The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 107

In the game *Sion Like*, an action fantasy RPG set in the open world of the Arnia Continent, the story begins when the demon king Baal starts to awaken, bringing an apocalypse to the entire continent.

From there, Sion, a special maid of the Lloyd estate, progresses by eliminating mobs in the field and defeating the field bosses in order.

For reference, Henon Lloyd, into whom my soul entered, was the cursed druid raised by the Twilight Church with necromancy—the first field boss Sion had to defeat.

This is the game story I know.

Back then, I only played the very beginning and threw the game console away, disgusted by the terrible difficulty.

Therefore, I had no idea what bosses Sion would encounter in the future.

I only glanced at a few bosses mentioned in the trailers released by the developers or in the notices that hinted at Easter eggs and buried them in the back of my mind.

Among them, Princess Rebecca of the ruined kingdom, who appears midway through *Sion Like*, was particularly memorable.

Why do I remember Rebecca while not knowing other bosses?

It’s a very simple reason.

Because the illustration was pretty.

There was a time when an illustration posted on the homepage became a hot topic among game users because it was pretty.

-Look at this boss.

-So pretty. Who is it?

-Rebecca, princess of the Elden Kingdom.

-What are her skills?

-Vampire, but still unreleased.

-Let’s start day 1 with her today lol [laughing out loud]

-Eww!

I remember this conversation log exactly.

I also admired the illustration in my mind, thinking it was pretty.

And now, before my eyes, a woman with the exact same appearance as that illustration is smiling at me.

Shimmering black hair and red eyes that seem to suck you in, a delicate and pure appearance, and a strong-willed side that adds to her charm.

‘Vampire Rebecca.’

I don’t know what abilities a vampire has, but since she’s a special class like me, a druid, if she awakens, strong power will surely follow.

‘I need to revise my plan.’

I also looked into what kind of life she wanted to live and understood what kind of power was dormant within her.

I’ve gained enough information, so I decided to retreat today.

“Squeak!!”

Princess Rebecca opened the door when I scratched at it.

“You seem to want to go out.”

“Squeak!”

“You’re a bright mouse. See you next time.”

“Squeak squeak!”

[Sight Sharing Deactivated]

[Taming Deactivated]

I released the mouse that had escaped from the palace into the bushes. I decided to return to Andre’s house and come up with a new plan.

* * *

After finding out Princess Rebecca’s identity, I felt the need to investigate vampires.

But this isn’t Earth, and I can’t access the game company’s website, so where can I get information about vampires?

Just when I was feeling lost, I remembered the royal library that Marquis Lloyd had mentioned before leaving for the capital.

‘I was lucky.’

I happen to have the key the Marquis gave me, so I decided to visit the library.

I headed to the royal library, located right next to the palace, with Sion and Campbell.

The library was also part of the palace, so it was heavily guarded.

“Halt! Only authorized personnel are allowed to enter. Please identify yourself.”

“Baron Henon Lloyd.”

The pupils of the guard trembled violently upon hearing my name.

I didn’t know I was such a celebrity.

Anyway, perhaps because he recognized my noble status, the soldier went inside and brought out a librarian.

The librarian was a middle-aged man, a gentleman with a dignified air like Sebastian.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Baron Lloyd. I’m Walter, the old man in charge of the library.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine as well, but you cannot enter this place without an authorized token, so please return.”

I took out the golden key I had received from Marquis Lloyd in front of Walter.

Walter’s pupils widened as he saw the sparkling silver-gray tail hair tied to the end of the key.

“Will this suffice?”

“It is sufficient. Please allow me to appraise it for a moment.”

Walter took the key and observed it closely, putting on his monocle.

Soon, he smiled with satisfaction and handed the key back to me.

“It’s genuine. From this point on, you have unlimited access to the library.”

“Is the usage time limited for each token?”

“Yes, it is. The grade is determined by what animal’s tail hair is used for the tassel, and only a few people in the kingdom have that silver-gray tassel.”

I suddenly became curious.

“What animal’s tassel is it?”

“I would like to ask in return. What animal symbolizes the Elden Kingdom?”

For reference, the flag of the Elden Kingdom depicts a soaring unicorn.

“Could it be…”

“As you might guess, it’s a unicorn’s tail hair.”

I thought unicorns were just imaginary animals.

But considering vampires and werewolves exist, I guess unicorns could appear too.

“You look very surprised. Records about unicorns should also be in the library. I hope you achieve what you desire in this endless well of knowledge.”

Squeak! Thud!

The library door closed.

Perhaps because only authorized personnel were allowed to enter, the area was incredibly vast, with over tens of thousands of books in sight, but there was not a single person besides us.

“Amazing.”

Sion wandered around excitedly.

