No matter what

Taking a sip of the tea I had been served, I took a look around the room he had led me to. It was an incredibly humble-looking locale, with just a small table and a couple of armchairs, with no adornments or decorations on the wall.

In the corner of the room was a small fireplace, and next to it a small collection of liqueur and spirits on a shelf.

"Hmm? Do you like it? This is my personal room for when I need to forget about my duties as a king for a while."

At this point, the man in front of me had completely shed the aura of a ruler and now looked a lot more like just Sarah's father.

Still, I didn't want to disrespect him, "It's quite nice, my liege."

"Please stop. There's no need to be so stiff. Just talk to me as if I was the father of Sarah."

Although he had put up his hand and smiled gently while telling me to relax, his face suddenly changed into a frown.

"Actually... Don't talk to me as if I was Sarah's father, but you can talk casually nonetheless."

Even though I wanted to tell him that I have no intentions of dating his daughter, I kept my mouth shut. It could only make the situation worse, after all.

Putting his cup of tea down, the middle-aged man finally started our conversation for real.

"Now, excuse me for bringing you here when you must be incredibly exhausted after all that happened. Sadly, this was the only time I had to talk to you in a long time."

Something was up. There was no way that the king would use a part of his invaluable time to speak to me if it wasn't something incredibly significant.

"It's fine. Though I have to ask, why am I here?"

If he wanted me to act casually, I was not one to say no.

Letting out a big smile, he seemed amused by my sudden change in attitude, "Haha! Good, it's good that you are comfortable! Now, the reason why I summoned you is simple. I know my daughter is interested in you, so I want to judge your character. So I want to ask you a couple of questions."

'Bullshit!'

He continued spouting absurd words, completely baffling me as it looked like he honestly thought I would believe him.

"Go ahead, ask away."

I didn't know how, but there was no doubt in my mind that he would have some way of knowing if I lied or not. Therefore my mind quickly prepared suitable half-truths for most questions that could be relevant.

"Well then. First of all, what do you think of my daughter?"

"Excuse me?!"

I wasn't ready for his question at all. Of all the things I thought he might ask, this was not one of them.

Not letting himself get riled up, he calmly repeated the question, "I asked, what do you think of my daughter?"

'Is he trying to find out if I'm planning on just using her for my benefit?'

If he was able to tell if I was lying, this question wasn't completely irrelevant. In fact, even though it was well disguised, it was a pretty efficient question to set the tone.

"I like your daughter. I think I like her more than just a friend, but I have no plans on dating her or doing something indecent with her."

Telling him the complete truth, I hoped that this would make the rest of the conversation a bit easier.

"I see. But you are planning on continuing to be around her, as a friend?"

"Yes."

"Then I think it's suitable for me to continue to ask you the rest of the questions I have. So, I know that you are a commoner, but could you tell me about your childhood?"

As this body of mine never had a childhood, this question was simple to answer truthfully, "Unfortunately, I don't remember anything about my childhood."

Knowing that the king was now put in a position where it would be in extremely bad taste to force me to expand on my answer, I figured that he would let it go.

His eyes turned a bit sad when he heard my answer, "My condolences, I didn't know about that. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable with my question."

Waving my hand while faking a subtly sad smile, I made sure that he would move on, "It's okay. It doesn't matter to me. After all, why should I care if I can't even remember?"

And like this, his questions continued, ranging from what my ambitions were, to how I felt about the academy to various other topics.

After about an hour, we were finally done, and I got to return to the academy.

****

[George's Pov]

"So? What were the results?"

My trusted advisor stepped out from the hidden room behind the fireplace, wearing an incredibly complicated expression and his signature gray robe.

"It was... interesting, my liege."

"Sit down and tell me."

Walking with slow but steady steps, he sat down with impeccable form, like he always did, in front of me.

"First of all, he didn't tell a single lie during the entirety of your conversation."

His words made my head spin in confusion, what kind of human would not tell a single lie during an hour-long conversation with a king?

There was bound to have been something where he didn't feel comfortable in telling me the truth, but my advisors [Eye of Truth] had told me differently.

"Did he use some kind of device to cover up his lies? Maybe it's connected to the fact that his mana signature is hidden."

Shaking his head, he dismissed my conclusion, "There was not a single artifact or item on his body except for the smartwatch on his wrist. And that was a normal one they distribute to every student at Ainu."

"Haaa... Then there's something up with him, after all. Could you get a read on his heart?"

Another interesting ability of Sir. Fernsby's Manual was that he could get a pretty clear understanding of a person's character and ambitions by scanning their hearts.

However, once again I was baffled by the answer, and I could feel my heart sink when I listened to his words.

"I did. But there was something very strange about the boy. It was as if his heart was fragmented... no... it was as if he wasn't quite a person? It's hard to explain. The best guess I have is that someone has experimented and altered his soul, most likely to defend him against mental intrusions on his mind. This could also be the reason why I felt that everything he said was the truth."

Closing my eyes, I prepared myself to ask the question I didn't want to ask.

"What are the chances of him being part of a hidden family? And how big is the possibility that he could be an heir to the Mare house?"

Noticing my distress, the tone of Sir. Fernsby softened a bit, not wanting to upset me even more.

"Unfortunately, I can't see a possibility for him not to be part of a hidden family. And about him being the heir to the Mare family, I would want to recognize that risk as high. It would make sense for that family to be able to tamper with his mind to this extent."

In the end, it had come to this. No matter what the truth was, there was only one reasonable action for me to take.

"Please prepare to get rid of him. I want there to be no doubts that when we publicly execute him, my people will think that we are acting on a basis of justice."

"Will do, my liege."

Waiting until my advisor had left me alone, I finally let all the accumulated stress come out of its cage.

This day had been nothing but torment, having been wanting nothing more than going to see how my precious daughter was faring.

However, the situation at their excursion had only cemented the fact that I needed to be more proactive, to make sure things didn't get out of hand. As long as Sarah was safe, I could not excuse myself from my duties.

James was a part of this. On the off-chance that he was a survivor of the Mare family and had inherited their Manual, I couldn't let him live.

Even more, I had to make sure that his sacrifice served as great a purpose as possible, thereby the need for a public execution.

The hidden houses were the biggest obstruction to me uniting Mensch, so I had to find a way to either get rid of them or make them think it would be advantageous to follow me.

If I could show them that not even the heir of the most infamous family, there was a large chance that it might deter them from standing in my way.

Something that was needed for me to strengthen the army before the demons arrive.

Kurat had already shown signs of demons being present, and only a fool would dare to hope that they would stay there.

For hundreds of years, the cycle had continued, with demons invading and the different races of Tella having to repel their advances.

This time, things still hadn't changed, and the duty of a ruler hadn't either.

'I will not be the king who leads my people to their doom... No matter what I have to do...'