Prologue
Translator: starrie
Editor: starrie
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Huge thanks to Bri for the kofis! (2/2) 💕
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Gyuahhh—!
The corner of Count Jive’s mouth twisted as he watched a large monster struggle against the metal chains.
“Get it done quickly. His voice is destroying my eardrums.”
The wizard that was directing magic into the werewolf’s head at his urging, responded calmly.
“Werewolves are a race that have high resistance towards magic. It’s rebelling like this due to the brainwashing spell, otherwise…”
“Do I have to know everything about all of that?”
Count Jive snapped impatiently.
“If you had done as I said and moved against the Duke last night immediately, something as bothersome as this wouldn’t have been required.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? You shouldn’t have done something to be sorry for in the first place. I would only be able to deal with the Duke on the way back because of you. Do you know how difficult and cumbersome that is?”
‘You aren’t going to be moving personally anyways.’
Whether it’s the illusionary array to deceive the duke’s party, or sending a pack of werewolves to the campsite, it was all done by him.
The wizard bit his lip quietly.
In the first place, he didn’t like knights that even have muscles for brains.
If it weren’t for the proposal that allowed him to return to the Imperial Castle, he wouldn’t have participated in such a ridiculous operation.
Approach the strongest man in the empire and assassinate him in complete secrecy.
It was easy to speak about it, but almost impossible to execute.
“The Duke’s senses are extraordinarily sensitive, which makes it difficult to approach him. And….”
“And what? Let’s listen to the excuses you have.”
“Other than the Duke, there’s another person that was watching us.”
“What?”
Furious, Count Jive said, “Stop talking nonsense.”
“Other than the Duke and the knights led by the Duke, the rest are on our side, so who else would be keeping watch on us?”
“I’m not too sure about that, but I couldn’t even find their traces with magic. No matter what, that person doesn’t seem to be a normal person.”
“If magic doesn’t work, it probably isn’t a human, but a ghost. You, are you right in the head?”
The count tapped his temples with a frown.
“I heard that there are many wizards who aren’t normal in this aspect.”
“…I am perfectly sane, Count.”
“Hmph, have you ever seen an insane person admit that he’s crazy?”
Count Jive’s gaze was directed towards the werewolf that was still struggling.
“I don’t know what the hell Sir Nate was thinking, putting painstaking effort into such an ineffective plan.”
If he wanted to get rid of the Duke, he could have deployed troops and beheaded him.
Even if the emperor values him, it didn’t matter as what he originally wanted was a stronger and more loyal hound.
‘Nevertheless, to think that he insists on disguising it as an accidental death by using brainwashing magic on the monsters at the border in order to lure the Duke out.’
In any case, Nate was being obstinate in odd ways.
Thanks to that, Count Jive always had to suffer hardships.
The matter regarding Daniel was also the same.
How annoying it was to stop a son that was helping his father’s political opponent by rebelling against his father.
Eventually, the count even had to mobilise the monsters and make Daniel exhaust all of his mana.
“Hey, so when on earth will it be finished? Why does it take so long to dig out a stone from a monster’s head? I’d much rather behead it and bring it away!”
“It will be over soon. And I’ve already explained it to you. If the mana stone isn’t extracted properly, traces of mana will remain on its body. Then, evidence against us will be present…”
“Enough with the explanations, when exactly is soon?”
‘What a noisy old man.’
The wizard gritted his teeth internally, but replied in as kind of a tone as he could manage.
“I’m currently removing the traces of the artificial mana that’s left in the monster’s body from the mana stone. As this is very delicate work, it takes quite some time…”
“That d*mned magic always have a problem with time. He has to drag this out when a swing of the sword is all that’s needed to solve things in one go.”
Count Jive tapped his toes nervously.
He recalled the duke’s suspicion-filled gaze that followed him throughout the entire Tochern Castle.
Although he had thanked them for coming over as reinforcements, he was only saying it without meaning it.
It is inevitable as even passing ants are aware that the Jive family was one that supported Nate.
‘Anyways, only that little rascal is being unyielding.’
Since he’d taken over the position of duke with so much difficulty, all he had to do was quietly secure his position, but all he did was oppose the senior council, and this was the outcome.
If the Duke of Esbaden had obediently listened to his uncle’s words, nothing like this would have happened.
Just as the Count’s patience was about to bottom out while he was thinking about this and that.
“Count, it’s over.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
The wizard held out a large red mana stone that he’d extracted from the werewolf’s head.
As soon as the mana stone was extracted, it, who was alive and kicking, seemed to have exhausted its strength and became limp and motionless.
Count Jive wrapped the mana stone with a cloth and stuffed it into a pocket.
“You guys know what you should do, right?”
He threw a meaningful gaze at the soldiers that were gripping the chains.
“Yes, Count.”
They raised their weapons like they had been waiting for this, and thrust them into the body of the monster that was still panting.
That’s how the head of werewolves died.
