Chapter 119

119 . Side: Bluke

「What!? What in God's name is going on!?」

Why won't everything bend to my wishes!? Barbra is nothing short of a metropolis, and I, Bluke Krysten, am its Lord's second son . By that logic, the very city should bend to my will!

「Zerais! Did you not claim that the city would be thrown astir? Explain yourself!」

I glared upon the petite man standing before me . He appeared thin and unhealthy as ever, but he more than had his uses .

His name was as I'd shouted moments before . He was former disciple to the Adventurer's Guild's famed Eugene, and also the reason for which the great alchemist was expunged from his companions' circle . The same fate had naturally befallen Zerais, and hence, he'd fallen into the grasp of Barbra's underground . His current tasks mainly involved participation in the illegal .

Frankly, he was a madman . His research involved infusing magic crystals into human flesh, all in the name of creating members of the demon race . Truly, a realm of research from which even the Gods themselves would veer . However, the man was quite competent in spite of his lunacy, and as a result, he and I had experienced together .

The potions and poisons he produced truly put their value on display in my times of need . They would allow me to overturn a woman's decision should she reject the offer to be made into one of my concubines . More importantly, they could even be used to silence the commoners that wished to prattle to my father of my misdeeds .

Our association has granted me the ability to prosper, and it is through him that I was able to obtain my current position .

「Oh, that . Looks to me like someone's been getting in our way . 」

「I demand more details . 」

Had my plans been exposed...?

「Are you familiar with the name "The Black Tail?"」

「I haven't the slightest clue . 」

If I were to guess, I would likely assume it to be some sort of restaurant . I fail to see how a mere restaurant would have any sort of association with my goals . [1]

「The Black Tail is one of the participants in this year's King of Cooking . 」

「And what of it? I see no correlation . 」

「The stall I mentioned earlier is making use of magic-infused water in its products . Specifically, it's using the Water of Recovery, which dispels the effects of any abnormal status conditions cast on the consumer within the past few days . 」

「Really now?」

I doubt that a mere street stall would have the capacity to mass produce magic-infused water .

「It's true . I had one of my subordinates get his hands on one of their products . Their items have recovery-based properties . 」

「Tsk . In other words, they are ruining our plans then?」

「Yeah, especially seeing as how they're selling their products for just ten Golde apiece . 」

「So they've essentially flooded the markets?」

「I'm pretty sure they've been selling at least five thousand units a day . 」

「There's a fair chance that most of The Noble Dish's customers will have ingested their products as well . 」

I doubt that their decision was one made as a result of their knowledge of my plans . That, however, doesn't change their fate . Anyone who stands in my path shall be eliminated, be their intrusional intentional or otherwise .

「Crush them . 」

「I already hired and sent a few people over, but none have managed to succeed . 」

「Did they hire some sort of guard?」

「It seems like they've Iron Claw Colbert . He practically stays with them all day . The shopkeeper's also an adventurer herself, and a D ranked one at that . 」

「And what of Rynford's subordinates? The only reason I decided to shelter him was so that he could be of use at times like these . 」

Rynford was the name of one of Zerais' fellow researchers . Specifically, Zerais had introduced him two months prior . Though he was a researcher, he appeared moreso like a mercenary . Most of his subordinates were well versed in combat . Many of them bore scars upon their knees, and thus, were suspicious . They likely would not have been allowed to enter the city if not for my influence . Nowadays, the man spent each day holed up within this precise manor . He was an even more peculiar man than Zerais himself, but, he too was useful, especially when it came time for the application of violence .

「Rynford had sent several of his level twenty plus subordinates, but...」

「You mean to say they failed? How ridiculous! The shop's owner is but a mere D rank!」

「Not a single one of them has returned . Rynford's assault was not actually the first . I began by hiring a set of lackeys from the city's underground, but lost contact with them after sending them on their way . I can't even confirm as to whether they're dead or alive . 」

「That... is concerning . Does the shop's owner perhaps have some sort of hidden escort guarding her at all times?」

「I have no idea . I tried looking into her, but I all I could dig up was that she was a D ranked adventurer, and that she'd been rewarded with a near excessive number of spices for her contribution in defeating a set of pirates . 」

「Place more effort into your investigations . 」

「I already tried that . She'd only just arrived in Barbra, so detailed information about her is difficult to come by . The only other fact we have is that she came to the city aboard one of the Luciel Conglomerate's ships . We did manage to bribe one of the ship's workers, but all we got from him was the time in which she'd arrived at the city . 」

In other words, there was no way for us to grasp ahold of her weaknesses!? Accursed peasant! I cannot believe that my plans are about to be spoiled by a mere plebeian .

