IBTMITL

237

"Huuk! Cough!"

Viege, who was drinking water, coughed until his face turned red.

Rulac waited silently, saying no more until Viege's disturbance was over.

"Get out of the mansion?!"

Viege yelled at Rulac.

"Where am I supposed to go when I leave the mansion?!"

"Well, that's up to you to decide."

Even with the rage of Viege, Rulac did not respond hastily.

From beginning to end, he responded in a dry voice.

It was a thoroughly perfunctory attitude.

Viege was quite unfamiliar with this appearance of his father.

He was also scared.

Those brown eyes always looked at them unpleasantly.

However, even in those strict eyes, something like his father's compassion or affection has always existed.

But now, Rulac was looking at him as if he were dealing with a perfect stranger.

"I've already told Lorels. He said he would go to Ginefolk Street, his wife's house."

(A/N: Lorels is Astalieu and Crenny's father.)

"But father..."

Viege walked up, jiggling up and down on the edge of the chair.

He was thinking of trying to take matters in his own hand.

"I don't even have a wife anymore! And then Angenas was..."

Viege spoke with a face and voice that had always touched his father's weak side.

Surely, you're not going to throw away your eldest son, right?

"How are Serral and Bellesac doing?" Rulac asked.

"Yes? Oh, those two..."

Viege couldn't answer easily.

It was natural.

He was told that Bellesac was released, but he had never seen his face ever since.

The same was true of Serral.

One day, he came back from drinking, and found that all of his wife's valuables had disappeared from the villa.

"....Pathetic guy."

Rulac said as he clicked his tongue.

"You don't know what's going on with your wife and children....Still, you should have thought of taking care of your family."

"Do you have any idea where Serral and Bellesac are?"

"You don't deserve to know."

Lulac said and clicked his tongue once again.

"I won't say much, Viege. I'm thinking of handing over the Lombardi to Tia sooner or later. So you go out before then. This is the last thing you can do for Lombardi's future."

"Tia! Tia! Father only knows a girl who has no roots!"

Viege leapt to his feet and screamed loudly.

"That girl will lead this family? You gave her everything! Ha! The whole Empire will laugh! You handed over the family to a granddaughter who was born on a wanderer's boat! Have you gone senile!?"

Viege spat and drew blood around his neck.

"It's all a lie that Pellet is hers! She's been greedy and wicked since she was a child, so you don't know what she might have done!"