Chapter 100: The Girl Becomes…a Noble? (2)

“The Fault Family is in ruin now. Is it your doing?”

“?”

“I see… So it wasn’t you.”

“But, I didn’t say anything…”

“I can tell just by looking at your face. Everything’s written there! You’re as simple as a knight could be, hahaha!”

“…Hey, old man, are you mocking me right now?”

“Hahaha.”

Fault Family, or to be exact, the family that only consisted of Reynold Fault, his wife, and his one daughter. They couldn’t even be called a noble family in the first place, and the things that they did disqualified them from being called a human family.

“I’ve been looking for them myself, but I couldn’t find any traces of them. Do you know anything?”

For the past week, Lee Han had been searching for the Fault Family. To be exact, he was looking for that animal called Reynold Fault. However, for some reason, he couldn’t even see the bridge of his nose, so he was starting to get frustrated. But then the marquis gave out some surprising revelations.

The knight sent a dubious gaze at him, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

“I was curious, so I looked it up. According to the investigations done by my people, he only had one daughter, so how did he end up having two children?”

“…”

“Five years ago, he suddenly gained another one, strange isn’t it? On top of it, apparently he has been aiming to marry her off to me in the first place, haha! He must’ve been seriously looking down on Tristan to even think of doing something like that!”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“What am I going to do? Of course I’m going to show him why Tristan was able to remain as a marquisate for such a long time, haha!”

“…Hmm.”

Though his mouth was smiling, his eyes weren’t. Just like the eyes of a bird of prey, they were fierce, intense and arrogant.

If a civilian were to face those eyes head on, they’d probably tremble in fear.

However, that wasn’t the case for Lee Han…

“What? Do you want to have a staring contest with me?”

“…”

“If not, then calm down. I don’t want to throw an axe at a guest.”

“I was joking around, hehe.”

The marquis smiled, as if the fierce eyes he had shown just a moment ago was a lie, and he really was just joking in front of a young man that he favored.

“What? Am I not allowed to mess with you once or twice? Killing me for doing that would be too much, don’t you think?”

Lee Han snorted and clicked his tongue.

These damn nobles…

It feels they have a passive ability for testing someone.

Is this some kind of butterfly effect?

Lee Han was actually surprised that the marquis managed to figure out the Faults so quickly.

So much so that he thought this was the butterfly effect at work.

…He isn’t supposed to find out about it this quickly.

Before this, the status window guy, Derrick, had told him about the original story. He said that in the original story, his disciple got married and stayed at the marquis’ house for three years. So, if things had gone according to the original, the fraud against the marquis would only be discovered after he got married with Levy.

But now, it was different.

Lee Han didn’t know if it was because the marquis underwent some kind of change after fighting him, or if the original marquis was just that competent.

Whichever it was, he managed to reveal the truth in less than a few days. Moreover…

“My child has nothing to do with it. She’s just a good child who’s being exploited by bad guys. Don’t lay your fingers on her.”

It was highly likely that he had figured out Levy’s true identity. The moment Lee Han realized this, his expression stiffened. He swore that if this man dared to mess with his disciple, it wouldn’t be just his gate and part of the mansion that he’d destroy next.

“I know.”

“?”

“I mean, an honorable knight like you went out of your way to save her, so there’s no way the girl would be a villain who’d deceive and exploit others. I could tell that she was just being used.”

“…You thought so? Just for that reason?”

“More like it’s because I trust you.”

“…”

“I’m serious.”

“…Hmm.”

Lee Han had thought about it before, but…

This guy… He’s the most gentlemanly noble I’ve ever met…

The old man in front of him seemed to be a better old man than he thought.

“I’ll cut it short and tell you the results. Currently, Reynold Fault is bed-ridden in the temple. His body is covered in burns, his left arm and both ankles are cut off, his tongue is also cut off. When we discovered him, he was already way past the treatment period, so he’s practically at death’s door now, hehe.”

Both his burns and other injuries he suffered were serious. If it wasn’t because of the temple, he’d be dead by now. Although, at the same time, this would put him in debt to the temple. One thing about the temple was that, while their healing techniques were reliable, they were extremely strict when it came to payment.

It was just a rumor Lee Han once heard, but apparently they’d send people to mines or salt farms to pay for their debts.

“Not only that, his wife and his daughter are both in big trouble. His wife’s dying because of the temple’s treatment costs, his gambling debt, and all the other debts they have, meanwhile his daughter was kicked out of the Academy’s middle school.”

Their future was doomed to be bleak.

Though it was unknown whether they persecuted Levy like Reynold or not, the relationship between the girl and the Faults was already unsalvageable at this point. They could never live under the same sky anymore.

“Those two won’t have many choices; either go to the convent, or pick the worst option imaginable. Whichever it is that they’re going to choose, their future looks bleak. Of course, I’ll also do my best to make them suffer as much as possible.”

“Huh, and here I thought you’re kind to women.”

“I am, but you see, there’s no way they didn’t know what the head of their family was up to. Staying silent after knowing all the heinous things going on is a crime. They aren’t women or ladies, they’re just criminals. When it comes to criminals, genders are irrelevant.”

“Woah, that’s refreshing to hear.”

Clap-! Clap-!

Lee Han clapped his hands.

His words sounded refreshing in his ears. He thought that this was a perfect example of both a proper adult and a righteous person in power.

