novelraw Chapter 207 : Chapter 207
Chapter 207 : Chapter 207
Chapter 207: Household Matters (7)
The tip of his nose stung.
The savory scent mingled with the smell of something burnt. It was an odor he hadn't noticed when Ellen wasn't here.
Harad lowered his gaze. Fortunately, Ferrard was in the same half-dead state. None of the agents were injured either. It seemed the ingredients in the kitchen had burned and cooked.
The annex was a mess, but it wasn't a big problem. He was used to houses being wrecked. In his past life, Elaine had been the problem, and after his regression, Grand Duke Aratus had smashed things.
"She protected Arika."
Even though Ferrard had tried to kill her.
"She's decisive when it really matters."
There was no such thing as loyalty without reason. People followed because there was charm, after all.
Even the Intelligence Bureau Director, who pursued perfection, would be decisive for her own people.
"Her past history shows that much."
Her essence was proof of that. Benus Serzila was fundamentally an impulsive person. She simply suppressed it.
He had no intention of becoming Benus's person. Harad was Elaine's and Ellen's person.
But he did need to make a good impression.
A moderately comfortable retirement. In his past life, Elaine had said that in front of Benus's grave. It meant she loved her. Ellen would be the same.
"I think it would be best to retreat for now."
Benus jerked her chin. It was toward the door Ellen had smashed. Without a moment's hesitation, her subordinates exited through the door. Remarkable loyalty and trust.
"That's the value of a person named Benus Serzila."
Those subordinates had once been a knight order treated as good as comatose. There had to be a reason they trusted and followed her like this.
"I'd like Arika to stay, if possible."
When he added that, Arika tumbled back inside the door. One of the subordinates who had gone out had tossed her back in.
"Have a seat."
"......"
Arika looked around nervously instead of sitting. It was because Benus hadn't sat down.
Benus Serzila was slowly circling around Harad. She moved as if drawing a circle, and her appearance was almost beast-like.
The beast of a mother whose child had been taken. Benus didn't trust Harad and was worried about Ellen asleep in his arms.
"Won't you trust me? Your daughter chose this man."
"Ha."
Benus snorted.
"Sit down."
"Put her down."
Benus pointed at Ellen. She was completely different from their first meeting. Her mask had shattered.
"Was I like that too?"
Avery Aquinas came to Harad's mind. He felt a strange sense of kinship. Perhaps they would get along well.
"Put her down and step back."
Benus repeated herself. Ellen seemed to be her top priority. That was the same for Harad.
"Then you'll attack me, won't you?"
"I will not."
"How can I trust you? You're an impulsive person."
"......"
Benus flinched slightly. This superhuman rejected her own essence.
That might be why she rose to Intelligence Bureau Director. That position required someone more cautious and cold-blooded than anyone else.
"Think objectively. Why would I harm Ellen?"
"......"
The circling footsteps stopped. Benus's face gradually became calm. To Harad's eyes, it looked like she was putting on the mask called Intelligence Bureau Director.
"That's reasonable."
Benus sat down across from Harad.
"There. I've sat down. Speak."
Her face was composed, as if she had never been agitated.
"......"
Harad was dumbfounded.
"There's not a single normal person in this household."
***
After telling him to speak, Benus was the first to open her mouth.
"You are the culprit."
Benus pointed with her chin at Ellen asleep in Harad's arms.
Ellen had developed narcolepsy. However, it couldn't possibly be such a disease. Because it was Ellen.
It must be magical, and the culprit was definitely Harad. It was an obvious deduction anyone could make. After all, every change in Ellen had occurred because of Harad.
"Why do you think that?"
Instead of answering, Benus glanced at Arika. Harad did the same. Arika flinched and timidly shook her head. It meant she hadn't reported it.
"She had someone attached to her."
Serzila had Grand Duke Aratus's independent intelligence network.
Benus would have the same. Or else she had attached one of her subordinates.
Either way, it was an excellent response. People and information had to be layered. That was how you prevented leaks.
"You're right. It's magical, and I am the cause."
Harad nodded readily. Benus twitched. That was all. Her gaze remained on Ellen. It meant she was holding back because of Ellen.
"Close, but burdensome."
He immediately understood Elaine's words from his past life. Benus loved Ellen as much as Grand Duke Aratus did.
The method was just different. Benus had already lost someone before, after all.
"However, I can't say more than that. I have my own circumstances."
"Do you think I'll accept that?"
"Ellen accepted it."
"So what?"
"......"
Harad scratched his neck. It was déjà vu.
"I'll die if I tell you."
"So what?"
"......"
"Tell me and die."
Apparently, what Benus had instilled in Ellen wasn't just perfection.
"She learned from this person."
He had wondered where she learned such manners.
"Then Ellen will be sad."
"Now is when she'll be least sad. Tumors must be cut out as quickly as possible."
"You're being emotional right now."
"......Speak. Let me hear it first."
Harad simultaneously realized why Ellen was shameless and why she was good at acting.
