Episode 133

‘What the hell am I even doing here? That damn Christian devil. I just want this whole thing to be over so I can finally be free from him.’

But… will I really be free once this is done?

I heard somewhere that Christian is in the middle of the succession trials.

If he succeeds this time, he’ll be closer than anyone else to becoming the next head of the Dark Marquis family. And as for me, Count Roy, I might be stuck forever as someone who’s just pushed around behind the scenes.

‘Ugh. That wicked devil.’

Just then, Roy’s eyes met someone in a similar predicament.

It was Alos.

“…”

“…”

Both of them were being dragged around against their will by that Christian devil.

And Alos, being a bloodline of the Dark Marquis family, couldn’t even escape his side.

If things are this bad now, how much worse will it get once Christian becomes the heir to the Dark Marquis?

It was pitiful beyond words.

“…Stay strong, Sir Alos.”

“…You too, Sir Roy.”

A quiet bond of shared hardship blossomed between them.

“C-cough. Sleep well, Sir Alos.”

“Y-you too, Sir Roy.”

They both turned away, awkward smiles on their faces.

Meanwhile, another pair was having an equally awkward conversation.

“Hey.”

“…Yeah?”

Jupien and Olivia.

Since they were camping out, the group was all sprawled around the campfire, lying close together.

Outside, knights stood guard.

“Since they’re our enemies anyway, should I call you ‘Princess’?”

“…No, that’s fine. I don’t need that.”

Olivia turned her back sharply, clearly not wanting to engage.

But then—

“Hey, did you fall for my little brother?”

“W-what did you say?”

“You kept sneaking glances at Christian the whole way here.”

Olivia’s face flushed bright red.

Now that she thought about it, it was true.

For some reason, her eyes kept drifting toward him.

Even she didn’t understand why.

“N-no, that’s not it! What nonsense! Don’t say things like that, it’s rude.”

“Really? You’re sure?”

“Yes, absolutely!”

Jupien did push-ups inside his sleeping bag, tilting his doll-like face in mock suspicion.

“So, are you planning to challenge Christian?”

“…”

“If you want to challenge him, you’d better get past me first. I’m the one who’ll crush him.”

Olivia ignored him and said nothing.

‘These guys are weird.’

Except for the timid Alos, everyone—Christian, Jupien—they were all strange.

The strangest of all was this:

[Oh ho ho. The young lord, the young lady, and Saint Olivia as well. Wishing you all a wonderfully happy night. If anyone wants virgin’s blood juice, just say the word. Ah, and I have a special recipe for bachelor’s blood juice too, hoho.]

A ghostly voice sent chills down their spines.

‘Carrying a ghost as a maid? Christian really is insane.’

Olivia closed her eyes inside her sleeping bag, clutching a wooden charm tightly in her hand.

A treasure given by her brother, something she valued more than her own life.

‘Christian oppa, I’ll stay strong. Please watch over me.’

Thankfully, it seemed to help calm her heart a little.

‘I miss you, oppa.’

Her chest tightened again, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Suddenly, a loud commotion erupted outside.

“@#@#$!!!”

Everyone jumped up in surprise.

A knight on guard approached the group.

“Is it an attack?”

“No. A strange-looking vagrant woman came by and started causing a scene.”

“A vagrant causing trouble?”

“Well… she’s a maen, and she’s cursing Christian the whole time.”

Everyone looked at Christian with puzzled expressions.

Jupien spoke accusingly.

“What bad thing did you do this time?”

“I didn’t really do anything. Oh, wait.”

Christian smacked his palm with his fist.

“Someone’s come looking for me. I’ll be somewhere quiet. Care to show the way?”

Christian disappeared swiftly into the forest, leaving everyone scratching their heads.

After a while—

“Graaah, you damn @#$! If I don’t kill you, I’m not human!!”

Turning toward the voice, a filthy vagrant woman appeared, glaring at Chris like an enemy.

She was so dirty it was hard to make out her features, but Chris recognized her instantly.

“Well, well. How have you been?”

Chris smiled slyly.

“Ruina.”

---

It was unbelievable.

That filthy woman was Ruina?

“Why have you come looking for me?”

“Why? You ask why I came? Grrr!”

Ruina’s face twisted with rage and frustration, as if she might have a heart attack.

“You ruined my guild because of you! You damn bastard [email protected]$!!”

“Hmm?”

“What do you mean ‘hmm’?! I followed your orders and look what happened to me!”

“I only told you to prepare medicine in advance to treat the plague.”

“Graaah! Because of that, our guild was blamed as the cause of this whole plague! You damn bastard!!”

Here’s the thing.

Chris had tipped Ruina off about the coming plague ahead of time.

Ruina stocked up on medicine based on that information.

