"Viktor!!! Do you want to get yelled at that badly!?"
A furious roar echoed through the mansion, shaking the courtyard.
The servants outside heard it and shrank their necks in fear.
They whispered to each other quietly, "Mr. Viktor is arguing with the young lady again."
"It's been a while since their last fight…"
The two of them shook their heads. They were already used to it.
'Every time Viktor returned home, Miss Liya always quarreled with him at least once.'
Liya, fuming with anger, pointed her finger right at Viktor's nose and shouted, "I've been waiting for you for so long, and the first thing you say when you come home is asking whether I'm hiding someone in my house!?"
"How narrow-minded do you have to be to even think of something like that!"
Viktor stood by the door, face expressionless as usual, quietly listening to her scolding without talking back.
Liya yelled for a while, venting all her frustration, then rubbed her head and sighed.
She thought she didn't need to explain anything, but for some reason, she still added a line, almost involuntarily.
"That was one of the subordinates from my territory. He just came to report something. By the time you got here, he'd already left."
Viktor nodded.
"I see."
When he entered the house, he'd already caught a faint, fragrant scent lingering in the air.
That scent definitely didn't belong to a man.
He had actually planned to explain himself after saying "You're hiding someone?", to avoid giving Liya the wrong idea.
Unfortunately, Liya's outburst came way too fast, like a reflex. Before he could react, he'd already been yelled at.
And then?
Then he just let her yell.
If venting her anger at him helped her calm down, Viktor didn't mind being scolded for a bit.
That was just how they interacted. He was already used to it.
Viktor sat back down at his desk. He didn't ask Liya whether she'd been doing alright recently, he trusted that she could handle everything herself.
If she ever ran into something she couldn't solve, she'd tell him on her own.
Of course, even though Viktor didn't ask, Liya ended up bringing up the topic of her shop, a little embarrassed.
"The magic item shop… isn't doing very well."
"The kind of success you imagined didn't happen."
"Hm? What happened?"
Viktor tapped his fingers lightly on the table, a little surprised.
He was interested to hear her explanation.
Liya began reporting the shop's finances.
"Besides selling a few things on the first day, there haven't been any more customers since then."
Viktor frowned. According to his marketing strategy, this shouldn't have happened.
There were always people who could recognize value.
And as Liya said, she'd already sold some potions on the first day.
Those buyers should have spread word of the effects by now, creating a buzz.
Could it be that there was something wrong with the player-made potions?
No, that was impossible.
A management issue, then?
Also impossible. If Liya couldn't even manage a small shop properly, there was no way she could've developed her own territory so well.
That meant there must have been some unexpected event.
"So, what exactly happened?"
Liya started explaining, "On the first day of opening, a certain duke's daughter came and bought some potions."
When she said "duke's daughter," Viktor's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Erica du Croy?"
Liya glanced at Viktor and sneered.
"Oh, still thinking about your precious little sweetheart, huh?"
"You even remember her name so clearly."
"That joke isn't funny. Keep going."
Viktor cut off her teasing.
Liya folded her arms and pouted.
"I thought that before long, with Erica's reputation, the potion's effects would spread, and plenty of mages would come flocking in."
"But then, on the third day, the Vesuvius Volcano incident happened."
At that moment, Liya noticed Viktor's tapping fingers suddenly stop.
She could already sense he had guessed something.
Still, she continued explaining patiently.
"Most of the mages went to the volcano. The ones who stayed in the capital were just first-tier mages."
"Setting aside whether they could even afford the potions, using them would've been a waste on their level."
In short, first-tier mages weren't worthy of them.
"Then, a few days later, when the mages finally came back, they all started joining together to impeach the Duke."
"Even His Majesty personally summoned the Duke and the noble mages, planning to decide the final verdict."
At this, Liya sighed helplessly.
The shop's main customers were supposed to be mages, but with the capital in chaos and all the mages busy, who had time to visit her store?
Viktor listened silently to all this.
He had spent all that time fighting Guldon deep inside the volcano, so he naturally had no idea what had been happening outside.
No wonder, after the fight, when he reappeared at the crater, the first person he saw was Erica.
He had thought it was an illusion, since he remembered nothing afterward.
When he woke up later, Vega was the one who explained why he'd fallen unconscious.
'Vega's power… I really should use it less in the future.' Viktor thought to himself.
After that battle, he'd been unconscious for four whole days.
Counting the three days of fighting Guldon, that made it exactly a week.
