Chapter 2: Family of Villains
Several minutes later, the doors to the dining hall were pushed open by the maids, after which Dante stepped into the luxurious hall.
At the head of the long dining table, he could see a man in his forties with white hair, and a closely cropped white beard. He had piercing blue eyes and imposing features, but when he saw Dante, a small smile crossed the man’s hard face.
This man was Dante’s father, Count Cesare Fioravanti.
Seated next to the count was a beautiful woman with long purplish-black hair and sharp purple eyes. Her sleepy, half-lidded eyes and the dark purple makeup around them gave her a distinctly gothic vibe.
Unlike the count, who was currently eating, the woman was just leaning against the table and lazily twirling a fork with her left hand, while holding a wine glass in the other.
"Good morning, Father, Mother." Dante gave a small respectful bow to the two of them, before adding, "Forgive my tardiness."
"Ah, never mind that." His father waved his hand dismissively. "You are always too polite, boy. Come, come eat before the food gets cold."
Hearing that, Dante began walking toward his usual seat.
"How are you, dear?" His mother smiled and asked warmly. "I heard you woke up early today for another—"
She was mid-sentence when a loud female voice cut in.
"There you are!"
Everyone turned to the entrance to see a girl who was just slightly older than Dante. She had black hair with streaks of white in places, and freckles dotted her face to make her look stunning, yet mischievous.
Dressed in a striking dark gown and adorned with delicate silver jewelry, she looked unbelievably elegant, though her wide grin completely ruined any sense of noble poise.
Before anyone could even react, she closed the distance and pulled Dante into a suffocating hug. Then, she held his face to keep it in place and began to plant kisses all over his cheeks, before planting a final, very loud and exaggerated kiss.
"Muah!" She leaned back to study his face. "Oh, how I’ve missed you, little brother."
"I’ve missed you too, Kate. But seriously, enough with the smothering. I’m not a kid anymore," he groaned, as he wiped his cheek several times with his hand.
"Yes, you are," Caterina said, pouting.
"Might I add, you are only one year older than me?" Dante countered, still wiping his cheek.
"Doesn’t change a thing!" She ran a hand through his neatly combed hair to mess it up just to annoy him.
And as if that was not enough, she reached over and pulled off his monocle from his eye, letting it dangle from its chain.
"Stop!"
When he glared at her, she stuck out her tongue and immediately hurried off to go greet their parents.
"Good morning, Father, Mother."
Without even looking at them, she sat down and began arranging her breakfast from the plethora of dishes in front of her.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she perked up and asked, "Oh! By the way, I heard you had resumed training in the way of the sword?"
Dante, who was now seated and was in the middle of fixing his plate, looked up at her, but before he could reply, Isabella chuckled and answered for him.
"Yes, he has, and he’s grown even more diligent." She turned her gaze to Dante and sighed, and a bitter expression flickered across her smiling face. "But you really don’t have to do that, you know. I mean, unless it’s something you actually enjoy. If you don’t want to bother with swordsmanship, you don’t need to feel pressured to."
Dante looked up at her, but didn’t say anything.
It was strange...
At the moment, he had so many failures that would be considered unforgivable for prestigious noble families. He didn’t have a good mana core, he had not awakened as an apostle, and worst of all, he was a noble who was a High Priest.
Now, don’t get it wrong. High Priests were very important in the Holy Empire, just like how mages and the other classes were important too. They had their uses and were an indispensable part of society. However, it was just that the job class was not suited for nobles.
Yet despite Dante being one, alongside his many other shortcomings, his family didn’t take offense. They didn’t shun him, neither did they look down on him in the slightest. Instead, they kept assuring him that since he had found himself in a situation where he couldn’t even do basic magic to protect himself due to his core, they would protect him themselves.
If it was any other family, they would have been constantly reminding him of what a failure he was or even stripped him of his name. But all he got here was maybe his sister playfully teasing him about him being a high priest of all job classes. Though it was not intended in a hurtful way but rather because she just loved teasing him.
...It was really strange.
Did they not care about what having a son or sibling like him implied to the rest of high society?
Did they not care about the humiliation he supposedly brought to their reputation?
If there was one thing he had learned in all his seventeen years, it was that the Fioravantis cared about family before anything else.
’She probably thinks I’m taking up swordsmanship lessons because I feel guilty about disappointing them,’ Dante thought for a few seconds before speaking up with a reassuring smile. "It’s alright, Mother. I actually have a passion for the blade and want to at least learn how to wield one."
Isabella stared at him for a few seconds before exhaling. "Very well then."
With that, Dante returned to eating his meal.
For a few seconds after, the only noise that could be heard was the clattering of cutlery. Until...
Caterina perked up again and suddenly blurted with her mouth full, "I just had a thought."
At that moment, the count spoke, "Swallow your food first, Caterina."
