“I wanna leave the leadership position of the Hartley clan to my grandchild. Also, I’m leaving the clan,” I said, bowing my head, which was a noble formality I’d learned recently.
The kid was hard at work in an office of the palace that we’d taken over. He wasn’t a kid in the slums anymore. He was the duke of House Sevensworth, and my employer. You really never know how things’ll turn out.
“Sure, but why?”
“You’ll find out soon... I promise I’ll be back to take responsibility. This is my sin and mine alone. Please don’t punish the rest of the Hartley clan for my actions.”
“Wait! What are you planning to do?!”
I ignored his question, though, and left the room. He’d won the war against Thorsdale. He’d captured the royal family in the blink of an eye and had placed the entire country under his command. When we lived in the slums, I’d already known he wasn’t an average joe, but he was much more amazing than I’d ever thought. But he was soft. The only ones he’d sentenced to death were the king and the nobles who’d been in favor of the war.
The former prince and all the rest of the former royal family were still alive. He’d exiled them to a remote place and said that they could keep their lives as long as we never heard from them again. I couldn’t believe how soft he was, but I couldn’t fault him for it either. At barely over twenty, he was still a kid. He’d spent all his life in peaceful places like school and had only just stepped into the cruel reality of the real world. Sentencing an entire family to death wasn’t something he could do, and even I knew it. This was the kind of job for adults. Dirty jobs like this were our territory.
“Where might you be heading off to?”
As I walked through the halls of the palace, my supervisor—or rather, my former supervisor—called out to me. It was Matthew, the head butler. He was a frightening old man who could get close without me even sensing it.
“There’s somethin’ I need to take care of.”
“Under Sir Ginorious’s orders?”
“No. This is my own decision, but it’s for his sake and my clan’s.”
“Are you perhaps planning on eliminating the former royalty who left the palace not too long ago?”
I froze and slowly looked into his eyes, but I didn’t see any intent to kill in them.
“Yeah, I am. No matter how you cut it, letting them live is a bad move. I’m sorry, but I’m going no matter how you try to stop me. I already resigned from this household. I don’t have to listen to your orders anymore. I know I’ve got no chance against you in a fight, but I also know you can’t catch me if I run.”
I was still a person who’d been the leader of a ninja clan. The kid had even healed my leg, so I could move as fast as I used to. I was confident I could escape anyone, even this monster.
“Well, what a coincidence. It just so happens that I was going to take care of that very job.”
“Huh?! You were?!”
“Sir Ginorious and the madam are still too young, and they’re both very kind. I was ordered by the lady madam to carry out the decisions they were too merciful to make.”
The Empress herself?! I’d yet to meet her, but she had to be pretty sharp if she’d been able to predict this very situation.
“Are you sure you’re okay with leaving the family? You’d finally found a place to belong,” he asked as we walked through the hallway.
“I owe the kid—the master a great debt. He made a place for my clan and he’s done so much for me, I can’t possibly ever fully repay him in my lifetime. If it’s for his sake, I’ll throw away my life without a second thought.”
“That’s quite the impressive degree of fealty despite only having just joined the family.”
“No, this isn’t just out of fealty. I have other reasons. If we let the former royal family escape, I have no doubt there’ll be another war. If that happens, people from my clan will die again. I messed up on that job from House Hechsagon and because of that, so many of my clan were killed. I don’t want that to happen again. I can’t stand it. So the fealty I have isn’t as noble as you might think it is.”
“Everyone has their reasons to be loyal to others. Being loyal for the sake of your clan is perfectly noble. For the record, my loyalty mostly is due to my father.”
“It is?”
“Well, yes. Before I was even old enough to think for myself, I pledged my loyalty to House Sevensworth. I’ve been ready to throw my life away for them for a long time now. The day it was cemented in my very being was when my father passed away. As he died, he held my hand and told me to hold true to our family’s tradition of ironclad loyalty. He wanted me to defend what he and his father before him had done to their dying days. The Sevensworths value loyalty even more than skill. I think that’s why he told me that before he died. But even so...the final words of my father, the same man who used to let me ride on his shoulders...they were quite heavy.”
“I see... There’s no winnin’ against your father’s wishes.”