This is about family and matchmaking

28 June 422

A single but loud thud cemented the aftermath of an incredibly satisfying beating, of which I was glad to have initiated, conduced and then concluded.

Biehn Argyle was unconscious by the time I was done, he was now sitting by the ground with his back slumping on the side of his desk while his head, now starting to sport some bruises, was slightly turned in a display of forced relax.

I was a little bit winded by the quick intervention, my brain trying to recollect proper thoughts as I was brought back to the reality of things and... I still had so much to do in this little possibility offered by the 'Classic Villain' moment.

Seriously, the man could have easily planned some contingency instead of trying his way for some partly-insane monologue, but no, he had to play the 'superiority' card and get pummeled by an 'unexpected element'.

And I had all reasons to give him some 'kind words' about messing with natural laws because he was dumb enough to kill his wife in a bout of rage.

Like, what should have I done? Let him recover and restrain me so that I could have become another hostage to force Ferris to resurrect 'his mother'?

My hands were still shaking, knuckles sore and starting to redden up as the ugly mug of this corrupt noble wasn't certainly a soft thing to punch so vehemently, but I still walked around the desk and started to rummage in the various drawers on it.

Humming quietly, I continued to search for a certain scroll, some old paper that might or might not be glowing eerily and murderously within the furniture and dignify its horrible usage.

The Immortal King's Sacrament was something that worked pretty much like the Edo Tensei from Naruto, but instead of sacrificing people... to bring dead people back to live, the cost for such a terrible spell was the quality of the energy used in the incantation itself.

The House of Argyle is known for its high Water-Affinity, a special rarity that had long started to decay after decades of proper training and study, enough to bring this situation to happen... so badly.

Biehn was correct in seeking Ferris for his prodigious grasp of the affinity, something far better than the man could ever achieve in little time and with so many limitations imposed by his aristocratic life, as the young Knight did have a 'little' chance of actually make things work as per the fragmented incantation.

Why so little? Why not at its fullest since Felix currently had the highest Water-Affinity in the whole kingdom?

Well, the issue lingered within a small detail that Biehn had blatantly ignored about the paper he had safely kept around and away from dangerous individuals.

The Sacrament was not complete.

Years of being either forgotten or misused saw the integrity of the spell mostly lost for a reason or another, leaving just a meek replacement that couldn't be really used for anything but create zombies out of dead corpses.

No matter the user of the magical concept, the result would still be the same, if not worse considering what happened in Canon when Felix used it on his mother's corpse.

Just as I found a certain tied-up scroll put at the end of the lowest drawer on the left, I tensed up at the noise of a pair of hands slamming on the desk and I was soon backed away from the furniture in a moment of quick panic.

My wide eyes looked up to the responsible of this little 'prank', my mind swift in reminding me that Biehn had been far too much beaten to have recovered so quickly and... I stared up at a pair of furious yellow eyes fixed on my own face.

"Johnyah, what do you mean with 'unfaithful'!?" Felix demanded with a loud voice, his face contorted in a mix of anger, confusion and... a certain degree of panic.

I blinked at this unexpected development, suddenly realizing that the cat-eared young man did ask me something after I was done with beating his abusive father, his voice quite quiet at first before it escalated to this crescendo of confused anger over the matter.

I did drop some 'truth bomb' that were half-proclaimed and left much unsaid, I could have been a little more subtle if not a little more 'expressive' of the matter but... considering the current state of the old maid now staring in shock at me, I could say that I did avoid her getting a higher chance of having a heart-attack.

I slowly got up from the ground, dusting myself as I continued to grasp at the closed paper.

"What do you know of your parents' situation before you were born Felix?" I asked calmly and softly, slowly approaching the slightly-furious demi-human, Felix was now looking more confused now than irritated which prompted me to continue. "Did Lady Karsten ever tell you about the issue they had over their early insuccess of producing an heir?"

