Chapter 43
“My goodness, is that person… the Princess from the rumors? No, they didn’t say she was that small, did they?”
“To think I’d see the day Lord Heny holds a child. By the way, Lord Heny doesn’t resemble her at all, does he?”
“You’re right. But isn’t she truly beautiful?”
The collateral branches, already divided into factions, mostly snorted or tried to force their interest away, while the vassals watched with curious eyes or purely admired Calypso’s beauty.
It was the first time they had seen a direct descendant of the Killer Whale line with such a soft and rounded impression.
Moreover, she was rounded yet exquisitely beautiful, like a fairy of the moon reflected in the sea.
“It is truly an admirable beauty…. I wonder what she will look like when she grows up.”
Heny felt strange and new, yet at the same time, subtle.
Originally, he had no intention of coming to this place today.
“The High Disciplinary Committee will be held at 1:00 PM, Lord Heny.”
Even when Laila, who followed him, reported it like this.
Even when he heard it was a place where a parent must accompany the child.
He was curious about how his daughter would navigate this ordeal, but that was a different matter from stepping forward himself.
Yet, the reason he ended up coming was….
“Grand Head, I am loath to interrupt, but how about we proceed with the meeting.”
A voice filled with low and faint dissatisfaction.
The owner of that voice, who barely swallowed that dissatisfaction but failed to hide it at the end, was Heny’s eldest brother, Rodesen.
“Of course, I am truly glad to see my youngest brother’s face after such a long time, but it isn’t a face worth halting this solemn meeting for so long, is it?”
Rodesen, who had eyes that slanted upward particularly sharply among the brothers, glared at his youngest brother as if he would chew him up for a brief moment before smiling amiably.
“This is a seat personally prepared by the Grand Head, after all.”
Unlike his stupid, violent, and narrow-sighted son Bayan, Rodesen was a cunning human who knew how to use his head a bit more.
“Hmm.”
Ocula tilted her head.
She rubbed her chin with her wrinkled hand, then suddenly with a laugh, Stomp! She stamped her foot.
“Rodesen, I am not a Grand Head so stingy that I wouldn’t allow time for greetings.”
The smile had already vanished from her face.
“But, I just,”
“Do not interrupt my words.”
“……I apologize, Mother.”
Rodesen sprang up and bowed his waist in a groveling posture as if he would turn into a pill bug, as though he had never been dignified.
Ocula looked at this with pathetic eyes as if it were natural, then clicked her tongue and rested her chin on her hand.
Meanwhile, the direct attendants, who received a signal from the Grand Head’s eyes, were busy moving about to guide the new guests to their seats.
Calypso also headed to her seat while being held by Heny.
Agenor had already been guided and seated not far from the Grand Head’s seat for a long time.
‘Hmm, what will happen to my seat now?’
Calypso, who was guided by an attendant like the others, hesitated for a moment.
Due to the structure of this meeting hall, moving down toward where the Grand Head’s seat was located was no different from being a power close to the center.
‘Huh?’
However, the seat Calypso and Heny were guided to was none other than the third row from the back.
A seat where the lower sections looked far away.
She could see Bayan sitting snugly next to his father, located right in front of the Grand Head’s seat.
Not only this, but Bayan’s cronies also planted their butts in the central seats one after another.
‘Huh, well now.’
While Calypso clicked her tongue, Heny quietly sat in his seat.
As soon as they sat down, they heard whispering coming from all directions.
‘The expressions of the people nearby all look like, “Why are you here, sir?”’
This was no different from a warning and a mockery from her grandmother.
Saying that this is your position now.
Calypso hurriedly tugged and pulled at Heny’s sleeve.
‘This isn’t the time, we’re screwed. Father…!’
Heny stared intently at the small hand whose wounds had not yet fully healed.
“Father, we’re being totally ignored, what should we do?”
“…….”
The entry into the family meeting that Calypso imagined was not like this.
The situation was worse than she thought.
“Father. This isn’t the time to ignore me. We have to talk while looking at the Grand Head, but can our voices be heard from here? We’re in a serious spot.”
“…….”
Unlike Calypso, who was starting to get serious, Heny was silent as usual.
No, is this father ignoring a person’s words again?
“Father, Father.”