"It would be easier to think of it as a curse."
As he said that, his heart twitched.
The constraint had stabbed his heart. As if to say, what kind of nonsense was that?
"You bastard."
"Not for Ellen."
"Speak. Let me hear it."
"From your perspective, it's closer to a blessing."
"Such a thing. You're insane."
"......"
Benus acted like she had a split personality.
When she spewed curses was her true self. When it involved Ellen, Benus's mask shattered.
"Ellen resembles Baltes Serzila."
"......You bastard, how much do you know?"
Crunch. Benus ground her teeth. It was because of the name Baltes. That name was Ellen's uncle. The husband the Intelligence Bureau Director had lost.
"Ellen told me."
"I'll ask again. If it's a lie, I'll kill you."
The opponent was the Intelligence Bureau Director. Lies wouldn't work. Countless pieces of information existed in that head.
"I know more than I don't, at least when it comes to Serzila."
"......"
Benus quietly stared into Harad's eyes. It was the gaze of a beast imitating a human. It wasn't amusing. Benus was someone capable of that. Was she the Intelligence Bureau Director for nothing?
"Keep yapping."
"I heard he was like the wind, that Serzila."
Baltes Serzila was, to put it kindly, magnanimous, and to put it badly, a fool. He was free, cheerful, and trusted people easily.
Ellen resembled such a Baltes. Perhaps that was why she became the Intelligence Bureau Director's daughter under a false identity.
"And then he died."
Baltes Serzila was killed by a close friend he had trusted. He hadn't heard the details, but he'd heard it was a rather futile death.
"So it was true."
Benus's eyes widened. One more word and she would kill him. Harad waited for her impulse to subside a little.
"Therefore, I understand that you find me disagreeable. And others connected to me as well."
That was why she had told them to break up. Like Benus's husband, Ellen trusted people easily. She was free. To the extent that it wouldn't be strange if a knife was plunged into her back at any moment.
— She saw her uncle in me. Said I resembled him.
Perhaps even death.
That's what those words meant. That must be why Benus had instilled perfection in Elaine.
She wanted Elaine to go in the opposite direction from Baltes. Nevertheless, the reason she left Ellen alone was probably because of Grand Duke Aratus. That Grand Duke wanted his daughter to be honest sometimes.
"Like a father who secretly lets her play and a mother who is strict about everything."
The parents' educational philosophies differed. Of course, Benus was a fake mother, but regardless.
That must be why Elaine from his past life said she was close but burdensome.
"Ellen resembles Baltes Serzila. But they're clearly different. Ellen was born with Innate Strength."
Harad said this while stroking the hair of the peacefully sleeping Ellen.
Arika, who had been listening with bated breath, showed surprise only in her expression. Benus's brow furrowed.
Only Grand Heir Elaine was born with Innate Strength.
"Did you approach her knowing this?"
"Yes."
Knowing that Ellen was Elaine. Harad nodded readily.
"This isn't simply sleeping. She's dreaming."
"What dream?"
"I can't tell you that."
Harad answered while tapping the chest where his heart was.
"However, what's certain is that the more she dreams, the stronger Ellen becomes."
"She was born promising."
"That speed has become even faster. If you're the real Intelligence Bureau Director, you already know."
Ellen, who was already a monster, was becoming even more monstrous. The Intelligence Bureau Director Benus would have compiled that fact.
"So from your perspective, it's a blessing. Ellen won't die."
Ellen was the same as Baltes Serzila but different. Her innate talent was. Harad was accelerating that talent.
"What do you know......"
Benus growled. Harad thought it was like seeing an angry Ellen.
"I know enough. Baltes Serzila died because he was weak."
The tip of a dagger he didn't know when she'd drawn nearly touched his eyeball. If his simplified projection had been even slightly slower, it would have pierced right through.
The heat emanating from her pitch-black eyes melted the dagger from the tip. Drip. Harad reached out and caught it. It was above Ellen's cheek.
"She aimed for the eye."
Because she had confirmed earlier when he attacked that he manifested magic through his eyes.
An attack worthy of an Intelligence Bureau Director. But it wasn't like Benus. She should have swung a fist, not a dagger.
Because she hadn't, it was blocked with just a simplified projection. Because calculation had entered into it. Not impulsive.
"As expected, Aura is tricky too."
Aura and Origin had similar aspects like this. Just as Harad's magic was limited to the sun, Benus's Aura only demonstrated true power when she was impulsive.
"She endures well, though."
Benus knew how to suppress her impulses. That was why Harad from his past life hadn't been attacked.
That was also why she had told Harad to break up. If she truly couldn't control herself, she wouldn't have said that—she would have killed him.
"Think of it as Grand Duke Aratus instead of Baltes Serzila. Do you think he would have died?"
The handle of the melted dagger crumpled. Truly fearsome grip strength.
But that was all. Benus neither attacked further nor opened her mouth. Because this was Serzila.
"......"
