Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

Noah revealed a faint smile without saying anything when he heard this.

He just sat there in silence, but I could see that the smile on his face was slowly turning bitter as if he was remembering something that made him feel bitter.

If I had to guess, it was most likely related to his father and my father in law who had disappeared without a trace.

So I just waited for Noah to gather his thoughts and say what he wanted to say.

There was a long silence before Noah gave a sigh and suddenly said, "He retired."

I tilted my head as if I was confused and I just looked at him with that look of confusion on my face for a bit before suddenly saying, "Yes, he retired as the king and gave me the throne. This is something that everyone knows."

Noah's bitter smile became even more bitter when he heard this and he was silent for a bit longer before saying, "It's not the same kind of retirement."

I raised a brow as I was confused by what he said, but I didn't say anything as I waited for him to tell me what he meant.

But the fact that Noah was hesitating this much must mean that he felt very bitter about all of this.

It really made me wonder just what kind of thing the former king had done.

After one more long silence, Noah said with a sigh, "He just disappeared from the castle one day and left behind a note saying that he was abandoning all of his duties. He will be leaving everything to us from now on."

I was shocked this time since this wasn't what I had expected.

In a worst case scenario, I would have thought that Noah would have sent his father away since he would be worried about him getting in the way.

I never thought that the former king would actually leave on his own…

This was a big problem since he was someone who we had been expecting to count on for certain things that needed to be done. If he was gone, then that meant that there was a hole that we needed to fill.

Or rather, it meant that there was a hole that Noah as the prime minister needed to fill.

This wasn't a position that could be left empty for long, but it also wasn't an easy position to fill. So it would certainly be hard for Noah to find a replacement for this role.

After all, the main requirement for the role that we wanted to give to the former king was experience.

There were few people that had the same experience as him, so there were few people that could even take his role in the first place.

The ones that did were those old ministers who had served the former king, but they had retired as well when the crown passed.

Their retirement was completely different from the former king's retirement.

They had already trained their successors and had figured out what would happen after they left. The reason why they retired was because this was what they should do once the king passed on the throne.

This was something that they had already discussed with the former king before he stepped down.

So there was no changing their minds.

With how much time had passed, they had mostly left the capital to enjoy their retirement in their estates. After all, they were ministers of the kingdom, so it wasn't as if they were mistreated.

They had earned more than enough to buy estates in the countryside for them and their families.

Right now, they had already left the capital and were enjoying their retirement.

That meant that there really was no one here to fill the gap that the former king left.

Both of us just sat there in silence for a bit before I finally said, "How could he be that irresponsible?"

Noah shook his head when he heard this before saying with a sigh, "He's been working hard for the sake of this country for so many years now. It's not like he's had much time for himself…so I can understand why he did this."

I raised a brow in response to this since I could hear from the way that Noah said this, it seemed like…

"You know where he is?" I asked in a slow voice

Noah gave a nod without saying anything. After a long sigh, he said, "Royal father is currently living in one of the estates that he has in the capital and it seems like he's been living a simple life. He's been going to different places incognito and enjoying the life that he never had before."

I looked at Noah with a strange look before asking, "A midlife crisis?"

Noah shook his head before giving a nod and then shaking his head again.

He took a deep breath before saying, "In short, it seems like this is temporary and I feel like we owe it to him to give him this."

I looked at him with the same strange look for a bit before slowly nodding in agreement.

While I didn't exactly know what the former king had been through, I could guess based on what I had learned from him.

Being a king definitely was not easy on a person and it would come with plenty of stress, so it only made sense that the king would snap after holding it in for this long.

It made sense that he deserved this midlife crisis and to do what he wanted to do.

That was why Noah was hesitant to bring him back.

Noah could see the way that I looked at him, so he said, "For now, it should be fine if he isn't here. I'd say that in a week, royal father will be back and he'll take his position again. Someone like him won't be able to sit still."

I raised a brow in response, but I nodded without saying anything.

Noah should know his father best, so there wasn't anything for me to say.