How to Spend a Holiday (3)
After my meeting with Theo ended, I lay on the bed in the prepared room and organized my thoughts. The gist of our conversation was crystal clear. If Theo Midas himself died, Fiore and I might get dragged back into the succession war whether we wanted it or not. But since Fiore wasn’t technically a Midas, even if that happened, he asked me not to treat her as a rival and eliminate her. The fact that he’d come all the way to the empire to meet me in person and revealed secrets he’d kept hidden until now meant his situation was that dangerous.
And for me, it was a crisis too. Theo was essentially acting as my sponsor and shield right now. Losing him would be anything but desirable. Even if the extreme scenario he assumed didn’t come to pass, he needed to hold his position for the sake of my future plans. It would be even better if he could secure the position of family head.
The problem was how to help him.
Catch the assassin? How the hell was I supposed to catch an assassin when I had no idea when they’d strike? Ligret, Fiore, and I all had to return within three days. I might be able to buy a few more days through negotiations with the professors, but even if I extended the deadline, it would only be a waste of time unless the assassin attacked during that window.
…What if I just took Theo to the academy with me?
No, that wouldn’t work either. Besides, while the outer areas might be fine, the central district where the dorms and the mansion under construction were located strictly prohibited outsiders. We’d inevitably be separated at night, and forcibly dragging him along would mean he couldn’t handle the merchant group’s affairs. That would be the same as defeat.
“Ha, there’s no answer to this.”
I’d been cursing the original story for being trashy and half-assed every day, but now I realized just how much I’d been relying on that meta-knowledge. Even with the minor detailed differences and sudden variables throwing me off, knowing the big picture and the strategies was worlds apart from knowing nothing at all. When I lacked raw power, I could at least ask Ligret for help, but this kind of thing… who could I even ask for advice…?
“……Wait. It’s not like I can’t ask for help, is it?”
Since when was the Greedy Degenerate the type of character who handled everything alone? If my own head couldn’t solve it, I just needed to ask someone smarter than me. A kind older brother might not drag his little sister into danger, but a wicked older brother could drag her in as much as he wanted.
“So, you’re saying Theo oppa is in a position where he might get assassinated?”
“Mhm.”
I had called Ligret and Fiore over and explained the current situation I’d heard from Theo. That members of the Midas clan were being killed off one by one. That the culprit—or the assassin they’d hired—was likely a highly skilled mana user. That at this rate, Theo was very likely to be next. As for Fiore’s bloodline… I kept silent on that for now. It wasn’t the important part right now, and Theo had said she’d probably already noticed, but hearing it confirmed directly would be different.
Ligret spoke up.
“I looked around earlier. With the people currently guarding Theo Midas, I could take them all head-on by myself. Making sure no traces are left would be a bit annoying, but it’s not impossible.”
She said it so casually, even though those were probably guards Theo had scraped together using his own influence. Well, it wasn’t so much that the guards lacked ability as it was that Ligret was just abnormally strong. The current Ligret could overwhelm Crow, who would have been a rival to the original Nameless War Demon. That meant her growth was about one or two years ahead of the original story. If she could graduate safely like this, she might even stand a chance against that monster of a professor, Istar.
“Then what if we increase the number of guards? How many would it take before it gets difficult for you?”
Ligret touched her chin as if thinking for a moment, then answered.
“If we’re talking no traces, about twenty? If we ignore everything else and just kill them and run, I could probably handle up to seventy.”
“……”
Once again, I was reminded that top-tier mana users lived in a completely different world. While normal people were grinding in the realistic difficulty, these guys were soloing the musou difficulty. Since it was Ligret saying it, there was no bravado. It was a sincere estimate.
Seventy, though. It wasn’t an impossible number, but maintaining that many permanently would be quite the burden. The best option would be to pit Ligret directly against the assassin, but to do that, we first had to make them meet—
“—Then, how about we lure the culprit out?”
At that moment, Fiore, who had been deep in thought, spoke up.
Lure the culprit out?
“How?”
“The problems right now are that our remaining time is short and that we don’t know when the culprit will strike. Those two things. At least in a direct confrontation, I don’t think the three of us would lose easily.”
That was true. Honestly, to defeat the three of us with pure force, one of the three great masterminds or a boss from a joint training-level scenario would have to appear. But was there a way to make the culprit move in the short term?