Eventually, Benus carelessly tossed the dagger on the floor and sat down facing him.
It was affirmation. Baltes Serzila didn't die because he was a fool, but because he was weak. At least, that's how it was understood in the North.
"Ellen will become stronger than even that Grand Duke Aratus. By my side."
If she was overwhelmingly strong, she wouldn't die no matter what happened to her.
Elaine from his past life was proof of that. Harad from his past life had died and then regressed, yet that Grand Duke was still alive.
"You speak of the future. Promises that are merely words have no effect."
She was right. Earlier, Benus had tried to show the sincerity of her apology by killing Ferrard.
"What would make you believe me?"
"If a situation arises where she might die, you die in her place."
"What kind of obvious thing to say......"
Harad reflexively answered immediately. Then he belatedly tilted his head. This too was just a verbal pledge.
"......Fucking cradle robber bastard."
But it seemed to work on Benus. She truly was a woman who had fallen head over heels for a man and ruined her family.
***
It was, so to speak, a test. It was also the heart of any common parent.
How far can you go for my daughter? Benus had been curious about that.
More than feasibility, it was a test where the plausible answer and the time it took for that answer to come out were important.
Harad had immediately answered that he would give his life in her place.
"Don't force anything on Elaine. She'll find it burdensome."
"That's trivial."
"Is there any reason to be deliberately burdensome? This woman won't die anyway."
"......"
Perhaps because of that, Benus became docile.
The answer was one thing, but there was basis for that answer.
Ellen before meeting Harad and Ellen after were different.
Ellen was changing rapidly. Her swordsmanship teacher Mores Fallaz doubted his own necessity, and even Grand Duke Aratus was satisfied.
Benus, as Intelligence Bureau Director, would know all about Ellen's changes.
"Ellen will like it."
"......I'll keep it in mind."
However, this was the most decisive factor. Whether a real daughter or adopted daughter, no mother wanted to be hated by her child.
The reason Benus had instilled perfection in Elaine was because Baltes Serzila had come to mind. Because she hoped Elaine wouldn't die like that husband.
"It would be better not to tell Ellen."
"Tell her what?"
"About what happened today."
Harad knew that Elaine and Ellen were the same person. And he wanted to hide that fact from Ellen.
"You intend to deceive my daughter to the very end?"
Benus immediately understood and furrowed her brow.
"Isn't that what we should do?"
"......"
Benus fell silent.
"That's right."
Harad nodded to himself.
"The Intelligence Bureau Director is Elaine's reins."
It was a thought he'd had before. Unlike what he'd known from his past life, Grand Duke Aratus was head over heels for Ellen. Yet somehow Elaine had grown up rigid.
When Grand Duke Aratus was head over heels, Benus must have instilled perfection in Elaine.
"Even though he was head over heels, the Grand Duke didn't stop it. There must be something more important."
It must be related to the Grand Duke raising Elaine as a boy. Because Ellen was Benus's daughter.
"As I thought. There's a reason her gender must be hidden."
"......"
"That's more important than anything. The more it's hidden, the safer she becomes."
There was a reason Elaine's being a woman must not be revealed.
"Is it the moon?"
Daughter and moon. Those were all Grand Duke Aratus cared about.
"That's right."
It was the correct answer. Benus's eyes were wide.
"......Slippery cradle robber bastard."
"I won't ask any more. I don't think I'll be able to hear it anyway."
Grand Duke Aratus was tight-lipped. Benus would be the same. Unless the Grand Duke permitted it, there was no way to hear.
"As I thought, it would be better to keep it secret from Ellen."
"You're telling me to deceive my own daughter?"
Benus felt repulsion.
"Isn't she His Grace the Grand Duke's daughter?"
"......"
"It seems easier than the family education you've done so far."
"Fucking bastard."
Benus cursed. Grand Duke Aratus didn't curse.
He had wondered where Ellen learned to curse.
"She learned all the bad things."
Parents were mirrors for their children. No matter how perfect the family education, there was nothing to be done about speech patterns being passed on.
"She's a woman who stands out no matter what she does."
Harad stroked Ellen's head. Fuck. Ellen cursed in her sleep.
"......"
Benus couldn't deny it.
Ellen always stood out. She was that kind of woman.
If she found out about this, Ellen would act as Ellen even when she was Elaine around Harad. The more she did so, the greater the possibility of being exposed.
"If I do it alone, she won't believe it, but if you and Arika help, she'll believe it."
Ellen already suspected Harad. But here were three people smarter than Ellen. They should be able to somehow crush that suspicion.
"Fine."
How much time had passed? Benus nodded.
"There's a condition."
"Say as many as you like."
"You, was your speech like this at first too?"
Then Benus pointed out his manner of speech. Harad nodded calmly.
"It was."
"......A bastard for whom lying is as natural as breathing. I cannot permit marriage."
He hadn't even thought that far. Harad nodded readily.
"As you wish."
"You bastard."
For some reason, Benus got angry.