CH 98

[Grandmother Cassandra]

“I have read the diary. Guessing from the contents written in it, I think something happened to Alfine-sama after Frick-sama left her.”

Having closed Alfine’s diary I handed over with a flop, Noelia presents me with the diary that she had read.

Since Alfine’s feelings toward me are written in a diary, I was honestly scared of how Noelia would react.

But she had said that she believed me who have decided to live on as Frick.

Now I can only believe those words of her.

“Ahh, it does seem that something happened, however. With Alfine’s diary alone, the information is so fragmented that we can’t really understand the whole picture.”

“Yes, I, too, am not convinced with the reason that led to the execution of Alfine-sama, who was hailed as the Sword Master and also received King Frederick’s trust. As expected, I think we better assume that there was something happening between her and the commander of the Royal Guard Knight.”

“And we also have to find out the identity of the woman who substituted her, right? It must also be related to why she had to be killed as Alfine’s body double after all.”

“You are right. I also think it is better to find out the identity of the woman. Considering the matters at the mine and Inbahanes, Gile-dono, the heir of the Radcliffe family, is a person who have to watch out for after all, hm.”

He might also have been trying to make use of Alfine’s sword skill to realize Radcliffe family’s ambitions.

They are a bunch who even used Abyss Walkers who knocked down the king’s people to the depths of horror in the Great Invasion after all.

“Because the situation is as such, it is necessary to gather a large amount of information in the royal capital to investigate this matter in detail, as soon as possible. Therefore, I would like Frick-sama to meet with the person in charge of my Henestrosa family in the royal capital, my grandmother Cassandra.”

“Ahh, it seems that it will be easier to collect various information related to nobles with the cooperation of the Henestrosa family after all, right? By all means, I want you to let me meet her.”

[Actually, I think you have already met her though…]

I see Noelia who heard my reply puts on a bit troubled face, avoids meeting my gaze, and mutters something.

“Eh? Did you say something?”

“N-no, most definitely not. Let us meet her immediately. I will go call her, so please wait in this room, Frick-sama.”

After saying so, Noelia starts running *pata pata* out of the room.

Having been left alone, I sink my body that has become so exhausted because of the various things that happened on the sofa and quietly wait for Noelia to come back.

After a while, the door is knocked and a maid bringing tea and sweets comes in.

“I received an order from Noelia-sama to serve tea to the tired Frick-sama, so I brought it with me. I think she will be here soon, so please, have some while you wait for her.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you, I’ll drink it.”

I feel that the face of the maid serving the tea is similar to someone I know.

This maid-san, she looks like Suzana…

The color of her hair and eyes seems to be the same as her.

When Suzana gets older, she will likely become similar to this maid…

Perhaps she notices my gaze, the maid looks at me and smiles,

“Is there something on my face?”

“Eh? No, I just thought you look similar to my acquaintance, I didn’t mean to stare at you, however. I apologize if you feel uncomfortable.”

“No, not at all, I do not feel uncomfortable or such. Besides, my daughter seems to have also been taken care of by Frick-sama.”

The maid looks at me with a smile.

“Your daughter, you say?”

“My apologies for the late introduction. I am Samantha, Suzana’s mother and the head maid of Cassandra-sama. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The maid who calls herself Samantha politely bows her head towards me.

I-I thought she was similar, but to think she is actually Suzana’s mother.

Come to think of it, I did hear that Suzana’s family is a family that have served the Henestrosa family for a long time.

They must have been serving the Henestrosa family for a long time as a maids and servants.

“No, it is me that have been taken care of by Suzana.”

“My daughter is still not quite proficient as a maid yet, so I think she is causing a lot of trouble to Noelia-sama and Frick-sama, however.”

“No, having her with us was really helpful. Even now, I still have her taking care of my horse and wyvern at the outskirt village.”

“Is that so, it is great that she is of help to you.”

After that, I continue to chat with Samantha for a while, but then her hand that is serving the tea stops, and the door is knocked.

“It seems like Cassandra-sama has come.”

I immediately get up from the sofa and stand facing toward the door.

When the door opened, a familiar silver haired old lady enters the room from behind Noelia.

Err… if remember correctly, that person is,

No matter how I see her, she was the old maid who guided me to this room, wasn’t she…?

Wait!? That person is Noelia’s grandma!?

Cassandra who is dressed in noble’s outfit walks forward to the front of me.

And like before, she takes my hand.

“It seems that Frick-dono has made a good choice. My family will be safe with this. Just that, I can still see better path. I can faintly see beyond the trials that you will have to overcome with my granddaughter and your childhood friend, a path to become king. Perhaps, my family will produce a king.”

Cassandra says some outrageous things while holding my hand and closing her eyes.

What is she talking about by becoming a king!?

I’m nothing more than a mere commoner orphan though.

Having seen me got confused, Noelia cuts in between me and Cassandra.

“Grandmother, even if you don’t look into Frick-sama’s——”

“Is that so? Well~, even I want to see my great-grandchild while I am still alive——”

“Ngh——!?”

Noelia who has a bright red face takes Cassandra’s hand and gets solidified,

“U-uhm, what do you mean by king and great-grandchild?”

With a meaningful smile, Cassandra answers my question.

“Ahh, I forgot to tell Frick-dono, was I not? I have been always studying future vision magic until now, you see. When I touch others’ hand like this, I will be able to see all of the futures that might come to be theirs. Either the good paths, or the bad paths, I am able to see all of them without exception, you know.”

“You can see the future?”

“However, the future that I can see from the other party is only suggestions in the form of fragmentary letters that express what will happen in the future, which is constantly changing and seems to be rewritten every time I see it; it is just a probability at the level of hit-or-miss though.”

Even so, I think just by the fact it allows her to see the future is already makes it a great power though.

Seeing from the calm appearance of Cassandra though, it doesn’t seem to be that powerful of a power.

“I have ascertained that the future always changes with one’s own unconscious decisions. I can only advise you to proceed to the better path.”

“But I feel like it was because of Cassandra-sama’s advice that I was able to decide to live on as Frick. If you hadn’t guessed my doubt correctly at that time, I might not ask for Noelia’s help and keep the matter to myself.”

“I could see such a future as well, so for the sake of my granddaughter and your childhood friend, I decided to give you an advice, considering the things ahead. Thanks to that, though there are still many difficult paths that were suggested, I could no longer see any paths that lead to ruin in the future vision.”

“Grandmother, Frick-sama must be confused, so please give it a rest with the talk about the future vision. Rather than that, as I mentioned earlier, we want to investigate things about Sword Master Alfine, so we would like to get your cooperation, however.”

Noelia seems to be panicking for some reason, as she begins talking to Cassandra, trying to change the topic.

Noelia is acting strange but, I wonder why?

Could it be, it would be bad if I were to know about her Grandmother’s future vision?

“U-uhm Noelia? Could it be, it would be bad if someone were to hear about the future vision?”

“You are right. My future vision magic is a secret even in Henestrosa family. If someone else were to know that secret, they have to die or join the family——”

Cassandra whose gaze suddenly became sharp glares into my eyes.

I feel my spine frozen in her gaze.

“Grandmother. You are bothering Frick-sama, so please stop making such jokes!”

“My great-grandchild’s face—— and even the particular problem of our family of having men marrying into the family for three generations in a row——”

“That is enough! Grandmother, if you talk too much, I will cast Silence on you!”

The panicking Noelia pushes Cassandra who is still holding my hand.

Even though Cassandra who looks like a typical old noble woman is the grandmother of the serious Noelia, she might actually be a grandma who loves to joke around too much.

Perhaps the thing about the future vision magic is something sort of hit-or-miss was unexpectedly a way for her to jest, as she herself the one who said so.

Even though Noelia is arguing with her grandmother, but that figure of hers overlaps with the figure of her arguing with her father at Youg Hannotes; to me who has begin to understand her, she seems lovely.

“F-Frick-dono. My granddaughter who shows up for the first time in a long while is so cold to me, but I wonder if you could help me.”

“Frick-sama, you do not have to help Grandmother. Because she, like my father, does not die easily.”

Noelia immediately interrupts Cassandra’s call for help.

“Now then, Noelia-sama, Cassandra-sama. Frick-sama will be troubled if you put him in such a difficult situation, so is it not better to get into the main subject?”

After Samantha declared so to them with such a cold tone, the two who are quarreling suddenly stop moving, close their mouths, and nod.

Looking at the appearance of the two, it seems that Samantha is person who controls various things in this house.

Even so, the people of the Henestrosa’s family are different from your usual nobles, and I feel that it is a family filled with many strange people.

Even while thinking about such things, I wait for the two who have calmed down to sit on the sofa; and after I sat down too, I decided to talk with them to ask for their cooperation in gathering information in the royal capital.

A piece of the author’s note:

‘Also, the future vision magic that appeared this time is not something like a foresight or prophecy, what comes into Cassandra’s brain is only innumerable possible options of the person at the time she holds their hand; as she said herself, the magic is only the sort of hit-or-miss thing. I hope you can interpret it as something at the level of fortune-telling.’