98 - The Men of the Walt Family
My breathing becomes ragged.
I swing the saber in my hand, but there is no sensation of impact.
The Third, whom I should have cut, wore a fearless smile on his face.
'Too bad. You missed.'
Immediately after those words, I spin around and take a defensive stance with my saber.
The Third, thrusting a sword that generally looks like it could be swung with one hand, laughs as he watches my reaction.
'You're quick, but that's not enough.'
The moment the sword was about to reach my saber, I shifted my gaze to the left.
For a while now, I have been using detection-assisting skills like [All], [Map], and [Search], but I couldn't fully grasp the Third's movements.
Inside the Jewel Orb—.
In the Fourth's room of memories, I am cut down by the sword swung by the Third.
In that scenery where a single road seemed to stretch on forever under a vast blue sky, my red blood danced.
As I fell, I stabbed my saber into the ground to somehow brace myself, and my breathing became even more ragged.
There is pain.
I look at the place where I was cut, but blood is no longer flowing, and my clothes aren't even torn.
I pull the saber from the ground and take a stance.
The Third before me is looking at me while lightly tapping the flat of his blade against his right shoulder several times.
'Master the use of skills with your own five senses. Otherwise, you won't be able to block or even react to Celes's attacks.'
Sighing, the Third pressed his hand to his face with a "good grief" expression.
However, he is smiling.
Perhaps they are still holding a grudge over me saying things like "I just have to beat everyone," because the successive heads of the family are putting a lot of passion into my training.
No, too much passion.
"Reactions appear and disappear... and if the tip of the sword approaches right in front of me, I'll defend myself."
The techniques I have polished had reached a point where I could instantly take a defensive form based on visual information.
However, the Third, who possesses a skill that interferes with the human mind and creates hallucinations, is utilizing it.
The saber I held begins to vanish.
The sword the Third held vanishes in the same way.
I watched the nostalgic saber vanish within my hand.
The saber reproduced within the Jewel Orb was the one my parents gave me as a present when I was a child.
As it disappears, I tightly clench the hand that had been gripping the saber.
The Fourth, watching the fight between me and the Third, offered his opinion.
'You're aiming beyond unconscious reactions. You should think of the path Liel has chosen as being beyond that, and beyond that again... beyond a wall that masters cannot cross.'
What I understood from fighting was the reality of fighting Celes and the extent of my own strength.
I understood that as I am now, I cannot win against Celes.
However, I hadn't imagined I would be this unable to win against the successive heads.
I am toyed with by the Third, and I cannot even grasp the Fourth.
Against the successive heads who mastered their own skills, I was completely helpless.
The Third laughs.
'Honestly, it doesn't suit you to say such things with such a sour face, Marks. You used to be such an honest, good boy.'
The Fourth clears his throat and retorts.
'Do you have any idea how much I struggled after the Third passed away? Besides, I lived longer than the Third did.'
The Fourth insists that he doesn't lose to the Third in terms of life experience, but looking at the two of them, a thought occurred to me.
"...Come to think of it, did the Third and Fourth both have wives? To me, they're both ancestors, but what kind of people were your wives?"
I asked because I was curious, but the Fourth clearly panicked, pushing up his glasses with his index finger to correct their position.
The Third, recalling—.
'My wife? She was a wonderful person. Kind, beautiful, and steady, so she felt reliable.'
Laughing with an "ahahaha," the Third spoke of his memories from that time.
However, the Fourth's face is twitching slightly.
'T-that's right. My wife was also a wonderful person... was she.'
Since it seemed suspicious, I kept looking at the Fourth.
The Third, noticing something, looked around.
'Liel, look... the surrounding scenery is changing.'
As the smirking Third said, a change was visiting the surrounding landscape.
"Ah, I can see a mansion. Could this be...?"
The Fourth, hanging his head.
'That's right, it's my mansion. I moved from the original location and rebuilt it.'
We were in the mansion's courtyard.
The iron gate opened, and a single carriage entered.
The Fourth came out of the mansion looking nervous.
However, in terms of age, he is the same as when I always see him in the Jewel Orb.
He must be in his early thirties.
The Third said.
'Is it some important guest? Carriages are entering the courtyard one after another.'
As carriages and wagons loaded with luggage entered the mansion's courtyard, a single girl stepped down from a carriage in front of the Fourth and greeted him.
No matter how you looked at her, she was in her early teens, a petite girl who looked strong-willed.
The Fourth, covering his face with both hands, explained.
'...My wife.'
Both I and the Third looked back and forth between the Fourth and his wife's faces from close range several times.
The Fourth, looking behind the girl who had stepped down, gave a twitching smile and greeted her once he realized the girl in front of him was his partner.
'Nice to meet you. We've exchanged letters, but I am Marks Walt. I'm happy to meet you.'
Seeing the Fourth state a social pleasantry, his wife—.
'...Twenty points.'
'Huh?'
After giving the score, she placed both hands on her hips, looked up at the older Fourth, puffed out her chest, and began a dignified lecture.
'Even if I am small, I am a daughter who carries the name of a Viscount house. Do not underestimate me as a child! And what is this! Did you think I was some companion of the marriage partner or something?'
The Fourth was flustered by the girl—his wife—who blamed him for his action of checking behind her.
'My apologies. But you were so cute that I doubted it.'
To the Fourth who said this with a gentle smile, his wife once again—.
'Ten points. From the moment I married, I am not a girl, but your wife. I would appreciate it if you didn't treat me like a child.'
She seemed to be a very strict person.
