After Werner, who seemed lost in thought, and Maris, who looked quite flustered, had left.

“So, do you have anything to say?”

Under the witch’s sharp gaze, the lion quietly averted her eyes.

Dorothea spoke as if dumbfounded, “‘From now on, I’m the main family,’ ‘Those who want to keep calling themselves Lennart can get permission through a licensing system,’ You’ve made quite an impressive provocation. More than that, are you serious? About taking away the Lennart name?”

“If you ask if I’m serious, about 30%, no, 24% maybe…?”

“What’s with that incredibly ambiguous percentage?”

“Well, um,” Adelaide hesitated as if pondering how to explain, then blurted out. “I thought that might make them take it a bit more seriously.”

No, they probably weren’t being casual about this in the first place.

Dorothea forcibly suppressed the words that unconsciously rose to her throat.

Adelaide probably knew this in her head too.

At a point where the family’s downfall might come if they weren’t careful, there was no way the Lion Duke’s bloodline members would have been casual about it.

It was just that for Adelaide, who had to literally “fight to the death” with the Tower of Control, that was, Rognir’s side, their desperation felt relatively weak in comparison.

But whether it was because pointing this out honestly and showing concern wasn’t in Dorothea’s character, she spoke somewhat gruffly, “As expected of teacher and pupil, you get itchy if you win too easily, huh? Do you really have to raise the difficulty level on your own like that?”

“Hehe…”

No, that’s not a compliment, you know? More importantly, are you happy because I said you’re alike now?

Seeing Adelaide scratching the back of her head embarrassedly but seeming not too displeased, Dorothea was once again at a loss for words.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ defends his pupil, saying that appropriate declarations of war are a very important element in honorable duels!]

“This isn’t a duel.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that appropriate difficulty increases give a greater sense of achievement when cleared!]

“No, isn’t it better to win comfortably and easily?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that he doesn’t want to hear that from someone who puts self-imposed restrictions on convenient and powerful necromancy for limited play!]

Clang!

Dorothea’s staff struck the Tin Knight’s face directly.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ protests, asking why Dorothea hit him when he didn’t even say anything wrong this time!]

Dorothea calmly answered with a face that said it was obvious, “Because it’s annoying obviously.”

…

With a look that would have made a human gape and stutter, the Tin Knight remained frozen and unable to move.

Adelaide inwardly thought.

Miss Witch seems to have been influenced by Sir Knight in various ways too.

Of course, these words didn’t escape her mouth.

Adelaide sometimes feared that if that overwhelmingly powerful staff fell on her head, she might end up like a watermelon in front of a carriage wheel.

This was a hierarchy separate from strength.

It was then that Sophia, who had been engrossed in some experiment inside the mansion all along, came out.

The three tilted their heads at Sophia’s appearance, which was as inscrutable as usual but strangely seemed excited.

“Everyone, I think I’ve figured out the identity of the sacred treasures—they seem to be the remains of the generals from the past?”

And without any warning, a bomb exploded.

Well, since everything this party did was a bomb, in some sense, it was everyday life.

***

What triggered it was the story of the past heard from Camilla, the vampire residing on the uninhabited island.

In a distant age, eight generals invaded the surface.

The queen and knight of the eastern nation defeated them.

And the eight sacred treasures of the kingdom were passed down in the eastern nation but were then scattered across the continent with its fall.

It was a suspicious combination to anyone, and Dorothea wasn’t the type to leave an ominous sign unattended even after discovering it.

But even if she tried to investigate specifically, it wasn’t easy to find books recording information from ancient times just anywhere. The few records that existed were also fragmented and distorted, making them unreliable as sources.

Therefore, the party decided to use a cheat key.

They decided to use the Chalice of Tuberose to obtain information about other sacred treasures.

Originally, Dorothea and Sophia would have to work together, repeating trial and error until the desired information popped up—the Tin Knight called this “rerolling”—but the remote mana supply function obtained from the Tower of Protection helped here.1

Separate from the direct line established between the Tin Knight and Dorothea, two kinds of relay magic tools for increasing the supply’s effective distance were given to Sophia and Adelaide respectively, which meant that mana could be freely exchanged between companions including Sophia and Adelaide, not just between the Tin Knight and Dorothea.

