* * *
Family?
I froze at Sehir’s words.
The unexpected topic made my mind go blank for a moment.
Of course, I hadn’t thought they came all this way for no reason.
Even though they were my comrades, they were all people with precious little time to spare.
It was nice to see them, but for them to linger this long—there had to be a reason.
But family?
A quick glance around the room told me that the others already knew what that small book was.
Ruen, who had been animated while talking about Kaindel earlier, now looked unusually subdued.
Owen had averted his gaze.
Only Daniel was looking straight at me, as if gauging my reaction.
Meeting Daniel’s dark eyes, I then turned to the book in Sehir’s hands.
It wasn’t a notebook, but it didn’t seem like an autobiography or a history book either.
A genealogy record?
The thought crossed my mind, but I pushed it aside.
Rather than speculating, it was better to see for myself.
“Tell me.”
Whenever I asked the elders of Luther Village, they always gave me the same answer.
One crisp autumn day, they found a child abandoned at the village entrance.
Wrapped in tattered cloth, the child had been fast asleep, not crying at all despite his young age.
Unable to ignore him, the village chief took him in and gave him the name “Isa.”
That was all they knew.
No one had any clue about his real parents.
Because of that, I had never made an effort to search for my family.
Of course, it would be nice if I ever found them.
But I never felt the need to go looking. I’d already grown used to life without blood ties, and I didn’t want to disrupt the peaceful existence I had now.
But…
Now that the chance to find them had come to me, I had no intention of turning away.
I took a step closer to Sehir.
“I want to know.”
“Yeah.”
Sehir smiled, as if he had expected me to say that.
His slightly crinkled eyes held warmth.
Brushing the dust off the book cover, he tidied it before handing it to me.
“Here, take it. It’s a family tree.”
“Okay.”
Just as I thought.
I gave a small nod and opened the book.
On the very first page, an extensive family tree unfolded like the roots of a tree.
Between the lines were tiny portraits.
What stood out was that every person in those portraits looked strangely familiar.
James, Juliana, Gaum, Bay…
Were they drawn this way because of their black hair?
But my hair isn’t black.
As I studied the portraits, feeling puzzled—
“This family tree is from the Shains Republic. Feels familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, but this doesn’t really seem like my family…”
“This one belongs to Daniel’s family.”
“Oh.”
That explained why all the portraits featured people with dark-colored hair.
No wonder they seemed familiar—they resembled Daniel.
Now that I knew it was his family tree, it all made sense.
As I let out a quiet sigh, Sehir murmured as if he understood my thoughts.
“After looking into it, I found out that before the Shains Republic became what it is today—back when social classes still existed—Daniel’s family was apparently a very well-known household of butlers.”
“A butler family?”
“It means they served as butlers for generations. For example, if the grandfather was a butler for a certain family, his son would also become a butler for that family, and then his son after him.”
“I see.”
“Now, why don’t you check the later pages?”
“The later pages?”
I silently followed Sehir’s gesture, slowly flipping through the pages.
Daniel’s family tree continued for several generations—until, suddenly, it stopped.
The last name recorded was “Daniel.”
It seemed that since he hadn’t found a partner yet, the lineage ended there.
But since Sehir told me to look further—
I kept flipping through the pages, his words replaying in my mind.
How many pages had I turned?
After a stretch of blank pages, a new family tree finally appeared.
“A new family tree?”
“Yeah. This is the real one. You’ll have to flip it around to read it properly. When two family trees are recorded together, they’re drawn in opposite directions to avoid confusion.”
“Oh, that’s why the names are upside down.”
No wonder I couldn’t read it at first—it was reversed.
I watched as Sehir tapped the top of the family tree with his finger, feeling relieved.
At first, I thought the unfamiliar script was the language of the Shains Republic.
Luckily, it was written in the common language taught in temples.
If it hadn’t been, I would’ve needed Daniel’s help to decipher each word.
Following Sehir’s instructions, I turned the book around, and the words finally became readable.
[Spencer]
“Spencer?”
“Yeah. This book’s true owner is the Spencer family. They’re quite well-known in the Shains Republic. They weren’t originally nobility, but they made their fortune through trade. I believe they’re called bourgeois.”
“Bourgeois… I’ve heard other nobles insult bourgeois families as upstarts.”
“That’s the crude way to put it. But strictly speaking, they’re not upstarts. The Hadellberg Kingdom is just extremely bloodline-focused. In other countries, the bourgeoisie are already recognized as their own social class.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Neither did I until recently. Anyway, aside from trade, the Spencer family is famous for their love of travel—or rather, adventure. Honestly, they might have discovered more than half of what the Shains Republic knows about this world.”
It might sound exaggerated, but it’s true, Isa.
With that, Sehir tilted his chin, gesturing for me to read the family tree.
Taking in his words, I scanned the names recorded.
Unlike Daniel’s family tree, which only listed names, every single name here carried the surname “Spencer.”
There wasn’t anything particularly unusual—except that, unlike the previous family tree, this one contained no portraits at all.
Only names.
Just as I started feeling disappointed about not seeing the Spencer family members’ faces, my eyes caught on a name at the very bottom.
[Winster]
Not because it was an unusual name—it was actually quite common.
But next to and below the name, thick black lines had been drawn.
“What’s this?”
Focusing on the name [Winster], I cautiously voiced my question.
Why was there a black line where a name should be?
Whatever the reason, it wasn’t something trivial.
If it were, there’d be no need to mark the family tree like this.
Sehir followed my gaze, then smiled, as if to say my curiosity was justified.
“A black line like that means the person went missing before the family could even confirm their identity. Even if someone died right after birth, their name would still be recorded.”
“What does it mean that their identity was never confirmed before they disappeared?”
“Hmm, simply put, it means that while the family knows this person had a spouse and children, they have no idea who they were or whether they’re still alive.”
“…”
Now that I understood, the black line looked different.
A person known to have existed, but whose identity and fate remained unknown.
It was a strangely sorrowful thing.
“So, the fact that Winster Spencer’s name has a black line next to and below it means he had a wife and child?”
“Yeah. We just don’t know who they were.”
“But how could they not know? Is that even possible?”
Frowning, I questioned him again, my doubt unresolved.
“It is,” Sehir replied, rubbing his chin.
“If he got married abroad and never reported his wife and child’s names to his family.”
* * *
