How to Survive as a Knight’s Son – Chapter 5

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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For Anya Tolbatz, the manor had become a suffocating place. It hadn’t always been this way. After all, it was where she was born and raised. The problems began after her stepmother arrived.

“Oh my, what a beautiful young lady you are.”

Sophia, a distant relative of Baron Rasino, with whom her father, Maxim Tolbatz, had a vassalage relationship, had made a good first impression. She was a cultured and polite young woman, and kind to Anya, the child of Maxim’s previous wife.

That’s why Anya hadn’t objected to her father’s remarriage. She even held some expectation for the mother figure she had never known.

It was a mistake.

Maxim Tolbatz, Baron Rasino’s right-hand man, spent half the year in the Baron’s city and the other half on the battlefield.

Whenever her father was away, Sophia’s demeanor would turn icy.

“Honestly, you act like you were raised without a mother…”

Every time Anya made a small mistake, Sophia would bring up her deceased mother, whom Anya had never met.

Anya realized that Sophia’s previous kindness was a mask she wore to marry Maxim Tolbatz, but she couldn’t undo the marriage.

Although a distant relative, Sophia was still part of Baron Rasino’s lineage. If her father divorced, it would strain his relationship with the Baron who had arranged the marriage.

Anya, being a dutiful daughter, gave up.

‘I just have to endure it. I just have to endure it.’

She had thought that if she just endured it, everyone would be happy.

Actually, what made the manor even more dreadful than her stepmother was her own brother, Allen Tolbatz. Anya remembered him looking at her with sharp eyes ever since she could comprehend the world.

“It’s your fault. My mother died because of you.”

The family who should have been her only allies was hostile from the start. He openly ignored and antagonized her, which led to severe scoldings from their father, but that only intensified Allen’s hostility.

Allen Tolbatz was contrary. Anya found her brother’s indifference more hurtful than her stepmother’s mistreatment.

“Hmph, family is all you can trust in the worst of times?”

She had been treated like she didn’t exist for nearly twenty years. A single act of kindness wouldn’t erase the accumulated resentment.

Perhaps it would never be resolved.

In any case, Anya wanted to escape this prison-like manor. There was only one way.

Marriage.

Considering that most women married around the age of fourteen in this era, Anya was quite late. This was due to her doting father and her stepmother, who used every excuse to prevent her social debut.

You can’t pick mulberries without seeing the tree.

That’s why this opportunity was so important. Sophia had surprisingly suggested they attend the party together.

Was it because a daughter’s marriage was the parents’ responsibility? Or did she think she couldn’t postpone it any longer?

The important thing was that Anya had been given a chance.

Anya made up her mind. She would find a man at this party who would rescue her from this prison-like manor.

Every woman dreams of a prince charming.

That’s why she had put in so much effort for today. She had worked in the fields alongside the peasants in exchange for flax, and she had spent nearly a month soaking and drying it meticulously.

Although it was a blemish that she had needed Allen’s help because the flax hadn’t dried properly.

“Hmph, who would fall for that? He’s just worried about what will happen when Father returns. Father will punish him if I tell him that he bullied me. It’s obvious. So, there’s no need to be grateful.”

Anya tried to dismiss it.

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The fabric was miraculously completed, but making it into a dress was another matter. Anya worked through the night, pricking her fingers with needles, and finally finished the dress.

It didn’t have any fancy patterns or decorations, but it had a simple elegance, suitable for a party.

And now, the dress she had painstakingly made by hand for nearly a month was being…

Rip.

Torn in half by her stepmother, Sophia. Anya stared blankly at the scene, which felt like a dream. She only came to her senses after the dress was thrown to the floor.

“Mother…!”

Anya hurriedly picked up the torn dress and looked up.

“How dare you raise your voice at me? And why are you glaring at me? Did your mother teach you to behave like that?”

“Mother!”

Anya yelled, but Sophia didn’t even flinch.

