Chapter 13

The Scumbag Uncle
The moment I slammed the door to my room open with a bang, a pathetic little “Hyaaaah!” came from Scumbag Uncle.

What was that “hyaaaah”? Why was he panicking? What was he doing?

“Ojiue, what were you doing in my room?”

“W-What was I doing, you ask!? You dare cast suspicion on me, your uncle!?”

“Were you doing something suspicious enough to be suspected?”

This bastard. Was he snooping around my room trying to investigate my alchemy magic or something?

“W-What nonsense are you saying!? T-There’s no way I’d do such a thing!”

Suspicious.

“Ahem. More importantly, Dermont. You.”

“W-What is it?”

“You have been properly applying yourself to your studies, yes!?”

“… Huh?”

Studies? Never in my life did I expect those words to come out of your mouth.

Wait, did someone replace him? Possession?
No, no. I’m getting too carried away by my past-life knowledge.

“O-Of course I’m studying. Isn’t that obvious?”

Unlike your son.

“I see. Mm, good then. Now then, Dermont.”

There’s still more?

“At the tea party held by the Hohenberg Marquess Household the other day, it seems one of the Marquess family treasures disappeared. Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Huh? Of course not.”

Shouldn’t you be the one with an idea?

The words nearly came out, but I swallowed them back. What’s he getting at?
No way… could it really not have been Landfas?
If so, then there’s another culprit, and word of the theft has already spread?

“I see. Good then. Good. Which is why, Dermont…”

“W-What?”

“Ahem! If you have any troubles, you are to consult this uncle of yours!”

Whoa! T-That startled me. Why’d he suddenly raise his voice like that?
Then Scumbag Uncle left the room humming to himself.

At that moment, I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve doubted him instead of letting my guard down.
That’s why things turned out like that.

---

“I am Ougis Delanche, captain of the Fifteenth Division of the Royal Kingdom Knights. We have come to conduct a house search following a certain report. Any who resist will be arrested!”

Right in the middle of dinner, knights appeared before the mansion without warning.

They claimed to be the Royal Kingdom Knights, but were they really…
The flag they carried was genuine.

The knights stomped into the mansion without even glancing around and headed straight for my room.

And then…

“We found it! The necklace requested by the Marquis Household has been recovered!”

“Eh? Recovered… necklace?”

The knight who came out of my room held an emerald necklace in his hand.

M-My room? What in the world… ah.

“Ohh, Dermont. Why didn’t you tell the truth back then?”

“Kuh… Ojiue!?”

Why are you showing up at such a convenient time!? Did he collude with the knights?
No, the other side is the Royal Kingdom Knights, for crying out loud. There’s no way…

“Aniue, what is the meaning of this!?”

“Hmph. Little brother, there’s nothing mysterious about it. Dermont stole the necklace treasured by the Marchioness from the Hohenberg Marquis Household the other day.”

“W-What are you saying!?”

“The evidence is right here, Baron.”

The captain thrust the emerald necklace forward as he spoke.
A necklace I’d never seen before. It wasn’t Mother’s.

“That’s why I asked you back then, didn’t I? Whether you stole a necklace from the Marquis’s house. I told you that if you confessed honestly now, I’d handle things somehow, so you had nothing to fear. But you continued lying! You have dragged the Spanberg family name through the mud!”

“Wh…”

That’s not what you said!

“What a terrible thing, Aniue!”

“The disgrace brought upon the Spanberg Baron Household will affect my Count Household as well. Which is why I personally… kuh… gave my adorable nephew… a chance to atone for his sins… fuhahahahahaha!”

Hey, he’s laughing. Even the knights around him are getting a little creeped out.

Is this idiot for real?

“Captain, please do not blindly believe my uncle’s words. The other day, my uncle—”

“Silence!”

“Eh?”

“Seize the entire Baron House family!”

H-How outrageous! At least hear our side out!
Even the captain’s subordinates were tilting their heads like they didn’t know what to do.

“Please listen! I was framed… gh!”

“So you resist! To oppose the Royal Kingdom Knights is to oppose the kingdom itself. In other words, it is to oppose His Majesty the King!”

“That’s absurd.”

Pinned to the floor, I couldn’t fight back. More importantly, what kind of knight forcefully subdues an eight-year-old child!?

Ahh, I’m so pissed off. His face is starting to overlap with Scumbag Uncle’s in my eyes.
That day, at that moment, Scumbag Uncle must’ve hidden the necklace somewhere in my room.
He probably learned that Landfas stole the necklace from the Marquis’s house and decided to pin the crime on me.
A proper parent would’ve scolded their child and made him apologize.
He’s a completely rotten parent.
Sure, he doted on his son, but in a way he was the same as the toxic parents from my previous life.
At least when it came to his character.

“I won’t forgive you. I absolutely won’t forgive you.”

“Don’t worry, younger brother. I shall inherit this barony for you. No… from the very beginning, everything here was meant to belong to me. It’s merely returning to its rightful owner.”

“A-Aniue… just how vile can you be!?”

“Hah? Vile, you say? You’re the one who stole what was supposed to be inherited from Father!”

The scumbag kicked Father to the ground.

“Kyaah! S-Stop, please!”

“Don’t bully Tousama!”

Mother and Tiffany rushed out, and the bastard clicked his tongue before backing off without doing anything further.

So this was his plan all along, use what his son did as a pretext to seize the barony.
To think he’d stoop this low… it infuriated me that even a drop of the same blood flowed through our veins.

“Take them away!”

“M-My lord!”

“Baron!”

Lord Robert tried to leap forward, but Father stopped him with a shake of his head.
That was for the best. Now wasn’t the time to escalate things.

Not just me, Father, Mother, and my younger brother and sister. All five of us were surrounded by knights and taken away.

What do you think about this chapter?