Shia and I had separate rooms but I dragged her into mine and forced her to explain. I didn’t really need to use much force at all though. Just asking nicely twice was enough.

The short version: me being part of the Borges family made me official.

The long version: apparently, as a noble if you had kids with anyone other than your wife, they were bastard children and often couldn’t lay claim to the family fortune or title. However, if said bastard child was from another noble family… then things were different. You were forced to acknowledge the existence of said child and that’s how I ended up becoming the first son of the Barack family. Granted, I didn’t really understand much of the politics myself but honestly it didn’t matter since I had no real intention to actually inherit anything. Besides, I wasn’t part of the Borges family anyway… yet.

My original goal was pretty simple. Start a cult, influence the church from multiple angles and live peacefully. If that failed, then find a noble girl, preferably from an upper mid-tier family and settle down for good.

I didn’t have the time or patience to actually inherit the Barack family and take over things. No thank you.

“Our rooms are different,” Shia said.

“We’re literally next to each other,” I said.

We both sat on the bed. Rather comfy this bed was.

“Yeah, but my room only has one window and half the size of this one. Actually, most of the other rooms are like mine too.”

This one had three windows, was bigger than my dorm room by four maybe five times?

“Maybe I got lucky? There weren’t two vacant rooms next to each other so they had to-”

“No, this is a special guest room.”

Special? I mean, there were a bunch of stuff here. Fancy large mirror, big cupboards, walk in closet, a literal bath suite and lots of snacks just waiting for me to peck on. Okay maybe the room was a little special.

“They’re treating me with care,” I said. “And the duke personally invited me.”

“Makes me suspicious,” Shia said, picking up a biscuit. “Ew, too sweet…” She mumbled.

“Probably works with bitter tea,” I said, pouring her a hot cup. I didn’t put any sugar in.

She took a sip, then a bite and then another sip. “Kind of. Not a fan.”

“Me neither.”

Biscuit and tea aside, Shia was right. Even if I was from an influential family, the duke didn’t have any reason to treat me with such care. He was definitely plotting something.

“Well, he shouldn’t be able to harass you without any repercussions, so it should be fine.”

She sounded chill and like any young teenager. However, there something ominous about that. What repercussions miss?

The biscuits were damn sweet but before long they were gone; I didn’t drink much tea, since I didn’t want to lose sleep. It was close to evening. Our room slowly lit up with a magical chandelier. Rather fancy stuff. I wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn’t lit up like that. crystalline, pretty big but gave me the innate fear of ‘what if it falls on me’.

“We should be free tomorrow and the next day,” I said. “Got any plans?”

“None. I enjoyed the journey but… spending time here in this mansion might be a chore.”

“We could have fun at the beach,” I said. “Did you bring any swimsuits?”

I hadn’t.

“What’s a swim suit?”

“Some light clothing that you wouldn’t mind getting wet.”

Was there no swimsuit in this world? Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen anything of that sort in Axel or Xanir port. So maybe women of this world weren’t too keen on showing skin?

“Well I have my underwear-”

“You don’t have to show me!” I yelled.

She snickered.

Technically, I’ve already seen them on multiple occasions though. I’d also seen her in her birthday suit but I’d erased that sight from my mind.

“Well, I guess we can try to look for sea stones,” Shia said. “They’re rare and might carry mana inside them if we’re lucky.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

I’d read about sea stones before too but they were rare and finding mana in them was even rarer. So, I wasn’t betting on that.

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I felt uneasy without taking my evening walk, so I went out. Shia followed me out. Sibrian was outside while some of other guards were taking a break. The knight was nowhere to be found.

“Taking a walk my lord?” Sibrian said.

“Yeah. It should be safe here, so you don’t have to follow us,” I said.

“Can’t do,” he said. “Boss’s orders.”

“Okay.”

So, Shia followed me and Sibrian followed her. Both of them were weirdly in a good mood for some reason though.

“Something happen?” I asked.

“Huh? Why?”

“You guys seem to be in really good moods.”

“Permission to speak freely sir.” Sibrian was trying to be knightly and all that but he never seemed consistent.

“You don’t need permission. Feel free.”

“I thought my lord was inadequate. But my fears were unfounded. Not only did you not budge meeting such high figures but you also stood your ground and that makes me proud. I am terribly sorry to have doubted you.”

So basically, you guys will be happy if I acted all rude and stuff…. Anyway, ignoring the clowns, I kept on walking around. I couldn’t go outside of the duke’s mansion because obviously I didn’t know what dangers might be lurking so I just circled the canal. One rev was like half a kilometer so I figured walking ten times was good enough for today.

Somewhere down the line I caught some attention of the nobles who were enjoying their time in the garden. Most were just watching us curiously.

One particular individual came to greet us though. “Ah, the son of the Baracks,” he said. Black hair, old fellow…. No, he just looked old. Count Margius.

“Count Margius,” I offered a bow. “Soler A. Barack, sir.”

He nodded and smiled, taking a look to his right. “My daughter Emma.”

