“Watch this!”
Ron gave a quiet shout and began rhythmically striking Wes’s left shoulder with both hands.
Under the steady pounding, the stiff muscles gradually loosened, and the tension around them began to melt away as well.
“Oh…
that feels amazing.”
Stretched out on the sofa, Wes felt the pleasant ache spread through his shoulder.
His tense expression slowly relaxed into one of pure enjoyment, and before long, he was making embarrassingly satisfied noises while letting Ron continue the massage.
“You’ve been working yourself too hard, Uncle Wes,” Ron said, pressing his thumbs into another knot.
“You’ve done a lot for the troupe, haven’t you?”
Wes could not even be bothered to open his eyes.
Hearing the genuine warmth in Ron’s voice, he answered without thinking.
“It’s nothing.
I’m only doing what I’m supposed to.”
“Really?
What have you been handling lately?”
People naturally lowered their guard when they were comfortable.
Once they relaxed, the things they had been holding back tended to slip out on their own.
“Nothing special.
I just do whatever the director asks of me.
Still, I could never compare to your father.”
“Of course you can.
You’ve been doing this for years.
There’s no way a few problems around the troupe could trouble you.”
Ron kept his tone light, as though they were merely chatting while he waited for Wes to continue.
“Ah, you wouldn’t understand.”
Now that Wes had started talking, all the frustration bottled up inside him came pouring out.
“The other troupe members have been shutting me out lately.
I don’t have the authority your father did, so no one takes me seriously.”
Ron immediately caught the important detail.
“Did something happen between you and the others?
Why would they suddenly start treating you that way?”
Wes sighed again.
“A while ago, they said they had a profitable little opportunity and invited me to join them.
After I refused, their attitude toward me changed completely.”
Ron’s hands never stopped moving, but his brows drew together.
‘Did the people from that law office approach the troupe members?’
As he considered Wes’s words, the entire scheme gradually began to make sense.
His absurdly carefree parents had probably notified the law office in advance that Ron would be inheriting their assets.
Once the lawyers discovered that the new owner was only ten years old, they must have seen an easy target.
Aside from Wes, most of the troupe members were probably involved.
The law office may have bribed them to support the forged debts, intending to trick Ron into signing the liquidation statement without understanding it and then swallow all the family’s property.
‘Did those two idiots never learn not to advertise how much money they had?
No wonder someone decided to take advantage of them.’
“Master, ease up!
Ow, ow, ow!”
Ron snapped out of his thoughts and realized that his irritation had caused him to apply far too much pressure.
A large bruise was already forming on Wes’s shoulder.
“Sorry.”
At that moment, several knocks sounded from outside the study.
Wes started to rise and answer the door, but Ron stopped him.
“I’ll get it, Uncle Wes.”
When Ron opened the door, he found the two male performers who had been onstage earlier.
“Director!
It’s been a while.”
“We have another rehearsal coming up.
Why don’t you come watch us?”
The moment they saw Ron, their eyes lit up.
They rubbed their hands together eagerly as they spoke.
Perhaps if they personally delivered the young director to the law office, they could negotiate a larger reward.
“Sure.”
Ron gave them an innocent smile, acting as though he had not noticed the greed written all over their faces.
“But first, you have to play a new game with me.”
“A new game?”
The two men paused and exchanged glances.
One of them quickly asked, “What kind of game?”
Ron did not answer immediately.
Instead, he cheerfully skipped back to his briefcase and began rummaging through it.
“I just learned a new hypnosis trick.
Want to see it?”
He pulled out an ordinary coin hanging from a string.
“Sure, why not?”
The men grinned slyly.
Judging by how trusting he was, they could probably lure him away with a piece of candy.
There was no harm in entertaining the brat for another minute.
Children really were ridiculously easy to fool.
“Keep your eyes on the coin,” Ron instructed.
“And don’t blink.”
Holding the end of the string between his fingers, he let the silver coin sway gently through the air.
Both men leaned forward slightly, their eyes following it from side to side.
“When I count to three, while you’re watching this…”
Ron’s other hand had already curled into a fist, his gaze locked firmly on the targets directly in front of him.
“Hypnosis Punch!”
Crack!
Taking full advantage of the height difference, Ron drove his fist forward and struck one of them squarely between the legs, then immediately did the same to the other.
The two men suffered the most unbearable pain known to mankind.
Their knees buckled, and they dropped to the floor one after the other.
“Hypnosis Uppercut!”
Bang!
Bang!
While they were still helplessly stunned, Ron delivered a sharp uppercut to each of their chins.
Their heads snapped back.
Both men rolled their eyes and collapsed, completely unconscious.
Ron brushed off his fists, raised them to his lips, and lightly blew away the imaginary dust.
“I might not be able to fight back if you were real Mages, but the two of you thought you could drag me away?
Keep dreaming.”
Anyone capable of becoming a successful Mage would not be scraping together a living in a dying theatre troupe.
If these two had possessed any real strength, they would have quit long ago and joined a Mage Guild.
Sitting on the sofa, Wes stared with his mouth hanging open, unable to understand what he had just witnessed.
Had Master Ron always been this vicious?
More importantly, why had he just beaten two members of their troupe unconscious?!
“Master Ron, what in the world is going on?”
“Oh, them?” Ron replied.
“I only suspected that someone inside the troupe was working with outsiders.
“Then these two showed up with obviously bad intentions and kindly confirmed it for me.”
“What?”
Wes looked more confused than ever.
What exactly had happened?
Ron did not bother explaining further.
Instead, he checked the system interface.
[Current Roleplay Completion: 46%.]
His face brightened.
He had nearly reached fifty percent just from everything he had done so far.
Was playing Reigen really this effective?
If he maintained this level until the card was evaluated two days from now, he would be able to choose the first two abilities.
However, Jack-of-All-Trades and Master of Persuasion had already proven far more useful than he had expected.
That also suggested that the skill unlocked only at one hundred percent completion had to be even stronger.
“Uncle Wes, this is urgent.
Help me tie them up before they can go back and warn the others.”
“Oh—right.
I’m coming.”
Wes still had no idea what was happening, but he trusted Ron enough to pick up a length of rope and help.
“Master, what do we do now?”
“They still don’t know I’ve uncovered their scheme, which means we have to move before they do.”
Working quickly, the two of them bound the unconscious traitors hand and foot.
Wes swallowed nervously and pointed at himself.
“You mean…
just the two of us?”
“Of course not.
We need outside help.”
Ron rolled his eyes.
Wes was far too honest for his own good.
No wonder those two idiotic parents of his had trusted him so completely.
He quickly gave his next instruction.
“Go outside and hire a carriage.
Don’t tell the driver where we’re going until I’m inside.”
“All right.
No problem.”
Wes still had not pieced everything together, but following Master Ron seemed like the safest choice.
Ron would not deliberately lead him into danger.
“Oh, and Uncle Wes…”
Just as Wes was about to run out and find a carriage, Ron suddenly called him back.
“Does the troupe still have an orange wig?”
That question shattered the fragile understanding Wes had only just begun to form.
Why was the master worrying about a wig at a time like this?
‘Master Ron, I can’t keep up with the way your mind works at all!’