“Yes, we caught and killed this arrogant rascal that was running wild. Do you understand?”
“What are you doing here?”
A voice that caused chills down their back and goosebumps to rise resounded.
Count Jive knew the owner of this voice better than anyone else.
He turned his head around stiffly, as though he was a wooden doll.
Soon after, the owner of the voice appeared through the dark forest.
It was none other than the duke, who was covered in monster blood that has yet to cool, Leonhart.
His blue eyes was piercing, as though they were able to pierce through the count.
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“…Duke?”
The duke’s sudden appearance was an unexpected development.
Why was the Duke here? Did he just leave the soldiers behind?
Given the duke’s character, it was impossible.
Count Jive quickly glanced around.
Contrary to his expectations, the Duke was alone.
Should he say it’s so characteristic of the duke when not even a rat is beside him?
“Duke, I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly.”
After grasping the situation, Count Jive quickly changed his attitude.
“The situation was so urgent that I didn’t have the opportunity to report it and handled the monster on my own. My apologies.”
The count made excuses hypocritically.
This is because he thought that the Duke was unaware of what he had done anyways.
Meanwhile, Leonhart glanced at the monster’s carcass that was cooling down and continued.
“The campsite is currently being attacked, but you mean to say that you dragged the soldiers out just to catch their leader?”
“T—that’s for the Duke’s sake! As long as we took down the leader, the monsters would stop attacking, so I just handled it in advance…”
‘You stupid old man!’
The wizard hurriedly pulled on the count’s cape.
After belatedly realising his mistake, Count Jive quickly closed his mouth.
But it was too late.
“How odd. Since when have the werewolves become the kind that’ll stop attacking when their leader is killed?”
Leonhart glared at the count with an even more sanguinous gaze than before.
“As far as I’m aware, it only occurs in one situation.”
He slanted the long sword that he was holding with ease.
Count Jive’s flustered face was reflected on his icy silver-white blade.
“You’d better give the right answer, Count.”
Leonhart slowly moved towards the count, one step at a time.
Not a moment later, the duke’s sword was close enough to be aimed at the count’s neck, and he opened his mouth again.
“Were you the mastermind behind this bloody situation?”
“Duke, p—please calm down for now…”
“Calm down?”
Leonhart’s grip on his sword became tighter.
“You want me to calm down when so many deaths have occurred because of you?”
He already knew everything that the count had done through Daniel.
The sudden appearance of werewolves in Tochern Castle, the deaths of many of the Tochern’s residents, and the deaths of soldiers that he’d brought with him.
It was all because of the b*stard in front of him.
“How many people did you sacrifice in order to kill me? Are you still a human being?”
“No, that’s…”
“After using the monsters to drag me out here, are you trying to destroy evidence because the situation has become unfavourable? You’ve really used your head well this time, right?”
“No, Duke! That’s not it!”
“I was completely unaware. If I’d known that the Count was such a smart man, I would appoint him as a counsellor, not a knight.”
“D—Duke! You’ve misunderstood! What do you mean by using the monsters? How could you say that I’m trying to destroy evidence! I’m unaware of this!”
“Too noisy.”
Leonhart spoke quietly while glaring angrily at him.
“If you’re going to spout nonsense again, I’ll cut off your tongue first.”
“D—Duke…”
Count Jive extended his arms forward and stiffened, unable to say anything.
The sword that the duke was aiming at him was about to dig into his neck.
“It’s evident that you didn’t act alone. As there’s someone else that will come up with a bunch of crap after causing so many bothersome things to happen.”
Leonhart’s blue eyes glinted.
“Answer me. Who was it that incited you to do this?”
“I—I don’t know! I just, I really just thought that everything will be resolved by going after the leader…”
“Nonsense.”
“Uwarghh—!”
Before Count Jive could finish answering, he clutched his face and collapsed onto the ground.
Leonhart’s blade tore open the corner of his mouth.
“I ripped the corner of your mouth because you wouldn’t be able to respond without your tongue.”
“Ugh, Ughhh—!”
“Let me ask you one more time. Who told you to do this?”
Under the duke’s aggressiveness, the count could only groan due to the terrible pain from the corner of his mouth.
He was very confused.
How the hell did the duke know about it and come after him? How was he able to see through the entire plan? No, more importantly, where did this plan of theirs go wrong?
Just as Count Jive was in a bind as he was tormented by the pain and fear.
“How absurd.”
A voice that’s jarring and piercing resounded from behind the Count.
“How in the world was such a person entrusted with this kind of matter?”
The man in a dark green cape stepped forward slowly.
“My greetings have been delayed, Duke Esbaden.”
He wore the hood of his cape deeply such that his face wouldn’t be visible, and bowed politely.
“And my apologies for saying this as soon as I’ve greeted you.”
The wizard smiled, baring his white teeth at the Duke, who was staring at him.
“The Duke should die here.”
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