The Doomed Fief’s Dying Lord (20)

Everyone has a most beloved child and a sore spot.

Alejandro was one of the rare kinds.

For him, the two were the same.

‘Shane.’

It was the name of the son he loved most and pitied.

Shane was different from his siblings from birth.

“Why isn’t the baby crying?”

At first, everyone panicked, thinking Shane had died.

But Shane was merely a calm child who didn’t cry much.

He was the exact opposite of his mischievous older brothers.

When Shane turned two, Beatrice passed away.

Shane didn’t even get two years of the mother’s love that his brothers had briefly experienced.

But fatefully, as he grew, Shane increasingly resembled Beatrice.

It wasn’t only his appearance.

His remarkable intellect,

his ability to read others’ hearts,

and even his kindness that wouldn’t let him kill a single insect.

All resembled his mother.

But in the harsh lands of Denabi, Shane’s talents could not blossom.

No matter how much he practiced, Shane’s swordsmanship didn’t improve.

Shane had no talent for the sword.

“Father. I’ll try more. Even if I’m not as good as my brothers…”

“…All right. You can do it.“

Alejandro would later bitterly regret the day he answered like that.

At that moment, he saw despair in Shane’s eyes.

Shane had read it.

The pity, resignation, disappointment, and deceit underlying Alejandro’s words.

From that day on, Shane shut himself in his room and wouldn’t come out.

‘How should I have answered?’

Alejandro agonized for years.

But that wasn’t the right question.

No matter how he had answered, Shane would have noticed Alejandro’s heart.

That his father held no expectations for him.

A father who pitied his ugly son.

The moment Alejandro became that kind of person, his relationship with Shane collapsed.

Shane completely closed his heart.

Alejandro had no idea what to do.

Several years passed like that.

The guilt of having ruined his son only grew.

Then Shane opened the door and came out.

And said this.

“…I will prove it.“

Alejandro was overjoyed when he heard those words.

But he was also anxious.

What on earth could Shane prove?

If Shane failed, what face would he show his son then?

Alejandro was afraid to return to Denabi Castle.

What if he disappointed Shane again?

What if he let Shane down again?

But Shane made all those worries unfounded.

‘I’m sorry, my son. You had a talent I didn’t know about.’

In the end, Shane persuaded every vassal of Denabi Castle.

He did it to Alejandro,

and to Denabi.

‘I always only thought of comforting you. I agonized whether I could stop disappointing you, whether I could stop looking at you with pity.’

“In the end you… you freed me from that endless anguish. My son.”

---

To be honest, I couldn’t understand that line.

At first, I didn’t even realize it meant he would trust me.

I don’t know much about the relationship between Shane and Alejandro.

‘It’s not in the original—how would I possibly know?!’

So I couldn’t fully accept this situation either.

Could this really happen?

“…“

I looked at the Status Window.

There were more than a few strange things.

First of all, it was odd that I could make my father my talent.

The only thing that made sense was the stats.

A current grade of A+.

It’s the highest current grade I had seen so far.

Moreover…

“Why?”

Ah.

I see.

In short, Alejandro was A+ from the start.

Meaning he was already at his prime.

He even has three aptitudes.

‘No wonder he’s not some random lord of this hellhole.’

He was, after all, the father of the original work’s protagonist.

Having likely fought continuously since the great war decades ago, it made sense he was capable.

But the real surprise was the trust value.

‘How did he break through to 134 in one go?’

The appointment—surpassing 100 trust—happened at the meeting.

I only asked him to believe in me…

At that moment, Alejandro’s trust skyrocketed.

‘Could there possibly be some charm power in my words?!’

…I was deluding myself to that extent.

If such a thing existed, things would have been ten times easier.

I wouldn’t have had such a hard time at Ronari’s family’s house.

‘Because it’s a father-son relationship, there must have been something special.’

I couldn’t think of it any other way.

I closed the Status Window.

“Still, I received my father’s recognition. Of course that’s a good thing…”

I snorted and laughed.

Is there anything as pleasant as someone believing in you?

I decided to purely enjoy that feeling.

A rather rough journey awaited me.

Outside the window, the battlements of Limone were approaching.

---

The first obstacle we faced.

Was this very journey itself.

One day and a half into the trip.

I leaned against an unfamiliar tree and practiced wasting my budget.

“Uwaaahhhh…”

Look.

The lunch I ate today was gone in one blow.

Ronari patted my back and said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine but uwaaah. My lunch money isn’t fine uwaaah.”

“How much was it anyway?”

“I calculated last time—it was about 2,700 won uwaaah…”

Words spilled out that might have been tears or something else.

Ronari sighed.

“Still, this tree will grow big and strong.”

I could only answer after I had given everything inside me to the tree.

“…What good does that do? It’s not even a Denabi tree.“

“Think of it as helping nature, not the domain. By 2,700 won.”

Nature, huh.

“Do you mean the nature that sent a bunch of Dungeons to our domain and wrecked the mana concentration? Is there anything to be grateful for?”

“Well, that’s true too. You awful nature!”

Then Ronari kicked the tree.

Because of that, even I, leaning on the tree, staggered.

“Ugh. Don’t shake it. Please.”

“Ah. Sorry.”

It had been several minutes since I got off the carriage, but I still felt like I was moving.

