ED: flower_fly12
Count Bratz is crude for a nobleman.
This was the reputation of the Bratz family that circulated society. Perhaps because Margrave was facing many barbarians on the frontier.
In the distant past the sound of war trumpets was constant, but the recent superficial rapprochement had resulted in a variety of more frequent exchanges.
“Ian-nim, you have excellent table manners.”
Ian, who was hastily chewing his meat, noticed the old man’s praise. Was this irony? Was I unwittingly prostrated by hunger? Ian was struck by the unconscious urge to straighten his neck, but the old man’s praise was sincere.
“Your son has great dignity. It must be due to Count Derga’s fine teaching.”
“Thank you, Lord Moline.”
Count Derga, the head of the Bratz family, did not fail to notice the abrupt shift to bewilderment yet also formality in the air of his child. Derga replied, glancing at Ian.
“Of course, Bratz’s blood is flowing through his veins. Please give my regards to the Emperor.”
“Absolutely. Count.”
Ian stopped chewing on the words he didn’t understand.
The Emperor? You mean me?
No, no. Wait a minute. Did he just say Bratz?
Come to think of it…
My hands holding the fork and knife are too small and skinny. My vision in the chair is also low. After swallowing my food in this incomprehensible situation, I looked for my wine glass.
“Ah.”
What was in the glass was not alcohol, but a drink. And the reflection in the round glass was not my own, but the face of a stranger. For a moment, Ian almost forgot about his dignity and spit it out.
“Cough!”
The boy opposite sarcastically said as I took a napkin with a cough.
“Tsk, tsk. Look at that. I wondered how good he was.”
“Chell, if your brother makes a mistake, you have to look after him.”
The child called Chell grumbled in displeasure. Countess Mary disciplined her son by tightly holding Chell’s hand under the tablecloth. Now this place was not just a simple dining table.
Lord Moline was a civil servant from the Central Imperial Palace. He was there to verify that Ian had the qualities to join the Count of Bratz. Moline smiled kindly at Chell before focusing on Ian again.
“Ian-nim, you’ve been studying philosophy recently.”
The Count and his wife’s faces twisted in perplexity at Moline’s sudden remark.
Ian could not even write his name. Since he was the result of the Count raping one of the commoners outside the mansion, he had not received a proper education. Even when he started eating, he would gulp down the water from a finger bowl.
“He is not at the level of talking to anyone yet.”
The Count stepped in quickly and pretended to defend Ian. Nevertheless, Ian’s eyes were sharp.
Stupid. I told you to memorize it.
In preparation for Moline’s visit, there had been an attempt at cramming as much of an education as possible into the boy. Alas, it seemed he had forgotten everything. Moline pushed on with laughter, undeterred.
“That’s what learning is all about. It’s about solidifying by disagreeing with each other. Ian-nim, what have you learned recently? You are sixteen and did not go to school.”
The eighty-year-old man was friendly and upright. It was a pity that he had spent his life in the central administration, where talented people toiled away every day.
Now that this had happened, the Count could not defend Ian. Everyone’s eyes turned to Ian.
“Well.”
Ian wiped his mouth with a napkin as he cleared his throat. As the Count had expected, Ian was perplexed.
Not because of Moline’s question, but because he knew this was the backyard of Count Derga.
Count of Bratz?
In the body of a boy I have never seen before?
I assumed this had something to do with Naum’s space-time magic, but could not know for sure. Since space-time magic opens a passage between points in time, the location was constrained.
In other words, I had to go to the designated place.
However, my last memory was of the underground prison. Moreover, I have never heard of borrowing someone else’s body to move.
“Ian-nim?”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Ian responded reflexively and gracefully to Moline’s urging. It was a custom learned in the Imperial Palace. Listen to the conversation, smile conveying intent. Margrave and his family have never seen Ian smile like that before.
“Philosophy. Philosophy…”
Ian muttered a few times in agony.
“May I answer for you? Lord Moline, the Administrator.”
In the meantime, his half brother, Chell, stepped up.
It was also unfathomable that Ian, an outsider, was the main character of this precious dinner party. How could he enter the Count’s family with his lowly blood? Chell had every right to be angry.
It was so foolish and childish to steal the adults’ gaze from Ian. Countess Mary’s fierce glances clouded her speech.
“Chell, Lord Moline asked Ian.”
She was pleading silently.
Son, please shut up. This is all for you. You will only live if that lowborn child gets registered in the Count’s family.
“I like Lord Fuhlen.”
“Lord Fuhlen?”
In the midst of the mayhem, Ian had spoken quietly. He had lost his appetite and the dishes were neatly put away to the side.
Count Derga’s face turned pale. He had never heard of that name before. If you do not know, say no! Why are you spitting some bullshit?!
“Yes. Of course, the Vatican does not welcome it, but the humanism that Lord Fuhlen pursues is a very important question. If we ponder what the truth created by humans is, we can portray the true image of a monarch.”
It was purely personal taste.
