Chapter 101: Home coming (to a sick Edmund)

Kai arrived in the capital after twelve days of hard travel. Without the System as map and guide, he would have gotten lost more than once. The route had been long, direct, and tiring, and by the time the capital came into view he was ready to stand on stable ground again.

He landed at the Valerius residence and stopped on the front path.

The house looked better than when he left.

That fact hit him immediately. The outer walls had been repaired. The overgrown garden had been cut back and arranged into order. The windows were whole. The front steps were clean and even. Even the entrance looked maintained. Kai had arranged for his monthly adventurer stipends to be sent directly to the household, and from the condition of the estate, those payments had not been small. Someone had handled the money with care and used it on the right things.

He stood there for a moment and took it in.

This was not the neglected house he had walked away from. This was a residence that had been brought back under control.

The main door opened before he reached it.

A young man in formal butler clothes stepped outside. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and clearly muscular under the jacket. He stood much taller than Kai and held himself with control. His posture was correct, his clothes were neat, and still there was something under the surface that felt dangerous. For a reason Kai could not fully explain, the man gave him Elias vibes. Not in appearance. In presence. In the sense that there was force under the manners.

The man bowed.

"Welcome, Master Kai. We have been expecting you. I am Duke, the butler of the Valerius residence. Overseer Gorran hired me."

Kai frowned.

"You have been expecting me?"

He had not sent word ahead. He had not written. He had not told anyone in the capital that he was on his way back.

"Yes, young master," Duke said. "Old man Gorran told us to prepare for your return. He believed you would arrive soon."

Duke smiled when he said it. The smile was polite, but there was a sharp edge under it. Kai looked him over from boots to collar and narrowed his eyes. There was a monster in there. He could feel it. The question was what would trigger it, and whether Kai could force it out if he tried.

He did not rely on instinct alone.

He used Arcane Eye and ran advanced appraisal.

[Target: Duke]

[Position: Butler of House Valerius]

[Mana signature: major]

[Estimated combat class equivalent: S-rank range]

[Note: high physical threat potential under formal conduct]

Kai was not shocked. He had already felt that something was off. This only confirmed it. The butler standing in front of him was not ordinary household staff. He was S-rank material dressed in formal service clothes.

Even so, Kai did not pursue it. Gorran had hired him. That mattered. Kai trusted Gorran’s judgment more than he trusted most people. If Gorran had placed this man in the house, then Duke was here for a reason.

Still, one absence mattered more than the butler’s hidden strength.

"Where is Gorran?" Kai asked.

Duke bowed.

"He is in his room, sir."

Kai’s chest tightened.

"What? Is he alright? Why did he not come out to greet me?"

Duke’s expression became more careful.

"Please come with me, sir."

That answer was enough to tell Kai that something was wrong. He followed Duke into the manor at once. Duke carried his belongings without complaint and walked ahead with long, controlled steps.

Inside, the renovation was even clearer.

The halls were clean. The wood had been polished. Old damaged furniture was gone. The places that used to show neglect had been repaired and filled in. The house no longer looked abandoned. It was restored and lived in. There were proper runners on the floors. The side tables were intact. The air no longer carried the stale weight of a building left alone too long.

Kai took it all in as he walked.

This had cost money and steady work. It also had the mark of Gorran’s practical mind all over it. No empty luxury for show. Useful repairs. Clean structure. A house put back into working order.

"How long has the restoration been going on?" Kai asked.

"For some months, young master," Duke replied. "Overseer Gorran directed most of it himself until recently. After that, he continued giving instructions from his room."

"Until recently," Kai repeated.

"Yes."

They went up the stairs and into a quieter corridor. Duke stopped at one door, knocked once, and opened it.

"Young master," he said, then stepped aside.

Kai went in and stopped.

Gorran lay on the bed.

He was thinner than Kai remembered. His skin looked dull. His breaths were shallow. The man who had kept House Valerius running through its worst years now looked close to death. There was medicine on the side table. The room itself was clean and well kept. Someone had been attending him properly. That did not change the state he was in.

Kai saw the truth immediately.

Gorran did not have much time left.

The System confirmed it.

[Vital signs critical.]

[Projected remaining time: three days maximum.]

[No current Host intervention can reverse the decline.]

Three days.

The number settled hard in Kai’s mind.

Gorran’s eyes opened slowly. They wandered across the room first, unfocused, then found Kai. His mouth moved into a weak smile.

"Young master... you are finally back."

Kai’s throat tightened.

"Hi, Gorran."

He crossed to the bed and sat down in the chair beside it. Up close, the condition was worse. This was not a light illness and it was not a short fever. Gorran’s body had been worn down to the edge.