“That wasn’t what I meant to tell you…”

I sighed, still leaning on the tree.

Ronari asked.

“What?”

“…I told the coachman how long until Denabi is destroyed.“

“Why would you tell him that!”

“I thought he’d hurry if he knew…”

Of course, that judgment led to this disastrous result.

Honestly, how could I have known?

I, who don’t get seasick, ended up getting carriage sick…

I should’ve ridden a carriage back when I lived on Earth.

I’m regretting my past life for no reason.

Then Ronari asked.

“But you didn’t tell me that.”

“The time until destruction?”

She nodded.

Did I do that?

I had told Avenger and Alejandro.

I missed the timing to tell Ronari.

Everyone would be surprised if they knew.

Well, Ronari could probably be told.

“Do you want to know?”

“…“

She borrowed my expression.

‘An expression for looking at someone asking something too obvious.’

I whispered into her ear.

“…Probably about nine days from now.“

“!“

Ah—long story short, I would regret this choice for a long time.

Why?

Because from that point Ronari also sided with the coachman’s reckless driving.

“Then there’s no time to feed the trees! What are you doing! Get on quickly!”

“Just…10 minutes…!”

“Are you crazy!? There’s no time to waste!”

Ronari shoved me and forced me into the carriage.

After that, the carriage raced without stopping.

In the meantime, I became quite familiar with the carriage’s windowsill.

‘I was stuck to it all day.’

While I roughly donated about twenty thousand won worth of meal money to the road outside the window, the carriage finally reached its destination.

“I’m…alive…”

The pitch-black gate of Limone Castle.

At its front, the carriage finally stopped.

It was a rest like rain after a drought.

Just as I was enjoying the rest, Ronari shook me awake.

I said.

“Just kill me instead.”

“I’ll kill you. After we save Denabi. So pull yourself together.”

“What…?”

I barely sat up and peered out the window.

An argument could be heard in front of the carriage.

“Didn’t I tell you! We’re envoys from Denabi. We even handed over the seal! We must see the Lord of Limone as soon as possible! We don’t have time!”

Something felt off.

I asked Ronari.

“Come to think of it, how long have we been stopped at the gate?”

“I think it’s already been thirty minutes. We don’t have time for this!”

Does passage procedure in this world take that long?

No.

It couldn’t be.

At most, our group was a few carriages.

We didn’t bring soldiers.

What reason would they have to make envoys from an allied domain wait like this?

‘Probably because some picky guy is in charge of the gate control.’

I didn’t expect to meet that guy right away.

I got out of the carriage and looked up at the gate.

Bright sunlight.

I squinted my eyes.

On top of the gate stood a man with his back to the sun.

A man in black armor with black hair streaming in the wind.

‘It’s him.’

Vittorio Leviner.

He was the first villain I had encountered in this world.

---

It may be obvious, but I know more people outside the Denabi domain than inside it.

The reason is obvious.

‘Most Denabi people die in the prologue. Because of the Mana Plague.’

So it was natural to meet people I knew outside the domain.

Still, even so.

Of all people, we had to arrive when this guy was guarding the gate.

I thought my luck was really terrible.

Then Ronari asked.

“What are you staring at like that?”

“A stickler, someone obsessively fixated on form and procedure, a man lacking humanity.”

“…?“

“I’m looking at such a man. I’ll deal with him, so stay here.”

I took a few steps toward the gate.

And shouted up to the man on the gate.

“I am Shane Astrier, son of the Lord of Denabi. Talk with me.”

“…“

But there was no answer from above the gate.

I expected as much.

He wouldn’t exchange a word until the procedure was complete, right?

Because he didn’t want to give information.

‘What to do. I already know too much.’

“Even if you keep your mouth shut, I already know who you are. Vittorio. You’re the son of Lord Ludovica of Limone, aren’t you?”

“…“

Vittorio’s eyebrows twitched.

It was natural for his reaction to be that—some stranger pretending to know him.

“Let’s at least be cordial as fellow lords’ sons.”

I spoke a bit cockily on purpose.

Inside Denabi I was quite scared.

Because everyone around me were characters who don’t appear much in the plot.

But if someone I know is right in front of me, there’s no reason to be afraid.

A response came soon.

“Your identity has not been verified yet.”

“That figures. They’ll have sent to compare the Denabi seal we handed over with official documents.”

“…“

“It’ll take another thirty minutes. But you don’t have to do that stupid thing.”

I unfurled a scroll from my bosom.

And instructed the accompanying officials to bring the cargo.

I said to the man atop the gate.

“Here. Can you see this? You can’t, right. If you don’t come down immediately to check it, we’ll take this and leave.”

“Go ahead and leave if you want.”

“Really? Do you know what this is?”

Thud—

Soon the officials placed the cargo I requested beside me.

I perched atop the chest.

And I fluttered the scroll.

“This is an IOU. Something you wrote for me.”

“?“

Ha. How dense.

I’m saying something important, yet you claim you won’t understand unless you see it with your eyes.

I flung open the chest.

The afternoon sun reflected gold.

Anyone would have been overwhelmed by the sight.

What lay there was far more persuasive than a lordly family seal.

Something anyone would want to bring into their household at a glance.

Because it was gold coins worth billions of won.

“Hey you lot. Do you really not want to take money?”