Episode 7
“There is no need for that, Princess Riina. My intentions will not change. I cannot exchange Logan McLane’s reputation for money.”
“yes?”
I even said this.
why? why?
I looked at my father with eyes full of absurdity, but his stern expression did not change.
And next to him, his stepmother looking at him with a sneer on his face and the other Gasols nodding their heads.
Logan felt dizzy as he saw all the images that caught his eye.
‘Why on earth…?’
I was angry and my heart felt tight.
Giving up utility and pursuing honor is not treated so badly in noble families.
But….
‘You have to do that while looking at the situation. Does it make sense to refuse money given the current family situation?!’
Logan internally gritted his teeth, but his father’s attitude remained firm.
That wasn’t the only problem.
“Why are you doing that?”
“I think he’s acting arrogant because his pride has been hurt just because he got dumped.”
“Is that enough to disobey the Baron’s words?”
“The Archduke was originally a bit…”
90% of the Gasols’ whispers were criticism directed at him.
Riina’s shamelessly apologetic expression felt like the smile of a winner who had anticipated this situation.
It wasn’t until the whole thing hit him hard on the head that Logan realized.
That he was still looking at the situation complacently.
‘I thought wrong. Are you going to change your family by being recognized by these people?’
In what time period?
Slowly, showing a change?
‘And then they all die.’
It felt like a cold wind was blowing into my chest.
There are only 9 months left until the Battle of Territory.
‘Let’s give up what we have to give up.’
All you have to do is somehow save your family.
First of all, I need to gain strength on my own, regardless of my family.
He said through gritted teeth.
“Princess Riina, in that case, I will demand it as a party to the break-up of the engagement. Regardless of the will of the family, I will receive the compensation in my personal capacity.”
“Logan!!”
Padric’s outburst of anger shook the room, and a wave of ferocious energy hit him from behind.
‘Pfft!’
Ugh.
The force core located in his heart gave strength to his entire body and straightened his knees, which were about to break.
Although it was a vision of a divine sword with infinite potential, it was still immature and could not compare to the power of a high-ranking knight.
However, it had the power to resist the pressure of momentum that was not even a direct use of force.
“I can’t be satisfied with mere apologies!”
“what?!”
“I think that if an honor can be rewarded with a few words scattered in the air, its value is only that light.”
“…Are you really going to reject my will?”
Padric glared at his son with a complex expression, perhaps surprised or angry at his son’s resistance to his momentum.
“As a party to the breakup of an engagement, I think I can make that much of an argument.”
“The Wolves would like to follow the wishes of the Baron, the head of the McLane family. What would you do, Baron Padrick McLane?”
When the situation seemed to be going strangely, Riina intervened.
It seemed like Logan’s opinion could be accepted, but in the end, it was a story that praised the authority of the head of the family.
‘I guess it means saving face as the head of the family.’
Logan’s fierce gaze turned to her again.
At that time, Padric frowned and thought for a moment before opening his mouth with a heavy expression.
“…As the representative of the McLane family, I am satisfied with a sincere apology. However, I will leave it up to Logan, the person concerned, to determine the sincerity of the apology.”
“honey!”
“Matriarch?!”
Murmur.
Daejeon soon became noisy.
It was such an unexpected answer.
At those words, Riina’s face, which was still looking a little sorry, momentarily distorted.
When the noise of the Gasols, which had been noisy for a while, died down, Padric continued.
“But think carefully, Logan. If you accept money for damaging your reputation, you are allowing your reputation to continue to be traded for money in the future.”
Padric believed that if Logan had truly changed, he would have made the ‘right’ choice at this point.
That’s why he gave her one last chance, even giving up her authority as the head of the family.
But Logan’s resolve was unwavering.
“As the party to the break-up of the engagement, I will receive compensation from the Wolves family.”
At that declaration, Padric’s face distorted and a sneer appeared on his stepmother’s face.
* * * Surprisingly, Riina paid the large sum of 3 million gold on the spot, not through a credit transaction on the battlefield, but through a chest of gold coins.
Cooung.