However, no matter how you looked at it, he looked like nothing more than a father being scolded by his own daughter.
The Third is on all fours, pounding the ground and laughing.
'Marks-san, as expected!'
"Fourth, I'm sorry. But I can't help laughing at this."
The Third and I laugh as we look at the Fourth and his wife.
Then, the Fourth's glasses glinted suspiciously as he spoke to us.
'...You should remember this, Liel.'
"Remember what?"
I reflect that I might have laughed too much, but the scene in the memory continued, and the Third was rolling around laughing as he watched the Fourth continue to be scored by the girl.
'The House Walt family rules... you remember the house rules for taking a wife, right?'
I nodded with a complicated expression.
After all, the House Walt family rules were something the First had said during a drinking session, and because those around him thought they were actually house rules, they had continued for over two hundred years.
To put it simply—.
[The woman to be taken as a wife must, first, be superior in appearance] [Second, be healthy] [Third, be physically robust] [Fourth, be intelligent] [Fifth, have beautiful skin] [Sixth, be superior in magic]
—One must not say that the second and third are overlapping. It was just the nonsense of a drunkard, spoken without thinking. That's why it came to be interpreted this way later on. Only the last one was a house rule added by the Fifth, so the First had nothing to do with it.
Superior appearance. No illness. Physically robust. Intelligent. Beautiful skin. And being a true noble who can use magic.
That is the House Walt family rule for taking a wife.
Since boys have been born steadily, there is no female version—a house rule for taking a husband.
The Fourth smiled fearlessly...
'Welcoming an excellent wife. I see, it certainly is important. It might be fair to say that it wasn't us, but the successive wives who created the current House Walt.'
Looking at the Third who was rolling around laughing, I nodded, thinking that might indeed be true.
The Fourth in the memory was being told off by his wife, asking if he couldn't say something a bit more tactful.
With a shadowed smile, the Fourth said.
'My wife was also excellent. An excellence different from Mother's. She was steady, and it's thanks to my wife that House Walt, which had just become a Baron house, was able to become true nobles. She has a strong and strict tongue, but she also has truly cute sides. Really! I'll say it clearly, she has plenty of cute sides! That lovely appearance is one thing, but—'
Why does the Fourth look so pitiful?
"I-if that's the case, I wonder if similar scenes unfolded for the other successive heads?"
To change the subject, I brought up the topic of the other heads.
'There might have been some differences, but didn't they all get rolled around in the palm of their wives' hands in a good way? That's what the men of House Walt are! Ah, but... the Fifth might be different.'
At the Fourth's words, I thought.
(...No, even if he says "The men of House Walt roll skillfully in the palm of their wives' hands!" with a determined face, it's still very questionable.)
The surrounding scenery turned gray, and as the landscape shifted, it became a room inside the mansion. The Third, who had been rolling around, crashed into a wall and was holding his head.
'Wait... could you not change the scene so suddenly?'
'You brought this on yourself.'
The Fourth answered with a smile to the Third, who was rubbing his head.
In that room, the Fifth in his early twenties was being introduced to a woman by the gray-haired Fourth and his middle-aged wife.
The nervous Fifth was a man of few words.
'What's wrong, Fredricks? Ah, I see. You're nervous because your partner is such a beautiful girl.'
The Fourth's wife, who seemed so strong-willed, was making a sweet face at the Fifth.
Beside her, the gray-haired Fourth in the memory complained.
'Can't you say something a bit more tactful?'
The wife pinched the Fourth's arm with a smile.
'Dear, do you have some kind of complaint regarding Fredricks?'
'I don't! I don't, so please stop!'
In front of the woman who was giggling, the young Fifth gave a simple greeting.
'I am Fredricks. I'm not good at jokes.'
'Is that so? I—'
Once the woman finished her greeting, the Fifth remained looking down the whole time, appearing apologetic. Only the Fourth and his wife were working hard to make the relationship between the two a good one.
Neither the Third nor I could look at that scene and laugh.
After all, what the Fourth did after this was the reckless action of preparing four concubines and fathering nearly thirty children.
Far from being a step forward, it was problematic behavior that could have become a major spark of conflict for House Walt.
As the surrounding scenery turned gray, the Fourth let out a sigh.
'Fredricks... the Fifth's partner was also a good girl who followed the house rules.'
Even so, the Fifth, who prepared concubines, seemed to be quite adored by the Fourth's wife.
The Fourth took off his glasses and began to wipe them.
'The Fifth... Fredricks was an honest child who laughed often from a young age. Thinking about it now, I wonder when he stopped laughing.'
The Fifth had a tendency to prioritize efficiency and was the coldest person among the successive heads.
But at the same time, he was the person who endured the most.
In later generations, he was called a lecher who surrounded himself with beautiful concubines at a young age.
A slaughterer who was merciless to bandits and mercenary groups.
People said whatever they wanted.
He was also the pioneer of the darkest era of House Walt. And that trend continued until the Sixth, and was severed by the Seventh. That is the history of House Walt I heard from my Father.
The Third, with both hands behind his head, looked at the young Fifth in the gray scenery.
'Well, he must have seen various things. That's why he did it. He probably thought it was necessary, but why did you make him do that?'
The gazes of the Third and I pierced the Fourth.
The Fourth, putting his glasses back on, looked at his wife, who had stopped moving and remained smiling in the gray, frozen time, and said.
'...It was an accident. She became unable to have children due to an injury. I didn't tell Fredricks.'
The Third muttered.
'I see.'