novelraw Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Chapter 54
I had no idea what was going on.
The Lord of Haken’s attitude was also somewhat strange.
It was certain that he intended to leave Irene in my care, but it was true that his tone and attitude were odd.
Did something really happen in Haken?
Something that made it impossible for him not to send Irene away.
And the details of the incident were conveyed to me sooner than expected.
“That, Sir Irene is really angry.”
“Hm?”
“You remember last time, don’t you? That her second brother or whoever tried to stick some weird punk onto her.”
“Right, that’s true. That’s why Sir Irene was really displeased.”
“This time, it seems the Lord of Haken pushed quite hard. He intended to force the marriage without even asking for Sir Irene’s opinion.”
“What? No, why?”
After finishing the call with the Lord of Haken, I tilted my head in confusion when Rudick butted in as if he knew something.
Apparently, the Lord of Haken forced Irene into a marriage she didn’t want, and Irene, rebelling against it, stormed out of the territory.
Considering her personality, if something like that had happened, she would have definitely gritted her teeth and run out.
‘That makes sense. But in this situation, shouldn’t he be more desperate?’
If such a thing had happened, it would be normal for him to demand that I return Irene immediately.
But instead, the Lord of Haken asked me to take care of her in Johnson Territory.
He had judged that it would be better for her to be here than in Haken, and if even the Lord of Haken was willing to back down that far, then her fury must have been truly immense.
But how on earth did Rudick know about all this?
“You, what’s this? How do you know Haken’s news so well?”
“Ah, that’s…”
“Spit it out right now. Don’t roll your eyes.”
“What wrong did I even do? I just talked about this and that with Celine.”
“With Lady Celine? No, how?”
“You know, the Mana Communicator. Celine gave it to me before she left.”
“…So you’re telling me, you and Lady Celine have been enjoying phone dates through the Mana Communicator?”
“Ehem. I only accepted what was given to me.”
It was truly ridiculous.
How much affection had they built in that short time that she even gave him that precious Mana Communicator?
“No, wait. That can’t be right. No matter how generous Lady Celine is, there’s no way she could hand over a Mana Communicator so easily. That’s a full-blown strategic resource.”
“Well, technically, it was Sir Irene who gave it. Celine was just the one who made the calls.”
“Sir Irene?”
—Ohho~ I see. Truly an extraordinary female.
No way. Did this woman plan from the beginning to return to Johnson Territory?
Otherwise, why would she give Rudick a Mana Communicator and keep in contact?
“Hey, Rudick. Be honest. Did you know that Sir Irene was planning to return here?”
“I heard it from Celine. Once she entered Johnson Territory this time, she wouldn’t return to Haken.”
“…You really knew? Then you should’ve at least told me.”
“What would’ve changed if I did? You would’ve just gone running to the Lord of Haken to block it. Then both Sir Irene and Celine would’ve been completely out of the picture.”
“Ha, man. Didn’t I tell you before? That Sir Irene entering our territory might cause problems for us.”
“So, it’s your judgment to make. Who else has a say?”
“No, but isn’t it much easier to block someone before they even depart rather than sending them back after they’ve already arrived?”
“That’s your business to deal with. For me, I’d much rather see Celine return. Why would I stop that?”
—A foolish question answered wisely. Big muscular male, not bad.
Wait, is it really okay for him to let his personal feelings affect territory matters this much?
He was so brazen about it that I found myself at a loss for words.
Well, to be fair, he had always been on the pro-Irene side.
He even babbled nonsense about her becoming my second wife and his sister-in-law once.
But now that Lady Celine was added to the mix, his no-hope level seemed to have upgraded another notch.
What on earth was I supposed to do with this guy?
“And this time, it’s also good news for you, brother. Sir Irene is bringing scholars with her. People like the Enchanters you’ve been talking about. They plan to settle down here in our territory.”
“What? She’s bringing Enchanters? No, I mean, it makes sense they’re coming, that’s part of the contract. But settle down?”
“That part, I don’t know. But what’s certain is that in the procession entering Johnson this time, there will be Enchanters. Celine said it, so it must be true, right?”
Now the story was taking a different turn.
Not a dispatch, but permanent settlement?
If such valuable specialists—exactly the type the territory needed most—were coming, how could I possibly refuse?
“Ah, so that’s why the Lord of Haken was like that. Because it’d be hard for me to reject.”
Through the trade conditions, the Lord of Haken must have realized that I was desperately searching for magical engineers.
So, he must have concluded that I wouldn’t refuse Irene’s joining the territory.
But still, this woman had some skill.
How had she managed to bring magical engineers all the way out to this remote land?
“On top of that, it seems Sir Irene is bringing quite a number of people along.”
“What? Not just the knight order and the Enchanters?”
“Well, do you think those people don’t have families? They’re coming to settle down completely. And it seems Sir Irene also has her own followers.”
“How many?”
“Mm, about a thousand or so?”
“…That’s not just ‘some,’ is it?”
This was no trivial matter.
This wasn’t just Irene temporarily taking refuge here.
It might be full settlement.
This woman, Irene, was she planning to abandon Haken altogether?
“But for something like that, the Lord of Haken still acted as if he was only leaving her temporarily in our care.”
Things were taking a serious turn.
If I wasn’t careful, I might get caught in the crossfire.
“I’ll have to hear what others have to say about this.”
If her true intention wasn’t just fleeing but complete settlement, this wasn’t a matter I could decide alone.
An emergency meeting was held, and the people of the territory gathered in the conference room.
Knight Commander Rudick, Butler Harold, Limond, and even Luxa, the Elder of the Rabbit Tribe.
