Wilfried's Punishment

"……I was puzzled by the fact that only Grandmother's truth didn't align with everyone else's truth. Father, Mother, and Rozemyne—they were all telling the truth, so wasn't Grandmother's account the most suspect of all? I do love Grandmother, but when I think about it in terms of who was right and who was wrong, I believe Grandmother was the one who was wrong."

The Chief Priest quietly watched Wilfried as he made this declaration in a straightforward manner, then prompted him to continue.

"I see. ……And then?"

"……I need to apologize to him. For saying all those things—I'm sorry, Ferdinand."

The fact that Wilfried apologized so sincerely caused the Chief Priest's eyes to widen ever so slightly. Then, slowly narrowing his eyes, he studied Wilfried as if examining him in detail.

"Ah, even after I apologized, there's no need to glare at me like that…"

Wilfried's face twisted and he looked like he was about to cry as the Chief Priest's gaze grew even more severe.

"It's all right, Brother Wilfried."

"Nothing is all right!?"

Wilfried let out a cry like a scream as he was subjected to that freezing stare, so I explained on his behalf.

"After you apologized, the Chief Priest's expression may have grown even more stern, but that's actually because he has begun listening earnestly. Your words have been received properly, Brother Wilfried, so please keep it up just as you are."

"…R-Really?"

Wilfried looked back and forth between me, the Chief Priest, and my foster mother, who was clasping her hands together beside him with a worried expression.

"Rozemyne, don't say unnecessary things."

"They aren't unnecessary. They're essential. The Chief Priest has accepted your apology, so rather than making such a frightening face, he could simply say one word—'I forgive you.'"

The Chief Priest let out a hmph, grumbling something uncharming about how he hadn't spoken because he didn't intend to forgive just yet, before turning his gaze back to Wilfried.

"Now then. Tell me what you thought of the nobles who were at that tea party."

"Those nobles… they acted as though they were kindly teaching me things, but they were inciting me to commit a crime. They weren't kind at all. I finally understood what Oswald meant when he said that those who approach you with a smile aren't necessarily on your side."

What he hadn't been able to understand through mere words alone, he had now come to understand viscerally through direct experience. At Wilfried's words, Oswald's face twisted in frustration, as if thinking that Wilfried could have realized it a little sooner.

The Chief Priest gave a single nod in acknowledgment of this important realization on Wilfried's part.

"That is precisely why you are told not to speak with nobles you don't know, and drilled never to say anything careless. To eliminate even a small measure of risk, the nobles you are permitted to meet with are screened by your head attendant."

"Do prohibitions actually have meaning behind them…"

As the Lord's child, Wilfried faced mountains of rules: "Don't do this," "You must not do that." Prohibitions were taught and repeated over and over, but if one didn't understand their meaning, there was no way one could actually follow them.

"Of course they do. Nothing is prohibited without reason. Conversely, the things you are drilled on through your education also have meaning."

"……I know that from practicing my letters, calculations, and Feshpil."

"I see. Is there anything else you've thought about or realized?"

"I was also surprised to find that Grandmother's crime looked entirely different depending on who was viewing it. I think hearing a variety of opinions is important."

"Hmm."

The Chief Priest listened to Wilfried's opinion and furrowed his brows deeply in thought.

I clenched my fist tightly. I wanted to steer this in a direction that would save Wilfried. It was true that he had done something astonishingly reckless and committed a crime, but Wilfried was genuinely growing. He simply hadn't received nearly enough education up to now—that was all. He wasn't a hopeless child. This time, too, he had properly realized something important. It had been educational for me in many ways as well.

"This time, disowning him and sending him to the Temple, or imprisoning him in the Tower like his grandmother—either would be the standard punishment. ……But that's somewhat difficult."

"What's difficult about it?"

My foster father furrowed his brow just as the Chief Priest had.

"Just as truth differs depending on the person, when multiple individuals are involved in a single matter, their objectives aren't necessarily the same. Too many people were involved this time. We can't narrow down their targets."

The Chief Priest looked down at the papers in front of him and spoke in a bitter voice.

"The only ones who can open the door to that Tower are those who can work with the foundational magic. Currently, that's only the Lord and his wife, myself, Bonifatius, Wilfried, and Rozemyne. There's a barrier on the Tower's door, so we don't keep guards on it, and the number of people who know of the Tower's existence—concealed as it is among the surrounding trees—and its purpose is very limited."

