“Family meeting, session one — sans Lyle~”
The Fourth, listless, declared the meeting open to the assembled ancestors.
Not something they normally did, but they’d decided to discuss the road ahead without Lyle.
“Right, the Novem-chan matter we’ll table — let’s settle Lyle’s path forward.”
The Third cut in.
“That should be tabled too, no? It’s not clear what Lyle’s aiming at.”
The Sixth concurred and added his preference.
“Quite. Personally, though, I’d like him to inherit House Walt.”
The Seventh the same.
The Sixth and the Seventh tended to align.
Both were attached to the territory.
“If Ceres inherits, a husband has to be brought in from another house. None of you can stomach that, I’d think.”
The First, picking his nose.
“Don’t mind.”
The Seventh, the Sixth, the Second, the Fourth — glared.
“The territory we built up to this — you don’t mind it being taken?!”
The Seventh, indignant. The Third, pressing his temple.
“Remember why the First started the pioneer village in the first place. I hate to say it, but he failed his goal — naturally his attachment runs shallow.”
The First denied it.
“Fool! I broke that land open with my own blood, sweat, and tears, unlike you lot. The attachment is there! But — watching Lyle…”
The Second, dry.
“Those tears were when your first love married someone else.”
The First coughed and pushed on.
Hit home, apparently.
“I called him a weakling, sure — but the kid does have talent. Honestly, how someone that capable ends up so meek I can’t figure.”
The Fifth answered.
He didn’t seem interested in the meeting itself. Which was maybe why he could deliver the clearest read.
“Cold-shouldered from age ten — the family probably didn’t follow an education plan suited to Lyle, or skipped his education altogether. He doesn’t seem to have been taught the things that matter… by the way, was the curriculum changed after my time?”
He looked at the Sixth and Seventh.
From when the Fifth had earned the viscount title, the Sixth and Seventh had been working toward the count title.
“We dropped a few items. For a grandson aiming for the count rank, governance matters more than battlefield experience and combat knowledge. Time’s also limited.”
The Sixth. The Seventh agreed.
From the First’s standpoint, House Walt had grown. Items judged unnecessary had been removed from the education.
In their place, refinements appropriate to rank.
“Things stabilized in my generation, so for the grandchild I emphasized administration over fundamentals.”
The First and the Second listened, startled.
“Looking like real nobles.”
“In our day it was farm work, monster hunting, and bandit subjugation as non-negotiables…”
The Fifth sighed.
“They are real nobles. Once you’re at count rank, sure, you can arrange experiences, but they’re less efficient than paperwork at the mansion. Stealing your subordinates’ jobs is bad form too.”
The Fourth, derailment caught.
“We’ve drifted. Lyle’s future then — to be tabled? After all the work we put in setting up his reputation.”
The Second tilted his head.
“Setting up his reputation? The bandit subjugation visibly lowered his reputation. Plus it was meant to telegraph to the family that Lyle’s spinning his wheels.”
The scariest unknown was what the other side might do.
At House Walt’s scale, information about Lyle came in whether they sought it or not.
Disowned, yes — but the son’s movements were tracked.
If he started moving suspiciously, they might send people. Lyle, at present, couldn’t fight a skilled assassin one-on-one.
So the play was make the other side feel no need to act.
Make them see a disowned idiot heir, no surprise.
Of course, the assassination angle had been considered — House Walt cleaning up bad press. But if so, killing him from the start was more efficient.
The monster wasn’t making sane judgments, or wasn’t interested.
Either way, this affair would clarify how the other side moved. That was the conclusion.
The Sixth grinned at the Second’s question.
“In Darion, sure, his stock dropped. But Lyle defeating a bandit gang is fact. Reputation can be manipulated as needed… like the way I had myself painted as the man who handled all House Walt’s dirty work. Got despised by my grandson over it.”
The Sixth’s shoulders dropped. The Seventh patted him on the back.
The Third, laughing.
“Reputations are unreliable. In Darion he’s a coward who scattered money to outnumber a bandit gang six to one. But it’s also fact that he subjugated the bandits. If no one asks the how, no one has to answer.”
Everyone nodded at the Third.