Calypso’s mouth stopped abruptly.
It was because a large hand tapped her forehead.
“The way you’re gasping, you’re no different from a crucian carp.”
“……Is this the time to joke?”
“Do you prefer a carp?”
“Huh?”
Heny thought for a moment.
It was neither a crucian carp nor a carp. Rather, a tropical fish with a black tail came to mind.
“If you are talking about the seats, there is nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing?”
“Because the moment will come when they disappear.”
Wondering what that meant, Calypso soon realized Heny’s words and nodded with an “Ah!”.
‘Ah, I see!’
Whether that was the case or not, Heny was calm.
Then suddenly, he turned toward Calypso’s face.
Actually, it was a part he had been curious about for a while now.
“Just why did that wound on your cheek happen? Was that also because of the group fight?”
“Mm? My cheek?”
Calypso tilted her head and touched her cheek.
“Ah, this was probably from that guy Karon slashing me with a knife? This one doesn’t heal well.”
For some reason, other wounds healed quite quickly, but the scratch left on her cheek would not heal easily.
The maids used to make a crying face every day while applying medicine.
“What if a scar is left on our pretty Princess’s face!”
“Anything but that!!”
Although Calypso, the party concerned, was in a state where it didn’t matter at all whether a wound or a scar was left on her face.
Calypso replied nonchalantly and looked up, then flinched.
‘What, why is his expression like that?’
The face of Heny she met was not at all ordinary.
To the point where the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“In addition to a group fight, are you going around getting hit by knives?”
The vassals nearby, who were unknowingly listening in on the father and daughter’s conversation, flinched.
Until now, the vassals had not heard the conversation because both Calypso and Heny lowered their voices and there was a distance between seats.
“A group fight? That rumored fight? The one they said would be talked about in today’s meeting…??”
“What’s this about a knife?”
But now, because Heny did not lower his voice, it was heard clearly.
Because they were sitting in the back, the people around them were mostly powerless vassals, corresponding to prey in the ecosystem. In terms of land animals, they were herbivores.
“She was hit by a knife at an educational institution?”
They stared at each other with innocent and frightened eyes.
‘A knife, he said, a knife.’
‘Do they allow kids to use knives at educational institutions these days?’
‘Huh, didn’t the Princess pull the knife first?’
‘That’s a possibility.’
In fact, among those sitting here, those who were even slightly older knew.
The reason why Calypso’s rumors, far from being underestimated, spread with such reliability.
It was because that Heny over there was more, never less, in his childhood!
“So, did you win?”
My goodness, that Princess truly must be Lord Heny’s daughter…!
Calypso blinked her eyes.
“Of course I won.”
She thought if she said this, her father’s expression would naturally soften….
Somehow, it remained the same.
“Who did it?”
Calypso tilted her head.
“……A classmate?”
“……Do they teach real swords at educational institutions these days?”
“As if. He swung it recklessly on his own. That’s why he doesn’t come to class. He got disciplined.”
Calypso suddenly noticed the gazes gathered excessively around her and lowered her voice.
“Don’t worry. Father, once that Killer Whale brat returns to school, I’ll just completely destroy him!”
“……Worry?”
Calypso grinned instead of answering Heny’s question.
At this, just as Heny frowned and was about to say something.
“Grandmother.”
A pure voice.
Even though it was clearly a voice coming from down there, it caught Calypso’s ear.
The reason we ended up closing our mouths was that everyone became silent at once because of that single voice.
“I believe there is a deep reason why Grandmother has specially proposed a new agenda for this meeting.”
A low voice. It was a different voice from the one Calypso remembered, though.
Calypso recognized it at once.
“This place was gathered by Grandmother to assemble the numerous vassals who deeply respect and follow Grandmother, and to listen to their stories thoughtfully. If these are not words that dare to offend Grandmother’s feelings, I am very curious about the agenda Grandmother has gathered today.”
Looking down, she could see a boy standing.
“Because everyone here has gathered to hear Grandmother’s voice.”
Short hair that slightly touched the shoulders, white spots on the black hair that symbolized the direct line.
Even white silver hair that became uniquely whiter as it went down.
The boy, who had hair like a girl’s and possessed distinct beauty, was certainly.
The eldest brother, ‘Bellus’.
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