Adria’s lengthy explanation boiled down to this: Unlike me, who had been born and raised in a ducal mansion, Martin had been born and raised outside the lord’s castle. His mother had been a maid in the marquis’s household, but she was driven out of the castle when she became pregnant with him. With the money she received on her way out, she worked tirelessly to give birth to Martin and raise him. Later, she married a commoner and had Martin’s younger sister.

Martin had an ordinary childhood until the marquis summoned him to the castle at age six. While out on an inspection, the marquis had recognized that Martin was ready to awaken. Fortunately, Martin awakened his inherited ability. His mother’s commoner husband had just died, leaving her struggling to support herself and her daughter, so Martin was able to bring them to the castle with him.

But his mother had been a maid, not even a concubine. Martin’s standing was bound to be worse than that of an ordinary illegitimate son. He had to work hard to hone his ability.

“Martin trained hard. He learned everything he could from the knights, and he studied hard too.” Adria’s eyes shone as she spoke. Was Martin the reason she had come to dream of becoming a knight?

“A lot of people envied him. Plenty of my older brothers and the adults disliked him, too. Even so, they all had to acknowledge how skilled he was.” Simon, who was listening beside me, stole a glance my way. Perhaps he thought Martin’s circumstances sounded like mine. But I had no particular grievance against House Gresia now. The person I’d had a grievance against had already been driven out.

“Everyone had come to recognize him, and he was even winning spars against the knights. Then something happened.” It was the sort of thing that happened all too often in noble households. Martin’s younger sister—the daughter his mother had had with her commoner husband—became pregnant. “Nobody knew whose child it was, but because of Martin’s mother, people talked even more.” His mother had been a maid when she became pregnant with the marquis’s child. Now the same thing had happened to her daughter; the marquis’s family could hardly ignore it. “I heard there were some strange rumors, too. In the end, Martin and his family left the castle.”

That outcome didn’t make sense. They had driven out an illegitimate son who had awakened an inherited ability over that? They could have quieted the rumors and found a separate home outside the castle for his mother and sister while keeping Martin there. Why hadn’t they? As I thought it over, something Adria had said came back to me. ‘Right. There were rumors. They must have been vicious, and the worst rumor would involve... the marquis’s family.’ In the worst case, one of the marquis’s sons might have been the father of the baby. ‘And it might not have been just a rumor.’ That would make for a tangled family tree, to put it mildly.

Nobles in this world practiced polygamy, and some had complicated family trees, but those arrangements were all between nobles. Because inherited abilities ran in their blood, nobles here placed absolute importance on noble lineage. Relationships with commoners, which diluted that blood, were nothing but a stain on their honor. Adria and Simon hadn’t caught on yet. They were still innocent children who knew nothing of such matters.

‘I think I’ve worked out why he was driven out...’ Still, I tilted my head. I couldn’t imagine Martin harboring so much rage merely because he’d been expelled. In my previous life, he had burned down the mansion and wiped out the marquis’s family, then sent people to kill Adria, who had survived. I’d sensed his fierce anger even in the little I’d heard about him on our way to the marquis’s household. I hadn’t known him long, but he didn’t seem the kind of person who would be that furious simply over being thrown out. There had to be more to the story than Adria knew.

“After he left, it was hard to see him. I had people look for him, but he was often away from the domain, and I think he avoided me. We were so close before he left...” Adria’s voice trailed off, her face downcast. Then she brightened again. “That’s why I wanted to hear about him. And the inn where he’s staying is on tomorrow’s route, right? I called you here because I wanted to know if I might see him.”

Adria really couldn’t make polite small talk. She could at least have claimed she’d invited me because she wanted to know how I was doing, but she didn’t say a word of the sort. I wasn’t hurt by it, but seeing her so focused on her brother felt a little strange after my previous life. “I couldn’t say. I don’t know whether he’ll be at the inn tomorrow.” Perhaps that was why my answer came out curt. An awkward silence lingered in the room for a long while, and with that, tea came to an end.

The next day, Adria, Simon, Bianca, a few escort knights, and I went into the city. Simon and Adria rode together in one carriage, while I was put in another with Bianca and the other maids. It was blatant discrimination, but they had a good reason to give the prospective fiancés time together, so I quietly climbed into the maids’ carriage.

I didn’t know about anyone else, but I found the outing dull. The city was no cleaner than the ducal estate, and there wasn’t much to see. As expected, we faced no danger inside the city. All I could do was listen to the maids chatter. By the time it was over, the outing had been a complete failure for all three of us.

For one thing, Adria didn’t get to see Martin. We stopped at the inn, but he wasn’t there. We couldn’t wait indefinitely, so she had to leave a message with the innkeeper saying she’d come by, then head out. She was gloomy for the rest of the day. Simon, still hopelessly inexperienced, never got his quiet time alone with her. Instead, he spent all day flustered because he couldn’t cheer her up.

And I learned nothing during the outing. Juan had found out where the Red Bear Mercenary Company was staying and picked up a little more information, but that was all. There was only so much a soldier from another domain could investigate. I wanted to look into things myself, but I couldn’t leave while I was on escort duty. Even when I wasn’t, my age made it hard to go anywhere.