It seemed quite novel to him since he didn’t have many opportunities to visit a library.

On the other hand, Campbell already looked bored, as if books didn’t suit him.

“Vice-Captain, what should we look for here?”

“We need to find information about vampires.”

“That sounds like a tough task.”

Two heads are better than one, so I decided to call in one more reinforcement.

“Coco.”

“Kkyuu!!”

Coco came out of the gourd and circled in the air.

As expected, Coco, unfamiliar with the library, put her nose to the old books and sniffed.

“You’re a dragon, so you can read, right?”

“Kkyu!”

“Investigate vampires for me.”

“Kkyu kkyu!”

Coco nodded and flew to a corner, burying herself in books.

Starting with Coco, the other members also devoted themselves to the investigation.

For a while, only the sound of turning pages was heard in the library.

“Ughhh!!”

The first to tear his hair out was, of course, Campbell. He piled up books next to him and grumbled.

“I can’t even find the ‘vam’ in vampire!”

Sion also asked with a troubled expression.

“Young Master, are vampires actually a real race?”

“You have to find that out in the books.”

“You’ve never actually seen one, have you?”

“Well… sort of.”

I didn’t bother revealing that Princess Rebecca was a vampire.

Several hours passed.

I heard snoring next to me.

Campbell was fast asleep, hugging a book as a pillow.

Snore! Snore!

“Sion, move the book from Campbell’s head.”

“Yes.”

It would be a disaster if he drooled on a centuries-old book.

Anyway, forget about Campbell for now.

Could it be that there’s no information about vampires even in an eight-hundred-year-old library?

‘I should have played the game more diligently,’ I thought, regretting it inwardly.

Just then, Coco, who was in one corner, flew up and placed a book in front of me.

“Kkyu kkyu!”

“You want me to read this?”

“Kkyu!”

She wants me to read it, so I suppose I should.

The book Coco handed me was a whopping ten thousand pages thick.

Thick enough to use as a ramen coaster.

I was wondering which page to start with when Coco scratched a spot with her claws.

“Coco, you…”

“Kkyuu?”

“No, good job.”

Hoping Walter wouldn’t make an issue of it, I opened the page.

『Beings Only Known in Legends』

「On the Arnia Continent, there are heteromorphic [having a different form] races that have similar appearances to humans but show clear differences.

For example, elves and dwarves. There are records that these two actually existed, and elves are still walking on the same land as us, so they are relatively familiar beings.

However, these are not the only heteromorphic races in the world. Are you aware that countless mutations are still occurring without us knowing, only to disappear without even blooming?

Here is an example.

In the year 265 of the Kingdom Calendar, an incident occurred in which one of the manors within the Osmond barony was completely annihilated. At the time, the villagers charged at the soldiers as if they were mad.

They were hungry for human blood, and even as they died, they bit at the soldiers’ arms and legs. It was as if they were not human beings.

The highlight here was the woman who mutated first. Unlike the others who blindly sought blood, this woman retained her reason, was intelligent, and cunning.

She even had excellent physical abilities, and if it hadn’t been for Lord Rovan, who was a Sword Expert at the time, even the subjugation force would have been annihilated.

Before she died, she said, ‘Why did you kill my children?’ She called herself a vampire and distinguished herself from humans.」

What Coco brought me was indeed a record of vampires.

Upon encountering this record, I roughly grasped how to direct the investigation.

“Sion.”

“Yes.”

“Focus your investigation on books that record disasters, whether natural or man-made.”

“Understood.”

As soon as we properly set the direction of the investigation, clues started appearing from everywhere.

Even if there was no specific mention of vampires, there were quite a few incidents that anyone could see were committed by vampires.

There was even an ability user who turned an entire large barony into a vampire’s nest, and I was able to obtain a lot of information from the related records.

After collecting all the information, mixing it appropriately, and drawing a conclusion, a summary came out roughly:

1. Vampires are born as mutations among humans with each generation. In the process of birth, any grade of vampire temporarily loses their reason and becomes a being that only seeks blood, which is defined as the ‘frenzy’ state.

2. The first vampire is called an Alpha, and they can increase their kin by sucking blood. At this time, the kin are called Betas and are absolutely obedient to the Alpha, who is the mother.

3. Alphas are not bothered even when exposed to sunlight, but they don’t particularly like it. Betas created by Alphas hate sunlight even more, and from Gammas infected by Betas, their skin burns when they see sunlight.

4. Vampires have far superior physical abilities and extraordinary intelligence compared to humans. As a trade-off for this, they always have a thirst for blood. This becomes more severe as the vampire’s grade is lower, and from Betas or Deltas, they virtually become bloodthirsty ghouls who only seek blood.

