∗ ∗ ∗
I could tell that the guild leader had quite a high opinion of Katarina. But something about this nagged at me.
“What’s this about betting on her inheriting House Trahn?” That was what had caught my attention.
Fresco tilted his head at what I said, but then it seemed to dawn on him. “Oh. You haven’t heard? Guess I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
Despite his words, he didn’t seem too concerned. It almost felt like an act. Agh, maybe I shouldn’t probe too much, I lamented, but it was too late now. It’d have been suspicious if I didn’t ask for more details, so I had no choice but to keep up the conversation.
“So what you’re saying is, Lady Katarina’s accession to the title of marchioness is not currently guaranteed?”
Noble houses, including my own, were always in dispute over inheritance. Fortunately, in our case, my brother had no interest whatsoever. Thus, no matter how much external mockery it would incur, my family had been firmly set on me inheriting. But ultimately, my <Holy King> skill and the Church had made everything topsy-turvy, so it was all ridiculous anyway. In any case, it was normal for houses to have disputes even without extra intervening circumstances. Even between siblings related by blood.
However, I was pretty sure Katarina didn’t have any brothers or sisters. An only child shouldn’t have had much cause for dispute. I was under the impression that in this country, the eldest child was generally favored to inherit, regardless of gender.
“Yeah, basically. ‘Course, Marquess Trahn only has one legitimate child right now, so that works out fine for her. Well, if I remember right, he’s got three wives, so we can’t be sure things won’t change in the future. But since the eldest child’s favored, Katarina still gets priority. But still, even though men and women have close to equal rights in this country, we’ve still got some stinky old traditions. Nobles are supposed to protect the people of their territories from foreign threats...which means they have to fight. So men are valued more than women in that aspect. In Lady Katarina’s case, there are some strong opinions out there that instead of making her marchioness, one of her male relatives should get the title.”
“I see...”
The Urizen Federation’s state of Altair used to be a kingdom, so some of its traditions remained. The noble system was typically like that. Long-standing prejudices didn’t go away that easily.
“But couldn’t all that just be solved by Marquess Trahn dismissing the complaints?”
“He’s doing that...or at least, he tried to. But it didn’t go so smoothly.”
“Go on.”
“It’s nearly time to send representatives to the central assembly of the Urizen federal government. One of the Marquess’s opponents is a guy named Margrave Frausen, who seems to be sticking his nose in House Trahn’s affairs. On the sly, of course, so it’s not obvious it’s him.”
From the way he put it, only nobles would be aware of this. In other words, this Margrave Frausen person was aiding relatives of the Marquess who wanted someone other than Katarina to inherit, and was stoking the dispute. That would be troublesome for the Marquess of Trahn too. They probably had similar levels of influence, seeing as they were fighting for the same position of representative. In fact, I’d even heard his name before, despite being from a different country. If someone that notable was meddling, trying too hard to contain the damage would just present bigger vulnerabilities. So the Marquess probably had his hands tied.
The specific details were probably only known to the members of House Trahn, but...well, I used to be a noble myself. I could understand the gist.
They’ve really got it rough. And now I know what’s going on. That’s the reason why Katarina was assigned to this town.
I voiced my supposition. “So Marquess Trahn wants to have Lady Katarina accomplish something and thereby prove to both the family and others that she’s suited to becoming the future Marchioness of Trahn.”
“Yeah, exactly. You gathered that much? Just who are... Hold on, my bad. I won’t pry anymore, so don’t look at me like that.”
“This is a normal look.”
“Doesn’t seem that way to me.”
“Anyway, what do you want me to do with all that information? I’m a novice who only became an adventurer a few moments ago.” I had a bad feeling about where this was going, but I had to ask. Even if I didn’t, I could tell that he was going to request something. Better to just get it over with already.
Fresco gave a nod. “Well, you did save Lady Katarina when she was attacked by assassins. So I know I can trust you. If you had just ignored her, it would’ve been all over. Margrave Frausen would’ve gotten exactly what he wanted.”
“I guess so...”
I didn’t think I was that trustworthy, but at the very least, my actions told him that I wouldn’t cause any harm. Still, while I didn’t intend to ally myself with Katarina, I was on bad terms with the Church and had a complicated history. To be fair, Fresco and Katarina had already both surmised that I was tangled in something complicated, so maybe things would be fine with that in mind.
“So I was hoping that you’d aid Lady Katarina.”
“As much as I’d like to, I...”
I had my own goal: I had to get stronger. Strong enough that I could hold my own against the Church. I didn’t have time to waste on other things.
But then Fresco said, “There’s profit in it for you too. If all goes well, Lady Katarina will have immense trust in you. So will Marquess Trahn. That’ll give you major connections in this country—though I don’t know who you are or where you’re from. Having connections will help a lot when you need it most, yeah?”
Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that Fresco was right. I had a lot of issues to deal with, but my goal was consistent: to simply live a normal life. I didn’t have any dreams of grandeur about reclaiming my noble status or becoming famous, or anything like that. I didn’t even really care about my <Holy King> skill, as long as I could just live in peace. It was still convenient, though, so I’d take advantage of it where possible.
In short, I’d be satisfied if I could just live somewhere happily with Cath and the kobolds. If Aht was there too, that would be just as good. When I considered what would be necessary to achieve that, getting the Church off my tail had to come first. Aht was going to get rid of this problem at the source by telling the Church that I had died and making them understand that there was no longer any need to search for me.
But what if this failed? Or what if it only temporarily succeeded, and they eventually came chasing after me again after discovering that I was still alive? In case these things happened, I’d need to gain “power” in multiple senses of the word. One would be my own physical strength, meaning that I needed to train my combat abilities and <Holy King> skill. This was a priority.
That was why I’d gotten training from Aht, and why our present goal while she was away was to improve our abilities. Getting status cards from the adventurer’s guild was part of that. We’d become adventurers, take on quests, defeat monsters, and raise our ranks so that we could triumph over labyrinths. That would definitely make us stronger.
Plus, it was harder for nations to interfere with the business of high-ranking adventurers. Of course, silver or gold wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to reach platinum at the bare minimum...or orichalcum, if that was even possible. If we got that far, we’d be completely freed from the constraints of national authority. But even then, I’d be in dire straits regardless if the Church brought its full weight down on me, since I had the <Holy King> skill... Putting that stuff aside for now, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to employ ourselves in a way that would let us raise our ranks.