The hard link between Paul and the Notos Greyrat family has been talked about before, so I won't go into too much detail here.
In short, although Paul gave up the Notos family name and became an adventurer, he still actually has the right to inherit the Notos family.
And in a medieval world like this, as the oldest son of the Notos family, Paul's claim is much stronger than Pilemon's, who is the second son.
So, if Paul really wanted to claim back the inheritance rights of Notos Greyrat, there would be no problem with the process.
Of course, Paul himself doesn't have this idea. He already has a pretty easy and comfortable retirement life in Buena Village. It's impossible for him to just put on a noble title and cause trouble for no reason.
But, not everyone agrees with Paul's own thinking.
At least, the Notos family has always been wary of Paul's existence, worrying that Paul might suddenly return and stir up the family that they've worked so hard to stabilize.
Even if Paul himself isn't interested, Paul's son could still use Paul's strong claim to gain status if he becomes interested in the noble position.
If they could, the Notos family would definitely hope that Paul would just die out there and not leave any descendants. But their hopes can't change anything. Paul is still doing very well, and he even has sons and daughters.
Whether Paul's family has the ambition to seize power or not, the Notos family will inevitably be very wary of them.
This is undoubtedly why Luke is reacting so strongly now.
He clearly sees Shirou as a competitor who will fight for the inheritance of the Notos family. In fact, this is perfectly fine legally.
But, all of this is just Luke's own assumption. Shirou has no intention of inheriting a noble position.
He and Paul have a clear agreement on this point.
That is, compared to freedom, power and titles are just chains that restrict him. He wouldn't actively put something so uncomfortable on himself.
Of course, all of this is just Shirou's inner thinking, and he can't let outsiders know.
In reality, no matter what he says, he can't dispel Luke's wariness of him.
So Shirou simply gave up trying to explain, and just watched Luke in front of him in silence.
But in Luke's eyes, Shirou's attitude is nothing short of a taunt.
Luke can't back down on the matter of family inheritance rights.
To the point that even Ariel couldn't solve the problem, and it's about to turn into a chaotic fight.
In this bad situation, someone suddenly walked in from outside the door, easing the environment that was like a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.
Philip suddenly appeared as the actual decision-maker of Boreas, opening his mouth with a smile, "Oh my, isn't this Shirou? Why aren't you teaching Eris swordsmanship? What are you doing here?"
"Philip?"
Shirou was confused by Philip's attitude of asking questions he already knew the answer to, as everyone knew that Eris was currently learning to dance and couldn't possibly have time to practice swordsmanship.
Philip continued to speak on his own, "As a swordsmanship teacher, our Boreas family pays you according to the rules. If you can't achieve satisfactory results, you'll be fired."
"This... I know."
Shirou nodded, finally realizing that Philip was giving him a way out so that he could temporarily leave this complicated scene.
With Philip giving him an excuse, Luke couldn't immediately get angry, no matter how many thoughts he had in his mind.
The two sides were temporarily separated.
"This is really..."
After leaving the room, Philip couldn't help but hold his forehead, clearly distressed, "I didn't expect my father to be so careless and reveal your identity to Pilemon's son. Now the Notos family will definitely be extremely wary of our Boreas, worrying that Boreas wants to support you in usurping the position of the Notos family."
"I don't have that idea."
Shirou shook his head.
"But I do."
"???"
Seeing Shirou's face full of question marks, Philip couldn't help but laugh, patting his shoulder, "Haha, I'm just kidding. Of course, if you don't want to take it as a joke, I can get serious right away. After all, Boreas has been away from the power politics of the royal capital for too long, and if we can find a suitable excuse, Boreas can return directly to the royal capital, which is not impossible."
"..."
Shirou didn't respond to Philip's words.
He had long understood that this head of the Boreas family was definitely not someone without any ambitions. The other party had grand ambitions in his heart that were far beyond imagination, but he just hadn't had the chance to show them.
If Shirou was as greedy as Philip and interested in power and position, he would probably follow the conversation at this moment and accept the other party's proposal.
But unfortunately, Shirou is not that kind of person.
He cares more about the peace right now than future power and position. If his own desires were to cause the people around him to be in danger, that would undoubtedly be something he couldn't accept.
So Shirou quickly denied Philip's proposal, refusing, "I'm not interested in this. Philip, don't mention it again."
"Alright."
Philip's emotions came and went quickly, perhaps he just hid them well, "In that case, I'll help you explain to Luke that you have no intention of inheriting the Notos position, and the Boreas family will guarantee it. He should be able to feel more at ease."
"Thank you."
Shirou nodded, grateful for Philip's actions.
Philip waved his hand with a smile, and then said, "By the way, I wasn't just giving you a way out just now. Eris's situation is really a bit off right now, you'd better go and check it out quickly."