「Shall we employ mercenaries then? I doubt she would be able to survive a wave of thirty regardless of the extent of her abilities . 」

「Won't your honoured father catch wind of your movements if you don't keep them in moderation?」

「Tsk . 」

My old man did have several subordinates within the city's confines . There was a chance he'd catch wind of my plans for a coup d'etat if I didn't keep my actions minimal . Fuck!

How obnoxious . How long does that old shit plan to stand in my way? The only reason I wished to take his seat in the first place was because of his lack of ability to discern quality .

"Your not worthy of the Lord's position" my ass! My older brother is nothing short of trash . His only defining trait is his ability to be diligent . He lacks my intellect, and even so much as fails to to understand what it means to have a nobleman's pride . The fact that he takes a servile attitude even when speaking with commoners irritates me to point of wanting to fucking strangle him!

He was nothing but a weak, weak man . I was a far more suitable heir, and it was precisely the knowledge of that fact that led me to wish to wrest the position from right under his nose .

My plan was to cause Barbra to descend into mayhem and then shift all the blame onto my father in order to force him into retirement . Normally, my brother would end up becoming the lord in such a case, so I'd arrange to have him killed in the chaos .

Causing all that chaos was Zerais' job . The first plan we had was to have him poison a group of plebeians and have them rampage . However, we soon realized that such a meagre act would take a few dozen lives at most .

Such a small scale event was far from what we needed to fulfil our desires . Thus, Zerais crafted a second, more devastating scheme, one that would cause the whole town to descend into not but madness and destruction .

Naturally, I accepted his proposal . It was one that would cause many to perish, but I paid it no mind . Most were mere plebeians, and thus, irrelevant . Little of value would be sacrificed .

There was, however, one key factor required for our plan to come to fruition: Waint Krystan, my mentally deficient younger brother .

Waint was so stupid that not even I, his flesh and blood, could resist proclaiming him a retard . He'd been born as a Marquis' third son, but he ended something as peasant-like as a chef for reasons nothing short of ridiculous . I paid little care to the details, but I recall his reasoning as something as nonsensical as adoring the taste of the food the Royal Palace's dishes .

He and I had two clearly distinct mentalities . If I were to follow ambitions like his, I would seek to become a titan by acquiring cooking-related businesses and expanding through investment . He, on the other hand, actually became a stupid fucking pleb, and even went as far as to open his own shop . I remember trying out his cooking once, but it'd consisted of nothing but flavourless garbage . Believe it or not, the moron had even lost all his ambition . All he desired now was become a famous chef, and so the retard developed the habit of buying expensive materials just so he could transform them into worthless plates of junk .

I never once suspected that his meaningless, idiotic ambitions would culminate in a form from which I could find use . I employed him by investing into his shop and financially subordinating him .

Nobles that wished to build connections with my father and I frequented the shop . However, for reasons unknown, they soon began to flatter the wrong individual . They spoke of my brother's accomplishments and named him a chef of skill . Sheer nonsense . Waint's ability was laughable . He himself lacked the skill to break through King of Cooking's preliminaries, so I offered my assistance through the act of donating to the Chef's Guild a large sum . Through said donation, I allowed my brother to bypass the initial competition and immediately enter into the second round .

I later discovered, however, that he was even less of an intellectual that I'd surmised . The retard hired a gathering of loose-lipped grunts in order to harass his competitors . Shocked I was to see him even send a group after his own shop so he could perform a sort of stage act . His actions naturally led the guild to immediately begin an investigation, and thus, I once again had to step in as to prevent his disqualification . Many of the guild's staff members worked to retain the competition's fidelity . However, as was with all other organisations, there lay corrupt individuals within their ranks, all of which happily casted their duties aside in order to accept my bribes .

And that was the sequence of events that led up to this point, the point where I could finally put my plan into action .

The concept was as follows: Waint would make use of a specific class of magic-infused water, one that cursed any who ingested it . Of course, the plan was one doomed to fail lest we won over individuals within the guild — but that was a hurdle long overcome .

