Chapter 443 Conversations On The Side



"Is that so? Then how are you going to deal with your conservative vassals?

I'm sure they would be able to tell that the current Evan is not one to handle the responsibility of governing over the Dukedom and its millions of inhabitants, however, they would all stick to their old rules and not agree to reinstate Arnold for one reason, and you know it."

"Yes…Him not possessing the 'Paladin' skill."

Luke chuckled lightly as he saw a frown appear on Roger's face when the latter remembered the rule that forced him to make Evan the heir apparent in the first place when Arnold was originally the one meant to take that role.

He glanced at a group of nobles who were standing not too far from Duke Roger's position, all of which were older generation mid and high nobles who had held their titles for decades.

"As far as I know, that's the reason Arnold lost the position in the first place.

But now that Evan's Hero Status has been revealed, they are going to be even more adamant on not reinstating Arnold."

"Yes…that's going to be quite tricky to deal with. Especially now that I have other official matters to handle in other countries.

Once the trains are up and running, I would be travelling abroad quite frequently for a while."

Just when Luke was about to reply to Roger's words, he raised an eyebrow in light surprise and turned to the side, just in time to see Evan come out of his concealment and speak up.

"If handling them is going to be troublesome, then you can leave the status quo, for now."

Evan said as he moved the void step holding two glasses of wine in front of the two men, gesturing for them to take the glasses before continuing.

"Just keep preparing Arnold the way you've been doing for the past year.

My current title does not compare to the amount of authority you have as a Duke, and to be honest, being known as your Successor has quite a lot of benefits; it'd serve to amplify my own noble authority too."

While Duke Roger was knocking the Void Step with his finger, trying to see how sturdy it was, Luke casually picked up the wine glass and asked.

"So, what do you REALLY intend to do?"

"Honestly, the current me is not one to deal with all the political subtleties involved, so I'm going to do things my way. Probably gonna end up strong-arming it though.

But not now, it's going to take quite a while for me to change a few things up.

When I've gained the necessary amount of international authority and power I'm aiming for, shutting a few conservative old men and women up would be a walk in the park."

The boy replied to Luke's question casually, while the Sword Saint only stared at him silently.

Luke knew the reason why Duke Roger even bothered to listen to the vassals in the first place. Sure, he was the highest-ranked Noble in the Empire, but the Eris Dukedom was not a monolith.

Roger could not handle all the matters occurring throughout his entire Duchy, and all the many counties and few Marquisates that it was made up of.

Especially as he also had duties as a Prime Minster to handle concurrently.

So naturally, certain tasks had to be delegated to vassals, and if he forcefully changed things however he felt like, then it would damage the relationship with the conservative vassals who had served the Eris family for decades.

Each of these conservative vassals, was one with a family line that had been in service to the Eris Duchy for centuries, and the current title holders were all 100-year-old men and women who had all held said titles for at least 50 years each, in other words, they had been titled nobles before Roger was even born!

It was simply out of respect for their long-time service to the family that Roger had not insisted on keeping Arnold as heir when they petitioned for him to be removed.

That and the fact that the issue of his heir apparent was not so important to him as due to his level as an intermediate stage master, he had more than 200 years of lifespan left waiting, more than enough time to deal with the whole succession issue.

"When the time comes, what I'm saying now would make a lot more sense."

Roger only stared at the boy in silence for a moment before nodding in agreement, but even so, there was no way the Duke was going to toss all his eggs in the basket that was Evan, and he would naturally have his own contingencies in place.

"Now then, if you would excuse me…"

"I certainly do hope you have no intentions of running off after this party now, do you?"

Roger's sudden words made Evan flinch momentarily, but the young hero recovered almost instantly and tried to play it off with a smile.

Sadly, Roger wasn't going to fall for it.

"You're going to be accompanying your mother for a while. You can do that, can you not?"

This time, Duke Roger gave Evan a smile of his own, a smile that did not reach his eyes. Moreover, Roger always had an austere expression on his face, and now that same man was smiling; it was something that gave Evan chills just looking at it.

Even Luke who was beside them covered his mouth and turned away to hide his laughter.

"…Yes, sir. I would."

Evan obediently acquiesced to the words of the Duke who only wanted to placate his wife who simply desired to spend more time with her son, before activating blink and teleporting away once.

Of course, he was stopped midway by Jenson who scolded him for using his aura of destruction to mess with the anti-teleport formations.

◇ ◇ ◇

While Evan was being scolded by the Chief Court Mage inside the hall, two teenagers were outside on one of the balconies, chatting with each other.

One of them was a young blonde-haired and grey-eyed boy, wearing a standard collar shirt with a loosened tie, with his suit blazer being draped over the handrail beside him.

Beside him was someone who could be considered his best friend, a boy possessing dark-coloured hair and green eyes with a calm expression on his face that looked just like a younger copy of his father's.

Naturally, these were the Great Western Empire's Crown Prince, Richard, and its Prime Minister's first son, Arnold.

"It seems we've got to up our game, Richard."

"I know bro. They're getting stronger way faster than I expected. Laurene is already above level 200 now.

And she recently got that strange magic catalyst too, it gives me chills just by looking at it."

Richard rubbed his shoulders as he remembered the black orb that Laurene always had strapped on her wrist in the form of a bracelet's gem.

"That's the previous Fourth Hero's magic catalyst…"

"Wait…that's the real Venus?!

I thought she was just trying to recreate it?!

How did she even know where Venus was?"

"I'm guessing it's probably her Hero Authority? I dunno, the way she acted that day, was as if she knew the place like the back of her hand."

Arnold replied calmly as he thought about the strange feeling he got from Venus that day Laurene 'completed' it.

"There's something off about the current Heroes. Things aren't turning out like 'Aidos' had said they would. Starting from Evan's case."

Richard's brow twitched lightly when Evan's name was mentioned, something Arnold chuckled lightly upon noticing.

"Let's not talk about that one, everything about him is just strange.

I know that Heroes level up twice as fast as usual, but that kid is clearly levelling up more than 'just' twice as fast.

And now, he's apparently an Irregular too."

"huh? The irregular talk isn't just a title that adventurers are calling him?"

"No. It's legit, I confirmed with the Sword Saint."

"Now, that makes things trickier."

The grey-eyed boy's eyes narrowed upon discovering this new piece of information, clicking his tongue lightly in annoyance.

"We have no idea what his 'Irregularity' is."

"Probably has to do with how he strangely has information about the Demonic Hand and their activities. And from what I've gleaned from Dad and Laurene, he had already started taking action far before we expected.

His trip to Merdin over a year ago, wasn't just for the fun of it.

He went there to unseal that woman, the Demon Pride."

Richard looked through the glass doors of the balcony and into the hall, at the Red-eyed woman who was talking with Tisha.

However, he did not let his gaze linger for more than a few seconds as he knew that Pride was quite sensitive. He had caught the woman staring in the direction of the shadow guards in the castle on multiple occasions.

Even grandmaster-level existences with stealth skills could barely hide from her senses.