His eyes widened a little. "S-She did but- but that couldn't seriously mean that he could have-"

Before he could finish, I turned to the woman.

"Ms. Regret, can you please approach the desk and take a seat?" I requested kindly, trying my best to not have her jump at my words. "I think it's the best Felix knows a little more about the real reason behind the hate from both Count and Countess Argyle."

The maid blinked, her posture easing just a little and then... she spoke.

"He doesn't need to know this, milord," She said with a pleading tone, something that got me actually pausing as... she did remind me of my own mother. The almost-begging... was quite dreadful to endure without showing any flinch. "Please."

I sighed, tiredly so as I glanced at the confused look coming from Felix. "Ferris, please tie Count Argyle. We don't need him jumping us for... this much-needed talk."

His cat-ears twitched suspiciously at the request, but he slowly started to comply while the woman took a step forward. "M-Milord-"

"Hannah," I briefly interrupted with a certain uneasiness, bringing her to drop her renewed plea by bringing her name up.

She tensed up again, but this time it was mere surprise than anything that would induce unrequited shock.

"While I understand the nature of your request and the reasons driving you to keep this away from him, I hope you can forgive me for denying you this much. He needs to know as it's his right... as your son."

The demi-human had just finished tying up the unconscious noble when he caught this last bit of my reply, tensing up as he looked back at the maid.

The tired woman glanced back, a nervous look on her face as she slowly nodded and walked to take a seat by the chair I gestured her.

Felix's surprise got him pausing for more than a few seconds, but he too got seated by the remaining chair.

"Do you wish to be the one to tell me or... I can try to give a summarized version," I tried to ease up her concerns, hoping to not have to deal with any unexpected escalations in this talk.

Meanwhile, the scroll with the spell had been set on the desk, a little rune circle appearing as I commenced a little incantation to purge the content paper safely and without causing any fire to erupt in the mansion.

It was the slowest but safest route to take right now as I dealt with... family drama.

Hannah sighed and nodded before... starting to explain the entirety of the situation.

"Lord Argyle was desperate to gain an heir, someone to pass on his titles before Lord Karsten could have decided to remove him the control of these lands for lacking a successor to pass those on," The maid narrated with a tense voice. "Lady Argyle was born a frail lady and didn't offer the opportunity to pursue a... proper attempt to secure a child."

I blinked, keeping silent as the woman continued with her story and I would rarely pause from my staring to take a look at Felix and his reaction to the tale.

He still looked confused, but some realization was starting to appear on his feminine face.

I wonder if he had already noticed or not that he looked quite similar to his mother.

"Time was of major importance for Lord Argyle and with his wife proving to be incapable of providing him of an heir, he decided to interest himself on taking on a... mistress," Her tone started to feel twitching, close to draw a sob but... still managing to keep herself from stopping with her story. "Many were selected but... I was picked for my unique affinity with the Water element and in the end I was his mistress for twelve months."

There was some silence, Hannah brought her right sleeve up to her face as she rubbed it by her eyes.

"Why," Felix softly commented, his voice feeling quite... floored by what he had just listened to. "Why didn't you help me- even once-"

"My lord had strictly forbidden for me to even approach you for too long," The maid replied with an uneasy sigh. "He would give the most horrible of threats, promising my own demise and... yours, if I didn't abide by his demands."

The cat-eared knight slowly nodded at her words, some tears already forming by the edges of his eyes. "B-But why- why wouldn't he tell me?" This time he glanced at me. "W-Why?"

I looked down at the desk just for a moment and then... I decided to intervene.

"While having a demi-human wasn't truly a stain to begin with, having an illegitimate child with another woman is considered as one of the most heinous child for nobility," I answered him with a heavy heart. "If words got out, somehow, that you were not the son of both the Count and his wife, your 'father' would have lost much more than just his lands."

