Katya raised her head a little and looked at her father.

"...This Cecil boy...you've met him before when you were a child," Augustus said.

"R-Really?"

"Don't you remember that time when you were going on and on about a young boy you met when you got lost and nearly kidnapped that one time?"

"Y-yeah...that boy saved me and even brought me back to you, father..."

"We went over to his family's house to personally thank them and you guys met again, remember?"

Katya nodded in acknowledgment.

"That boy turned out to be Cecil Silvaria, the next heir to the Silvaria family."

"H-huh?"

Back then, Cecil had just finished his secluded training and came back to live with his family. When he arrived back at his home, his siblings immediately took him out to play in the city. It was his first time seeing what civilization was like so due to his overwhelming curiosity, he was separated from his siblings.

It was during this time that he chanced upon a small girl being dragged away unwillingly by a few adults. When the adults noticed that Cecil was also lost, they decided to try and take him away too but to their folly, Cecil quickly crushed all of them and inadvertently saved the small girl that was being taken away by them.

Cecil's fight naturally attracted the attention of many bystanders and just before he was going to make a quick getaway, the bawling Katya quickly clung onto him in fear. Cecil had no choice but to walk around with her until eventually they were able to meet up with the Goldenia family's people.

They separated there and only met up after a few days later when Augustus brought Katya with him to personally thank Cecil and his family, even though they were enemies. Augustus had already sought an alliance with the Silvarias from there, but unfortunately for him, the transmigration incident happened.

Katya vaguely remembered the small boy who appeared like a white knight that came to her rescue from back then. It's been a while but she still remembered how Cecil's face looked like.

"You liked him before remember?"

"T-that was a long time ago!"

"That affection could still be renewed once you get to know each other and you'll soon forget about Edward. I was already in favor of him but after his betrayal... you have to understand Katya, a man like Edward who only used you before tossing you away right after isn't anyone good!"

"But... it's his—"

"He's the son of the archduchy's ruler... you should already be able to understand from this alone, right?"

"..."

Seeing that his daughter seemed to be a little unconvinced, Augustus impatiently added, "Will you stop only if I present solid proof of his betrayal?"

"Ugh..."

"Stop being foolish, okay? I won't interfere too much with your life but just this once listen to me, alright?"

"...Yes, father..."

"..."

Seeing that she was still a little reluctant, Augustus could only release an exasperated sigh but he could only drop the matter now that Katya seemed a little more compliant.

"Anyway, now we have to wait for the pieces to fall into place. Once Faustus makes their move Kaiser will have no choice but to agree to help us."

The middle-aged woman next to Augustus, Andrea Goldenia, his wife, immediately spoke up, "Honey, you said that we were going to be forging an alliance with the Silvaria family, but targeting the next heir's mother and wife..."

"...I know, dear. It could lead to potential disasters later on, but you have to remember, the one colluding directly with Faustus will be that old geezer, not us. We're only the middleman here."

"Honey, what we're doing won't be any different from what our predecessors have done. You yourself didn't want to follow in their footsteps and have been trying to mend our family's ways, but if you do this..."

"...I know, I know... but there was nothing else we could do... and the die has already been cast," Augustus replied.

******

A few days pa.s.sed and just like Augustus said, the Faustus spies did secretly come into contact with elder Kuran and a few others from the branch families who sided with him.

Since Kuran was willing to help, they agreed to take Anastasia and Luca hostage while doing away with the other target, Serilla. All that was left was to find a perfect opportunity for them to take action. Kuran also specifically requested the Faustus spies to make sure that their a.s.sault on the Silvaria main family would have no traces of connections leading back to the branch families.

The best way to make Kaiser compliant was to take his family hostage. He was a family man and there was no doubt that he'd do anything to make sure that his family wouldn't be harmed. As for the follow up after Kaiser was subdued, the Faustus spies didn't elaborate on it, but if Cecil was there, he'd know what they would do.

The Faustus Archduchy would simply use slave seals to keep them in check. Of course, this was only in the case that the Faustus Archduchy was able to pull of their kidnapping and the Goldenias would make sure that didn't happen.

The Goldenias wanted to take advantage of the Faustus Archduchy's attempted kidnapping to put the Silvaria family in their debt. Kaiser was an honorable man so if someone had done him good, he'd naturally pay them back.

This was what Augustus wanted to leverage against Kaiser later when they negotiated for an alliance. Saving the Silvaria family's matriarch and son was enough merit to get them on the high ground.

Unfortunately, Serilla had to be removed because she'd be a hindrance in their plans to marry Katya to Cecil. Her role would be more important in the long run. Each of these 3 factions was using each other thinking that they were the one going to benefit in the end...it was too bad for them that Cecil had been extremely cautious before his departure and had added a few—no, many things, to his family estate's defense system.

No one in the mansion knew about it except for his wife, Serilla, and his mother, Anastasia. Before he left, Cecil had given the two women the control crystal to all of the new magical defense system set up throughout and around the family estate.

With Lucia's help, he was able to quickly establish the magical defense system around the estate. Since the defense system had his magi-tech batteries powering them, they didn't need anyone to power them and would immediately activate if it was triggered by unidentified people walking over or near it.

Cecil had already registered everyone's mana that was living in the estate into the control crystal so that they wouldn't accidentally trigger the arrays. If the Faustus Archduchy didn't have an expert mage who was on par with Cecil in regards to magic arrays, they would have no chance to even pull off their scheme.

Of course, he made sure not to register anyone in the branch families into the control crystal since he didn't trust them. There was also a warning system that Cecil had embedded in his own control crystal that would activate when any one of the traps were triggered.

This way he would immediately know if something was happening back at home and by using Lucia or Yuna's Misty Gate, he'd be able to make it back there on the double. Elder Kuran and the Goldenias were a little too naive in their thinking that Cecil hadn't prepared anything to protect his family.

They thought of Cecil as still being too young and inexperienced so they were more focused on his father, Kaiser, than on him. He may not be the brightest in the family, but he was the most powerful.

No matter how good a scheme or tactic is, in the face of absolute power, it would all be rendered meaningless. He already possessed this absolute power in both combat prowess and knowledge. All 3 factions that were scheming against his family were doomed to fail even before they had gathered together to hatch out their plan.

They already knew that Kaiser was very confident in himself to the point that he'd go wager war on another nation rather than focus on the immediate threat that Faustus posed on all the earthling nations. They had too little information on the reason behind this but they still rashly chose to scheme against his family.

******

The entire estate was secure and everyone living inside was extremely safe which was why Anastasia and her daughter-in-law were going about their daily activities with leisure. Too bad for Luca and everyone else, no one besides these two women knew about the defense system Cecil and Lucia had installed.

As for why this was the reason? It was simply because no one else other than Anastasia had asked the two about what they were doing around the estate so you really couldn't blame him.

In the city back at Luca's office, he was currently having the largest headache as he read through the files and daily reports that his men had given to him.

"Ugh... Even after I've told mom and sister-in-law to be more careful... so why are they still being so careless?!"