Chapter – 68
‘What do you mean, family?’
Carlyle thought that the meaning of family he knew and the meaning Andre was talking about were very different.
Memories of his family from before he came to this world, that is, from his previous life, suddenly came to mind.
Carlyle’s father was the CEO of a fairly successful company.
Although classified as a small-to-medium enterprise, it was large enough to be comparable to a mid-sized company.
It was even publicly listed and had high growth potential, so one could say Carlyle was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Even Carlyle himself couldn’t deny that he was born into a wealthy family and lived an affluent life.
The problem was the family.
‘You little shit, who did you take after to be such a blockhead? Hey, you little bastard! I poured so much money into tutors and academies, and this is all you can do? Huh?’
His father, that guy, seemed to have high expectations for Carlyle, often resorting to verbal abuse and insults about his grades, and frequently subjecting him to maltreatment.
Carlyle also gritted his teeth and worked hard, but his father’s expectations were just too high.
Moreover, he only knew how to throw money and hurl abuse, never showing a shred of interest in Carlyle.
Excluding the one-sided verbal abuse and insults, the total father-son conversation in his entire life probably didn’t amount to more than a few hours.
In the meantime, whenever he found a chance, his father would frequent entertainment establishments, diligently indulging in leisure activities like golf, fishing, and yachting with young, pretty sponsored women.
While he might have been competent as a corporate CEO, as the head of a family, he was someone who couldn’t be viewed favorably no matter how hard one tried.
So, what about his mother?
‘It’s because you’re incompetent that your father fool around outside. Don’t expect to go out for a while. Just behave and study. Understood?’
His mother, while aware of her husband’s habitual infidelity, couldn’t utter a word of protest and instead nagged and pressured Carlyle.
She could have divorced and received a substantial alimony, but the reason she didn’t was the title of being the wife of a successful company’s CEO.
The chauffeur-driven courtesy, the enormous monthly credit card bills spent on luxuries, the status of being a company chairman’s wife in various social gatherings—these were things she couldn’t enjoy no matter how much alimony she received.
Having grown up in such an environment, family, to Carlyle, was something worse than strangers.
So much so that Carlyle considered it fortunate that he was an only child.
He thought suffering emotional and physical abuse from unqualified parents was something he alone should endure.
Being such a person, how could the phrase ‘families stick together through thick and thin’ possibly resonate with him?
Pfft. As he recalled his parents from his previous life, a sneer naturally formed on his lips.
“Your expression is dark. Did I say something wrong?”
“No.”
Carlyle shook his head.
“I was just thinking about the past for a moment.”
“I see.”
Andre nodded as if he understood.
“Considering the number of scrapes you’ve gotten into, it would be more strange if you had a good relationship with your family.”
“That’s not it.”
Carlyle replied, sounding slightly wronged.
“What do you mean, ‘that’s not it’? I’ve heard plenty of rumors about you.”
“Urk.”
“But it seems you’ve come to your senses now. Just do well from now on. Like I said earlier, do you think Brigade Commander Selena came all the way to this tiny fortress for no reason? It’s because she’s worried about you, her little brother.”
“I told you, that’s not it.”
“Talking back? Hoo!”
Andre glared at him, then stubbed his cigarette out on the ground and stood up.
“Uchacha! I’ll get your portion ready quickly, so wait over there a bit.”
“Alright.”
Carlyle moved his steps to behind the tent Andre pointed to.
‘Selena is worried about me?’
Carlyle couldn’t agree with Andre’s words at all.
“Pfft.”
He could only let out a disbelieving laugh.
If Carlyle’s memory was correct, the relationship between Carlyle van Sigmar and Selena van Sigmar was very bad.
Furthermore, likely because he was beaten often since childhood, Carlyle’s antipathy towards Selena was beyond imagination.
On top of that, as Carlyle started going seriously off the rails, their relationship deteriorated to the worst.
In fact, starting from about two years before Carlyle’s death, they hadn’t exchanged a single word.
‘Worried? My foot. She probably only came because Grand Duke Guntram ordered her to go deal with the dark mage who appeared. There’s no way Selena would be worried about me… Wait. Or is there?’
A memory suddenly surfaced.
It was right after Carlyle woke up.
‘Father says he will hold a trial. Beg for forgiveness properly. Swear that you won’t do it again, that you’ll become a new person. Remember. If you don’t, even that, you will be executed.’
Back then, he was too disoriented to remember clearly, but thinking back now, Selena had been worried about Carlyle once.
‘So she does… worry.’
Carlyle also remembered Selena coming to find him with Frey, and he made a bewildered expression.
‘Right. That bastard Carlyle, the good-for-nothing, was the one who received more love and attention than me.’
As he was thinking that, Andre came over with a well-prepared tray and set it down in front of Carlyle.
“You washed your hands while making this, right?”
“What, are you afraid you’ll find a cigarette butt in it or something?”
“It’s not that.”
“What do you mean, ‘it’s not that’? Don’t be so fussy. This is a battlefield. Throw concepts like hygiene to the dogs.”
Although he said that, even on a battlefield, basic hygiene and food ingredient management were essential unless the situation was truly dire.
If food poisoning were to break out, the entire unit could lose combat effectiveness, and Andre, being the head cook, couldn’t possibly not know that.
But for him to be smoking like a chimney in the kitchen… even with ten mouths, he’d have no excuse.
“Anyway, enjoy your meal. War Hero. Loyalty!”
