episode_0425

“I have a promise to keep with Duke Soi, so I’ll be going.”

“…At this late hour?”

It was evident that there was tension in his wife’s hand holding the knife.

Of all times to speak when the knife was in his wife’s hand.

It was an uncharacteristic mistake.

“We agreed to go night fishing, so you should go to bed first.”

“Hah! Night fishing again. It’s so strange how you fish so often but your skills never improve.”

“Tsk!”

He knew that his wife saw through his lie.

Her teasing had already reached a point where it was annoying, but he endured it stubbornly, knowing that if he could just get through this moment, he could relax and have a peaceful time.

“Have a good meal.”

Feeling a bit sorry, he greeted his wife with a somewhat genuine heart, but there was no response.

※ ※ ※

“I didn’t know that man’s son was in the punitive force.”

Should I have investigated earlier?

A slight headache came on.

Even though I didn’t want to do any favors for that man, I had already done so.

He wasn’t among the students I specifically chose, but he was selected by the top executives aside from the SSR character I had chosen.

He had entered the punitive force and gained all sorts of honors.

“The family is strong.”

The businesses that the man’s family had a hand in were not in high-growth areas.

But perhaps because it was a long-standing family, there seemed to be a solid foundation that wouldn’t fail even if the profits weren’t significant.

“It’s not grand, but it’s enough to not fail.”

Furthermore, having land and receiving taxes from the commoners allowed the man to live well without having to do anything remarkable.

And that was the fear of the nobility.

They couldn’t easily be touched, and they could enjoy power for a long time.

“If he’s one year younger than Fran, did he impregnate two women around the same time?”

Even though it hadn’t been long since investigating his stepfather, it was easy to see that his relationships with women were very complicated.

He seemed to take pretty commoner women as lovers and play with them, just like he did with Negas.

“Was she just a toy he played with for a while?”

It made sense that he had sent Negas to prison and didn’t care about her anymore.

And more important than the man was his wife.

“Usually, the wife causes more problems in these cases.”

According to the people around his stepfather, his relationship with his wife was not good.

She was described as a cold, aloof person.

“If the husband is cheating like this, isn’t it natural for the wife to be cold?”

In any case, it was not difficult to investigate his stepfather’s situation, his relationship with his wife, and the reputation of his household.

“Now is the time to act.”

While investigating his stepfather, the main focus was on finding any weaknesses that could be exploited.

If Fran wanted revenge, wouldn’t it be good to have already investigated?

Even though I hoped extreme situations wouldn’t arise due to our blood connection, if his stepfather tried to harm Fran, I couldn’t just stand by.

“The worst would be relying on Fran’s reputation.”

The external investigation was over, now it was time to delve into the internal affairs.

I needed information that couldn’t be easily obtained rather than just paying for it.

“Can you do it? I don’t necessarily have to ask you. I’m not forcing you.”

“Who else would I trust to do this if not me? Leave it to me. I can do it the best.”

After sending a letter to Fran and returning without any trouble, Damon rested deeply enough to relieve his accumulated fatigue.

And he was quite interested in the idea of going to do something other than delivering letters for a change.

Even when he came back after overhearing the children’s conversation and found it incredibly amusing, it seemed like he was interested in this kind of thing.

“If you think you might get caught, come back, and if there’s something special, let me know.”

-Okay. You know the promised reward, right?

“Yeah.”

If the information he brings back is helpful, Damon decided to treat him to a hearty meal.

It seemed like Damon was more interested in it being a performance-based task rather than just giving a reward.

“Should I continue to give him tasks as performance-based in the future?”

I don’t know how well he will investigate, but judging by his momentum, it seemed like he was willing to dig up even my life.

Of course, for that to happen, the information about Fran’s father’s family should be fatally damaging enough to make their family collapse.

Otherwise, it would be impossible.

“How long do you think it will take?”

-Hmph! If it’s something as trivial as that, it’ll be done in no time!

Damon confidently flew off to Fran’s father’s family.

While waiting for the information he asked for, he decided to first inform Fran of the simple investigation results.

