Chapter 38

The Licht viscounty neither ran special businesses nor made investments.

Yet it was strange that they had quite a large influence in the west.

It would be understandable if they had popularity, military accomplishments, or connections in the central region, but they had none of these.

It was said that the Licht family was exceptional in managing their inherited wealth.

Whether their management methods were illegal or legal, being exceptional was still exceptional.

Like this prayer hall gambling den.

Rotaer Licht, the former head butler of Hartmann and the eldest son of the Licht family, couldn't get up from the floor.

This was because Leandros had slammed his head to the ground as soon as he tried to escape.

He had tried to scream, but quieted down when Leandros threatened to cut out his tongue.

After breathing heavily for a while, he shouted in a voice filled with fear.

"Wh-what are you planning to do with me!"

"Please don't act like this when you know everything. What do you think is the reason I came all the way here?"

"I don't know anything. Nothing!"

"Yet you blackmailed Assistant Head Butler Amelia quite well."

When Amelia's name came up, Rotaer's eyes widened.

"How did you know, Amelia..."

"Setting aside how I found Amelia. Let me ask you directly. It was you who colluded with Crown Prince Yurik, wasn't it?"

"No! How dare you see me as!"

"So far, I've been seeing you as a traitor."

"Are you going to kill me?"

He didn't understand why people who had committed crimes always expected death. It wasn't like their crimes would be pardoned by doing so.

"Not today. I just want to know about your relationship with Yurik. If you tell me about that, we'll leave peacefully."

He gently pushed away the gold coins that had rolled to his feet.

"...Or I could give you some gifts."

Rotaer rolled his eyes, scanning the gold coins spilled on the floor.

After weighing his options for a moment, he cried out desperately.

"Sw-swear to me! Swear that you'll let me go if I tell you everything."

"I'll try."

At his response, the strength in Leandros's hand slightly decreased.

Only then did Rotaer, panting, pour out his story.

"I, I didn't even know I was connected to His Highness the Crown Prince. I swear, I just went to a tavern to play some card games."

"When you were head butler?"

"Before becoming head butler. I always played games on holiday evenings, and that day, the tavern owner particularly urged me, saying a skilled player had come, so after a few games..."

He must have become engrossed without realizing it.

Rotaer Licht was a gambling-friendly character.

This was natural, considering his family ran such a large illegal gambling den.

In fact, the reason Rotaer had been practically expelled from his family and entered as a head butler was also due to gambling.

Pathological gambling addiction.

A mental disorder called gambling addiction in modern times.

He had become addicted to games at the gambling den operated by his family.

And then he had accumulated large debts while being unable to control himself while gambling elsewhere.

As a result, his family had paid off the debt on his behalf and practically forced him out to Hartmann.

As befitting a noble family's son, he had a record of attending the Academy and wasn't particularly unintelligent.

But the problem was his addiction.

"I didn't know. I didn't know. I was about to win, but at the last moment, the card came out like that!"

"I'm not interested in that. So you lost. How much did you have to pay?"

Rotaer spat through his teeth.

"Seven thousand seven hundred ninety-seven gold coins. The number written on the promissory note is something I haven't forgotten to this day!"

A sum that couldn't be earned even if Rotaer sold himself ten times over.

What happened next was roughly predictable.

"So you became indebted, and to repay that debt?"

"Letters kept coming, threatening to inform both the Hartmann family and my family. I tried to do something about it. But I thought I couldn't be driven out like this when my appointment as head butler was almost certain."

Rotaer paused for a moment.

The voice that followed had shame embedded in it.

"...I explained my situation in a letter, and he said he would think of a solution together. And a few days later, the person I met again at the tavern was His Highness Crown Prince Yurik."

"I heard there was some relationship with the creditor?"

"His Highness Crown Prince Yurik said that man was a businessman in whom he personally invested. But he said the man became financially troubled, and His Highness directly purchased his business."

"And you believed that?"

"Looking back now, it seems strange, but at the time, I thought that the entire enormous debt was dependent on His Highness..."

"That commoner businessman, have you ever seen his face?"

"He was wearing his hat pulled down deeply, so not at all."

The image of Leandros sweeping through the gambling den came to mind.

He would bet that the businessman was definitely Yurik himself.

If there was a protagonist buff, there must certainly be a villain buff too.

Fucking novel rules, he thought.

"Continue, please."

"His Highness said he would give me a different proposal instead of bankrupting me."

Ah, his head.

While pressing his temples firmly, he asked.

"Was it to sell out Hartmann's internal affairs? Instead of properly repaying the debt?"

"I had no choice! Who could repay such a large amount of money, who!"

"There must have been other ways!"

"People like you who have lived in comfort in a ducal family wouldn't understand, you could have obtained that amount just by throwing a tantrum!"

Rotaer screamed.

"You think people who carry around money are abundant in this world! Hartmann might have been able to obtain it with a wiggle of a finger, but not me! From the beginning..."

From the beginning, those born with golden cradles know nothing.

That there truly was no way for himself.

Why blame him for falling into the Crown Prince's scheme?

He was merely a chess piece sacrificed in the fight between the ducal family and the royal family.

Thinking that way, he too was a victim.

He seemed to have heard roughly that kind of talk, but it wasn't clear.

He was so angry that his head was spinning.

Certainly, the ones who died weren't his parents, and the fallen family wasn't his family.

