Chapter 79 – Requilis (3)

April 12th, 2023

It is a fact that everyone knows, but once I focus, it’s hard for me to get out of it on my own.
My parents used to say that I was so good at concentrating that I could stay focused even if there was an explosion next to me.

However, it’s not always an advantage, and depending on the situation, it can also be a disadvantage.
For example, there have been times when I was so immersed in something that I didn’t even realize it was time to eat, and I ended up skipping meals.
If someone saw me doing that, they might think I was being rude.

So, unless I’m alone, I rarely get the chance to fully concentrate.
Even when I read in the guest room, I expected Sebastian to call me later.

“Young friend, you seem to be interested in history?”

“… …”

“I usually read Xenon’s Biography, so it’s amazing.”

And now, my excellent concentration has become a disadvantage.
In the worst possible situation.

I exchanged glances with a middle-aged man who smiled at me with a knowing look.
He had a gentle yet sharp impression and even his white hair had a blue tint.

If you had to depict the image of a “gentleman,” he would probably not hesitate to use the man in front of him as an example.
His suit fit him perfectly, and his appearance was very clean-cut.

‘…Huh?’

For a moment, I took my gaze away from the man who might have been praising or indirectly criticizing me and looked to my left and right.
I saw Sebastian standing upright with a neat posture, and Marie making a somewhat pathetic expression.
Only then did I realize the situation belatedly, and I couldn’t help but be flustered.

The owner of the household and Marie’s father, the Duke of Requilis, came to find me personally while resting in the guest room.

‘What, what is it? Why leave the drawing room and come here yourself?’

Sebastian brought me not to the drawing room but to the guest room.
It was a space prepared by the homeowner for the guests to rest comfortably, a kind of lounge with various amusements. 

If the owner of the mansion wanted to see a guest, they should invite them to the reception room through a servant.
I knew that and was able to concentrate on my book without worry.

But the Duke of Requilis did not do that.
For some reason, he did not invite me to the reception room but came himself.
Of course, it wasn’t impolite for the owner to come to the guest room himself.
If they couldn’t uphold the formality due to circumstances, it wasn’t uncommon for them to come directly like this.

However, it was my mistake not to have known that the Duke of Requilis was going to do that.
It was a situation where my unique concentration turned into a weakness.

“If I disturbed you while you were concentrating on reading, then I apologize.”

While I was sorting through my thoughts one by one like tangled threads, the Duke of Requilis opened his mouth with a monotonous voice.

While he might have spoken casually and idly, the resonance of his voice was quite substantial, perhaps due to the reverberating acoustics of the room.
Thanks to that, the tangled mess of thoughts that had been twisted and knotted in my head, like a ball of yarn, became clear and orderly.
With my thoughts cleared up, I was able to perceive the current situation more accurately.

“…Ah!”

I thawed my frozen body and quickly stood up from my seat.
I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake twice, especially after already being rude once.

As I stood up, I realized that his height was similar to that of Sebastian.
I had wondered where Marie got her height from, but it seemed to be genetic.
Putting aside such pointless thoughts, I stuttered an apology to him.

“Oh, no.
It’s my fault for not noticing even though the Duke has arrived.”

“Well, I’ll take that as an apology.
It’s quite impressive that a young friend like you has such concentration.”

It might have sounded like a compliment to others, but it sounded like an insult to my ears.
He called me an arrogant brat who only focuses on his own affairs even though the head of the family has arrived.
It was truly a dizzying moment.

First impressions often last, but I had already messed up my first impression.
I chastised myself inwardly and apologized once again.

“I’m sorry.
It was my fault.”

“Hahaha.
You don’t have to be so apologetic.
I wasn’t teasing you, it was a compliment.”

The Duke of Requilis laughed heartily and then offered his hand to me, which was covered with white gloves.
Just as my eyes were drawn to his gloved hand, the Duke of Requilis finally spoke again, his tone softer than before.

“Nice to meet you.
You probably already know, but I am Dimitry Hausen Requilis, the Duke of Requilis and the owner of this estate.
I am also Marie’s father.
Welcome to our mansion.”

