Listening to Harold’s report, his parents immediately believed that Clara and her daughter Colette, were dead. It was unlikely that they would even think of doubting their son.

         Even though their son had killed a woman and her child, they only praised him extravagantly by saying– “You have talent in magic”, and Kishino felt that the gap between him and his parents would never be covered in his whole lifetime. As long as they didn’t rid themselves of this kind of sense of values, there was no way he could see eye-to-eye with them. The thought was extremely depressing to Harold, and he valiantly disagreed with Kishino. The compromise between the two was that they would research the scientific evidence disproving the pure blood theory before even attempting to convert their parents. Kishino didn’t need much convincing; due to his memories, he had a love for his parents not dissimilar to Harold’s, though likely much less.

          In any case, it could be said that the plan to rescue Clara and Colette was a success. Truthfully, this was when he should’ve been happy, but Kishino couldn’t help but stress over the fact that he could only pray that Colette would somehow get close to Liner now that they don’t live together.

          Leaving that aside, Kishino was now dealing with his next five priorities, which were also revised. Luckily, there was a lot of saved time since he already knew most common knowledge about the world due to Harold’s memories, and it was easily confirmed to be extremely similar to the game, with various aspects twisted and modified to fit into a more ‘real’ setting. Because of the memory sharing, things related to observing the world were bumped farther down the list. 

          And so, they ended up with the following; Organise topics of modern knowledge, brainstorm with Norman about the importance of various topics, increase allowance, acquire more freedom, and lastly, come up with a temporary theory of how our identity works. Currently, Kishino was working on priority number three.

          “Father, may I practice bargaining with you?”

          “Oh? Why’s that?”

          “You are the smartest man I know, so I believe I would receive the best experience this way.”

           “Hahahaha! You’ve already started, haven’t you? Buttering me up! That’s my boy! Be careful not to go too far with it; it could have the opposite effect if you brown nose someone too hard.”

           “Thank you, father! As for the wager, since I don’t have much else, how about increasing my allowance?”

           “Oh? Are you sure that wasn’t your goal from the start, young man?”

           Playful, but unmistakably sharp crimson eyes stared down into Kishino’s own. Harold was sure he would have panicked if he hadn't thought this out beforehand.

           “Who cares about such a thing; anything I could possibly want is within my reach financially. There is just nothing else to wager.”

           “I see… though, you could also come to hunt with me and grow much stronger. Or visit some far away city?”

           Those offers genuinely enticed Kishino, and they had a lot of potential for future plans, but as per his priorities, he needed to start building up more money now, since any addition to his overall allowance would have vastly more benefit if he did it as early as possible. Harold’s mother remained silent as she watched over the conversation lovingly.

            “Hm… though those are nice, my allowance deals with actual money, and it would be a more effective experience.”

            “Haha! That is simply not true- though money plays a great part in a lot of deals, trades between things like manpower, famous teachers, or things people don’t think they want to let go of normally, require something more than monetary things.”

           Hayden seemed unrelenting in his stance, however, and the conversation was beginning to stray from his expectations. Harold had never worked so hard to convince his parents of something before.

           “Well, even with such things, monetary value is almost always involved in some manner or other. If I were giving you soldiers, the money it took to train their soldiers and their wages would be brought up, and for a famous instructor, if I were trading a debt to someone-“

           “Debt! Funny you should mention it; as you have nothing of value to give me right now, you would surely have to pay something in the future. I reckon, I could triple your allowance no problem! Three times what you already have could buy you a whole second mansion’s worth of servants in a month! Don’t you want that much money? All you’d have to do is, every year that the doubled allowance isn’t paid back, you should pay me back another nine percent of what you owe me. Not even a problem!”

            In his shock of losing his train of thought, Harold opened his eyes wide at the mention of doubling his already massive allowance, but from Kishino’s memories of debt, he immediately grew warry.

            “Sorry, I don’t think I could ever return something like that. However, I do have something else that will absolutely interest you.”

           While Hayden was surprised the boy didn’t jump at the mention of doubling the allowance, which was something undoubtedly outside his expectations, he didn’t show anything on his face. Kishino snapped his fingers. As planned beforehand, the servants opened the door to reveal Norman carrying various papers. It should be the math tutor instead, but they were of lower blood, so Norman’s word would hold much more weight. Norman bowed before walking over and expertly handing over a part of the small stack of papers to Hayden, and moving to stand just behind him.

          “These papers are my math studies. Over the past few days, I had been studying seriously and adamantly, and that amount of progress is the result. Norman, explain to him the significance of this, and do not lie or exaggerate or I will flog you personally.”

          Hayden shuffled through the stack of high marks, immediately understanding that the knowledge displayed was great for a ten year old, but not understanding the specifics.