Andre gave a sharp salute and stepped aside.
“Here, eat.”
“Are you sure it’s really okay to eat this?”
The wyrmling, who seemed to have been listening to Carlyle and Andre’s conversation, frowned.
“Just eat. It seems we’ll get leave in a few days.”
“Leave?”
“Yeah. When we go out, I’ll feed you lots of delicious things. So just bear with it for a few more days.”
“Alright.”
The wyrmling’s eyes sparkled, and it immediately buried its head and began devouring Andre’s dishes.
‘It seems true that Selena is worried about me… Did she insist on coming herself, or did Grand Duke Guntram send her?’
He was a little curious, but Carlyle had no intention of asking Selena directly.
What if she came willingly? What if she was forced?
The important thing was that her overwhelming power swept away all the enemies, allowing Carlyle, and of course, the soldiers of Bowden Fortress, to survive.
“Nom nom.”
As Carlyle was mindlessly watching the wyrmling eat, the tent flap was pulled aside, revealing Marranello and Evangelin.
“Young Master, what are you doing he— Hmm?”
“Oh my!”
Upon spotting the wyrmling, Marranello and Evangelin’s eyes widened.
“Could it be… a dragon?”
“Perhaps?”
“G-good heavens.”
Marranello placed a hand on his forehead as if he couldn’t believe it.
It seemed even the legendary knight Marranello was seeing a real dragon for the first time.
“You’re… so cute…!”
The wyrmling was so adorable that Evangelin’s face flushed red.
“Young Master.”
“Huh?”
“Can I… touch it once…?”
“No. It bites.”
“Ah, yes.”
Evangelin clicked her tongue in disappointment.
The wyrmling, instead of sharp, gleaming scales, had fur as soft and glossy as a cat’s, giving it a charm that made anyone want to pet it at least once.
The only problem was its nasty temper.
“Young Master, what on earth happened to you?”
“A lot of things happened.”
“Even so, how could you end up with a wyrmling…?”
Marranello’s face hardened as if the very thought was horrifying.
“Are you worried about retaliation from the mother dragon?”
“How can I not be worried? A dragon’s wrath is terrifying, Young Master. If you just look at the history books…”
“It’s fine. This one doesn’t have a mom or dad.”
“Pardon…?”
Marranello frowned as if to ask what that was supposed to mean.
“No, Young Master. Even if it’s a wyrmling, how can you say such harsh things where it can hear you?”
Then the wyrmling spoke.
“Nom nom. It’s true I don’t have a mom or dad, old man. Nom nom. Nom nom nom.”
“……”
Marranello’s jaw dropped.
“S-so that’s what happened?”
“That’s amazing, Young Master.”
Marranello and Evangelin were utterly astonished after hearing about the events Carlyle had experienced.
‘Though it’s full of lies.’
Carlyle smiled bitterly to himself.
Since he couldn’t reveal 100% of the truth, he had no choice but to distort and embellish the facts appropriately.
“Young Master, you are truly magnificent. Sniff.”
Marranello took off his glasses, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped tears from the corner of his eyes.
“Not only did you fulfill your national defense duty admirably, but you also achieved Bloodline Awakening, and even rendered such great service to the nation… This old man has no regrets, even if I die now.”
“I don’t think it’s to that extent…”
“Sob sob…”
Marranello was truly overcome with emotion and cried genuine tears.
‘They say you get more emotional when you’re old.’
But thinking about it from another angle, it was understandable.
Before the possession, Carlyle was widely known as the good-for-nothing of the North.
Seeing a human trash, whom everyone thought would never amount to anything, living somewhat decently was enough to move anyone.
“Ah, right.”
Carlyle wasn’t warm enough to console Marranello, so he turned to Evangelin instead.
“This, I’m really grateful. Thanks to you, you saved my life several times.”
“I’m so happy I could be of help to you, Young Master!”
Evangelin beamed brightly.
“This is a gift.”
“What is this…?”
“A Mana Amplifier. I picked it up in the mage’s dungeon I mentioned earlier. You use it. It’s not an incredibly good one, but it should still be helpful.”
“Thank you so much! I’ll treasure it as a family heirloom!”
“An heirloom, really…”
“No! It’s the first gift you’ve given me, Young Master! I must keep it for life and pass it down to my descendants too!”
Evangelin seemed to like Carlyle’s gift so much that she looked ready to bounce up and down right where she sat.
‘If she hadn’t been an Earth Spiritist, if she hadn’t caught my eye. This girl would have ended up like Private Gwen.’
Carlyle thought of Gwen as he looked at Evangelin.
Whether in terms of age or circumstances, Evangelin and Gwen had quite a few similarities.
“You got my letter, right?”
“How could we not? I reported to His Grace the Grand Duke immediately after reading the letter.”
“I was so happy to receive a reply from you, Young Master!”
As Carlyle was chatting with Marranello and Evangelin about this and that, someone quietly lifted the tent flap.
“Carlyle, are you he— Ah.”
Kudo, upon seeing Marranello and Evangelin, closed his mouth.
“Hoh.”
Marranello’s expression turned peculiar.
“So you were here.”
“……”
“Pleasant surprise. Fancy seeing you here of all places.”
Marranello subtly greeted Kudo.
‘What, they know each other?’
Carlyle blinked.
One was a mere soldier serving in a small fortress.
The other was a legendary knight worthy of being recorded in history books.
It was puzzling how two people with such unlikely points of contact could be acquainted.
