If everything was as she said, I find it very strange that her family wasn't destroyed.
Of course, as a high-ranking noble, she had a territory.
I heard it wasn't very large and the citizens didn't even know who the lord was, but it functioned like the rest and gave them economic, political, and social power.
Also, although they aren't that numerous, most vampires are under her command.
She genuinely has considerable strength under her command.
Even so, I don't think it's enough to stay afloat when she's being attacked by many other families of equal or greater status.
Since she said there are even dukes who want revenge against her family.
By simple logic, she couldn't have survived this long; with just one other marquisate against her, she'd already be in trouble.
"Well, in my family there are two powerful elders who are loyal to me despite my shortcomings. They were my father's subordinates... one of them always looks after my grandson and the other looks after me, but we fell into a trap; he was distracted and... that's how I ended up here."(Rose)
Well, that's a bit better. That explains things better: she wasn't the greatest combat power in her family.
At this point, I understand that this is a world where strength reigns supreme; in fact, lineage matters because that is precisely what makes them strong and determines their suitable professions.
But I suppose it's not always about following whoever has the most power... Is that it, or is there something else behind those elders' loyalty?
I can't rule it out… but even so, it's not enough.
If the two elders lend more realism to her story, it still isn't enough to explain how they haven't fallen.
They may have two elders, but other families would have more as well, and obviously in greater numbers.
And as if understanding what I was thinking, she continued speaking.
"You're probably thinking that it's not enough, and you're right. I've mainly survived this long because my husband was the leader of the capital's underworld. You see, assassins and the underworld have many connections and work in harmony. So my father and the previous leader—my late husband's father—arranged our marriage."(Rose)
"...I see. The underworld, the dark side of the capital, which many nobles would want to contact to handle all sorts of things. And since your husband died, you've now become the leader."
"Yes, actually that's something no one has yet… uh!?… wait!, why am I telling you all this without hesitation? Wait, I shouldn't have even told you about my grandson… What have you done?!?(Rose)
Oh, so they really were working.
It seems my skills have made her reveal more than she should have.
I don't really notice how effective they are, but I always use them to extract information.
It seems they were very effective this time, since according to her own account, no one besides the Archduke and a few others knew about her grandson's profession.
I found it curious that she said that, and now I understand why.
It also seems that the fact that she is now the leader of the underworld is such a well-kept secret that it finally made her realize just how loose her tongue was getting.
Now I have a more complete picture of the situation.
But it seems that continuing to act innocently would no longer be so useful.
"Alright, now I understand. So, while you have many enemies, you also have many allies, even if they don't realize it themselves. Perhaps some of them are even your own enemies—or am I mistaken?"
"...Yes, you're right. But what did you do to me? Why did I say so much?"(Rose)
"I didn't do anything. Who knows, maybe you just wanted to vent or something like that. . But you don't have to worry; I have no use for this information, and in this situation, I'm inevitably your ally.... As I said, I probably have the solution to your problems. You can take it as a bet in which—"
"Oh! It's a bet! Go for it, big sis. I'm really lucky, and I can share that luck with you."(Iris)
"Hey, Iris, I've told you it's rude to abruptly butt into other people's conversations. Besides, you're not even following the thread of the conversation, are you?"
"Call me love...and no, I lost interest when they started talking about nobles and all that cliché stuff. But there's a bet, right? What are we betting on?"(Iris)
"￣へ￣... Never mind. Getting back to the matter at hand, Miss Rose, the decision is yours. You can trust that I do have the solution and will give it to you after you tell me everything—without holding anything back—and answer my questions, or you can decide not to say anything else and just leave."
"...Haaah~ fine. I'm really already in a situation where every decision could determine the future of my entire people, and even if it's unfounded... I'm going to trust Iris, who trusts you."(Rose)
"That's enough. You may continue."
"Well... I left that out, but my father-in-law also passed away around the same time as my father. In any case, at that time my husband became the leader and gave me his full support, and when he died, I became the leader. That also caused a lot of problems, and nearly half of them left, but the other half—knowing that my late husband's bloodline lives on in my grandson—stayed, and that has helped me stand firm."(Rose)
"Hmm. But the half that left—didn't they—"
"No problem, I took care of them.... That's just how things work. Everyone else is loyal, and the rest of the nobles think that, at most, I just have strong connections—not that I'm the leader."(Rose)
"I see. Though I hope you don't think it's okay to tell us this because you might come back later to silence us."
As I said this, I looked at her with a hint of warning.
