Chapter 41: The Two Cursed Children

—Rudeus’s Perspective—

After ten days of intensive training—sleeping in the office most nights—I received my next assignment directly from the president himself: Orsted. Returning home to prepare for a business trip three days later, I was greeted by a sight so nostalgic it almost made me laugh.

Yes, this was exactly like the scenes I’d seen when traveling as an adventurer with Eris and Ruijerd. There she was—a little Eris. What happened this time? What didn’t she like? Half of her is my kid, and she even has memories from her past life! How could Eris’s genes be this strong?! My brain sounded an instinctive danger alarm.

On the floor lay Lineana, her face swollen and bruised, while Edith stood over her, arms crossed in triumph.

"Father! Welcome home! …Why are you holding your nose?"

"I thought I was gonna die, nya… No matter how much I hit this brat, she wouldn’t even flinch! What’s wrong with her, nya?!"

"What? You hit Edith?"

"Nya!?"

"Eek! N-No! Please, Father, don’t kill Lineana! I was the one who attacked first!"

"Well, I wasn’t planning on killing her…"

Hearing Lineana admit so boldly that she’d punched Edith nearly made me snap, but Edith’s panicked attempt to shield her cooled my anger. As expected, Lineana must’ve done plenty of stupid things over the past ten days and finally hit Edith’s limit. Judging by her behavior, she’d been crushed—mentally and physically—by one of Edith’s Bores-style punches.

Now, what should I do about this? Edith wasn’t the type to lash out without reason. Still, unlike back in Eris’s wild monkey days, Edith’s physical strength was on another level. She’s five years old and already stronger than most advanced swordsmen. If she misjudges her strength one day, she could easily kill some neighborhood brat. I really needed to have a talk with her.

"Even so, Edith, wasn’t this a bit excessive?"

"Father, Lineana is the type of person who learns best when she’s hit."

"I think most people learn without being beaten, you know…"

Well, Eris never learned even after getting beaten half to death by kidnappers, but still.

"If one must be struck to learn, then we simply strike until they do."

"That’s ridiculous…"

Maybe she inherited old man Sauros’s spirit instead of Eris’s. Not even the most stubborn old man from the Showa era could compete with this logic. Then again, I had once knocked these two unconscious, kidnapped them, tied them up in the boys’ dorm, and drawn humiliating doodles all over their faces. So I wasn’t exactly in a position to lecture anyone about crossing lines.

"Ah… Welcome home, big brother."

As I pondered this, Aisha appeared, looking slightly troubled.

"Aisha… Senpai! Perfect timing, nya! Please, say something to—"

"Lineana!! Don’t you dare look at Sister Aisha with those eyes!!"

"Y-Yes! I’m sorry, Lady Edith-nya!!"

The moment Lineana tried to appeal to Aisha, Edith exploded with fury, glaring at her with wide, dilated eyes.

"Father… I’m sorry to say this, but I think Lineana would be better suited to work outside of maid duties."

"…I mean, yeah, I do feel bad for her getting beaten all the time, but it’s not easy to just find her another job, you know? If she quits being a maid, what do you suggest she does?"

"Simple. Give her command over some soldiers."

"Command soldiers?"

I had asked for an alternative to stop Edith from dismissing Lineana outright, but she immediately had an answer ready… suspiciously ready, in fact.

"Lord Orsted can only have you as his subordinate because of the curse, correct? So why not create a unit that operates under your command and have Lineana manage them?"

Violent as it sounded, that actually fit Lineana better than being a maid. Leave her alone for five minutes and she’d gather a bunch of roughnecks to form her own gang anyway.

"If she handled city patrols, we could also prevent apostle attacks, and it’d spare you or Lord Orsted from unnecessary work. Plus… as the head of a military unit rather than a servant, her pay would rise significantly. Lineana might even escape a lifetime of servitude."

As Edith laid out her plan so logically, I began to understand where this was going.

"Edith… don’t tell me—you’ve been planning to get her out of maid work all along?"

"…………"

She fell silent. Honestly, this kid couldn’t lie to save her life. The truth was clear: the only time Edith genuinely got mad at Lineana was when she tried to rely on Aisha. The rest of the time, she’d actually been looking out for her.

"Sigh… Fine. Lineana, find a suitable place to set up an office. I’ll cover the startup costs. Gather some people and see what you can do."

"Got it, nya—Boss—"

"‘Boss’?"

"S-Sorry, Master! Understood, Master-nya! I’ll do my utmost!"

Yeah, the hierarchy had been burned into her. I almost felt sorry for her… almost. But really, losing to a five-year-old and then getting offered a career change? That’s on her. Though, to be fair, I’m partly to blame for buying her freedom at an absurd price and then leaving her on her own. Still, who would’ve thought she’d last only ten days?

