I just wanted to give you some advice.

　The next day, when Lina came to visit me at the mansion, I cut her off with a straight face.
　Facing her in the parlor, she's quite serious.

　Shaw is satisfied and Sakos looks incredibly frustrated.
　After they each left the Cano family's territory, Lina stayed behind alone to visit me.

　Since Lina had such a serious look on her face, I had a bit of a bad feeling about it.

''Advice?''

　I ask Lina back, wary of getting involved in something again.

'This time it's really just advice,'

　With that preamble, Lina continued.

'You rebuffed Sakos' demands, but got through it unscathed. And then someone else came along to take an interest in it.
Interested?
Nero Kaslevtis. Do you know him?
No,

　I've never heard of it.
　I said frankly that I didn't know it.

I guess you could call him a wise man of the wild, a man with a good eye for character.
The Eye of the...
'Sakos is famous for that, of course, in a bad way. We are interested in the new head of the Canó family, who has downplayed the Sacos. This morning I received word that the new head of the Cano family is interested.
Uh....
"They'll definitely come to see you. To get a glimpse of who you are. You don't want them to know you're still capable.

　Lina says that and sighs.
　It's an unpleasant look, but it can't be helped.

I'm sure you'll want to expose this as soon as possible, but if that's what you want to do, it's not a good idea. At best, you'll need to think of a plan.

　With that, Lina left the mansion.
　The wild wise man with the human eye, Nero.

　It's going to be tricky again........

　　　　　☆

　The nuisance didn't even give me time to prepare.
　That afternoon, I was in the study looking at the Great Ortias, when the maid came in.

'You have a visitor, master.
Customer?
'My name is Nero Kaslevtis. He is about sixty years old.
You're early.

　I wanted to get my head out of my ass.

　It was only this morning that Lina gave me advice.
　No, it was yesterday that I dented Sakos in the first place.

　Why did he come so early, how godd*mn fast is he?

'How would you like to go?'
....

　I don't know.
　To meet or not to meet first.

　Pretending that I don't know anything about Nero and not meeting him because he came to the Viscount's mansion without an appointment is also a good enough option.

''Since you are a wise man, I'll let you in properly and the other maids will entertain you.
How do you know this?
'Lina-sama told me about it. She told me that people like this would come along sooner or later, and that I shouldn't be rough with them.
That guy!

　I thought, "I've been attacked.
　No, it's not like he did anything to me.

　The only thing Lina does is the obvious.
　She's giving me advice, she's giving the maids advice not to be crude.
　It's all behavior that I can't complain about anything.

　But because of that, I don't have the option of not meeting them.

　Not meeting them when you know them (and the maids understand the situation) is likely to backfire grandly.
　Or rather, since I've become the head of the family, I feel like that's the pattern that often backfires.

　It can't be helped.

Well I'll see you then. Show me the way.
I understand.

　He left the study with his maid and followed her out of the study and walked down the hallway.
　I felt heavy, I didn't have time to prepare for anything.

　Is there any way to cheat?

　I thought about it.
　Nero came to me because I flipped off Sakos' bribe.

　There are two possibilities for whoever does it.
　Either he's f*cking serious or he's a naive idiot.
　It's one or the other.

　I couldn't decide which one to call it.
　Playing dumber than necessary will only make it worse.
　If you're serious as shit, there's not going to be any lack of it, and it's not going to be without its pros and cons.

　Okay, let's go with the d*mn seriousness.

　Just as I was thinking this, I came to the front of the parlor.
　Oh, yeah, I'll put this on too.

　I took a ring out of my pocket and put it on.

　It's the ring that holds back the power I used before.
　If you're going to act f*cking serious, let's suppress your power and just let them see your character.

　With that in mind, I suppressed my power and then walked into the room.

　There was an old man inside.
　He had white hair and a white beard, a loose robe, and a staff that he held in both hands even while sitting.

　He is a stately old man, he looks like a wise man.

'I'm Hermes Cano. You must be the wise man Nero.
Do you know who I am?

　Nero asks back. I approach him and sit down on the edge of the room.
　I'm not going to cheat here, and there's no guarantee that he isn't laying a trap for what Lina "told me".

　I decide not to hide what I know.

"Lina-sama told me.
I see. That man with the ears of hell is as good as ever.
Hell's ear.

　So that's Nero's character assessment of Lina.
　I wonder what it would do to me.

So, what do you want from me?
I think we're done with that, don't we?
What?
It's been a while since I've seen someone who is more than just a rumor. I've been fed up with a lot of nondescript stuff in name only in these days.
Wait. What is it about me that makes me so much better than I am?
If you're going to suppress the force
What?

　I was at a loss for words.
　What? How did you know that?

'You must do so from the beginning, or on a regular basis. If the strong human presence behind the door suddenly disappears, even I'm dull, I'll notice it.
Oh...

　It's true.
　When a strong one suddenly becomes weak or loses its presence this close to you, it's natural to think something is up.

　Oh man, I did it again.
　I had to follow up--I thought.

　Nero already looked like that, completely, his assessment hardened.

'You're a nobleman, yet you were able to repel Sakos' bribery offensive, and you won't open up your power. I'd say there's a 99% chance that these types will be certain people.
What type are you?
The King's Vessel.

　Wow, that's a hell of a rating.
　No, no, no, we have to do something... or else it could backfire.

　I'll tell you what.　I think it's more important than that.

What about the other one percent?

　We have to take that possibility - but we have to take that chance.

The "Hero
They're both in trouble!

　As a result of a mediocre mistake, Nero had given me a tremendous amount of credit.