Re:Zero - Jobless Reincarnation: Succubus Sword God? I don't recognize it!

Chapter 591 Melna's Troubles: Where is the Turning Point?
The snow in Yar's came a month and a half later than in Pepin's.

Even as snow fell heavily, the 'sun' still rose as usual:
Unlike the bakery owners in Knowles, the owners of the bakeries did not have an urgent need for money; nor did the blacksmiths suddenly pull out a half-finished iron sword from under the blast furnace and stab it at the vest of a red-haired girl they didn't know on the roadside.
While practicing swordsmanship, the children at the Suishin-ryu main dojo would gather and chatter about when they would finally meet their mysterious, powerful, and arrogant "idol"; meanwhile, their fathers would continue to spend lavishly at the opera house at night, patting the buttocks of beautiful women while negotiating business.

Everyone has their own responsibilities to fulfill.

It also includes Fan Si.

However, the things he needed to do had already been arranged a month and a half ago.

That is, by using his own death, he drastically divided the power of the Nothos family and completely placed Paul in opposition to his own family.

Philip had intended to conceal the news of Vans' death and prepare some backup plans, but before he could make any preparations, rumors had already spread throughout the capital that Paul Nottos Greirat had killed his family uncle for power.

Of course, for the nobles, this was not a big deal. They even felt that Paul's bloody suppression overturned their previous perception of him as a good-for-nothing, and that he really had some skill.

In fact, it wasn't Paul himself who had the shrewdness, but Philip. He felt that if things weren't prepared properly, then he wouldn't prepare them anymore.

He could easily use intrigue to coerce Notos, or use overt tactics to manipulate him, to truly make the Notos family 'proper'.
However, an unexpected setback occurred: Paulo, the current head of the Notos family, fell into a depressed mood after reading his father's letter.

His 'sun' has fallen forever.

Paul had never been interested in power; his mind was entirely focused on his family. Now that he was a husband and a father, he naturally understood his father's good intentions back then. Not being able to say goodbye to his father was already a regret in his heart, and now his father's farewell letter completely crushed his last shred of remembrance of his father.

Although he kept promising Philip that he would go back to Nottos to cooperate with his plans, his desire to avoid returning home was obvious to everyone.

After parting ways with Allen, Philip has become more humane and doesn't pressure him to make a choice.

However, this back and forth caused a long delay, and they missed the golden opportunity to subdue Nottos.

Since the Nothos family's methods didn't work out, Philip had no choice but to try his luck in the capital.

He went to see Gravel.

As a result, the new emperor was vague about the matter, only saying that it was, after all, a private matter of the Notos family, and that he should not interfere too much since he had just ascended the throne.

That's not wrong. After all, the four noble families, as dukes, each had their own territory, and the matter of succession was handled by their own clans, not by the king.

However, at this critical juncture, the perfunctory attitude still felt too strong, and it wouldn't make sense without the support of other nobles in the capital.

With Boreas's power so great, no one wanted to see Boreas 'help' Nottos to support another patriarch.
And most importantly
Isn't someone not in the capital?
This is another sudden disappearance. Who knows when he'll come back next, right?
"Alan isn't in the capital. These people are a bunch of scoundrels."

The wind and snow seeped into the carriage through the fluttering curtains, and before it had even circled twice, it turned into water vapor.

Philip sat in the carriage returning from the palace, holding a hand warmer with a scorching magic circle in his hands. His eyes were still smiling as usual, but the smile on his lips was devoid of warmth.

After being kicked around like a ball for over a month, even the shrewd Philip was starting to lose his composure.

Opposite him, Hill Chers was also holding a hot hand warmer, his eyes half-closed in comfort.

—This thing is a new gadget developed by the Sevenstar Research Institute. It is said that it is still in the experimental stage and there are no finished products for sale. Philip has several in his carriage, and he can only touch one to warm his hands when he comes to report on his 'work'.

After listening to Philip's words, he looked up and a fawning smile appeared on his face:

"Who says otherwise? While the regimental commander is out running errands, these people are already getting restless, all sorts of little schemes are surfacing, but at most they only dare to feign compliance. Believe me, when the regimental commander returns, they'll agree faster than anyone else!"

"Hey, tell me, what else could this be but a scoundrel?"

As the deputy commander of the street soldiers, he should have addressed Philip as "Sir," but in private, he always called him "Master."

