Receiving my curious gaze, Laphiren soon sat back down.
Adjusting his glasses, he cleared his throat before beginning to answer my question.
“First of all, only one person is chosen from among the three candidates for head of the family. You must be wondering what happens to the other two.”
“Mm-hm!”
“Those who are not chosen are granted the title of Margrave and sent somewhere far away from the capital. When they have children there, they send those children back to the estate.”
So those children become the heirs of Driblyane. That was why the opportunity was given equally to both the direct and collateral branches. Even if they themselves could not become the head of the family, their children might. Perhaps that hope was what kept them from rebelling.
“Of course, there have also been cases where someone rejected even that tradition and tried to seize the position of head of the family by force.”
“Gasp!”
“In such cases, the step is to mediate the dispute.”
“The Paladins?”
“All Paladins are Sword Masters, and their number is maintained at twelve. If someone wishes to become a new Paladin, they must defeat one of the existing Paladins.”
“Woooow……!”
So cool. In the original story, Dante was one of the Paladins.
“Furthermore, the Paladins are an organization that belongs to no country. Nationality, gender, and race are of no concern to them. There are no requirements other than being an Alpha. No matter how powerful someone is, they cannot defeat them, and no matter how much they try to persuade or win them over, it is useless. That made them rather easy to subdue.”
So they were basically an international organization for mediating armed conflicts.
I understood perfectly, and once again thought they were incredibly cool.
“I have one more question. What about the kids who don’t even become candidates for head of the family?”
The ones who don’t make it into the main house.
“Those who are eliminated without even becoming candidates for head of the family are given important positions within the family. As long as they don’t cause one problem or another.”
“Ah-ha.”
Then perhaps it might actually be better not to become a candidate for head of the family.
Having to spend your entire life in some distant border region sounded awfully lonely.
After carefully storing everything I had learned in my head, I cautiously opened my mouth. Since Laphiren was willing to give me his time anyway, I intended to ask everything I had been curious about.
“Then, when did the daughter-in-law start choosing the head of the family?”
“That was the will of the first head of the family. It was intended to ensure that the strongest male would lead Driblyane by placing them in an environment where they had no choice but to compete to the extreme.”
“Only males?”
What if a strong daughter was born?
“Yes. Originally, only males could become the head of Driblyane. It was an outdated idea, but it had been maintained in the name of tradition until…… that was broken by Lady Ariadne.”
For an instant, Laphiren stopped speaking.
Then, when he opened his mouth again, his voice was trembling ever so slightly.
“Lady Ariadne was someone who was outside every standard. Had she still been alive, she probably would have brought about innovation.”
Ariadne was someone who absolutely hated being forced to fit herself into any kind of standard.
When I had read the original story as a reader, I had thought Rahin hated Ariadne. Rahin was the type who always adapted herself to fit in with those around her.
Perhaps she had been jealous of Ariadne, who was loved without even having to try.
‘As for me…….’
Lady Ariadne, you’re seriously so cool!
‘It would have been really nice if she were still alive.’
Laphiren took a shallow breath as though trying to calm his emotions, then took off his glasses and began wiping them. It seemed to be his own way of controlling his feelings.
“Originally, if the young head who had been designated as the candidate for head of the family died in an unforeseen accident, the designated future mistress would choose one of the remaining candidates again.”
“Yes.”
“But as I mentioned, in the case of the nineteenth generation…… Lady Ariadne was simply too exceptional, so there were no other candidates. Other than Lady Ariadne, the next most exceptional person was, naturally, Lord Kiraxus. That was why Lord Kiraxus needed to inherit the position of young head as quickly as possible, before anyone could say anything else…….”
“He didn’t wanna do it and ran away.”
“That is correct. He went on a rampage, insisting that he would absolutely never become the young head, and then suddenly changed his mind like this.”
Laphiren laughed hollowly as he ground his teeth.
It seemed Kiraxus had given Laphiren quite a bit of trouble while he was avoiding work and running away.
“Still, now that the Little lady is here, he should settle down.”
Ah, so he seemed to think of me as some sort of weakness of Kiraxus’s—
‘Nope.’
I snorted inwardly.
I already told you everything yesterday.
‘I mean, I’m the evil villain’s conscience-protection talisman.’
If he abandoned me, then he’d truly be a bad guy. But by taking me along with him, it was like he was at least repenting a little…… or something like that?
