* * *
“That lowborn bastard is trying to recruit some weapons merchant from outside the castle?”
“Yes, my lady.”
Prostrated flat on the floor before the Marchioness, the Head Maid rapidly reported everything that had happened at the Glen Weapon Shop the previous day.
Then she cautiously added,
“This is the perfect opportunity.”
“Did you not say the same thing last time?”
“T-That was…….”
Faced with the Marchioness’s cutting question, the Head Maid could say nothing.
After all, the plan she had proposed during the Monster Subjugation Campaign had ended in complete failure.
“I acted according to your plan, only for everything to go awry. In the end, all I accomplished was losing one of my favored knights.”
“I-I beg your forgiveness… my lady.”
She was referring to Walter, the former Commander of the Ninth Battalion who had been expelled.
He had been one of her closest retainers, brought with her from her parental home, House Freyja, when she married.
Once he was driven out, the Marchioness’s freedom to maneuver had become considerably restricted.
Meanwhile, the lowborn wretch she could not bear to look at had achieved tremendous merit, greatly increasing his influence both within and outside the Marquis’s family.
‘Tsk! What is so important about a few monster corpses…?’
She had no understanding whatsoever of the enormous significance of the current enterprise.
Nor did she care.
Her sole concern was ensuring that one of her sons inherited the Marquis’s family.
‘Yes… No matter how insignificant this territory may be, my son must be the one to inherit the title of Marquis!’
That was the Marchioness’s sole objective.
In her foolish youth, she had fallen for the Marquis of Verdin’s sculpted, handsome features and overflowing consideration (…which was merely another way of saying he was a pushover.).
Thus, she had pestered her father, Count Freyja, into arranging the somewhat ill-advised marriage with Verdin.
After all, her only other choice would have been a ‘political marriage’ to someone chosen by her father.
GRIND.
‘How could he do this to me?’
The Marquis of Verdin had never loved the Marchioness with overwhelming passion, but he had once cherished her and treated her with consideration.
Even when she indulged in extravagance and abused the servants and vassals, he had rarely interfered.
After ‘that incident’ ten years ago, his ‘discomfort’ seemed to have turned into ‘indifference’… but that was beside the point.
‘Yet because of that lowborn blood, he dares subject me to such humiliation…!’
The Marchioness had been deeply shaken by this.
Even without the Head Maid saying anything, she had already resolved to eliminate Evan at any cost.
“Tell me about this plan of yours first. You have been useful to me in the past, so I will at least hear you out.”
“Th-Thank you, my lady!”
The Head Maid had been pressing her forehead to the floor, cold sweat streaming down her body.
Her deathly pale face immediately brightened.
“The weapons merchant that bastard is currently interested in is embroiled in a conflict with an underworld organization known as the Black Snake. Therefore, we can use that situation like this… and then…….”
The Head Maid poured every ounce of effort into rapidly explaining her plan.
She was determined to make up for her previous failure by any means necessary.
“Oh… It does sound rather plausible.”
“Hohoho! Naturally it does, my lady.”
When the easily persuaded Marchioness appeared intrigued, the Head Maid let out a simpering laugh and chattered with even greater excitement.
This time, the plan was truly certain to succeed.
Even if matters did not proceed as expected—
“If we kill the weapons merchants that bastard young master has taken a liking to, would that not deal him at least some damage?”
“True… I do not know what that sly creature intends to do, but he personally went all the way to the filthy slums. He must consider them extremely important.”
“Yes, yes! From our perspective, it matters not in the slightest if a few lowborn wretches die!”
“Hmm…….”
The Marchioness considered the matter for quite some time.
Her upturned eyes, which gave her a particularly spiteful appearance, looked down at the Head Maid prostrated before her.
“If you fail again, you will never receive another opportunity from me. Do you understand?”
“O-Of course! This lowly servant will succeed without fail this time and rid you of that filthy, lowborn blood!”
“Hohoho. As you should.”
In the end, the Marchioness decided to entrust the Head Maid with another task.
