I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Body Gets Even Stronger. Learning About the Hidden Feelings Father Had for His Son

『MP has gone up by 1.
Your current max MP is now 33』

Right then, the system voice echoed inside my head.

Thanks to yesterday’s training—where I kept spamming Heal while Valeria kept feeding me mana—my max MP had already shot up quite a bit.

Still, I’m nowhere near the point where I can fight the imperial army on my own with magic.

Before the Dalham Castle capture operation, I really needed to push my max MP higher if possible. Just in case something unexpected happens and I get separated from Valeria, I’ve gotta be able to handle myself.

“Alright, next up is magic training. Let’s keep this momentum and pump that max MP way up. Valeria, I’m counting on you.”

“Ehh? Leave it to me, no problem!”

This time we grabbed the small stones and monster horns we’d prepared ahead of time and started slamming Excessive Recovery onto them one after another, turning them straight into sand.

Couldn’t just keep wrecking the warehouse supplies on my own, after all.

I’d actually wanted to test the spell on living monsters too, but since I’m keeping my real strength hidden, doing that kind of thing out in the open was out of the question.

So we stayed holed up in the warehouse where no one could see us and kept grinding magic training until the sun went down.

『MP has gone up by 1.
Your current max MP is now 42』

Things were going really smoothly—until.

“Zenon! Zenon, are you in thereee?!”

Father’s furious roar suddenly filled the warehouse.

When I looked over, there he was—Sword Saint Baldo, standing at the entrance, absolutely livid.

Looked like things were unfolding exactly the way I’d planned.

This was something we needed for the Dalham Castle strategy.

By spreading rumors around the territory that the rift between me and Father had gotten really bad, it would make my fake surrender to the imperial army sound way more believable.

“Father, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong, you say? You went and sold off my jars without permission, then used that money to throw a huge, flashy party last night, didn’t you?!”

The moment I stepped in front of him, he grabbed me by the collar without another word.

Yup, exactly right. We did hold a party—officially to welcome Valeria.

And through Felix I deliberately let Father hear an exaggerated, ridiculous version of what went down.

Told him I’d handed out tons of booze to the guards, got wasted myself, partied all night like an idiot, and completely let loose.

For someone who’d been put in charge of defending the main castle, that kind of behavior was straight-up unacceptable.

In reality, ninety percent of the money from selling Father’s jars went straight to hiring mercenaries. And the guards only got one cup each—just enough to be sociable, nothing that would actually get them drunk.

“Yes, well… you ordered me to keep Valeria happy, didn’t you? Didn’t like how I did it?”

I gave a sarcastic little smirk and played up the sulky, rebellious attitude.

“Anyway, I’ve got that defective skill, right? Completely useless on the battlefield. So I figured I might as well just stay in the back and at least keep a lady entertained.”

“You… you’ve completely gone rotten, haven’t you?!”

Father’s iron fist slammed straight into my stomach—a perfect, clean hit.

The insane impact sent me flying backward and I crashed hard into a big stack of lumber.

“Zenon!?”

Valeria’s voice came out almost like a scream. She immediately rounded on Father, furious.

“Lord Baldo, don’t you think that was a bit much…!?”

The pain was so bad it almost made me black out. Probably heavy bruising all over, plus a few cracked ribs at least.

But the timing was perfect—the pile of lumber collapsed and completely buried me from sight.

That meant Father wouldn’t see me using Super Recovery to fix the injuries.

From what I knew of his personality, I’d already figured he’d hold back just enough with the punch so I wouldn’t die, and I’d end up getting slammed into something like this.

“Hmph. I went easy on you, believe it or not. Stay in bed and think hard about what you’ve done!”

I could still hear Father’s voice boiling with anger as he stormed off.

Sorry for tricking you, but this should definitely spread the rumor of bad blood between me and Father all across the territory.

“Sorry you had to see something so unsightly, Lady Valeria. Starting tomorrow I’d really like you to stand on the battlefield with us—would that be alright?”

“…Of course. I came here to bring victory to this land, after all.”

Father looked genuinely apologetic when he heard the displeasure in Valeria’s voice.

“I’m truly grateful. My foolish son may be hopeless, but… please don’t give up on him.”

“Don’t worry. I love Zenon.”

