Chapter 76: The Old Tale Grandfather Told

The Rosegarden Family’s Main Castle.

Standing tall in Flanders, within the County of Flanders in the western part of the Empire, Rosegarden Castle was the kind of castle that young girls often imagine.

It had a classic structure with layered walls and towers, and a deep moat dug around it, making it seem as if it were floating on a lake.

Looking up at the triangular cones stretching to the heavens, my neck began to ache.

It was cliché, but for that very reason, it was beautiful.

It was as if I was looking at only the good side of tradition and classics.

The same was true for the interior of the castle.

Ancestors with similar hair and eye colors were trapped in frames, staring into space.

Endlessly repeating stone pillars and ownerless suits of armor stretched to the end of the hallways.

Compared to the sophisticated grand mansion in Runden where I had spent half my life, it was, to put it nicely, more nature-friendly, and to put it badly, somewhat dated, but its grandeur was beyond comparison.

Above all, the scale of the castle’s library was extraordinary.

The repository of long-accumulated knowledge from its long history was surely the true source that made the Rosegarden family the Rosegarden family.

Naturally, I practically lived in the library.

The more I conquered each bookshelf, the more I realized that the books in the Runden mansion were just a small fraction.

However, there was just one drawback.

As the history was long, a considerable number of books used ancient or dead languages that were no longer in use.

I could make rough guesses through the endings and surrounding sentences, but this minor inconvenience still left me feeling uneasy.

“…I wish my master was here.”

If Sarah had remained, I would have felt refreshed just by moving my lips a little.

But Sarah had made a doll the size of a human body and then disappeared, leaving only the words that she had some business to attend to.

I wasn’t particularly worried.

After all, I had never seen an alchemist as strong as Sarah.

In the first place, she was a heroic person who had opened a new era.

It was just that a small longing remained in the empty space I occasionally felt.

Well, she’ll be back soon.

“Ugh…!”

Flipping through the old parchment, I stretched my stiff shoulders high into the air.

My legs under the desk also twitched and trembled slightly.

“Hah…”

After a vigorous stretch, I slumped down onto the chair.

Just reading was tiring enough, but having to decipher everything made me feel twice as exhausted.

Still, I was glad I had read the old books that were in the mansion.

Thinking back now, they were rather strange books.

The paper was much cleaner compared to other books, perhaps because they were written relatively recently.

It felt like it was teaching me step-by-step, starting from simple roots and morphemes that had been less weathered by time.

In fact, the content of those old books was close to a basic introductory text with nothing particularly special.

There were also books that helped develop the ability to interpret texts that were no different from cryptograms, like ancient fairy language, with minimal information.

It was as if someone had created them in advance to help me read and decipher the old books of this castle with relative ease.

“Well, I’m sure one of our ancestors wrote it.”

“To realize the greatness of the family at such a young age. You truly are my granddaughter!”

“Huh?”

A large shadow fell over my head.

When I lifted my head, it was just as I expected.

There stood my grandfather with a benevolent smile, looking down at me.

“Leona, your mother treated the knowledge accumulated by our ancestors as foolish.”

“My mom…?”

“That’s right.”

My grandfather suddenly appeared while I was studying hard and started talking about my mother.

Since I had no knowledge of my mother in either my past or present life, my curiosity was naturally piqued.

“Are you curious?”

I’m not sure what kind of look I had on my face.

But one thing was certain: my grandfather easily noticed what I wanted right now.

I nodded silently at his question.

Then, my grandfather picked up a book from the desk and began to tell an old story.

“Leona… was a child who was far from books. No, to be precise, she was far from a desk. Unlike you, Lin, who is diligent and hardworking.”

My grandfather’s eyes, which were scanning the book, became moist with longing.

What father wouldn’t grieve the death of his daughter?

It was an emotion that was hard for me to imagine, as I hadn’t even seen my mother’s face since she had passed away almost immediately after giving birth.

“If she ever seemed to be reading a book, she would flip through it a few times and then toss it behind her back, then go out on the lake in a rowboat for a nap, or sneak out of the castle.

It was quite a headache for this old man.”

…
The power of genetics seems to be stronger than I thought….

“Compared to our gentle Lin here, that Leona was a real tomboy!”

“Is that… so?”

By the way, perhaps because I had been cooped up in the library since arriving at the castle.

My grandfather seemed to be under the illusion that I had grown into an excellent model student in his absence.

In order not to shatter his fantasy, I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

“…Ahem, it seems I’ve started with too many bad things.”

