The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 86

Baron’s Family Second Son – Episode 86

Seeing a black rose… Houses that use roses or white roses as their emblems are well-known. But this was the first time I’d seen a black rose. Its very meaning was ominous, making it unsuitable as a family crest.

“This is…”

“You know it?”

“I’ve heard of it. There’s a dark guild rapidly expanding its influence from the west. It seems to be them.”

Dark guild.

In short, it refers to a guild that mainly handles matters that shouldn’t be exposed. Naturally, most of them are on wanted lists, and given their reputation, they face execution or similar penalties if caught. But in this world, everything is fine as long as you don’t get caught.

Since the work is shady, the pay is inevitably high, and supply is always there, making it an organization that won’t disappear.

“My brothers seem to have made a foolish choice.”

“It seems so.”

Assassinating the heir of a count’s family residing in the capital, especially with the inauguration ceremony just around the corner, was incredibly reckless. The down payment alone must have been considerable. Where did all that money come from?

“What are you going to do? If you want, I can hold onto their residual thoughts [the lingering magical energy of the deceased].”

“Please do. It might be difficult right now, but I think there will be useful places to use them after the inauguration ceremony.”

If you intend to kill someone, you must be prepared to die yourself. Recalling unfamiliar magic in my head, I stored the residual thoughts of the dead and thought. A lot was likely to happen to Willand in a short time. The assassins who returned alive would report the failure of the request to the client.

“Keep this.”

“This is…”

“As you know, this won’t be the end. Their lives are at stake, so they’ll try to eliminate you by any means. When something seems suspicious, inject mana into it. I’ll get there as quickly as possible.”

“…Brother.”

“Don’t make such a creepy face.”

He also lent me various utility artifacts that enhanced physical abilities, deployed barriers in emergencies, and concealed biological and magical reactions, as well as offensive artifacts that he urged me to use when I was truly cornered, grabbing whatever he could.

There would be damage since this was the place, but it was better than dying. It wasn’t like I couldn’t afford to compensate for that much.

“Be careful. There might be poison in your food, so be cautious, and always have multiple guards with you if possible. You survived the harsh Terra Barrier [a powerful magical defense], it would be unfair to die to these guys, wouldn’t it?”

After taking Willand to his mansion, I looked around his room. They were the ones who attempted the assassination in broad daylight in a slightly deserted place. It wouldn’t be strange if they colluded with the client and tampered with his room while Willand was away.

“There’s nothing particularly suspicious.”

Were they so sure Willand would die, or were they too focused on the immediate situation to think beyond that? Either way, it was hard to see it as wise. The assassins had confidence in their skills, and the client thought it was enough since they spent money commensurate with that confidence, but reality rarely goes as expected. There’s a reason why the saying ‘Do your best and leave the rest to heaven’ exists.

Still, just in case, I used the magic stones in the subspace to install various devices to repel intruders in the room before returning home with peace of mind. I was busy, so they must be quite busy too. An unforeseen situation had occurred.

#

“…What?”

“They failed. The young lord returned to the mansion on his own two feet.”

Bang-

“Are you telling me that now…!”

Willand’s brothers, who had been anxiously awaiting news of the operation’s success, began to stir with unease, starting with the words of anger from the one sitting at the head of the table. The success of this operation was so crucial to them.

“Maxwell! What the hell happened! You said it would definitely succeed, just leave it to you!”

Naturally, the blame fell on the planner of the scheme. How much was the down payment just to commission the request? That money couldn’t have fallen from the sky, so it was inevitable that the pockets of the people here would become lighter. In the end, they spent the money and the plan failed miserably, so someone had to take responsibility, even if it didn’t help immediately.

“It’s just one failure. There’s still time until the inauguration ceremony.”

“Just one time? That one time was the first and last chance! After going through something like this, do you think Willand will give us such a good opportunity again!”

It was just once. They had been holding their breath and bowing their heads even after losing the position of young lord for that one time, but once Willand experienced the danger of assassination, he would not give them such a good opportunity again. However, even as the voices of criticism towards Maxwell grew louder, his expression remained unchanged.

‘All they can do is raise their voices.’

At least until Willand died or the inauguration ceremony was held, they were comrades on the same boat. If they couldn’t kill Willand, they had no future anyway, so why would they shrink back at a few words?

“It’s better this way. Now that we’ve failed once, the young lord will never leave us alone. Now that things have come to this, there’s no need to be unnecessarily cautious.”

“Nonsense! Do you not know who’s by his side! The grand disciple is there. The one who solved this incident was him, so he wouldn’t have made no preparations!”

“He’s not always with him, is he? Besides, if preparations could prevent death, why would so many people have been assassinated?”

“There’s no reasoning with you! Go ahead and do as you please! I’ll find my own way!”