For Ian, a day where the people did not starve to death was more important than philosophy or humanities. It was a philosophy study that maintained a certain level of formality, so he recited the one that he remembered among the so-called ‘successful’ intellectuals.
Count Derga rolled his eyes and looked at Moline. The old man paused, seemingly astonished, then leaned close to Ian.
“How do you know Lord Fuhlen?”
“Yes?”
But it was Count Derga, not Ian, who answered. Moline grinned and shook his head.
“This… It must be because of the Count on the frontier, so the news from the center would arrive late. I did not mean to appear disdainful. I apologize to Count Derga and Ian-nim.”
“No, no.”
Moline noticed that the Count did not know Fuhlen. If he had known, he would have frowned as if I were displeased instead of wearing his current stupid expression.
“Lord Fuhlen is the youngest son of a Viscount Hawkman who has just come of age. He’s young, but he’s one of the top students at Bariel University. Not long ago, during a scholarly debate at the Imperial Palace, he talked about humanism and turned the world upside down.”
That was right, the news was late due to the frontier. He had ridden a full fifteen days by carriage from the capital to the border of Derga. It was a fact that no one, including the Count, knew.
While everyone was looking back at Ian in surprise, Ian was also surprised inside.
Lord Fuhlen just came of age? I think he was over a hundred years old?
Not only was he in a strange body, but he seemed to have also travelled almost one hundred years into the past. A very remarkable situation about which nothing could be discerned from Ian’s face. It was thanks to his attitude as Emperor.
“Ahh, I see that Lord Moline also likes Lord Fuhlen’s philosophy. But you said earlier that the Vatican did not welcome him. What do you mean by that?”
“…The view of humanism that is never more important than people. The Vatican, which worships God, will not be pleased.”
“Haha.”
It was the perfect answer.
Moline felt his fatigue release for the first time in fifteen days.
“It’s worth running all the way here. I didn’t know Count Bratz’s new son was so intelligent. I’m sure the Emperor will be pleased.”
In fact, it was not a big deal for a distinguished and respectable noble family to enlist a bastard son. Some of the lower-ranking nobles, on the other hand, could not keep their mouths shut. Bringing an illegitimate child would incite gossip. It would be an unforgettable incident in the boring high society of women and men.
But Moline’s words that followed were somewhat strange.
“And I’m sure the Cheonryeo Tribe would also welcome you.”
The Cheonryeo tribe?
Ian traced back his memory and recalled the familiar name. The Cheonryeo refers to the barbarians in the east of the border. The Cheonryeo Tribe welcomes their intelligence?
…Then.
I want to be a hostage.
A bastard son to be sent to the bordering Cheonryeo tribe in exchange for maintaining peace.
I can see what’s going on.
The Count smiled wickedly and covered his hand on the back of Ian’s hand. Knowing the situation, he was a devil in the mask of a benevolent father.
“Ian. I have no doubt that you will be a symbol of peace.”
The peace treaty was a formal agreement.
It was customary to send each chief’s own son, but the frontier barbarians were a fickle lot who would change at any given moment. In fact, Count Derga’s second brother, died crossing the border for the sake of peace when he was a child. It is said that it was an accident, but it could not be determined.
How could he send his only son, Chell? He had hurriedly brought the neglected Ian to enlist him.
Of course, the Palace would have noticed.
Since he could not send just anyone, he was trying to test Ian’s intelligence through Moline. The smarter the child to be sent was, the more diplomatic deterrence there would be. It would be good for both sides.
Of course, the autonomy of the Bratz family came first on the frontier, so it was partly just a formal procedure. On the other hand, it could be considered a check on local nobles by the imperial palace.
“Ahh.”
Ian grasped the situation at once.
Even before his death, the Bratz family had exchanged hostages several times like this and continued their friendship.
Eventually, it was destroyed by the Cheonryeo tribe.
Disastrously, it had taken a fortnight for the messenger to reach the center. By the time the other lords and the current emperor arrived with their armies, it was already too late.
Was it a great-grandfather?
That was Ian’s great-grandfather.
The emperor ended the incident by handing over the territory to the aristocrats and knights who had driven out the Cheonryeo tribe and fought in battle together.
“Ian?”
Countess Mary called Ian. As if to answer the Count. It was an urge to remind himself of his duty.
Ian smiled and took his drink again. Though he did not know the entirety of his situation, he knew one thing for sure. He was not dead. He was revived in the body of an unknown child.
“Yes. Father.”
Ian’s answer made Count Derga smile with satisfaction. Except for Chell, everyone laughed and blessed the peace Ian’s presence would bring.
“Here. Eat.”
Count Derga finally felt at ease and continued eating.
Ian looked around for a while to get a sense of reality. More than anything else, only his thumping heartbeat made him realise he was alive.
I don’t know what the hell has happened.
If this was Naum’s magic, there was one way to confirm it. Go straight to the annex of the palace to find and examine Naum’s magic traces.
However, it took more than a fortnight from the frontier Bratz to the center. And the center was a world unreachable to a child soon to be sold to the Great Desert.
Yeah, it was this kind of world.