Fiefdom Affairs

The messenger's brain took a moment to pause and process the current situation—something he overlooked in his brief moment of anger.

The entire plot was built on the foundation of a simple criterion; the death of the three brothers.

Not one or two, but the three of them!

An explosion echoed in his head!

If all three sons were dead, no one would bother to pursue the matter! However, one of them is still alive! Anyone with a brain would think of the messenger's actions as forcefully usurping power from the baron family and inadvertently linking him to the assassination plot at this rate.

Although everyone knew this must be the case, no one was stupid enough to point fingers at a count.

That would do them no good—they might slight the reputation of the count and trigger some public unrest, but so what?

At the end of the day, he would retain his position as the count and you would become that unfortunate subject who offended their lord.

Still, reputation was far too valuable of a commodity and the count would still cherish it.

The messenger's expression turned pale in an instant, stammering away with his words, "I'll hurriedly inform the lord count of this audacity! We have thought this to be an unfortunate illness, who would dare think someone actually plotted to assassinate nobility under the roof of their own houses?"

Kevin silently gave this man a thumbs up in his heart.

So, they decided to put the matter under the rug by slapping a public declaration of sudden illness? If Kevin wasn't present, this would have definitely worked smoothly.

Now however, the messenger was telling everyone in the room to keep to the pretense of an illness while the count would take a step back and not pressure the Rögger family anymore.

Kevin would petition the count to investigate while the count would temporarily back off.

The old steward was a shrewd man and instantly understood—thinking that his young lord wasn't very bright and about to explain in a whisper, he saw Kevin nod his head with a faint smile.

"I could have been wrong as well, how would I differentiate between illnesses? That's something for the physician to do, right?" Kevin looked over at the physician who seemed out of it for a while now, muttering 'impossible' under his breath.

Even now, his eyes seemed slack as though he didn't hear anything, eliciting a shake of the head from Kevin, followed by a sigh.

'Did his intelligence awaken as well?' The steward wondered to himself, feeling flabbergasted. Very quickly, everyone said a few polite words and started leaving the meeting hall and by extension, the baron's castle.

When everyone except for the steward was gone, Kevin sighed again as he stood up, stretching.

"Let's talk in the study room," remarked Kevin in a manner out of the second young master's characteristics—at least from the steward's perspective.

So much so that the steward was left nodding his head in a daze even moments after Kevin left the meeting hall.

…

Kevin waited in his father's study room while thinking about many things, first of them was a question—where did mother go?

Ever since the death of the father, the mother seemed to have gone missing from the house—arguably as a rebound of excessive grief, but it had already been this long and they haven't heard from her.

Then again, the second son wasn't very particular about these matters and according to the memories, the mother didn't spend much time with them and on the contrary, most of her time was spent taking care of Lexia.

Although the memories were in shambles whenever it concerned that woman; Laura. Kevin had a weird feeling that all of this was connected.

'Don't tell me Laura cuckolded Issac with the count? A love triangle maybe?' Kevin had a weird expression.

Using women—honey traps, was a very practical way to target someone mentally in a world where physical violence was restricted, especially in modern society.

It was natural for Kevin's thoughts to wander that way.

Knock! Knock!

"You may come in," Kevin tossed the conundrum of Issac, Laura, and the count aside for now, lumping his fists together on the surface of his father's desk while he sank into silence.

Of course, that was after he permitted entry to the person outside.

The door gently creaked open. Slowly, the head steward entered the room while folding his right arm around a stack of documents—so few documents there were, it surprised Kevin.

This was far too little paperwork if one considered the scale of a baron's fiefdom, no?

"The family hadn't been doing that great in recent years, young lord…" As though noticing the surprise in Kevin's eyes, the head steward coughed awkwardly and explained as best he could.

"I understand," responded Kevin with a glimmer in his eyes, sharply dropping his eyebrows into a tight frown. "How were things between father and mother?"

"Glad that you understand—"

Cough! Cough! Cough!

The head steward almost fell off the chair he was supposed to sit on with practiced ease, the sudden question didn't shake only his mind and heart, it even transmitted to his old hands and thrust the chair off balance, dropping it to the ground with a thud.

Kevin raised his eyebrows, amused.

"I wouldn't dare comment on the madam and the lord—forgive me, young lord," the head steward struggled to catch his breath and fix his attire and beard, breathing heavily. "Please don't shock this old man too much, young lord."

Try to conceal it all he might, Kevin caught a trace of pity in the old steward's eyes, which was enough for him to draw some conjectures for the foreseeable future.

A missing mother…

An incompetent father…

A joke of a fiefdom…

Kevin thought about these and felt an incoming headache, hands running through his short black hair till it was messier than ever, a sigh of lamentation escaping his lips.

"Alright then—tell me about our business, if we had any; our agricultural products; if we had any; our private army and troops; if we had any, and anything that could draw the attention of the count that we might have."

Kevin looked outside the study window that peered over the hilltop where the castle was built, displaying a wide view of Riverside Town below and the northern river that defined the borders of the two kingdoms.

Snow that exceeded divine grace and tread on the lines of divine retribution—almost out to bury everyone alive, coated everything in sight a silent white.

Despite the sturdy windows, one can hear the windowsill crying and rattling away under the assault of the evening wind—a weather of peace in war yet no less destructive to the common folk, if not even more.

"There isn't much to talk about when it comes to the positives of our situation, young lord," said the head steward, collecting himself by habitually kneading his forehead. "Let us start with…"

…

Only when the moon hung high in the sky did Kevin leave his father's study, expression a bit heavy. Bad doesn't even stand close to describing the current situation of the family.

The only positive intel was the existence of a coal mine. During winter, coal is a very precious commodity.

On the flip side, they don't have workers to mine, produce, and thereafter sell the coal—this was a horrible joke to stomach.

Kevin's eyebrows were locked from the study to his bedroom.

So occupied he was—he didn't notice the small bulge underneath the blankets of his single-person bed.

Only when he changed into his pajamas and slid underneath the covers did he gasp in shock and sat up, not knowing how to react to that bundle of cuteness curled up next to him.

Lexia was sleeping somewhat peacefully while hugging two shirts of different sizes that clearly weren't his—he didn't need supercomputing intelligence to figure out who they belonged to.

"What a pitiful child," sighed Kevin, so exhausted she was, she didn't even notice the commotion. "Whatever, sleep well…"

He then returned underneath the cover, turning his back to face her while he slept.

Just as he did so, Lexia seemed to instinctively draw closer to his body, huddled against his back.

Good night.