“Nice to meet you too.
My name is Isaac Ducker Michelle, the second son of the Michelle family.”

“Hmm, the Michelle family…”

As I politely shook hands and introduced myself, the Duke of Requilis, Dimitry, looked at me closely.
With my rare red hair, he may have been reminded of my father, Hawk.

“Is your father’s name Hawk by any chance?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“How interesting.”

I wasn’t sure what was so interesting, but Dimitry chuckled while giving my hand a firm grip, possibly trying to exert subtle pressure.

As I suppressed a smile inwardly, Dimitry released his grip and we let go of each other’s hands.
As I shook my hand and repeatedly clenched it, I realized that my basic grip strength was nothing to scoff at, despite being a liberal arts major like him.
Although adults are generally stronger, it still hurt a little.

“You may wonder why I came to the guest room in person.
Actually, my wife is using the reception room right now, and the other room is under renovation, so it is not available for use.”

“Ah, I see.”

“For now, please take a seat.
It seems like you haven’t touched any snacks while engrossed in reading.”

Indeed, there were various snacks placed on the table in front of me, ranging from square-shaped biscuits to tea that still had steam rising from it.

It seemed like a maid had briefly come in while I was focused on reading.
I let out another awkward laugh and tensed up inwardly.

Every word that Dimitry spoke felt like a dagger piercing my heart.
It was already nerve-wracking enough to meet my girlfriend’s father, let alone this.

“Sebastian, please wait outside until I call you.
And Marie, sit next to me.”

“Understood.
Please call me if you need anything.”

Following Dimitry’s orders, Sebastian bowed and left the room, while Marie silently moved to sit next to me.

Glancing at her, I noticed that she had a sour expression on her face, probably because of my earlier behavior.

I started to feel guilty and just kept glancing at her discreetly.

“Let me ask you something first.
What is your relationship with my daughter?”

…A difficult question came out of nowhere, catching me off guard.
I tightly clenched my fist on my knee.

I had already anticipated this much from Dimitry, who had always been a doting father to his daughter.
However, when faced with the question, I couldn’t easily open my mouth.

“Dad, I told you not to ask such questions.
You already heard everything from the butler.”

When I couldn’t speak, Marie next to me threw a fit.
As I looked at her, she had one cheek puffed up and her arms crossed.

Dimitri chuckled at his daughter’s scolding, which was full of complaints, and held out his hand first to apologize.

“Hahaha.
I’m sorry about that.
I never meant to hurt you.
As my daughter said, I’ve already talked to the butler about it.”

“Oh…then…”

“As I said before, there’s no need to be too nervous about me being a duke.
As you know, Requilis dukes are quite different from authoritarian ones.
So, you can date my daughter…”

Dimitri spoke softly and continued his story, then he stopped talking and narrowed his eyes.

“…It won’t work.
I’ve thought about it, but I can’t accept it.”

“Dad!”

“Of course, it’s a joke, Marie.”

It didn’t sound like a joke at all.
I just stood there with my waist straight, unable to say anything in the argument between father and daughter.

‘It seems like he’s trying to make the atmosphere comfortable in his own way…’

If he were another noble, especially above the rank of a viscount, there would be a high probability of a huge reaction from the moment he found out that his daughter was dating a baron’s son like me.
But Dimitri didn’t react that way.

Instead, he was trying to lighten the mood by throwing jokes from time to time.
Marie instinctively knew that he was joking, so she was reacting so fiercely.

While it’s nice to be considerate, it can be awkward to be in the position of receiving consideration.
Even though he drew a clear line, I didn’t know how to act.
For now, it seems wise to only answer the questions asked by the duke.
I felt sweat in my clenched fists as I waited for the next question.

“Do you plan to stay overnight at our mansion?”

“No, we came here only to visit today.”

“Hmm, I see.
But as far as I know, Michelle Territory takes over 10 hours by carriage from the capital.
Are you sure it’s okay? It’s okay to stay overnight if necessary.”

“Thank you for your kindness, but it’s okay.
We planned to leave before lunch.”

