“Husband. How was he?”

“Because I used Lily, I saw his rare angry face.”

In his room, Ingo, who had changed into light clothing, answered his wife’s question while laughing. Hearing her husband’s response, Claudia sighed.

“That child is going to have a hard time because of that personality of his.”

“Well, that kind of personality isn’t exactly unheard of among nobles, but I just didn’t expect my son to have it.”

People like Welner, who were strangely unconcerned with their own achievements and reputation, existed among the noble community. They would often end up becoming dilettante (lover or admirer of art).

By nature, nobles were rulers who were involved in political administration. Nobles who were uninterested in this field were known as eccentric among the noble community. If these eccentrics had a degree of insight and understanding of art, they would even become an important patron of art.

However, as one could guess, eccentrics had a low reputation in the royal court.

“In a sense, he was quite an unlucky child.”

“Yes…”

Both of them looked at each other with painful expressions on their faces. Their son’s personality was perfect for a second son who would assist his older brother in leading the family, but the current Welner was the next head of the family.

For a normal person, a lack of greed might be considered a virtue, but for the next head of a noble family, it might as well be considered a flaw.

From his parents’ point of view, there was an extreme mismatch between Welner’s abilities and achievements and his self-esteem and evaluation of himself.

Even the experienced Ingo couldn’t keep up with Welner’s creativity. On top of it, his son could also execute his creative ideas, yet he had low self-esteem and never sought reward for his own creative ideas. Ingo couldn’t understand why.

Welner was at the age where he should be more proud or even become conceited because of his achievements, and yet he didn’t. It was as if Welner was an artist who would be satisfied as long as he completed his piece perfectly.

In fact, Welner appeared to have no greed because he knew he might die. Welner thought that fortune, fame, or influential position would be useless if he died in the attack on the capital event. As such, he didn’t bother chasing them.

However, Welner never told anyone his true thoughts as such people only saw him as someone with no greed.

To be fair, although Welner was not someone with no greed, he didn’t have any ambitions as a noble, so he wouldn’t understand this thinking of nobles and it would also be impossible for other nobles to understand him.

But Ingo also noticed that even Welner had an exception.

“But that Welner will put in efforts and will become serious if it’s a matter concerning other people, just like what he did in the hero Mazell’s case.”

In reality, many nobles who were dilettantes were also like that. Rather than supporting the already well-known artists or musicians, they wouldn’t hesitate to support an unknown artist that they judged to be talented and who created works that satisfied them. As a result, the talent of the artists they had chosen would blossom and their art would make a trend of that era.

However, as Ingo saw it, Welner had no talent in art, so he knew his son wouldn’t be suited to become an art patron.

Above all, noble families that belonged to the civil faction were often underestimated in this world. The attitude of Count Erdogan was a good example of it. Despite having the title of Count just like the Zeavert family, he acted as if he was superior. It was common for nobles of the military faction to take the same attitude as Count Erdogan toward the nobles of the civil factions.

Even though Welner, who was also a member of Zeavert house, had a great reputation as a military man, it wasn’t uncommon for an individual to take ten years and more before he could change the perception of his family. Until that time, Welner would be seen as a ‘lower rank’ and other families would even try to exploit Welner’s lack of greed for their own convenience.

Ingo understood that in order for Welner to become serious in political administration, he needed a reason. That was why Ingo accepted the royal family’s proposition of using Lily.

While it was true that the method he chose was influenced by his own thoughts as a noble, he didn’t just choose Lily on a whim. Ingo chose Lily because she was a person who saw Welner as himself, not as a noble, and had an influence on him. Ingo believed a person like her was what he needed to change Welner. At the same time, he also used this chance to give his heir the experience he needed to become a future Count.

His method was proven to be a success. From what he knew, Welner might hate someone, but he never got angry at anyone. The fact that he got angry at Count Erdogan earlier was a sign of a positive change.

“When he first brought Mazell here, I was wondering just what exactly that child was thinking.”

Even though Mazell had the Skill [Hero], he was just a commoner, so it was natural for Claudia, a Countess, to think so. After all, Welner brought Mazell to the mansion and introduced him as his friend before the whole chaos of the demon king’s resurrection took place. At that time, Claudia even thought that Welner brought Mazell to the mansion because he wanted to make Mazell into his knight.

Ironically, Claudia was now the most sought after figure in high society because of her son’s connection with the hero. 

“Welner has great luck in making relation to the point that if the person who stood at the top wasn’t the current Crown Prince, he might be perceived as a threat. By the way, how is the Hearthing family?”

“I can’t say that they have gotten used to the life in the mansion, but they are working hard.”

Inside the nobles’ mansion, madams were usually considered more influential than the family head. All servants in the mansion were basically under the command of the madam. As such, Claudia, the madam of this mansion, was also in charge of training the servants, including training the members of the Hearthing family.

However, when her husband asked her to also train the members of the Hearthing family on how to use servants, she was quite surprised.

“I’ll be counting on you.”

“Of course, I will take care of it, but why do we need to go this far?”

It wasn’t a question out of malice or sarcasm, but a pure curiosity. Ingo replied to that question with a small laugh.

“Did you forget? The ceremonies regarding knighthood and conferring peerage were also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Ceremonies.”

The news of the royal family ordering people to look up on a precedent of how a commoner family would be treated after they were conferred a noble peerage had, of course, reached the ear of Ingo who was the Minister of Ceremonies. Ingo didn’t accept the role of the Hearthing family’s temporary guardian or the job of finding out noble houses that had ill intention toward the hero for free.

In the future, the hero Mazell, who had killed two Demon Generals, would be conferred a peerage and his family would become a noble family. Who would the new noble family with no ties to any other nobles in the royal court rely on? The answer was simple. In short, this was an opportunity for the Zeavert family.

Claudia gave a wry smile at her husband’s reply.

“Husband… You are also a bad person.”

“In the history of this kingdom, there is no good person who became a minister.”

“Well, my son is a good person though,” Ingo added as he laughed.

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