Sevens

Volume 14 - 4: What did I Want?

What did I Want?

Room of memories.

It was a space where the ancestor and Jewel could recreate scenes of the past.

Mansions, yards, battlefields, reproducing a number of things, the ancestors showed me their memories.

Like the Walt House’s unexpected start, and what they were thinking as they acted; it was all recorded by the Jewel. As it continued doing.

In such a room of records, I was running about the mansion yard. With the Skills... Speed, Map, Search, Field, Limit Burst... various skills simultaneously active, I ran from place to place to avoid the magic raining down.

What carved out the tidy lawn was a rain of lightning showers from above.

There had always been a statue of a lady in that yard, and sitting on her shoulder, a younger me... LYLE kicked his feet up and down as he used magic.

“H-how in the!?”

Rolling across the ground, I got to my feet, and burst off again. Whenever magic hit the ground, it would raise an explosion, preventing me from running properly.

And the reason I was running was because, even if I attacked, my attacks were all dealt with.

?Hey, we’ve only just begun here. Yet you’ve already been fatally wounded thrice... as I thought, you really should give that body back.?

Seeing that grinning childish face of mine, even if it was my own, I was irritated. I spread my left hand, and created flames to activate magic.

From top to bottom, I swung my hand as if to throw it, and the ball of flame headed for him.

“Fire bullet!”

My magic that was only on the level of harassment, with the Second’s Skill Select, I had fine-tuned for it to definitely hit LYLE.

Seeing that, LYLE let out a sigh, as he swung the sabre in his hand to cut the fireball apart.

?You’re too honest in going straight for the vitals. If you really want to do that, you have to hit them faster. Or otherwise... Select.?

On LYLE’s mutterings, lightning came down towards me from the sky. I immediately checked where it would impact, and as I ran a route to avoid it...

“Oh, damn. He baited me!”

?You’re slow on the uptake. Though if you tried to endure the other one, you’d be in tatters regardless. If this were reality, it’d have been fatal.?

Having moved to where I turned to run, LYLE thrust his sabre out at me. I parried it with a Katana, and went straight into a kick.

Lightly landing on top of my foot, he looked at me, grinned, and kicked up as well. By that young boy’s foot to my chin, my field of vision was sent to the sky, and I collapsed on the ground.

“W-why can you use Skills...”

I unsteadily tried to rise, but my head was spinning, and I couldn’t stand. A fighting style different from the ancestors, and the ability to use the Skills up to their last levels.

?Because you and me are the same. I’m you, and you’re me. So the Jewel will let me use the Skills as well. I’ll just throw this out there, but I’m undoubtedly worse at using the Skills than their respective ancestors. I’m just making clever use of them.?

LYLE looked over my incapacitated state, and laughed as he leaned down.

?When you have such amazing Skills on you, you haven’t mastered them. I’m not talking about training the Skills. It’s only natural to fall short of the individuals who manifested them. But you’ve got to time them better, and use them more craftily.?

When I forced myself to stand, LYLE tripped me up, and had me roll.

?That’s all for today. Next... go to the Fifth’s room.?

I looked up at the familiar sky of the memories, vexed that I couldn’t even beat this child.

–

–

–

The round table room.

When I dropped in, the Third was looking at Milleia-san with a grin.

?So even your prided eyes can’t see through my illusions. You’re such a scatterbrain, Milleia-chan.?

Seeing him chuckle as he put a hand to his mouth, Milleia-sann made a displeased expression.

Her hand was gripping a handgun, and the room smelled faintly of gunpowder.

I looked at the Fifth sitting on the table.

“What happened?”

The Fifth looked uninterested, but it seems he had properly been observing everything that transpired. He gave me a courteous explanation.

?The Third riled Millea up. Well, since she suddenly started giving us orders, maybe that irritated him. Or perhaps he just wanted to tease her... she pointed her gun at him, but what she beautifully shot through happened to be an illusion.?

Hearing the Third had riled her up, I mused over how rare it was for birds of a feather to feud as I looked over the two. I ignored the Seventh, who looked a little disappointed in his chair.

The Third continued chuckling.

