The Damn Family Is Back Again chapter 108

108. House of Iperos (1)

Claire, who had put Flora in the carriage, had complicated feelings.

Flora’s reaction must mean that something had happened here.

If that something had hurt Karsein, it could not have been anything but serious.

Flora already knew that she had wronged Karsein.

Since it was not her place, she had not given him any advice, but it was highly likely that she had something to say to Karsein in her own way.

That must have been in this villa of Viscount Gelgetten.

“…And yet, the two of them are returning separately?”

Karsein was nowhere to be seen when she got out of the carriage.

There was only one ducal carriage.

It was clear that Flora and Karsein had come in the same carriage.

However, one of the horses in the stable was empty.

Karsein had already chosen to ride a horse and go alone.

Flora said she had hurt Karsein while crying.

Karsein did not return with Flora in the carriage, but instead rode off on a horse alone.

It was reasonable to assume that an incident had occurred in the villa that led to this outcome.

“I should go and see. I wonder what I’ll find out.”

Since she did not want her two younger siblings to be at odds with each other, she had to find out something from the nobles who had attended the tea party.

Although she had no invitation, she could ask a few words as the family of the two younger siblings.

The reception hall was not far away.

It was because the voices of the nobles were reaching down to the bottom, even without having to look for it.

“Isn’t it strange? Miss Flora didn’t eat anything.”

“Then is it because of Karsein?”

“That would be plausible. Of course, it’s because she wasn’t satisfied, right?”

“No. Then shouldn’t it explain why she went out? He didn’t eat either. I would understand if she went out after eating something.”

“So what the hell happened that Miss Flora─”

“Excuse me, everyone? Just a moment.”

“What the hell… GASP!”

As Claire stepped in, the bustling reception hall became quiet in an instant.

Another vagrant.

Just by her presence, the nobles were filled with tension.

“W, what are you doing here, Miss Claire…?”

Pitea asked, sweating coldly.

“It’s nothing special. Here, my two younger siblings. Karsein and Flora attended, right?”

Gulp.

The nobles in the hall swallowed their saliva at once.

“Yes, yes… that’s right.”

“Can you tell me what happened between the two of you at this reception?”

Claire asked, but no one answered readily.

“Why are you all speechless?”

“Yes? Ah, that’s…”

It was a sensitive issue for everyone.

For them too, Karsein and Flora were sensitive enough to have a long conversation raising their voices. They still hadn’t figured it out.

‘Oh, what do we do?’

‘What do you do? Is there anything else to do but beat around the bush?’

‘I can’t say that Flora was angry and upset because Karsein just left…’

The nobles began to choose their words to beat around the bush with Claire.

Then Claire narrowed her eyes and asked.

“I know Karsein went out first. I met Flora. So, why don’t you tell me why Karsein went out first?”

In fact, Karsein was only a little bit unclear.

He didn’t fall for any of the traps set by the nobles, and when the food containing the Kelvia berry came out, he said he was an uninvited guest and poured a potion on the food and left.

I don’t know why he did that, but this time, I decided to just let it go as a good opportunity missed.

They don’t know either.

As the nobles exchanged glances and hesitated, Claire just walked into the hall.

She glanced at the table and asked.

“I heard that there was a dish prepared today. Where is it?”

“Yes, yes?!”

“Since it’s a reception hall, you didn’t eat something simple, did you? It’s not a time to drink tea, but a time to eat.”

“Th-that… the servants have already taken it away, so there’s none left here, Lady Yeonga.”

How could she just leave that food alone?

Flora left her seat, saying that she had a stomachache from eating that food. She even shed tears. Since she had barely eaten any, it was still a questionable situation, but she couldn’t have left such a disgusting thing behind.

However, upon hearing those words, Claire, who had been carefully looking around the tablecloth and the table, noticed a familiar color.

“Claire, Lady Yeonga?”

Even as the nobles were expressing their doubts, Claire strode forward and was able to see it clearly as she approached.

And then.

Anger began to build in her eyes.

“Ha. Damn it.”

A string of harsh curses flowed out.

She had once seen this colored liquid in the Duke’s household.

It was the color that the indicator, which only changed color when it came into contact with the Kelvia fruit, turned when Carsein had an extreme allergic reaction.

That meant that there was food containing Kelvia fruit here.

That would have been enough, but what had Flora said as she was carried away?

She had said that she had made Carsein sick.

Claire recalled the whole situation clearly as soon as she saw those few drops of liquid.

“Hoo.”

Claire puffed up her bangs with her breath, her expression murderous.

The nobles were instinctively overwhelmed by her charisma.

The moment anyone said a word here. She was certain that person would incur the hatred of the Vagrant Duke’s household.

The target of that hatred.

Was one person.

“I wonder how you prepared this as if you knew exactly what kind of allergy a guest would have. Pitea Gelgetten?”

“Yes, yes…? Exactly what kind of… What do you…”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. The fact that the indicator is this dark means that there’s a lot of Kelvia fruit in it, doesn’t it?”

“Ke, Kelvia fruit? Th-that’s something that’s, used as an edible ingredient…”

Pitea stuttered in terror.

However, there was no sign of Claire’s anger subsiding.

“The host didn’t know about the allergy of a guest he had invited? Ha. The Gelgetten Viscounty is a family that’s well-known in the food industry. This kind of thing wouldn’t have happened unless you did it on purpose. Isn’t that right?”

“La, Lady Yeonga… I, I…!”

“I guess it will be difficult to associate with the Gelgetten Viscounty in the future.”

-Thud!

Claire’s handkerchief, which was clearly stained with the indicator, struck Pitea Gelgetten in the face.

Claire, who had thrown the handkerchief without hesitation, left her seat.

The sound of Claire’s footsteps echoed vividly.

The hall was that quiet.

Everyone there, who had been holding their breath and watching the situation unfold as they listened to the sound of her footsteps, would have realized.

That the Gelgetten Viscounty would not be able to do anything from now on.

***

▶Episode III. Clear the Malicious Remnants!◀

▶Successfully escaped the tea party without any issue.◀

▶Succeeded in triggering a result that goes beyond the choices.◀

▶Arina’s restrictions are completely lifted.◀

▶Will not be restricted in managing the Rusmeyer estate.◀

▶Additional rewards will be paid.◀

One of the two main episodes has been resolved.

It was an episode that occurred out of the blue during the tea party, but judging from this window, it was safe to say that it had been resolved cleanly.

However, I felt strangely dirty.

I, too, had always been an uninvited guest.

It wasn’t just at home.

I was never a classmate at school.

I was never an equal member of a group project.

At private gatherings or company dinners, I couldn’t join the other students who were the children of the company employees, or the juniors or seniors.

It was the same when I went to training camps or school trips.

It was the same at birthday parties that I was forced to attend because my family was going, except today I was treated like an unwelcome guest much more often. Like Karsein, I had a hard time dealing with it.

But, as I vaguely recalled such sh*tty memories, there was one place where it wasn’t like that.

The only place I could be on equal footing was…

‘My part-time job… was it?’

Part-time jobs that had nothing to do with blood relations, school relations, or regional relations were the only places where I could be on equal footing with others.

Customers I was seeing for the first time.

Supervisors who watched over me to see if I was working hard.

And.

-Huh. You work here?

There was only one person who knew that I was working part-time.

Suddenly, I had such a thought.

I’m here, trying to survive in this game, but how is she doing?

‘…If I told her I entered the game, she’d think I was crazy?’

I thought about how she would react, and I let out a chuckle, and the dirty feeling I had improved slightly.

“Right. Let’s start with clearing this sh*tty game.”

▶Episode III. Proof as a Lord is in progress!◀

As the status window shows, I still have one more episode left.

▶You must contact the Iperos family and make a deal!◀

The purpose of this episode is to revive the Rusmeyer estate.

The extent to which the estate is revived depends on my management as the lord, but if it had ended with just managing the estate, this game wouldn’t have been so easy.

From Noble mtl dot com

There are two things that are forced on this route.

First of all, it’s a deal.

Dealing with other families is mandatory, and Karsein, the lord of Rusmeyer, must обязательно make a deal with a designated family.

And in the process, a choice is bound to occur.

‘The second is… the condition for executing this deal.’

-Phew.

Lv. 25

▶Available SP will be automatically used for ??? stats!◀

▶Strength 4.88

▶Agility 6.13

▶Endurance 6.20

▶Health 4.57

▶Immunity 1.30

As my eyes turned to the stats, the situation I had been worried about had arrived.

‘As expected, it’s not enough.’

In RPG games, when hunting strong monsters, there was a term called minimum cut, right? It refers to the minimum specs required to hunt it.

This game also had stats, so it seemed that there was a minimum cut required to hunt certain mobs. If you fought a stronger opponent without meeting it, you would die as a result of Carcinization.

However, I was not able to fill that stat sufficiently right now. I was restricted by two constraints.

The first was the developer’s measure to prevent the game from being cleared with stats alone. Starting from level 20, the increase in stat value decreased significantly compared to the consumption of action points through exercise.

This was fine. It was a feature that had been there from the beginning.

However, due to my choice of taking charge of the Rusmayer estate from the beginning, my free time was reduced, and as a result, my training time also decreased sharply.

The fact that another episode was added took away even more time.

“As expected, I cleared the episode too quickly and didn’t have enough time to raise my stats.”

If so, I could not proceed with this episode right now.

“It’s true that it would be beneficial to go west and contact Marquis Iperos as soon as possible, but with these stats… it’s impossible.”

The condition for them to accept the first deal was unique.

-Tee-hee!

I let the tired horse rest for a while and then stopped by a nearby store.

I wondered if I could buy something with the money I had left. This time, I made the Kelvia Berry Elixir myself, so there might be something useful somewhere.

Also, there might be something needed for the Rusmayer estate.

If I bought it with my money now and delivered it to the estate, there would be no interference from the system.

“Huh?”

As I entered the store and was about to look around at the items, I suddenly noticed a stat that had changed in my status window.

It was the ??? stat.

It was still an unknown stat.

I didn’t know what would increase even if I raised it, and I didn’t know what would change even if I invested all my stats into it.

However, a tiny change had occurred in that stat.

▶??? 25%

“25%?”

The stat, which used to be indicated only by numbers like other stats, was now indicated as 25%.

“Man. I really don’t get this.”

I sighed, wondering what was changing at all.

At that moment, the sound of young women laughing came from a nearby cafe.

“What will you do, Lady Harnier? You won’t be able to borrow your family’s power for this estern noble conference, so it would be quite helpful if your lover took care of things. Your fiancé can’t take care of you, can he?”

It was quite a blatant statement.

Karsein Vagrant’s abilities are far behind, so isn’t Harni mocking him for not even being able to help his fiancé?

It’s natural to get angry when you hear such things.

Not only those I saw in the tea party, but people outside were also chewing me out like this?

Well, I’m in a bad mood right now, but nothing will change if I say something here.

Even if Arina hears about it, she’ll just say that I insulted her fiancé.

Thinking that I could relax a little, I stepped into the cafe.