Still, he hadn't expected the battle to have real-world consequences on the volcano.
Even though it hadn't erupted, the aftermath had rippled all the way to the capital.
Liya continued grumbling beside him, "Some people even said the Duke stopped maintaining the magic array because his daughter had gone missing."
"It's ridiculous. Forget whether the war magic would've harmed his daughter, if the volcano had erupted, wouldn't Erica have died up there anyway?"
Viktor didn't speak, but he agreed with Liya in his heart.
At that time, Erica climbing the volcano was basically a death wish.
The difference was, under the war magic, only Erica would've died at the peak, but if the volcano erupted, all the mages and the people living below would've died with her.
There was no way the Duke didn't understand that logic.
Liya shrugged and added, "Oh right, one more thing."
"The imperial decree has already arrived. You're summoned to the palace on the same day as the Duke."
"You came back just in time, if you'd been a day later, you'd have missed it."
"Why?"
Viktor asked, though he already had a good idea.
"You want a reason? Fine."
"Before the volcano erupted, the only accompanying mage who disappeared completely was, who else?"
Just as he thought.
Even after hearing the answer, Viktor's expression didn't change.
Seeing that, Liya didn't press further. She yawned and walked to the door.
"Looks like you've already figured out what to do. I'm going to bed."
"I'll be locking my door, so don't even think of sneaking into my room in the middle of the night just because it's been a while since we've seen each other."
With a loud bang, she slammed the door shut.
Viktor, "..."
'Do I really look like the kind of bad guy who likes knocking on girls' doors in the middle of the night?'
Thinking about it carefully… he had done that once before.
Maybe Gwen said something to Liya.
Viktor didn't dwell on it. He was more curious about why the Duke had done what he did.
Suddenly, Vega's voice echoed coldly.
"If the volcano had erupted, everyone there would've died, including Duke Levi himself."
"The only one who would've survived… was that girl."
"But if the magic array stayed active, she would've definitely died."
Viktor narrowed his eyes and said faintly, "If I had lost, the volcano would've exploded, and Guldon would've been unleashed."
"Do you think a wounded second-tier girl could've survived the natural disaster caused by the Flame Calamity?"
Vega lifted its head, its eyes deep and reflective.
"She can talk to calamities."
Viktor froze for a moment, now he was the one surprised.
Vega noticed his reaction and chirped smugly, clearly pleased.
"This is the first time I've ever seen you so shocked."
Vega obviously knew something. It was certain Erica wouldn't die.
"Honestly, I'm curious, just what was that Duke involved with, to have a daughter like her?"
"Oh right, have you ever seen that girl's mother?"
Viktor fell silent again.
In the game's storyline, that Duke's daughter had been a prodigy.
If nothing unexpected happened, she would, at nineteen, two years later, step into the ranks of third-tier mages, breaking Viktor's own record and becoming the youngest third-tier mage in the Empire's history.
And because of her talent, during the imperial power shift and the new emperor's ascension, Erica du Croy's family, who supported the Crown Prince, was spared from destruction.
That was as much of the story as Viktor remembered.
But hearing Vega's words now, he realized something.
Despite being a fairly prominent NPC, no player had ever seen her mother.
Not even a single clue existed in her background lore.
Had she died? Or… something else?
There was simply too little information for Viktor to make a guess.
Vega looked at his expression with satisfaction, it turned out there were things Viktor didn't know.
It opened its beak and chattered on, "So, what do you plan to do?"
"Tomorrow's summons will include both you and the Duke. You'd better think about how you're going to get through it."
"No one's going to help either of you."
Viktor gazed out the window. Moonlight spilled over his cold, handsome face, carrying a hint of melancholy.
"When one walks the path of virtue, help is abundant; when one loses it, help is scarce. That's only natural."
"In any case, as a father, Duke Levi is… impressive."
Indeed, he had stopped the magic array, choosing to let himself and all the mages perish under the natural disaster, even at the cost of countless innocent lives,
All to ensure his daughter's survival.
Even so, the Duke's actions were still unforgivable.
"The Emperor won't let a loyal servant of so many years lose all honor, but he must still give everyone an explanation."
"In the worst-case scenario, the Duke will simply lose his title and retire to his lands."
"That's assuming I don't intervene."
Hearing Viktor's last line, Vega let out a curious "Oh?"
"You're planning to help him?"
"That's… quite the act of charity."
A sly, merchant-like glint flashed in Viktor's eyes.
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