"Even though the number of people who know about it is so limited, there was someone who brought it up at the tea party? Who was the man in front of the Tower? Was it Bonifatius?"

I tilted my head in puzzlement, and Wilfried raised his eyebrows in irritation.

"If it had been Bonifatius, I would have recognized him. If it had been a familiar face, I would have reported him by name."

"Besides, Bonifatius was causing a huge commotion at the Harvest Festival, declaring he wouldn't lose to the younger generation. If Bonifatius had been standing quietly in front of the Tower, everyone would have found that suspicious."

……A huge commotion at the Harvest Festival?

While I was thinking about my grandfather, whom I didn't interact with much, the Chief Priest's explanation continued.

"That Tower can be entered by others as well, once the door is opened. Anyone who knows who can open the door and where the Tower is located should also understand that once the door is opened, others can enter inside. And yet, they didn't attempt to free the former Lord's wife."

"Anyone can enter!?"

Wilfried had been convinced when told that they couldn't enter, and now raised his voice in surprise.

"You were there, so they could enter. The most likely reason they didn't is that they didn't want to commit a crime. But it's also possible that the person who provided the information never intended to free the former Lord's wife, and therefore told the others that no one else could enter—presenting that as information about the Tower."

"I-Is that so…"

The way nobles thought was so convoluted that I couldn't understand it.

"I had been thinking that the old Veronica faction wanted to make Wilfried the figurehead of their faction. There had actually been movements in that direction. If so, feeding him information about his grandmother's current situation and driving a wedge between him and his parents or Rozemyne would be a highly effective psychological tactic. In fact, it had worked about halfway."

If they had created a rift between me—Rozemyne—as a central figure of the Florentzia faction, and Wilfried, they could have forced the others to choose between their biological son and their adopted daughter, and in doing so, driven a wedge between the parents as well.

"But at this rate, forget about making him a figurehead—he faces disowning or execution. They might want to create a split between the pro-Lord and anti-Lord factions, but if Wilfried is disowned or executed, there's no way a faction could form. When I think about it that way, sending him into the Tower was clearly excessive. Rather than wanting a figurehead, it seemed more like their objective was to eliminate Wilfried."

"Wait a moment. That doesn't make sense. If their objective were solely to eliminate Wilfried, they had already taken him out of the Tower—wouldn't the simplest thing have been to get rid of him right then and there?"

My foster father raised an eyebrow and pointed this out, causing Wilfried—who had just been confronted with the danger he himself had been in—to tremble. The thought that the objective might have shifted from faction-building to something far more dangerous, his own elimination, shook him to his core, and the Chief Priest nodded in agreement with my foster father's point.

"Exactly. If they wanted a guaranteed result, that would have been the greatest opportunity. And they let it slip by."

"So that means eliminating Brother Wilfried wasn't their objective after all?"

"Rather, it seems as though they didn't care what happened either way. ……There's also the possibility that nobles who didn't know about how far behind Wilfried's education was simply misjudged his personality and behavior. But building a plan around something so uncertain was wrong from the start."

Given the sheer number of people mobilized, the Chief Priest said, there was no way they would have devised something that uncertain.

"……Honestly, Wilfried might not be the target at all. If we read deeper—that Wilfried's downfall is merely the opening act, and the real plan kicks in afterward—then we can't tell who is actually being targeted."

The Chief Priest tapped the papers on the table with the tip of his pen, his expression troubled. For a brief moment, his glance flicked toward me, and I felt as though he had just told me, "You might be the one they're after."

I listened to all of these schemes brimming with inexplicable malice and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"……This is nothing but harassment, isn't it?"

"Harassment?"

"Yes. They showed Brother Wilfried Grandmother's current situation to drive a wedge into his family relationships, and they tormented the Lord and his wife—his parents—by making them worry over how to handle a son who committed a crime. No matter how they punish him, the nobles will grow discontent, won't they? Besides, there's no way they have enough magical resources to punish all the nobles involved at once, but leaving them unpunished is also dangerous. No matter how you spin it, this doesn't benefit Ehrenfest. I can only think of it as harassment from an outside party."