5. There is a limit to the number of kin that a vampire can increase, and this depends on the mother vampire’s capabilities. If they forcibly increase their kin, the grade of the subordinate vampire decreases.

“Is it roughly like this…”

The summary is complete.

I’ve obtained all the information I wanted.

I roughly know how to handle Princess Rebecca.

“Sion, wake Campbell up. We’re going back.”

“Yes!”

“Kkyuu!”

When Coco approached, I stroked her head as a sign of doing well.

Coco, who was purring as if she was in a good mood, soon entered the gourd.

“Umm? Is it time to eat?”

“You don’t deserve to eat, but you find food well. Young Master says we’re going back.”

“That’s good. The energy here doesn’t suit me.”

I should consider bringing Campbell to the library whenever he does something wrong in the future.

* * *

Back again.

Princess Rebecca’s birthday party.

I suddenly opened the door and rushed in, declaring confidently.

“I will register as a candidate for the royal consort.”

My shocking statement spread throughout the banquet hall.

Both the pro-imperial and anti-imperial factions had no idea why I was doing this.

It was then.

Baron Charlie Hilton pushed through the pro-imperial royal consort candidates and stood in front of me.

“Hahaha! This is embarrassing.”

From the corners of his lips that were raised, I could feel a mocking sneer that the only trick you prepared was this sudden action.

“What’s embarrassing?”

“Until now, Lord Lloyd has shown no interest in the position of royal consort. But suddenly you’re supporting it like this.”

“Who decided that? I have never once said that I don’t want to be a royal consort. And why are you embarrassed, Baron, when I’m supporting it with my own will?”

Charlie Hilton’s temples bulged with blood vessels, as if he was uncomfortable with my answer.

The next one to step forward was Duke Arnold.

Duke Arnold was the only duke in the Elden Kingdom, and although his power was not great, he had many supporters behind him due to his authority as a duke.

In fact, the reason why the balance between the pro-imperial and anti-imperial factions was broken was because Duke Arnold, who had maintained neutrality, had moved to the Hilton barony.

“Ahem.”

Duke Arnold, who was stroking his white beard, called me.

“So you’re that bastard who’s the talk of the town. I’m Arnold. One of the nobles who support this country. Nice to meet you.”

His way of speaking is trash.

It’s our first meeting, but he’s talking about bastards.

He’s subtly trying to suppress me with his title.

It hasn’t even been 10 seconds since we met, but I could roughly see what kind of person he was.

“Ah, yes. Henon.”

When I just nodded slightly, Arnold pointed out my actions, showing off his *kkondae* [꼰대 – Korean slang for an older person who is condescending or acts superior], as if he didn’t like it.

“Not only did you attend today’s banquet late, but you also gained the disapproval of many people by supporting a candidate even though you are not qualified. You should apologize for this.”

“That’s a rather difficult statement. For what reason do you say that I am not qualified?”

“A successor who will have to rule the Marquisate in the future will also serve as a royal consort? You have no shame. How is that possible?”

That person’s tone has been bothering me since earlier.

He pretends to be all gentle, but some of the words he spits out become thorns and attack.

It was like he had a habit of putting others down.

Since he seems to like a rather direct way of speaking, I decided to spit out raw words from this side as well.

“Duke, you are so shameless that you are shaking the eight-hundred-year kingdom and trying to cling to the Empire. This is a great eye-opener.”

“What!!”

His eyes widen as I tease him as if I’m praising him.

No one has ever made such aggressive remarks to Duke Arnold before.

Not even the king.

Perhaps that’s why the duke’s patience threshold was very low, and he pointed his finger at me with a red face.

“This rude bastard, as expected of someone with lowly blood…”

“And!”

I cut off Duke Arnold’s words.

“It is not up to the Duke to decide whether I am suitable as a candidate for the royal consort. It is up to His Majesty the King and Princess Rebecca to decide. Isn’t that right?”

My words are orthodox.

The nobles in the banquet hall are nodding, as if there is no disagreement here.

Everyone’s attention was focused on King Alfonso and Princess Rebecca.

Princess Rebecca opened her mouth first.

“I will follow my father’s will.”

Now all that’s left is King Alfonso’s decision.

I had an idea of what decision the king would make.

When I had a private meeting with him before, he asked me to protect Rebecca’s life.

And ten days later, I did something unexpected at the banquet hall.

The king would believe that I had taken these actions because I had prepared countermeasures.

Still, just in case, I sent a strong look to the king.

The king also looked down at me intently.

A short eye contact for about 3 seconds.

The aging king sighed deeply, then leaned on his cane and stood up.

Then, after a long time, he raised his voice and shouted with all his might.

“I approve of Baron Henon Lloyd’s support for the royal consort!!”

The king’s approval has fallen.

Finally, the real game has begun.