Kays Translations

Just another Isekai Lover~

Chapter 148: A Day of Visits

Beginning with Count Connoen, Tauro and Aeris spent the following days meeting influential nobles throughout the Royal Capital.

Simply arranging an audience required a substantial payment. A noble’s name, rank, and time all carried value.

Although Aeris was the sole daughter of House Van Dyne, her missing father was still the legal marquis. Many nobles therefore saw no reason to meet her without compensation.

Some feared the influence currently wielded by the Marchioness of Van Dyne. Others judged that supporting the marquis’s only legitimate child might prove far more advantageous.

“My son is still unmarried. If he and Lady Aeris became engaged, the bond between our houses would naturally make cooperation much easier.”

More than one noble openly demanded an engagement as the price of support.

Others were willing to assist because House Van Dyne had long been one of the leading powers of the neutral faction, and they welcomed an opportunity to establish friendly relations with its legitimate heir.

The Royal Guard knight assigned to accompany Aeris also strengthened their position.

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Even though Tauro and Aeris were only children, the escort demonstrated that Count Connoen—a respected military figure—stood behind them. That visible support made the negotiations considerably easier.

After a little more than a week, rumors began circulating through noble society.

People whispered that Aeris, the sole daughter of House Van Dyne, was seeking a guardian to protect the family’s legitimate line of succession, while the marchioness and her lover were attempting to prevent her from doing so.

That was precisely what Tauro wanted.

The marchioness had been spreading the false story that Aeris was living peacefully at the family estate and enjoying a good relationship with her fiancé. Tauro countered that fiction by making Aeris’s actual circumstances widely known.

The new rumors finally drew the marchioness’s attention. Activity around the Van Dyne residence in the Royal Capital increased abruptly.

The adventurers handling Tauro’s investigation request reported that the marchioness herself was staying in the capital, while a steward managed the territory.

Uwaakin’s presence at the estate helped sustain the appearance that Aeris’s supposed fiancé was attending to matters there on her behalf.

More troublingly, a number of suspicious visitors had begun entering and leaving the capital residence.

One of the C-plus-rank thief adventurers conducting surveillance delivered a warning.

“They didn’t carry themselves like adventurers. They may be professionals from the underworld. Anyone capable of noticing me while I was watching the residence is dangerous, so remain on guard.”

Tauro doubted that the marchioness intended to kill Aeris.

If Aeris died without a recognized heir, House Van Dyne would fall into turmoil and another blood relative would have to inherit. The marchioness and Uwaakin would then lose the freedom to control the house as they pleased.

They would want to avoid that outcome.

The more likely possibility was an attempt to abduct Aeris and return her secretly to the estate. Even so, Tauro couldn’t understand why they would employ underworld professionals merely for that purpose.

Now that the truth was spreading through noble society, openly seizing Aeris had also become much more difficult.

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Fortunately, an off-duty Royal Guard knight remained near her as an escort. She should be safe for the immediate future, but caution was still essential.

The urgent problem was choosing a guardian.

Tauro and Aeris wanted someone impartial and powerful—someone who would protect her without attempting to control House Van Dyne later.

Every noble they had met so far, however, seemed interested in exploiting the size, wealth, or influence of the house. None could guarantee Aeris’s future.

Perhaps the ideal guardian simply didn’t exist.

They had begun discussing whether some compromise would be unavoidable when Aeris looked out the window of Tauro’s room at the Bacchus Pavilion.

“We don’t have another meeting today, do we?”

“No. The last one ended earlier this afternoon.”

“There’s a carriage outside that looks as though it belongs to a noble.”

“I wonder whose it is. Could it be here for us?”

Knock, knock, knock.

A moment later, someone knocked on the door. The carriage apparently had come for them after all.

“Yes?”

Tauro opened the door and found a familiar man waiting in the corridor.

“It’s been a long time, Tauro. I’ve come to collect you today.”