I Picked Up My Father Who Left Home 123
One noble, who expressed the most dissatisfaction with Lia’s remarks, could not hide his displeasure and spoke harshly.
“No matter what, just because you’re a duke, that’s going too far…”
“Well, from my perspective, it doesn’t seem too far off. It appears that none of you are willing to properly participate in the meeting. So, as Duke Sithran suggested, going out and fighting might not be a bad idea.”
The emperor interjected, cutting off the noble’s complaints. He, too, was far from pleased with the chaotic atmosphere of the meeting room.
Though discussions about demons always seemed to spiral into such disarray, it wasn’t something he could easily overlook.
Previously, under the moderation of the former Duke Sithran, these discussions had been somewhat orderly. But now, the one occupying that role was Lia.
It wasn’t that he doubted Lia’s abilities as the leader of the Sithran Duke House.
Just moments ago, she had willingly stepped forward to mediate and had made valid points.
The issue was that Lia had not yet established the same level of influence among the other nobles as her predecessor.
Thus, even as the emperor, he couldn’t fully leave the task of mediation to her and had to step in for her support, reinforcing her stance.
Thanks to the emperor’s intervention, the complaining noble closed his mouth.
With the emperor taking such a firm stance, the noble realized that pushing the matter further would do him no good.
“Then let us resume the meeting,”
The emperor said after confirming the atmosphere had calmed down somewhat.
“If you’re going to present opinions befitting your title, I’d appreciate it if you could also provide reasonable evidence. Opinions without grounds are nothing more than baseless claims. Surely, no one here is ignorant of such a basic principle, right?”
Lia’s tone, while calm and deliberate, carried weight and sharpness in its content.
“Now then… You mentioned that the increase in demon attacks is due to the negligence of the ability users. What is the basis for that claim?”
Realizing it was unrealistic to expect the nobles to manage the meeting on their own, Lia stepped in once more to prevent the discussion from spiraling out of control.
“That’s because… Otherwise, what reason would there be for the sudden increase in demon attacks?”
One noble, softened by Lia’s composed tone, replied in a much gentler voice.
“Though the empire’s ability users are remarkable, I don’t think their presence is the sole factor influencing the number of demons. Couldn’t external factors be increasing the frequency of attacks? Therefore, we need different evidence.”
Lia calmly refuted the noble’s argument.
While there was some degree of correlation between demons and ability users, it wasn’t absolute.
“Well, that’s…”
Faced with Lia’s logical rebuttal, the noble hesitated, unable to provide a clear answer.
In truth, there was no solid evidence to support blaming the ability users for all these events.
It was merely a political maneuver aimed at diminishing the influence of the ability user family heads.
Faced with the noble’s hesitation, Lia maintained a neutral stance, as if she merely wanted to confirm the facts, and spoke again.
“Let’s clarify one thing. Have you ever witnessed the ability users failing to fulfill their demon-slaying duties?”
“Well….”
Once again, the noble found it difficult to answer.
After all, the only time this noble had ever seen the ability users handling demon subjugation was when he accompanied them once, shortly after inheriting his title.
Therefore, he had no firsthand experience of whether they were fulfilling their duties properly or not.
Rather than directly pressuring the noble, Lia posed another question.
“Or, during a demon attack, was there ever a delay in their deployment or inadequacy in their response?”
“No, that hasn’t been the case,”
The noble admitted, shaking his head.
In a meeting attended by the emperor and most of the prominent nobles, lying was not an option.
A lie could easily jeopardize his position.
“In that case, it seems the ability users are sufficiently fulfilling their duties. Don’t you think?”
Lia led the noble toward admitting the truth instead of drawing her own conclusions.
After all, if she made her conclusions without their acknowledgment, it would lead to a pointless argument without achieving anything.
“Well, that might be true, but….”
The noble hesitated, unable to readily concede, but eventually nodded reluctantly. He couldn’t deny that there was no evidence to support the claim that the ability users weren’t fulfilling their duties.