“If I were the culprit, I would have targeted Theo oppa first. It’s more efficient than stirring up small fry and giving a truly strong opponent time to prepare their defenses. The fact that they haven’t done so suggests two possible reasons. One is that their forces are weaker than expected, so they can’t guarantee a stable victory against Theo oppa’s guards. The other is that even if they take down Theo oppa now, they aren’t ready to properly absorb the rights and interests he holds. In either case, the opponent is aiming for a stable, certain victory rather than an all-or-nothing gamble. So all we need to do is create a situation where they have no choice but to fight a short-term battle.”
Fiore raised her right hand with all five fingers spread wide, then used her left hand to fold down every finger except the index.
“—We make the family head publicly declare that Theo oppa is the next successor.”
I thought about the gesture Fiore had just made. Five fingers all standing tall, each insisting it was the best. But once external pressure from the left hand was applied, the outcome was decided. No matter how hard one finger struggled to hold out, its strength was only a part of the right hand. It could never win against the entire left hand. No matter how the successors flailed and fought, if Bern Midas decided to push one of them, there was no resisting it.
And for the successors who weren’t chosen, there were exactly two options. Resist the family head even knowing they couldn’t win, or immediately eliminate the other successors.
“If we can actually pull it off, it might end in a short time. Specifically?”
“We have to persuade the family head.”
“You think that man will listen?”
At my question, Fiore smiled brightly.
“Then we’ll just have to persuade him until he nods.”
……Uh, um, wow.
As I sat there speechless, Ligret muttered beside me.
“As expected of siblings. When it comes to scheming nasty plans, you’re exactly the same.”
“Kk, kkuk, kuhuhuhu…”
In one of the Midas Merchant Group’s branches, Xavier Midas couldn’t stop the laughter spilling from his lips. And for good reason. The past few months had been nothing short of the peak of his entire life.
The older brother who had always ignored him simply because his performance was slightly higher had vomited blood and died. The arrogant younger sibling who had interfered with every new business venture he tried had fallen off a cliff and died. The rights and interests they held had gone through several rounds of laundering and become his. After repeating the process a few times, he—who had originally only possessed a modest faction among Bern Midas’s children—had risen to a position that could now be called mid-tier.
Even this was because he had deliberately split and absorbed the rights with other successors to avoid drawing too much suspicion. If he had gone all out, he would have already become one of the top candidates.
‘When I first received the proposal, I thought they were suspicious bastards… but I never imagined they’d do this well. It’s beyond my expectations.’
The pair of man and woman who had casually broken into his bedroom one day and revealed themselves. They claimed to be mercenaries. If he paid them an appropriate price, they would make Xavier the new head of the Midas family. Cornered as he was, he had nodded in desperation, grasping at straws, and they had proven that their words were no empty boast.
Anyone he pointed to as a target had their head roll within days, and he was never even questioned about it. For Xavier, who had once clumsily hired assassins only to break into a cold sweat when the idiots got caught and left a trail, this was an incredibly satisfying situation.
‘It’s about time to go after a big fish.’
Theo Midas. The one who had begun to stand out sharply about two years ago and was now one of the strongest candidates for the next family head. Until now, Xavier’s own original faction had been too weak, so even if he touched Theo, there had been no way to absorb that power. But if he spent a little more time building up his forces, it would be worth trying.
It might bring Xavier’s own existence to the surface, but even if it was revealed that he was behind all the incidents so far, once Theo Midas was taken down, there would be no one left he needed to watch out for. Well, if it was the family head Bern Midas, he might still be able to crush Xavier even then… but in that case, there would simply be one more target for his sharp blade to cut.
‘The next family head will be me. No, with the power of those two, maybe even more than that—’
His rose-colored fantasies of a bright future bloomed luxuriantly. Like a deer prancing through a flower field, he wandered through the wings of delusion—until a single letter brought him crashing back to reality.
In accordance with the above, Theo Midas is hereby appointed as the next presiding head of the Midas Merchant Group. Furthermore, following proper legal procedures, he shall also succeed to the position of the next family head.
“What the hell is this!!”
With a hysterical scream, the cup in Xavier’s hand shattered against the floor. His face flushed crimson as he shrieked like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Kill him! Kill him right now! Kill that bastard Theo immediately!”