The double life of a count’s bastard

Chapter 25

“How the hell did you know that?”

Merlin asked lamely, glancing once more at Hans, who was far away.

The look on Merlin’s face was enough for Rousseau to realize how tightly he’d kept this secret.

‘You’ve kept this secret under lock and key, and now you’re drinking and talking to yourself…….’

It turns out that the worst enemy of all secrets in the world is alcohol.

‘The root of all evil!

Rousseau himself was still drinking to maintain his image as a madman, but if you asked him to stop drinking, he wouldn’t be able to do it, so it’s a love-hate relationship.

“You think there are secrets in the world, you fool, if you think so.”

“…….”

Frowning, Merlin couldn’t say anything, and he stubbed out his cigarette in frustration.

“So, you’re going to use that to tie me down?”

“Only a fool would do such a stupid thing. If I thought I could, I would have blackmailed you into becoming a priest for life. Don’t you think?”

Merlin nodded involuntarily at Rousseau’s words.

“Am I crazy, it’s not going to work anyway, and it’s only going to make things worse between us.

Merlin was not a man to be intimidated.

If he had threatened to reveal the secret from the start, Merlin would have quickly severed ties with Rousseau and antagonized him.

Revealing secrets?

For Merlin, risking church discipline and public censure was better than being a lifelong priest of an unknown asshole.

He was being called an asshole and pointed fingers anyway, so what was the harm in adding to that?

‘Of course, I’ll be stripped of my priestly powers, which I’ve earned.

Merlin’s abilities, however great, would not make him a Priest of Radiance for touching a maiden who was only a day away from her wedding.

‘He may be pleased with himself, for he has no sense of honor.

Rousseau thinks this could be true of Merlin’s character.

Anyway, Merlin and the woman, Samantha, see eye to eye and have a one-night stand.

If Samantha had been a virgin without a husband, this would not have been a problem, but she was a bride-to-be, one day away from her wedding, and for whatever reason, Merlin, as a priest, had committed a grave wrong that could never be erased.

“I don’t know if you know this, but I really didn’t know she was a day away from her wedding, and she never told me anything about it, but rather kissed me first…….”

Merlin, who was about to state the obvious, fell silent at the look on Rousseau’s face as she glared at him.

There was no point in rehashing it now, he realized, and he let out a deep sigh before taking a long drag on his cigarette.

“The result is what matters, no matter who caused it.”

Merlin nodded, unable to deny Rousseau’s sobering words.

“Yes. The result is what matters.”

The morning after the fiery night, when Samantha left the room, saying she had a wedding to attend, Merlin remained frozen, unable to do anything for the rest of the morning.

It was such a bizarre event, even in retrospect, that Merlin stared blankly into space, dumbfounded.

“Don’t worry. I have a child, I love my husband with all my heart, and I am happily married to him.”

Later, Russo shared with Merlin the news of Samantha that he had been relieved to hear earlier when he couldn’t hold it in.

“…… Was it through my prayers?”

Merlin asked, regretting what had happened and realizing that he had been praying for Samantha and his family for days.

“It is. The grace of the goddess Nevatera.”

Rousseau’s reassurance made Merlin feel as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.

“You have graciously forgiven this lowly servant for the sins he has committed, and I thank you. Please bless Samantha’s marriage and his family.”

Clutching the necklace, Merlin offered a prayer of thanks.

* * *

“In return?”

“The price of secrecy, at least.”

The fact that Samantha was happily married took some of the weight off his shoulders, but it didn’t mean that his skirt was gone, and Merlin needed to be sure to keep Rousseau’s mouth shut.

“You can keep my secret, too.”

Merlin shook his head firmly.

“I’ll keep your secret, but it’s not worth the trouble, so the terms aren’t mutually exclusive.”

The family’s misfit is training in secret with a knight.

No matter how you look at it, it’s not a secret.

“What’s the price…… you’re willing to pay?”

“As long as they’re not ridiculous.”

Rousseau knew full well that one of them was a lifetime priesthood, so he didn’t say anything.

“Then there is one thing I must do, and I need your help with it.”

“A task?”

“Don’t worry, it’s something you, a follower of the Goddess Nevatera, are bound to like.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll find out this evening at the earliest, so be on standby.”

Merlin was very curious, but Rousseau said he would find out soon enough and drew his sword.

“Since you’re here, give him some more healing.”

“Do you have any idea how expensive my treatments are…….”

As he spoke, Merlin frowned as he realized that Rousseau was smiling strangely at him.

He hadn’t said it directly, but he could tell from Rousseau’s smile that the cure had been forced into the deal as part of the confidentiality agreement.

“Damn it, you’ve got me all worked up!”

“Is it okay for a priest to swear?”

“He drinks, he gambles, he sleeps with women, what difference does it make if he swears a little?”

Finished speaking, Merlin stubbed out his cigarette and uncorked the flask.

Pow!

The aromatic smell of alcohol made Rousseau’s mouth water, but he couldn’t drink before a duel, so he turned and pointed his sword at Hans.

“If you don’t wear your armor again this time…….”

“How many times have I told you I’ll never wear it? You have a good healer, so let’s have a proper fight!”

Hans asked Merlin, who was still blowing on the bottle, as Rousseau cut him off.

“Can you reattach a limb if it’s cut off?”

The blower chuckled and assured him that he could, and when he was satisfied with his answer, the knight smiled broadly and sprinkled flesh from his eyes, and the face of the wretch, facing the flesh head-on, began to turn white.

“If you get your head cut off, can you still attach it…….”

Russo screamed, lunging at Hans.

Hans grunted.

“Fight~ the one who wins is on my side, hehehehehe!”

Merlin, cigarette and bottle in his mouth at the same time, his eyes glittered as he watched the most entertaining fight in the world.

