"Viscount Hounderd! It's such a pleasure to see you again!"
On the one day off when there were no lectures or self-study sessions and students were encouraged to rest, a dark-blond-haired middle-aged man arrived at the Royal Academy's doorstep, where he was warmly welcomed by the headmaster himself.
The thing was, that representative lacked the distinct yellow eye color that was the mark of the Vallhall bloodline.
"When I learned that Vallhalls' representative would show up, I was worried it would be someone from the main family, but I see that the blessing of the Grand Fae is with me!"
The headmaster breathed out, patting the other man's shoulder with great familiarity.
"It has indeed been a while, Lord Lazalarius. The main family sure is a handful. I'm sorry for giving you a scare."
The dark-blond-haired man smiled apologetically while exchanging handshakes with the headmaster.
"Lord Lazalarius… let's change to a more appropriate spot. I don't want to discuss things about the shame of the Vallhall family out in the open."
"Of course. But of course! Oh, it's so satisfying that the matter will be looked at objectively!"
The representative of the Vallhall family leaned in and asked conspicuously, making the representative of the Royal Academy brighten up and cheer in delight.
—----
Since he was an official representative and not some undercover agent, Viscount Ian Hounderd made sure to greet Rotsard and inform him about the steps he would take during the investigation of the issue.
"Uncle Ian, I'm honestly fine with anything as long as it won't end in me leaving the Academy."
The bleached-blond-haired boy waved his hand dismissively while sprawled on the simple chair that, because of how skinny Rotsard looked, appeared almost like some extravagant armchair.
He then took a sip out of the cup offered to him by Nan and watched what kind of expression the representative of Vallhalls was making.
"...if that is your honest wish, then shouldn't you change your behavior first, young master…?"
The man only glanced at his own cup without making any moves towards it before breathing out and confronting the boy.
"At the time, I didn't break any rules, though?"
"Young master. Plenty of rules have been created because of you since you began to misbehave!"
Rotsard tilted his head and shrugged before taking another nonchalant sip, but Viscount Hounderd scoffed and pointed out in a harsh voice.
"Precisely. At the time, I wasn't breaking any rules."
"!!!"
Rotsard snickered, causing his uncle to straighten his back as his expression turned even stricter than before.
"Then, this is it? You don't want to share your side of the story?"
Viscount asked in anger mixed with disbelief over the dismissiveness of his nephew.
The pair stared at each other for almost a whole minute and then…
"..."
Rotsard took yet another sip.
"Young master! Do you really believe that your behavior is acceptable for a member of the Vallhall family?!"
That seemed to be too much for Viscount Hounderd's patience, and he snapped, slamming his fist against Rotsard's desk and causing the teapot and his own teacup to jingle from the spreading reverberation.
"Oh, it's certainly no less acceptable than a certain branch of the Vallhalll family breeding wolf-hunting hounds."
"...!"
Rotsard finished his tea and said casually, leaning forward to put the cup down and glare up at the light-brown-eyed man with his beastly yellow eyes, and making him flinch.
That information wasn't something that he was supposed to know. It was something Rotsard learned only from the story the deofol read to him.
It was something that his cousin would discover in the latter volumes of the Anthology and which she would later us fight against Houndreds who were attempting to take Vallhalls place. Well, at that point, it would already be a revenge plan, though.
Oh, everything would end up fine, with Vallhall family restored and all, but nonetheless that was all in the future and, what's more important, had to happen for the perfect outcome.
So using that information at that very moment was quite the powerful leverage.
The thing was, Rotsard didn't want any leverage at the moment.
He was just petty...
And annoyed at the tone his uncle had with him from the start of their entire conversation.
"..."
The shock on Viscount Houndred's face was certainly amongst the most amusing sights that Rotsard witnessed in recent days.
The dark-blond-haired man was looking to the sides with a pale face as if he expected hidden bodyguards to start crawling out of the crevices like cockroaches, and his mouth was moving even though no word was coming out of them.
Even Nana was staring at the man with horror, glancing at Rotsard from time to time to ascertain that her young master wasn't just making things up and actually knew what he was talking about.
"...Young Master…"
Viscount Houndred cleared his throat and spoke up in a much more agreeable tone…
"I simply don't want to be expelled. You can conduct your research or evaluation, or whatever you want to call it. Nonetheless, I don't want to leave the Royal Academy. I'm even fine with detention and house arrest, just within the Royal Academy. The rest… You can go wild."
Rotsard interrupted him, chuckling and waving his hand benevolently…
"Wait. No. Don't go overboard. Actually, just do the bare minimum, enough to not be suspicious."
Suddenly, the boy flinched and scowled before leaning forward and correcting himself.
After all, there was no mention of any serious investigation in the story. It was just some barebone mention of something happening in the background, and it didn't lead to anything…
…well, it didn't lead to anything major, but it certainly did strengthen the connection that Rotsard would have with the actual antagonist of the first volume.
"That… that can be done… But there is a certain condition I have."
"And that is…?"
The Viscount had a hard time coming to terms with the new situation. so it took him a while to come up with a full sentence, making Rotsard raise his brow... not particularly amused.
"I've learned that despite putting up a cold room, you haven't been using it recently."
The man cleared his throat and pouted.
"To warrant your stay in the academy, a form of self-reflection is required. That is not only to show the Royal Academy that you care, but, more importantly, to prove that to the patriarch."
Viscount Houndred said, finally actually calming down and regaining composure.
"I had been doing that for close to two months already, though…?"
"Not like that."
Rotsard pointed out, but his uncle shook his head.
"Walking out whenever you feel like it cannot be considered actual cold room training. If you agree to do it properly for, let's say… until the first term evaluations, then I can assure you will remain a student here."
"..."
Viscount Houndred said, carefully observing his nephew's expression while the boy looked to the side as if something on the floor got his attention.
…were there any confrontations between him and the future hero in the story supposed to happen until the end-of-term evaluation…?
The answer was... no.
On the first day of the evaluation? Sure.
On the last day? Also.
On the day of the announcement of the results? Of course.
But nothing significant happened in the story, only some relationship building between Justin and Amelia.
"In that case, I believe we have a deal, uncle."
"I'm glad we could solve this amicably."
After a moment of consideration, Rotsard nodded his head benevolently at the man, and Viscount Hounderd breathed out in relief.
"That said… There is actually one more thing I would like to ask of you, young master."
The man who was preparing to leave suddenly stopped mid-motion and pointed out.
"Your butler. Kyle. Take him back. He has been arranged by the family to serve you, and you alone don't hold enough importance to dismiss him. Still, out of respect for you, he has been staying out of your sight. Just take him back, it will send the right kind of message to the patriarch."
Rotsard didn't ask him to continue, but he also didn't say anything to stop the Viscount, causing the dark-blond-haired man to reveal an additional condition and even repeat himself to highlight its significance.
"Sure. Fine by me."
Rotsard didn't take nearly the same amount of time to consider his answer as before and simply nodded in agreement.
"Since I will be doing solitary cold room training, we won't be seeing each other much anyway."
"Then, it's settled. I wish you the best, young master."
The boy added, dismissively waving his hand while his uncle began to back out of the room while bowing his head an unnecessary amount of times, smiling even when he walked out and closed the door.
"Things went well, don't you agree, young master?"
"..."
Rotsard's maid spoke up while collecting the teacups, making Rotsard look at her with a peculiar expression.
"They sure did, Nan. Everything is going as it should."
Eventually, Rotsard nodded in agreement and stretched in his seat, making it seem as if that was the reason for the delayed answer.