But he was here now.

This bastard had built up the situation that the body he possessed was in.

Even considering that Yurik was the mastermind behind the manipulation, there were parts that could be taken into account and parts that couldn't.

Rotaer was completely different from Amelia.

No remorse, no regret.

"Fine."

At those words, Rotaer, who had been letting out screeches close to curses, abruptly stopped.

"Wh-what?"

"It's all fine. Let's not talk about past events. Eliminating you won't take us back to the past anyway."

"Are you letting me go? You're releasing me?"

"What are you talking about? You still have something to repay to me."

Rotaer's eyes widened.

He came down from the sofa and stood in front of him.

"I've lost too much due to your snitching, how could a few thousand gold coins be enough? I could cut off your finger here and write a promissory note."

"Su-such cowardly actions won't work!"

"I'm just saying. But I've decided to think generously, just like His Highness Crown Prince Yurik."

The sight of him squirming at his feet was distasteful.

While making an effort not to inadvertently step on him, he spoke slowly.

"You'll need to recall all of your conversations with Crown Prince Yurik."

* * *

When they came out of the monastery, the sun was already halfway up.

There was a jingling sound from the pouch fastened at his waist.

This was because, in addition to the gold coins Leandros had earned, they had completely emptied Rotaer's pockets.

Today was a complete jackpot.

Arndt would probably faint with joy if he brought this to him.

As he created a shade with his hand because the sunlight, as radiant as the gold coins, was dazzling, Leandros put the hood back on him.

"Shall we head back?"

"We've obtained all we need."

Leandros deserved much of the credit for making Rotaer talk.

While some violence was inevitably involved, he still seemed to be exercising maximum restraint.

That suddenly bothered him, so he asked.

"Weren't you angry when the head butler was making excuses earlier? I almost strangled that bastard."

"If you had given the order, I would have done it instead."

Leandros paused for a moment before adding.

"I would have understood completely."

"Yet you don't kill him."

Rotaer didn't really possess any crucial information.

But just by relaying what he had heard from Yurik, there were several things that could be inferred.

First, Yurik had shown a fearsome obsession with the ducal family.

The knife pointed at the ducal family wasn't something that had been sharpened over just a few days.

Rotaer had spilled information that Yurik had been particularly interested in.

One of them was about the former Duchess.

And also about Arenheit, the son of the former Duchess.

If he intended to use "revelations" as Leandros had said, it made sense.

Since the Duchess was also one who received revelations, if the Duchess refused, he might have tried to take Arenheit hostage.

Suddenly, he remembered the last time he died.

Yurik, who had tried to dismember him.

Yurik would not know that he could experience "revelations."

If he had judged the Duchess to be of no use and killed her, did he also kill Arenheit because he had lost his usefulness?

But if so, why did he keep Arenheit alive by promoting his improbable reinstatement beforehand?

Keeping him alive, then killing him.

No, it seems closer to deciding to keep him alive, then changing his decision to kill him.

And the change that happened to him during that time was.

Possession.

Arenheit disappeared, and he entered instead.

Therefore, he chose to kill this body rather than save it.

What benefit did he gain by killing him?

-The limbs will be distributed evenly across each region of the empire. I didn't expect to be taking care of the Duke in this manner, but that body has many useful purposes.

"Leandros, I'm just asking this, but have I changed from before?"

"You've become quite eloquent. Your patience has increased. And communication is normally possible."

"What about in appearance?"

"You seem a bit taller."

It seemed there weren't any changes from before.

He looked down at his hands.

This seemed like one of the tasks he'd need to figure out in the future.

And the second story Rotaer had told.

Whenever he met with Yurik, he always appeared busy.

One might think this was natural for a Crown Prince, but according to what he had overheard, Yurik seemed to be conducting business in various parts of the kingdom.

One of them was said to have the south in mind.

What came to mind when he heard about the south.

The merpeople who had died.

Was it his misperception that it overlapped with the east?

"Let's leave here first and go to a larger village. Somewhere likely to have an Aisling Merchant Group branch."

"Yes."

"I wonder if Arndt has reached the east."

"Distance-wise, it's entirely possible."

"We'll know if we contact him through the branch."

He needed to ask about what had happened in the east, and whether there had been any entanglement with the Arnold baronial family.

With these thoughts, they mounted the black horse again and left the village.

Three days later, they arrived at one of the western cities.

The merchant group branch in the city was a bit small but had everything necessary.

They asked for permission and wrote a letter addressed to Aiden.

However, when he handed the letter to the clerk, the clerk, after checking the recipient, showed a perplexed expression.

"I'm sorry. It seems letter delivery will be impossible through here."

"What? Even though it's a telegram for Aiden Aisling. Did something happen to Aiden perhaps?"

Could this guy have been pushed out of the successor position!?

Suspicion suddenly rose within him.

But the clerk shook his head.

"All routes to the east are currently blocked. Not just for us, but for other merchant groups and travel routes as well."

"What? Why?"

Not just Aisling but other merchant groups were in the same situation?

A foreboding feeling suddenly arose.

"I heard that an anomalous phenomenon that appeared in the wasteland, where reclamation work was in full swing, has engulfed the east. Those sent for situation assessment haven't returned, making it difficult to provide details. I ask for your understanding."

The clerk explained.

Bad feelings always come true.