Oh yeah, the hot lady! She was close to twenty and although not very endowed she was gorgeous; I hadn’t seen a woman that tall in ages! In my past life I’d probably have a raging boner. Actually, I might have had one in this life too had I not met other beautiful women in my life first. For example, Lin was the most beautiful woman I’d met so far and Miss Chamille comes in at a close second. Or maybe I just like elves?

Shrugging, I nodded at her and looked to my right. “This is my sister, Shia.”

Strangely, neither of the two women spoke. I guess it was customary for men to do most of the talking on first encounters?

“I’ve been wondering but what are you doing? You’ve been walking in circles for… hours now.”

“You see,” I couldn’t just say I was just exercising, so- “The fish here are quite extraordinary.”

“Ah yes, Duke Alzania really does treasure them.”

“But, when you look closer, some of the fish aren’t exactly in good shape,” I said. “You can tell they are diseased and soon many of these fish would die off.”

“Huh?” The count was taken aback. Some of the gardeners and maids who heard me rushed to me, and dragged me away from there.

They brought me quite far.

“Is that true?” The maid asked. While the gardeners were freaking out.

“I mean, it’s only my hunch.”

I’d been staring at the fish for like a whole hour now. Most were going about like they were fine. Some were struggling, and seemed off colored. They were either pregnant, which was very unlikely since mating season was still a few weeks away, or sick. So, I took a bet and just said they were sick. Wouldn’t I be in trouble if they aren’t? I felt sorry for the fish but- Please be sick fish, please be sick!

“Call the head butler right now!” The maid hissed.

Some people ran inside while I resumed my walk. Sometime later some butlers, and other people came to examine the canal and fish. They did catch a lot of attention but I saw them dumping some sort of potion into the canal.

It was dark and although I’d only completed 8 revs, I went back inside only to be led into the duke’s chambers. Shia came with me of course.

Should I apologize preemptively?

“Sit down,” the duke said. I took a seat.

It was his office room of sorts. Large room with a table, some sofas and his big chair. He had some papers and paintings here and there.

They were spraying potions and stuff, so I’m definitely not wrong. “I apologize for bringing up the issue so suddenly without thinking about how it might have impacted your image.”

His eye brows raised a bit. “Son, how old are you?”

“I’m five, sir.”

“Hmmm… almost…. How did you know the fish were sick?”

“A hunch sir. I just observed them and it felt wrong.”

“I see… well, hunch or no, you were right.”

“Will they live?”

“Hard to say. We don’t have any strong potions you see. With recent excursions our regional potion reserves are low. Besides, the water itself is corrupted, even if we drowsed all our potions, it wouldn’t mean much. But fear not they’re not that expensive.” He snickered.

So, the water was bad? Hmmm…. “Would you like,” I paused. Wouldn’t he suspect me if I just randomly offered a solution?

“Would I like what?”

“Umm… nothing.”

“Speak up son.”

Sigh. Well… anyway- “I actually have something that might help. Emphasis on the might.”

He raised an eyebrow. Obviously, he’d suspect me. I not only spent most my time near the canal but now I was offering a possible solution. “Go on.”

“I have something called an elixir of li-” Before I could finish, Shia had wrapped her hand over my mouth.

Wham!

Dude jumped up, landed firmly in front of the table and dashed my way, immediately lifting me up. was he going to slam me down on the floor!?

“An elixir of life? You have one?” He whispered, very vigorously.

“Y-yeah…” I nodded.

I knew the stuff was rare but why the hell was he reacting like that?

“This,” I said. I always kept one vial in my pocket in case something went wrong. I had quite a few in my bag.

“It’s transparent…” he mumbled. Was he disappointed? Maybe I said the name wrong? Well, I might have screwed- “I’ve never seen one this pure. Might just work!”

Work on what?

Dude didn’t say anything, he didn’t even thank me and just ran away. Well, that was anticlimactic. He was that hellbent on saving his damn fish?

Shrugging I proceeded to leave, only to be stopped by a gaping Shia. She stared at me, slack jawed. “Yo-yop-you were carrying that in your pocket?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any idea how precious pure elixirs are?” She grumbled… very calmly. I didn’t know why but that tone was kind of scaring me.

“1 maybe 2 gold a pop?”

“NO! 1 Steller a pop you idiot!”

“But-but even that isn’t really that exp-” I mean it was just a hundred- oh…

That’s like a 100k!

“You moron~!” Shia clutched my shoulder like a tigress and shook me back and forth. “That’s because the church said so. They want it to be sold for 1 gold but what if there’s no stock and you need one super bad? The actual stuff sells for much higher and you still can’t find it because some pathetic scared ass royal always buys up all stock!”

Um… what?

Doesn’t that make me…. filthy rich!? “Wow, I’m rich.”

“No… you’re dead,” she mumbled. “Anyone who hears you… will kill you to get more….” She mumbled. We both stared at the door. And we knew… there were people on the other side.

An exhausted sigh escaped. Why didn’t you imbeciles tell me… Mom, Den.