The moment she withdrew, the Head Maid immediately set her plan into motion.
Her destination was outside the castle.
There, a knight who had been driven out because of Evan was dreaming of revenge.
* * *
Several days later.
I visited the Marquis and showed him the contract I had finalized with Flüde.
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP.
The drab office was enveloped in silence.
As silence lingered between us, the sound of the Marquis tapping his fingers against the desk seemed strangely irritable.
How much time had passed?
“Sigh― Evan.”
“Yes, Father.”
The Marquis released a deep sigh before reluctantly asking,
“The weapons merchant in the western district outside the castle. Their names were….”
“Glen, the blacksmith, and his son Flüde.”
“Right. Are those two truly so remarkable?”
Fine. I admitted it.
From the Marquis’s perspective, that contract must have been incomprehensible.
I was entering into an arrangement resembling a ‘partnership’ with commoners belonging to his territory.
Moreover, the other party was neither a renowned merchant nor someone whose abilities had been definitively proven.
‘Their current weapons shop is doing reasonably well, but to the Marquis, it must look like little more than a hole-in-the-wall.’
Truthfully, I would have preferred to bring Glen and Flüde entirely under the Marquis of Verdin’s organization.
However, Flüde had adamantly opposed that one condition.
‘Even so…!’
How could I possibly allow a future merchant magnate to slip through my fingers?
Because of the Butterfly Effect, he might not become the same ‘Crazy Merchant’ I had known in the past.
However, he was already showing great promise, so it was obvious that he would eventually achieve considerable success in commerce.
‘Besides… if he becomes different from the man I knew in my previous life, that might actually be for the better.’
After all, the Crazy Merchant could not be called a good man, even as empty flattery.
Back when I had been the Third Prince, I had joined forces with him to keep House Kanion in check, and he had caused me no small amount of trouble.
He fundamentally trusted no one.
Every one of his relationships was governed by meticulous calculation.
As a result, even if someone was his ally, he would stab them in the back the moment they showed the slightest weakness.
‘In my previous life, Glen was probably killed by those underworld bastards.’
At the time, Flüde had been known to have no family.
Moreover, there could not have been many events capable of transforming that timid young man into someone notorious for being insane.
That was why I intended to become someone he could trust.
The problem was….
“Father.”
“Speak.”
“I may appear foolish to you at present, but if you trust me, I promise that I will show you results.”
“So even if I do not understand, you want me to leave everything to you until the end?”
“…Yes.”
At present, I had no way to convince the Marquis.
If he refused, I would have no choice but to support them using only the authority and wealth at my personal disposal.
With that thought, I waited for the Marquis’s answer.
* * *
‘What am I supposed to do with this…?’
Pervan was just as troubled as Evan.
After all, the boy had given him no explanation and simply asked to be trusted.
However, his deliberation did not last long.
‘As expected, I must not judge this child by ordinary standards.’
The boy possessed a secret that Pervan alone knew in the entire world.
The extraordinary abilities resulting from that secret had already been proven several times.
Evan had discovered the astonishing properties of an herb called ‘Clove,’ which everyone else had dismissed as a weed.
He had also displayed enough strength to kill a knight of company-commander rank who had attempted to harm him.
He possessed the cunning to conceal that strength and the political acumen to exploit the power dynamics within the Marquis’s family.
Recently, he had even successfully led negotiations with the Imperial Family and the Magic Tower.
‘Though I suppose I am the one who created him… what an absurd monster he has become.’
Even Pervan himself could not begin to guess where the limits of Evan’s abilities lay.
For now, he had no choice but to continue watching him.
“Evan.”
“…Yes, Father.”
Having finished his deliberation, Pervan quietly parted his lips.
His youngest son stared at him with a somewhat tense expression.
Pervan answered with a single sentence.
Grin.
“Very well. Go ahead and do whatever you please.”
* * *
At the same time.
The weapons shop in the western district outside the castle had closed for the day.
In the owner’s residence on the shop’s second floor, another father and son were engaged in a serious conversation.
