87. My Wife’s First Love (2)
When his eldest son declared that he would not inherit the title of Count, Count Petrovsky merely scoffed at it as teenage rebellion.
“Leave the Petrovsky family and try living as you please.”
This was exactly what Pavel wanted.
He had been disgusted with the family tradition that treated non-nobles as less than human.
There were more times when he felt ashamed rather than proud of the Petrovsky name.
At one point, he thought perhaps he could change things little by little if he became the lord.
A family line encompassed not only the immediate family but also all the relatives attached to it.
His relatives, simply because they were boyars of the same bloodline, clung to the Petrovsky family and indulged in luxury one after another.
While they treated commoners and the lowest class like insects, to Pavel’s eyes, they were the monsters and insects.
They were parasites who sucked the blood of the Petrovsky territory residents to fill only their own bellies.
When he couldn’t even change his parents and siblings, it was nearly impossible to change relatives and, furthermore, noble society alone.
If their eldest son whom they were always proud of disappeared, wouldn’t his parents come to their senses?
Pavel left the family with such a glimmer of expectation and hope.
Count Petrovsky thought that this immature son would soon return once he personally experienced how difficult life would be outside.
However, the eldest son did not return even after years had passed, and the second son, Ivan, only caused trouble as he grew up.
“Brother has no intention of coming back, right? It’s been years since we lost contact. So who will become the next Count? I’m the only remaining son, so obviously it should be me.”
Seeing Ivan, who was sent to study abroad but instead used his heir status as a shield to borrow money in gambling houses instead of studying, the Count realized:
At this rate, our family will truly fall in the next generation.
After engaging in a battle of pride, he belatedly searched for his eldest son and reunited with him at a jousting tournament.
The hands that should have been holding a pen were holding a lance and sword.
Moreover, his martial skills were exceptional. He easily surpassed knights and soldiers who lived by fighting.
“The winner of this jousting tournament has been decided. Pavel!”
His son had entered the competition having abandoned even his family name.
Until the winner mounted the award stage, people didn’t know he was Pavel of the Petrovsky family.
When he removed his helmet, the southern nobles who finally recognized Pavel couldn’t hide their astonishment.
And that soon turned into cheers.
“Your Grace, you must be so proud to have such an excellent son!”
“We hadn’t seen him in social circles, so this is what you were preparing. It was truly wise not to reveal his family name. There would have been complaints about fairness from the commoner participants anyway.”
“Indeed. If my son could even match Lord Pavel’s skills slightly, I would have no regrets. I envy you, Your Grace.”
Under the shower of envious gazes, the Count and Countess’ shoulders couldn’t rise high enough.
Although like most boyars they had never had actual jobs, holding high positions in the government was something every ambitious man dreamed of.
Having a high-ranking officer, no, a cavalry general from the family was a great honor.
“As the winner has the right to choose their position, do you perhaps already have somewhere in mind?”
“About your son. If he hasn’t decided on a position yet, in my knight order–”
“Hold on there! You don’t need to listen to this person. For national security, he should naturally start as an officer under me–”
Watching people competing to recruit Pavel, Count Petrovsky smiled faintly.
“No. Please reject my son wherever he chooses.”
“What do you mean?”
“My son didn’t enter this competition as a member of the Petrovsky family. Though his martial skills are excellent, he’s still immature and hasn’t returned home due to a small quarrel with his father.”
“Ho ho, so that’s what happened.”
“Please help ensure my son doesn’t continue his filial impiety. When he realizes he has nowhere to go despite proving his skills, he’ll return. Then we’ll decide his position again.”
His strategy worked perfectly in the conservative noble society that emphasized parent-child etiquette.
The winner was supposed to choose from places expressing recruitment interest within a week after the award ceremony, but everyone colluded to thoroughly ignore this winner.
Pavel couldn’t even enter the Grand Duke’s knight order that he had originally wanted to join.
Due to the boyars’ interference, they spread rumors that Pavel was already under contract elsewhere, making them give up on recruitment proposals preemptively.
The only place that reached out to Pavel was a knight order from a small province.
Pavel chose that place, thinking he would work hard wherever he went.
However, that too was a trap already set by Count Petrovsky.