"Oops, sorry." Caterina forced the food down her throat and grinned sheepishly as she repeated herself. "I just had a thought!"
Both Dante and Isabella looked at her questioningly.
She then smiled slyly and said, "Well, since Dante is not an apostle of our Order, doesn’t that mean he can marry now if he wants to?"
Dante suddenly choked on his toast and began coughing violently.
Across from him, Isabella picked up a glass of water and handed it to him. "Here, dear."
With bloodshot eyes, he reached out for the glass and nodded in thanks before downing the cool liquid in one big gulp.
Actually, when he thought about it, Caterina wasn’t wrong.
Although there were no restrictions preventing High Priests from pursuing romance, a few Orders claimed that their deities were skeptical about the ones they made Apostles engaging in married life.
One such Order was the Order of the Moon. But since Dante was not an apostle of the Lunar Goddess, that meant...
"Well, actually, even if my boy were an apostle of our Order and wanted to marry, I would still tell him to go ahead. To hell with tradition," Count Cesare said casually as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "And if the Goddess has a problem with my son having a love life, she can come down here and complain to me herself."
Dante’s brow twitched.
When he turned to the others around the table, he could see them nodding along as if defying the heavens was a perfectly reasonable mindset.
That made him realize all over again that his family really was a bunch of somewhat crazy people.
He then quickly changed the subject. "By the way, Father, have you been able to get the permits for me to visit the Labyrinth at Sylveria?"
"Oh. I almost forgot to tell you about that." Cesare dropped his napkin and reached into his coat to take out an envelope. "Yes, I have. In fact, Baron Sterling was very pleased to grant me this favor."
He placed the envelope on the table and slid it to his son.
’Finally!’
Seeing the permit to the labyrinth he had been wanting to visit for some time now, Dante was more than thrilled.
From what he could recall, based on the knowledge he had from the game he played, sometime in the future, a temple to an unknown Goddess would be discovered in the depths of this labyrinth.
This temple was discovered by a man named Marco Lorenzo, who later became a villain in the game.
Marco had even gone as far as creating his own cult called the Order of the Sanguine Chalice.
Unfortunately for him, despite doing a really good job of staying hidden from the world, he was still discovered, and he and his cult were later wiped out by the apostles of the Holy See.
’I recall I never played up to the point in the game where he got killed because I was so fixated on wiping out this particular crazy family of mine using the High Priest class.’
Dante reached out and picked up the thick paper.
’It’s a good thing that I was a spoiler-insulated player who spent time reading the wiki of characters in the games I played. How else would I have known this?’
"Thank you so much, Father," he said as he studied the permit. "I knew you would get it."
Cesare smiled and nodded warmly, as if the simple praise from his son was enough to make him proud of himself.
"Don’t mention it, heh heh. It was nothing really."
He studied Dante for a bit, before asking with a slight tilt of his head, "Aren’t you filled with joy?"
Dante looked at him and arched a brow. ’Joy?’
"I mean..." Cesare continued, gesturing vaguely at the paper. "You’ve been waiting for that for some reason, and now it’s here. Yet the expression on your face hasn’t changed one bit."
’Ah... I see.’ Dante quickly understood what he meant.
He thought for a moment, then finally, he forced a wide smile.
Upon seeing that, Caterina suddenly burst out laughing, and that caused him to frown.
"Haha! He really does look like a hedgehog when he smiles!"
’See? That’s why I don’t smile in front of you!’
His oh-so-loving sister always teased him for how horrendous he looked whenever he smiled, so he stopped smiling whenever the annoying woman was present in the same room as him.
While he was still glaring at her, Isabella raised her hand and began to hit Caterina’s back reproachfully.
"Don’t stress my baby boy, you bully! Leave your brother alone!"
"Ow, ow, ow. Sorry, Mother!" Caterina frowned as she rubbed her aching back.
Dante sighed and nodded in satisfaction. ’Beat her more, Mother!’
Meanwhile, Cesare cleared his throat before speaking in a serious tone. "By the way, I heard a group of Purgers will be going on an expedition to those ruins tomorrow. You can join them, though you must stick to the floors permitted for public exploration. Also, I’d prefer it if you took more than just a few of our knights with you. Or, if you insist on taking only one, at least take Lucian.
"I’m not sure why you suddenly want to go there, but from what I hear, that labyrinth hasn’t been fully explored. Even though the Holy See has rated it Green, I still think it could be dangerous. I don’t want anything happening to you."
There was a ranking system that this world used to classify many things based on their power or difficulty level. White was the safest or lowest grade, then green, blue, purple, red, gold, and black.
That the labyrinth had been rated as green meant that it possessed a level of danger, though it was not that overwhelming for someone with proper preparation.
Of course, Dante wasn’t going there with the intention of hunting anything. Still, he had to be careful, so he turned to Cesare, then gave a polite nod. "Alright, Father. I’ll take Lucian with me."