The duke’s pen scratched across the paper as he sat at his desk, continuing to review documents. His young son had come to his study for the first time, but he showed no interest at all.

A son who had come seeking his father’s affection might have cried or stormed out at such a cold reception. That wasn’t why I was here. I waited quietly. I’d been through plenty of this sort of push and pull in my previous life, so waiting was no trouble.

How many minutes passed?

“What is it?”

At last, the duke spoke. He neither looked up nor put down his pen, but it seemed we could talk now.

“Someone is trying to kill me. I came to ask for your protection.”

CLICK.

The pen stopped moving across the page. The duke raised his head and fixed his cold eyes on me.

“An interesting thing to say. I heard you were unusual for your age. It seems that’s true.”

Neither his expression nor his eyes changed. There was no sign of the complicated emotions I’d seen on his face before I died. Only an icy chill showed there.

“Someone trying to kill you... Are you saying you know who it is?”

“Yes.”

At my answer, a slight crack appeared in the duke’s cold expression.

“However young you are, if you slander someone with a claim you can’t substantiate, you will bear no small responsibility for it!”

The duke’s deep voice resonated through the study. Its rumble sent a shiver down my spine. His words and tone alone would have been enough to frighten an ordinary person. But I had died too many times by now to be scared.

“If I have to take responsibility, I will. I heard it directly from the person trying to kill me.”

Only then did the duke put down his pen. He leaned back in his chair, and his impassive face began to look weary.

“You heard it directly... That’s hard to believe.”

For a moment, he gazed into empty space as though searching through a fragment of the past. Then he rubbed his face as if washing it. When he took his hand away, the brief lapse in his composure was gone. His face was blank again. He leaned forward and looked me straight in the eye.

“It’s hard to believe, but let’s set that aside. Why should I protect you?”

I was dumbfounded. That was no way for a father to speak to his son. The steady way he watched me made it seem like some kind of test, but hearing those words nearly turned the little affection I had for him to dust. My answer came out stiff.

“Because I’m worth protecting.”

“Hmm. You have awakened, I suppose.” He spoke as though it were nothing remarkable. “Physical Optimization would be an inherited ability worth some interest, but we don’t even know for certain whether that’s what you have. And even if it is, there’s no telling whether you’ll develop as much as I expect.”

For all that, he had given me a fairly detailed explanation. I didn’t know why, but it was an ability that interested the duke and might develop far beyond expectations if things went well... Had I picked up another clue?

The duke continued. “In any case, that isn’t enough reason to waste manpower.”

He picked up his pen again. He looked as if he’d lost interest completely.

Was this the advantage of experience? With the man holding all the cards acting like that, I had no choice but to show my hand, whether I meant to or not.

STEP, STEP, STEP.

I walked over to the suit of armor standing at one side of the study. It was a gleaming suit of plate armor on display, posed like a person with a sword at its waist.

SHING.

I drew the sword. Fortunately, it came free without trouble.

But it was heavier than I’d expected. I forced the wavering blade up and looked at the duke. He was watching me with one eyebrow raised. His face was expressionless, but I could plainly feel his incredulous stare. At least I was young. If I hadn’t been, he might have rushed over and cut my throat the moment I drew the sword.

As I’d said before, this world was a frightening place. Even among nobles and royalty, who supposedly observed proper decorum, sons killed fathers and fathers killed sons often enough. Then again, the person trying to kill me was nominally my mother... Looked at that way, it wasn’t so different.

“Are you going to show me some swordsmanship you learned in secret? I heard everything about your test.”

If I swung the sword clumsily, I had the feeling he’d beat me and throw me out on the spot. But I intended to show him something else. Something he didn’t know about.

I awakened the power hidden deep inside me.

Move!

Something stirred. A small amount of power rose from the depths, and I began to guide it.

I still remembered how mana had moved through my head and eyes. This time, I would move it the same way into my hand, and then into the sword!

It was difficult, just as I’d expected. But slowly, the mana obeyed me. It passed through my arm into my hand, then to my fingertips. At last, it flowed into the sword.

HMMMM.

The sword began to tremble.

“Aagh!”

The sword bucked wildly. I gripped it desperately, but I could barely hold on, let alone swing it. I’d trusted what I’d heard about iron swords taking mana better than wooden ones. Who knew this would be a problem?

“Enough! That’s far enough.”

I was streaming cold sweat as I clung to the shaking sword when the duke’s voice reached me. I stopped forcing mana into it and looked at him, leaning on the sword. He was watching me with a grave expression.

“You’ve acquired mana? Since when?”

“I sensed it after the test.”

“And you haven’t been taught a training method?”

“No.”

He murmured, lost in thought. “After the test... Does that mean you gained it through your inherited ability?”

“I don’t know.”

“No, I wasn’t asking you.”

As he searched his thoughts, he suddenly frowned. “Don’t tell me you met her after acquiring mana?”