As we parted after that pointless outing, Adria asked me, “He’ll be back tonight, won’t he?” I knew at once whom she meant. “I expect so. He’s already paid for his room.” A maid beside Adria fixed her with a fierce glare. “As you know, my lady, you cannot go out at night.”

Adria ignored the maid’s sharp look and turned back to me. “You want to see Martin again too, don’t you?” Why was she asking? I wondered, but gave the obvious answer. “I do, but there’s no way to—” Before I could finish, the maid cried, “My lady!” “I was just asking.”

Adria waved a hand at the maids, then bid Simon and me farewell. “Thank you for today. Have a peaceful night.” She lifted her skirt with one hand and curtsied politely. Simon put a hand to his chest and bowed, and I followed his lead. Adria and the maids smiled at me. They must have found it cute to see a little kid bow like a grown man.

“Hmph!” A snort came from beside me. Simon, who had been in a foul mood all day, had finally let it show. Once Adria was out of sight, he whipped his head around and walked to his room without a word. Perhaps he thought it was an aristocratic way to slight me for being an illegitimate son. To me, he just looked adorable.

I went into my guest room and sat on the edge of the bed. The sun had set, and it was dark outside the window. “This is proving harder than I expected...” No, it wasn’t just difficult. I’d hit a wall. I’d gathered some information, but not enough to do anything with. I needed details and the sort of things people only said in private. I couldn’t get any of that while stuck in the lord’s castle. A guest couldn’t easily leave the castle alone, least of all a child. Going out at night was entirely out of the question.

I almost wished I’d learned a trick or two from the assassin I’d encountered. I had no desire to learn how to kill someone with a dagger, but sneaking into a mansion undetected was a skill I could use right now. As I pondered what to do next, I heard a knock.

KNOCK. KNOCK.

Who would visit at this hour? I got up and went to the door.

CLICK.

I opened it, but there was no one in the corridor. Had I imagined it?

KNOCK. KNOCK.

There it was again. “It’s not the door?” The knocking wasn’t coming from that direction. It was coming from the floor.

“Alex... Alex...” I heard a woman’s voice, too. Goose bumps rose all over me. “Don’t tell me there are ghosts here too?” This world had mana, supernatural abilities, and divine arts. Ghosts weren’t out of the question. “Oh, come on. Give me a break.” Ghosts were something I really couldn’t handle. Granted, I myself had been reborn from another world, but ghosts were a different matter. “Maybe it isn’t a ghost. Maybe I’m hearing things. I’ve had too much on my mind.” I was still muttering to myself when—

THUNK!

Suddenly, I heard a floorboard come loose beneath the bed. “Help me out, would you? I kept calling you, and you didn’t even help.” The woman’s voice came again, much clearer this time.

“Lady Adria?” Startled, I ran to the bed. “Ngh.” I tried pushing it aside to look underneath, but it wouldn’t budge. Adria’s voice came from below it again. “The bed won’t move on this side either, huh? Oh well. You’ll have to crawl under it, Alex.”

I lay down beside the bed and looked underneath. Part of the floor was gone. I cautiously stuck my head under the bed. A section of floorboard about a meter square had disappeared, revealing stairs that led down. At the foot of the stairs, Adria stood with a lantern in one hand, waving at me.

“Ta-da! Surprised? It’s a secret passage in our castle.” She proudly pointed to the stairs and the passage behind her. I carefully eased myself onto the stairs. After descending a little, I finally had room to stand. “A secret passage?” “Mm-hmm. It was sealed off ages ago, so nobody knows about it. I found it.”

That sounded exactly like her. Knowing Adria as I had in my previous life, I was sure she’d discovered it while roaming all over the castle. Who else would have found such an old passage? “It’s lucky you’re staying in this guest room. Lots of the rooms don’t connect to it.” “But why show me a secret passage all of a sudden?” “Because it leads outside the castle. You and I are going to see Martin.”

Taking another look at her, I saw that Adria was dressed to go out in boys’ clothes. Her figure and face made it impossible to mistake her for a boy, though. “Me? You’re taking me with you?” “Yeah. I asked you earlier, remember?” No, I hadn’t realized that was what she meant. But I was grateful for the invitation. It was exactly the help I needed when I’d been at a dead end. Luckily, I was still dressed to go out myself, so I grabbed my sword and followed her.

GRRRRUMBLE.

Adria touched part of the wall, apparently operating some mechanism, and the opening above the stairs closed again. Guided by the light of her lantern, we walked down the secret passage. It was narrow and very dark. Dust lay thick everywhere, just as Adria had said, and there was no sign anyone had used it in a long time.

“Alex, you’re the first person I’ve shown this to. Don’t tell anyone else.” Shouldn’t she be more worried about showing it to me? Telling an outsider about a secret passage in the castle—the marquis would collapse if he found out. Still, I nodded and promised. That was a problem for her and her family, not for me. Now that I had a way to gather information, I intended to make full use of it.

Adria kept talking as she led the way. “I’m going to tell Martin about it. If he comes through the secret passage, no one else will know. I’ll tell him to visit me in secret sometime.” Tell Martin? Surely not... I remembered what I’d heard in my previous life: the marquis’s castle had burned, and Martin had become his successor. I hadn’t understood how a heavily guarded castle could have caught fire without anyone identifying the culprit, or how Martin had come to inherit it. Adria was giving me the answer now. I pointed a finger at the back of her head. ‘So you’re the culprit!’