Who Do You Think You're Fooling? (6)
"Shall we turn in early tonight?"
"Sure. I suppose the long journey took more out of me than I thought."
They might have been wiretapped, but they likely weren't being watched. While keeping up a perfectly ordinary conversation, Yohan and Falco exchanged hand signals. It was a silent code they had mastered during their days in the tomb-robbing syndicate, and neither had ever expected to use it again in a place like this.
Meanwhile, Yohan exchanged a brief look with Charles. Instantly catching on to Yohan's intentions, Charles gave a silent nod.
Shortly after they had all changed from their outdoor clothes into pajamas and lay down, the three of them quietly slipped out of their beds and crept toward the bathroom.
Yohan immediately opened a dimensional portal to his single-room pocket dimension in a corner of the bathroom, and all three of them stepped through.
"Goddammit. I've lived through a lot of things, but being wiretapped by some bastard is a first."
The moment they crossed the portal into the single-room, a stream of colorful curses spilled from Yohan's mouth.
"He's... out of his mind. What on earth was he thinking, doing something like this?"
Even Falco, rather than flying into a rage, looked utterly appalled, as if she had witnessed something unspeakably filthy. For someone as hardened as Falco to be this disgusted meant this was truly no ordinary matter.
"That's what we need to figure out now."
Yohan let out a soft sigh and glanced toward the door of the single-room. This was Burgund, the Corporate State. Planting wiretaps in someone else's room to steal critical information was probably an everyday occurrence here. The problem was that Yohan and Falco didn't possess any information that would be of any use to the Corporate State's power players. The family of Pharmacist Martin had only visited to discuss the official publication of their fable book.
As he was lost in thought, a bright light flashed beside him. The Unnamed Goddess, who had remained in her spiritual form ever since they entered the Corporate State, finally manifested physically.
"Charles, are listening devices like the one we just saw common in this country?"
"No. They aren't... common."
Charles shook his head at the Goddess's question. Not common. Yohan chewed on those words in his mind.
"Which means they aren't common, but they aren't unheard of either."
"...Yes."
"And people usually pull this kind of stunt on business rivals, not innocent travelers like us."
"Exactly."
There was a reason Louis Dorleans had gone to such reckless lengths. In truth, all three of them already had a very good guess as to why.
"It has to be that, right?"
Yohan asked Falco. She nodded with a grimace, looking as if she might throw up at any second.
"I knew it. I should just go over there right now and snap his neck."
"Put a few holes in his back while you are at it."
As Falco stood up with a chilling glint in her eyes, the Goddess nodded in eager agreement.
"P-Please, calm down!"
Terrified that they might actually carry out the threat immediately, Charles hurriedly grabbed Falco by the waist to hold her back.
"I'd love to do that too, but if we shed blood right now, we'll end up looking like the bad guys."
Only after hearing Yohan's reasoning did Falco sit back down.
"You speak the truth. After all, this Louis Dorleans has not directly harmed us yet."
The Goddess also calmed herself and chimed in.
"Yeah. Besides, right now we can't even prove if that thing is actually a wiretap, and even if it is, we have no proof that Dorleans was the one who planted it."
The Unnamed Goddess certainly encouraged righteous vengeance. But conversely, that meant she opposed baseless violence. Of course, planting a wiretap in someone else's hotel room was a massive violation. However, it was also true that the severity of the crime was lesser compared to the outright banditry of the thugs back in Balifield.
This is probably exactly what Louis Dorleans is banking on, Yohan figured. If the man caused an outright scene, he would face the full wrath of the law. But simply listening in on them left them with very little recourse. It meant the bastard knew exactly how to walk the tightrope without crossing the line.
"Yohan is right. But..."
"But?"
At Charles's hesitation, the other three turned their gaze toward him.
"Knowing my brother's personality, he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants while we are here in the Capital."
As Charles spoke, his blue eyes trembled violently. Their scheduled stay in the Corporate State was less than a week. While it was plenty of time for a simple trip abroad, it was a remarkably short window to plan and execute a malicious scheme.
"For example?"
"For example... even if it means kidnapping."
At those words, the expressions of the other three instantly soured.
The Corporate State of Burgund was undoubtedly a highly developed nation. Though its territory was small, its economic influence across the continent was arguably second only to the Empire, the dominant superpower. Yet, even a nation as grand as Burgund had its shadows.
"Being kicked out of one's family under the guise of a 'trip' like I was isn't all that rare here," Charles said with a bitter smile. Siblings fighting to monopolize a family's wealth and power was a tale as old as time. In fact, Charles himself was a prime example of it.
"There are several ways to eliminate a rival..."
"There's kicking them out to die like they did to you, or kidnapping them to make them disappear without a trace. What else?"
At Yohan's question, Charles hesitated for a moment, looking around. After a brief pause, as if steeling his resolve, he spoke again.
"Burgund's laws actually contain clauses regarding penal labor."
"Ah."
Yohan let out a soft groan as he understood. In this country, the Corporate State, slavery was essentially legal.
"Usually, it's a punishment handed down to those who accumulate debts they can't possibly repay, but..."
"But they can easily frame an innocent person with fake debts and ship them off to a shrimp boat, right?"
"Yes. I don't quite know what a 'shrimp boat' is, but you are absolutely right about the framing part."
"Tsk."
