Chapter 18: Chapter 11 ─ Noblesse oblige

A ceremony was taking place, it was the engagement party of a future couple.

The venue was the mansion of one of the six great nobles, a handsome young man with blond hair and eyes was wearing an expensive dinner jacket.

Tom─ Thomas Ian Exner was one of the capture targets of the sequel.

Beside him was a beautiful young woman wearing a wedding gown that lifted and exposed her large breasts.

Yellowish blonde hair reaching to her shoulder blade and green eyes.

Sara Ciel Rosenberg, the villainess and daughter of the Acting Chairman.

Sara and Tom's engagement was part of improving the future of both houses.

"I am glad that all our family and friends are with us, it makes me very happy that you are all present at my younger brother's engagement party."

The man speaking was a very attractive young man similar to Tom, Linus Ian Exner, the current head of Exner Household and also the secret capture target that is unlocked in the event of failing to catch Tom or Zack.

Next to him was Sara's father, the Acting Chairman and villain of the sequel. Randolf Ciel Rosenberg.

A middle-aged man with a good physique, short blond hair with a scraggly beard and green eyes in his serious gaze.

Linus handed the microphone to Randolf who would now say a few words.

"Thank you all for coming to my daughter's engagement party with Tom-kun from Exner Household. I wish the best of prosperity to these young people who are the future of this country."

Everyone applauded at those words.

Guests began to gather to greet the couple-to-be.

Sara had always dreamed of marrying her beloved man, but the boy next to her, though handsome, was not the man she was looking for.

Not only was he a womanizer who spent time with several girls at the same time, he also had a strong brother complex.

That is, he always brought Linus into his conversations to brag about how great he was.

Sara understands that as siblings of different mothers, they get along well together when usually they wouldn't, but their relationship, or rather the way Tom expresses himself, repulses her.

Among the guests, an unexpected person came to greet them, it was Randy.

He took Sara's hand and congratulated her.

"Sara-chan, you have grown into a beautiful woman. I really would have liked you to marry my heir so that you could be part of our family."

"I appreciate the invitation, but Douglas-san is twice my age and I could not marry him as the laws themselves dictate marrying someone of the same age."

"I understand, it's a shame really."

Despite saying that, Sara was repulsed by this man.

Ever since she was a child she had always felt a strange look at her from him.

Even now she could feel his unpleasant gaze on her cleavage.

(I had no choice but to wear such a dress, but this guy has the nerve to look at me with his leering eyes.)

Sara looked at her father who was talking to some relatives, if he had seen what Randy was doing, he would have killed him.

The great nobleman's lecherous gaze now went to Tom.

"Tom-kun, I have to talk to you and your brother, can we go to a private room?"

"Huh? With Linus nii-san? What is it?"

"It's something private that I can only talk to you guys about."

"Well, if it's something to waste my brother's time I won't forgive you, even if you are a great noble."

The two of them walked away leaving alone to Sara.

◇◇◇

After finding Linus, he looked dubiously at Randy behind Tom, his younger brother approached him and told him that Randy wished to speak to him.

Linus nodded.

(It's too noisy in here to listen to a normal conversation anyway.)

The three of them went into a separate room, Randolf saw them enter, but didn't think anything of it.

◇◇◇

After sitting down and crossing his legs, Linus faced Randy.

"May I ask what you wish to talk to me about, Randy-dono?"

"Linus-kun, as you may know, we are currently experiencing a tragedy in the nation."

"Tragedy?"

Linus was a young patriot who was very loyal to his country.

That's why mentioning the words "danger" and "country" together in the same sentence are a way to get his undivided attention.

Randy already had him in his clutches, he just had to make him dance like the monkey he is, he thought.

"Yeah, that menace is definitely the nobleman of the kingdom."

"Are you talking about Count Bradford?"

"That brat himself. That boy is a menace to us."

"He mocked in our faces and worse, he murdered one of my sons. Doesn't that seem to you deserving of a huge punishment?"

Linus understood where Randy was going.

"Randy-dono, it's no good talking to me about this. The Acting Chairman already gave him a sentence."

"Banishment, I know. But that's part of the problem."

"Why wait so long and not do it now? What's in it for the Acting Chairman to still let him stay here?"

Even if Randy was a pig and an illiterate, he was still one of the great nobles.

Maybe not with his intelligence, but with his audacity he managed to be where he is without needing to use his position as heir.

He was taking the bait, Randy thought.

"To make it all worse, there's that rumor Cliff-dono said. About that girl being the survivor of the tragedy 10 years ago."