The Third had died in battle as a Walt head, and in popular memory he was known as a righteous general who’d successfully managed a withdrawal.
In person he didn’t quite look like that man.
“You saying it has different weight.”
The First’s barb. The Third smiled — Oh?
The Third moved to Lyle’s future.
“Whether Lyle succeeds as an adventurer or claws his way back into House Walt is up to the man himself. Beyond that — the First was talking about the monster. Becoming real, isn’t it.”
Around him, the others fell into thought.
The reason: Lyle was even more capable than expected.
Hearing the Skill explanation and training for a few days, he’d already operated them in the field. Still rough — but striking.
The First puffed up.
“I told you! That said, if Lyle can’t take her, Ceres is on a whole other level.”
Ceres was more dangerous than they’d imagined. Everyone in the room felt it.
First real combat — against goblins, with allies present, but Lyle had stayed composed.
Against the gang’s boss, no panic either.
Inexperienced in many ways, with stamina and mana issues, but the talent ran high.
And a monster who outranked even Lyle had been produced by House Walt.
“Not just the territory — the country will get rough. The monster’s actions can’t be predicted. The generation of my own grandfathers had a hell of a time on that score.”
[The Monster Ceres]
Successive heads were starting to see her as a major problem.
At first they’d thought there was a problem with Lyle too, but considering the cold-shouldering, lack of proper education explained it.
The benchmark being that off-spec, his self-flagellating personality made sense too.
Five years of enduring that environment was an achievement in itself.
Lyle was capable.
That Ceres treated even that capability as nothing was reason enough to call her a monster.
The monster the First spoke of had to be acknowledged as a real entity now.
“Overwhelming power, plus a capricious personality. Nasty combination.”
The Fifth. The Sixth agreed.
“If Ceres goes off, House Walt itself falls. From that angle, Lyle being thrown out is good fortune. The blood survives.”
The First agreed.
“Yeah. Once he’s saved up as an adventurer, maybe he founds another pioneer village. Out of Banseim this time, even. With Novem-chan and the Aria kid, can’t put them in danger…”
But the atmosphere wasn’t quite settled.
Everyone present wanted to fix it if they could.
“Whatever path Lyle picks matters. Personally — Novem-chan still concerns me, slightly.”
The Third. The Second, exasperated.
“You’re still on that? A girl that fine — you think she’s secretly scheming? She’s an innocent kid who took Lyle’s lie at face value!”
The Second, wanting to believe. The Third, less convinced.
The Fifth was on the Third’s side.
“Even granting Novem has her own ideas, she’s not going to hurt Lyle, so isn’t it fine to leave it alone? If she meant harm, devoting herself like this makes no sense. Also — could we even push Aria out at this point?”
The Fifth’s point hit. Everyone looked stuck.
Her father had been in league with bandits, sent to the mines as a slave. She’d lost everything and been thrown out of the house.
The First, complicated.
“My first love’s image, marrying my descendant. It feels intensely weird, no?”
The Seventh.
“YOU made Lyle do unnecessary things and dragged us into this mess. If you’d just cooperated from the start, this kind of complication wouldn’t exist.”
The Fourth, again returning the discussion.
“Then — until Lyle decides his future direction, the matter is tabled. Good work, everyone.”
Left alone in the council room, the First sat cross-legged on the chair, arms folded.
Thinking about Lyle.
“In pure talent, no doubt — beyond ours.”
The precept that had begun from a drunken comment of his at a drinking party.
Maybe it really had refined the Walt bloodline.
Lyle was still inexperienced, but he held the most raw talent of any head, past or present.
”…He’ll surpass my prime, easily.”
He jumped down, landed on the floor.
“My, my. Seven of us in the Jewel, plus his own Skill — what kind of monster does that make. If anyone can stop Ceres, maybe only Lyle.”
Walking back to his room — the First, Basil Walt — quietly let the corner of his mouth lift.
“All right. Time to put my back into helping. He may yet hit the third tier. Better train him up for that. …Time’s probably not on our side, even.”
He opened the door, stepped inside.
“Won’t take long to finish teaching, either…”
The door closed slowly.
The council room held no one now.