“I see.
That’s a shame.”

A shame? Shouldn’t we be grateful instead?

I didn’t quite understand why the duke, who had been giving off a vibe that he wouldn’t tolerate anyone touching his daughter just a moment ago, had changed his attitude.
Dimitri seemed to have read my expression and smiled wryly.

“There’s no particular reason.
It’s just that my daughter hasn’t invited many people to the mansion lately, especially not men.”

“Dad.”

Now Marie’s voice was faint.
There was a subtle anger in her tone that made me flinch.

Regardless, Dimitri shrugged nonchalantly and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry, daughter.
Was I too harsh? If you’re angry, please forgive me.”

“Don’t say things like that in the future.
How nervous do you think she was? Oh my.
Look at this sweat.”

Marie gently grabbed my hand that I had placed on her knee while comforting me, even though my hand was sweaty.
As soon as she held it, I could see a slight twitch under Dimitry’s eyes. 

I wondered if this was what they call jealousy.
Awkwardly, I smiled while holding Marie’s soft hand.
It was practically a declaration of our relationship as lovers, which made everything difficult in many ways.

“Well, no one else can choose, but myself, so there shouldn’t be any big problems.
My dad will respect our choice.”

“Thank you.”

“However, there’s a condition.”

The warm atmosphere dissipated in an instant as Dimitry’s words implied that there was a condition.
As soon as I heard his words while trying to relax, I tensed up again.

Dimitry continued to look at our still-clasped hands, then fixed his gaze on my face.
His blue eyes, which seemed to be observing something interesting, were staring at me.

While even Marie couldn’t say anything in the rapidly changing atmosphere, Dimitry smiled mischievously and spoke quietly. 

However, even his quiet voice resonated loudly due to the echo.

“I’ve seen the letter that Marie sent me before.
It turns out that you’re the one who taught her history, which she used to hate.
Am I correct?”

“It’s a modest skill, but yes.”

“No need to be humble.
In fact, I like it.
The Requilis family values history more than anything else.
History is a means of conversing with the past and peering into the future.”

Honestly, I couldn’t help but be surprised.
The words that Dimitry spoke were exactly the same as a famous saying from my past life.

This meant that the Requilis family prioritized history throughout generations.
For the Requilis family, history was both a belief and a source of honor.

“Teaching others means you possess extensive knowledge.
So, I won’t ask who, when, where, or what happened.
It’s because this is the basics of basics.
Instead, I’ll ask you a different question.”

“Okay.”

“It seems like you’ve been holding a pen for a long time, haven’t you?”

While saying this, Dimitry pointed to my hand with his chin.
He seemed to have noticed the pen mark on my middle finger.

As I habitually rubbed the pen mark on my middle finger, Dimitry spoke to me.

“Then, as someone who holds a pen, let me ask you a question.
Historically, people who held pens put those who held swords under their command.”

“That’s correct.
Conversely, if the sword becomes stronger, it causes a coup d’etat and leads to social chaos.”

“You know it exactly.
Then, I’ll ask you a question here.”

Dimitry paused for a moment and looked at me with a sharp gaze as if he was scrutinizing me thoroughly.
I stood tall and confident without flinching, even in the predator’s gaze that wouldn’t miss anything.

If I back down here, I have a feeling that I won’t be able to speak properly due to the overwhelming momentum.
So, I couldn’t retreat at all.

Following the silence that was as still as a dead mouse, Dimitry, who had been watching me intently for a while, spoke quietly.

“If the person holding that pen can change not only the country but also the world, what would you do?”

“… …”

“Would you just watch and do nothing, or would you stand up to stop it?”

Without any hesitation, I answered his question.

“Neither of them would matter.”

“Why is that?”

There was one thing Dimitry didn’t know.

“It’s because it’s a natural phenomenon.”

I was a reincarnated person who was born and raised in a socially advanced civilization rather than in this world.

“History proves it.”

Now it’s time to get down to business.

Translators note:

I wasn’t at home for Easter so there were no chapters, sorry about that.
I’m back now.