The Count Family's Young Master
Chapter 14 - Have you opened your eyes? (2)

Frey smiled kindly.

"Hi." Another person appeared from behind the wall. Wistar waved his hand at Valias with a smile similar to that of the crown prince's elder brother.

"Sore, your honor."

"Haha, you're not so pale anymore. Alister dressed you up well. Looks like you've eaten too."

"That's it, your honor. Alister seems to be borrowing a kitchen to make soup."

"Yes, yeah. It should be. You're living in a palace. Of course you and your servants are free to use the facilities here. Looks like I'm interested in trying your waiter's food."

Frey glances and gets a fake smile from Alister.

Frey snorted though still with a smiling mouth looking at the maid's smile. "I think for a week, your injuries have been better?"

"I no longer feel any pain, Your Majesty. Thanks for your attention." Valias said with a lowered head.

"You've been protecting my brother. It's appropriate that you get it." talk to Wistar.

"You're right, my sister. Now, how about we talk, young master Valias?" Frey looked at Valias with his usual smile. Who does not know what the crown prince will talk about but will still serve the conversation.

"certain." Valias took his feet to the floor. Alister quickly walked over to Valias.

"You can stay there. Where are you going?" frey didn't understand.

Valias laughed in his heart.

You think I can sit back with that blanket while being interrogated by you?

"I would be uncomfortable being a noble conversation companion while sitting in such a bed. At least I should be sitting in the same place as you, your majesty."

"Oh.. You're a very polite man, Valias." Wistar watched Valias who was walking towards a table in the middle of the room with the help of Alister.

"Please, your Excellency Frey. Prince Wistar."

"Haha. Alright.." Frey sat on one of the chairs after being invited by Valias. Wistar sat in another chair, and Valias sat himself on the bench in front of Frey Nardeen.

"Please your honor."

"I'll get to the point."

Frey opened his mouth after being again welcomed by the mysterious red-haired Count's son before him. Wistar who heard her brother speak immediately held his breath with a wry smiley face. A sweat appeared on the side of his forehead.

"I thought I could ask you about your origin? Why is your name never mentioned as the first child of Count Hadden Bardev. And why did you finally show up now?"

Why now? At the event that I. On the day of the attack.

Frey looked at Valias. Examining expression.

The face looked so calm as if he had already expected such a question to be given to him. Those eyes also looked back at Frey Nardeen so calmly and confidently.

Frey found the person in front of him so attractive. Frey wants to peel everything about Valias Bardev. The man who had pushed him on the day of the attack, and was shot with an arrow when he should have been pierced.

"I'm sure your highness has done the investigation first. Perhaps his highness also already has some conjectures" Valias said.

"Huh." Frey couldn't help but laugh at how Valias Bardev was so calm in dealing with it. "You're right. I told my men to investigate you. The reason your family came home first is because I pushed them so that my people could investigate your family."

Frey glanced at Alister who was standing solemnly with his eyes closed. That fake smile had not changed at all.

Did they guess this? Was my time too easy to read?

But Frey has talked to a lot of people. He used to influence and hypnotize his interlocutors. He is also good at reading people's thoughts and gestures.

They really expected this.

Frey sees the calmness and lack of response of Valias and his servants as proof that they have suspected the intent behind the early return of his family. And forced Valias to remain in the palace with only one servant.

So I can have a four-eye conversation with him.

Frey had met Count Hadden Bardev several times in several events organized by his father, the king's highness. Hadden is not a good person to lie. Nor is he the one who will reveal the secret easily.

Frey can interrogate Hadden directly, as the party is hiding family secrets and the whereabouts of his red-haired first child. How he finally pointed out the whereabouts of his first child and brought him to the palace where people could see him, suggests that Count Hadden was planning to announce a new member of the Bardev family.

But Frey was also interested in hearing Valias' answer. The main character of the Count's family's secret. And the hero who had protected him from death, a future king.

"Adoption, or child out of wedlock. Which one do you think?" Frey looked at Valias with a sarcastic look.

Valias closed his eyes slowly.

Which was? I don't know either.

Valias hasn't found out Valias Bardev's background. Her hair color is too different from other family members. Ruri has black hair. Dina, Danial and Hadden are brunettes. Valias also had the same guesses as the crown prince before him.

Now I have to answer what?

"If I tell your majesty, will your majesty keep this secret?"

Frey smiling. He raised next to his eyebrows. "Your father took you to my birthday party. Everyone must have made the same guess as me. What secrets do you want to keep secret?"

"You're right." Valias smiled slightly.

"..Alister, can you explain my story to the crown prince?"

Alister who had been standing solemnly and quietly listening raised his eyebrows

"You don't want to say it yourself?"

"My story is not interesting at all. Rather than telling my own story, I would rather listen to what other people's viewpoints of my story are."

Frey squinted his eyes. "Ha. You're really interesting, Valias Bardev. Okay, let's hear your servant's explanation." The royal crown prince Hayden grinned enthusiastically.

"Are you sure, young master?"

Alister looked at his young master who was sitting with his eyes closed. Alister's eyebrows shot up.

Valias nodded steadily. "Say whatever's on your mind."

"..I understand."

...***...

"..So my guess is right?"

"Frankly, your honor."

"Huh.." A breath sounded. The crown prince placed his palm on his forehead.

Frey feels tired of facing Valias after hearing the story from Alister.

"It looks like your change really surprised the people in the Bardev residence. How could one decide to change suddenly like that?" Wistar leaned his chin on his right hand.

"Now, I'm gonna ask you one more thing." Frey sees Valias sharp. "The attack, do you know anything?"

King Hayden died from poison from the arrow. Frey was supposed to be dead, too, but he didn't get hit by that arrow. Valias, who had not received any action from the physician, remained alive.

What was different was the action reported to me.

Valias Bardev, plucking the arrow that stuck in his own arm, sucked out his wound and spat out blood in his mouth. Then aggravated his own wound until a bag of blood came out of his arm. Then Valias Bardev was unconscious from losing a lot of blood for a week.

I'm not sure. Is that the correct method to deal with poison?

The healers did not know what to do with the condition of Chalis Nardeen. His father died a day later. But because Valias knows, he can help himself.

Frey looked at Valias sharply.

If he had anything to do with the attack...

Valias was aware of the vigilance that was on him. "I don't know, your majesty. The news of the king's glorious death surprised me. My success realized the coming of the arrow was pure luck."

"Then do you think how are you going to explain about the noble king who did not survive while you are still breathing before me at this time?"

"Well.."

Wistar.

His sister is a scary man.

Being the prey of his brother's gaze and pressure, Wistar could not imagine what Valias was feeling right now

Now, what is your answer, young master Valias?

Just like what Frey asked Valias, Alister was also quite curious about the same thing. In fact, Alister wouldn't be surprised if the young master who suddenly changed it had something to do with last week's events.

Whatever it was, to Alister, it was all just entertainment for him.

What's your answer, Valias Bardev?

Frey saw Valias right in the eye. In his heart Frey was quite surprised by how Valias could be so calm and not show any change in expression even by being stared at so sharply as that by him. Supposedly, being stared at by someone above you, being interrogated like now, someone would at least feel depressed.

But Frey sees nothing from Valias' silence. The frail and pale man even with the makeup looked so untouched by the pressure from her.

Valias looks like he's about to open his mouth. "I got a message about the events of that time, your honor."

"Message?"

"true."

"From who?"

Did the perpetrator of the attack tell Valias Bardev about what he was about to do? Wh why? Valias Bardev really had something to do with it?

Frey, Wistar and Alister are both waiting for the continuation of the answer from Valias' mouth.

Valias was busy with his thoughts. He's weighing.

What situation is coming to me at the moment? Even the thought that I was in a story was nonsense.

He started to think.

If he was faced with a cornered situation, then he just had to create his own nonsense. "God, your honor."

"God? That god.." Wistar.

"..You're saying that God gave you a message? The message that the attack will happen?"

"You could say so, your majesty."

"..It still hasn't answered my question. Why do you know there's poison in that arrow? If you didn't know, you wouldn't have done what my people reported to me. And you're gonna die like my father." sue Frey.

Everyone was waiting for Valias' answer.

"..The message, your honor, told me about the liquid that would kill me" Valias said.

"..Fluid?"

"really. Since then, I have always been careful about what I eat. When I got hit by an arrow that day, I just wanted everything that came into my body to come out. I don't know if it's poison. I just do what I think is right. The death of the noble king due to poison is a shocking thing to me."

Valias makes a load of shit.

Frey couldn't help but put on a face of disbelief hearing Valias' explanation. "....Well then I'll be honest with you. I told people to keep an eye on your movements. My men see how you take food from your servants so easily. You don't seem as wary as you say?"

"You installed a wiretap in this room, your honor?" ask Valias.

"You want to protest?" The interrogator put up a mocking grin.

"No.."

Valias was only surprised by how Alister knew first. He didn't even notice.

But how?

Valias was a little curious about that. The cameras? A recorder? Valias can't be sure.

"You're gonna answer my question?"

"....Alisters."

"Yes, young master."

"Do you have any thoughts of poisoning me?"

The master asked the servant. With the use of poison to kill Chalis Nardeen, it is not strange that in the future people are thought to kill people with poison.

"Of course not, young master."

"I think I have enough faith in Alister, your honor. But even if one day Alister decides to harm me, I think I won't be able to prevent it."

"Ha. You can just so calmly say that." Wistar was almost speechless.

Alister glanced at his young master from behind. His young master did not look at him at all even after saying those words earlier.

Alister wanted to laugh.

You are right, young master.

Compared to Valias, Alister was far superior in many fields. If Alister decides to slice Valias Bardev's neck,

that man will not be able to prevent it.

The young master I served has changed.

Be very interesting.

Alister was almost grateful that he was not wrong when he decided to apply to serve the Bardevs. Therefore, he met the quiet young master there. And finally given the opportunity to experience interesting entertainment.

"..You're good at picking words, Valias Bardev."

Frey looks for traces of lies from Valias and his words. But, even after 22 years of living observing people, Frey could not unpack the authenticity of the person before him.

If what he said was true, then Valias was a lucky human who was blessed by a god. But if he's lying..

It means he's really an interesting human being that I need to have.

People who are good at lying, theatricalizing, and influencing those around them. They are the ones who will gain the greatest advantage.

Frey Nardeen, as crown prince and about to be appointed king in place of his deceased father, realized that very well.

I have to take Valias Bardev under my wing. And make the most of his skills.

Frankly, Frey Nardeen is not saddened by his father's death. Chalis Nardeen is old and will take his place sooner or later. His death only accelerated the removal of the post.

Even if Valias was behind the attack, Frey just had to watch him and avenge his actions by using the man to the last drop of blood.