          “When Harold-sama studied whole heartedly, for only three days, he was able to understand complicated geometrical equations, complex factoring problems, and even algebra. Whereas when he did not care, he was only limited to receiving high marks in fractions, shapes, and demonstrated outstanding abilities of general calculation.”

          Norman then handed the rest of the papers to Hayden, while both parents were filled with burning pride at their son for not only planning such a thing out so far in advance, but for his talent in mathematics as well. Even now, when he was supposed to be honest, Norman was forced to play up Harold’s previous levels of education, for fear of the parents lashing out. Hayden noted that his son did not use derogatory language to the butler, calling him by his actual first name, but he figured it was only because they had rehearsed this together before, and nothing special.

          “So you are saying, if you will improve your grades, you want me to raise your allowance, even though it’s something you can do easily?”

          “This is only mathematics. It took a lot of boring time and valiant effort to just do this, but if I put in this effort to achieve similar results for all subjects, I believe such a sink in my time would easily be worth five times my allowance.”

           “Five times? For reading some books?!”

           Hayden bellowed out a barking, mocking laughter at the prospect. Even with his paternal pride raging, he continued the act for Harold’s education, while Jessica fought and failed to hide her loving looks at the both of them. 

           “No, no, these are some results you have here, but obviously nothing more than a two percent increase.”

           “On the contrary, with such fast progress, I will easily become well known for being one of the youngest and most genius nobles ever lived, proving the Stokes family’s pure blood to all of histo-“

           “Now, now, don’t spout nonsense! You are certainly bright, but do not be too big-headed? Even if you advanced your curriculum as fast as this, the greatest noble is far from you now. But, you do have some point, I suppose. Nine percent, that’s about as far as I can go.”

           Hayden was continually impressed with Harold’s arguments. The ten year old boy was even clever enough to pinpoint his father’s weakness- the Stokes’ reputation, and his expectations for Harold, and strike it with full force. Even though he was aware of it, he couldn’t help but feel completely moved at the prospect. He would grow up into a great noble, possibly even surpassing Hayden himself. He was certain of it before, but with what he was seeing today, it is a complete fact. Even the fearful servants had to admit they were astonished with the young boy’s cleverness, which few of them had only seen small hints of, throughout his life.

           The rest of the conversation continued similarly, for about half an hour, until the conclusion finally rested where Harold increased his allowance by seventy nine percent if he continued to study the way he did for all subjects. The only ones he needed to really study for were magic sciences, politics, tactics, and history, but those were interesting anyways, and would only contribute toward his various goals.           

           “You surprised me, son! Have ever told you how terribly proud I am of you? I knew from the day you were born you were destined for greatness. Starting off with an insanely high price, while I started low, how clever! And as expected of my son, you didn’t even fall for my debt trap! I’m sorry I went so hard on you, but it was just an act, okay?”

            “And he’s amazing at studying too, isn’t he dear? I didn’t want to interrupt your practice Harold, but I’m so proud!”

           “Thank you mother! Thank you father!”

          Hayden had various criticisms stuffed into his unconscious, but being so unbearably proud of his son, he completely forgot about them, painting his son in his memories as a master negotiator without a single flaw even at his age. Harold, being similarly proud, would never even think he had a single weakness, so Kishino couldn’t even ask for criticism without compromising his act.

          After finishing breakfast, Hayden called both Harold and Jessica in for a family hug, which both Kishino and Harold held somewhat mixed feelings toward. It lasted a long while, with both parents raining down compliments, and when they pulled away, their mother had a surprise for them.

          “You know, I’m so impressed that I thought; you negotiated up to seventy nine, but that’s really close to double, you know? As a reward for working so hard for it, I think I’ll fill in that twenty one percent just to round it out.”

          “I was just thinking the same thing! But this way, it’s from both of us, isn’t that great? Think of it as an investment; continue doing your best in the future!” 

          “Really!? You’re so kind, the both of you!”

          Harold’s parents loved him a lot, if you couldn’t tell. After a smothering of hugs and kisses, he was finally let go to ‘study’ in his room. With this, Harold’s reputation of his intelligence has also risen among the servants, so if he does anything smart that is leaked out in the future, it will be less surprising. 

           In his room, Kishino had Norman tell him what actual mistakes he had made in the bargaining. Despite his father’s bias, Kishino could still tell that Hayden had made a genuine effort in the talk, so he wasn’t wary of it being a bad experience.

           “Based on only what I’ve seen today, you were genuinely remarkable at targeting his personal weakness, and avoiding traps, while also pushing forward with logical arguments. However, I feel like you could’ve done better at feigning disinterest, and you should always finish your sentences, even if you’re being interrupted; it lets your opponent walk over you. 