Sophia was originally unable to use the power of the Chalice of Tuberose alone and needed help from other companions, but by utilizing the above function, it was possible to make the Chalice of Tuberose misunderstand that “someone other than Sophia used the power”.

In other words, it meant that Sophia could use the chalice alone if Dorothea just supplied mana.

The non-human scholar who needed neither rest nor meals devoted most of her time to this research except for the time invested in the test, and those efforts finally bore fruit.

“The ‘people of the underground’ seem to be a general term for those with a certain level of intelligence among what we call magic beasts. Vampires, giants, dwarves, half-beasts, things like that. Among them, the particularly powerful ones who acted as vanguards in the invasion of the surface were beings called the ‘eight generals’.”

In front of a blue blackboard, like a teacher instructing students, Sophia moved the chalk back and forth.

Somehow, it was a strangely familiar behavior.

“Half of these eight generals were subjugated by the legendary knight, likely the ‘previous Tin Knight’, and the other half by beings called ‘angels’ deployed by the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven then utilized their remains to recreate their abilities as eight treasures.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that item looting is basic!]

The Tin Knight lightly agreed.

Defeating a strong enemy and obtaining spoils was the basics of basics. In his thinking, if there were no spoils, at least tearing off materials was a natural thing.

“So that’s how it was…”

Adelaide showed a reaction of being surprised but understanding.

She had vaguely guessed what kind of being the “giant” she saw in her dream training was, but hearing it as confirmed information felt different.

“Why did they do such a thing? If they just wanted tools with strong powers, they could have just swallowed them themselves. What’s the point of carefully making them with rare materials and then handing them over to the kingdom?”

Dorothea’s reaction was somewhat gruff.

It was because she felt an inexplicable displeasure from the Kingdom of Heaven’s incomprehensible actions.

“Oh, wasn’t it like a gift? After all, that great war was won because of Sir Knight—I mean the previous Tin Knight, and the kingdom, right? I think it might have been a token of gratitude from the heavenly realm.”

“Would they do such a thoughtful thing?”

“They might have if they didn’t want to antagonize the kingdom where the previous Tin Knight was still active.”

“Hmm.”

Dorothea unconsciously nodded.

If Adelaide had answered something like, “The good Kingdom of Heaven kindly repaid them,” she would have listened with one ear and let it pass, but offering a bribe to appease an opponent they didn’t want to upset seemed quite plausible.

At the same time, it was also proof that Adelaide didn’t view the Kingdom of Heaven as purely good beings. Growth was felt in many ways.

“So, the answer?”

“Unfortunately, the investigation is still lacking in that part. Shall we dig a bit deeper?”

“I want to say please do, but let’s stop here for today. The future is important, but we need to solve what’s right in front of us first.”

Saying this, Dorothea flicked up a piece of paper she had received from Algind with her finger.

[・3rd Recruitment Test Color War

– Before the competition starts, participants are given a “mark” of a designated “color”.

– Those of the same color are treated as a team.

– Those who lose their mark are considered eliminated.

– At the end of the competition, the four teams with the least number of eliminations advance to the next test.

– Even if eliminated as an individual, if the “color” one belongs to wins, they are also considered to have passed.

***

“—They will probably crowd our people into specific teams. Of course, they’ll disguise it a bit by splitting into two or three groups since there are watching eyes, but that’s just a facade.”

At the words of the head of the Council of Elders, Hilda von Lennart grumbled, “Setting all the rules and details as they please, the Imperial Family is really cowardly!”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that the Empress’ forces did everything “as they pleased”, but rather it was the result of a compromise reached after repeated checks and shadow struggles with the Ducal family side, but the head of the Council of Elders didn’t bother to explain such details.

For this innocent yet cruel genius, it was enough for the Imperial Family and their associates to be easy-to-understand enemies who wielded tyranny at will.