Most of the representatives of each group were present.
Since Peter the alchemist and Dr. Nickel were still focused on the Suppository Potions, we could consider everyone else gathered.
The agenda of the meeting: Irene’s settlement in Johnson Territory.
The Lord of Haken’s plans and Irene’s plans looked drastically different, and that was our dilemma.
What stance should we take?
The first to speak was Rudick.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Hey, enough. You’re about to start spouting nonsense again about making her the second sister-in-law, aren’t you?”
“Why is that nonsense? What better solution could there be?”
“Ha, and how is that a solution?”
“Listen here. At this point, it’s already certain that we’ll have deep ties with Haken Territory, isn’t it? So we should just make Sir Irene one of Johnson Territory’s people. If we can’t avoid it, we should at least get something out of it.”
No, the very idea of me taking Irene as my wife didn’t make any sense.
I had said it over and over again, but that guy still didn’t understand me at all.
Or was it that he didn’t even intend to understand?
It really seemed like he wasn’t in his right mind.
“A wife, huh. That could work as a method. If it becomes blood ties, then pressuring us from Haken would be awkward. The optics wouldn’t be good. And the new residents following Sir Irene to settle in Johnson Territory would also feel stability and belonging.”
Butler Harold was the first to nod.
From the perspective of territorial stability, this was indeed quite a decent idea.
“But you said second sister-in-law?”
“Leisha is the first, Sir Irene is the second. There’s order in everything, even drinking cold water.”
“Heh, Leisha as the first? That might not be so bad.”
“No, seriously, what on earth are you guys even saying?”
Limond was grinning ear to ear at the mention of Leisha being the first.
What was with this fool?
Did he not even consider that he might get beaten up by Leisha for this?
—Remarkable. To think this big muscle male has such persuasive words.
The mood was gradually falling under Rudick’s sister-in-law-for-everything theory.
No, why were they even looking so intrigued?
It wasn’t brainwashing, seriously.
I cut it off before more nonsense piled up.
“Do you think marriage is a joke? Drop the ridiculous talk.”
We first had to figure out if such a thing was even possible, but since they wouldn’t listen to me no matter what on that front, I had to redirect the conversation.
I just made it clear it wasn’t going to happen.
Did I really need to explain this much?
To think all my close aides were like this—I could only resent the heavens.
Especially Butler Harold being tempted by such an idea was truly shocking.
“For now, we’ll meet Sir Irene first and then decide.”
No matter how many plans we made now, the result depended on Irene’s stance, so we decided to wait with only a rough framework.
‘Who knows what will happen, but since the Diary is quiet, it seems no major disaster will come out of this.’
—Ahh, Lord Bestia.
If anything, it was likely cheering for Irene’s settlement in Johnson Territory.
Just like that rabbit fellow over there.
This was truly an abnormal situation.
If anything needed normalization, it was this.
Irene arrived in Johnson Territory the very next day after I was contacted by the Lord of Haken.
Seeing that only Irene and five knights of the Crimson Comet had arrived, she must have split her party and rushed here first.
She must have hurried like this to show up before I could make any definite judgment after being contacted by the Lord of Haken, overwhelming me and snatching what she wanted(?).
She was a more clever woman than I had expected.
“I’ve arrived, Lord Iron.”
“…Yes, Sir Irene. I’ve heard the rough story from the Lord of Haken.”
“Hmph, I bet he left out all his own faults and only told you strange things.”
“I already heard the general story from Rudick, so I doubt there’ll be any misunderstanding on my end.”
“Eh? Did Celine unni even tell him about that? Just what was this unni doing with the communicator I lent her for dating, anyway?”
…Wait, was that really for dating?
I truly couldn’t figure her out.
Irene was diligent and upright in character, but at times like this, she seemed quite sharp in the art of maneuvering. Yet sometimes she would show such clumsy sides that it was hard to judge what to make of her.
Now that I thought about it, even back when she visited before, she completely fell for the Three-Horned Mountain Goat and went all silly(?) over it.
‘Honestly, I let my guard down.’
Who would’ve thought she was plotting like this behind the scenes(?).
This time, I had to stay on guard and meet Irene with renewed determination.
If it truly turned out to be unacceptable, I would have to send her back to Haken Territory no matter what.
“The tea has a nice fragrance.”
“It’s herbs harvested from the Monster Mountains.”
“I see.”
After leading Irene into the manor’s conference room, we had tea time.
I wanted to hear her honest thoughts, so it was just the two of us.
But it wasn’t easy.
Our prediction that she must have been truly furious was spot-on.
The moment I broached the subject, her bottled-up resentment burst out, and she began venting everything.
“Ha, it was absurd from the start. To marry the man my second brother stuck onto me? What is Father even planning to do about succession?”
“I see.”
“It’s all because of Father. He should’ve cut it off from the beginning. Why strengthen the side of the second wife when he already chose an heir? He should’ve nailed it so no other thoughts could arise, or if not, driven them out. At this rate, he’s going to ruin the territory.”
“Since it’s family, I suppose it isn’t easy for the Lord of Haken to make a cold judgment.”
“He was so cold with the female knights, but when it comes to his son, he’s too soft. That’s what disappointed me most.”
“That, I agree, was clearly the Lord of Haken’s mistake.”
After listening to her complaints for about thirty minutes, my head was spinning.
From recent events to her childhood memories, it all came pouring out nonstop—truly astounding memory.
With a memory like that, how could she ever forget me?
But enough with the TMI.
It was time to finally have a serious talk.