The Magic State claimed that the Empire had joined forces with the bandit group to invade them.

The Empire claimed that the Magic State had harbored the bandit group and annihilated their subjugation force in return.

One incident.

But completely different stories.

The more the commotion grew, the faster the discord between the Empire and the Magic State would accelerate, and it was impossible for either side to easily bow their heads.

Therefore, the most rational solution to prevent war was to cover up the incident itself.

— What do I know? At least I know well about your father’s death! The poor knight who fought his best for the family, only to have his death covered up by the family head’s hands!

— —The Guardian Duke, Duke Lennart, ordered this incident to be handled quietly.

Adelaide felt her head throbbing.

Apart from understanding with her head that it was the fastest way to prevent war, her heart couldn’t accept her father’s and the Friedel soldiers’ deaths being buried in darkness, with the incident itself fizzling out without proper clarification of the truth or anything.

The fact that she didn’t know how much to believe of the two people’s words also brought greater confusion to Adelaide.

As if supporting Adelaide, who was at a loss for words, Dorothea asked, “Wait, you said the duke issued a gag order?”

“I didn’t receive the order directly from the duke’s mouth, but at least the official document I received was in his name.”

“You’re not some civil servant, but you’re playing with words a lot. More importantly, who’s that kid who was blabbing about such content in the middle of the street? Is the duke’s order perhaps not actually a big deal?”

“That’s impossible,” Norman denied it as if it were absurd. “It’s commonly evaluated that the position of representative instructor of the Lennart dojo is equivalent to the title of count in the Empire, but even someone like me would have to immediately step down with just one word from him, that’s how powerful the family head’s authority is. However… the young lady you met is close to an exception in many ways. She’s the daughter left behind by the current family head’s older brother before he died.”

The legitimacy of being the daughter of the current family head’s deceased older brother, and the firstborn at that.

The blatant protection of the Senate, which formed a subtle confrontational structure with the family head.

Even talent evaluated as likely to be the next generation’s strongest in the Lennart family.

Norman said that with three factors that were difficult to touch, even individually, gathered together, she had the power to gloss over most incidents.

Norman’s explanation continued quite in detail after that.

Stories like how the current duke, who was the third son, and the firstborn fiercely competed as candidates for the next family head, but the duke’s side was chosen because the firstborn had no children.

How a daughter was born between the firstborn and his wife just half a year after the family head succession ended, and the firstborn requested a rematch using that as a pretext.

How the match was somehow established, but due to the firstborn dying while away during the preparation period, it caused tremendous noise within the duke’s family, and because of that, the girl became a counter-pick that was difficult for the duke to touch just by her very existence, and so on.

Contents that could become a scandal for the Lennart duke’s family if leaked outside. Saying this with his own mouth must be taking on considerable risk, but Norman was nonchalant.

Whether this stemmed from sympathy or goodwill towards Adelaide, or from antipathy towards Hilda, was unknown.

However, how much Norman’s risk-taking action was effective on the party was…

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he understands everything and goes ‘Aha!’]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ babbles that it’s just a common cringe family, isn’t it!]

…It didn’t have much effect in this sense.

Well, it was at least minimally rewarding in that it calmed the killing intent of a certain black witch who was doing the flower fortune-telling of “You knew about such an incident and still sent Adel to the tower? Kill? Don’t kill? Kill? Don’t kill? Ki…”

After finishing the conversation and leaving the dojo.

Dorothea asked Adelaide, “So, what will you do now?”

“…I don’t know,” Adelaide said with a dejected look.

“Since everyone says different things, I don’t know what’s fact and what’s truth. I don’t know who to resent, who to confront, or what to do first.”

The only connection Adelaide had with the main family that could be called such was Maris, but she was the daughter of Duke Lennart.

Naturally, she would continue the story in a direction favorable to the duke, and even if she sincerely helped Adelaide, there was no certainty that she didn’t also possess distorted knowledge.