"..."(Rose)
She stared back at me without flinching, and that sparked an intense staring contest as if we were warning each other.
The tension was rising until—
"(★ω★)"(Iris)
We couldn't help but notice a third, expectant gaze.
I was used to it, so I didn't think much of it, but Roselyn broke our exchange and looked at her.
Iris gave her a 'go ahead, don't pay any attention to me' look, which confused Roselyn.
In the end, she didn't seem to understand what Iris meant and looked back at me while sighing.
"Haaah~ it wasn't anything like that. I've really dealt with a lot of people, and I can tell that Iris obviously doesn't want to hurt me and wants to help me. Same with you, though in your case it's because I unintentionally got you involved… maybe that's why I told you everything… haaah~ you said you had questions too, right? Go ahead, I'll answer whatever I can." (Rose)
It's just as she said. I want nothing more than to kick her out, but I know we're already involved—and not just because of Iris, but also because of the mission the system gave us.
___________________________
Resurgence of D'Aubigny
Objective:
Find a way to prevent the inevitable fall of the House of D'Aubigny.
Rewards:
+10 free stat points
Imitation Card
3000 Myrr
Penalty for failure:
-5 stat (random)
+4 Corruption
___________________________
I had to find a way, but I was limited in many ways.
First of all, neither Iris nor I can go out and help her directly.
Second, even if we did go out, we're just two beings who don't really have much power.
Iris is rank 2 and I'm rank 1; that wouldn't be helpful at all.
We could offer more verbal assistance—giving her what she'd been asking for, which was just simple advice.
But honestly, I don't think half-baked advice on how to handle this situation, given by someone with no experience who's only heard the story, would be very useful.
With modern knowledge, I could give her one or two ideas, but nothing decisive, and I really don't know if she'd be willing to follow them even if I gave them to her.
Maybe she'd listen if Iris were the one to tell her, but it still wouldn't be decisive, and its effectiveness couldn't be known until it was put to the test.
It really is a bad situation that, at first glance, made me lose my temper and have a lot of complaints about how absurd it was to give us a mission like this.
But now that I've heard Roselyn's account, I think I understand why the system said this was within our current capabilities.
I don't know if the system—or whatever is behind it—foreseen this, if it was all just a coincidence, or if she was able to get here from the start because the necessary conditions had been met.
But now that I've broken it all down and understand the heart of the matter, I also understand how easy it would be to complete the mission.
The system was right when it said this was within my current capabilities.
This made me realize that I need to take a broader perspective when it comes to these missions.
Still, it's better to be absolutely certain of this conclusion, so I didn't hesitate to ask my questions.
"Well, Iris mentioned that you're a mage. And an assassin obviously isn't a magical class, right? It doesn't make sense, considering you said you inherited a variant of your father's profession."
"Regarding that, generally speaking, when a father and son have professions with similar names, it means the son's is a variant of the father's, unless there are records of ancestors. In our case, Dark Stalker for my father and Dark Weaver for me. And you're right, my father's profession was purely combat-based; mine, on the other hand, is hybrid."(Rose)
"I suppose you're having trouble finding a breathing or combat art."
"Yes. My profession seems to be a variant with no record, or perhaps I'm the first to possess it, and I haven't found any breath that's quite suitable. That, and the fact that it's a profession I have to understand without any guidelines, meant my growth rate was slow, even though I worked hard when I was young."(Rose)
Well, there's a pattern there. Amarillys also seems to have an unregistered and very unique profession.
Although Roselyn doesn't seem to have gotten stuck at the first rank....Later I'll have to see if Azalea has something similar.
But there's still something that isn't clear to me regarding Roselyn's situation.
"You chose to increase your mana because of what you said about not being able to practice your family's combat arts due to a lack of a specific skill, right?"
"That's correct."(Rose)
"But that isn't really relevant if the goal is just to get stronger. Setting techniques aside, since you have a variant of his profession, you should be highly compatible and could grow stronger with it, right?"
"Haaah~ I see what you mean, but without the right skill, you can't practice it."(Rose)
"And why is that? If I'm not mistaken, even if there's a lack of compatibility with a profession, you can practically practice any art you want..."
I already confirmed that with the system. You can practice any art and breathing technique; the problem is compatibility with them.
If it's very low, the speed at which you get stronger becomes extremely slow, even if it's a very high-rank art and a high-potential profession.
And, in the worst cases, it can be counterproductive, but they can still be practiced.
"Yes, that's normal, but... you understand how combat arts work, right?"(Rose)
But if she asks me something like that, it must mean that her combat arts has something unique about it.