"This is- this is so unfair!" The dams broke as his hands slammed again on the desk. "Why did he have to ruin my life- why this much!?" He demanded with a sob or two, his temporary ire retracted into a quiet moment of crying and... much to my surprise the maid moved carefully to approach him.

He did notice her actions, but he let her come closer and... engulf him in a quiet embrace.

"I'm so sorry." A sob erupted from the woman as the two basked in the quiet scene allowed by the little office.

I decided to not disturb them, my eyes moving away from the mother-son scene to look at the scroll, now a little speck remaining as it was decimated by the light-blue flame originated by the circle that carefully destroyed it.

I blinked by the time the circle disappeared and decided to glance by the window behind the desk, only to see numerous corpses collapsing at once now that the spell was dissolved.

I sighed happily at the development, now preparing to deal with quite the interesting aftermath as this double problem was solved and I could finally meet Crusch Karst-

Just as I turned back towards the two, the door slammed open as a certain blond-haired moron popped in with something in his hands. "Biehn Argyle, you tried to kidnap my friends and- TAKE THIS!"

There are many things that I wasn't expecting from this world and its inhabitants, one of those was Fourier yanking a shoe right below my belt with the mistaken idea that I was the big bad guy.

Now imagine this little scene, with my entire frame collapsing in utter agonizing in pain while the same 'certain blond-haired prince' noticed the epic miscalculation once he caught sight of the still-unconscious Count Argyle away from the 'target' and that 'I' was missing from the scene.

The numerous 'sorry' didn't manage to have him survive the chance of being given a 'kind and honest' talk about NOT breaching-and-clearing without a clear idea of what was happening in the room that needed the breaching.

With Reinhard and Julius deciding to stand by the outside section of the carriage while also keeping an eye to the better-tied-down Count Argyle, the quiet time made by the peaceful return to the capital was mostly dominated by a simple topic, or rather green-haired individual, to which I was given the chance to make an acquaintance with.

Crusch Karsten was much more different that I had initially thought her to be.

Despite being two years younger than her canon self and having to not deal with Fourier's unexpected passing, the Valkyrie proved to be quite the complex individual to face and talk to during this initial contact.

It wasn't that I found her presence negative in any way, shape or form, but I couldn't help but feel quite unsure how to deal with someone with her slightly-different personality compared to what I was more 'accustomed to'.

Not only was she a polite individual with an undeniable degree of intelligence, far more than the show would dignify to her, but she was incredibly less serious and collected than how she had looked back during the Capital Arc of the show.

There was none of the overly-pragmatic thinking that made her a difficult character for Subaru to befriend and seek help from, her 'Lion King' disposition far more diluted without our mutual friend's dying because of some curse and that made her... quite an enigmatic individual to understand and properly talk to.

It didn't help that she instantly started to inquire about what had happened back in that office, about the development with Felix and... me.

The first two topics were fairly easy to deal with as I bluntly but politely described those moments with the help of the cat-eared boy and his mother.

The woman had joined with us inside the carriage, but her next disposition after her 'dimissions' proved to be quite difficult to settle with, especially with the various variables to take into account.

The Royal Castle would have never accepted a now-criminal's former servant and the Karsten mansion was already filled with people working for the family so... the last proposal was actually one that was born out of the sudden issue at hand.

Since I had been struggling to find someone to properly take care of Fritz and Hans back home, I thought back at the irony that it would be to hire the woman as the caretaker of the two demi-humans and... it had clicked perfectly in a more realistic point of view.

Not only was she experienced with taking care for a noble's mansion, but she would also find some little chance of redemption in the form of taking care of the two children.

I had explained the situation to both her and her son, Felix surprisingly unsure about the matter as he had just found his 'remaining parent' and he was quite unwilling to part with her, even though it was for her own good.

Hannah gave it a serious thought, asking more about the limits, the rights and the duties that the job would entail and, much to my inner relief, she accepted with a polite smile.

With what had happened inside that office fully narrated to the rest of the group, Crusch decided to move the focus of the discussion to something that had sparked her curiosity, a detail I had completely forgotten to have given to Fourier weeks ago.

A curiously-interesting conversation ensued...

"So you are not part of the nobility from where you are from, Mayor Bukharin?" The young woman asked with some surprise dripping from her words, just enough to cause me to blink at her.

"That's correct, Lady Karsten," I replied, thinking that it was just a little declination without much of a deepening planned.

I was immensely wrong.

"Yet you are well-educated," Crusch pointed out, careful to not overstep with her own curiosity. "Your capacity as a Mayor having been displayed well in handling Erindor in the last few weeks."

I hummed. "I guess you are implicating a little question here, Lady Karsten," I said with a mindful tone. "I suppose you are referring to the fact I gained some education despite my upbringing."

Her eyes showed some minor uneasiness. "I don't wish to sound too offensive about-"

"There is no need to apologize," I interjected quietly, a little smile on my face. "And to answer your question, I can only say that the society in which I was born in allowed everyone to take on educational paths."

"But wouldn't education warrant some considerable funds?" Felix piped in with a curious look on his face.

"Not truly," I commented patiently, slowly coming to realize once more that this world had yet to experience any of the education-related reforms and that there was no such thing as proper 'social mobility'. "The situation is fairly complicated since there are two different kind of schools."

"Two different... kind?" Crusch asked slowly, blinking at the little details offered. "Could you please elaborate?"

"Well, there are 'Public Schools', which are sanctioned by the government, and 'Private Schools' that are sanctioned by the parents of the children sent to study there."

"But why?" Fourier asked confusedly and confused.

Still, I managed to understand the issue behind understanding this concept and I continued to talk.

"With the expansion of society, with its evolution, new kind of jobs are born to compensate with the new developments," I replied to him with a small smile. "Those new jobs can't be taught by parents to their children, the intricacies being even new to the parents themselves. Thus-"

"Schools are created to... allow the learning of those new kind of works," The lady interjected with a surprised glint in her amber eyes. "But wouldn't this kind of change warrant some... reaction from the nobility?"

"It did... or at least, in a minor scale," I answered with a nod, slightly taken off-guard by this conversation.

Seriously, it's been so long since I've held an educated discussion with someone since I was taken in this world and... it was incredibly refreshing.

"The nobility was challenged by the growing class formed by self-made men and women that held a certain high standing in society, individuals that had gained some major status to the public with their hard-work and merits. Their fresh perception, along with the full embrace of the new technologies led to a silent victory from the emerging class."

"By your description, I can only think of... the merchants as the only emerging class capable of withstanding such a conflict," The green-haired young woman pointed out with a frown. "But their current standing is not enough to keep up with the entire nobility."

"That's because the merchants were part of emerging group," I added to the situation. "But I think I will have to give a little example to explain it properly."

I turned my attention to the blond prince, the red-eyed young man staring back at me.

"Imagine that Fourier's birthday is coming soon and you wish to commission for him something that he has shown inclination to like," I started to explain with a slow pace. "Let's say that the object is one made with wood and so you have to summon an artisan to accomplish this task."

She nodded, following the explanation silently and raptly.

"Now imagine if said object is easily available because it's made en-masse by numerous workers assigned to the task and the price set for it is cheaper than having it made by an artisan. Let's also say that the quality is similar if not the same," I continued while picking up the pace a little. "You would pick the mass-produced one, not because it's cheap, but because it sounds a fairer price compared to the overly-expensive and seemingly-suspicious price offered by the artisan."

Crusch took a moment to think about it, but nodded. "The leading figure for this class is the one that owns hegemony over this fresh method of production."

"Yes but-" I stopped, eyes going wide open at that sudden answer. "T-That is correct. How did you-"

"It's not difficult," She politely interrupted. "Considering the endless possibilities of expanding this kind of operations with the proper usage of the new wealth gained, the system would easily see the 'leader' of this well-balanced organization able to dominate upon the current market."