“…Suddenly praising me like that… I don’t know why, it feels unpleasant…”

At the sudden praise, the marquis scratched his cheek. He wondered why someone who had always acted so arrogantly suddenly acted like this.

Still…

“Well, I’ll still take that compliment though. Haha!”

He couldn’t help but laugh, expressing his happiness.

Then, the two men laughed heartily and continued their conversation for a while. They mostly talked about how to deal with Reynold, and most of their conversation went like…

“There’s this thing called ‘separating the bones and twisting the flesh’. Just like what it’s called, you separate someone’s bones and flesh without killing them, but the whole process would hurt. Since he isn’t dead yet, I think it’s worth a try.”

“Hehe, but what if he dies from mental shock? Well, that could be fixed by using anesthetics and potions. Even if we peel off his flesh and drain his blood every single day, as long as we inject some anesthetics and potions in his blood vessels, he won’t die. Actually, we used this method during the war to make prisoners remember everything we wanted them to remember, hehe!”

Although most of their conversation was about how to torture the animal instead of killing him, the two men enjoyed it and a sense of kinship was born between the two. A friendship that transcended age. Such a thing sprouted between them.

As their conversation went on like that…

“…Alright, time to go back to the main topic. So, what’s the reason behind you wanting to take my child as your daughter?”

“Ah, right. I forgot about that because I was so busy talking.”

Ahem.

The marquis paused for a moment to think. He felt that he needed to answer this seriously.

After all, the decision to adopt a girl he had never met was not something to be made in jest, but something that had to be considered seriously.

So, he answered in a serious tone.

“To clarify, I didn’t decide to take that child in because of you. If I have to say the reason, I guess I can say it’s because I feel sorry.”

“Because you feel sorry?”

“I feel sorry for the talent that would make her a great knight in the future.”

Surprisingly, his answer was extremely selfish.

“From the report I received, that child had only been learning swordsmanship for less than three months, but she could already defeat a Rock Troll, and showed off her skills and bravery in front of a large army of monsters. Honestly, I never expected that I’d hear about someone’s heroic tale in a report. Of course, I double-checked its validity, and everything in the report was the truth.”

“…”

“…Her talent is the real deal. I can’t just let that kind of talent be buried just because of her ‘origin’ and status. That child has the potential to become the second Felicia.”

A child who might become the second Felicia.

If Tristan could take such a child in and raise her well, she would surely bring honor that would raise Tristan’s name.

And so, he decided to take her in after weighing the pros and cons.

“Okay, so what’s your true reason?”

“…”

“Just tell me honestly, stop bullshitting.”

“Huh, and here I thought I hid it well, but it seems like it wasn’t the case.”

“You did. It’s just that I’m good at seeing through lies.”

“Now, that’s an enviable talent if I’ve seen one…”

The marquis exclaimed, as he stared at him if he was looking at a strange animal. Then, a five seconds of silence ensued before he…

“…She’s pitiful.”

“…”

“I know how shallow this kind of sympathy is, but if no one takes the child in, the child will become an orphan. It might not matter if I don’t know about it, but I know, so I think it’s just right for me to reach out to her. Oh, of course you can do it too if you want to, but I think I could do it better than you as I have more than you. I’m also confident that I can make her live comfortably.”

“…”

“A shallow reason, don’t you think?”

“…Not at all. If anything, I like it more than the previous reason.”

“Huh?”

“Only the well-fed consider pity as an insult. The truly desperate would welcome that pity with open arms.”

In the dramas and movies Lee Han watched back in his past life, there were many characters who straight up refused others help because of their pride. As an orphan who lived a tough life, he always found them weird for doing so.

Then he realized.

Those characters didn’t know what it felt like to starve to death, or to live in a total humiliation.

“The real humiliation is not when you’re worried about tomorrow, but when you cry because you don’t have food or water to eat today, or when you catch a cold because you don’t have a blanket to cover yourself with and don’t have money to buy medicine. That’s when one’s life is at its lowest, and when they experience true humiliation and degrading experiences.”

When one’s landlord cut off the electricity because they couldn’t pay the electricity bill. When they didn’t have the money to pay the gas and water bills and had to suffer through winter without even turning on the boiler and had to drink water from a public restroom.

The despair, desolation, and loneliness one would feel at that time were both humiliating and degrading. To anyone who knew of such humiliation, they wouldn’t refuse any kind of pity.

In other words…

“Their life is so miserable and dirty that they wish they could just die. Those people won’t refuse others’ help because of their pride, they can’t afford to. They aren’t those who complain that they’re hungry, but have enough to survive. My child is such a person. She’s in no position to care about pity or whatnot. She has been living a desperate life. If anything, she’d appreciate your offer.”

Because to her, it’s her ‘salvation’.

Lee Han blurted out those words, which weren’t inferior to any noble’s speech.

This was the kind of words that only those who had felt extreme humiliation and loneliness could have.

“…Huh.”

His speech genuinely impressed the marquis, but Lee Han just went on without being aware of that.

“As you’ve said, I did think about taking her in, but I believe a more affluent environment would be better for her than a poor knight who only cares about his own body. That’s why, if you really wish to take her in, please do it. Of course, you need to persuade that kid first.”

“…”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…The more I look at you, the more I want to know you better.”

“?”

“I’ve been hesitating, but now it’s certain… You… What about calling me ‘father’ from now on?”

…After hearing that, Lee Han barely managed to hold back from hurling a thousand curses at the man.