After the unforeseen situation with the Inuo family, the atmosphere inside the carriage soon calmed down, allowing for more casual and close interactions between father and son.
Ishvan calmed down, throwing the high-risk plan to the back of his mind, and focused on other matters.
"Father," He started, grabbing his father's notice.
Ishvan sorted out his thoughts before nodding to himself. Rubbing his chin, he looked back at Avaos.
"I am thinking about bringing up this matter in Court. Not only is this an offense to us, but also to the Royal Family. Not to mention that estate was claimed without a Royal Decree by the Inuo.
"Using the right words, I'm confident our Family would gain a fair bit of territory as a reward for pointing this out and weaken the Inuo Nobles in the process."
Avaos took a long look at his son; He always knew his son had a sharp mind, and now it started to show.
With that said, Avaos felt nothing but pride for his son. Usually, it would've been a massive embarrassment for a Count to be in the dark about matters relating to the other Noble Houses, but the hard-cold truth was that Ishvan had a better information network than Avaos himself.
'It seems like I need to spend more on an intelligence agency, or...' He thought, taking a mental note.
To his son, Avaos nodded slowly.
"That is something to consider, yes. And with the tensions between noble Houses... Dealing with a lower-ranked House may have its advantages."
After praising his son, Avaos brought up an important point.
"Although I'm impressed about the knowledge you've managed to gather, it would be embarrassing for the Count to be in the dark about these matters. Son, may I use your information network?"
Although asking one's son for anything might be embarrassing for some nobles, fortunately, Avaos wasn't like some other nobles. He poured vast amounts of resources to teach his son as best he could, so he would be stupid for feeling embarrassed or inferior to him now. His goal was to make his son a greater man than he was, and it slowly paid off.
"Of course, Father. Actually, my agency was always a direct subordinate of yours, it's just that you seemed to ignore it for some reason."
Avaos seemed taken aback as he leaned further into the padded couch.
"Really now? This agency, what was its purpose previously?"
Ishvan smiled and rubbed his nose with a finger. "You might find this funny, but it was a cleaners association if it can even be called that."
"Hahaha." Avaos couldn't help but laugh. Who could've guessed that cleaners could become such good spies?
It only takes a few moments to realize that. Cleaners are needed everywhere, especially in Noble Houses, where chambers and halls need constant maintenance. Even though they were inferior to maids, they would still be needed.
(A/N: These cleaners aren't your common maids. They usually deal with the more gross stuff as well as cleaning walls and furniture - as in refurbishing and waxing it)
Ishvan coughed lightly and continued.
"I'll make sure that you'll receive the reports. They are encoded for safety reasons, so you'll need this to be able to read them successfully. Don't worry about returning that paper, I've memorized the decoding sequence, so you may keep it."
Ishvan then took a small piece of paper from his coat and infused a bit of mana into it before handing it to his father.
Avaos accepted the slip of paper and spent a few seconds studying the contents.
Nodding, he placed the paper in his coat pocket.
'I should've spent more time with him growing up.' He sighed in his mind, turning his attention to his son.
"Son... I've been meaning to ask," He started, feeling a bit timid for some reason.
"Have you thought of a suitable lady you would like to marry?"
Not giving Ishvan any room to answer, Avaos continued right after. Words flowed out of his mouth like water out of a broken dam.
"I mean, you've spent so much time living in the manor doing nothing but study. I fear I might be forced to accept a marriage offer with someone you might not like."
Ishvan raised an eyebrow, knowing that his father pushed quite the number of ladies into his chambers. He wasn't sure what his father really meant by that? He heard the man, he even understood the question... But he wasn't sure about the meaning behind those words.
It took some time, but the young Heir's brain finally caught up to what his father could've meant. The thought was so shocking he even ignored the rather embarrassing question from his father.
'Would he go that far for me?' Ishvan thought, feeling confused and strangely warm by his father's consideration. Still, he had to make sure.
"Would you reject the union between our family with a stronger one just because of me? Only because I would be unhappy?"
Avaos took a deep breath. He would be lying if he said that's true.
In reality, he would ponder what to do and what the best course of action would be.
Thinking for a few seconds, the Count sighed and nodded slightly.
"I would. What good this union would bring if the marriage fails in a few years? My goal is to make the Ato family as powerful as it can be. If my grandkids grow up in such a strained environment as a shaky marriage at best, and a broken one at worst, how would they have the same yearning as you and me?
"If all this Ato family has given them was a roof over their heads and no familial love, would they even try making sure it survives? Wouldn't they rather live their lives to the fullest, trying to make up for something they were deprived of?"
Breathing in deeply, Avaos continued. "So, yes. I would rather see you happy, bringing this family to an all-new height, than to get blind-sighted by short-lived benefits and indirectly lead my family to ruin."
Ishvan was struck by his father's words and, for a good while, didn't know how to respond. Or what, for that matter.
He wasn't ready for such meaningful and profound words, especially at his age. Would he care about his children who weren't even born? About their happiness?
No.
First of all, he was searching for his own happiness. How could he care or worry about the happiness of someone who isn't even born?
His father, however, seemed mature enough to do so. Then again, he had found his happiness, so it was a bit easier for him to worry about such things.
Sighing, Ishvan could only look back at the few occasions he actively tried to meet someone, much less a lady.