Logan, who had actually requested it, couldn’t help but shake his expression when he saw the huge chest full of gold coins that reached up to his waist.
“…I hereby declare that the engagement between Count Wolves and Baron McLane has been broken off.”
“I will accept it.”
As Riina put down the gold coin chest and turned around, her expression was obviously slightly distorted.
Looking at it, Logan was convinced that his choice was right, but his father seemed to think differently.
“I thought things had changed a little, but they changed for the worse.”
‘It’s all for the family.’
“I guess it’s all my fault for not properly teaching you the value of honor.”
The expression on my father’s face was bitter as he sighed even though he was faced with a pile of gold coins that he had never seen in his life.
As Padric left for battle, sneers appeared on the faces of the knights who followed him.
Meanwhile, my stepmother followed behind, smiling brightly as if she had gained something.
It made me feel clear how my decision was received by the family.
Logan, who watched the scene expressionlessly, made up his mind again.
‘I will not be concerned about the reputation within the family. First, let’s win the territory battle first.’
However, while calculating how to spend the money for the territory, I couldn’t help but feel heavy in my heart.
* * * Boom!
A loud noise was heard from inside the ornate four-horse carriage.
“Are you okay, miss?”
Despite Rockpern’s question, there was silence in the carriage for a while, and the answer was not heard until a long time later.
“…are you okay.”
“Are you angry?”
“What’s wrong?”
“yes?”
“If you say a slightly excessive amount, the Baron will definitely reject it for the sake of saving face. My prediction was definitely correct. But…”
“I didn’t expect Archduke Logan to come out like that.”
“That stubborn bastard….”
Bang!
A loud noise was heard again, but instead of looking into the carriage, Rockfern said something else.
“It appears that Archduke Logan is much different from what was rumored.”
“Are you more wealthy than the rumors say? Or are you ignorant of honor?”
“I don’t know about such emotional factors, but I am certain that the Archduke is a Force user.”
“…Are you saying there was also force?”
Riina’s reaction was surprising, but Rockpern was adamant.
“Yes. Considering his age, this is a very quick achievement.”
“…It means he’s not as crazy as the rumors say.”
If you only commit evil acts and don’t put in any effort, no matter how genius you are, there is no way you can reach the level of a force user.
He was still only nineteen years old.
“Yes. That can’t be possible. I think it’s just a rumor.”
Rockpern tried to comfort Riina by emphasizing that Logan was not as easy an opponent as she thought, but Riina could not have been unaware of his intentions.
“…But even so, it doesn’t change the fact that I suffered.”
“There was nothing we could do. We were in a situation where we had to duck and go in, and it was the enemy’s front yard.”
“It’s okay. Don’t try to console me, Rockfern.”
“You don’t have to worry about it anymore, right? Now that the obstacles are gone, you can form a relationship with a noble family, but…” “
Hmph! That’s natural. But this resentment will definitely pay off someday.”
“It will be done as you wish, young lady.”
The gorgeous four-legged carriage left the McLane territory at high speed.
* * * The day after Riina left.
The McLane family was abuzz with the shocking news of the breakup of the engagement and the rumor that the grand duke had defrauded a fairy-like beauty of a large sum of money by disobeying the orders of the head of the family.
Even though Logan was the party to the breakup of the engagement, he had to be criticized for being harsh rather than sympathetic.
However, Logan kept smiling regardless of the finger pointing at him.
“Finally…”
No matter how others might say it, it was a moment when he sighed in relief that the time when the worst trouble occurred had passed safely.
A feeling of relief, as if one of the shackles that had been weighing my soul ever since I returned had been taken off.
I felt like I could laugh brightly all day long.
But I couldn’t just be excited. As I thought about the future ahead, the joy disappeared in an instant.
When the thought of overcoming the crisis by strengthening the family changed to solving the crisis ‘myself’, the burden seemed to increase 100 times.
‘Let’s stay calm. The crisis starts now.’
There were a lot of things that were just around the corner.
I decided not to worry about the reputation within the family, but at least I had to avoid giving my father a reason to step forward.