“You were planning to go to the party wearing a dress fit for a peasant? Have you considered how others will perceive our family? It would be a complete disgrace. I would rather die than suffer such humiliation and shame.”

“But I don’t have any other dress to wear! You didn’t give me any fabric to make one!”

“What can I do about the family’s finances being strained because of the war? I received a letter from my husband just yesterday. He said they were running low on rations and asked me to send more as soon as possible. The family’s coffers are already empty, even with all the taxes we’ve been collecting!”

Contrary to her words, Sophia was wearing a dress made of Eastern silk and adorned with jewelry. Some of the pieces were new, which meant she had recently acquired them.

It was true that the prolonged war had strained the family’s finances, but Sophia’s extravagance showed no signs of abating. The only ones suffering were the people of the territory, burdened by all sorts of taxes.

“You never intended to take me to the party from the beginning, did you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you can find a dress that won’t disgrace the family, even now, I’ll take you with me.”

The corners of Sophia’s mouth twitched.

“The party is tomorrow!”

If she had enough money, she could somehow procure a dress from the neighboring city of Quaran, but Sophia would never give her the money.

“Who knows? Maybe a dress will fall from the sky.”

Sophia was now openly mocking her.

Tears welled up in Anya’s eyes. She bit her lip and held them back. Then, holding the torn dress, she turned away.

“You’re leaving without even saying goodbye? Honestly, you’re so rude and vulgar. I don’t know what your mother taught you.”

Anya bit her lower lip. The moment she closed the door, the tears she had been holding back started flowing. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. She saw Allen after walking only a short distance.

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“Anya.”

Seeing Allen waiting with open arms, Anya uttered the word she abhorred and embraced him.

“Brother…”

Allen was right. In the worst of times, all you could trust was family.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

I comforted Anya, stroking her hair. As I hugged her, I subtly touched her body here and there. Her frail body, thin as a twig, reminded me of Marie.

She had a girlish figure unbefitting her age of twenty. It was due to Sophia’s mistreatment, which had also affected her diet.

I found it hard to believe that this little girl would become a beauty that could topple nations. Wasn’t she past the age where she could still grow? But witches shouldn’t be judged by common sense.

“You need to eat more.”

Still, her buttocks were shaped like luscious apples. Her narrow waist and wide hips were delightful to hold. As I gently caressed her buttocks, I applied more pressure, and my fingers sank into her flesh through her clothes.

“Ouch!”

Anya looked up and glared at me. But her teary eyes only fueled my desire to tease her.

What caught my attention was Anya’s reaction. Even though my touch was sexually suggestive, even to me, Anya took it as playful. Was it because of her preconceived notion that her brother wouldn’t do such a thing, or was it due to her sexual naiveté?

I believed it was the latter. Normally, in a small family like the Tolbatz, sex education was the mother’s responsibility, but Anya’s mother had died giving birth to her.

The nanny who could have taken her mother’s place had been dismissed by Sophia before Anya was old enough to learn about sex. And Sophia was out of the question.

Anya was a blank canvas, ready to be painted with any color. I licked my lips.

I felt like I could use this.

“Your dress was torn in half.”

“She said it would disgrace the family’s honor if I went to the party in that dress. She said she would take me if I brought a decent dress, but how can I get a dress in just one day? Mother never intended to take me in the first place.”

“She probably wanted to see you fall from grace.”

She was a spiteful woman. The same woman who would kick me out and seize the territory after my father’s death. Perhaps it had been planned from the moment Baron Rasino arranged the marriage.

Wasn’t it Baron Rasino who had only granted this small territory to my father after he married Sophia, a relative of his?

Perhaps Sophia was the failsafe he had put in place to reclaim the territory at any time.

In any case, to avoid losing the territory, I needed to get rid of her. With my father’s death imminent according to the story, time was running out. The problem was that Baron Rasino was backing her.

‘Father.’

I had no intention of saving my father. He wasn’t the type to listen to reason. There was no trust between us either. What if the future changed and I lost my greatest weapon?

