"What have you done! That good-for-nothing son of mine!"
Lucas Eberun, the head of the House Eberun, raised his voice in fury from his study.
His son, Cedric, had done something utterly outrageous.
He had taken the sisters of House Rosemary — Viola and Primula — into the forest and put their very lives in jeopardy.
Fortunately, the monsters that had attacked them had since departed, but had things gone only a little differently, the two of them would have faced something far worse than mere injuries.
"I told him over and over to treat those sisters with the utmost respect... Dammit! My entire plan is ruined!"
"Who cares about those girls! Never mind that — our son... Cedric got hurt, you know?"
Lucas's wife, Lisa Eberun, furrowed her brows at her husband's outburst.
"There's no time for that! If this keeps up, we'll lose our noble status!"
"Our noble status...? What do you mean?"
Lisa looked genuinely bewildered.
Exasperated at his wife's complete lack of understanding, Lucas slammed his fist on the table.
"Viola and Primula — those two are the daughters of House Rosemary! The daughters of the chief court mage, who happens to be my direct superior!"
The House Eberun was indeed a noble house, but its standing was in an entirely different league from House Rosemary.
An honorary viscount was a title granted in conjunction with one's position, and was looked down upon as a "makeshift noble" or "noble in name only."
Lucas had been granted the veneer of nobility only because he held the position of court magician, but the moment he stepped down, he would revert to being a commoner.
If his son Cedric became a court magician as well, the family would have held the position for three consecutive generations — grandfather, father, and son — which would earn him a formal investiture as a viscount.
But now, an incident had occurred that could shatter that entire vision of the future.
"If the Marquis Rosemary so desires, it would be all too easy for him to have me dismissed and cast out of the court...! And if I lose my position as a court magician, I'll fall back to being a commoner on the spot...!"
If I hadn't invited the daughter of House Rosemary to our estate, none of this would have happened.
House Rosemary had two daughters, both renowned for their extraordinary beauty.
I had planned to match one of them with Cedric and have him take her as his wife, but those plans had backfired spectacularly.
"If I could bring a daughter of House Rosemary into my family and make her Cedric's backing, a promotion to count — let alone viscount — might not have been out of reach. And yet, that idiotic son of mine…!"
I had begged him to take advantage of enrolling at the Royal Academy together next year to build connections at every opportunity.
I had specifically told him to court one of the sisters, and yet I never imagined he would do something like this.
When I went to House Rosemary to apologize, I was flatly refused at the door.
There was no foothold whatsoever. I wasn't even given a chance to explain.
"Th-that… You're joking, right? We're being cast out by commoners…?"
Lisa had finally grasped the situation, and she was trembling from head to toe.
"This can't be… The terms were different, weren't they? We were supposed to become viscounts, weren't we supposed to become nobles…?"
"If Cedric had held himself together, that's exactly what would have happened. Where on earth did we go wrong in raising him…?"
"Th-that boy was supposed to be kind-hearted and a good boy… How could he try to hurt a woman…?"
Lucas and Lisa had spoiled their son Cedric since childhood, and they had hardly ever scolded him.
It was probably because he had been born with outstanding magical talent.
They hadn't even noticed how twisted Cedric's personality had become — bullying the weak and acting entirely self-centered.
"I thought Cedric was nothing like that worthless half-brother of his… How did it come to this…!"
"My lord, pardon the intrusion."
The butler knocked on the door and entered.
"A letter has arrived from House Rosemary."
"What!? Bring it here!"
Lucas snatched the letter from the butler's hands and, in a panic, broke the wax seal to open the envelope.
He unfolded the letter, read through the contents... and froze.
"What the... what is this...?"
"H-Hey, you! What does it say!?"
"............"
Lisa pressed her husband urgently, but Lucas remained rooted to the spot, the letter still in his hand.
He stayed like that for quite some time... then suddenly looked up and spoke to his wife.
"They want to invite that good-for-nothing... Rest, to the Rosemary marquis family's estate. They say we and Cedric don't need to come — just him..."
"...Excuse me?"
Stunned by the completely unexpected contents of the letter, Lucas and Lisa were both struck dumb at the same time.
Without Rest's knowledge, events were already beginning to shift on a massive scale.
————— Thank you as always for your support of this work.
I have posted two new novels, so if you're interested, please check them out as well.
The Cursed consumption Magic Swordsman He was made to shoulder the nation's calamities and washed out to sea, but he has no interest in revenge. He couldn't care less about any of that — he aspires to become the strongest.
The Tale of the Monkey King Reincarnated as a Monkey, So I Built a Harem and Live As I Please