           Though it is largely because your act is a lazy, brattish boy, when you plowed forward with determination and logic instead of childish demands, I believe that Hayden might have also been able to tell that you truly desired an increase in your allowance, and that he used your desperation to his advantage. Although, even then, your act would also never give up on something you want, so I’m not sure how to balance that, or if I was even correct about your father’s thoughts.”

           “Your conclusions are almost as wise as mine. It’s troublesome when I can only get it from my father, so I can’t back down since I don’t have any other option, but that’s probably just because I didn’t have time to think of it yet. Speaking of which, have you come up with criticisms on Clara’s escape that I don’t already know?”

          Harold didn’t want to admit that he could've done better, and had more than a few qualms with being called ‘lazy and brattish’ right to his face, but Kishino thought hearing about Norman’s genuine perception of his past behavior was good for his growth. As for whether he could've bargained any better, Kishino believed that there was always a ‘better’ choice to any problem. If it ever seems like there is no other option, or that there are only ‘bad’ options, it’s only because you don’t have enough knowledge, or the better options are just-too impossible seeming or outside the box that you don’t realize it. 

          “For the excursion yesterday, moving so fast was very reckless; the two soldiers even had to feign sick so they could free up their schedule. And Harold, do not mention the word ‘escape’ when referring to it. You never know who is listening.”

          “Ah, so you have a brain. Along with that, I also realized we didn’t need to tell them I was in on the plan- in on it in the first place; if you had made the doctor aware, and told them that you would trick me into believing she died of her injuries, I could have feigned ignorance of the whole thing, unless they prodded into how you got a permit.”

           “Hindsight has perfect vision, after all.”

           That was in the same essence as what Norman was going to say next, so he didn’t have much to add. He was starting to think of the boy as less of a ten year old and more an inexperienced peer as the days go on. But even so, he forced himself to remember that this was likely a pseudo-maturity to Harold, brought in by the needs of his environment. His mind is still that of a child’s, and he’d fail as a servant if he didn’t recognize such.

           “Harold-sama, about last night…”

           “Hm? Are you remembering something that you forgot?”

           “...I will always be here for you, Harold-sama. You can rely on me.”

           “...Hmph. Just do as you’re told.”

           “Of course.”

            Harold completely turned his head to the side, avoiding Norman’s gaze in a painfully obvious manner. The butler figured he could only wait until Harold talked on his own; he wasn’t very close to the boy yet, and trying to forcibly close the distance might have the opposite effect than he would like. He figured that trying to get a child who had learned to lie for his entire life to finally be honest about his feelings would take more than a few days.

            “Well, get out now. Tutoring will begin sometime soon.”

            As Norman bowed respectfully, Kishino and Harold let out a somehow Trash-translated sigh of relief before Kishino took the Full Lead. The mild headache and build up of mental exhaustion from rapidly switching back and forth between two states of consciousness was horrible. Over the course of the bargaining, they had believed two minds were better than one, so they tried to both think at the same time. They failed, and as with the common misconception of multitasking, they seemingly only switched ‘attention’ between each other very rapidly, even forgetting about it sometimes when they were too focused on the talk.

            Whenever Harold was in control, Kishino was still somewhat aware, but it was mostly up to the one in charge whether they wanted to switch out with the other person or not. Even then, they weren’t sure whether they felt like they were different people entirely, or two sides of the same coin. Sometimes they swapped without either of them noticing; when interacting with his parents, Harold sometimes ‘rose to the surface’ without either of them provoking it, and sometimes it was so subtle they didn’t even notice a change happened. There were a lot of other weird things too, like when they occasionally felt they were somewhere in between Harold and Kishino, rather than one or the other, but neither of them understood the specifics. It more than likely wasn’t ‘simply’ a case of dissociative identity disorder, and something more magical at play. Maybe they even had DID plus some magic bullshit on top of it. 

             As Kishino sat down on his bed, he sighed at the fact that they still couldn’t for certain rule out the possibility that ‘Kishino’ was created from Harold’s mind creating a separate identity to cope with the massive, oftentimes incompatible memories of a teenager from another world. Either way, they at least were relatively stable aside from occasional headaches. For now. Not knowing who or what he even is, Kishino felt like he was lost in a dark, shifting labyrinth without even a left wall to follow. The only thing they definitely knew was that after last night’s round of headaches and fever dreams, Harold and Kishino were absolutely separate by some means, and they could not join together willingly by any known method. Whether it would stay that way was up to fate and probably magic.

          My eyes… the bed, it’s so soft… mental health is the most important, in order to keep us thinking efficiently, so a nap is wise.

          The tutors wouldn’t bother him in his sleep, he knew. And so, he collapsed into bed to recharge his energy for the hectic times to come. Even after a full day of experiencing the world firsthand, Kishino couldn’t help but pray it was all a dream, and that he’d wake up safely in his cozy residence with his face smashed into the keyboard, and the smell of curry dinner wafting through his door…