Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

I wasn’t surprised to hear this.

Even though I knew quite a bit about the duke and the Yuletide Family, that didn’t mean that he knew a lot about me.

I’m sure that during this time, the duke must have investigated me and come to the conclusion that I was useful.

I was close to the fourth prince and it seemed like I had many useful secrets, so there was no doubt that I was someone useful to him. If he could convince me to work with him, there would be countless paths opened up to the duke.

That was if he could convince me to work for him.

I didn’t answer right away as I just calmly looked at the duke.

Then crossing my arms, I leaned back in my chair and asked, ”What do you have to propose?”

The duke revealed a smile as he said, ”Well, it’s very simple. Just give me the thing that you used to control the ants and I’ll keep them safe for you. Otherwise, I’m sure that you’ll find it troublesome to keep it from the other nobles when this war is over. There’s no doubt that they will want this for themselves and you won’t be able to keep it, even if you are close to the fourth prince.”

As expected, he wanted the source of the ants, but…

I had nothing to give him.

With a snort, I said, ”Is that it? Are you saying that this is the only thing that you have to offer?”

The duke couldn’t help revealing a surprised look when he heard this.

After all, this wasn’t a small offer.

There was no doubt that there would be a lot of scrutiny that would come after this war was over because of all the things that he had done.

What he was really offering was his backing as a duke that would make things much easier for him in the future and he was asking if this was it?

If anyone else was in his shoes, there was no doubt that they would have been very moved by this offer.

He was a duke, someone that was only second to the royal family in this kingdom.

Even if he had the support of the fourth prince, one should know that the support of the royal family couldn’t be counted on other than from the king. There were power struggles that existed in the royal family, so there was no knowing when a prince would fall.

Unlike the fourth prince, his dukedom had been established for many generations and was something that could be relied on since there was no way that they would fall that easily.

Yet he didn’t seem to appreciate this offer…

The duke took a deep breath and calmly said, ”I think that you must have misheard something. Let me say it again…”

I just cut him off by saying, ”I have said that I am not interested.”

The duke couldn’t help narrowing his eyes to look at me with a gaze that was filled with scrutiny when he heard this. There was even a look in his eyes that almost seemed like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

He was clearly still talking and this count had dared to cut him off?

Where did this count even put him in his eyes?

After a long silence, the duke said in a colder voice, ”It seems like you’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

I just gave a simple nod before saying, ”It’s very simple, there’s nothing to give you since there are no ants that are left.”

The duke was taken aback when he heard this before asking in a deep voice, ”What do you mean by that?”

I calmly said, ”After the Chimera Ants took down the Vikal Kingdom army, we couldn’t just leave them to hurt the people of our kingdom. So with a heavy heart, we had no choice but to put them down.”

The duke looked at me with disbelief when he heard this.

But after a while, he couldn’t help reaching into the drawer on the side to pull out a few sheets of paper.

He didn’t even bother hiding the things that were written on these sheets of paper.

From what I could see at a glance, it seemed to be reports on what had happened during the fight with the Vikal Kingdom army.

After reading for a bit, he stopped on one part in particular and looked at it several times before suddenly revealing a smile. With that smile on his face, the duke looked at me and said, ”Even though all of the ants are currently dead, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be more ants, right? I’m sure that you must have picked up something that allows you to breed more ants.”

I shook my head with a serious look on my face before saying, ”No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The duke looked at me in doubt, so I calmly said, ”The ants were trouble for the kingdom, so naturally I couldn’t leave them be. That is all I have to say on that matter.”

The duke still had his doubts, but he could tell what my stance was based on my words.

After a moment of silence, he said in a cold voice, ”I hope that you understand where your decision will lead you. This is not a decision that you should make lightly, so I’ll give you one last chance.”

I just calmly looked back at him without saying a word.

The silence was my answer.

The duke gave a snort and said, ”Good, it seems that this was a waste of time. You can show yourself out then.”

I gave a nod and stood up to leave.

But before leaving, I turned back to ask, ”Have you ever thought about what is under you that supports you?”

The duke revealed a confused look when he heard this, but he didn’t deem to give me an answer.

That was all the answer that I needed, so I didn’t bother saying anything else and left.

This man was as I had thought he was.