Chapter Chapter 43: 6. Hell is just beginning. (4) (1/2)
RATH 43
TL: Eevee
Strict, solemn, serious.
If you were to ask me who it was that was looking at me looking like the Triple S incarnate, of course it would be human of me to answer!
There are only a very limited number of dukes and margraves within the empire.
And those that operate purely within the borders of empire, unaffiliated with the border margraves or the archduke number just ten.
Their authority is such like an impenetrable fortress that they’re called the Ten Great Families by the other nobles, and the Triple S incarnate in front of me is the head of one of those Ten Great Families, an extremely important noble in charge of an entire division of the army!
It was none other than Aris’s father, the current head of the Letia family.
“How may I be of assistance.”
But right now, he’s just a parent of one of my students.
There’s no need to be flustered.
-Owner? You’re totes flustered right now? Legs shaky shaky? Might get caught if you shake a bit more?
-Zip it.
… How the hell would I not be alarmed! He’s a marquess. It’s one of the Ten Great Families! Even though they say that the influence of the military families is weaker during peacetime, that’s compared to the other Ten Great Families!
He’s a freaking commander of an army! In past life terms, a three star!(1)
The realm of stars that could move mountains with just a single word!
That kind of person came in, there’s no way I wouldn’t be flustered!
“I came in at my daughter’s request.”
Marquess Letia said as he sipped the tea that the Dean poured him. Like me, the Dean was also nervous, but unlike me, he was visibly showing it on his face.
-She tattled. The kid that contracted the delicious goddess tattled.
-You really should have hit her in moderation…
-Haang? You want me to hit that tasty, moreover two for the price of one kid in moderation! That’s somethin’ my pride won’t allow, dat!
-We have a marquess come see us because of that, so what the hell are you being so brazen about!
-All humans are equal in front of the goddess Aru-nim! So human titles don’t matter ta meh!
-It matters a lot to me!
Damn it, words aren’t getting through to her.
I honestly want to chuck her back into a safe and seal her again, but considering the organization’s fallen and I’m on the run from the princess I can’t do that.
“I do not believe I raised my child to be weak.”
“Indeed?”
“Indeed. And Aris, that child followed through the family’s training regime without one word of complaint.”
“How splendid.”
“Indeed. But that child, contacted my wife with a magic video communication tool, and told her this while crying. That school life was too difficult. My wife was quite shocked, saying she had never seen her cry since she was five.”
“Really?”
Although my face gave nothing away, I felt a cold sweat trickle down my back.
Damn it, she even went as far as crying to her mother.
Even in the army, a hundred questionnaires can’t ever hope to do more than a call to a parent!
And moreover, a kid who’s never let her parents see her cry went and cried to her parents!
If this marquess’s personality was reversed then right now he’d be shaking me by my lapels.
“And so I ask. Is my daughter being bullied at school?”
“She is not.”
Logically speaking, a marquess’ family isn’t one to be bullied, but one to be doing the bullying. If you were to pick on a marquess’s daughter, you’d have to be at least direct imperial family or an archduke, and be named as the successor to have the status to pull it off.
And a brat that’s not even a successor or heir picks on a high-ranking noble first? That’s basically asking to get offed with none the wiser during the successor debate.
“Then are any of the teachers tormenting my daughter?”
“No, they are not.”
Well, something does prickle a little, but it’s all for the sake of education, education!
I eat and sleep at the academy for the sake of developing my students’ abilities, and I think and worry again and again for the sake of my students!
-Wasn’t owner eating and sleeping at the academy just ta save ya retirement money? Ya did it just cause it was free if ya just made an escape route using the academy modifications as an excuse, instead of building your own house and digging another escape tunnel anyway! And lookee how you’re spinning your efforts to make the kids struggle!
-It’s alright since it’s half true!
-Then that means half of it’s just a scam!
Well that’s just how the world works. I was doing all this with the best intentions in mind!
“Then what you are saying is that Aris, my child was crying simply because the academy’s training was that difficult?”
“Indeed.”
More accurately, getting hit by the metal bat would have been the difficult experience but I didn’t say that out loud.
The problem was that I’d spent the majority of my social life in an evil organization.
No matter how much you beat the crap out of kids there no one ever said anything.
On the contrary, I even got incentives for not killing anyone and obtaining brilliant results!
But the academy is different.
Going crying to their parents after a single encounter with the metal bat, just how weak are the children of noble society!
-… Owner, owner? It feels weird to be the one saying it myself, but owner can only say that because owner doesn’t hurt even if you get hit by me, if you hurt like other people then you wouldn’t be able to say that?
-But as you said that is an ‘if!’ Since I don’t hurt even if I get hit by you that is not my problem.
-That’s my owner! Itza face of orichalcum! Not even the people with iron faces can’t hold up ta owner!
Hoho, well that goes without saying. If you are a villain, you need to surpass iron faces to mithril, or an orichalcum face at least. If I didn’t have the face and the guts to scam someone at any moment then there would have never have survived half my life in an evil organization.
“Is that so…”
Behold! In the face of my steadfast attitude, the marquess has started to seriously think this through!
Life is all about timing.
And as a salesman, the best timing is when someone is hesitating like so! If I lose this timing, I will be unable to secure the marquess’s backing, and in the worst case scenario the greatest promotional figurehead of the academy named Aris could leave entirely.
I can’t lose Aris like I did No.17!
“May I ask you something, milord marquess?”
“Speak.”
I looked at the marquess nodding and smiled.
“Did milord, truly not raise Miss Aris to be weak?”
“Indeed.”
“In that case, from my perspective, the training of House Letia is much too weak.”
-Wiing? Owner? Ya taunting him? Ya were quivering in fear cause he’s a marquess just now, you go nuts with fear or something? This is a proper challenge oi?
-Wait. I’m scattering the bait right now so don’t ruin it.
“That is to say, you are looking down on the training of the Letia family?”
“That is so.”