The double life of a count’s bastard

Chapter 21

In the heavy silence, the Marquis of Keita stared at Colin as he lay there, barely able to compose himself.

The bandages wrapped around his body showed the severity of his injuries, but most importantly, he no longer had his right arm to hold his sword.

The good news was that his injuries were not life-threatening, but it would be difficult for him to carry a sword for the Marquis of Keita as a loyal knight in the future.

The Marquis of Keita stared at Colin for a long moment with a complicated gaze before he spoke.

“Kevin.”

“Yes, Marquis!”

Kevin’s face stiffened as he answered.

Even though he was his biological father, he knew the Marquis of Keita’s personality well enough to know that he had no choice but to play along at this point.

“Count Slater’s asshole has been hiding his skills long enough to get Colin into this mess?”

“That’s…….”

Kevin didn’t have an answer because he didn’t understand the situation either.

“The observer was Jansen, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Your Excellency, the Marquis!”

Janssen, who was standing next to him, looking as stiff as Kevin, replied with a motionless expression.

“How was the confrontation?”

Janssen took a moment to catch his breath before assessing the matchup between Rousseau and Colin.

“In terms of relative skill alone, Colin was overwhelmingly in his favor. Rousseau Slater barely had time to raise his sword to defend against Colin’s attacks.”

Janssen was every bit as skilled as Collin, and the trajectory of Rousseau’s sword was enough to recognize his level of skill.

Although Colin suffered an unexpected wound shortly after the fight began, it was all one-sided from then on.

‘Just blocking his attacks was something to be commended,’ he said.

Rousseau was desperate to stop Colin’s unorthodox attacks, but a single anomaly allowed Rousseau to counterattack and secure the victory.

“Sounds like the fight was never meant to be fought in the first place.”

“Yes, Your Excellency, except…… Rousseau Slater showed up in full body armor, and it was quite a defense.”

“Full body armor?”

“It was so hard that Colin’s attacks didn’t even leave a scratch, and its movements were so natural that I doubted it was made of metal. It was armor, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

Marquis Keita’s eyes flashed fiercely at Jansen’s description.

“You mean it was a barding?”

“Barding, armor made with the best blacksmithing skills and the most advanced magical techniques, its value is priceless.

It was also famous for being the most difficult armor to make, with no more than three hundred examples in the entire continent.

“Honestly, I don’t know, it looked too…… insignificant to be called a bard armor.”

Jansen replied, not wanting to use the word ugly.

Even for Janssen, who had seen armor many times before, it was hard to recognize it at first glance.

The armor itself was completely different in shape and color from ordinary armor.

“Even if it’s inferior, it’s still armor, but even with the help of the armor, the difference in basic skill is so obvious that I can’t understand how Colin was so one-sidedly defeated.”

While it’s true that the Bard is a top-of-the-line armor, it’s not all-encompassing enough to overturn the difference between Colin and Russo.

If it were, the value of the armor would have to be dozens of times higher than it is.

“Jansen, did you notice anything else unusual about the armor?”

“Not that I can see, …….”

Marquis Keita clicked his tongue at Jansen’s answer that there was nothing but the armor and then spoke coldly.

“Colin’s greatest flaw has always been that he sometimes gets carried away and makes fatal mistakes, and given the circumstances, this is an extension of that. Jansen, what is your opinion, having been an observer?”

Janssen, well aware of the implications of the Marquis de Keita’s question, recounted the events carefully.

“It was a battle in which Colin favored, but…….

The full body armor that Rousseau was wearing was strangely unnerving.

However, as the Marquis of Keita had said, no matter how great the armor, it would be impossible to overturn the difference between Colin and Rousseau’s skills.

Consequently.

“His Excellency the Marquis is right! Collin ignored his opponent, and he continued to show such an attitude even after the confrontation began. The result of this confrontation…… was directly caused by Collin’s carelessness and disregard.”

Janssen, who was Colin’s observer, has officially concluded the match, so there can be no more speculation about the outcome.

“It was a fair fight, and this is the outcome. No one is to speak of Colin’s duel anymore.”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

In his heart of hearts, the Marquis of Keita wanted more than anything to pound Rousseau for getting Colin into this mess, but he didn’t want to go to any lengths to redden his face with Count Slater.

Above all.

‘Seeing as how he even gave the bastard a halberd for being his child, Count Slater must be more of a child-lover than I thought.

With no clear evidence to go on at this point, the Marquis of Keita decided to keep the matter to himself.

“Kevin, forget what you said last time.”

“If you mean what you said last time…….”

“It seems that Count Slater is still willing to embrace a wretch.”

Understanding the Marquis of Keita’s meaning, Kevin clenched his fists, silently furious that he would not be able to avenge Colin after himself.

“Three or four years at most. Once the wretch is out of Count Slater’s arms, you can pay me back many times over.”

As if reading Kevin’s mind, the Marquis of Keita’s eyes flashed like venomous snakes.

“……I understand!”

* * *

Will the Marquis of Keita seek revenge?

Honestly, even as Rousseau, it was not easy to predict.

“I don’t think the poisonous octopus will go down easily.”

Crunch, crunch!

Rousseau chewed on the crispy bread and thought about the Marquis of Keita’s personality.

More precisely, she deduced his personality based on the Marquis de Keita’s behaviors that she had learned about through her precognitive dreams.

The Marquis of Keita, who had been balding since his early 30s and had shaved his head early on, looked like a friendly person, but he had a very cold and persistent personality.

“That’s why he’s in the emperor’s entourage.”

For the Marquis of Keita, the distinction between friend and foe is not a meaningful one.

He was a man who could turn friend and foe over like the flip of a palm, depending on the situation and his interests.

The only thing that matters to Marquis Keita is that the Emperor trusts him.