It is said that no more open accidents can occur within the family.
‘So we should go outside.’
Logan steeled himself and reflected on what he had to do in the future.
‘First of all, I deposited all the money into Coopers Bank.’
Cooper’s Bank, which had the largest number of branches in the kingdom of Grandia and the western part of the empire, also had a branch in the McLane territory, which had a large number of loans.
Thanks to this, when I tried to deposit money, I was asked if I wanted to use that money to repay the loan first.
‘No problem.’
If it had been according to the original plan, it would have been done that way.
However, yesterday’s experience greatly changed his thinking.
‘First of all, I have to develop my own strength.’
Aside from the fact that he could not talk about future information, he keenly felt that there was a huge difference in thinking between him and his family members, especially his father, who had returned.
Any thoughts of trying to change something within the family disappeared at that moment.
‘Strength must be created from outside. So first of all…’
Knock.
While I was in the middle of thinking about various things and checking my plan, I heard a knock on the door.
“come in.”
Of course I thought it would be Rick, but it was an unexpected giant who entered the room.
“Haha. Did you cough, Grand Duke?”
“hmm?”
He had sideburns covering his face and a physique larger than that of any other knight.
A middle-aged man with a slightly flushed face entered, greeting me in an awkward voice.
“Dwayne?”
“Yes, Prince. It’s Dwayne.”
Dwayne Pilsner may have looked like a knight at first glance, but he was clearly an administrator.
He was also a financial official responsible for the family’s internal affairs.
He was also the most trusted vassal of his father, Patrick McLane.
What he meant was that he was not a close friend and it was not a relationship that would make him laugh like that.
As Logan looked at him with suspicious eyes, there was a commotion outside the door.
“Ahh! Don’t push!”
“Uh-huh! I came first…”
Rumble.
Several familiar faces poured in one after another behind Dwayne.
“Meet the Archduke.”
The bald head with a bright smile was Rugel Heiss.
Normally, just seeing Logan would make him turn away. The food official on the way.
“Greetings to the Archduke.”
The fat man with a friendly smile is Ferran Doyle. He is
in charge of the soldiers’ equipment, and even if we meet on a regular basis, he doesn’t even look into Logan’s eyes and just says hello. The person who disappeared saying,
“Uh-huh, these people. I came first… Haha, good night, Grand Duke. “Good morning,”
said Lupen, the pot-bellied man in charge of maintaining the castle walls, who kept wiping his sweat
as he greeted him. In Logan’s recollection, this was the first time they had formally exchanged greetings.
In addition, they were all faces he had often seen at the official residence, and all of them were regular people. They were the ones who were busy avoiding Logan.
“Your Majesty…”
“Greetings…”
Now, all of those people were trying to stand out from each other. It was a very interesting situation for Logan.
After the War . It wasn’t difficult to guess the situation.
“…What’s going on here?”
Logan asked indifferently, hiding the smile on his lips.
Gulp.
‘You have to speak well, Dwayne.’
For Dwayne, this moment felt like a turning point in his life.
The position of McLane’s financial administrator was an incredibly difficult position. If
it weren’t for the fact that he was born here and his loyalty to the family head, it was a position he would have quit right now.
Always. You had to squeeze in the insufficient budget to support the entire estate, and you had to make up for the lack of money by begging from the head’s wife’s family.
Sometimes, you were confused as to whether you were an administrator or a beggar leader. The position of McLane’s financial administrator was a harsh one.
But now , If you speak well, you have a chance to be guaranteed a comfortable sleep for at least several years.
Moreover, the other person is just a childish person who can’t tell the difference.
When I thought about it like that, I gained confidence.
“Hahaha. I just came to say hello. “I was really impressed by Confucius’ appearance yesterday.”
“Huh?”
“The sight of him confidently asserting his opinion without giving in to any unfair external pressure. It was truly a wonderful sight befitting the successor to the McLane family.”
Tokyo A cold look in his eyes and a thumb gently sticking out.
Dwayne starts the story with the greatest flattery he can give…
“What are you talking about?”
The childish man’s reaction was very different from what he expected.
