Chapter 81

The head of the Eventail family, Michael Eventail, was in a towering rage. In his hand, he gripped the letter written by his son, Paul.

His wife, Samantha, was in a state of panic, unable to accept the fact that her son had left.

“No! Paul running away from home… it has to be a lie!”

“Shut up, woman! Be silent!”

The relationship between the couple had grown even more sour than before, leaving the maids and servants trembling at a distance.

“We are going to bring Paul back.”

At Michael’s declaration, the other inhabitants of the mansion could do nothing but nod.

“You’re right. Of all places, to go to Agnes… we can’t let him be influenced by her filth. Paul is the key to the restoration of House Eventail; we absolutely need him to cooperate with Lord Robin’s plan.”

Samantha hurriedly chimed in to agree with Michael.

Agnes, their usual scapegoat, was no longer here.

“…Still, Lord Robin asks the impossible, demanding we take part in human trafficking. If that is the test of loyalty required to join his faction, we have no choice but to endure it. But to sell off his own mistresses the moment their families abandon them—how calculating. Well, I suppose it’s a fitting end for such loose-moraled ladies.”

“Exactly. They aren’t fit to be called noblewomen.”

“The numbers are quite significant, though.”

“…Let’s just not think about it. It is all for the sake of our family’s reconstruction.”

Michael’s grandfather, Louis, the former head of House Eventail, had been a man of exceptional ability.

Despite being a provincial lord, he had climbed the ranks within the court to become the Assistant Prime Minister—the shining star of the Eventail family.

During that era, House Eventail enjoyed peak prosperity, earning the admiration of other nobles and the favor of His Majesty.

Michael had been young back then, but he remembered it well. The intoxicating pleasure of having almost every noble bow and scrape before him.

However, after his grandfather passed away, House Eventail’s fortunes plummeted during the reign of his father, who had inherited the title.

He didn’t know why, but he stopped hearing anything good about his father from anyone.

On the contrary, people mocked his father as “an incompetent fool with nothing but a loud voice and a big attitude who does nothing but fail,” until they eventually kicked his father and Michael’s family out of the royal palace.

Following that, House Eventail lived quietly, managing only their own territory.

For Michael, who had been pampered and fawned over since birth, it was a humiliating turn of events.

Because they had been driven back to the frontier, the relationship between his father and mother began to strain as well. His mother, after all, had been the daughter of a higher-ranking noble family.

His maternal grandfather had sent his daughter to the Eventails hoping to secure a connection, banking on the prestige of the grandfather’s achievements.

However, her husband had been purged from the Royal Palace.

Once her new home lost its power, his mother began to constantly voice her dissatisfaction, complaining that “things weren’t supposed to be like this.”

His parents—his mother in particular—struggled desperately to return to their former status.

She believed that if they simply acted just as the grandfather had, they would surely regain the position of Assistant Prime Minister in the palace…

That belief was her sole reason for living.

And so, the Eventail clan united to restore the house, beginning to mimic the grandfather in every way.

Naturally, Michael and his cousin Samantha were no exception to this.

Michael endured days of humiliation, clinging to the belief that if he received the same “good old education” as the grandfather, he would return to the seat of Assistant Prime Minister.

Nevertheless, there were many insolent nobles who looked upon House Eventail with strange, judging eyes.

Michael was certain they only did so because they feared the power of the Eventail clan.

Otherwise, there would be no meaning to the strict family precepts he had followed.

He felt it was essential to drill these precepts into his own children as well.

Even if he couldn’t achieve it in his lifetime, he wanted his son, Paul, to rise to the Royal Palace in his stead.

Then, he would make His Majesty recognize the brilliance of House Eventail.

“Samantha, as soon as preparations are complete, we head for Sutrena.”

“Yes, dear. Still, I wonder how on earth Paul managed to reach Sutrena on his own.”

“Agnes and those criminals must have done something! I’ll sue them!”

Ignoring the wicked deeds he himself had been tasked with, Michael barked loudly.

And so, boarding a traditional, antiquated carriage, the couple departed from the Eventail estate with a heavy rattle.