"The Schlange officer you killed was a man named Frost, formerly a knight from the now-defunct Lorden family. He had a record of killing five knights."
Five knights?
No wonder he was so strong.
I'd barely managed to take him down with a trade-flesh-for-the-kill strategy. Without that expensive medical service, I would've died for sure. If I was going to face opponents like that in the future, I'd better start stockpiling points. Better safe than sorry.
Anyway, the Lorden family was a new name to me.
"Thanks to your efforts, the Finance Department saved face, so I intend to give you a reward befitting that achievement. There was a bounty on Frost's head too, so combined with that, I'll give you 200 silver coins. That's a fitting amount to honor your hard work, don't you think?"
Two hundred silver coins? Holy crap! Adelbert was far more generous and decent than I'd thought.
Embarrassingly enough, I'd been misjudging him this whole time. A man this fair couldn't possibly be a bad person, right? I nearly teared up at the overwhelming reward of 200 coins, but Adelbert wasn't finished. You really should hear people out before celebrating.
"However, you'll need to give up on becoming the Elsheimer family's son-in-law."
I froze for a second.
Give up what?
Perhaps misreading my expression, Adelbert gave a bitter smile. He stood up and moved to the window. His hands-behind-his-back stance seemed to scream that he had a lot on his mind. Konrad von Mort's gaze weighed heavily on me.
The hostility burning in his eyes made me uncomfortable.
Was his hostility toward me related to the Elsheimers?
Adelbert spoke.
"At first, I didn't understand why Father sent you to me. But after I found out the Elsheimers were involved, I felt like I'd been caught off guard. The reason I introduced you to Sir Mort is that I plan to put him forward for the Elsheimer son-in-law position. Originally, I'd recommended Rüdiger, but since he suddenly died, I'm left with no other options."
So he was recommending Mort to replace the dead Rüdiger as son-in-law? From what I could piece together, Rüdiger had rushed to Nixe with some kind of conviction based on my intel and Mort's information. I remembered what Frost had said.
[Thanks to that, we received a nice gift at Nixe. Though we never imagined we'd be used like that.]
It was just my hunch, but there was a strong possibility that Mort had engineered Rüdiger's death. Most importantly, his disposition was conspiracy (neutral). If he'd been after the Elsheimer son-in-law position, both Rüdiger (whom Adelbert was backing) and I (whom the Finance Minister was backing) would've been obstacles.
And he might've plotted to eliminate both of us in one stroke.
This theory made the most sense and fit all the pieces.
Now I understood why Schlange had used Bodo to set a trap.
And they'd probably planned to wipe out Schlange at the same time too.
After all, the Deputy Inspector General had died.
I'd heard they were in the middle of a major crackdown.
Once they eliminated every last member of Schlange, the evidence would vanish.
Looking at it now, he was a terrifying man.
It seemed like Adelbert didn't know Mort's true nature.
Or did he know and was simply using him anyway?
"Do you understand why I'm recommending my own man instead of Father's?"
"A power struggle between father and son?"
"It's more accurate to call it keeping him in check rather than a power struggle. Father's uncomfortable with me building an independent power base within the Finance Department. But I'm not sitting in this seat just to preserve the old guard's positions. A young successor should naturally employ young retainers. The old generation's legacy is nothing but dead weight."
So this was why the Finance Minister was keeping his son in check?
The picture became clear: since he was openly trying to strip the Finance Minister of his loyalists, those loyalists were clinging to the Finance Minister to undermine the successor. If Adelbert became Finance Minister, all those old loyalists would be replaced with young ones. No wonder the power struggle never ended.
"So you're saying I'm in the way? I'm not an old man, though."
"Haha, you're just a pawn Father planted on me. The Elsheimers are an old retainer family that controls the tax collectors—if I can win them over, they'll become valuable assets as my people. Father probably planned to install you in that family's son-in-law position and use you as a puppet, but I'm not going to sit back and watch. Sorry, but give up on being their son-in-law. That way, neither of us has to see bloodshed."
The Finance Minister's scheme was to use the Elsheimer son-in-law position as leverage to pressure and check his successor. Of course, I'd known this from the start thanks to the Diplomat Scouter.
And he'd brought in a poor knight—me—who seemed easy to control, making it look like some incredible opportunity. Any ordinary poor duchy knight would've felt immense gratitude toward the Finance Minister and jumped at the chance, but trying to recruit me was his biggest mistake.
I already knew that position was a poisoned chalice, and I had a clear goal of becoming a lord with real ambition, so I'd been planning to refuse somehow anyway. Plus, giving up my family name to become a son-in-law would never earn respect in noble society.
In that sense, Adelbert and I were on the same page.
I'd picked up on the fact that there was room for negotiation between us.
He was essentially saying: I'll give you 200 silver—now get lost.
That was his intent. But instead of just backing down quietly, wouldn't it be more fitting to make a grand show of conceding and demand additional compensation while acting as though I were doing him a tremendous favor?
I didn't want to become the Elsheimer son-in-law anyway, but on the surface, I appeared to be in a position where Adelbert had nothing to offer me. I should step back from the son-in-law position, but stepping back too easily would be foolish. Besides, he was a Finance Department man. He'd be exacting when it came to money.
"The benefits I'd gain from becoming the Elsheimer son-in-law are enormous. They don't even compare to 200 silver coins. Becoming the Finance Minister's right-hand man would be a great opportunity and honor for a poor duchy knight, wouldn't it? The numbers don't add up."
"So 200 isn't enough?"
Adelbert's gaze sharpened slightly.
[Master Negotiator II Quest]
[Negotiate favorably with Adelbert]
[Diplomat Scouter temporarily provided]
[Reward — 500 points, 500 copper coins]
[50 Family Prestige awarded]
A diplomacy-related quest popped up, just like with the Finance Minister.
Fortunately, the Diplomat Scouter was temporarily provided. I'd originally planned to buy it, but after burning 5,000 points as a lifeline in that brutal fight with Frost, I couldn't afford to purchase a scouter anytime soon.
Negotiate favorably meant I should squeeze out more rewards, make a grand show of giving up the son-in-law position, and shift all responsibility onto him, right? First, I checked the negotiation objective. Adelbert's negotiation objective matched what he'd said: he wanted to push me out and install Mort as the Elsheimer son-in-law.
When I checked his disposition with the Manager Scouter, it was calculation (neutral).
He was the type who'd shake hands with enemy or ally alike if the numbers worked out. And Mort was conspiracy (neutral), the one I was most wary of. Well, well—master and subordinate cut from the same cloth. Adelbert's favorability toward me was 10, while Konrad's was clearly hostile at −50.