As the one sitting at the head of the table left the room filled with anger, the others who had been holding on also began to leave one by one. Soon, Maxwell was left alone, and he sneered at them.

‘What are they going to do?’

Find another way? There is no other way. If they wanted to walk a different path, they shouldn’t have come this far. Now that they’ve come to the edge of the cliff, there are only two paths: jump off or turn back. Besides, what was the reason for coming this far? The moment they failed to inherit the Kramer name, their value was worse than nothing. Whether it turns out good or bad, they had no choice but to jump off.

“Three times the down payment. Tell them to fulfill the request if they don’t want to pay it back. Bring Willand’s head by any means.”

“A-Alright!”

#

“We’re backing out.”

“But if we don’t fulfill the request, we have to pay back three times the down payment.”

Since the target was who he was, they had received a huge amount of money as a down payment. No matter how rapidly they were growing, or rather, precisely because they were expanding their power, it was bound to be burdensome. It was the same as saying there were a lot of expenses.

“The grand disciple intervened. Back out before the losses get bigger.”

“But leader, the group doesn’t have that much leeway right now.”

“Why look for leeway? That much money isn’t worth it for those who are going to die soon anyway. Just drag it out while pretending to put on a show. Then, if you hand over the evidence of this incident to the target of the request, they’ll take care of it themselves. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Protesting a breach of contract is only possible if you still have your head attached, or if you have a voice that loud. What power would those who would be beheaded or at least exiled to remote areas have if this incident came to light?

In the first place, with Renil’s intervention, the original contract was meaningless. No matter how good money is, fighting the Magic Tower for the sake of money is nothing short of suicide.

“I will obey your command.”

#

“It seems you’re handling it well.”

Fortunately, there were no more distress signals from Willand after that. Either Willand was handling it well, or the guild with the black rose emblem was more incompetent than I thought. Maybe they gave up on the request. It was a bit embarrassing to say this myself, but the weight of my name was by no means light.

“Who’s worrying about whom? I’m up to my neck in work right now.”

There’s too much to do. I wish I had two or three bodies, or even ten. If that were the case, the speed of work would increase several times, and collective intelligence might come up with unexpected solutions.

Still, the fact that progress was being made little by little as time passed, that we were moving forward step by step, made me move my feet even amidst fatigue.

“Grand Disciple! Preparations are complete!”

Following Armin, I arrived at the research lab where I had poured blood and sweat, a place where every corner was familiar. In the center, the giant golem, commonly known as Titan Prototype Mk.I, stood proudly on two feet, boasting its presence, so large that it almost touched the ceiling.

“It looks shabby.”

“We didn’t pay any attention to the appearance at all.”

The exterior was crude. Most people who saw it would say it had a similar shape to a human, but not call it a human. But what does the appearance matter? What’s important is performance, performance.

“How’s the control?”

“There’s no difference from yesterday. Would you still like to check?”

“I have to. If it fails, it’ll be a pain until we find out what the problem is again. Let’s succeed in one go.”

I put my heart and soul into it, not missing a single minor detail. If I tried something thinking I could succeed but failed, the shock would be hard to shake off. Also, it would be difficult to find out what the problem was. Fortunately, the conclusion was that there were no problems.

“Then… shall we begin?”

We’re not even dreaming of an engine yet. All that exists is the exoskeleton [an external supporting structure]. Instead of the empty heart of the Titan, I had to act as the heart.

‘It’s going to take a while.’

In terms of the amount of mana, I was confident that I was among the top two in the empire, but I wasn’t confident in operating this weapon for a long time. The knights who would use this as their main force would have less mana than me, so the design of the heart had to be incredibly elaborate for the Titan to move until the end of the battle.

‘Let’s think about that when it’s right in front of us for now.’

Woooong-

After a series of processes, I finished synchronizing the Titan and myself. It was quite a new sensation. I felt a bit nauseous from the unfamiliar view and sense of distance. And at the same time, mana began to drain from my heart.

‘You’ve really worked hard.’

The prototype is over 5m tall. The sight of magic circles densely drawn on that huge body, the sight of all of them being activated for one purpose as mana was supplied, was undoubtedly a sight that any magician would be moved by. I was also briefly lost in sentimentality before regaining my senses.

‘That’s enough sentimentality, what’s important is power.’

It’s not enough for it to just look great. If I put in this much effort and passion and there’s no power, then the appearance is useless. I don’t expect much. There’s no engine and there are still points to improve in the magic circles drawn all over the body. Still, I sincerely hoped that it would show at least the potential for the future.

“Ah, can you hear me well?”

“Yes! I can hear you well! Are you alright?”

“So far. Get ready. We’re going to start moving in earnest now.”

The giant began to move.

Baron’s Family Second Son – Episode 86 – End