Inside the office of the Honorary Viscount Ebern House, Lucas Ebern—Rest’s father—tapped his desk with mounting irritation.
"Good grief... that worthless failure! What on earth is he doing?"
A letter had arrived from the Marquis Rosemary House a few days prior.
Because his legitimate son and heir, Cedric, had recently endangered the Marquis’s daughters, Lucas had opened the envelope with trembling hands and a racing heart. To his utter shock, it had been an invitation. The Marquis requested the presence of Rest—his useless second son—at the Rosemary estate.
Receiving such an unanticipated invitation had left Lucas completely bewildered.
Though Rest was the second son of the house, he was effectively no different from a servant. Lucas had banished him to the stables, denying him a room in the mansion and forcing him to survive on scraps.
Had the boy shown even a spark of magical talent, Lucas might have provided more decent treatment, but the mana assessment conducted in his infancy had returned a diagnosis of "Magicless." Were it not for political optics, Lucas would never have taken the child in at all.
(Where on earth could that thing have made a connection with House Rosemary? For a kid who’s basically a commoner and Magicless, it should have been impossible to gain a lead to a Marquis House, even if he did manage to sneak out of the mansion...!)
Rest had claimed they met at the house, but Lucas didn't believe a word of it. The boy was forbidden from entering the mansion except during breakfast. The Rosemary sisters were supposed to be with Cedric, so there shouldn't have been any opportunity for his failure of a son to even see them.
Rest had departed for the Rosemary estate after receiving the invitation, but night fell without his return. Only the carriage returned to the Ebern mansion with a message: "Master Rest will be staying overnight at the Marquis’s residence."
(How in the world did that failure end up staying the night at a Marquis’s house? It makes no sense! What is happening?!)
Lucas held his head in his hands. Even when the following day passed, Rest did not return. The acute sense that something was moving beyond his control began to give Lucas a nervous stomach ache.
"Damn it! Why must I lose sleep over that failure? I was going to throw him out next year regardless!"
"Dear, this is terrible!"
"Master, it’s an emergency!"
"Gah!?"
Two people burst into the office simultaneously.
Entering without so much as a knock were Lucas’s wife, Liza, and the family butler.
"Wh-what is the meaning of this? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"This is no time for that, Lucas!"
"Indeed, Master!"
"What? What has happened?"
"The Marquis... he is here!"
"What?"
Lucas blinked, unable to process the butler's words.
"Marquis Rosemary has arrived! He is here, at this very house!"
"Wh-whaaaaaaaaaaat?!"
Lucas recoiled in shock, nearly falling out of his chair.
When Lucas hurried to the drawing room, he found Marquis Rosemary already ensconced on the sofa, waiting for him. Standing stoically behind him was the Marquis’s butler. If Lucas’s memory served, the man was a Former Court Mage named Dieble.
"M-Marquis Rosemary! What an honor it is to have you visit my humble home! The weather is truly spectacular today, and the garden flowers are just reaching their peak—"
"Save the greetings. Sit."
The Marquis—Albert Rosemary—pointed to the sofa opposite him. Despite being in Lucas’s house, he acted with the natural authority of one who owned everything he surveyed.
Lucas felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead as he sat.
(I can’t believe the Marquis came here in person...!)
Lucas desperately fought to keep his knees from knocking together. To Lucas, Albert was his ultimate superior—the Captain of the Court Mages.
Generally speaking, Albert was considered a fair and lenient boss. He didn't act like a tyrant or brandish his high-ranking noble privileges, and he was always willing to listen to his subordinates' concerns. Unless a mistake was truly catastrophic, he rarely scolded them harshly. Many of the Court Mages looked up to him as the ideal superior.
However, Lucas was well aware of Albert’s one glaring weakness: he doted on his wife and daughters to a fault.
The reason Lucas had tried to use Cedric to win over the Rosemary sisters was specifically to exploit that trait. He had hoped to secure the Marquis as a powerful backer by making him a relative.
(If Cedric had captured the heart of even one of those girls, we would have been part of the Marquis’s inner circle. We would have enjoyed the protection of a man who is notoriously indulgent toward his kin...!)
His promotion within the Court Mages would have been guaranteed. Cedric’s future would have been rock-solid once he entered the Royal Academy.
But that calculation had backfired spectacularly. He had been so certain that Cedric, his pride and joy, would easily charm the girls. Instead, his son had done the one thing guaranteed to incur the Marquis’s wrath.
"I’ve come today to discuss your son," Albert began.
"Y-You mean Cedric, of course... I am so terribly sorry for the other day! Truly, truly... I beg your forgiveness!"
Lucas slid off the sofa and dropped into a dogeza, pressing his forehead against the rug. He had no excuses. All he could do was grovel.
"No, not that one. I am here about your other son."
"The garbage... I mean, Rest? Did that failure do something to offend you, My Lord!?"
"Failure? Garbage? Surely you aren't referring to your own flesh and blood in such a manner?"
"Ah—no...!"
Lucas’s face drained of color at the slip of the tongue. His lips trembled as he tried to weave a frantic excuse.
"...Whatever. I didn't come here to lecture you on your character." Albert snorted and crossed his legs, leaning back into the sofa. "I have a proposal. The Rosemary family wishes to take Rest into our care."
"Huh? You want... that thing?"
"Yes. I intend to employ him as an apprentice servant. Do you have any objections?"
"O-Of course not! But... that thing is Magicless, you know? Why on earth would you want him, Marquis?"
It made no sense. Lucas was utterly bewildered. He could understand wanting Cedric, a magical prodigy, but he couldn't fathom why anyone would want a Magicless failure whose only skill was mucking out stables.
"Am I under some obligation to explain my reasoning to you?"
"N-No! Not at all! If he is of use to you, I will gladly give him over! Please, do with him as you wish!"
"I see. I’m glad we could reach an understanding so quickly. That concludes my business."
Albert stood up. His butler immediately stepped forward to open the drawing room door.
"U-Um... Marquis..."
"In exchange for the boy, I shall overlook the gross misconduct of your 'genius' son. Now, if you’ll excuse me."
"Ye... Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Lucas dropped back into a dogeza. As he rubbed his forehead against the carpet, he heard Albert’s footsteps recede into the hall.
"I-I’m saved...?"
He fearfully raised his head. Albert was gone; he had already departed the mansion.
Given how much the Marquis doted on his family, Lucas had expected to be fired as a Court Mage and for Cedric’s future to be destroyed. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, he was in the clear.
"That failure actually proved useful for once. Though why the Marquis would take an interest in him is beyond me..."
Could it be that one of the Rosemary sisters had actually fallen for Rest? The thought crossed Lucas’s mind, but he immediately laughed it off.
(It would be one thing if it were the brilliant Cedric... but there is no way a noble lady would look twice at that thing. It must have been some eccentric whim of the Marquis.)
Because he only valued visible talent, Lucas refused to acknowledge Rest even now.
(We made a blunder this time, but there’s still a chance. They’ll be attending the same Academy next year, after all!)
Despite having narrowly escaped a social death sentence, Lucas had not given up on his plan to claim the Rosemary daughters. The arrogant, narrow-minded father convinced himself that this had merely been a stroke of bad luck. Once the girls got to know the "real" Cedric, they would surely fall for him.
After all, Cedric was a genius. He was the perfect son who had inherited all of Lucas's own brilliance. He was nothing like that Magicless commoner's child; he was Lucas's only true heir.
"I must tell Cedric to focus on wooing those girls once he’s at the Academy. He must take his time and be thorough..."
A fool remains a fool precisely because he cannot learn from his mistakes. Lucas spun his delusions into a new web of schemes and grinned into the empty room.