Chapter 12
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Laying the Trap
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CRASH!!
Emitting an aura of darkness that seemed to burn fiercely, Count Cazar burst into Chris's room.
Chris, his face flushed from drink, greeted his father.
“Father? *Hic*.”
“What is the meaning of this?!”
“What does it look like? I'm day drinking. As you know, day drinking is the best kind of drinking. Would you care for a glass, Father?”
Seeing Chris completely drunk, Count Cazar clenched his fists.
Just as the servants beside them held their breath, the air thick with the feeling that he might strike his son's face at any moment.
Count Cazar turned away, his shoulders slumped.
“...Do as you please. I won't have any more expectations of you.”
Chris thought to himself.
‘Hmm, I feel a little bad. But it's not like I could have given him a heads-up.’
His current appearance was all an act.
One meant to catch a rat.
Seeing him revert to his debauched ways, the rat would make its move, and Chris planned to turn the tables and exterminate it.
But he couldn't explain the plan to Count Cazar beforehand.
‘As they say, to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your allies.’
If Count Cazar knew in advance, it would show somehow, and the rat would be cautious and not fall easily into the trap.
‘Seeing him like that makes me feel uneasy. Still, what I'm about to do is for the good of House Cazar.’
Just then, the Banshee drifted over to his side.
[Ohoho… Are you worried about your father? Our Young Master… is also top-notch in his filial piety.]
“…That 'top-notch' thing, please, just stop!”
[What's wrong with saying it's top-notch when it is? This humble one… please accept this drink.]
The Banshee used her poltergeist abilities to pour Chris a drink.
To think I'd live to see the day a banshee served me drinks.
It was an experience he never wanted to repeat.
[By the way… to think you'd devise such a plan. This humble one… is truly impressed.]
The Banshee had heard Chris's plan and agreed to cooperate with him.
In return, he had promised to grant one of her requests later, as long as it wasn't unreasonable.
[But there is something… even more impressive. To think you modified the 4-Star… curse, the 'Seal of Binding'. And in such a short amount of time.]
For the past fortnight.
He hadn't only been training his body.
He had also learned various black magic spells.
He learned the basic 1-Star black magic spells, and not stopping there, he also mastered the 4-Star curse, the 'Seal of Binding'.
No matter how much of a genius he was, it should be impossible for a 1-Star to learn a 4-Star spell. So how did he do it?
He modified it.
So that even he, at a 1-Star level, could use it.
“I told you, didn't I? I'm a genius.”
Chris said nonchalantly as he drained his glass.
Then, he frowned.
‘Damn it, I want a real drink.’
In truth, what he was drinking now wasn't real alcohol.
The Banshee, who had agreed to cooperate, wouldn't allow it.
[Ohoho… The Young Master is a minor. Real alcohol is a no-go. Please be satisfied with this fake liquor.]
“…I'm a scoundrel, what does it matter?”
[Even so, underage drinking is not allowed. Absolutely not. Ohoho….]
For a ghost who sought the blood of virgins, the Banshee was needlessly prudish about such things.
Thanks to her, he was using his alchemical knowledge from his past life to drink alcohol with the alcoholic content removed.
His drunken appearance was just an act, a secret art he'd learned in his past life.
He had learned all sorts of worldly tricks, including one that allowed him to appear drunk without actually being intoxicated.
‘Anyway, I should take this chance to get some rest. It's a shame it's not real alcohol, though.’
He loved lazing around, eating, and playing.
While he was pretending to be a scoundrel, he planned to get some real rest.
‘This is great! It wouldn't be so bad if the rat took its time falling into the trap. I'd get to laze around, eat, and drink even more.’
Just as he was about to thoroughly enjoy his long-awaited break.
Clang! The door was thrown open again.
When he turned his head, an unexpected person appeared.
‘TERN?’
It was this body's younger brother.
TERN was panting with rage, glaring at him.
‘What's with him?’
Chris was slightly taken aback.
TERN, his face beet red, strode towards him.
And then.
He grabbed him.
He seized him by the collar.
“!!”
“What do you think you're doing?!”
TERN shouted furiously.
“Is this all you amounted to?! Did you act so high and mighty just to show this pathetic side of yourself?!”
Chris was surprised.
He could read the genuine anger in TERN's eyes.
It was unexpected.
‘Didn't he hate this body?’
He probably did hate him.
But it didn't seem to be simple hatred.
If it were, he wouldn't be showing such sincere anger.
It was disappointment.
And disappointment comes from expectation. The expectation that he would be different than before.
He wouldn't have held such an expectation for someone he merely despised and hated.
‘It seems he did think of this body as his brother, in his own way.’
Having thought that far, Chris came to a conclusion.
Just as he'd expected, TERN was not the culprit.
The rat was someone else.
In that case.
‘I'll have to use TERN.’
Chris opened his mouth.
“Let go.”
“…What?”
“I said, let go.”
Just as TERN was about to erupt in anger.
Their eyes met.
“!!”
TERN's pupils trembled faintly.
He sensed something was off.
He was lazing about debaucherously, but he was different from the scoundrel of the past.
The heavy pressure he had felt before once again pressed down on TERN.
Chris raised a hand and loosened his grip on his collar.