“Ohhh, how wonderful! Lady Valeria, you’re far too good for someone like Zenon—you’re an incredible wife!”

Father bowed deeply to Valeria, showing real respect.

Still… even if those words “I love Zenon” were just lip service for Father’s sake, hearing them hit me somewhere deep in the chest.

“Your father Ernst and I have been close friends since our school days… I can’t thank him enough for sending help this time.”

“I know. I heard you even dueled over my mother when she was still a princess?”

“Haha, yeah… pretty embarrassing looking back. After I got the Sword Saint skill I got way too full of myself—swore I’d be the one to protect Princess Lydia. Then Ernst beat me flat. Nowadays I just look back and smile.”

Father gave a sheepish laugh.

Then his tone suddenly turned serious.

“Even though I lost back then… I swore to her mother right there: ‘Someday I’ll become the strongest swordsman who can protect this whole kingdom.’ Ernst shot back, ‘Then I’ll become the strongest general and protect the kingdom myself,’ refusing to lose to me. Because of that promise we both made, I ended up being called the strongest swordsman and fiercest general. That’s exactly why I arranged the marriage talks with you, Lady Valeria—I thought maybe love could be the spark that finally changes Zenon… because love really can change people.”

That actually caught me off guard.

So there was that kind of backstory behind my engagement to Valeria?

Even though Father got emotional during the Skill Bestowal Ceremony, it seems he never actually gave up on me.

“Still… I was shocked to hear that every single member of Schwarz Ritter, the order Ernst raised, got poisoned. Was that the Empire’s doing?”

“Yes… but because of my Necromancer skill, they’ve been reborn as far more powerful beings. They’ve come back as A-rank undead. Please think of their strength as having grown even greater.”

Valeria answered with quiet, contained anger.

For now we’d decided not to tell Father about Saintess Alicia and the Holy Church secretly working to sabotage the border count’s army.

We don’t have solid proof yet that would convince him and the others, and we haven’t achieved any big accomplishments—so dropping that bombshell now would probably just backfire badly.

There are still quite a few followers of the Holy Church living in this border territory too. If they all turned against us at once, we’d be in serious trouble.

Better to pin the full annihilation of Schwarz Ritter on the Empire. That way the border army can unite in hatred toward the Empire and fight as one.

“That’s reassuring. For the sake of avenging our vassals, we have to crush the imperial army completely.”

“…Yes.”

Valeria looked frustrated, but now still wasn’t the time to accuse Saintess Alicia.

“…I will make sure those despicable enemies who poisoned my retainers pay dearly.”

“Mm. Let’s show the Empire what we’re made of, together. Just to be safe though—leave the front line to us. Lady Valeria, please support us from a secure position in the rear. Necromancer is a magic skill specialized for rear support, isn’t it? Above all, if anything happened to you, I’d never be able to face your mother—Lady Lydia—or Lord Ernst again.”

Father said that with a big, hearty laugh, then left the warehouse.

The moment he was gone, Valeria rushed straight over to me.

“Zenon, are you okay!?”

“…Yeah, I’m fine.”

I used Excessive Recovery and the heavy pile of lumber on top of me crumbled away.

When my eyes met Valeria’s worried ones, I flashed her a grin.

Thanks to Super Recovery’s regeneration, the injuries were almost completely gone already.

And more than that—I could feel my whole body had been rebuilt even tougher than before because of all the damage I took.

“…This is honestly the best present Father could’ve given me for the plan.”

Learning about Father’s past and the feelings he’d kept hidden lit a quiet fire inside my chest.

The man who became strong to keep his promise to the princess he loved must have thought that if I experienced love too, I’d finally stand back up stronger.

In his clumsy way, he really had been thinking about me.

Then I’ve gotta show him.

Show him that I wasn’t slacking off or falling apart—everything I did was for the sake of bringing victory to this land.

Just for kicks, I grabbed one of the three-meter-long golem soldiers lying around—and lifted it easily with one hand.

Just like I thought: my muscle strength had jumped to a completely different level.

“…Huh?! A golem soldier!? Isn’t that thing close to a ton?!”

Valeria pressed her hand to her mouth, eyes wide in shock.

Alright. Preparations for infiltrating the enemy castle are finally complete.

“Tomorrow night… the real battle to save this land finally begins!”