The argument the noble had brought forward was already disproven.
Opinions without evidence would never gain recognition.
Having resolved one side of the argument, Lia then turned her attention to the ability user family heads.
For the meeting to proceed smoothly, it was essential to consider and integrate the opinions of both sides.
Since the non-ability-user family heads had voiced their concerns, it was now the turn of the ability user family heads to speak.
“Now, I’d like to ask those directly responsible for demon subjugation. What do you think might be the cause of this sudden situation?”
“We don’t know either. However, one thing is certain: recently, for reasons we don’t understand, there have been changes not only in the number of demons but also in their behavior.”
There had never been such a noticeable increase in demon numbers before.
Until now, their numbers had remained relatively stable, and the ability users had done their best to ensure they did not increase.
Despite this, the number of demons had been rising recently.
And that wasn’t all.
Their range of activity was also changing.
Typically, demons did not stray far from their main habitats. They ventured out only to hunt for food and would attack other creatures when necessary.
The scarcer the prey in their surroundings, the broader their range of activity became. When their population grew, they expanded their territories, which in turn widened their range.
But this time… things were different.
Even with abundant prey in their vicinity, the demons were invading human settlements.
Moreover, they were actively expanding their territories, encroaching upon human domains.
And the problems didn’t end there.
There was a certain consistency in the demons’ movements.
Despite being creatures that usually settled in one location without moving much, they were gradually shifting their bases and moving toward the central region.
As if there was something they were looking for in the center.
What’s more, their movements were becoming increasingly organized.
Naturally, this made the task of exterminating them far more challenging than before.
To make matters worse, each individual demon seemed to be growing stronger.
After the ability user family head explained all of this, the meeting room fell silent for a moment.
The situation was more severe than anyone had anticipated.
However, not all the nobles were in agreement with the ability user family head’s statements.
One noble, revealing his skepticism, spoke in a sarcastic tone.
“Do you have any evidence to support your claims? Otherwise, it sounds like nothing more than an excuse to evade your responsibilities.”
After all, suspicious movements of demons or any other such claims were things that non-ability users couldn’t easily verify.
Therefore, it was difficult for them to take the words of the ability users at face value.
Who knows?
Perhaps they were exaggerating minor issues to elevate their own authority.
Hearing this, the ability user family head who first spoke grew visibly irritated.
Before the tension between the ability user nobles and the non-ability user nobles could escalate further, Lia intervened.
“This might serve as evidence,”
She took out a report she had prepared just in case and made it available for all the nobles in the meeting room to review.
The emperor also received a copy of the report from Lia and began reading its contents.
The report contained statistical data that supported the claims made by the ability user family head.
Details included the frequency of demon attacks, the circumstances during those attacks, and the number of demons involved.
It also documented how a specific group of demons had shifted their base every month over the past year and the extent to which their numbers had changed.
Additionally, the report provided an in-depth record of the demon subjugation efforts.
This included the timeline of operations, the number of demons killed during each operation, and any noteworthy observations made during the process.
Faced with such precise figures and detailed accounts, the nobles were left speechless.
It was truly impressive.
Despite this being Lia’s first meeting as a duke, she had anticipated this topic might arise and had gathered the necessary information in advance.
Considering that Lia had only recently become the head of the Sithran Duke House, it was all the more remarkable.
In the midst of solidifying her position as the head, she had managed to prepare all of this.
At this point, the nobles had no choice but to acknowledge her competence.
She was undoubtedly an excellent duke, with her youth being the only flaw they could point out.
“Does this explanation suffice?”
Lia asked in a calm tone, having given the nobles ample time to thoroughly read through the report.
The nobles, each with their own impressions, nodded one by one.
“To solve a problem, we must first understand its cause, but I agree with Count Rison’s opinion that pinpointing the cause here and now is difficult.”
“…Indeed, that seems to be the case,”
“For now, I believe we should focus on addressing the immediate situation and gradually uncover the root cause. What does everyone think?”