"If it's true that she's a descendant of the former priestess, doesn't that make having her in Aster a priority instead of letting her go?"

"Why does Randolf-dono want to let her go? Isn't it convenient for the priestess killer in there is no one who can reestablish that house?"

Linus was thoughtful about what Randy said, Tom interrupted the conversation.

"In case what you say is true, how do we get it back?"

"You guys gave it to that nobleman in the kingdom, legally we can't do nothing about it."

"You are right about that. That's why we should file a complaint with the Acting Chairman."

Randy pulled out a document he had tucked away in his sack.

"In this document I suggest to make an investigation about that girl and formulate a sentence again in order to get her back, even if we must have that kingdom brat here."

To get an investigation without Acting Chairman's approval, at least 4 signatures of the great nobles are needed to authorize it.

On the document Linus saw the signatures from Lunor Household and Wayne Household, he asked about the remaining house.

"You couldn't ask Cliff-dono and you asked me didn't you?"

"Actually I did ask him, but he sent me to hell hahaha."

Linus sighed and before signing he thought of Randolf.

He held the Acting Chairman in high esteem, he was like a father to him as well as his benefactor and mentor.

But the situation with Rudel and that mysterious girl had made him uncomfortable recently.

After signing, Randy brightened up and left the room quickly.

His macabre smile on those yellow teeth were a bad sign.

He folded the paper and could see that there was a part stuck at the beginning and there it said something else.

◇◇◇

A young man with navy blue hair and eyes approached Sara.

"Congratulations on your engagement, Sara."

"Lugh. Good to see you here."

One of the capture targets, Lugh Eliol Lunor made his presence known.

Sara and Lugh were childhood friends, they got along well.

The reason she never committed to him was because he was her friend. And she didn't want to ruin their friendship with a false love.

Lugh and Sara would talk about everything because they hadn't seen each other for a long time.

Even if they were both at the academy, they couldn't say hello to each other due to their different schedules.

Lugh told her about Tom who was not here.

"I wanted to say hello to Tom too but I don't see him."

"He'll be back, he's busy."

Lugh commented to Sara.

"I hope you will be happy in the future."

Lugh is one of the few people who knew about Aster's Rudel, Sara knew immediately what he meant.

"I am no longer a child to believe in true love, I am an adult and also part of the kin of the six great nobles."

"My obligation as part of the nobility is to see to the good of my family. No matter what, my family must come before me."

The obligation of the nobility of Aster or Noblesse oblige is to continue the bloodline of the founders, which is why they intermarry among themselves.

Preventing any blood relatives from intermarrying.

That is, Sara can marry Tom because he doesn't possess direct Rosenberg blood as Linus does.

Every great noble has blood from the other families.

Only distant relatives or someone who is not directly related could marry a child or distant relative of the great nobles.

She and Lugh share blood as well, but not directly.

Sara told her friend that she was grateful for his words.

"You are kind, by the way. Where is your betrothed? I want to greet her."

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Diana and Lugh were recently engaged.

But Sara was locked up in Tom's mansion, unable to go.

When she asked him about his fiancée, Lugh showed a sad expression.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it's just... I'm worried about her."

"There's been a rumor circulating recently that Lucy is the heir of Vermillion Household. Did you know that, Sara?"

Sara didn't lie to Lugh.

"Yes, I knew. Did you?"

"Diana told me long ago, truth be told, it took me by surprise. That's why I swore to protect her, her sister too."

"But seeing as you were always bothering her I wonder, what reason was behind the quiet, gentle Sara starting to bother a girl for no reason."

Sara told Lugh the truth.

"My father ordered me to protect her, you were already looking after Diana, but Lucy was different, you saw what happened to her due to Derrick and Jude didn't you?"

"Those two aren't afraid of you, that's why I had to mark territory against them, it's the only way I could stop anything from happening to her... but in the end it was no use."

Sara wanted to cry.

"Part of me was glad she was gone, but another part of me was angry at myself for allowing that girl to suffer so much abuse from him."

"But... at least she's better now."

"You mean the nobleman of the kingdom? Rudel was, wasn't it?"

"Yes... and his name is Rudel. Fate is cruel to me."

"It's good that at least you can have a clear destiny."

"In my case I'm in doubt."

"Doubting what?"

Lugh told her something he didn't want to say.

"A few days ago, I followed Diana, she went to that Rudel guy's house and then ran off, I was worried about her, that's why I followed her. She had been stressed lately and seeing her running like that I thought something had happened."

"I was running after her calling out to her, but she didn't hear me. Then..."

