The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 53

7. Summons: The Savvy Bastard

The suspicious man, known as the strategist of the Hilton family, was never a pleasant person, but today, an eerie aura radiated from him, amplifying my aversion.

“I came this far as you requested, so tell me quickly. If I don’t like what I hear, I’m leaving immediately.”

“Hehehe, you don’t have to worry about that. Once you see this, you’ll understand how to kill Henon instantly.”

The man in the bowler hat led Rosalyn down to the basement beneath the cabin.

Upon reaching the basement, Rosalyn barely managed to stifle a scream at the sight that unfolded below.

However, the maid who had accompanied her was not so restrained.

“Kyaaaaak!!”

The basement scene:

Over a dozen black mages in dark hoods stood in a circle.

In the center was a sinister magic circle drawn in blood, which looked like a curse mark at first glance.

The stench of blood was overwhelming.

Rosalyn instinctively knew that the blood used to draw the magic circle was from humans, not animals.

“How disgusting. How many people did you have to kill to draw a magic circle of this scale?”

“You have a good eye. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the groundwork on the day itself.”

He regarded the act of killing people merely as part of the preparation for creating a curse.

Rosalyn’s spine went cold as she encountered a mindset so distinctly different from that of ordinary humans.

“Oop! Excuse me.”

The bowler-hatted man, who had almost completed the faintly red-glowing magic circle, approached the maid Rosalyn had brought.

Before the terrified maid could step back, he quickly plucked a few strands of blonde hair from behind her ear.

“Don’t worry. I need the hair of a young maiden to complete the magic circle. It won’t harm you.”

The masked man grinned and floated the maid’s hair in a chalice filled with blood in the very center of the magic circle. The maid asked Rosalyn, terrified.

“Madam, will I be alright?”

“Do you think anything will happen while I’m watching?”

Finally, the magic circle activated. The black mages chanted bizarre spells that no one had ever heard before. Their eyes gleamed with madness, making them terrifying to behold.

“Madam, let’s go back now.”

The terrified maid clung to Rosalyn’s arm. Even amidst this, the black mages’ chanting reached its climax. Despite her unease, Rosalyn stood her ground.

“!!%[email protected]!%%^”

Finally, a change occurred in the magic circle. A ghostly figure arose as a sinister energy surged.

Everyone held their breath and watched.

The ghost looked around for a moment, then suddenly fixed its gaze on the maid who had provided the hair.

“Hic!”

The startled maid hiccuped.

The ghost stared intently at the maid, then turned transparent and vanished.

Silence returned.

Nothing happened.

Rosalyn, who had been holding her breath, grumbled resentfully.

“Is that all? What exactly were you trying to show me…”

“Kyaaaaaaaak!!!!”

Rosalyn’s words were drowned out by a scream that erupted beside her. The accompanying maid clutched her head and writhed in agony. Her distress was so intense that it sent shivers down one’s spine just to watch.

“What is this? Stop it immediately!”

“It’s too late. The curse has already been activated.”

The bowler-hatted man answered leisurely with his hands behind his back. Even then, the maid flailed her arms, staring into empty space.

“Don’t come! I said don’t come! Don’t… Keuk!”

She clutched at her neck.

She gasped for breath.

Her body writhed like a worm.

Eventually, her breathing stopped.

Rosalyn vividly watched the maid she had brought meet her end, her lips turning blue. Staring at the limp corpse with vacant eyes, she finally regained some composure and flared up in anger.

“What have you done! Is this why you told me to bring a young girl? My person died because of you!”

The bowler-hatted man shrugged.

“I needed to show the Madam how the curse is activated. More importantly, what do you think? Even if Henon is an Expert, he can’t withstand a curse. It will be handled as an unfortunate accident where he died of a heart attack in his sleep. You won’t be suspected.”

Rosalyn admitted it.

Although she felt a pang of grief at the death of the maid who had followed her, she was convinced that this was a powerful curse capable of harming Henon.

“Then activate the curse again right now and kill Henon.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“There’s a distance limit. The curse is too far to be activated from here to the Marquis’s castle.”

Rosalyn guessed what the bowler-hatted man wanted from her.

“You want me to create a space within the inner castle to target Henon.”

“As expected, you are astute. Also, I need Henon’s hair. The more, the better.”

‘Obtaining Henon’s hair is easy.