At the time, she was thrilled.

Not only would she make a fortune selling the medicine, but she’d also become a benefactor of the Gold Cross.

But then, before the plague even broke out, people started suspecting her of foul play for buying medicine early, and her guild was ruined.

“I see. But why are you angry at me?”

Chris’s shameless answer made Ruina want to scream.

“Because of you! You tricked me, promising I’d make big money if I followed you!”

“Hmm, I never tricked you. Everything seems to be going smoothly. I don’t get why you’re so worked up. Maybe you should calm down.”

“Graaah! Fine! Let’s just kill each other!”

Ruina charged forward but suddenly stopped.

“…What do you mean by ‘everything is going smoothly’?”

Chris kept his usual annoying smirk.

“I think you’re mistaken. I only said you’d make money, not that it would come from selling herbs.”

“…What?”

“The herbs were bait to lure others in. From what I hear, it worked perfectly.”

“……”

Ruina’s mouth twitched.

She looked like she wanted to chop Chris’s head off with an axe.

But instead of exploding in anger, she took a deep breath and asked carefully.

“…What do you mean? Please explain.”

“Let me ask you something. Who blamed your guild?”

“I don’t know. Suddenly, knights stormed in and shut down all our Gold Cross businesses.”

“Then let me ask differently. Why would someone you don’t know do this to your guild?”

“……”

“Think about it. Would someone really try to ruin a huge guild like yours just because you bought medicine early?”

Ruina was silent.

Every action has a reason.

Especially something this big wouldn’t happen without cause.

When she thought about it differently, the answer came easily.

She wondered why she hadn’t realized it before.

“…Someone framed my guild.”

“Bingo.”

“Then, could it be…?”

Chris nodded.

“Yes. Whoever harmed your guild is behind this plague. Now, another question: who in the Gold Cross could do something like this to ruin your guild?”

Ruina swallowed hard.

There were very few who could.

The rulers of each Gold Cross nation only had power within their own territories.

But her guild had branches across many Gold Cross regions.

Only someone with influence over the entire Gold Cross could bring down her guild.

A name came to Ruina’s mind, but she pushed it away.

It was unthinkable.

“B-but… that’s impossible. Why would someone so powerful do something so terrible?”

Already, over a thousand people had died from this plague.

If left unchecked, tens of thousands more would perish.

But—

“Human greed knows no bounds. They must have wanted something more than all those lives.”

Chris answered coldly.

Having lived through an age of destruction, he knew better than anyone how terrible humans could be.

“Y-you’re just guessing, right?”

“Yeah, just a guess. Now we have to catch the culprit.”

Chris grinned devilishly.

“They left plenty of traces trying to ruin your guild. It won’t be hard.”

A chill ran down Ruina’s spine.

Such a brilliant mind.

“Still… to think they’d try to destroy my guild.”

“Speak clearly. It’s not like you’re actually ruined. Only the Gold Cross side took a hit. Your other bases are probably fine.”

“…But it’s still a huge blow. Our businesses collapsed.”

“You probably moved all your relics and important artifacts out beforehand, right?”

“……”

She made a lot of noise, but the actual damage she suffered was minimal.

She looked like a mess because she’d been working hard behind the scenes to minimize the guild’s losses.

“Still, sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. If you’d known, it wouldn’t have been such a perfect trap. My apologies.”

“…Hmph.”

Ruina crossed her arms and turned her head away from Chris’s apology.

Chris chuckled quietly.

“You’re the one who taught me how to stab someone in the back.”

Ruina was truly a master of betrayal.

In my previous life, back when I was still naive, she had scammed me multiple times.

“What did you say to me back then? That the one who gets fooled is just stupid?”

Of course, at that time, Ruina probably had no idea who she was messing with.

After that, Chris took his revenge—not exactly out of spite, but by relentlessly bleeding her dry.

Until the world ended in that past life.

And now, in this life as well.

“But Ruina is still someone I need going forward.”

I offered her a peace offering to soothe her.

“If we solve this problem, your Dear Guild will gain enormous profits. Not only will you be handsomely rewarded, but since you’re taking the blame for trying to cure the plague, you can demand all sorts of privileges from the Gold Cross. No, I’ll personally make sure that happens.”

“…You, personally?”

“Yes, I’ll take responsibility.”

Ruina snorted, half mocking, half resigned.

“Well, if you put it that way… but if you ever use me as bait again, I won’t forgive you.”

“So you’re planning to keep doing business with me?”

“Profit! Could you please stop grinning so slyly? I’m still not over what happened.”

“I was going to make sure you got five times the compensation for your losses.”

“Oh ho ho, I must have been crazy for a moment. The one who gets fooled is the fool, huh? Your wisdom only makes me trust you more.”