"I saw her crash into Zack."

"With Zack? Is he back yet?"

"Yeah. The thing is... she said something to him and after I saw them go into a cafe I heard them say they were going to the dungeon to get something."

"When I came home, Diana came back too and told me she was going to be busy and that's why she didn't want to bother me on this break."

Tears streamed down his cheeks, Lugh's pleasant and sensitive personality was what made him popular with the women.

"What bothers me is not where she goes, it is with whom, where and also she has to say it's another place."

Sara could only tilt her head looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry."

The party continued, but there were two depressed people.

◇◇◇

Inside Aster's dungeon.

Diana was chatting with Zack after taking a break from finding a strange laboratory in the depths of the dungeon.

After making sure there were no monsters about they collapsed from exhaustion.

"I'm hungry."

"I brought biscuits and water, they'll help us recharge."

"Oh, good idea. Thanks Diana."

Zack and Diana made themselves comfortable and after lighting a fire they set about eating the biscuits and water.

For anyone, especially Lugh.

You'd think there was something going on between them, but in fact there is not.

Diana sees Zack as a friend only, after all, in her own words. Diana would never be unfaithful to Lugh.

Whereas Zack, who would seem to Lugh to be interested in Diana, is in fact the opposite.

Zack is romantically interested in someone else, Diana is just his only real friend.

The person Zack is interested in is someone with whom he shares blood ties.

His cousin in other words, Sara.

Zack is a relative of Rosenberg Household who was adopted by the head of Wayne Household after the death of his heir.

Replacing the heir was a matter of course.

But for Zack, the world of the nobles was grotesque.

They were all liars and fakes.

That's why he liked being with Diana, she was authentic and besides, she didn't hang out with him to form connections, just to have a real friend.

To make her situation even more surreal, Zack, who Diana thought was a reincarnate, was in fact a person of this world.

Raising the question in Diana's mind whether the original people in the game can have a different personality from the game.

They talked about different things as they rested, including Lucy's situation.

Zack furrowed his eyebrows when he heard what Rudel was supposedly doing with Lucy.

"So, this Rudel guy is forcing Lucy to stay with him just because he saved her from Jude."

"That's right, even though my big sister won't admit it, she's under that boy's control, I want to save her and by coming to this place I could do that."

"Umm, I get that Derrick was a small-time thug, but Jude?"

"It's hard to imagine that guy would do something like that. Besides, beating up the heir of a great noble and killing the son of another."

"That Rudel boy seems to have no respect for authority."

"But besides that. The Acting Chairman just exiling him along with Lucy, seems like something very far-fetched and weird to me."

"No matter how it sounds, we must save my sister and everyone from that Rudel boy."

"Diana, even if you tell me, I can't believe in that as you may be drawing conjecture."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"O-Of course not."

*Sigh*

Diana who was angry a moment ago sighed and stood up.

"Enough of the break."

She dusted herself off and then Zack put out the campfire.

They set off straight to the middle of the place.

There they saw a large silver suit of armor being crushed by giant roots.

"I wonder how it ended up there?"

"Diana, look at the cockpit, it's all crushed and it's black too. Hahaha, I'm sure the guy who died there wants revenge."

Zack made a little joke at Diana, which hit him hard in the belly.

"D-don't scare me you idiot!"

"It hurts."

After recomposing himself from the blow, Diana saw the armor.

"It reminds me a lot of that armor I saw at the port when they arrived."

"If I'm not mistaken, the name that Ixion guy mentioned was... Battler."

"Battler? ... If I'm not mistaken, it means fighter. I mean, a warrior."

Zack looked at the silver armor.

"That gives me an idea, I'll keep this kid and call him by a name similar to that Battler guy."

"The way it fought these roots surely, I'll name it like a wrestler. Grappler!"

"Grappler? What a horrible name, if you can get it out of there it's yours."

"Really? Yeah!"

Zack looked like a child, Diana walked away from him.

They walked a few meters until they reached the target.

"This is it. Its shape is just like the game."

"What is this thing?"

Zack and Diana saw a huge ship, about 400 meters long which was covered by roots and vines of the sacred tree.

"Zack, we have to get inside, help me open the door."

"Do you know what this is?"

"Uh... yeah, this is..."

Diana was about to tell Zack a lie, at that, the door that was surrounded by roots suddenly opened.

Zack stepped in front of Diana, carrying his spear and with his rifle to the side.

"Diana, stay behind me."

"A-All right."

Amidst the darkness of that place, a strange light approached them.

They could see something they never imagined seeing.

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