"You fixed the house," Kai said.

Gorran made a thin sound that almost became a laugh.

"I could not let you return to a ruin. I refused to leave you shame."

Kai shook his head.

"You should have written. You should have told me you were sick."

"And then what?" Gorran’s voice was weak, but some of his old dryness was still there. "Call you back so you could watch an old man decline? No. Better you come home to standing walls."

Kai looked around the room once, then back at him.

"You used the stipends well."

"That was the point of them," Gorran said. "A house does not restore itself. Workers need pay. Materials need ordering. Duke handled the heavier tasks when I could not."

Kai glanced toward the door where Duke still waited in silence.

"You hired a young capable man i suppose."

"I did." Gorran’s eyes shifted briefly toward the butler. "He is young, rude under the surface, and stronger than most men who enter service. That is why I chose him. This house needed more than a gentle attendant. It needed someone who could keep it standing if trouble walked through the front door."

Kai nodded once.

"He reads as trobule "

Gorran gave another weak almost-laugh.

"Of course he does. Do not test him for fun. I did not hire him for your experiments."

"I was not going to."

"You were most likely thinking about it."

Kai did not deny that.

Duke remained by the door with his eyes lowered, silent and correct, as if he had not just been discussed like a weapon in formal clothes.

Kai looked back at Gorran and took his hand. It was light and dry. The strength Kai remembered in that grip was mostly gone.

"I thought I had more time," Kai said.

Gorran’s gaze softened.

"Everyone thinks that."

For a while after that, neither of them forced the conversation. The room stayed quiet except for Gorran’s shallow breaths and the small sounds of the house beyond the door. Kai kept his seat and did not let go of his hand.

Eventually Gorran spoke again.

"There are ledgers on the desk. Household accounts. Supply lines. Repair records. Duke knows the current suppliers and which ones cheat if no one checks them. Trust him with the work. He looks like trouble because he is trouble, but he is loyal."

Kai glanced at the desk. Several books sat there in a neat stack, sorted and labeled with the same practical care Gorran had always used.

"I will go through them," Kai said.

"Do more than go through them. Learn the house again. You left it as a boy under pressure. You have returned as a man with money, enemies, and no excuse for ignorance."

Kai’s mouth tightened.

"That is blunt."

"I am dying," Gorran said. "I do not have time to decorate my advice."

The directness hit harder than raised volume would have. Kai held his hand a little more carefully.

"Is there nothing the healers can do?"

"They did what could be done," Gorran replied. "Some declines do not reverse because a person pays for better sheets. My body is finished. That is all."

Kai lowered his head for a second and then lifted it again.

"I should have come back sooner."

"And I should have stayed younger," Gorran said. "We can waste the next hour on useless statements if you want, or you can sit there and let an old man look at the boy he waited for."

Despite everything, Kai let out a short broken breath.

"You are so difficult."

"That is how I lasted this long."

Evening came. Duke brought water and medicine, adjusted the tray, and left again without being asked to speak. A lamp was lit on the side table. Gorran’s voice grew weaker as the light changed, and the gaps between his words grew longer. Kai stayed in the chair and listened to every thin sentence like it mattered, because it did.

"Do not waste the house," Gorran said later. "Do not waste yourself either. You always looked like a boy trying to outrun a fate too large for one body. Sit still sometimes."

Kai swallowed.

"I am not very good at that."

"Then learn." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Another stretch of quiet passed. Gorran’s eyes closed, opened, closed again. Each time they found Kai, some small amount of tension left his face.

Kai stayed in the chair until even that distance started to feel wrong. He stood, moved to the edge of the bed, and sat there carefully so he would not jostle him. When Gorran did not object, Kai remained at the bedside and rested one hand against the old man’s hair, moving it in a slow, steady line.

"I am here," Kai said.

Gorran’s mouth shifted into another small smile.

"Finally."

Kai did not leave the room again that night. He remained by the bed as the hours passed, listening to the shallow breaths and holding the present moment without trying to dress it up as more than it was. Gorran had kept the house alive long after it deserved to collapse. Now the house was repaired, staffed, and standing, and the man responsible was the one fading.

At some point Gorran drifted into unstable sleep. Kai stayed where he was. He thought about the capital outside these walls, about the routes waiting for him, about the enemies and unfinished business still attached to his name. All of it could wait a few hours. None of it mattered more than the fact that the person who had held this household together through the worst years was finally seeing him home.

In the end, Kai fell asleep there beside the sickbed, turned toward Gorran, one hand near his, present for as long as he could remain.