My words made my foster father's eyes widen.

"……I had been thinking only in terms of conflicts between nobles, so I never considered harassment from outside. Rozemyne, you're surprisingly clever."

"Surprisingly? What's that supposed to mean, Foster Father!?"

I snapped back at him, and my foster father said, "Then let me ask the clever Rozemyne a question," looking at me with a surprisingly serious expression.

"Let's assume this is harassment from outside. If this outside party harbors a strong hatred for me, what do you think would upset them the most?"

"That would be the status quo, wouldn't it? They want to stir things up, but if they can't stir things up and it all just fizzles out—wouldn't that be the worst for them?"

If the harassment they attempted only ended up causing everything to settle down firmly, wouldn't that be the most frustrating outcome for them?

My answer made my foster father grimace.

"The status quo… But we can't very well maintain the status quo when Wilfried has obviously committed a crime."

"……But rather than deciding Brother Wilfried's punishment right away, shouldn't we first gather information about the party who incited him and their objectives? As for Brother Wilfried, he has clearly acknowledged the criminal facts himself, and we have evidence. His punishment can be administered at any time. Rather than pushing the decision off—no, rather, let's maintain the status quo as much as possible until all the information comes in. What do you think?"

My foster father seemed to be warming to the idea, but the Chief Priest shook his head, still furrowed.

"That won't work. Such a response would damage the Lord's authority. It would play right into their hands."

"If damaging the Lord's authority is their goal, then punishing Brother Wilfried would achieve that, and not punishing him would also achieve it. If their objective is to deplete Ehrenfest's magic, then eliminating Brother Wilfried or punishing the nobles involved would only make them happy, wouldn't it? We should start with maintaining the status quo and gathering information."

Let's figure out whether punishment is necessary after that, I proposed, but the Chief Priest shook his head stubbornly.

"Even so, we can't let this go completely unpunished. Punishment for Wilfried is absolutely necessary."

"Then, what if we made it look like he's being punished, but in reality we're just maintaining the status quo…"

"Do you have a brilliant idea, Big Sister? Are you going to help Brother?"

Charlotte had been sitting there with a near-tearful expression, quietly watching the adults' back-and-forth, but now she looked at me with eyes shining with hope. I could tell she was praying for Wilfried to be saved.

……What should I do? I want to look good in front of Charlotte. I want to seem impressive, but I don't have any brilliant idea!

Ooh, ooh—I thrashed around inside my own head, spinning my brain at full capacity, desperately racking my memories for everything I knew about how criminals were handled.

"Ah, first we need to identify the perpetrators and find out what their objective is, right? Then let's use a Magical Tool to peek at his memories."

Wilfried had said there were too many people to remember all their faces, and since he had approached them based on rumors, they hadn't introduced themselves, so he didn't know their names. But if we peeked at his memories, identifying the perpetrators should be easy.

"He may have been incited, but Brother Wilfried is currently a serious criminal, isn't he? We use a Magical Tool designed for serious criminals to identify the enemy, and we use it on Brother Wilfried for that purpose. This would also send a message to the other party that Foster Father is taking this incident seriously, and make it clear to those around us that Brother Wilfried is being treated as a criminal. Then, if we maintain the status quo from there, we can make it appear that we have our own reasons and are letting Brother Wilfried run free as part of a deliberate strategy. Wouldn't that work?"

The Chief Priest narrowed his eyes and carefully weighed my desperate proposal. Receiving both the Chief Priest's severe gaze and Charlotte's eyes full of hope, I continued.

"Since they'd see even his most embarrassing memories, it would serve as punishment for Brother Wilfried. And if Foster Father looks at his memories, he'll be able to see Brother Wilfried's life up to now and understand what went wrong."

"That's true. If we use that, we can at least fully identify the dangerous nobles within the territory. Based on Wilfried's memories, we can punish the identified nobles, and at the same time, remove Wilfried from the position of next Lord. That way, we can create the impression that Wilfried was punished as well."

The Chief Priest said it was precisely because they had decided on Wilfried as the next Lord that he had been targeted, before turning his gaze toward my foster father.

My foster father placed a relieved smile on his lips as he looked at Wilfried.