The current talk of Kevin and Lily’s engagement is also part of Marquis Keita’s desire to further consolidate his position.

That’s why he didn’t hesitate to change the face of the Slater family when they were in trouble.

Is that all?

“I found out later that he was secretly supporting the Marquis de Belay behind the scenes.”

Wham! Wham!

Rousseau chewed the bread in his hand roughly as if it were the Marquis de Keita, his anger rising at the mere thought of it.

The Marquis of Keita was the human who had played a large part in pushing the already tired Count Slater to work with the Marquis of Belay.

Rousseau believed that the Marquis of Keita, who swallowed sweet things and spat out bitter things, would not be willing to take Colin’s job lightly.

“But he’s not the kind of person who would do something like that…

Just as Russo was wondering how to avenge Colin’s death, Jason came running at him like the soles of his feet were on fire.

“Master Russo!”

Something had happened again.

It must be the Marquis of Keita.

“The Marquis of Keita has begun preparations to return to the capital!”

Jason looked at Rousseau and grinned as if this was good news.

“Preparing to go back? Just like this?”

“Yes!!”

“Why?!”

“I don’t know.”

Russo frowned as if he hadn’t expected this.

Rousseau nodded as if that was a possibility.

“If you’re willing to let this go, that’s no bad thing for me!

It gave Rousseau time to prepare, which was far better than facing the Marquis of Keita right away.

“But when did the Count give you the gauntlets?”

“Barding? What barding?”

“The full body armor you wore yesterday when you fought Sir Colin! Marquis Keita told me that the Count did that to you, that he didn’t know that you thought so much of Master Rousseau that he even gave you your own set of armor!”

“What bullshit are you talking about?”

Rousseau frowned.

Jason cursed him for deceiving him, saying that he hadn’t even considered that the armor that looked so shabby could be barding.

“If it was barding, you could have at least told me! Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

“That’s why?

‘Because you thought he was a runt of the family, but he was a son that the Earl of Slater cared so much about that he’d gone out of his way to provide him with a set of gauntlets?

‘What do you mean, a gauntlet…… ah! You can’t keep Excalion hidden forever, so why don’t you just reveal that you’ve gotten it now?

Count Slater would surely ask about the armor Marquis Keita had mentioned, and the outcome of the confrontation with Colin.

‘I picked it up off the street?

It wouldn’t work.

It’s not like it’s a common piece of armor, and I picked it up along the way.

It doesn’t even make sense.

But you can’t tell the truth that you found an artifact of the ancient Mado Empire in the Kwelan mines.

‘What’s the point of saying I found it, it’s not like it belongs to someone else, and I can’t question its provenance!

It’s times like this that I love being an asshole.

I don’t care what people say or don’t say, I can do whatever I want, whether it’s acting like an asshole or making things up.

“Cough cough!”

Rousseau was rather relieved to be able to open up about Excalibur’s existence, which he had been thinking about hiding for a long time, thanks to Marquis Keita.

* * *

“I heard that you defeated a fifth-ranked knight. Did you secretly poison him, set a trap, or hire an assassin beforehand?”

Rousseau looked at Hans with a furrowed brow.

“Is that what you say to a lord to whom you swore allegiance?”

“I can only say that because I know Master Rousseau’s skills better than anyone else. By what despicable and underhanded means did you defeat a knight who is said to have a fifth rank, or even a sixth rank, ahead of him?”

Despite his tone, Hans’ expression was quite serious.

“Dirty? Dirty tricks? I thought you said that when you don’t have the skill, you have to use all means at your disposal to replace it.”

“Even so, I’m asking because it doesn’t make sense. If the rumors are true, then even I can be defeated by Master Russo right now…… Does that make sense?”

Rousseau smirked at Hans’ insistence that even if the sky were to fall and the earth was to turn upside down, it would never happen.

“Haven’t you ever heard of this, do you think that’s all I’ve ever shown you, huhuhuh!”

“…….”

Hans was speechless for a moment as if he’d just witnessed a real asshole, but then the corners of his mouth turned up.

“So you’re saying that I’m not good enough to make Master Rousseau hide a third of his skill. I understand, and I’ll do my best to bring out all three-thirds in our next duel. I should warn you, though, that I may not be in complete control of myself at that time, and I may not be able to honor your warning. But, hey, if you’re hiding three-thirds of my ability, that’s the least of my worries, right?”

“…….”

At Hans’ words, Rousseau’s expression twisted as if he had inhaled rotten water.

The current duel was also pushing Rousseau to his limits.

Raise the intensity here?

Only if he could wear the Excalaeon, and if not, Hans’s words could have his arm or leg chopped off at a moment’s notice, and Rousseau wished he hadn’t blurted them out.

“Why do you have that look on your…… face, are you scared?”

Rousseau snorted at Hans’s expression as he tried to hold back laughter.

“Scared? Who? Me? Ha! Say something that makes sense!”

Seeing Rousseau’s bluff, Hans muttered to himself, “We’ll see,” and pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from his bosom.

“Sold for 98,000 gold, excluding commission.”

The paper Hans held out was an exchange currency guaranteed by the Wizard’s Tower and could be exchanged for money anywhere on the continent instantly.

“That’s a lot more than the estimated price, huh?”

“The auction was overheated, but the rarity of the item made it worth much more.”

Rousseau chuckled, not bothering to hide his gaping maw at Hans’s look of disbelief.

“I don’t know what kind of rich bastard bought it, but he should have sold it for a lot of money!”

Rousseau was in such a good mood that Hans couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’ve been to the Césaque estate, haven’t you?”

Hans raised an eyebrow at the mention of Césaque.

“I brought him back, but…… not.”

Hans closed his mouth as if he didn’t even want to mention it, and Rousseau, fully understanding his reaction, leaned forward and asked.

“Where is he now?”