‘Ugh…’
Riley got the puzzles together and made a conjecture.
There were two people with purple aura who were in the Rainfield around the same time.
Riley narrowed his eyes and glared at Rebethra. Before his gaze met Rebethra’s eyes, Riley lowered his eyes and organized the rest of his thoughts.
‘Fuck.’
Riley wanted to live comfortably, not like his past life, leisurely.
This was the reason why Riley didn’t make any moves on small things. However, this situation was a little different.
Last spring, Iris ate poisoned soup and coughed blood. Just like that moment… someone close to Riley was harmed. This was the reason.
‘Fool. I won’t lose them like in my past life… I was determined to that end, yet…’
Riley, who had his head lowered, was cringing.
It was because he believed that this was his fault.
‘I never expected that this would happen to my father. If I have known, I could have asked Andal to keep an eye on the man.’
Stein Fin Iphalleta…
That name was famous, and it wasn’t famous for no reason.
So, Riley never worried about his father because he believed Stein was a sword who would not break easily against anyone. Now, Riley was faulting himself for letting his guard down.
‘What should I do?’
Riley spun his eyes to look at Rebethra again. Riley looked relatively calm, but inside, he was not in a very good mood.
‘… Should I make a move?’
Rebethra was an Archbishop, the highest ranking official in Solia Holy Temple. Still, that was not going to be enough to make Riley just stand idle and suck on his thumb in fear.
‘At the moment, I can’t definitely show that this bastard and that mercenary are connected. If I do anything to the Archbishop, would I be risking butterfly effect from turning the Holy Temple upside down?’
Despite that, carefully… Riley thought about it for the second and the third time so it won’t go wrong easily. To Riley, who was in middle of such thoughts, Stein’s voice could be heard.
“So, I think it is about time…”
Having heard the voice, Riley slightly raised his head and met Stein’s eyes.
“…”
There were complicated emotions mixed in Stein’s eyes.
Looking at his eyes, Riley felt like he knew what Stein was going to say.
“… I’m going to name the successor.”
* * *
“I have never thought he would return with an arm missing.”
Stein retired to the bedroom after telling his sons that they can leave now. Following after Riley who was walking toward the garden, Ian mumbled with bitter voice.
“About this man named Kabal who have thrown off the Count’s arm… I have only heard stories about this mercenary. I have never seen his face in person.”
Ian was about to tell Riley that someone like Nara would know that mercenary well. However, Riley casually turned his head around, so Ian stopped talking.
“… I met him.”
“Pardon?”
“That bastard named Kabal. I met him.”
“Y… You met him?!”
“Quiet…”
Riley blocked Ian’s mouth to tell him to be quiet. With a serious look on his face, Riley continued.
“I ran in to him on the way back from the Rainfield. Don’t tell others about this.”
Ian slowly nodded, and Riley finally lifted his hand away from Ian’s mouth.
“Still, Young Master… Just how?”
“It was a coincidence… probably.”
Riley answered in an unclear way.
It was because Riley was not sure if that was coincidence or planned.
“In that case, what are you going to do now?”
Ian immediately moved on to the next question before getting an answer.
“Count also talked about the successorship, didn’t he?”
Riley nodded and answered,
“He did.”
“Looks like a decision will need to be made.”