The party had already begun by the time they reached the hall. Everywhere, students could be seen lightheartedly chatting with the adult observers, and some of the students were already receiving business cards and recruitment offers. As one might expect, many observers were gathered around the students who had performed well in the mock battles—each one called out to the students in turn. On the other hand, no one approached the students whose results hadn’t been as good as they had hoped, and there was a clear division between the two groups. So, with an abundance of time, the students who didn’t receive any offers spent it as they saw fit; some comforted their fellow students in similar situations, while some gorged themselves on food to dull the pain. Some swallowed the possibility that they might flop horribly and tried to aggressively sell themselves to potential employers.
When Filiel, Cecil, and Carlo set foot in the venue, the mood instantly changed. For the briefest of moments, everyone stopped talking. The conversation instantly resumed, but everyone was acutely aware that the three were present. Cecil’s and Carlo’s abilities put them in a league above everyone else, and as always, nearly every observer wanted to talk to them. The observers hoped to be lucky enough to recruit one of the brothers, and quite a few had come to the party extraordinarily motivated.
However, no one actually approached them. Prince Filiel’s presence definitely deterred the observers, but they stayed away for another reason too: they could sense that the twins trusted Filiel deeply because of the way they closely followed behind him. Those who had been waiting with bated breath for Cecil and Carlo’s arrival lost heart—they could tell that the twins had already chosen their master, and there was no room for anyone else. The answer they’d receive if they tried to recruit them was as clear as day. So, giving up hope, they went to other students they’d had their eyes on.
As Filiel, Cecil, and Carlo made their way through the venue, people automatically moved out of their way, so they easily made it to Bernard, the person they were there to see. Alexis and Gaius were standing next to Bernard. Luca and Zeke, who were usually always by Filiel’s side, were also there.
“Father,” Filiel said to Bernard.
“Ah, Filiel. You took some time getting here.” Bernard shifted his gaze to the two standing behind Filiel. “Are they who I think they are?”
“Yes. This is the elder brother, Cecil, and the younger, Carlo.”
At Filiel’s prompting, Cecil and Carlo put hands to their chests and bowed. “It is a great honor to meet you, Your Majesty,” Cecil said. “And greetings, Your Highness. It has been some time,” he said to Alexis. “My name is Cecil O’Brian, and this is my younger brother.”
“My name is Carlo O’Brian.”
Alexis had come to the training camp other years besides this one, so Filiel had already introduced Cecil and Carlo to him. They had also met several times at other gatherings.
Bernard looked the two of them up and down, appraising them, then gave a satisfied nod. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for Filiel. I’ve also heard about how outstanding you two are. As king and as his father, it’s heartening to see people like you by Filiel’s side. I’ll be relying on both of you.”
The twins respectfully bowed their heads, looking slightly tense. “Your gracious words are more than we deserve, Your Majesty,” Cecil said.
“As we continue to train, we shall endeavor to be of service to His Highness,” Carlo said.
“There’s no need for you to be so humble,” Alexis said affably. “You’re famous among high society for leading the largest faction of young nobles. It’s reassuring to know that you’re Filiel’s allies, especially considering your magical skills, your strength, and your personal connections.”
Cecil and Carlo proactively attended parties and other events—they used their appearances, their quick wits, and their pleasant manners to their advantage. By now, they had built the biggest political faction among the young nobility. Those connections held a wealth of information and profit, and the faction was so large that even royalty couldn’t afford to ignore it.
Incidentally, the person who had taught them all their tricks just so happened to be Layce. The two brothers had always been eloquent and well-liked, and they excelled at turning conversations and personal connections to their advantage. Despite this, Layce had still told them, “You’re too soft!” He’d strictly drilled into them everything there was to know about taking advantage of people’s weaknesses, effective threats, how to smile to elicit goodwill and induce fear in others, and so on. All that training from the Prince of Darkness himself had been tremendously effective at turning them into wonderful demonic henchmen. In fact, Layce’s help had, as one might expect, led to their faction’s rapid increase in size. Indeed, there was some basis to Filiel’s nagging feeling that Cecil had come to resemble Layce lately.
“Count O’Brian must be quite proud to have both of you as his sons,” Bernard said.
A complicated expression appeared on both Cecil’s and Carlo’s faces, and they momentarily hesitated. But there was a high possibility that Bernard would eventually be involved in this issue, so they concluded that they ought to speak with him about it here.
Cecil lowered his voice so those around them listening curiously and hoping to catch part of their conversation couldn’t hear anything. “Actually, I’m afraid to say that we’ll only be taking the O’Brian name as our own for several more months.”
“What do you mean?” Bernard asked.
