Hayate Ryo had an imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth.
( ◜‿◝ )
Nostalgia was an old person's habit.
He had served the Qiubai Family for over too many years.
Watching Qiubai Balin growing up from a child, he had long since seen himself as his godfather.
Although he didn’t know if the young master thought the same…
But one thing was certain was that the Qiubai Family was certainly…unique in their etiquette.
“The young master has changed alot. Children grow up so fast…”
Three years ago the young master suddenly secretly left home. It was so sudden leaving everyone in shock fearing for his safety.
Hayate Ryo had seen alot of the world and knew from firsthand experience just how dangerous it was.
Despite humans taking over a majority of the mainland, other hostile races still exist…
Elves, dwarves, merfolk…
But not every race was as peaceful as the dwarves…
Though, the most scary was actually the maliciousness of the human heart.
Fortunately the young master at that time was blessed…
Hayate Ryo could still recall the relief on everyone's faces…and the family head’s suspicions.
The young master seemed to have matured overnight…
In this world there were too many mentors to secretly possess another person.
But the ironclad law that not even gods could break was the compatibility between body soul and bloodline.
Even a 0.01% difference could indicate a problem with the spirit.
Fortunately the young master was alright.
But then it happened again…
When a formally naive kid carries an air of vicissitudes and cracks dirty jokes, any keen parent would definitely recognize the shift of their offspring.
Though it wasn't a sudden change. As if the young master suddenly had a temporary amnesia and tried to relearn his past habits and slowly reintegrate into himself.
Though gradual, the head still wanted to be cautious.
Hayate Ryo at that time was tasked to investigate and secretly conduct a soul scan ceremony without the knowledge of Balin.
(A ritual dedicated to detecting whether a person was possessed, parasitized by a foreign object, mind controlled, etc.)
In the end, two tests were conducted coming back negative relieving the head..
The ceremony measured a soul's compatibility with a body.
The inventor of the ceremony believed that the body, soul, and blood was connected with a unique mark of life bestowed by the world consciousness.
The replacement of the soul was like burning a piece of paper.
Only through taking all the ashes and reversing time would the same exact piece of paper be obtained.
Like fingerprints, no two souls could be the exact same.
It was alo then that the butler knew…
Sudden growth was sometimes accompanied by a heavy price and the young master must have paid dearly.
(unfortunately he didn't know the young master at that time…(◞д◟))
“Sigh”
Hayate Ryo couldn't help feeling emotional for a moment and letting out a slight sigh
Time had passed very quickly and now the second master was being born…
“What’s up? You aren’t usually like this?” Qiubai Balin keenly noticed that today something was weighing on the butler’s mind.
The sun actually came out of the west today.
The usually stern butler actually invited him out for a drink. And even if he concealed it well, after living with him for several years, Qiubai Balin could still make out Ryo’s imperceptible sigh.
Back on Blue Star, when his friends had something they needed to reveal, he was often dragged to the bar to drink just like this.
And this tea…it was a variety known to calm the mind…
Could something drastic have happened?
‘Did his cheap dad cheat on his mom?
Or…the family finally went bankrupt?
Maybe the kongwu king died?’
“Sure enough Sir Balin has noticed,” Hayate Ryo stated.
Forget it. It was his job to help the young master make calm logical decisions, not make decisions for him.
Hayate Ryo put away his serene appearance and looked Qiubai Balin dead straight in the eyes.
Slowly word by word in calm fashioned he uttered, “Sir Balin, Madam Lady Felicia is about to give birth in a few days so you’ll no longer officially have succession rights–”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Qiubai Balin raised his eyebrows and set down his teacup.
Giving the good news first eh?
“--and some children at your orphanage are missing.”
Qiubai Balin frowned.
Hope Orphanage.
This was an intuition set up by his predecessor when he returned.
The Qiubai Balin when he had the dream of being the heroes in tales.
During the times when the predecessor ran away from home, the thing that most heavily impacted him was the situation of the poor children in slums.
Most aristocrats and nobles were too focused on their own matters: such as how to become stronger, how to party, whether or not the child was theirs, or inheritance rights.
Throughout history even on blue star, it was no surprise how severe class segregation could be.
But unlike Blue Star, the lower class here didn’t have the power to rebel.
Crowd tactics were useless against higher life forms. No matter how many ants assault you, in the end they were just ants that could be blown away by a gust of wind.
Especially when you factor in the element of the supernatural.
Centralization and private withholding of power only becomes more serious.
Even if the lower classes wanted to rebel, the only news would be a sudden mysterious disappearance one day.
The power of monopoly was further demonstrated.
Just like the rulers who hold military power, would they let civilians possess tanks?
