Chapter 292: The Brother Arrives

“I’ve received a lot of help from Pret, and I plan to keep doing so in the future… Was I too cold-hearted?”

After the door closed, I threw this question toward Yor and sought his opinion.

I felt sorry at the sight of Pret, who was clearly sulking.

But the baby dragon seemed to think differently.

“No, no.”

Yor let out a sound of denial, shook his head, and then flashed both thumbs up.

“You mean I didn’t do anything wrong and actually handled it well…?”

“Exactly!”

His clear, confident answer was full of certainty.

Seeing the wise baby dragon take this attitude, I figured he wasn’t just blindly taking my side.

As if to add conviction to my thoughts,

when I ran into Pret again at lunch, he still showed interest in me and spoke in his usual friendly, playful manner.

“Senior Karbaldr! Where are you going this afternoon?”

Was the sulking and pouting from earlier just an act?

If he showed his hurt feelings in front of others, it might reveal that we secretly met in the morning, so maybe he was trying not to show it deliberately.

But the interest in his eyes when he looked at me was an emotion that couldn’t be faked.

However…

“Why do you think I’m going outside?”

“Well, there’s a splendid carriage with your family’s crest parked at the ma-cha waiting area!”

“…What?”

“Huh? That reaction… Could it be that you don’t know about it, Senior?”

It wasn’t that I had absolutely no idea.

After talking with Reysir yesterday, I returned to my room and wrote a letter to Valtraus.

Then I immediately handed it over to the mail reception desk inside the Academy.

‘Did Valtraus receive that letter this morning and react accordingly…?’

If that were the case, it meant the letter I submitted nearly at 10 PM had been delivered to the recipient at least three or four hours ago.

Sending the family’s carriage to the Academy also takes considerable time.

It seems that in this novel’s world, letters get overnight delivery too.

“It’s not that I don’t know… I just didn’t expect it.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“It’s different. I have a rough idea of who sent it and why.”

I just never expected Valtraus to react so quickly, and in this manner.

‘I thought he would just handle it himself and only send the result by letter… Or not even write back at all.’

Could it be that Valtraus came in person to check if the letter’s contents were real?

That thought briefly crossed my mind, but I soon ruled it out.

If that were the case, Pret would have asked why Valtraus came to the Academy instead of asking whether I was going out.

Sure enough.

–Ding-a-ling~!

After a clear chime sounded inside the dining hall,

{ This is an announcement. The carriage of the Austri Ducal Family has arrived at the ma-cha waiting area. Students Karbaldr, please proceed to the ma-cha waiting area after finishing your meal. I repeat. The carriage of the Austri Ducal Family… }

Such an announcement came through.

As expected, Valtraus didn’t come in person but only sent the carriage to summon me.

The announcement repeated the same message twice, then cut off with a ‘Ding-dong~!’ ending tone.

Reysir, who had been looking at me with an expression that said he had a lot to say, quickly threw out a question as if he’d been waiting for this moment.

“Is this related to our conversation yesterday?”

I somehow felt like I was being treated as a spoiled brat who tattled to her parents just because she heard something unpleasant from another student at school.

Judging by the fact that Reysir wasn’t grinning, he probably didn’t mean it that way or was teasing me.

But that’s how I felt.

‘Actually… it is kind of similar, isn’t it?’

I sent a letter to Valtraus, not to Hard, the father of this possession body.

And although it was closer to sowing discord than complaining,

the fact remained that instead of solving my own problem, I sought help from someone connected to this body by blood.

In short, I felt a bit flustered and embarrassed.

If I denied it now, I might get seriously teased later when the truth came out. That sense of crisis loomed.

‘Well… even if that happens, it’s not like I’ll lose anything!

If word spreads that Karbaldr is the youngest young master who grew up loved by his family, it’s an advantage for me.

People like that certain someone from the lobby backstabbing incident or the confession villain Drembi, who treat me lightly and speak recklessly, will decrease in number.’

But even if I admitted it now, it would still be the same.

‘The problem is that denying it would be utterly useless anyway!’

That was only natural.

Even before I possessed him, Karbaldr had been flaunting his family’s power.

For instance, when the bullying of Reysir escalated, he used his family’s power to fabricate a false crime against Reysir and got him suspended.

Moreover, when Tridric kidnapped Hailga,

I also did my fair share of selling out the Austri Ducal Family.