"Situation is off?"
Shirou looked puzzled.
Philip opened his mouth with a helpless expression, "Ah, it's embarrassing to say, today is Eris's birthday party, and we originally planned to have Eris perform a dance at the party to show her charm to the people of the territory. But you know Eris's personality, these days, as soon as she starts practicing dancing, she'll immediately run off to hide somewhere, resulting in extremely slow progress."
"So Eris still hasn't learned to dance yet?"
"Pretty much..."
Philip's tone was quite helpless.
He knew his daughter's temper very well, but he couldn't think of a strategy to educate Eris well.
During this period of time, Shirou's education of Eris had been quite effective, making Eris a little more obedient than before, so he came to Shirou for help.
"The party is about to start tonight, at least get Eris to go to the party venue. If she, as the main character, is unwilling to attend, then it'll really be a big problem."
Philip's tone was very heavy, obviously very helpless about this.
Shirou also realized how much trouble Eris had caused because of this, and he nodded quickly, "I understand, I'll go find Eris."
"Okay, then I'll leave it to you, Shirou."
Philip wasn't too surprised that Shirou would agree to this.
After all, Shirou has been quite helpful since he came to the Boreas family, and he even has strange nicknames like "Wish-granting Shirou help me" and "Lord Shirou".
Of course, most people don't have any bad intentions about this.
On the contrary, Shirou's reputation in the Boreas family is extremely high now, and it's almost catching up to Sauros, who is the lord.
Philip wasn't just helping Shirou one-sidedly. He said very warmly now, "When it's Shirou's birthday next time, I will definitely have the Boreas family prepare a good one for you, you can look forward to it!"
"This... alright."
Although he didn't really want to look forward to any birthday, Shirou also knew that he couldn't stop the other party.
In short, after accepting Philip's request, Shirou quickly went to find Eris.
He went straight to the high ground of Boreas Castle. After activating Eagle Eye, he quickly saw the figure of a red-haired person, sneaking around and lying in the stables.
"Hmph!"
When Shirou approached, Eris was sulking alone.
Shirou came to Eris's side and sat down next to her.
If the old Shirou had gotten so close to Eris, he would probably have been kicked away by her, but now Eris didn't resist at all when she felt him coming. Instead, she leaned her head on Shirou's back without any scruples, opening her mouth angrily, "My dad sent you to find me, right."
"Yeah."
Shirou and Eris sat back to back on the haystack in the stables. "I heard you're not willing to attend the birthday party this afternoon, so Philip sent me to persuade you."
Shirou didn't lie at all, silently stating the facts.
"Hmph, I will definitely not go to that damn party!"
"Why?"
"Because I don't want to go!"
Seeing Eris's stubbornness, Shirou was silent for a moment, and then said silently, "Eris, are you afraid of failing?"
"W-what..."
"You're afraid of losing face at the party and being laughed at by others."
"I, how, how could I..."
Eris stammered to deny it, but her reaction undoubtedly said everything.
Shirou didn't become confident because he had seen through Eris's mind. He just muttered with a lot of memories, "I used to be like you, very, very afraid of failing. When I thought about the consequences of failing, when I thought about the eyes of the people around me, I would uncontrollably become fearful. I was afraid to do the things I should do. However, because of my cowardice, a very bad thing happened. To this day, I'm still regretting my cowardice..."
"Shirou, you regret things too?"
"What, do you think I'm someone who never fails?"
Shirou looked at Eris with a smile.
His overly warm expression made Eris couldn't help but look away.
Shirou then said silently, "So, what I want to say is, don't be afraid of failing, and don't be afraid of the consequences, because when you become afraid of the things you must do and try to avoid them, you will often usher in an even more painful ending. At that time, you will really regret why you didn't make up your mind to do it right away. It's better to not be able to win even after trying your best than to give up and surrender from the beginning."
As Shirou spoke, he recalled himself completely falling apart after Miyu was taken away by the Ainsworth family.
If his junior classmate Sakura hadn't awakened him with her life, he would probably have been trapped in pain and regret for the rest of his life.
"..."
At the same time, Eris turned her head and saw Shirou's attitude of being lost in memories, and for a moment, she had a complicated expression on her face. She was obviously seeing Shirou show such a sad look for the first time.
She could feel similar feelings, and could even vaguely feel Shirou's unspeakable regret.
"Okay, I'll go to the party then."
As Eris spoke, she stood up and even voluntarily patted Shirou's head. "Don't show me that expression anymore."
"Why?"
Shirou couldn't help but smile when he didn't expect Eris to put on such an adult-like look in front of him.
Eris then said very seriously, "Because I'm going to protect you from now on. No matter what happens, I'll protect you, Shirou, you can definitely believe me!"
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