?Milleia-chan, Milleia-chan. You kept bragging about those demon eyes, so could it have been on purpose? Did you miss on purpose? You don’t have to be so thoughtful just because I’m your great grandfather. Lookie, I’m over here. Try and hit me.?

To the Third with his arms spread wide, Milleia-san turned her empty left hand. There, while I didn’t see her pull one out, she was gripping a gun, and she pulled the trigger...

?Kuh!?

... The Third, from the space he was shot, made a crooked smile as he faded away.

?Ahahaha, I’m over here. You don’t have to be so angry.?

The righteous general who spread the Walt House’s name through Bahnseim... and far across foreign lands. The Hero of Remlrandt was leading Milleia-saw about by the nose.

Milleia-san shot again and again. And as she tossed aside one gun after the next, the laughs of the Third echoed around the room.

A stray shot hit the Seventh.

?Ow!?

The Fifth looked at that, let out a sigh, leapt from the table, and beckoned to me.

?Lyle, it’s noisy out here, so come over for a bit.?

Invited by the Fifth, I headed for his room of memories.

–

–

–

In the past.

In his room, I had seen the events surrounding May, and the family’s problems.

With a philosophical look on his face, the Fifth sighed, snapped his fingers, and changed the surrounding scenery. The gray images projected the inside of the Walt House, gradually gaining their color.

In it all, there was a woman of small build, preciously holding a baby.

Distanced in age, the Fourth... Max looked on with a smile.

?Max, it’s a boy! A boy!?

Happy that she had a boy, the woman gave a full smile. What I had seen of her standing dauntingly towards the Fourth and criticizing him left so strong an impression, I found it surprising.

?Yeah, with this, the Walt House is secure.?

Max looked delighted, but the woman... Max’s wife’s expression changed.

?What are you talking about? There’s no telling what will happen in the world. This child needs some brothers and sisters. Hey, Fredricks! When you get brothers and sisters who’ll support you, you’ve got to treasure them.?

Max gave a bitter smile.

?So in the end, you went with my suggestion of ?Fredricks?, huh? Makes a man happy.?

The woman’s face turned red.

?T-that’s... because I’m going to name the next one! Fredricks, what name do you think sounds good for your younger brother and sister??

His wife held the baby’s cheek to her own. Max watched over it with a smile.

?Right. Father did die young. Originally, I was supposed to have some younger siblings of my own.?

The third was the sole war-casualty of the Walt House. He had overturned a hopeless situation, but what he lost in exchange was his life.

The Fifth looked upon the scene.

?I haven’t the slightest idea what Milleia wants me to show you. There are plenty of things I don’t want to show, but if I say that, then I’ll be staying here forever. I’m happy I got to see how May’s grown, but having things as they are for ages to come is, you know...?

Saying that, the Fifth explained the scene. It was either the Fourth’s memory, or a record from the Jewel, but it was without a doubt, the moment of his birth.

And at the point, it didn’t seem likely he would end up an only child. Both Max and his wife were already thinking about the next one.

The couple’s relationship, from how scared the Fourth was, I thought it would be terrible, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

... In that case, the cause had to be that ‘accident’ the Fourth spoke of.

The Fifth looked over the warm family scene as he spoke. Around, the maids looked upon the rejoicing woman with gentle smiles. Outside the door, the knights clenched their fists for joy.

Watching that scene...

?Lyle. How does this scenery look to you? Is it strange? Or is it normal??

Having heard those words, I.

“Um... isn’t it normal? Everyone looks happy, and the Fourth and his wife look extremely delighted as well.”

The Firth, a little tiredly.

?That’s right. By your time, the house had the leisure to think of it that way. We were a Baron House at the time. Climbing by the Third’s achievements, we had only just become true nobles. The Walt House was an upstart backed with momentum. And that’s surely why. This scene was a rare one.?

What he explained was the lifeform that was nobles.

?Did you know? The marriages of nobles are the links between houses.?

“I know. No, I was going to learn.”

Hearing my response, the Fifth smiled a little sorrowfully.

?Should I think it a good thing, or get angry at the fact you don’t know... perhaps that’s my fault. I tried seeking a warm household for Fiennes, and failed. Because I had shoved family love, and the obligations of nobles into it. It seems Brod went alright, and the Walt House shouldered the whole burden of it.?