As for the real king who was openly serving him, he was directly placed at the table of the 'scoundrel' who was silently opposing Boreas.

However, Philip was extremely pleased with the flattery. Praising Allen was far more effective than praising him personally. Sure enough, the corners of Philip's mouth, which had been full of gloom just moments before, turned into a smile that was three parts smug, three parts proud, and three parts self-satisfied.

As for the remaining point, it was a deliberate feigned indifference.

Hill pressed his advantage upon seeing this:

"But that's all. They only dare to bring up the old rules on the table. They don't have the guts to overturn the table. The lingering influence left by the regimental commander has them stuck on the table, and our Street Army is just the foot of that table leg."

Philip was so amused by the photos.

He waved his hand, signaling Hill to stop flattering him: "Let's get down to business."

Hill said solemnly, "It has been investigated. There were twenty-seven people who spread the news. They were all relatives of Hans from the Notos family. However, during the questioning, we learned something interesting."

"Ok?"

"The conservative faction within the Notos family still retains a portion of staunch supporters of the old patriarch, comprising about ten percent. Another twenty percent remain neutral; however, Hans's arrival in the capital itself indicates their neutrality, which precisely represents the possibility of winning them over."

Philip pondered for a moment and said, "If it can be proven that Paul is actually the one valued by the old master, there is still a chance to turn things around, and Paul can be promoted without resorting to force."

Hill nodded.

Philip paused for a moment, then nodded.

Seeing this, Hill put down the hand warmer and was about to take his leave, but Philip called him back:
“Take the hand warmers with you. Also, invite the team leaders who helped with this matter to come to our house for a meal. We still have some hand warmers left, so each of you can take a few as gifts.”

Hill's eyes lit up: "Then I'll thank you on behalf of everyone, sir."

Hill turned around, grabbed the hand warmer, and climbed out of the carriage.

Philip watched his retreating figure and thought to himself, "Allen really made a brilliant move by turning the Street Soldiers into an intelligence agency."

On the one hand, it saves a lot of energy, and on the other hand, it is a counterattack against Gravelna's essentially differentiated succession of power among offspring.

You want to undermine the future power of Boreas? Then I will now establish a new interest group to 'corrupt' your unsuccessful offspring.

Look at them, choosing to endure humiliation and play the role of a collateral descendant of a family with no right of inheritance and no future.

It will remain at the core of power for the largest armed force in Yars in the future.

However, only Allen possesses the personal prestige and strength to properly manage the establishment of his own intelligence agency right under the king's nose.

I just don't know how long it will be before he comes back.

There's clearly only one less set of cutlery on the dining table at home, but it always feels like something's missing.

-

“Something’s missing?” At the table in Boreas, Aisha blinked as she watched Loki, who was smacking her fork and staring blankly at the dishes on the table.

The latter still looked confused, except for the dark circles under his eyes; Rudy had been asking him a lot about magic circles lately.

The issue is.
Most of the time, it was when she was struggling with her thoughts that Aisha was led over by Sylphie to pour tea or something, and then a few casual remarks would suddenly pop up, which would just give her inspiration and make her suddenly see the light.

Once was fine, but over time, Loki realized that Aisha probably possessed extraordinary magical talent like her brother. At this point, she no longer regarded Aisha as that little girl, but as a fellow magician of her high caliber.

You know what, there's actually a hint of mutual respect between them.

She blinked, glanced at Aisha who was still serving her in her maid outfit, and immediately snapped out of her daze, waving her hand hastily:
"No, it's just that Allen isn't at the table for a bit."

Aisha chuckled: "Does your older sister miss your older brother?"

Loki was taken aback. She glanced at Hilda, who was holding a teacup and sipping her tea, but was looking at her with a disdainful gaze. She blushed instantly.

"No... I mean," she explained for a while, realizing it was pointless, before nodding and shrinking back, "I really do miss Allen. I wonder how things are going, whether he's seen Alice, and whether the barbecue I made for him before he left was to his liking."

Suddenly, a faint laugh came from beside me.

Loki suddenly turned to look at Hilda, only to find that the latter was just drinking tea normally and had no other reaction.

She turned her head and stared at the wood grain of the tabletop, her face turning even redder.

