The Arldec Dukedom, which exiled Saijar, is led by Duke Poance, who was processing documents submitted by his subordinates.

"Why is there so much paperwork today of all days?" he grumbled, staring at the mountain of documents on his desk.

"It’s because Lord Saijar had been handling most of it until now," a subordinate replied.

Upon hearing Saijar’s name, Poance shot the subordinate a glare.

“I-I’m terribly sorry,” the subordinate quickly apologized, but the pile of documents only continued to grow. Until now, Saijar had been processing 90% of the paperwork, leaving only the most critical decisions to Poance. However, Poance, who had previously handled just 10%, processed documents at a much slower rate than Saijar, causing the backlog to pile up.

Saijar could read a page in about a second, and even a multi-page document took him less than 10 seconds to comprehend, always offering precise feedback. Poance, on the other hand, took several minutes just to read a single page and over 30 minutes to understand a document. Naturally, this led to the paperwork accumulating faster than Poance could process it.

Despite the mountain of documents remaining, Poance was scheduled to attend the royal castle in the afternoon.

The Kingdom of Ordrette has 10 ducal houses. Four of these are awarded to the royal family, leaving six dukedoms for the noble families. The Arldec house is one of these six.

These six dukedoms are part of the so-called court aristocracy. Court aristocrats are nobles without territories, and the Arldec house is no exception. Court aristocrats receive noble pensions from the state, but if they hold government positions, they are also paid salaries.

However, Duke Poance holds no official position. He was attending the castle today because a council meeting was to be held.

The council discusses important national matters, such as military actions and the creation, amendment, or abolition of laws.

Council members include five representatives from the court aristocracy, five from the landed nobility, and three from the royal family. As this position does not come with a salary, it is more of an honorary title. From the king’s perspective, since the council makes decisions on matters the king would normally decide, it’s likely seen as an annoyance.

Of the five court aristocrat seats, three are occupied by ducal families, with the six ducal families taking turns serving as council members. As for the other seats, it is customary for only high-ranking nobles, such as counts or higher, to be chosen.

"Have you heard? The Arldec family’s Saijar has been disinherited," a noble’s gossip reached Poance's ears as he made his way to the council chambers.

"Yes, I heard. It’s Lord Saijar, the one with the life magic skill, right?"

Poance assumed the nobles would agree that it was only natural for someone with life magic to be disinherited.

"The Duke of Arldec made a foolish mistake," another noble remarked.

Hearing this, Poance felt a surge of anger, but he knew that storming out to argue would make it seem like he was admitting fault.

"Saijar may have life magic, but didn’t the royal court magician say that his advanced magic skills were so precise that even they were impressed?"

"Not only magic. Even the Sword King said there was nothing left to teach him because of his remarkable swordsmanship talent."

"True. They’ve made Saijar’s younger brother the heir, but isn’t he just Monoglok? I’ve never heard of him hunting monsters after gaining the title of Sword Emperor."

"That guy doesn’t walk or run—he rolls! How could someone like that wield a sword?"

"Exactly, hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

Poance clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. A duke like him should not be mocked by low-ranking nobles.

Just as Poance was about to confront them, another noble joined the conversation.

"Be careful talking like that. What if Duke Arldec hears you?"

"It doesn’t matter. Even if Arldec glares at us, a duke on the decline doesn’t scare us."

"That’s right. Now that Saijar is gone and the next heir is what he is, the Arldec family is finished."

"Every noble knows that it was Saijar who held the Arldec family together."

"The Arldec family was doomed the moment they disinherited the child prodigy Saijar. Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

Poance trembled with fury, feeling the weight of the humiliation. By the time he regained his composure, the gossiping nobles had already left, and he had lost his chance for retribution.

Even at the council meeting, Poance felt the stares of the other members were different than before. Nobles who once greeted him warmly now kept their distance. Poance felt as though he were sitting on a bed of nails.

"This is all that useless brat’s fault!" Poance shouted inside the magic car on his way home from the council meeting.

"Damn it! I’ll make that useless brat pay for this!"

Despite being the one who had exiled Saijar, Poance was now angry, blaming and harboring resentment towards him. From Saijar’s perspective, it was an utterly unjust situation.