Yohan clicked his tongue. He had hoped a country built on economic fantasy by a modern transmigrator might be a bit decent, but it was nothing but a delusion. No matter where you went in this world, human malice always reigned supreme.
"The easiest way to saddle someone with fake debt is..."
"Gambling, obviously. Am I right?"
"Y-Yes, exactly. Other than that, they might entice you to invest in their company, or claim there's a massive deal abroad and convince you to scrape together every penny you have..."
"Good grief."
Leave it to the most modern nation in a fantasy world to have such highly developed, modern scamming techniques. The more he learned about this world, the more absurd it became. Yohan rubbed his face with his palms. Elves who tried to burn the chief's daughter alive just because she wouldn't practice necromancy. The Central Church fanatics who branded every religion but their own as heresy and tried to slaughter them. Not a single soul in this world was sane. Truly.
"And the reason my brother planted that wiretap... is probably to find Yohan's weakness."
"A weakness, huh..."
Yohan glanced down at his side. He turned his head to meet the Goddess's eyes, only to find her, for some reason, gently stroking her right fist with her left hand.
"Well, I think I have a rough idea of what to do."
Yohan stood up and looked down at the other three.
"There's no point in smashing the wiretap right now. We don't have any physical proof that Louis Dorleans did it, and if we break it, he might just plant a much harder-to-find device somewhere else in the room."
The other three nodded in agreement.
"So instead, let's pretend we don't know a thing and feed him the exact words he wants to hear least."
"The words he wants to hear least?"
"Yeah."
Yohan replied to Falco's question with a firm nod.
"Why do you think that bastard is doing this? It's because he... to you..."
Because he fell for you. Yohan tried to say it, but for some reason, the words got stuck in his throat. "I mean, basically—"
"Louis Dorleans fell for me."
Falco casually finished the sentence he couldn't bring himself to say. At her bluntness, both Yohan and Charles squeezed their eyes shut.
"Aren't you... a bit too shameless about that?"
"What? No matter who looks at me, I am a beautiful elf of the forest."
"..."
Right, she was always like this. Yohan let out a small sigh.
"Ahem. Right. Anyway, since you are a 'beautiful forest elf,' and Louis Dorleans doesn't know how terrible your actual personality is..."
"Yeah, exactly. So you want me to say things that will completely shatter his illusions, right?"
Fortunately, Falco was also highly objective about her own personality.
"No, quite the opposite."
Falco tilted her head at Yohan's response.
"From now on, we are going to act like a couple so deeply in love that Louis Dorleans will literally go mad with jealousy."
Charles and Yohan both wanted to teach Louis Dorleans a lesson. However, they currently lacked a proper justification to punish him. And if they didn't have a justification, they could simply manufacture one.
"I get it. We act so perfectly happy that he has absolutely no room to wedge himself in, driving him crazy with anxiety."
Understanding Yohan's intent, Falco grinned.
"Exactly. And..."
Louis Dorleans would try anything to ruin Yohan and claim Falco for himself. Yohan decided to exploit that psychology to the fullest.
"We'll drop hints that we desperately need a large sum of money, baiting him into throwing some gamble or investment scheme our way."
It was a double trap. First, they would play the lovey-dovey couple to drive a jealous Louis Dorleans to make a reckless move. At the same time, they would prepare for the possibility that he might act cautiously. Through this, they would force the bastard, who had been walking the tightrope so carefully, to finally cross the line.
"Alright. The plan is set."
Inside the Dorleans estate, in the patriarch's study. Louis sat slouched in his chair, leaning his ear close to a device with a small, bell-shaped metal plate attached to the end of a curved rod. This object was a receiver designed to play back intercepted audio.
— Darling, look at the view outside the window. It's absolutely beautiful.
— Haha. The view outside is nice, but in my eyes, you are the most beautiful thing here.
Crack!
Hearing the voices filtering through the device, Louis instantly lost control of his rage, crushing the wooden armrest of his chair with his bare grip.
"That absolute bastard..."
He spat out a low curse. It had been like this ever since he planted the wiretap in the Martin family's room. He had hoped to dig up some dirty secret on Martin to use to his advantage, but far from having any dark secrets, the man was just a pathetic fool utterly head-over-heels for his wife.
— Oh, stop. You're making me blush.
— Heh. But I mean every word.
For three days straight, he had been subjected to this nauseatingly sweet, cringeworthy drivel. The Martin family was scheduled to stay in the Capital for a week. An awkward duration—long if it was long, short if it was short. He had to somehow snatch that beautiful elf woman away from that scrawny bastard in this brief window. Yet, no clear weakness had presented itself. He needed... a crack. A tiny opening to exploit. Suppressing his urge to gag, Louis forced himself to keep listening to the receiver.
— As long as this contract goes well, we'll definitely be able to keep living like this.
Martin suddenly spoke in a hushed, serious tone.
— Don't worry too much, darling.
— No... It's just that, from the very beginning... I only got into this mess because I was blinded by greed.
Louis's tense expression began to soften, and as the conversation continued, a massive grin spread across his face, nearly reaching his ears.
— But you promised me. You said you would never touch those tables again.
— I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. I'll never do it again.
I knew it. There wasn't a single human in this world without a weakness. Louis wanted to leap out of his chair and cheer, but barely managing to contain his excitement, he kept his ears glued to the receiver, hanging on to every word between Martin and Dahlia.