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Some time had passed since Letina’s marriage talk had come to a close. Since Maxwell was designated as her fiance, marriage proposals suddenly stopped being sent to her, and she was apparently spending days in peace now.

I’ve heard from the person concerned directly, so it was unmistakably true.

“And then! Lord Maxwell was oversleeping, so I went to check on him and his beard was all drooly!”
“Ohh, I seee…”
“Letina, you’re being a pain…”
“Can I just go back to my room and sleep?”
“Rejected.”

Since she became Maxwell’s fiance, she could now easily request the use of his magic. She was using Maxwell’s spells to come from Raum to Stollar once every three days. And we were put through her love life bragging each time.

I glanced aside and saw Maxwell was talking with Gadius while feigning ignorance. But well, it was Gadius’ inn so it wasn’t so strange for the two to be here.

“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲… Pushing love-obsessed Letina at us while acting so carefree himself…”
“Letina, why did it come to this…”
“Frankly, I’m sleepy here. And my joints started to hurt as of late.”
“Those are growing pains. Die.”
“Huuuh?!”

Cloud was still growing taller. At this rate, he would easily cross 180cm. I could already see the day he would catch up to Lyell. By the way, I was about 170cm in my past life, so I was a little short for a warrior, and extremely slim. And my current stature wasn’t very good either.

I felt envious of Cloud who kept growing.

“Letina, I have something to talk to Maxwell about.”
“With Lord Maxwell? I will not allow any affairs.”
“Like hell I will do that.”

I ended up retorting with my real tone, but I couldn’t help it. I really didn’t have any spare energy to keep idling pointlessly like this. Sorry for Michelle and Cloud, but I decided to dump Letina at them while I stood up and headed to Maxwell instead.

This was a cafeteria so Michelle and the rest sat at our usual table. Maxwell on the other hand was chatting with Gadius at the counter. I sat on a stool next to Maxwell and spoke what I thought I had to say first and foremost.

“Die you normie.”
“That is your first words? Is there nothing else to say?”
“There is. So how has it been since?”
“What do you mean?”
“The situation around you after getting engaged with Letina.”
“Oh yes, it has become quite troublesome.”

My brow twitched up at his words. This old man was my comrade from the past life, and I consider him a dear friend even now. But Letina was also one of my precious comrades. If he was saying the marriage was bothersome, I had to brace my heart and admonish him here.

“Do not misunderstand, Reid. I do not consider marrying Letina as bothersome. She is unusually straight and honest, someone who I would say is too good for me.”
“Then what’s bothering you?”
“The reaction from the outsiders. Marquises of the same rank as Marquis Yowi are directing envious gazes at me, and the nobles that realized that I was still sexually active started to aim for the mistress position.”
“Oh, that’s what you mean…”

Seeing me sigh in relief, this time Maxwell started to grin. Even Gadius was holding back laughter.

“To think the Reid that we knew would start worrying about others.”
“That was uncalled for. I’ve always been a compassionate man.”
“Yes. We did know that, but the same could not be said about the others.”

I followed my sense of justice in the past life and killed my enemies, and got killed in turn. But the world evaluated me like a mad dog that would snap at anyone without mercy.

These two apparently found it amusing that I, who had such a bloodstained impression, would worry about a young girl that was my close friend.

“F̲u̲c̲k̲ you, laugh all you want. More importantly, what I meant to ask earlier also included that guy.”
“That guy… Oh, you mean the Lamech household?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t really ask about it in front of Michelle and others.”

The Lamech household held the peerage of a Duke that was connected to the royalty. A household of such status couldn’t be ruined so easily. After all, doing so would affect the prestige of the royal family as well.

I had no means to investigate that stuff in detail. Or well, if I used my parents’ connections, I probably could get some information, but it wasn’t a topic that would allow me to use my connections so openly.

As such, I could only secretly ask Maxwell.

“With the uprising on top of illegal drugs, they could not leave it be. Having said that, they could not ruin the household either, so High Highness was at his wits’ end.”
“So, what happened in the end?”
“Tubal in question was forced to retire and all his relatives were sent to remote regions. They had the illegitimate infant that he cast off to succeed in the household, and they had his guardian Marquis raise him. They have been effectively exterminated.”

The successor was an infant, so the Lamechs couldn’t get in contact with him. As long as he wasn’t dyed by the Lamech’s thoughts as he grew up, the baby would grow up with natural grounding.

This could be thought of as a measure to keep the lineage alive as minimally as possible while cutting the successor away from the thinking of the Lamechs and severing any attachment to them.

It wasn’t just that. Most probably, the retired head of the family, Tubal, would meet an unforeseen death in the near future. And then the rest of the family members would follow one by one.

By doing that, they wouldn’t be extinct on paper, while effectively they would be.

“Good grief, this is why nobles are so…”
“Do not say that. There are also nobles like Marquis Yowi and Letina among them.”
“I know that.”

I’ve only had a few opportunities to meet Marquis Yowi directly, but from his actions so far, I understood that he was a sensible noble. And Letina also was also a pleasant person. I didn’t think that all nobles were black-hearted either.

“Oh well. But don’t get Letina rolled up in it, you hear?”
“Of course, I will not. If someone tries to lay a hand on her, I shall show no mercy even if the other party was this very kingdom.”
“Oh? You sound awfully enthusiastic about it.”
“Naturally. I may not look like it, but I am quite a devoted husband.”

He casually spoke the words I would’ve gotten embarrassed to say. This aspect of him was something I could never match up to. In order to hide my feelings, I snatched his alcohol cup from the counter and downed it in one go.