Just then, my grandfather, seeing my reluctant expression, cleared his throat unnecessarily.

It seemed he was bothered by the fact that the first story I was hearing about my mother was being overlaid with a father’s complaints.

I don’t really mind, though….

“Alright. I’ll tell you this story. The story of when your father, your mother, and the Emperor went hunting together.”

“What?”

Wait a minute.

Why is the Emperor here?

“Hmm? Didn’t that fellow tell you? The Emperor’s legitimate wife is from our Rosegarden family. And that when he was young, he stayed in this castle and received knight training with everyone else.”

My grandfather’s story went like this.

Even for the Rosegarden family, which practiced the system of a son-in-law living with the bride’s family, they couldn’t take the Emperor—who was a young crown prince at the time—as a son-in-law.

So, he stayed at Rosegarden Castle during his engagement period to receive paladin training and live with them.

As I thought, the Rosegarden family is definitely not a typical count’s family.

“Anyway. That fellow went into the forest alone and hunted down three dire boars in an instant.

He said he caught five, but couldn’t drag them all back because he didn’t have enough hands. If it were anyone else, I would have thought it was a bluff, but for him, it was entirely possible.”

“The Emperor must have been strong since he was young…”

“Of course. Isn’t he the one I taught?”

My grandfather laughs heartily.

From this story alone, it seemed like the man who became Emperor was just naturally gifted, but looking at my grandfather’s imposing figure, I could guess that his teachings certainly had an influence.

“The Emperor, who had hunted three of those large beasts that even knights struggle with alone, looked at Edwin, your father.

He probably didn’t know back then.

That the man in front of him was actually a weakling who only knew how to play with money.”

My grandfather naturally belittles my father.

From his appearance, it seemed like it wasn’t an intentional remark, but something that slipped out unconsciously.

Generally, those who wield cold weapons like swords or spears tend to revere strength and look down on other values.

I thought this was probably one of those cases, so I didn’t feel hurt or have any particular feelings about it.

And… I’ve known since our first meeting that my grandfather and my father don’t get along well—or more accurately, that my grandfather dislikes my father.

“That fellow looked at your father provocatively. Perhaps he thought of him as his senior since he had been living at the castle first. It seems he wanted to gauge his skills.”

“Didn’t my dad receive paladin training from you, grandpa?”

“Only high-ranking nobles can become paladins.

Your father was a low-ranking noble from a commoner background, so it was impossible. …Of course, I acknowledge his intelligence and abilities. But being a paladin is a different story.”

Only high-ranking nobles can become paladins.

Therefore, my father only lived at the castle as a live-in son-in-law.

He couldn’t receive knight training from my grandfather.

Before that, my father’s personality was far from that of a knight or anything of the sort….

“Your father, Edwin, couldn’t do anything. It was understandable.

Even for ordinary noble children, the first hunt is difficult. And that fellow had hunted three dire boars.”

Surprisingly, my grandfather spoke in a tone that seemed to understand my father at the time.

Seeing this, I could tell that my grandfather didn’t truly hate him deep down.

“As the Emperor was snorting subtly at the sight of the helpless Edwin, Leona, who had been dozing off on her horse, stepped forward.”

I take back what I said about genetics.

Dozing off on a horse is even worse than me.

“And so your mother went into the forest in your father’s place. Do you know what that child, Leona, caught?”

“I don’t know. Judging by the flow of the story, wouldn’t she have caught at least four?”

“Yes. That’s what people would normally think.”

My mother didn’t catch a dire boar.

Instead, she caught a lot of something even more amazing.

She returned with her hands full of eels she had caught swimming in the forest river.

And so, my mother confidently told the Emperor.

True manliness is only revealed at night!

I’ll determine the true winner between you and Edwin, so go ahead and give it your all!!

…is what she said.

For reference, my mother was the same age as me at the time.

So… she was at least an adult.

It was just a little problematic that she said it so confidently in front of her parents.

“And then Leona gave the Emperor a whole armful of wriggling eels. She said that even if he ate all of this, he still wouldn’t be a match for your father! Hahaha!”

She even gave the eels to the Emperor, not my father.

The confidence to dope her opponent instead.

What kind of person was my mother?

And my grandfather, who proudly told his granddaughter this heroic tale, didn’t seem much different from my mother herself.

After hearing this story, I realized that my eccentric blood had been diluted thanks to my father’s blood being mixed in, and I felt secretly grateful.

‘Wait, could it be…?’

I suddenly started calculating my brother Leonard’s age.

Trying my best to erase it from my mind….