"What have you done?! That foolish son of mine!"
Lucas Evern, the head of the Evern Viscount family, shouted in anger in his study.
His son, Cedric, had done something utterly reckless. He had taken the sisters of the Rosemary Marquis family—Viola and Primula—into the forest, nearly putting their lives in grave danger. It was sheer luck that the monster attacking them decided to leave; otherwise, the two sisters could have suffered more than just injuries.
"I told him to treat those sisters with the utmost respect... Ah, damn it! My entire plan is ruined!"
"But darling, who cares about those girls? More importantly, our son... Cedric was injured!"
Lucas's wife, Lisa Evern, frowned at her agitated husband.
"This is not the time to be saying such things! If this continues, we may lose our status as nobles!"
"Our status as nobles...? What do you mean?"
Lisa looked utterly confused, not understanding what her husband was implying. Annoyed by his wife's ignorance, Lucas slammed his fist onto the table.
"Lady Viola and Lady Primula—those two are the daughters of the Rosemary Marquis! And the Marquis is the direct superior of the head court magician, my superior!"
While the Evern family held noble status, they were of a much lower rank compared to the Rosemary Marquis family.
The title of honorary viscount was tied to a specific position and was often looked down upon as a "pseudo-noble" title. Because Lucas held the position of court magician, he was temporarily granted noble status, but he would revert to commoner status the moment he stepped down from his role.
If Cedric, Lucas's son, became a court magician, he would be the third generation in their family to hold that position, and they would likely be formally elevated to the rank of Viscount. However, due to recent events, this future now seemed uncertain.
"If Marquis Rosemary so wishes, he could easily have me dismissed from my position and expelled from the court! If I lose my position as court magician, we will immediately fall to commoner status...!"
Looking back, it had been a mistake to invite the daughters of the Rosemary Marquis to their residence. The Rosemary Marquis family had two daughters, both known for their exceptional beauty. Lucas had hoped to marry one of them to Cedric to secure a strong backing for him. But this plan had backfired horribly.
"If we could have had one of the Marquis's daughters marry into our family to support Cedric, we could have even been promoted from Viscount to Earl. And yet, that foolish son of mine...!"
Despite all the efforts they had made to foster connections by enrolling them in the Royal Academy together next year, and urging Cedric to do whatever it took to win the sisters over, things had gone disastrously wrong. When Lucas went to apologize to the Rosemary Marquis family, he was flatly turned away at the door. They wouldn't even give him a chance to explain.
"No... this can't be happening, can it? Are we really going to be reduced to commoners...?"
Lisa, finally grasping the gravity of the situation, began to tremble uncontrollably.
"This isn't... This wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to become Viscounts, to become nobles..."
"If Cedric had been more careful, that might have been the case. Where did we go wrong in his upbringing...?!"
"I thought he was a kind and good boy... I never imagined he would try to hurt a girl..."
Lucas and Lisa had spoiled their son Cedric from a young age, rarely reprimanding him. It was probably because Cedric was born with an exceptional talent for magic. They were unaware of how much his character had been distorted, leading him to oppress the weak and behave selfishly.
"I thought Cedric was different from him, from that failure... How could things end up like this...?!"
"Master, please pardon my intrusion."
A knock came at the door, and the butler entered the room.
"A letter has arrived from the Rosemary Marquis family."
"What?! Hand it over!"
Lucas snatched the letter from the butler's hand, hastily breaking the wax seal to open it. He unfolded the letter and began to read... and then froze in place.
"What on earth... What is this...?"
"Wh-what does it say?! What's in the letter?!"
Lisa, panicking, asked her husband. But Lucas remained silent, the letter still in his hands.
After a long, tense moment, he finally raised his head and spoke to his wife.
"They want to invite that failure... Rest, to the Rosemary Marquis's estate. They said there's no need for us or Cedric to come, just him..."
"...Excuse me?"
Both Lucas and Lisa were stunned into silence by the unexpected contents of the letter.
Unbeknownst to Rest, significant events were unfolding beyond his awareness.