Mr. Patu's back had never once bent in Anna's memory.
He might not have been a qualified father, but from the family's perspective, he was actually a fairly good Family Head.
At the same time, he had kept the Akiner Family's spirit in excellent condition. Everyone looked upright and confident, wearing smiles as though they were true nobles.
Anna suddenly remembered something that had happened when she was young.
Her older brother, who believed he could defeat the other heirs and become the next Family Head, had gotten into a fight with someone when he was around thirteen or fourteen.
There had been no winner or loser. The person he fought was his classmate, and the reason for the fight was that the classmate had said the Akiner Family was not an Imperial Earl noble family at all, but merely servants of the nobility who had stolen everything that originally belonged to their masters.
They were a family of thieves.
For a little boy who had been indoctrinated by his family from birth, that was utterly unforgivable. His entire worldview had begun to collapse. The two of them had fought fiercely, both bleeding heavily from the nose, and he had even been knocked out of a tooth.
Mr. Patu had been furious when he learned what happened, but he did not beat the fool for it. He merely gave him a stern reprimand.
That night, however, his son had gone to ask Mr. Patu whether his classmate had been telling the truth—whether they really were servants of the nobility who had merely killed nobles and stolen everything they possessed. This was also the most widespread malicious rumor about the Akiner Family in the Federation. It could be dismissed as slander spread by people consumed by jealousy and hatred, but it