* * * *

“We’re going in the direction of the Melanin estate, right?”

Rousseau asked, and Jason nodded as if he’d checked for the umpteenth time.

“How big is it?”

“Thirty men in the regular upper echelon, five knights in escort, and seventeen mercenaries.”

Russo’s expression twisted at Jason’s report.

“That’s bigger than I thought.”

I thought it wouldn’t be much, but five knights, not counting the mercenaries, was a pretty big deal.

“And their rank?”

“Three of the knights, including the captain of the bodyguard, were fifth-ranked, and the rest were fourth-ranked. The mercenaries, including the mercenary captain, looked to be about seven or eight fifth-ranked.”

“What are the names of the knights, the mercenary captain, and the other fifth-ranked ones?”

Jason listed only the names he’d heard of, and thankfully none of them were famous.

Still, there were a whopping ten or eleven fifth-rankers.

‘That’s not going to be easy…….’

Rousseau’s expression darkened as the level was higher than he had expected.

‘No matter how good Hans is, he won’t be able to take on more than three on his own, and I’ll probably only be able to take on two fifth-ranked ones if I catch them off guard. Jason is…….’

While Jason’s skills are superior to those of his age, he’s no match for a rank 5 knight or mercenary.

No matter how you look at it, it’s like trying to hit a boulder with an egg.

Still, Rousseau couldn’t give up.

“I only need a sixth-ranked knight!

There are several sixth-ranked knights in Count Slater.

One of them was Count Slater, and the other knights were the backbone of the family, so Rousseau could never make them move.

Rousseau didn’t have time to think long, so he turned to Jason.

“Quickly find out where Sir Coach is now.”

“Got it.”

Jason quickly opened the door to the doorway and left, leaving Rousseau pacing in circles around the room, biting his lower lip in thought.

* * *

Even Count Slater can’t have too many sixth-ranked knights, which is the rank just before the seventh-ranked master, the ultimate level of human cultivation.

There are only twelve humans on the entire continent who have attained the rank of Master, and the official number of sixth-ranked knights barely exceeds one thousand.

We don’t know how many there are unofficially, but it’s not more than two thousand.

One of those fewer than two thousand sixth-ranked knights is Lord Coach, who stands in front of Rousseau, wiping a tear from the corner of his wrinkled eye with his finger.

“Eh? You want me to go somewhere with you?”

He’s 73 years old.

His hair has mostly turned gray, and his face is full of wrinkles.

These days, his eyes are sunken and narrowed, and he rarely looks at people.

As anyone in the Slater household could have guessed, Lord Coach was approaching the twilight of his life.

In four years, to be exact, he would retire, claiming that his health had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer hold a sword.

To be honest, the thought of another four years of active duty was creepy.

“I was like, ‘Look at his back. He’s so naturally fit!

Rousseau, who is the only one who knows when he will retire, is disappointed because, from the looks of it, he’ll probably last five years instead of four.

“There’s something urgent I need to do, and I need Sir Coach’s help, and I have the Earl’s permission.”

Rousseau held out to Lord Couch a letter of command from the Earl of Slater himself.

Lord Coach had served the Earl of Slater for decades, and he knew at once that the order was not a fake.

“What is the urgent matter?”

His annoyance was evident.

At his advanced age, Lord Coach rarely wanted to leave the mansion anymore.

In fact, for quite some time now, he had always been absent from expeditions to the Inkeran Mountains.

Although he had been labeled as one of the key people to protect the manor in case of an emergency, he was excluded from such a physically demanding expedition.

‘The Earl is being unreasonable,’ I thought to myself, ‘there are plenty of younger, swifter men, so why do you ask me to watch over this wretch?

Part of me wanted to ask him.

He’s about to retire, and you’re just going to throw him away.

Lord Coach knew that the Earl of Slater’s character would never do such a thing, but he felt a twinge of bitterness at having to follow Rousseau, the wretch.

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

Sir Coach’s frown deepened at Rousseau’s behavior, as he blurted out the words that all the knights respected, even if they were from the same family.

“You’ve been a bitch, and you’ve been…… ew!”

Resisting the urge to punch him in the head to settle the matter, Sir Coach simply donned his worn, rusted metal armor on his upper torso.

“I don’t know where you’re going, but if you’re up to no good, I won’t overlook you, so you’ll know.”

“I’ll know if it’s bullshit when I see it…… But why is your armor so rusty? You get paid well.”

Rousseau frowned at the fact that Sir Coach’s armor was so worn out, even for a knight of House Slater.

“What’s the point of armor? It protects my body, that’s all. It’s not a luxury I wear to impress others, so don’t worry about it and lead the way.”

Sir Coach’s words about not worrying about the armor were not lost on Rousseau, who later noticed that not only was the armor he was wearing, but also his clothes, shoes, and sword were worn and tattered.

And the nicknames he used to call him came naturally.

The cobbler, the frugal king.

Even among the wealthy Slater family, Sir Coach was once a knight who could fit on his fingers, and he held both wealth and honor, but he had a reputation for being a terrible cobbler.

‘The older a man gets, the cleaner and more neat he has to be, and the younger people don’t like that, and what did he spend all that money on?

Even in the vision, it is not clear how or where Sir Coach spent the vast fortune he had amassed over his lifetime.

‘It’s good to be frugal…….’

Rousseau shook his head as he looked at Sir Coach in his old, tattered clothes and shoes, rusted sword and armor.

‘It’s a bit of a shame that he’s still pampering himself in his old age.

Rousseau believed that if you worked hard in your youth, you should spend the rest of your life enjoying yourself.

What…….

‘If you’re born with a golden spoon like me, just enjoy life while you’re young!

How do you feel when people point fingers at you?

It’s all because they’re envious!

Isn’t that right?