He didn’t say whom he meant, but I understood at once.

“Yes. Once I could move mana, the affection I felt for the Duchess disappeared. I heard her say it while we were talking afterward.”

The order of events was different, and so was exactly how I’d found out, but it wasn’t far from the truth.

“...”

The duke quietly looked up at the ceiling. “Could it really be broken that easily...?” he murmured, looking dazed.

A tired, weary middle-aged man sat at the desk. The mask he had worn on his face had fallen away completely.

I kept waiting. Time passed. After staring into space for a long while, he looked at me. His face was impassive again, but it seemed different from before.

“When do you need protection? When do you think they’ll come to kill you?”

It still wasn’t something a father should say to his son, but it was at least something he might say to a subordinate or someone he was doing business with. Was that an improvement?

Still, I was relieved. The duke had accepted what I’d told him.

“Immediately. Tonight is the most likely time.”

I hurried on. I still had one request left—possibly the most important one.

“I need someone capable. At least two full knights, or someone of senior-knight caliber.”

It would be nice if the knight commander came, but there was no way he would guard an illegitimate son like me.

I watched the duke tensely. Even I knew it was an outrageous request. What could a six-year-old know about choosing the knights who would guard him? It would be easy to dismiss as a childish demand. But anyone less capable would be cut down by the assassin, just as Miguel had been.

The duke heard me out, then shook his head.

I was done for.

“I can’t use knights for a family matter like this. That’s the end of it. Go back to your room.”

With that, I was sent out of the study.

* * *

It was deep night, not long before sunrise. The room belonging to Alex, the illegitimate son, lay half in darkness.

CREAK. CREAAK.

The window caught in the moonlight began to open, inch by inch. It moved so slowly it was almost tedious. A short while later, a person dressed in black slipped silently through it.

Landing beside the window, he swept his gaze around the room. A table and chair, a coat rack and shelves, and a bed. At the sight of the bed, he frowned.

“I knew I should’ve turned down a job put together in such a rush. Now it’s become a nuisance.”

Someone was sitting on the bed he was looking at. But the figure’s silhouette was not that of a child.

The masked man quickly surveyed the room again. No one else was in sight, and none of the furniture looked large enough to hide an adult. He glanced behind him.

“Tsk. Getting away with a proper knight on my tail won’t be easy. Still, I suppose it could be worse. Only one knight.”

He drew his black-painted sword and let it hang at his side. At once, a force began to surge through the room.

I caught my breath, but a groan escaped me as the mana flooded over me beneath the bed.

“Oh, so that’s where you were? Looks like I can finish the job after all. My rotten luck isn’t so rotten, is it?”

The masked man was talking much more than he had before. Was he someone else? His voice sounded the same...

I moved my mana and regained control of my body. Peeking out from beside the bed, I looked at him and understood why he had become so talkative. Cold sweat covered his face.

The figure on the bed rose.

CRACK.

The mana pressing down on me vanished. No—it had been driven back by other mana.

“An assassin at least as strong as a knight... I’ll have to see for myself.”

The figure took a step forward, and the faint moonlight revealed his face. It was the duke, master of the mansion and lord of the territory.

“Damn it! That wasn’t good luck at all! How did you botch the job?”

The masked man shouted and hurled himself toward the window. But the duke was faster. Before the man could reach it, the duke blocked his way.

The masked man swung his sword frantically. The blade shone as if it were giving off light of its own, but—

CRUNCH!

The instant it met the duke’s sword, it folded as though crushed. Unlike the masked man’s blade, the duke’s gave off no light. Yet even in the dark room, I could see the air trembling around it.

“You blocked my sword. You’re skilled. An assassin of your caliber wouldn’t talk even under torture.”

The duke swung again, and the masked man whipped his other hand forward.

THUNK!

A dagger shot from his hand. At the same instant, his head was severed.

The dagger he had thrown nearly went through the bed. I’d moved elsewhere in advance, just in case, but his last desperate strike sent a chill down my spine.

The duke glanced toward me, then spoke. “Clean this up.”

“Understood,” the head butler answered from the doorway.

I had no idea when he’d opened the door and come in. Apparently, someone who rose to head butler had plenty to hide.

“And send the child to his mother.”

Now that the assassin was dead, there was no more need for me to act as bait. Still, telling them to send me to Mother suggested the duke didn’t have molten iron running through his veins.

“Understood.”

The head butler looked at me, and I looked at the duke.

It wasn’t over yet. For this to be settled, I needed the duke’s word. He stood for a moment with his sword in hand, then looked again at the headless corpse lying there. After a while, he spoke.

“Don’t worry. Go to Amanda. This will be settled today. From tomorrow on, there will be no one in this mansion trying to kill you.”

The duke sheathed his bloodied sword and left the room. Neither the head butler nor I asked where he was going. There was only one place he could go.