“Yes, truly cowardly.”

The head of the Council of Elders stroked Hilda’s head like a kind grandfather.

She was a girl feared as a ruffian in the world, but in front of the head of the Council of Elders, she only made purring sounds like a well-trained cat.

Pleased by this sight, the head of the Council of Elders laughed heartily.

Hilda von Lennart.

She was a masterpiece raised by the Council of Elders, the radical faction of the Lennart Ducal family.

Talent that made even the word genius feel frivolous. Narrow-mindedness that believed the words of the grandfathers were absolutely right and didn’t consider other possibilities.

— The Imperial Family are ungrateful bastards who used the Ducal family to their heart’s content and are now trying to stab them in the back.

— The Duke is a coward who’s scared of such an Imperial Family and only cares about self-preservation, even if it means selling out the family.

— The tragedy of the Friedel domain was an incident caused by the Duke. Therefore, we should help the heir of Friedel.

The girl didn’t doubt a single word engraved by the head of the Council of Elders and other old men, and thus she raged against easy-to-understand “villains”.

Where else could there be a card so powerful, so lovely, and so convenient?

Therefore, the head of the Council of Elders thought.

What a shame.

Knowing Hilda’s value, feeling her usefulness, the head of the Council of Elders couldn’t help but feel grief.

If things had gone well, we could have embraced that Adelaide child on our side too.

Originally, the Council of Elders didn’t pay much attention to the Friedel domain.

Friedel had essentially fulfilled its role the moment they moved Friedel through an order disguised under the Duke’s name and they were annihilated. Fortunately, the Duke, worried about public opinion for participation, issued a gag order with his own mouth. It was at this point the Council of Elders submitted a proposal to “support Friedel” to the Duke and it was accepted.

A discarded card to spread rumors about the Duke from behind, disguise the subject of the incident as the Duke, and create a structure of “the Duke who issued a gag order to cover up his mistake even after sacrificing a collateral line” versus “the Council of Elders who supported Friedel against such a Duke”.

Of course, since the Duke was no pushover, it wasn’t easy to openly create negative public opinion, but fortunately, this was a fight that the Elder faction was bound to win.

No matter how capable the Duke was and how powerful his authority was, as long as the Imperial Family focused on “checking Lennart”, as long as the Duke didn’t take radical countermeasures against it, dissatisfaction and anxiety within the family were bound to grow.

Spreading such rumors on bare ground and giving excuses to those already looking for reasons to hate the Duke were completely different realms.

If they had to find any value in using Friedel after that, it would be to secure the heir and use them for public opinion manipulation as “a pitiful victim whose life was ruined by the Duke’s lust for power and mistakes”.

The problem was that the bird that should have been quietly in the cage had arbitrarily gone out into the wild.

It was a misstep that they couldn’t explain the detailed circumstances to Giselle, who was dispatched as the acting lord, in order to avoid the Duke’s watchful eyes of suspicion.

In fact, when they first heard that the youngest lady of Friedel had left on a journey, the Council of Elders only thought of it as “one less stone to throw at the head of the family”, but now that Adelaide had proven her worth, they could only feel regret that they should have secured her then, even if it meant taking some risks.

What a shame, what a pity. If we could have conveyed our righteous beliefs not only to Hilda but also to that child, she would surely have become a stepping stone to support the family.

However, there was no point in endlessly thinking about something one didn’t have in one’s hands.

“Hilda, there’s something you must be careful about in the next test.”

“What is it? That magic doll might be a bit difficult, but I’ll try to handle anything else somehow! After all, winning is what matters!”

“No.”

For the sake of the family, to protect the honor that the Lennart name shouldered, the head of the Council of Elders, as the representative of the Council of Elders, whispered to his granddaughter, “—I hope the entire family loses as miserably as possible.”

Footnotes

1. 1. ED Note: Rerolling is a gacha term. Basically, if you didn't like what you pulled as you start the game, you make a new account and roll again to see if you can get some gacha rolls you do like. Hence the term "rerolling"

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken