CH 99

[Spy Clan]

“You want us to find information about what happened between the commander of the Royal Guard Knight, who is benefitting from his father’s authority, and Sword Master-sama, that young maiden, is it?”

Cassandra, who sat down on the sofa first, looks at me and cuts to the chase.

She is looking at me with eyes so sharp that I can’t imagine her to be the old lady who had been showing her joke-loving side in her interaction with Noelia until just now.

This Cassandra is truly a mysterious person.

She is too elusive.

While I’m getting confused by Cassandra’s sudden change, Noelia who is sitting next to me speaks in my place.

“Yes, I heard that Grandmother’s connection in the royal capital is wide; I would be grateful if you could help with Frick-sama’s matter, however.”

“Well, it may bloom the luck of our family even more. Not that I am reluctant to lend a hand to begin with, however.”

By ‘it may bloom the luck of our family even more’, is Cassandra talking about that outrageous prophecy about me becoming king?

I think there is no path for a mere commoner like me to become a king, though.

It is definitely a miss one.

“To help to the extent that it doesn’t bother the Henestrosa family is enough. Alfine’s case is my personal problem after all.”

Without the cooperation of Cassandra, the difficulty of gathering information in the noble’s caste would be quite high, but I don’t want that to be the spark of conflict between the Radcliffe and the Henestrosa families.

If I could get her cooperation even only within her personal reach, just that would be enough.

“No, no, as I saw with future vision, this problem also affects my family. Besides, the execution of Sword Master-sama is a case that I have been investigating as well. Samantha, tell them about Alfine-dono’s case from the information about Gile that you have been collecting until now.”

Perhaps she feels the reservation from my response, Cassandra loosens her expression and has Samantha waiting behind her report the information that she has already looked up.

Wait, isn’t Samantha just a maid?

Moreover, Cassandra too has been investigating the execution of Alfine – what on earth does that mean?

“U-um, isn’t Samantha-san a maid?”

“Yes, I am Cassandra-sama’s maid, is there something wrong?”

Samantha replies in a very normal manner.

No, but I think that a normal maid’s job is just to look after her surroundings, and not to collect information or something of the sort, however.

Is it common for nobles to have their maids do such work?

I think Alfine didn’t have her maids do something like that at all, though.

“Ahh, right. This is a good opportunity, might as well have both Noelia, who have grown old enough, and our next family head candidate learn about the spy clan of our family.”

“Huh!? Grandmother, what in the world do you mean by spy clan? I have never heard about such a thing from either you or father, though!”

Hearing about spy clan mentioned by Cassandra, Noelia sitting next to me raises a surprised voice.

For her to be this surprised…

It is something that even Noelia, the only daughter of Frontier Count-sama, doesn’t know, huh.

“That Lloyd is just so soft on his daughter, you see. Even though I told him that he should tell Noelia about Samantha and the others every time he showed up in the royal capital, he would always say it is not yet the time to tell her, putting the matter off. Seriously, that guy is too overprotective, you know.”

“Father did something like that…”

“Cassandra-sama, shall I tell Noelia-sama about my clan now then?”

Cassandra nods silently to Samantha’s question.

“Understood. People who have their names listed in our clan, all have the main task of collecting information that affect the continuance of the Henesterosa family and report them to the family head as the Henestrosa family’s eyes and ears. Being maids or servants are nothing more than a guise.”

“W-what? Henestrosa’s family eyes and ears? Huh!? Don’t tell me, Suzana too?”

Come to think of it, Suzana is Samantha’s daughter.

By people who have their names listed in their clan, did that mean blood relatives?

“Yes, my daughter is also shouldering that task. The plan is to make her become the next head of our clan, as the person attending Noelia-sama. I was thinking of keeping it a secret until the person herself said it, but since I have received Cassandra-sama’s permission, I have it reported.”

“Eh, ah, yes. I see, Suzana is…”

Noelia hardens with a surprised expression on her face.

From what she told me during our journey, it seems that she adores Suzana as her own older sister, so perhaps, finding out that Suzana is carrying the task of being a spy makes her bewildered.

However, Samantha’s explanation made it clear why Suzana, as a personal maid, was strangely familiar with the situation of the nobles and the cities of each region.

“Although I said that ours is a spy clan, the Henestrosa family before Lloyd-sama was a low ranking noble in the royal capital. The past successive generations of family heads were mostly interested only in scholarship, so I, my clan, who have been serving them since the olden days, have been voluntarily collecting information so that the family head would not be naturally involved in power struggles.”

Though the Henestrosa family seems to be a military family now due to Lloyd’s achievements, at Cassandra’s generation, they were only a low-ranking noble of the royal capital, right?

Florina, Noelia’s mother and the original successor, was also quite an oddball herself; if you think about it, Samantha’s clan have been working very hard to protect the uninhibited family heads, in a sense.

“I see… so that’s the case…”

“Frick-dono, from your expression, you are thinking that there sure are a lot of weirdos in our family, are you not?”

Being pointed that out by Cassandra, I tighten my expression.

“No, I would never…”

“I will take that as a compliment. I too grew up being called an oddball after all, and my daughter Florina was uninhibited, even my granddaughter Noelia strongly inherits the blood of our family. She has been an eccentric one since she was a child.”

At Cassandra’s words, I feel the body temperature of Noelia next to me rises.

“G-G-Grandmother!? Isn’t it okay not to talk about such things?”

“I admire the greatness of Noelia’s spirit of inquiry in regard to magic as my magic master, you know. I don’t think she’s a weirdo, so please rest assured.”

I feel the body temperature of Noelia next to me rises even further after I said so.

At the same time, I see Cassandra’s expression softening.

“Iya~, looking at Frick-dono reminds me of my husband. My husband too didn’t get creeped out by my future vision; he kept forcefully closing our distance, so I had to give in and had him married into the family, however. Like Frick-dono, he was a good man.”

“Nng! Grandmother, now is not the time for having that sort of talk! I understand that Samantha and the others are doing spy activities as our family’s eyes and ears. Hereafter, please report to me as well, as I am the successor. I think that is my duty as the daughter of the frontier count family.”

Noelia, who felt that the talk had strayed due to Cassandra, instructs Samantha to report to her the information she gathered.

“Understood. Then, I will make arrangements so that the information I and also my husband Loran gathered is able to be reported to Noelia-sama through Suzana.”

I feel that I’ve heard the name of Loran somewhere…

Ahhh, the person who did my hair and eyes was also named Loran, wasn’t he?

Is he doing fine, I wonder~? The next time I return to Youg Hannotes, I have to have him cut my hair again.

“Yes, please do so. By the way, I asked Suzana this many times, but she never tell me, however. What is his father, Loran, doing? He often showed up in the mansion, but it seems he did not work in the mansion, so I got a bit curious.”

“Since Noelia-sama has learnt about us, allow me to tell you. Loran is running a barbershop in Youg Hannotes. He is instructed by Frontier Count-sama to mainly investigate those who strayed in from other cities——”

“EEEEEHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

At the fact revealed by Samantha, I scream loudly in surprise.

He was the one who helped becoming Frick at Youg Hannotes.

Samantha looks at me and grins.

Her expression as though saying that she already knew my true identity since I came to the mansion.

“Frick-sama, please rest assured. We will not report any information we have gathered except the ones related to the ‘continuance of the Henestrosa family’, unless requested by the family head. Because even our clan is not free to the point that we will snoop on the identity of some adventurers.”

“Well, but that idiot father – Lloyd have instructed you all to find out the background of the partner of my granddaughter, riiight?”

I can see Samantha averts her eyes at the words Cassandra muttered.

Does that mean Lloyd knew that that I was the former platinum-rank adventurer Finn?

“We only recently learned about Frick-sama’s identity, so… I think the information we looked up was only recently passed on to the family head.”

“Samantha, you all are forbidden to disclose Frick-sama’s identity to anyone without the permission of Frick-sama himself. Is that understood?”

“Understood. However, we, as a clan, cannot disobey the family head, so please give us leniency on that only.”

“I understand. I will talk to my father personally.”

Noelia is desperately trying to hide my identity.

“I’m sorry, once Alfine’s case is cleared up, I’ll also make sure to report about my identity to Frontier Count-sama.”

“Frick-sama, you do not have to…”

“Well, you can settle that matter step by step, but now we have to tidy up the talk of Sword Master-sama. Samantha, the report.”

Cassandra puts an end to the talk about Cassandra’s spy clan and gets the talk back on to the main topic.