Yes, I’m a selfish bastard.

In fact, there probably wasn’t a successor who wasn’t selfish. Every successor waits for the day their father dies.

Was it because of my father’s favoritism towards Anya that had ruined our relationship, or was it because my modern memories had resurfaced, slightly weakening my identity as Allen, that made me decide so easily?

All I knew was that I didn’t want to lose the territory like this, nor did I want to sell my sister to get it back.

“Do you really want to go to that party that badly?”

“Is that even a question? If I had more time, I would have stolen a dress to go to that party.”

Anya still seemed to be clinging to hope. She had just said that Sophia had no intention of taking her, yet she still thought she could go to the party if she just had a dress.

The important thing was Sophia’s will, as she herself had said. Was she pretending not to know? Clinging to a sliver of hope?

“Hmm, there is a way.”

“A way? What way?”

Her wavering eyes sparkled. Suppressing my smirk, I said,

“I’ll get you a dress if you do me a favor.”

“I’ll do anything! Anything!”

“You promised. Don’t regret it later.”

“Wait, what kind of favor?”

Anya seemed to realize she had spoken too hastily, but there was no taking it back.

“I’ll tell you later. The important thing now is the dress, isn’t it? We need to hurry. Time is short.”

Leaving behind Anya, whose eyes were filled with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation, I headed to the storage room in the manor’s basement.

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“Master Allen, what brings you here?”

Bertio, the treasurer, greeted me as I opened the door. He seemed to be working, as he held a sharp awl in one hand, and a clay tablet lay on his desk.

“I need a dress made for a whore I favor.”

I was a regular at the brothels in the neighboring city of Quaran. I had retrieved gifts for prostitutes from the storage room several times before.

“Oh dear, the territory’s finances are strained, and you’re buying gifts for a whore?”

“What? Are you going to stop me?”

Although the countless acts of debauchery I had committed felt foolish now that I had regained my past life’s memories, I couldn’t show any change in behavior. A sudden change would only arouse suspicion.

If I needlessly provoked Sophia, I might be confined. And if news of my father’s death arrived while I was confined, I would be banished.

I hadn’t realized it when I was being a scoundrel, but I was walking a tightrope.

“How could I do such a thing to the acting lord?”

I hated my father, who only doted on Anya, and he hated me for my debauchery. Then why did he entrust me with the lord’s seal instead of Sophia?

Family is all you can trust in the worst of times. Perhaps my father knew that too.

“Shall I open the door for you?”

There were only two keys to the family’s storage room: one held by the treasurer and the other by the lord. Currently, as acting lord, I held it in my father’s stead.

“No, I’ll open it.”

“But what kind of dress are you planning to make…?”

Bertio followed me into the storage room.

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“I need a very beautiful dress. It would be good to make some everyday clothes as well.”

Anya usually wore clothes fit for peasants. That, too, was due to Sophia’s mistreatment. While I was at it, I planned to fill her wardrobe with everyday clothes as well.

“What? Then you’ll need a lot of fabric.”

“I don’t care how much fabric is used.”

“But, some of the fabrics have already been earmarked by Madam…”

I paused. How the family’s assets were used was entirely up to the lord. Currently, that was me, the acting lord.

“Do I need my mother’s permission?”

“Well, no, but…”

Despite my firm tone, Bertio clearly hesitated.

I already knew that Sophia had taken control of the manor while I was busy with my debauchery. But I didn’t know that Bertio had also been swayed.

Wasn’t he a vassal who had pledged his loyalty to my father before Sophia arrived? If he had been swayed, it meant most of the vassals had probably been swayed as well.

The situation was more serious than I had thought.

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Sophia’s cruelty crushed Anya’s hopes, leaving her vulnerable. Allen offered a deal: a dress, a favor. But in the manor’s vaults, a chilling discovery awaited – Sophia’s web was far wider than he’d known.