Hilfi was slowly stirring the steaming soup with a spoon, glancing sideways at Izuru's empty seat.

After Allen left, Isorti lost her reason to come to Boreas and was forced by Reda to stay at the Water God School headquarters to teach her in place of her master every day.

Of course, taking on a disciple on behalf of the master was just a pretense; the real reason was to keep the cabbage at home longer. If things continued like this, she would be sleeping in the same room with that brat Allen before she even officially married into the family.

What kind of system is this?
Aisha suddenly turned to look at Silphie: "Silphie, what about you?"

Hilfi was taken aback: "What?"

Aisha smiled and said, "It seems that my sister misses my brother too, she keeps getting distracted."

Hilfi looked at Aisha's face, and after a moment smiled gently: "By the way, Aisha, why don't you sit down and eat too?"

Aisha stood at attention and gave a proper maid's salute: "A butler's job is to serve the ladies well!" She winked. "As for meals, Melna and I will eat together later."

After speaking, he glared at Melna, who was following him closely as if she were his butler's maid rather than a maid of the Boreas family. Melna silently turned her head and came behind Sylphie.

Hilfi glanced at Aisha, stirred the soup, and looked to her side: "That's fine too. But it would still be better to eat with Uncle Paul."

The group looked at the table to the side at the same time. Paul's seat was empty. He was still staying at Boreas' house for the time being, as if this would allow him to temporarily forget that he was a member of Notos. He had probably been drinking again last night and was not down for breakfast.

Lilia gave an awkward smile, glancing quickly at Hilda: "Sorry."

Hilda waved her hand: "It's human nature; it always takes time to adjust."

Breakfast was over quickly.

Aisha and Melna brought breakfast to Paul's room. He didn't seem like the dejected man who had drowned his sorrows in alcohol after the Great Migration. He had shaved his beard clean and looked quite energetic. However, the kerosene lamp that hadn't gone out and the letter on it behind the door indicated that he was still trapped in some kind of emotion.

He simply bowed his head to thank Aisha and Melna, then took the meal back.

It seems that the fact that his father wrote a letter before his death to expel him from the family has now replaced the fact that he had no chance to reconcile with his father as the biggest regret in his life.

Aisha just sighed, said nothing, hugged Paul, and left with a frown.

then
She returned to her room and began taking a bath.

During this period, in order to shut up the gossips of the maids behind her back, she dutifully kept watch every night without making any exceptions, and only took a nap between breakfast and lunch.

dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door.

Aisha lay in the bathtub, glanced at the door, and then spoke:

"Come in."

The door was opened, then closed again.

But Melna quietly walked in and came up behind Aisha to help her wash her hair.

Aisha waved her hand: "I don't need to wash my hair today. Father's matter has taken up a lot of time, so I need to sleep a little longer. Don't forget what I reminded you of today: this is Bereas, not my home."

Melna remained silent.

Aisha then took a bath by herself. Soon, she came out of the tub, wrapped herself in a towel, and seeing Melna still standing there silently, she said:

"If you still want to persuade me, then you can leave. I should have made myself very clear these past few days. How can you be so sure that this isn't the life I want?"

Melna: "But..."

“No buts. Today, Mr. Philip brought back some news, and I still need to think about how to deal with Nottos's matter. Since my brother isn't here, I have to help him handle this. It wouldn't be right for him to come back to find a mess.”

Melna stared at Aisha for a long, long time, only to find herself speechless. She could only bow and take her leave, just as she had done these past few days.

She closed the door, stepped into the hallway, and entered her room. She opened her diary and looked at her handwriting from the past few days, then, somewhat distraught, covered her face in despair.

"How could this happen? The time magic was a success. It should have been a happy ending for everyone. This kind of time magic... completely disregarding oneself, only thinking about others... Why? If you don't speak up, you'll always be just a butler."
No one appreciates the master's efforts. Miss Sylphy always asks about the master at the dinner table, but she always brushes it off with a few words. Yet I've seen all those days and nights of tireless work. How can she be a butler?

In front of her, the diary entries since Allen left contained the same four words over and over again.

—Persuasion failed.

After a long while, she finally sat up, haphazardly pushed her diary aside, and tried to analyze Paul's situation to alleviate Aysha's worries as much as possible.

But just then, she suddenly paused, staring at the diary beside her.

".journal?"

(End of this chapter)