“The two of us are planning to change our last names to Curtis when we become adults,” Cecil explained. Changing their names meant leaving the O’Brian family and becoming Layce’s adopted sons. It was already surprising enough to hear that both twins were going to leave the O’Brian family—after all, the family had no other sons—but Bernard was even more strongly affected by their mention of the name Curtis.
“Surely I’m mistaken,” said Bernard, “but you don’t mean the Curtis that I know very well, do you?” He felt like something horrible was rushing toward him.
Filiel landed the finishing blow. “You aren’t mistaken at all, father.”
Bernard’s worst fear had come to pass. “Now that you mention it, Count O’Brian’s former wife did get remarried to Layce,” Bernard muttered. He recalled the report that contained all of Cecil and Carlo’s personal history. When he’d had the two investigated, Theodore had purposefully hidden almost everything about Yui—he’d only allowed the most innocuous information to be recorded. Still, Bernard was aware that their biological mother had married Layce after getting divorced. “So that means that Yui...”
“She’s their blood-related sister, yes,” Filiel confirmed.
“Is that so...?” Bernard turned back to the twins and scrutinized their faces. He was seeing them in a new light—now that he knew the three were siblings, he realized that Cecil’s and Carlo’s facial features resembled Yui’s.
First, there were the twins standing before him, and then there was Yui, whose knowledge and ability put the government’s researchers to shame. Bernard now wanted to meet the mother of these three extraordinarily remarkable siblings—she also happened to be the woman who’d transformed Layce, the Prince of Darkness, into a loving and devoted husband. She was the prime minister’s wife, so under ordinary circumstances, Bernard would’ve had frequent chances to see her, but Layce disliked taking her to events, so she rarely made an appearance. As such, Bernard had never seen her, not even once. But still...
Layce would extend his family name to Cecil and Carlo, who had pretty much the largest amount of power and influence among the young nobility. If Yui and Filiel got married on top of that, Layce would be related to royalty, giving him an enormous amount of influence in Garlant. However, Bernard knew that Layce only cared about his wife and daughter—he was not even slightly interested in power. That was why Bernard wasn’t worried that Layce might, say, wield his authority to manipulate the country’s political situation as he pleased. Still, it was possible that some of the nobility might object to Yui marrying Filiel on the grounds that it would give Layce too much power.
“Hmm.” Bernard pondered the situation. It seemed like it would become quite a pain... So, he secretly decided to let his father, Theodore, make all the hard decisions. As king, he was getting a headache just thinking about whether it’d be all right to give Layce even more power to go wild with, especially when the Prince of Darkness already made an outrageous mess of things sometimes. After all, the ones who always had to worry about cleaning up after Layce were the ones around him—including Bernard himself.
“Well, Layce could cause all sorts of chaos, even without any authority. He was able to make the grandmaster prostrate himself on the ground and almost cry. He didn’t even need to use his power as prime minister,” Bernard mumbled. Then he had a sudden thought. “However, I find it hard to imagine that Count O’Brian will willingly part with his two brilliant heirs.”
Cecil and Carlo both looked troubled and unsure. With difficulty, Cecil spoke. “Ahh, well... We’ll probably—no, definitely cause trouble for Your Majesty. Maybe.”
“Why?” Bernard asked. He really didn’t want to know, but he’d decided to ask anyway. It was best to be mentally prepared for what was coming.
“Well, he’s completely willing to drag Your Majesty into it, so I think you may be forced into the situation, whether you like it or not...”
Without even asking, Bernard instantly understood that “he” meant Layce. “He’d bother the king about an adoption dispute between two nobles?” Bernard asked. If Layce got Bernard to recognize the adoption beforehand, even Count O’Brian wouldn’t be able to complain, since it was the king’s decision. However, it was not typical for the king to concern himself with adoptions among the nobility, as long as the outcome had nothing to do with national interest. But all common sense went out the window whenever Layce was involved, so Bernard quickly gave up.
“My apologies,” Cecil said. He and Carlo bowed their heads.
“Oh, even I can’t stop Layce, so I don’t think he’ll listen to either of you, even if you try... I’m asking just in case, but you both wish to become Layce’s sons out of your own volition, right?” Bernard asked. There were two implicit meanings to his question: he was asking to confirm that they weren’t being threatened, and he wanted assurance that they wouldn’t have any regrets about becoming the sons of a man like Layce. Bernard made sure to check because he would never want to have someone like Layce as his father.
“Yes, I wish it from the bottom of my heart,” Cecil said.
“Though I am loath to admit it, he’s far more of a father to us than our biological father, and he treats us like we’re his sons,” Carlo said.