He received no treatment as a winner and, when he enetered as a new knight, wasn’t even included in training and was only given menial tasks.
During this time, he accidentally discovered corruption in a company supplying armor to knight orders across the country.
“A knight has already died during training because his armor was pierced. How can something this thin and poorly made be called armor? Not to mention, the unit price is ridiculously higher than other suppliers in the market. We must report this to the authorities.”
“It’s pointless anyway.”
“Is it because the dead knight was a commoner? Would you have covered it up like this if he had been a boyar?”
“Boyars would never face such a situation. Boyar knights’ armor is made separately.”
“What?”
Pavel was at a loss for words at the knight commander’s shameless admission.
“The high unit price means there’s something to skim off in between. Did you really think I didn’t know and just let it slide? It’s common practice. Even though we receive government support, maintaining a knight order in a land without war is already operating at a loss. As compensation for this, lords embezzle in between. It would be harder to find a knight order that doesn’t do this.”
“Commander!”
“Everyone turns a blind eye to each other. Do you think your father or my father would be clean if we investigated their past? That’s why we accept second sons and younger who are excluded from inheritance as members.”
This commander too, though lacking in ability, had secured his position simply by being a boyar and hanging on through seniority in one place until his turn came.
This was why Hersen’s military discipline was becoming lax and there were increasing numbers of nobles who did nothing but receive government wages.
Even if someone caught the eye of military officers or knight order operators at jousting tournaments except for winners, they couldn’t get promoted due to noble-born individuals and remained in low positions.
There was no place for capable commoners to begin with.
“Anyway, since we’re not harmed, we can just let it slide. Cases like today where luck runs bad are actually rare.”
“Are you leaving people’s lives to luck?”
“Did we know they would die?”
“Then can we also use the same armor distributed to commoner knights? Since there’s no way we would die.”
“But you never know, right?”
It was a world where between ‘surely not’ and ‘just in case’, someone’s life was treated preciously with excessive safety measures while another’s was treated like an ant’s life.
“Who’s worried about whom……”
“Pardon?”
“Rather than staying here worrying about commoners, why don’t you finally give in to your father and return home?”
“What do you……”
“Haven’t you noticed yet? Don’t you think it’s strange that you, the winner of the last jousting tournament, are doing such humble work and being treated as a low-ranking knight in such a shabby place?”
That’s how he learned that all of this was orchestrated by his father.
Pavel finally left the knight order. But he didn’t return to the Petrovsky family.
He now realized that expecting anything from his family was a waste of time.
He thought that losing a son would change his father at least a little.
But now he understood. His father didn’t support his children wherever they were, but only considered them sons if they were Petrovsky.
After giving up on joining a knight order, he wandered around until settling in a region and created a militia to protect residents in a high-crime area infested with bandits.
It was almost volunteer work that barely made any money, but Pavel felt a sense of purpose in life for the first time since he was born.
He was happy even eating meals with potatoes and hard bread while villagers he met during patrol thanked him and gave him food instead of payment.
When he saw people constantly bowing their heads in gratitude, he felt his hunger dissipate even without eating.
***
“The day I left the knight order and disappeared, Count Petrovsky was furious and completely removed me from the family. Even the country no longer vouches for my former status. I am now a commoner. And I don’t regret that choice.”
A faint smile appeared on Pavel’s lips.
Nikolai, who had been quietly listening to his story, finally spoke.
“You chose to become a commoner, but you didn’t choose to have your skills unrecognized and be discriminated against, did you?”
“Pardon?”
“You being a commoner is one thing, but being blocked from opportunities to demonstrate your skills as a jousting tournament winner for unjust reasons is another matter.”
Katya somehow knew what he was going to say.
Meanwhile, Pavel still seemed unaware.
“Let me relay the message that our knight commander misunderstood and couldn’t deliver then.”
“……”
“Work with me. The position of Grand Duke’s Guard Captain was vacant anyway. I guarantee as Grand Duke that the treatment will be the best in the industry. Be a working-level voice beside me for new military system reforms. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”
Yes. This is what makes him the Grand Duke.
Katya’s eyes weren’t wrong.
This was the kind of man she had fallen in love with.
