because they were knights from the beginning. Chivalry is nothing more than a creation invented by later generations."
"Why?"
"Because no one truly lives for others."
The family head shifted his gaze to the papers and continued working.
"Doing good, standing against impossible enemies, and reaching the stars. That is the realm of saints. Do you believe such a being could truly exist in reality?"
He was right.
Doing good from pure benevolence, standing against impossible enemies, and reaching the stars—those were the domains of saints and heroes.
Not a realm knights could reach.
But...
"The chivalry you pursue is no more than an appealing dream fashioned by later generations projecting their desires onto it."
"That is precisely why we embrace the dream and wish for it."
Tap.
"Embrace a dream?"
"What if it does not exist in reality?"
Was there any reason not to run toward it just because it was a fantasy that would vanish like a bubble?
"If it does not exist in reality, then that is all the better."
"What?"
"Would that not make me the first and only true knight?"
If you gave up just because it was a dream you could not achieve, there would be no romance in that.
No, it was because it was an impossible dream that you ran, striving to get even a little closer to it.
"There is a saying in the East: martial arts without righteousness is mere violence, while righteousness without martial arts is mere impotence. That is why only when the two are together do they gain meaning, and why they call it martial chivalry."
"..."
"Chivalry is the same. A knight without chivalry is no more than a weapon wielded by his master, while chivalry without a knight is no more than pointless meddling. I believe only one who possesses both martial prowess and righteousness—one who embraces the fantasy called chivalry—can be called a knight."
At some point, the family head had stopped his paperwork.
Forgetting even to pressure me, he merely looked at me.
"Are you certain that you will reach it?"
"Of course."
I nodded at his question.
"Because I am a Logres."
"I see. Because you are a Logres."
The family head nodded, looked back down at the documents, and picked up his pen.
"You may go now."
A rather anticlimactic reaction.
Was that the sort of answer he had wanted?
Or had he wanted something else?
After that, the family head shut his mouth and merely scribbled with his pen.
I did not know whether he had truly listened to what I said or not.
But what did it matter?
What mattered to me was getting out of here quickly.
I was finally escaping this suffocating damn room!
"Then I will be going, Father."
"Go on."
I bowed and hurried out of the office.
#
"Father, I will step out for a moment."
As if following Ian, Cassian opened the door and left as well.
The family head looked at the office door his two sons had exited through.
"He reminded me of you in your youth, my lord."
At Alfred’s assessment, the family head gave a short laugh.
There was a trace of disbelief in it.
"Even the great Alfred cannot help growing old."
"Is that so?"
"How is that boy anything like me in my youth? I did not spout empty boasts."
As he spoke, he placed a cigar between his lips and lit it.
He drew deeply and exhaled, white smoke spreading like a fantasy.
Watching it, the family head continued.
"Only the surface sounded convincing. Half of it was lies, and the rest was nothing but inflated boasting."
Half of what Ian had said was a lie.
Even if half was true, lies had mixed into the dream he spoke of so confidently.
Alfred wondered what the family head truly intended. If he had seen through it, why had he not rebuked Ian on the spot for lying?
"Then why did you not tell him at once that it was a lie?"
As if to answer the question, the family head took another draw from his cigar.
"Alfred. What do you think prompted Ian to challenge the Second Prince to a duel yesterday?"
The family head drew in and exhaled the cigar smoke once more, as though gathering his breath.
He had told Ian he did not know, but in truth, he did.
"He did it for the young lady of Eterna."
"Pardon?"
He had staked everything he had for one person.
At those words, Alfred did not understand for a moment.
"That boy saw the young lady about to be slapped by the Prince. He grabbed the Prince’s wrist and challenged him to a duel."
"That is..."
"Yes. He is insane."
He had staked everything he had for the sake of a single woman.
But precisely because of that...
That was why the family head could not call it a lie then and there.
To love out of pure goodwill.
To correct wrongs out of pure benevolence.
To stand against an enemy one could not defeat.
To reach the stars while holding fast to the fantasy that one could get there.
Because it reminded him of such a story.
"Does it not bring something to mind? Standing against an incomprehensible enemy for the sake of one person."
"..."
"Even if what he said earlier was nothing more than eloquent boasting, Ian has already shown it through his actions."
The family head smiled as he took a puff from his cigar and exhaled again.
Still, no one knew.
Those words might remain no more than boasting.
And even the action that seemed to prove his boasting false might have been merely the result of being swept along.
But...
"One day, that boy’s chivalry will go beyond boasting and become his own truth, one that does not rely on another’s strength."
"You are certain Young Master Ian can accomplish it."
"No."
The family head shook his head as he answered.
Still...
"Then..."
"I merely wait."
Even with the cigar in his mouth, he did not stop smiling.
He did not know whether Ian could truly become a knight.
Or whether it would end as mere boasting, like a fantasy.
But that was something that would happen in the future.
Was it not far too boring to decide in the present that it would be so?
That was why he merely waited.
"Waiting for that boy’s fantasy to become truth—is that not the privilege granted only to one who is a father?"
#
[You have upheld your chivalry before the strong.]
[A reward is granted for the Oath of Chivalry.]
Only after leaving the office and walking several more steps down the corridor could I finally breathe.
Crazy. No matter what, using aura on a level 10 was too much, was it not?
Still, it was fortunate that it passed without incident.
Now, then. Time to check the reward for the Oath of Chivalry.
That was when it happened.
"Ian."
At the deep voice, I turned my head without thinking.
There...
Cassian stood there, though I had no idea when he had followed me.
His face remained as expressionless as it had been in the office.
Did he have something to say?
He strode toward me and raised something.
It was...
A sword.
"Take it."
A sword he was suddenly giving me.
What was this? Was he telling me to kill myself?
I accepted it without thinking, but as I could not understand what it meant and merely stared at the sword...
"It is a gift."
Cassian murmured those words.
...Excuse me?
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