'The Hero, Ian the Brave.'
He had been the one to purge the Demon Lord. If so, then why were the demons back on the continent? Reika felt her head ache, as she rolled her eyes and ruffled her hair once more.
"I'm going crazy…."
"Let's talk to Mr. Boros for more information."
"Of course I have to talk to him as well. I have no clue what's going to happen from now on with my father's relationship with the Belturia Estate."
Reika spoke with an exhausted face and continued.
"I got it for now. But, I have one more question Asher."
Reika pointed her finger to the person whose head was lying in her lap, unconscious.
"What's wrong with him?"
Charon was passed out on her lap, and his blank and murky eyes did not shake or move in the slightest. Reika shuddered as she looked at Charon, her knight who appeared to be brain dead.
"Why is he acting like a retard?"
"I don't know."
Asher also heard the conversation Charon had with the Doppelganger. He could try and guess, but that was about it.
"It's a problem that he'll have to solve with himself."
At that moment, a knock rang out from outside the carriage door. A woman in the blue opened the door.
"Ms. Reika, are you there?"
"Oh, yes."
"The Lord is requesting to see you. Would that be all right with you?"
"Yes, that will be alright with me."
Reika followed the maid. The lady's composure slightly faltered when her eyes laid on Asher.
"Sorry, I forgot to mention… it would be you… and Asher… together…."
"Hm, Asher as well?"
"Maybe there's something to talk about."
Asher replied to Reika as they stepped out and followed the maid.
"Let's just follow along for now."
***
"I'm sorry."
Boros was waiting for them, as he sat in the Lord's office which had also crumbled to a certain extent from the repercussions of the fight with the Doppelganger.
"Are you all right Mr. Boros?"
"Not right now sadly, Lady Reika."
Boros smiled bitterly. He was aggrieved, confused, and yet he still had work to do as the sole successor of the Belturia Nobility. He glanced at Asher.
"You must have heard the story roughly from Asher."
"Huh…?"
Boros casually addressed Asher as if he were an equal and Reika briefly exclaimed in surprise. Boros asked back nonchalantly.
"Yes, Is there a problem?"
"No, no."
Reika shook her head.
"Yes, I've heard the story from him as well."
"You have my sincerest apologies Lady Reika. You came here to establish political relations with my family and had to see something truly…. unsightly."
"What exactly happened?"
"My father was long dead, and he was replaced with a Doppelganger. It's as simple as that."
"Since when…."
"Well I'm not sure, but I think it was about twenty years ago. My father had been starting to act weird since about then."
Boros murmured in a depressed tone.
"I'd been calling him… no, 'it', my father for twenty years."
Boros laughed to himself. In the gloomy atmosphere present, Reika quietly shut her mouth. Boros soon stopped laughing and opened his mouth to speak once more in his melancholic tone of voice.
"First of all, I'm sorry. I don't think the political marriage will work."
"What?"
"The marriage was arranged by my Father. But it was a Doppelganger, not my actual father. So it was clearly a ploy made by Doppelganger for some reason, and I have no intention of trying to find out why it wanted it.."
Boros was not crazy enough to play with fire. That Doppelganger may have been lewd and aggressive with it's actions, but it was a Demon. Demons were cunning as they were brutal, and there was clearly a reasoning the Doppelganger arranged the marriage. However, now that it was dead, Boros wanted nothing to do with it.
"Ah…."
"For that reason alone, I've decided to call it off. Once again, I'm sorry."
"No, don't be."
Reika's face brightened up immediately. She didn't want to be married away to a noble family and be treated like a chess piece, so there was nothing better for her to hear at that very moment. There was only one point that left her feeling unsettled however.
"But what was the Doppelganger scheming?"
"That's a question left unanswered for us as well. I've been kept in the dark about the movement of the Empire's politics and Worldly changes, so I'm doing my best to figure out what could have possibly been the motivation behind it.
Asher was listening with his mouth shut at the conversation.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"First of all, we have to open trade again with the outside. And I'm also going to send a representative to the Empire to inform them that a Doppelganger had been in place of my father and acting as the Lord for the past twenty years. If anything, the Emperor, himself, at least has to know of what happened."
Reika asked carefully.
"What will happen if news spreads about this?"
She was careful to ask, but she was curious what would happen if the Empire knew that the Great Hero, Balbaca Belturia, was murdered and replaced with a Doppelganger for the past twenty years. The aftermath would surely not be small. Even if the Emperor let the other nobles know of what happened, it would not go farther than nobility, as it could be dastardly for the public population to know of such a thing.
Boros nodded.
"Of course. This may be happening in other Noble households. Not just our territory."
"…Oh my god."
"I'd have to see you off, but… I think it will be hard for me to do so, because I can't afford to leave the territory right now. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm not so ignorant that I would take you away from your time needed to organize your territory in a dire time."
The Belaturia estate was on the verge of collapse. Boros had to put all his strength and willpower into holding it together. Reika got up from her seat.
"Oh, do you mind if I talk to Asher for a moment?", Boros quickly asked.
"With Asher?"
"Yes."
"…I see."
Reika wondered what it could be, but she walked out of the room without much hesitation.
Only Asher and Boros were left in the room.
"I'd like to thank you for now. For getting rid of the Doppelganger."