To his own surprise, TERN couldn't resist his touch and retreated helplessly.
It wasn't a matter of strength; he had been overwhelmed by his presence.
“Let me ask you one thing. What am I to you?”
“……”
TERN fell silent.
What was he to him?
The shame of the family. A detestable bloodline.
That was what TERN thought of his brother, Christian.
However.
After that day's bare-fisted duel.
A crack had formed in his thinking.
TERN hesitated before answering.
“To me, you were originally trash that filled me with disgust just by looking at you. Someone I wished would be disposed of somewhere, forever.”
It was a starkly honest expression.
“And now?”
“…An opponent I want to crush properly.”
Chris chuckled.
It meant he acknowledged him as a rival, in his own way.
And now, he was angry because he had returned to this pathetic state.
“Alright, TERN. In your eyes, does it look like your brother has reverted to being that disgusting trash from before?”
“……”
No.
He knew it instinctively.
Then why was he acting like this?
“…Is there some intention behind this?”
“Yes. It seems there's a rat in the family.”
“!!”
Chris vaguely revealed his plan.
TERN's eyes widened.
“A rat in the family, is that true?”
“Yes. It's hard to say exactly who yet, but there's definitely one.”
“How dare they…!!”
TERN gritted his teeth.
“That's why I have a favor to ask of you.”
“A favor?”
Chris looked at TERN.
Unlike this scoundrel of a body, he was the model young master, acknowledged by the family.
And yet, because of his youth, he was also free from the scrutiny of others.
He was the perfect person to entrust with a task.
“Come closer.”
Chris whispered into TERN's ear.
After hearing the details, TERN's eyes widened as if they would tear.
* * *
Afterward, Chris fully enjoyed the life of a debauched scoundrel.
He slept in as much as he wanted, ate whatever he wanted, and though he couldn't drink... he did everything else as he pleased.
It was bliss.
‘As expected of a noble house. The food is all delicious.’
It was the best, except for the fact that a ghost was serving him.
Of course, he didn't waste his time completely.
While pretending to laze about in bed, he practiced his black magic.
After all, magic could be practiced even while lying in bed.
‘All the contents of the books I read in the library are in my head, so I just need to master them while lying in bed.’
Thanks to this, his spellcasting skills grew rapidly, and before he knew it, he could skillfully use a considerable number of 1-Star black magic spells.
He had reached a level where he could be called a 1-Star black magician anywhere he went.
In between, he also caused some trouble.
If he just ate and drank quietly, he wouldn't seem like much of a scoundrel.
He put on a sufficiently realistic act of a scoundrel to make the rat hurry up, fall into the trap, and make its move.
“What is this?”
“Wh-what is it, Young Master?”
“This isn't the wine I ordered, is it? Bring me the butler!”
“Th-the butler is busy with some matters right now….”
“Busy? Then I'll go find him myself. *Hic*.”
When he went to the office, the butler, pale as a sheet, scrambled to his feet to greet Chris.
“Young Master, wh-what brings you here…?”
Instead of an answer,
Splash!
The vampire butler's white suit was stained red by the wine Chris had thrown.
The butler, Cox, his face flushed crimson with rage.
Seeing this, Chris smiled inwardly.
‘I can't just cause trouble for anyone.’
So he was focusing his antics on the butler, his prime suspect.
He would seek him out at the slightest pretext to pick a fight, finding fault and harassing him.
‘Will he endure it this time, too?’
His finely trimmed mustache trembled.
But surprisingly, the butler suppressed his anger once again.
“P-perhaps, what is the matter? If something is wrong, I will correct it.”
Chris let out a small 'oho'.
To endure even after being doused in wine.
His patience was remarkable.
“A servant brought the wrong wine. Perhaps this is the butler's way of disrespecting me?”
“Of course not! I will have the correct one brought immediately!”
“Bring it yourself.”
“…Pardon?”
“Don't order your underlings around. I'm telling you, the butler, to bring it yourself.”
The butler hesitated.
Chris didn't miss the butler's eyes darting about nervously before stopping on a certain part of a document.
“It's just… I was in the middle of some work.”
“You're going to work in that state? You'll have to change your clothes anyway, won't you?”
The butler's smiling face twitched.
To say such a thing when he was the one who threw the wine. He seemed to be barely suppressing his surging anger.
“I'm being considerate and telling you to go. I'll watch over things here, so don't worry. Or are you really disrespecting me?”
“N-no, sir. I will be right back.”
When he flew into a rage, the butler had no choice but to leave.
He seemed to have let his guard down, likely thinking that a scoundrel like him wouldn't be able to make sense of the documents anyway.
Left alone, Chris's eyes gleamed.
‘Now then, shall I see what kind of scheme he's been up to?’
Chris was almost certain that the butler was the rat.
‘If... he's not, then I'm sorry, but... hmm. No. It has to be him.’
If the butler really was the rat who had infiltrated House Cazar, there was a high probability he was pulling some strings on the administrative side.
And Chris, unlike the single-minded Majin, was very good at reading such documents.
What meaning the numbers held.
Which entries were strange.
He could figure it out just by looking.
And.
In the short time it took for the butler to change his clothes and bring the wine.
“Bingo.”
Chris grinned.
He had found what he was looking for.