And what about chapter 56?

Didn’t I even say, “I’ll speak to Father so that he pressures Tridric’s family to get him expelled, so he can be imprisoned in the same cell as you as a commoner”?

And above all…

The setting of this novel is a class-based society, and Karbaldr belongs to the ducal house, the highest among nobles.

In terms of sheer authority, the First Imperial Princess Fjodra is overwhelmingly superior, but Fjodra is in conflict with the First Prince over the throne succession right, so she has to calculate and consider many things—reputation, political standing, faction struggles, and so on. She can’t use that authority arbitrarily without a clear justification. Even if she has justification, she has to weigh gains and losses every time she steps in.

‘But this possession body doesn’t need to care about such things!’

Not only is he much younger than his older brother and sister, but he was also branded a ‘defective product’ early on, completely excluded from the successor competition.

Thus, he isn’t entangled in political issues.

This means he can fully exploit the unshakably powerful ducal family’s strength.

‘Of course, this is only possible within the scope that Hard will tolerate and overlook, but Hard doesn’t care even a bit about what his youngest son does.’

Reysir, at present, couldn’t possibly know about Karbaldr’s family situation. But the original author knows everything.

Even the fact that Karbaldr only feels reassured that he belongs to the family when he wields its power—

Given the setting of a class-based society and Karbaldr’s tendencies, the original author couldn’t be unaware that the easiest and surest method for Karbaldr to eliminate someone annoying is to ask the family for help.

And on top of that, the arrival of the Austri Ducal Family’s carriage at this timing—

‘Should I say it’s impossible to hide from the original author? Or that it just confirmed what she already suspected?’

Anyway, because Valtraus had tactlessly sent the carriage, things had turned out this way.

I had no choice but to confess.

“Last night, I wrote a letter to my brother about that matter. But I never expected him to receive it so quickly and send the carriage like this…”

“Your brother must really care about you.”

When I trailed off and feigned an awkward reaction, the original protagonist nodded and said this with a smile.

It seemed he misunderstood that I had complained to Valtraus about the confession villain’s nonsense, and that Valtraus, greatly worried for his younger brother, had hurriedly sent the carriage.

‘I wonder if Pret is feeling confused right now?’

I thought about turning to check his reaction, but I stopped.

First, it was obvious that Pret would have skillfully hidden his expression.

Second, at this timing, if I were seen checking Pret’s reaction, it would look unnatural to others.

“It’s just… average.”

I shrugged lightly and said in a casual tone.

I had no siblings myself, so I didn’t know what a normal sibling relationship was like, but that statement was definitely a lie.

“But Kar, what is ‘that matter’?”

The one who asked was Vigdis.

She had a rather serious expression.

Come to think of it, while she didn’t know all the details like Pret, Vigdis also had a vague idea of Karbaldr’s family situation.

Moreover, in chapter 42, I had introduced Yor to her as “a new family member,” revealing my affectionate feelings.

Thus, it was impossible for her not to know that the real owner of this body had a bad relationship with his blood relatives.

And now, I had taken the initiative to write to Valtraus first, and Valtraus had responded immediately upon receiving it.

So she must have thought that this kind of situation wouldn’t unfold unless it was a serious matter.

“Do you remember what Hailga said last Thursday?”

“Yes, I remember! She declared that she hated Drembi so much.”

“……”

It seemed Vigdis was quite impressed by the sight of Hailga shouting into the microphone.

From the context of the conversation, she should know that I wasn’t referring to that, yet she answered that way first.

“No, not that…”

“Yes?”

“I mean the part where that guy told Professor Dyuf, ‘The reason he hasn’t remarried is because his family is insignificant.’”

“Ah..! Yes, I remember that too.”

“But isn’t my father also the same? He stays alone without remarrying.”

“Oh! That’s true?! But Kar, your family is the ducal house. Your father is His Grace the Duke…”

“Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a remark criticizing someone for not remarrying. So I thought he should pay the price for running his mouth, and I sent a letter to my brother.”

“Is that what it was?”

“That’s what it was.”

What I said to Reysir yesterday was different—it was about making him pay for the insult I received.

But I didn’t want to create an uncomfortable situation by deliberately bringing up the memory of Karbaldr’s obsession with Vigdis, so I said it this way.

Besides, the content of the letter to Valtraus was indeed this.