Our magic-infused water was a formula that Zerais and Rynford had developed in cohesion . I knew little of the details, but I was aware that the curse it spread was one that caused evil thoughts to develop within its victims . It could provoke any given individual into throwing a fit of violent rage so long as they consumed a substantial quantity of the substance . Most impressive was the substance's delayed effect . The plebeians that consumed it would only lose their minds after enough time had come to pass . Thus, they would disperse from the water's source before any sort of unnatural occurrence . Waint himself was nothing short of an idiot, and for reason unknown, thought what we had given to be plain magic-infused water . Everything was perfect; my pawn had not even so much as realized that he was being merely being used .

The publicity provided from the King of Cooking provided The Noble's Dish a grand total of 3000 customers each day . Basic mathematics led to the conclusion that the number of customers would ultimately culminate at approximately 10000, a number that more than satisfied my requirements . All that was needed was for us to let loose the familiars upon which Zerais had research in order to accomplish our goals .

The occurrence of such widespread insanity would leave Barbra's lord with no choice but to claim responsibility for the events that had perspired . He would be pardoned with only retirement if luck were to be on his side . However, there was also a chance that the Lord himself would be resigned to a status equivalent to that of a criminal's . Barbra was a major portside city, and of great importance to the Kingdom . Failing in its governance was a grave sin .

Hah! The thought of sending my father to trial put an unerasable smile upon my face .

My plans had been perfect .

Yet, they'd failed .

A fool had accidentally thrown off my predictions through the act of creating a sort of bread that nullified curses . Ridiculous! It was nothing but ridiculous! Don't fuck with me!

Zerais' reports stated that the crime rate had indeed risen on a year to year basis . However, the situation had yet to spiral out of hand .

Something had to be done .

The Black Tail must be no more .

「Usehim . 」

「Are you sure? He may end up causing quite the amount of damage . 」

「He is our only option!」

「Alright . I understand . I'll bring him here . 」

A man over two meters tall appeared before after ten minutes worth of waiting . His body was covered in a layer of scarred, coppery skin . His muscles appeared so expansive that the simple act of witnessing them led me to suspect that we never had the need to employ a method as roundabout as cursing the citizens in the first place . His flesh bore such strength that I would not have doubted any claims suggesting that his heritage had been part ogre .

He was Rynford's strongest subordinate, a former C ranked adventurer . The rumors said that he was just as strong as any B rank, but was denied promotion as a result of his behaviour . To verify the claim, I had him duel one of my former C ranked subordinates . Lo and behold, he lived up to his reputation and vanquished the man in a matter of moments .

They called him Zerrosreed The Berserker . He had little interest in anything but strengthening his body . He was what one could call a battle fanatic, a warrior sought out powerful foes for the sole sake of self improvement . He was known to even turn his blade on his companions and allies on a daily basis without even the slightest shred of care . More than one of these occasions had culminated in the act of manslaughter .

That alone did was but one of his many faults . Zerrosreed was well known for a certain incident, an incident that provided him two things: expulsion from the adventurer's guild, and a bounty that extended throughout the continent . The man had been employed by a nearby country for the sake of war . However, as anticipated by many, he turned his blade on his allies for the sake of testing his strength, and so, he'd felled the country's prince, slayed him in cold blood . The act destroyed his allies' chain of command and caused them to to lose most their forces . The country suffered a huge territorial loss, and thus, issued a price for his head . Such a act would cause many a warrior to live their lives in shame . He, however, had not the slightest semblance of repentance or atonement . In fact, the man claimed to be grateful . The bounty had led many a powerful to challenge him to combat .

Comprehending a specimen such as himself was impossible . All that I knew was that his brain was constructed of muscle, and that he possessed a ridiculous amount of power .

「I've a job for you . 」

「Haven't any chances to go on a good old rampage lately, so gimme something that'll let me loose . 」

「I see no problems satisfying that condition . A rampage is all I would ever hope from you to begin with . 」

「Hah hah hah! True, true . 」

I failed to see the reason for which the oversized man had clasped his belly in laughter, but cast all considerations aside . I needed not to understand but the fact that he could be used .

(Woof!)

「What was that...?」

I could have sworn that I caught wind of some sort of bark-like noise from a nearby room . That, however, was nonsensical . This manor was one that kept no pets, it was simply not possible for there to be such a sound .

「Perhaps I have allowed myself more exhaustion than is reasonable . 」

The dog I heard was ultimately dismissed as a mere figment of my imagination .

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[1] "The Black Tail" is not actually the full name, but I left it like that because it sounds better . The last character in the name is 亭, which can mean inn or restaurant amongst a few other things . Hence, the actual name can be, but is not always necessarily interpreted as "The Black Tail Restaurant . " Hence, he's unsure but able to guess correctly .