Not every place was as orderly as the recent Kongwu kingdom.
Deep rooted nobility and ills of long established nations were not a problem that could be solved in one day.
Dead bodies, feces littered everywhere, no basic education…
In short, the people at the bottom were no different from the lower classes back in the old days of blue star.
Ignorance was the weapon of the controllers.
The young Qiubai Balin saw dead bodies everywhere and sometimes families going to extremes just for the right to live.
Parents selling their own children for a bite to eat or sometimes even eating their own children.
Weeks without proper nutrition until they found out how painful hunger could be.
Hallucinations, delirious and exhausted… leaving no power to resist instinct.
Until the sentiments people have slowly faded away, replaced by instinct until they couldn’t even realize what they had done. It wasn’t a matter of morality at this point but basic human survival needs.
The young Qiuabia Balin had truly seen it all. Families crying from regret, blocks of ice on the roadside, maggot infested bodies, and mutilated corpses from discarded ‘experiments’.
Fortunately, his predecessor didn’t get trafficked.
Qiubai Balin didn't know if he was unlucky or lucky.
The predecessor was quite an idealist.
Perhaps the predecessor had seen too much or simply an idealistic chuunibyou…
When he returned, one of the first things he did was establish an orphanage, maybe as an act of redeeming himself from the constant nightmares plaguing him.
Most of the technical work such as adopting orphans with clean backgrounds was handled by the butler while the financing was provided by his father who was glad that his son was so enterprising..
As for the result…the predecessor wasn’t quite experienced in managing the affairs of children given his own age.young himself.
Now the orphanage was mainly run by a professional.
And instead the predecessor became more like a role model to the group of small children.
Oftentimes excusing himself from social gatherings in order to learn from the maids bringign scorn from other aristocrats.
His predecessor really did try too hard…for what exactly?
“How troublesome,” Qiubai Balin rubbed his temples
When he tranmigrated he couldn't force himself to get along with the children the same way his predecessor did.
First, he really had no interest in taking care of running nose brats or bringing them around to play house..
It wasn’t that he hated children…it was just that deep down he was an adult in his forties not counting the age from this life. He was aware that he didn't have the same compassion he used to have.
Secondly, even with his rich resume in reading isekai novels, he was still overwhelmed by the experience of suddenly dying and then being in another world.
It was not the same as simply reading and imagining it.
He lost the once familiar home and left his dreams back on blue star.
No modern entertainment activities or conveniences. It was fortunate enough that he was born a rich second generation given the living conditions of the lower class.
Where was the meaning? Magic? And leveling up endlessly like a machine? Fireballs were cool but he was frankly overwhelmed. All the life pressure of 40 plus years coupled with the traumatic experience of the predecessor all suddenly came crashing down on him.
But undeniably…
The troubles of the predecessor and his karma…it was born by him and his responsibility.
He was his predecessor and his predecessor was him, though the main consciousness was the old bachelor from bluestar.
Quibai Balin rolled his tongue and felt the bitter taste of tea lingering down his throat.
During the year of retirement he took at the academy to process his situation and relax, the orphanage was placed under the butler’s responsibility.
And for his butler, a magic caster, to claim something had happened and not resolve it on his own… meant that the butler wanted his decision and the matter seemed important.
Knowing the capabilities of the the butler, Qiubai Balin knowling asked,
“Do you know who is behind this?”
“With the recent affairs of the Madam, I’ve haven't had time to deeply investigate.” Butler Hayate narrowed his eyes and continued, “But from the traces, I have reason to believe it’s an international slave trade organization or cultists.”
“A total of three children went missing from the orphanage alone and there are cases of disappearances in the city.
“The victims have no traits in common and the motives of the assaulters are quite strange and suspicious.”
The butler Hayate then paused for a moment and added, “Your father just performed a bloodline gifting ceremony, I was distracted. My apologies.”
The bloodline gifting ceremony…
An advanced magic thaumaturgy ritual only able to be performed by a third order grand caster due to the magic core they possess.
When a caster reaches the grand caster stage, a magic core condescending their lifetime achievements of magic is formed within their body acting as a perpetual energy generator capable of achieving incredible feats.
The process of the ceremony involved breaking off miniscule pieces of the magic core of the older generation to reinforce the talents of the new generation.
Such a process was equivalent to cutting off the limbs of a bodybuilder and transplanting them to a weaker person.
The magic caster initiating such a ceremony was essentially cutting off his pathway to advance to a higher order.
Often this was performed by older generations that long exhausted their talents in order to bet completely on the new generation.
And doing so would result in prolonged periods of weakness until after the magic core recovers.
His father Qiubai Weiqi was sacrificing his future for the newborn baby!