Small, flickering candles warmly illuminated the darkness as the muscular, gray-haired old man cautiously spoke.
“Ahem! Son, are you certain it is wise to behave so boldly toward the lord’s family? No matter how capable you may be….”
“No. I believe that because of who we are dealing with, we must make our position even clearer.”
“Sigh… Is that so?”
“Yes.”
The shaggy-haired young man answered so firmly that it seemed not even a needle could penetrate his resolve.
To others, his son might have appeared timid.
But his father knew him better than anyone.
When it came to business, Flüde possessed tremendous conviction.
“Fortunately, Young Master Evan accepted our demands, did he not?”
“Well, that is certainly true… But you must never trust nobles easily.”
For some reason, the muscular old man Glen’s eyes appeared bitter as he spoke.
Flüde understood better than anyone the sorrow and anger contained within his father’s gaze.
“Still… I believe Young Master Evan is somewhat different from ordinary nobles.”
“Yes. He certainly seemed different to me as well.”
Was it because he was an illegitimate child who had been raised as a commoner?
He displayed none of the ‘arrogance’ or ‘empty ostentation’ unique to nobles.
However….
‘What is that strange pressure I feel from him, even though he is clearly only ten years old…?’
It was as though Glen were looking at an absolute ruler who had reigned over countless people for many long years.
Moreover, Evan had not even been registered with the Marquis’s family for a full year, yet his swordsmanship had already reached the level of ‘Aura Manifestation.’
Even the Knight Commander who had accompanied him as an escort had apparently been unaware, judging by his genuine surprise.
“Although the Marquis of Verdin has yet to grant his final authorization, I somehow believe that Young Master Evan will ultimately secure his approval.”
“Heh heh… Is that so?”
Coincidentally, Glen had the same feeling.
There was no definite reason for it.
“They say fortune and misfortune can trade places without warning. One truly can never know what the future holds.”
Since refusing the Black Snake’s unjust demands the previous year, they had been harassed to the point that it had become nearly impossible to continue operating the weapons shop.
They had seriously considered whether they should finally leave Verdin.
Who could have imagined events would resolve themselves like this?
“Now that the knights and soldiers from the lord’s castle are guarding us, the Black Snake bastards cannot even come near the place.”
It happened at that very moment.
BOOM―!!!
“Keugh!”
“Aaagh!”
Screams rang out from outside the house alongside a tremendous explosion.
Sharp metallic sounds followed immediately afterward.
CLANG― CLANGCLANG―
KLANG!
It was the unmistakable sound of weapons colliding.
They had operated a weapons shop for years.
How could they possibly fail to recognize it?
As for the identity of the attackers… it was obvious.
“Those lunatics! They are attacking even though knights and the territory’s regular army are guarding us?!”
“Let us examine the situation first!”
They cautiously descended toward the staircase and looked down at what was happening on the floor below.
At that moment, they saw a knight dispatched from the lord’s castle exchanging blows with someone who appeared to be the intruders’ leader.
CLANG― CLANG―
“Ugh… You underworld vermin…!”
Despite his words, the knight was clearly being overwhelmed in terms of skill.
“Heh heh! F*ck, and they call the likes of you a knight?”
A distorted voice emerged from beneath the black mask.
The intruder slowly drove the knight backward as though he were toying with him.
CLANG― CLANGCLANG!
“Hup…?!”
SLASH! SLASH―
“Urgh….”
The knight’s movements grew increasingly disordered.
His eyes filled with shock and fear.
“M-My God! This swordsmanship is unmistakably…?!”
“Heh heh. Now that you know, die.”
The intruder’s eyes flashed with a murderous gleam.
FWOOSH―
A sharp thrust shot toward the throat of the knight, whose balance had completely collapsed.
STAB.
“K-Keurgh…!”
The intruder’s sword pierced its target with perfect accuracy.
“W-Wal…t…….”
THUD.
The enormous knight, clad from head to toe in black armor, died before he could finish his final word.
And that night—
The father and son who operated the weapons shop disappeared.
All that remained at the scene was a single note bearing the image of a black snake.