T/N: Extra chapter
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Papas [Part 1]
Isaac Delacour had been working in the bureau responsible for archiving the Kingdom’s history for a long time.
The details of the coup d’etat and the local barrier hazard a year ago and the results reports of revolutionary proposals on countermeasures against monsters that no one had ever submitted before came up one after another all at once, causing him to be swamped with work recently.
His pen never stopped moving day and night to pass on the happenings in the Kingdom to the next generation.
Isaac Delacour’s POV
“Sir Delacour! Count Stuart is here to see you.”
Things related to the local barrier hazard and monsters were beyond the capacities of the bureau staff, who lived in the Royal Capital with no monster appearance, so we decided to ask the submitter of the reports to come and give us the detailed information once.
Count Leonard Stuart.
The noble who had the most assets in the Kingdom and governed the borderland Palace.
“It has been around 20 years since my last visit to the Royal Castle.”
I ushered him into the office while feeling slightly overawed by his tall, sturdy build, which made it easy for others to tell that he had been active as a hunter.
“Forgive us for making you take the trouble to come here. I am the Assistant Director of the History Archives Administration Bureau, Isaac Delacour.”
“……Delacour…?”
Count Stuart furrowed his brows upon hearing [Delacour].
There was no way he didn’t notice this name.
The victim of [the First Prince Faction’s baptism] that my daughter carried out at the party hosted by the Royal Family was the daughter of the person standing in front of me.
“Are you perhaps Lady Francesca Delacour’s relative?”
The Count asked in a low voice.
Francesca’s [baptism] failed.
This rumor spread at a frightening speed, and I had also been subjected to humiliation at my workplace in these past few weeks.
I had been prepared to receive reproachful looks from the Second Prince Faction and the Neutral Faction, but the people on the First Prince Faction who should have been my comrades were the ones who had heaped more harsh words and criticisms so unabashedly instead.
Even though Francesca just couldn’t go against your order to carry out the [baptism]…
My wife reported to me while crying that Francesca had been ostracized, ignored, and gossiped behind her back by the young ladies who used to play with her. Not even one invitation letter for any tea parties came, and on top of all that, my daughter’s engagement, which had almost been set in stone, was canceled. It was truly as if once you failed, you had served your purpose, and they had no more use for you.
I could only listen to all that silently.
I felt inferior from the things I couldn’t refute because of the state my house was currently in, and I couldn’t even utter any thoughtful words to my downhearted wife and tearful daughter.
Inquiring Count Stuart this time was a part of my job. Although this task didn’t have to be done specifically by me, this was what it meant for a noble to work at the Royal Castle.
Those bunch from the First Prince Faction had already blocked all my escape routes, and I was sure they were having fun arranging it only so they could have a new thing to gossip about.
They were enjoying the confrontation between the parents of the one who [baptized] and the one who [was baptized] as a sideshow to kill time.
Even without having eyes on my back, I could easily imagine their grinning faces.
Just how comfortable I would feel if I could yell at them to work if they had that much free time…
“Yes. Francesca is my daughter.”
Because I treated my job very seriously, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to the official guest of my bureau, so I answered while preparing myself to be beaten by this sturdy man before me. I didn’t know any defensive moves. Perhaps I would lose one tooth or two. It was well-known that the borderland lord Count Leonard Stuart doted heavily on his daughter.