The Sixth married the women he loved. But at the same time, he took on mistresses like the Fifth. The legal wife was quite angry about that.

The Fifth taught me the side of the Sixth I didn’t know about.

?That guy didn’t have to try and imitate me. No matter what you do, if there are merits, there will be demerits as well. I had increased the family, so he didn’t have to worry about that anymore... but after taking a wife, he instantly went right out to get mistresses. I was extremely anxious. But despite how worried I was over what his wife he met through marriage interview thought, he put it to practice as if he thought it was only natural.?

Seeing the Fifth cradle his head, I thought it was surely troubling at the time. It seems the Fifth held some dissatisfaction at the Sixth as well.

If you’ll let me have my say, isn’t it because he was looking at you? The Third once said you come to resemble the one you hate.

The scene changed, now a fidgeting young Sixth... Fiennes’ figure. He looked greatly perplexed before a high-class woman of blond hair and blue eyes. An aged Fredricks was also holding his head.

The Fifth looked at the woman, with disheveled hair, throwing and breaking anything that she could lay her hands on. Just looking at that, it looked as if the woman was the worse.

But...

?That girl was the daughter of an imperial noble. She married into the provincial Walt House, but that’s because the Sixth gave her a passionate confession. And so she came to the mansion, and tried her best in her own way. There were times she wanted to cry in this unfamiliar environment, but she endured through... then you see, that guy boldly...?

The surrounding scenes sprung to action. Fiennes avoided a thrown vace.

?W-what’s wrong with mistresses!? With the Walt House’s scale, that much is...?

The woman cried out.

?You said you’d only love me alone! I believed in you! And yet... and yet!?

A thrown decorative plate hit Fiennes on the mark, but I couldn’t’ sympathize with him.

The Fifth sighed.

?... To have her calm down, I heard out her story after that. It seems she was resolved from the moment she was born into a noble House. To marry a man she didn’t love, and have children... a man wouldn’t understand, but I’m sure it’s harsh. But being confessed love to, and married was something out of her dreams. The difference in environment, was something she wanted to overcome for the sake of the love Fiennes offered her, it seems. What was natural here was plenty strange in Centralle. And what Fiennes did to answer her hard work, was introduce her to other women.?

The fact he surprisingly followed through for his son, left me contrarily shocked.

And the Fifth looked at the crying blond-haired woman.

?Lyle. Just as this girl said, the marriages of nobles are the links between houses. Even if there’s no love in it, children are born, and houses are succeeded. That is normal. Within that, it isn’t rare to find a couple where both sides take on a lover once a child is born. The Walt House was a newcomer to that field, so for better or worse, we were unaware. It’s true mama... my mother was a bit of a dreamer. So perhaps she held a yearning for a warm household.?

While he called his mother mama, he never called the Fourth papa. I’m pretty sure his mother forced it on him.

“Does that mean the Walt House is abnormal?”

When I said that, the Fifth smiled.

?It isn’t normal. That alone is for certain. Those precepts from the First were a joke at a bar, for goddess’ sake.?

I also gave a wry smile.

“That’s... right.”

And his smile turned sorrowful.

?... And I did too. With one wife, I wanted a warm house. And yet, Fiennes had thrown that all away. I even told him only to prepare mistresses if his wife couldn’t have children.?

It seems the Fifth was actually jealous of the Sixth. And the surrounding scenery turned grey, and disappeared. A new scene laid out.

Lyle(;????´): “Fifth! Please teach me the trick to maintaining a harem! What do you do when they start forming factions!?”

Fifth Generation Head ?(????): “Don’t carelessly intervene! Think of them as bombs with the fuses lit! If you touch them wrong, they’ll explode in your face! You listening? Treat every day as a bomb on the verge of explosion, and cope. Always pay mind to everything. Act oblivious, as you calmly deal with it. But... ”

Fifth Generation Head (;???): “... It’ll still explode anyways. So you’re not trying to prevent the explosion. You’re trying to explode them skillfully. Harems... think of them as bombs where it isn’t strange if they explode at any moment. And keep in mind they will always blow up eventually. Without fail. For me, at least two times in public...”