305 Inheritor (1/2)

My memories were missing more parts than I had expected, and since I didn't even have anything possibly related to Cher in my logs, then it probably wasn't anything good. It was likely to have been something I intentionally forgot of my own volition.

”…How do you feel, suddenly becoming a daddy? Are you delighted?”

”It's a very complex feeling. Also, if you keep intentionally misusing certain words like daddy, I shall make you into the ammunition for the next test firing of the new cannon in the experimental laboratory.”

I smiled and nodded as I accepted Harloys' taunt, before threatening her right afterwards.

However, she seemed to not care about this punishment at all, which made me realize that such a common punishment wouldn't be able to scare her. Wait a moment, who would use stuffing someone into a cannon and firing them off as a common punishment anyways?

”Beifeng—”

”I shall pay extra attention that it shall never happen again.”

I nodded in satisfaction at this. Threats, after all, didn't need anything new. They only needed to be scary enough. Since a certain Banshee Queen was becoming more and more used to her cat form, the Saint-ranked beast tamer was definitely her mortal enemy. Thankfully, Beifeng still had some very basic morals. At the very least, I had never heard any complaints about him forcing anyone unwilling before.

But to be honest, I really did have complex feelings towards what Harloys intentionally worded in a way to make fun of me.

To begin with, I had no way of knowing if Cher truly was my descendant or not. Although there were many ways of ascertaining if someone was related to you or not in this world, none of those methods were usable in this particular situation. There was just no way to find out if she was 100% related to me or not.

In this world, in order to determine if two people were related by blood, apart from the now completely unreliable divination magic, it would require something related to the physical body. No matter if it was secrets of a bloodline or magic that searched for a soul's origins, they all needed a part of the physical body as a basic catalyst.

However, my physical body had been restructured after being revived this time. Although my physical appearance was the same as it was in the past, and I greatly resembled a human on the surface, I was probably no longer human internally.

”System?”

[…]

Alright then, just as expected, the System was completely unreliable at such a critical moment. However, Cher had her own thoughts about this as she was a Weaver of Fate.

”I can tell that your Fate Line is connected to my birth. Even if you aren't one of my ancestors, you have a very deep connection to my ancestor.”

Not to mention, with Reyne and East Mist as an excellent example, even if Cher was indeed related to me by blood, she might not necessarily be my descendant. After all, I had a headache-inducing playboy younger twin brother.

”This time, it has nothing to do with me. Second Brother Karwenz told me to tell you this.”

Alright then, I didn't know what to say anymore as I saw how happy and excited Reyne seemed to be.

”You're really delighted about this?”

”Yeah, yeah, of course! If she's Brother Roland's descendant, doesn't that make her my relative as well? I finally have another relative apart from little sister Clint.”

”Little sister Clint? Shouldn't you be calling her big sister Glina?”

I finally came to the conclusion that perhaps it was the destiny of descendants of the Mist to have great misfortune. Both Glina and Reyne could be considered textbook definitions of orphans, not to mention the two of them didn't have a good relationship with each other… Fine, from a certain standpoint, neither of them was anyone normal. Glina was especially a strange one that most people would have trouble getting along with.

”Right, how are things with Glina these days?”

”Very successful. Since the north and east have all been quiet, and they no longer need to worry about their backs, the Sleuweir Kingdom's restoration has been better than the other areas. In the letter I received from her two days ago, she was even complaining that she wanted to come out and play. Hmph, little sister Clint has far less to do than us. How could I possibly give her the chance to come out and play?”

Although the Sleuweir Kingdom suffered significant losses during the battle in the Northlands, it had a solid foundation and was able to recover quite quickly. It was originally a country where trading was an important business to begin with, and it now had opportunities to trade with the elves and the new beastmen tribes.

Meanwhile, East Mist was more limited in population and basic industries compared to Sleuweir. Even focusing the entire country's resources on preparing for the spring crop planting would be quite difficult for East Mist as they still needed to focus on basic military defenses. Although Reyne and Glina were both the leaders of entire countries, there was still a huge difference between them.

Of course, if I looked at military capabilities, things were exactly the opposite. East Mist was my most important base of all in the Northlands, not to mention it was also the main headquarters of the Church of Law. The newly-born technologies and military squadrons all came from East Mist as well. They were top-level in military power out of all the Northlands countries despite East Mist's size. However, it was precisely because East Mist focused too much on military development that even the East Mist royal knights had to participate in planting new crops during spring.

”Sleuweir is fine, but East Mist seems to have become rather unbalanced in its development. Military-related matters are taking up far too large a percentage of the government's tasks. The earth there is also poorly suited for agricultural development. I hope Amelia's new crops will be able to bring about an abundant harvest. Otherwise, I'm going to have to find some other rich fool to scam for East Mist's food money.”

I was slightly worried about the current situation when I thought about it. After all, the domain lords there would all have their own expectations and ambitions. If Reyne kept playing around outside in such an idle manner, there would be many troubles if something happened back in East Mist.

”How about you go back to East Mist and take charge there? I have plenty of people here with me right now.”

Although Reyne hadn't become queen yet, everyone knew that she was the leader of East Mist. However, Reyne obviously wasn't the type to obediently stay in the royal palace and rule like a proper queen. This time, just like before, she claimed to come here to support me and came along with the Borealis of her own volition.

”Even if I go back, I'm nothing more than a rubber stamper. That's so boring.”

Reyne pouted and seemed to disagree with me.

This gave me an even bigger headache. After all, in a way, Reyne was right. The military matters in East Mist were being taken care of by my Red Hunting Hounds, Kelly could deal with political matters, and the Church of Law's authority was beginning to exceed royal authority as well. If you looked at it from a certain standpoint, it would even make us seem like we were intentionally usurping power from the orphan princess for a nefarious scheme.

”Fine, fine, forget it. Do whatever you like. But here is—”

”Yep, it's really boring here as well. I can't understand all these mage things anyways, which is why I was about to say goodbye to you and go on a journey.”

”A journey? Where to?”

”I was thinking either the Forest of Dreams or Auland.”

Although Reyne was still smiling and acting so casually like always, I immediately understood her wish. There was no need to go more into the details. Judging from her honest and direct tone, she had already made this decision, and now she was merely notifying me.

”Yep, it'll help me to gain more strength through practical combat experience, and I also want to earn Justice Points. There are plenty of treasures that I have my eyes on.”

Since the rules were set, they couldn't be changed so easily. Reyne, who had been following me for all this time, naturally understood just how important Justice Points were. Since she wished to become stronger, she would, of course, be quite interested in obtaining Justice Points. She also understood that now was the easiest time to obtain Justice Points and strengthen herself before everyone caught on to their importance.

There were many items that could be exchanged for which were one-of-a-kind. Those that wanted such items would obviously have to act as quickly as possible. I had heard news from the Forest of Dreams that many people had already arrived there, including plenty of powerful individuals that had formerly preferred to remain as hermits.