“Then I will see you next time. Please think carefully about the matter concerning Lord Gerd.”
“Mm, no, wait!”
Just one more thing!
I scampered over and grabbed the lapel of Laphiren’s clothes tightly.
“Then…… where is Lady Ariadne’s wife?”
Actually, since I had read the original story, I knew whom Ariadne had married, but I deliberately pretended not to know and asked. That way, if I happened to know that information later, it wouldn’t seem strange.
On top of that, I wanted to emphasize that I was an innocent little child with no preconceived notions.
Blurting out “wife” instead of “husband” when talking about Lady Ariadne was something only a genuinely young child could get away with.
“Lady Ariadne personally chose the person she wanted and married him. It wasn’t a wife, though, well, no one would have said anything even if it had been a wife, but anyway, it was a husband. Lord Dien Glans.”
“Ah-ha. Then where is he?”
Dien Glans.
The biological father of ‘Dante Driblyane’ in the story and Ariadne’s only husband.
“He went with Lady Ariadne.”
“I-I see…….”
It was true. In the original story, Dien Glans was portrayed as an incredibly delicate, sensitive, and fragile man. And he could not accept Ariadne’s death.
He was said to have ended his own life while leaving his young son at the military academy, and I couldn’t even begin to describe how much the original story’s Ariadne fans had pounded their chests in grief over it.
“Then I really will be going now. I’m already late for my next schedule.”
“Mmm. Thank you, Teachy.”
Eventually, I waved both hands vigorously at Laphiren as he left. It was quite a bright and cheerful farewell for someone who had just plotted to have someone eliminated from the position of heir.
“Okay, then! Now let’s study the family tree!”
I opened my eyes wide and carefully examined each and every one of the squiggly letters. Then I found Kiraxus’s name, but there was no one listed beneath it.
‘Oh, right. Because he made a vow of chastity.’
Honestly, even if he’d made such a vow, I hadn’t thought Kiraxus would actually keep it…… but apparently, he really did. He had no children.
Next, I checked the names written beneath Lady Ariadne.
Ian Driblyane
Dante Driblyane
Yuri Yerevan Helicoprion Driblyane
‘Huh?’
Ian?
‘There was a kid like this, too?’
I felt like I had seen the name somewhere…… but he wasn’t a character who appeared in the original story.
‘Hmm, hmm.’
It felt like I was about to remember something, but then again, maybe not…….
However, before I could think any further—
“Little lady! Little lady!”
Linda came rushing over, calling for me.
“Whyyy?”
“L-L-Lady Duchess is calling for you!”
“Eek?!”
For real?!
***
‘Just where am I supposed to go and how am I supposed to accomplish some great feat?’
Because I was a marten, no matter how quickly I hurried, one step of a human was three steps for me. So even as I was hurriedly being carried in my nanny’s arms on the way to see the Duchess, my little head was completely occupied by this one thought.
‘It would be so nice if I could read the original story again!’
Was there some kind of national disaster that was supposed to happen around this time? If I prevented something like that, I’d have accomplished an incredibly great feat, right?
‘I absolutely have to obtain the Right to Choose, so I can weed them out.’
That way, I could get rid of not only Gerd, but also the kids who were cozying up to him.
Not every boy in the Heirs’ Residence could possibly think that they would become the head of the family. There must also be quick-witted ones who had attached themselves to the most promising heir, hoping to secure an important position within the family.
I wanted to clean them out along with the others. I wanted to eliminate in advance any dangerous elements that might harm not my old age…… but this family.
“I should tell you in advance, but the Duchess is in poor health. Please be careful not to do anything that might upset her.”
Before opening the door, the elderly head maid gave me that warning. Judging from her tone and expression, it seemed that she neither particularly liked me nor disliked me.
‘She just seems deeply worried about the Duchess.’
The bedroom where the Driblyane Duchesses of generations past were said to have stayed felt much warmer than I had imagined.
‘Wow, there are even stained-glass windows shaped like bilberry branches.’
Overall, it looked grand, splendid, beautiful, and expensive. Strangely, the moment I stepped inside, I felt an intense sense of familiarity.
But I couldn’t have been here before.
Or was it simply that all this wealth made me feel comfortable?
‘Am I, perhaps, genetically predisposed to being rich?’
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