※ ※ ※

“He had a son. One year younger than me. I didn’t know he was this close…”

“Yeah. It was surprising for me too. The son seems to have a strong preference for women like his father. He doesn’t mess with commoners, but he frequently confesses his love to noble women.”

“It seems like he has no achievements.”

“Yeah. He’s a complete novice.”

He doesn’t look strange, and his abilities are not lacking.

Compared to the SSR characters who are relatively the same age, they are like monsters.

But if he confessed, there seemed to be some circumstances that couldn’t be confirmed through investigation.

“If he’s a novice, is it what you mentioned before? Someone who has never had a lover since birth.”

“That’s right. I heard he’s with a girl these days, so I’m thinking of meeting her.”

“Do you really have to go that far?”

“Don’t you wonder why a perfectly fine person is unpopular?”

“….”

Because of his kind personality, one might think he shouldn’t say that, but Fran was unexpectedly silent.

Since this was almost like asking for an investigation, he smiled and moved on to the next topic.

“Next is the wife.”

“Yeah. This person is quite harshly judged by those around him. Still, he consistently participates in volunteer activities and has quite an influence among noblewomen.”

Despite the fact that his husband’s family is not that great, he expanded his influence with his skillful social skills.

“He has a very bad relationship with his husband. He’s famous among noblewomen. He knows he’s cheating, but he said that his mistress must never die.”

He was so famous that the fact that I didn’t have to look it up myself came to my ears naturally.

“I didn’t know you would tell me this in such detail, thank you. I think I can handle the rest on my own.”

“Are you satisfied with this? What are you going to do on your own?”

“Well, I have to think about it, but I think I should meet them at least once.”

“It’s not a good idea to meet them blindly.”

“I know it’s not a meeting that the other side wants.”

“No, that’s not it.”

It seemed like Fran was misunderstanding something.

“What?”

“Don’t you think you’re still just an ordinary student?”

“…!!”

“You’re the commander of the Talia Special Forces, receiving tremendous support in the military.”

Fran must be aware of his own influence as well.

“When you are called a saint and followed by nobles, you know that there are many who do so. Even if you say you don’t want to become a tool of their power just because you know you are from a noble family, drawing a clear line between them is not that easy.”

Fran sighed involuntarily at Franc’s innocence, who thought that they would naturally not welcome their existence without considering their own worth.

“I hear that this person is seeking revenge, should we just sit back and watch?”

Fundamentally, isn’t Fran or Franc a decent person?

“I have to interfere no matter what.”

At least, Fran decided to intervene when Franc meets their biological father.

“So, should I not meet my biological father?”

“It’s not that. It’s just that when you meet that person, you need to make some preparations. It’s about not revealing your true identity. You want to know your father’s honest thoughts, right? You don’t want to hear stories made up of lies.”

“Yes.”

“So, you have to hide your identity and have a conversation. Even if your true identity is revealed later, it will be enough time to understand what kind of person he is.”

“Right. It sounds like a good idea.”

Fran readily accepted my proposal.

“I plan to continue the investigation. The things I found out today are external aspects that can be obtained with money. If we delve deeper internally, we might find more interesting things.”

Fran said that this was enough, but in reality, the real investigation was about to begin.

“How many days do you have left on your vacation?”

“I have 3 days left now.”

Since the vacation period was tight, we had to hurry with our work.

“It’s a bit tight. But there’s nothing we can’t do.”

Internal investigation is one thing, but the meeting between the two of them needs to be prepared separately.

And it was also necessary to find out Nege’s thoughts on meeting his biological father.

“What are you going to tell Nege?”

“As for my mother…”

It seemed that Fran was also hesitant to talk to Nege.

“I decided to tell her everything honestly, I don’t want to hide anything.”

Although I thought about hiding it, it was a courageous decision.

“In my opinion, Nege is not going to let you go alone. If you say you want to go with him to meet your father, how will you respond?”

“If my mother wants it, I will agree. She suffered a lot because of me. I want to make sure she can do everything she wants in the remaining time. Even though my mother didn’t talk in detail about what she went through, I could tell just by her expressions. She went through a lot.”

Nege, who should have been in prison for an unjust crime, had never met his biological father, but the first impression was already in the negative for making Nege suffer.