"Wilfried, you will be treated as a serious criminal. A Magical Tool will be used, and your memories will be examined. At the same time, your designation as the next Lord will be revoked. This will serve as your punishment for this matter. From now on, do not take any reckless actions, and never stray far from your attendants and your guard knights."

"Yes."

Wilfried nodded solemnly, and with his punishment decided, the tension in the room eased.

"I'm so glad, Wilfried. Just having you still here by my side makes me truly happy. Rozemyne, I cannot thank you enough."

My foster mother said this as she embraced Wilfried. Charlotte jumped down from her chair and came running over to me.

"Big Sister, you're amazing! I admire you so much!"

"Charlotte's words alone make everything feel worthwhile."

……I did it! I became a big sister worthy of admiration!

As Charlotte and I clasped hands in celebration, my foster father and my father praised me, saying I had done well on the proposal.

Wilfried, having extricated himself from his foster mother's embrace, could be seen telling his attendants, "I'm counting on you from here on as well." Brother Lamprecht gave a broad nod.

The Chief Priest watched this scene, then stood and took several steps toward Wilfried. Wilfried tensed slightly, unsure of what was about to be said, but the Chief Priest addressed him.

"Wilfried, you will carry an indelible stain as a Lord's child. But if you don't let it break you and continue to put in effort from here, you will grow. Your honesty is a rare and admirable quality."

At first, Wilfried had been looking up at the Chief Priest with his mouth agape, not understanding what was being said. But gradually, his expression shifted into something that was both happy and troubled.

"……I'll do my best."

With those words, Wilfried knelt down on the spot.

"I won't waste the opportunity that has been given to me. I'll do my best. ……Uncle."

The Chief Priest left the room without saying anything further to Wilfried, but I noticed he walked just a little faster than usual.

Then, several days later, having returned to the Temple, I was summoned by the Chief Priest. Apparently, information had arrived from Justus.

Turi had brought me a new hair ornament, and I'd been in high spirits from our reunion and the letter she delivered. But when I went into the hidden room and immediately asked, "What is this about?" the Chief Priest scolded me.

"What do you mean, 'what is this about'? It's only been a few days!"

Once exams were over, anything related to the exam material—something I had no particular interest in—faded rapidly within just a few days. That's how it had been in my Mestia life. Short-term memory, they called it.

Besides, I had plenty of other things to think about: how to use the new paper, the new ink, Turi's letter, the next toy for Camille, and more. I couldn't afford to dwell on things that were already done.

"Even if it was only a few days ago, you can't spend forever thinking about things that are already over."

"You fool! It isn't over. That was merely a provisional measure—it was the beginning of what's to come."

"Ehh!?"

The unexpected words genuinely shocked me.

If that was a provisional measure, then what on earth would come next? I had absolutely no idea.

"After integrating the information from Justus, I reached the conclusion that we are likely being probed."

"So it was a provisional measure?"

"Yes. They're testing: who Wilfried is most likely to listen to, how Sylvester will handle his own child who has committed a crime, what the surrounding reactions will be, how the nobles within Ehrenfest will act…… They're testing us, it seems."

Using a child like Wilfried for harassment while simultaneously running a test—they were remarkably patient about it.

"Have you identified the party running this drawn-out operation?"

"They know the location of the prison and how to open it. Their purpose isn't to free the former Lord's wife, and the target was Wilfried. The plan is designed so that it doesn't matter whether disowning, execution, or discord occurs within Ehrenfest. ……Only those who carry a faction's name would go to such lengths."

It seemed the Chief Priest had already made up his mind.

The Chief Priest's golden eyes took on a serious light as he looked at me.

"I want to fortify Ehrenfest's defenses as quickly as possible. Rozemyne, I'd like you to teach me the method of compressing Magic Power as soon as you can. Is that acceptable?"

"After I've made the items. That's the one thing I won't compromise on."

When I looked back at the Chief Priest with equal firmness, he rose to his feet with a sigh.

"Understood. I'll set aside the morning work hours for your preparations. Come assist me."

……Huh? Could it be that they're actually quite pressed for time?

Wilfried has lost the special treatment that came with being the next Lord and will have to work hard with a stain on his record, but I'm sure he'll grow from this.

Next up are the Leve preparations and the method of compressing Magic Power.