So, we’d decided what to do with Lineana—but that didn’t mean everything was solved. With a trip coming up in just three days, I found myself already burdened with a headache the moment I got home, glaring at Lineana, the cause of all this trouble.

— Edith’s Perspective —

To be honest, I wasn’t that angry at Lineana. When I realized she wasn’t even trying to learn her duties and was instead scheming to become Father’s concubine for profit, I felt genuine murderous intent—but only for that moment.

Honestly, making her a maid had been a mistake from the start. I had planned to support her under the assumption she’d fail, but her compatibility with Sister Aisha was just too poor.

She does respect Father as her master and is sincerely grateful to him. Toward Mother Sylphy, her tone is rather casual due to familiarity, but she still shows proper respect to all of Father’s wives in her own way. However, that respect doesn’t extend to Sister Aisha or Grandmother Lilia.

Within the Greyrat household, she saw Sister Aisha as someone destined to work under her in the future—and she couldn’t quite hide that attitude.

This must have been the result of her beastfolk pride—her worldview built on strict hierarchy and instinctive dominance—clashing in the worst way. I had already beaten her down enough to ensure she would never bare her fangs upward again, so that issue was settled.

But it was too late. Sister Aisha had already decided that Lineana was unnecessary to the Greyrat household. There was even a faint trace of hostility in her attitude.

Sister Aisha was more complicated than I had thought. She only worked as a maid to stay by Father’s side—or rather, to prove her worth through her work near him. Being treated as a subordinate servant must have bothered her. Her open disdain toward Sister Norn was proof enough of that.

Considering her life, it was understandable. From birth, she had been distinguished from her twin-like Sister Norn, raised solely to serve as Father’s maid, and probably never received fair recognition for her talents.

Then came the teleportation disaster—she was captured by that wretch Pax, only to be saved by Father, who loved her unconditionally without obligation. Immediately afterward, she was sent to Grandmother Zenith’s family—nobles of Milis, strict adherents of monogamy. A family so severe that even Grandmother Zenith herself had fled from them. Born as what they would call a cursed child, she must have been painfully aware of her position from the start.

Unless a family was like ours, where all wives were treated as equals, the child of a concubine—especially one not meant to inherit—must devote her life entirely to service. For someone as gifted as Sister Aisha, being born only to be treated as a tool must have been unbearable. She could have left the family and lived freely using her talents if she had wanted to.

…But she had Father. Someone who loved and valued her without bias, someone who embodied the kind of acceptance that others only gain after abandoning their lineage to live by their own strength. That person had always been there for her.

That was why she stayed and became a maid. That was all there was to it.

As someone else born under unwelcome circumstances, I had felt a sort of kinship with Sister Aisha—but I was wrong. Over these ten days, I came to understand that she isn’t merely a maid of the Greyrat family; she is simply Father’s sister.

If I treated her as I would Sister Norn, no one—perhaps not even Grandmother Lilia—would have scolded me.

But imagine how she must feel. To see Lineana—someone who, like her, was saved by Father and owes him her life—continually fail at her duties, make no effort to improve, and look at her with eyes that say, “You’ll be working under me someday.” Of course she couldn’t forgive that.

Yet… it couldn’t be helped.

To Lineana, Sister Aisha was nothing more than a maid with a blood connection to Father. Having been deceived and forced into slavery, then raised as the heir of her tribe, how could she instantly come to revere a mere housemaid as her superior?

It couldn’t be helped.

For Sister Aisha, the only things in her thirteen years that she couldn’t overcome with her own ability were her birth and the teleportation disaster. If someone she had tried to mentor looked down on her—not out of malice, but simply as a maid—then as “Father’s sister,” she could never swallow that anger and continue teaching calmly.

I understood both of them. I sympathized with both sides and accepted their reasons.

So I decided—it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just my own childish temper that had made me think Lineana needed a different place to belong.

But then…

"Big brother said I should help Lineana get her business started, so I’ll be leaving the maid work to you for a while, Edith. Sorry about this… It’s my fault things with Lineana got so bad. I couldn’t keep my patience, and now you’re the one stuck with the hard part. Big brother even scolded me a little for it."

As expected, Father had seen through everything. He trusted that I wouldn’t hit someone without reason, pieced together what had happened, and still managed to forgive both Sister Aisha and Lineana. He even took steps to ensure the two wouldn’t remain on bad terms after their falling-out.

Surely… to Father, I’m just another daughter. Not a cursed child, not one born of sin—simply his daughter, loved without reservation.

"I can’t compete with Father…"

He had tied up every loose end I had tangled myself in so neatly that I couldn’t even feel ashamed. Instead, I just felt proud—proud of the simple, selfless love Father had given me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.