...

Holy Jesus Christ, I don't know what to say after this one.

Like- what the heck?!

I knew Crusch was smart but... this was a completely new level.

HOW DID I MISS THIS MUCH POTENTIAL!?

Felix giggled. "Lady Karsten is incredibly intelligent. So much that she got Johnyah gawking like a fish~!"

Fourier snorted at this and I realized the need of closing my mouth because... holy Jesus, that absurdly-clever comment hit me out of nowhere.

"Ferris, you shouldn't be saying such things to Mayor Bukharin and-" Crusch stopped in her half-chiding for a moment, only to sigh before she turned back to look at me with an apologetic expression. "I wish to apologize for his behavior he-"

"I know, there is no need for that and I find it refreshing." I interrupted with a small smile. "Still, he is correct. Your assumption was not only correct, but impressively accurate considering the little information I had provided."

A little smirk appeared on her face and... her cheeks took some more color. "Those are flattering words but-"

"Those are truthful words," I commented back with a wider smile. "Lady Karsten, please... just take this compliment as it's factual."

She slowly nodded. "I guess I will humbly accept your kind words... but if it's possible, there is another thing I wish to inquire about."

I blinked. "Sure, do ask," I conceded quite eagerly, now curious about what kind of thoughts she had planned to invest verbally.

"During the example, you have referred to His Highness by his name and... may I inquire if it's a conceded right or something I might be missing?"

...

No. I don't want to- She couldn't just be suggesting that so suddenly. Not her- Really, I hope this is just my tired mind messing with me.

...

Oh my God.

"Fourier is a friend of mine and thus we refer to each other by name rather by our titles, only in private of course," I replied carefully, my brain trying its best to not have me facepalm at the little suggestion forwarded by the intelligent woman.

"I understand," She nodded calmly, seemingly unfazed by the little mistaken thought over the matter... but I was sure not going to forget this little 'slight'. Actually, I had already something planned for her.

I hid my little smug glee at this simple plan as I nodded right at Fourier. "By the way, why don't you extend this courtesy to Lady Karsten?"

The blond's smile froze as he looked at me intensively and with an awkward look. "I- What?"

Crusch frowned. "There is no need. I think if His Highness wants to-"

"I would like to extend that courtesy myself to you, Lady Karsten," I interjected quickly, my smile twitching. "I wouldn't mind if you called me by my first name and I would like to ask if it would be... acceptable if I referred you by your first name."

She looked surprised at this escalation, clearly not expecting this much to happen and, since I had been careful to not appear forceful, she merely sighed and nodded.

"If only for informal settings, I guess that would work sufficiently... John."

"Of course, Crusch," I replied with a kind tone, trying my best to keep my cover as I glanced briefly at the prince, Fourier looking slightly confused by this development and then... I winked at him.

The gate is open! Launch the attack!

The message seemed to pass through as the blond cleared his throat and gave a quick smile as we turned to look at him.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind to extend this kind of courtesy to you too, Lady Crusch. Why I think we've known each other for long enough that I should have asked even earlier!" He exclaimed with a cheerful tone, catching off-guard even more the slightly-confused green-haired young woman.

Still, she nodded and she forwarded a smile with it. "I'm honored of such praise... Fourier."

The effect was instantaneous, the blond's face exploded in red at being addressed on such a personal note by the very girl he was attracted too.

Felix noticed this too and snickered softly, turning his attention once more back to his mother, Hannah looking at this whole scene with curiosity, surprise and quite the amusement.

It would seem the apt words were 'like mother like son' for this peculiar situation.

The rest of the trip proved to be surprisingly calm and uneventful much to my inner surprise, partly expecting some ambush along the way to ruin the victory gained today.

Fate wasn't screwing with us and...

Boy, why did I thought that things would go smoother with Fourier surviving this ordeal. This world... just can't accept changes, doesn't it?!