I can have someone bring it when Zion leaves the room.’

The problem was securing the space.

‘If I drew such a large magic circle, especially one made of blood, in a place where everyone could see, I would be burned at the stake immediately.’

After much deliberation, Rosalyn finally made a big decision.

“Come to my room on the night of the new moon.”

“Hehehe, for the Madam to offer her room herself. I understand how much you want to kill Henon.”

“Spare me the useless talk. And are all those mages necessary?”

“Too many people would be conspicuous, so I’ll come alone on the day.”

“That’s a relief. Make sure you keep your promise.”

With these words, Rosalyn turned and disappeared.

Silence filled the cabin.

One of the black mages approached and bowed to him.

“Congratulations, Apostle. Everything went according to plan.”

The bowler-hatted man.

Greed, one of the seven executives of Twilight.

He poked the corpse of the dead maid with a sticky gaze.

“Rosalyn was easy because she was naive.”

“Hehehe, she would never dream that the curse we showed her today was a trick and that the real one is separate.”

In fact, curses are extremely complex in their mechanism and have quite strict activation conditions, as their results are destructive.

All dozens of variables must be blocked, and a certain amount of luck must be in place for the effect to occur.

The curse that Greed showed Rosalyn today was a low-level curse that killed a virgin, and its success rate was higher than other curses.

The problem was that even activating such a low-level curse required the blood of a hundred people.

It was not cost-effective, and above all, Henon could never be killed with such a curse.

He was not a virgin and was a strong person corresponding to an Expert.

Even becoming an Expert meant having a high-level soul that transcended the category of ordinary people, so the failure rate had to be seen as over 99%.

So why did Greed go to the trouble of putting on such a show to deceive Rosalyn?

His hidden purpose was…

“I’m looking forward to it. The sight of a demon being summoned in the depths of the Marquis’s family.”

It was demon summoning.

In the first place, the reason why Greed came all the way here from his base, the free city of Liang, was because of the collapse of the Lloyd family.

At first, he tried to move the rival Hilton family and shake the Elden Kingdom to slowly corner them.

But a problem arose here.

Henon, who had been excluded from the list of threatening figures because he was an illegitimate child with no power, was a much more troublesome existence than expected.

He ruined the meticulously planned plan and instead used it as nourishment to grow frighteningly.

Witnessing this, Greed judged that Henon should not be left unattended and changed his course to demon summoning.

This radical method was bound to attract a lot of attention and did not fit with Greed’s way of working secretly in the shadows.

But he felt he had to take the risk.

Henon was growing too big to leave alone.

“I’ll have a lot to do when I get back to Liang.”

“I will prepare a thousand souls.”

“Search the slave market. We must gather them by the next new moon.”

“I obey.”

Greed’s figure becomes blurred.

The next day.

The cabin on Hinz Lake, which used to be a haven for children playing in the water, was completely destroyed by a fire of unknown cause.

No one knew what had happened inside.

* * *

Even after becoming the temporary successor of the Lloyd Marquisate, there was no major change in my daily routine.

Training. Training. And more training.

Occasionally, Marquis Lloyd would ask about the estate’s affairs, but after seeing me handle things more efficiently and quickly than the chief steward in charge of the castle’s finances, he seemed to have stopped worrying about this area altogether.

Currently, I was sparring against Campbell and Zion in the training grounds.

At first, I mainly did one-on-one matches with Campbell, but as my achievements rapidly increased, I now fought 1v2 with Zion joining in.

[Summon Wood Golem.]

[Activate Bind.]

[Use Stone Lance.]

I relentlessly unleashed Druid skills against Campbell.

Having used them so often, I now had a rough idea of how to use Druid skills even in one-on-one combat.

-Woowooeong

The 3m-tall Wood Golem waved its long-range arms from the front lines, and if you stopped even for a moment, vines that sprung up from the ground would bind the opponent.

Moreover, the moment you were bound, sharp stones would inflict guaranteed penetrating wounds, so Campbell, on the receiving end, had no choice but to struggle without being able to approach me.

“As expected of the Deputy Commander! You’re strong.”

Campbell clicked his tongue and admired my power. But I didn’t let my guard down. Zion was hiding her presence, looking for an opening.

-The maid has become quite strong.

The Heavenly Demon briefly commented on Zion, and I agreed.