The vagueness and remoteness of having to vaguely find something whose exact form was unknown on a vast sandy beach was draining Adelaide’s energy.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that when you can’t trust others’ words, it’s best to run around yourself!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ encourages his pupil, saying isn’t the quest route nicely laid out!]

And the Tin Knight patted his pupil’s back with his palm.

Considering that the Tin Knight’s body was a lump of iron, it was quite a dangerous action, but since Adelaide’s body was also far from that of an ordinary person, it was somewhat balanced.

“Run around myself?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says you can go to the place where the incident happened!]

“But the incident is already over. Are you perhaps planning to ask the nearby villagers?”

To Adelaide’s answer, the Tin Knight shook his head.

And silently pointed at Dorothea with his finger.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that while the living may not speak, the dead have plenty to say!]

Next, he pointed at Sophia.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says there’s no surer way of confirmation than directly seeing the past that has already occurred!]

“…Ah.”

Adelaide blankly opened her mouth.

That was right. Approaching numerous people, building trust, gathering information, and verifying the authenticity of that information.

Such “orthodox information gathering” was unnecessary for their party.

From the start, their actions were closer to a villain party than a hero party.

Dorothea and Sophia also showed positive reactions.

“Well, anyway, the next on our route is the Tower of Control. We can stop by on the way.”

“Thanks to using it a lot at the Tower of Foresight, I feel like my proficiency has increased quite a bit, so I think I can adjust the content I want to see to some extent.”

“Everyone…!”

Tears welled up in Adelaide’s eyes.

They were tears of trust and joy for her reliable companions.1

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he needs to add a special training course to beat that royal mesugaki!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses regret, saying that Adel’s growth has been so dazzling lately that he seems to have become somewhat lax himself!]

Adelaide’s tears disappeared.

She was certainly regretting her laziness and complacency before meeting the Tin Knight, but she had definitely not become lax since meeting him.

Even now, a considerable part of her daily routine was filled with training, and more than that?

“Um, Sir Knight? I’m already filling all my free time with training, how can I add more training from there…?”

Even if Adelaide tried desperately, it was physically impossible to add 48 hours worth of training to 24 hours.

“Ah, I can help with that.”

Gale, who had been withdrawn from the conversation for a while as she wasn’t directly related to this incident, stepped forward.

In her hand was a book.

Dorothea showed signs of recognition.

“What, is the purification work done?”

“Yes, without the barrier of the library and the support of other magic books, it’ll be difficult to implement a world with substance like last time, but with the consent of the person involved, it should be possible to temporarily transfer their mind to the world inside the book. If we adjust the story’s settings, we can implement various environments.”

Adelaide, who had been feeling an inexplicable ominousness from the conversation between the two witches, finally realized that the book in Gale’s hand was the very one that had tormented them in the tower’s library and had been stained black by Dorothea’s rampage.

The Tin Knight put his hand on Adelaide’s shoulder.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that from now on, he’ll reduce training time and increase training intensity by that much!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that when you’re so exhausted you can’t move your body, you can train your mind in the book while your body rests!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that since you can even use time acceleration for the mental side, not only 48 hours a day but even more training is possible!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he doesn’t do crazy things like complaining about why growth is so slow after taking away his pupil’s prey and growth opportunities!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ cheers Adel on, saying she can do it!]

Adelaide was silent for a moment.

Suddenly, Hilda von Lennart’s words came to mind.

If our qualities are equal, what’s left is how we trained, right?

The lacking time, now I can fill it until it’s no longer lacking.

“Ha… hahahahaha.”

With eyes that had somehow lost focus, Adelaide laughed.

The Tin Knight also laughed at his pupil’s enthusiastic appearance.

It was truly an overflowing teacher-pupil relationship.

Footnotes

1. 1. TL Note: TL Note: Japanese term for young girls who often act "bratty", arrogant, or superior despite their age.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken