Chapter 50. Time to Reap (5)
Recently, Lowell had been going through an exceptionally busy period.
Reviewing the proposal concerning the Underground City that Oliver G. Daniel, Commander of the Judgment Knight Order, had cautiously brought to him already consumed a considerable amount of time, but that much was manageable.
For now, he was merely reviewing the proposal and assessing its risks.
He could wait for information to arrive through his external intelligence network before making a judgment.
Even so, Lowell had spent more than three months on that task alone, exercising caution upon caution.
After all, this concerned the Underground City, which occupied the shadows of the Allied Nations.
If he approached the matter too hastily, the reputation of the Clayton Trading Company could plummet to the ground.
For a merchant organization where trust mattered above all else, such a blemish would be fatal.
But now, Lowell’s days had truly become so hectic that he scarcely had time to breathe.
The reason was the opening of the Mezaia Great Forest.
Because of that event, Lowell had abruptly pushed aside even the Underground City matter he had agonized over for the past three months.
It was true that the request had come from the Judgment Knight Order, which supported the Crown Prince expected to inherit the next Imperial Authority.
But the matter of the Mezaia Great Forest simply could not be taken lightly.
Had the Cradle merely opened, Lowell would not have been this busy.
But the current owners of the Mezaia Great Forest were the Elves.
More importantly, the expedition led by Raviata had earned their acknowledgment and established a positive impression of modern humanity.
That changed everything.
The usual logic of rushing in first and staking a claim would not work here.
While gathering information about the Elves from every possible source, Lowell also had to struggle to secure House Clayton a place in the diplomatic delegation the Allied Nations would eventually send to the Mezaia Great Forest.
Yet Lowell found these hectic days strangely comforting.
It was not that he particularly enjoyed working.
Rather, the more he worked, the clearer his mind became.
‘……Is that why? I’ve even been sleeping better lately.’
It was late at night.
Inside the study illuminated by Mana Lamps, Lowell had been reviewing the mountain of documents piled before him when he paused to rest his eyes and rubbed his eyelids.
At that moment, the Crystal Orb resting on his desk vibrated and emitted a faint light.
“Hmm.”
Who could be contacting him at such a late hour?
Judging by the color displayed on the Crystal Orb, it was not an incoming communication from the Intelligence Team.
When Lowell sent Mana into the orb—
Shane’s face appeared within it.
“Hmm…… Shane. It has been a while.”
[Yes, Head of the House. I contacted you regarding the Mezaia Great Forest.]
“I see. I had been meaning to contact you as well.”
That was not a lie.
Lowell had simply been overwhelmingly busy lately, and he had assumed Shane was enduring an equally demanding schedule.
That was why he had not contacted him yet.
“More importantly, is the matter urgent?”
[No.]
“Then I think it would be better to speak face-to-face. I will send knights to escort you.”
[……Yes. Understood.]
The brief conversation between father and son ended.
As Lowell stared at the Crystal Orb after it lost its color again, he closed his eyes.
Perhaps seeing Shane, who resembled a certain someone, had stirred something within him.
Lowell recalled the past he had forgotten amid his recent work.
‘Elina.’
His late wife, who had died far too young.
Elina’s death had changed many things within Lowell.
His disposition had always been cold, but afterward it became even more extreme.
Had he not buried himself in work precisely because remembering his late wife was too painful?
Even looking at Shane reminded him of Elina.
Because of that, Lowell had maintained the same indifference toward his own children.
People said Lowell’s emotions had dried up because his heart was so cold.
Yet perhaps precisely because his heart was cold, the love he had felt for his first wife had burned more fiercely than anyone else’s.
And the chill that followed her death was something no one had ever managed to soothe.
Wanting to avoid the headache threatening to return, Lowell turned his attention back toward the documents.
In one corner of his mind—
He found himself anticipating whatever new work Shane would bring with him when he arrived.
—
Only a few days later, Shane returned to the family estate accompanied by knights.
It had only been several months.
Yet Shane’s standing within the family had changed unmistakably during that short time.
He had personally participated in the expedition into the Mezaia Great Forest, the very matter Lowell had become so consumed with lately.
More importantly, Shane was the person who had written the paper that prompted Raviata herself to enter into a contract.
Throughout the journey back, even the knights of the family behaved with noticeable caution around him.
“W-Welcome home, Young Master!”
Maria, the maid assigned to Shane, greeted him with an expression so visibly tense that anyone could have noticed.
Shane gave Maria a slight nod and immediately asked what he wanted to know.
“The Head of the House?”
“Ah, he’s in his study. He said you should come up as soon as you were ready.”
“Then I will go immediately.”
“Ah…… Yes!”
As Maria led the way, the people of the household could not take their eyes off Shane.
Was this what it meant for someone’s position to change?
Even several months ago, before Shane left the estate, quite a few servants had noticed that the atmosphere around him had changed.
But now that he had returned carrying tremendous fame from the outside world, it somehow seemed as though even his bearing had risen to an entirely different level.
Furthermore, Lowell had summoned Shane before Klein.
The two were even going to have a private audience.
In the eyes of the household, the hierarchy between Shane and Klein had reversed in a single stroke.
Of course, Klein himself was hardly the sort of person who would care about something like that.
“……You’ve returned, Shane. You must have been through a great deal.”
There was, however, one person in the family who had every reason to care.
Daniel L. Rachel.
Shane’s stepmother, Klein’s biological mother, and the current Lady of the House.
Klein’s rising reputation was naturally something Rachel welcomed.
The problem was that Shane had risen alongside him.
If anything, judging only by how much their positions had changed in such a short time, Shane’s growth had been even more remarkable.
After all, Raviata’s expedition had begun in the first place because of Shane’s paper.
Various Magic Towers were already flooding House Clayton with requests to arrange meetings with Shane.
That meant his fame was not limited to his accomplishments as an Adventurer.
It could become genuine influence.
Naturally, Rachel could not help feeling tense.
Shane, however, did not concern himself much with Rachel.
That did not mean he could simply ignore her either.
Whatever else might be true, she was the biological mother of the tenderhearted Klein.
So Shane returned her greeting with equal courtesy.
“Yes, Lady Rachel. Klein was unable to come with me, but he asked me to give you this letter.”
Shane handed Rachel the letter Klein had entrusted to him, bowed his head once more, and continued on his way.
Rachel stared at the letter for a moment before releasing a quiet sigh.
“I wonder how things will unfold.”
From Rachel’s perspective, Shane had always been difficult to deal with.
The atmosphere when Rachel first entered House Clayton had been anything but pleasant.
Lowell had only just lost his wife at the time and had often displayed his grief even in Rachel’s presence.
As another woman, she had felt sympathy for him.
But at the same time, she had been forced to bear the weight of everything alone.
Back then, many of the family’s knights had also been deeply loyal to Elina, the former Lady of the House.
Forced to establish her own position among them, Rachel had naturally become rigid and guarded.
Lowell, meanwhile, remained more focused on managing the family than caring for Rachel.
Klein had been the only person in the household she could truly rely upon.
And now Shane, who had always treated her as though she did not exist, had suddenly become this famous……
‘……Still, I’ve heard he’s better than he used to be.’
Rachel had yet to personally witness how much Shane had changed.
But according to the knights who had escorted him when he departed for the Academy, he no longer antagonized Klein as he once had.
For now, she decided to observe him a little longer.
Rachel returned to her room and opened Klein’s letter.
As she read, her expression gradually began to change.
‘That boy…….’
Klein’s letter was filled almost entirely with stories about his older brother.
And unlike before—
Not a single one of them was negative.
Every story praised Shane.
Rachel could only become even more confused.
—
“Hmm…… Remarkable.”
After arriving at Lowell’s study, Shane exchanged a brief greeting with him and immediately got to the point.
By the time he finished explaining most of what had occurred within the Mezaia Great Forest, thirty minutes had already passed.
“Then dealing with the Crown Prince is dangerous.”
“There is a high probability that we will simply be used as disposable pawns.”
“I see…… So that is how it is.”
Lowell realized that his hand had tightened around the armrest of his chair and casually released it.
What Shane had revealed was nothing short of shocking.
‘Dominic…… That old man tried to kill Shane.’
Lowell had spent years distancing himself emotionally from his family.
Even so—
Learning that Shane had nearly been assassinated awakened anger somewhere within him before he even realized it.
For Lowell, who had approached even family matters with cold professionalism for so long, the emotion felt unfamiliar.
Perhaps because of that, he adopted an even more businesslike expression as though trying to erase the awkward feeling.
“What do you think we should do?”
“I believe we should maintain our connection with the Crown Prince.”
“Hmm.”
“They are the ones pressed for time, not us. They lack information, while we possess it. I believe we should use that advantage.”
“I agree.”
There was nothing incorrect about Shane’s reasoning.
To prevent unnecessary bloodshed, had they not already discussed the matter with Raviata and decided to keep what happened with Dominic beneath the surface for now?
They also lacked hard evidence.
There were many witnesses, certainly, but witnesses alone were insufficient to pressure the Imperial Family.
One might argue that Raviata’s reputation would make the testimony strong enough.
But—
‘That woman has no interest in our affairs.’
If Shane asked for her help, Raviata would probably not refuse.
But Shane did not want to expend the relationship he had established with her in such a manner.
In any case, this was not yet the stage where they could directly move against the Crown Prince.
Even if they forced a confrontation now, there was little House Clayton stood to gain.
It would merely become a pointless struggle in the mud.
“Time is on our side. Now that one of the Crown Prince’s closest forces has disappeared and his side has fallen into confusion, we must grow large enough that they no longer dare touch us.”
“I agree with that as well. That is precisely why I have been proceeding so cautiously regarding the opening of the Mezaia Great Forest.”
“There is something I would like to tell you regarding that matter.”
“Hmm. What is it?”
“How much can you take under your current authority, Head of the House?”
“Hmm?”
Lowell briefly looked puzzled by Shane’s blunt question.
It sounded almost as though Shane were saying—
Tell me how much you want, and I will place it directly into your mouth.
“If we mobilize everything House Clayton possesses, how much can we claim?”
Shane looked directly at Lowell.
“I am referring to the gold mine overflowing within the Great Forest.”