After giving her the Mandragora [a magical plant], Zion reached Expert level and mastered a new skill, Camouflage.

It seemed that Sebastian had noticed her achievements and given her some help.

Sreureuk

Zion, disguised with Camouflage, made it impossible to guess where she would attack from without concentrating.

Of course, I could find out in an instant by using the Heavenly Demonic Guidance, but I deliberately excluded the Heavenly Demon’s help during sparring to train my sense of touch.

“Hot!”

Zion quickly aimed for the back of my neck.

Having been waiting, I deflected her dagger with the Heavenly Demon Sword.

Certainly, the swordsmanship of an assassin is very different from that of ordinary knights.

If an attack fails, they don’t force another attack. They use Camouflage to blend into the surrounding environment and wait for the next opportunity.

For me, she was a more troublesome opponent than Campbell, who charged head-on without thinking.

The sparring that had been going on for a while ended in my victory.

Campbell was careless and was bound by tree vines after dealing with the Wood Golem with a mana sword, and was hit by a Stone Lance that came in as a follow-up.

As Campbell collapsed, I was able to fully concentrate on Zion, and she was soon caught and the Heavenly Demon Sword was pointed at her neck.

“…I lost.”

“That’s truly amazing. It seems like the Deputy Commander gets stronger every time he wakes up.”

Campbell shrugged and chuckled.

I reacted indifferently.

People keep praising me for my rapid growth, but I actually feel impatient.

Twilight has been too quiet since Niflheim was defeated in the North.

And according to the story of that I know, Twilight was not an organization that would stay still like that.

They must already be moving behind the scenes.

To respond to this, I had to reach the realm of Master as soon as possible and find the Golden Branch to grow as a Druid as well.

Not long ago, I asked the Heavenly Demon about the next Golden Branch.

The Heavenly Demon’s answer was this.

-The closest Golden Branch is in the South.

If it’s the South from here, it’s the free city of Liang.

Liang is one of the leading commercial cities on the continent, so it wouldn’t be strange if there was a Golden Branch there.

So I had implicitly set Liang as my next destination, but now it was ambiguous to leave.

“Zion, what’s their situation?”

It was about Philip and Rosalyn.

They showed a fierce rejection at the banquet where the temporary successor position was decided.

I can’t comfortably go to Liang to find the Golden Branch with enemies who have a strong animosity towards me lurking behind my back, watching for a chance.

Even if I go, I have to clear the rear for sure so that I can feel comfortable and fully concentrate on the search for the Golden Branch.

“Young Master Philip went to the Molty Territory a while ago. On the surface, he said he was meeting his grandfather, but it seems he intends to gather forces from his maternal family.”

“What about Rosalyn?”

“The Marquis’s wife stays in her room all day.”

Rosalyn is quiet.

It’s too suspicious.

It would be easier if she showed openly how she would move, like Philip.

“But I saw her going out alone with a maid at night a while ago. After that, only the Madam came back.”

“Where was the destination?”

“I couldn’t figure it out. I’m sorry.”

Zion said that Sebastian happened to visit to give her guidance at that time, so she stopped tailing them.

It’s an understandable situation.

Still, it was a bit disappointing.

It’s strange that someone who was always in her room suddenly went out at night, and it’s also strange that only one of them came back after they went out together.

“I wish I knew at least which direction Rosalyn went.”

“She went to Hinz Lake.”

“Hinz Lake… Huh?”

A voice suddenly cut in.

I turned around and saw Campbell stuffing bread into his mouth.

“How do you know that?”

“Kate told me?”

“Who’s Kate?”

“A maid in the Marquis’s castle.”

He said it so casually that I couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious.

“I’ve become quite close to the maids these days. I hear a lot of stories.”

“Yeeeh? You?”

Zion was overly surprised.

Anyway, that’s not important right now.

I summarized Campbell’s explanation that followed.

“In short, a maid named Rosa went out with the Marquis’s wife, but then went missing? And Rosa told Kate that she was going to Hinz Lake before she left?”

“That’s right.”

“Why didn’t you tell the Young Master such important information?”

“I didn’t know it was important information.”

I should say it’s like Campbell.

What a great indifference.

Anyway, it seemed like I had caught a clue.

I decided to move right away.

“Get your sword. We’re going to Hinz Lake.”