The Old Lord's Final Gift
The mansion with its modest garden wasn’t particularly large. It wasn’t shabby, but it felt far too frugal for the residence of a former noble. Still, seeing the elderly man inside made it seem oddly fitting.
“It’s nothing fancy, but it’s one of my small hobbies. I’m not sure if it’ll suit your taste.”
“The aroma is wonderful.”
It was a small field dedicated solely to tea leaves, it seemed. I followed Tirson—no, Trowin Mueller—as he personally poured the tea and led me to a spot overlooking the garden.
“How is it?”
“Hmm. It’s good.”
The tea had a decent flavor. It tasted similar to green tea, but it wasn’t unpleasant on the palate, so it went down easily. I took a sip and studied the old man before me.
“Is that so? I’m glad.”
The signs of age were unmistakable. His hair, which must have once been a deep navy, had turned completely white. Deep wrinkles carved across his face, telling the story of many years. His complexion was poor—perhaps he really was ill—and he looked somewhat gaunt. Yet his frame remained large, suggesting he had once possessed a powerful build. The decline in his magic power, however, was painfully obvious.
But those vivid purple eyes… I couldn’t let my guard down around him.
“So. Leoric Franz, was it? Avon’s second son? That bastard really was blessed with children. Tsk, tsk.”
“Haha.”
The former head of a ruined house that had collapsed precisely because it lacked such blessings. In terms of age, he belonged to the generation between my grandfather and father. In other words, he had clashed with both. I’d heard they had even faced each other on the battlefield. The fact that he was speaking to me so casually wasn’t entirely improper. After all, I held no formal title—I was merely the second son who had been granted full authority over this land by Count Franz.
“I don’t know if Avon told you, but I have no intention of showing my face in public anymore.”
“Is that so?”
“My body is frail, and my magic has withered. Since I can no longer fight to my satisfaction like in the old days, there’s no need for me to step forward. Having created this mess with my final decision, I intend only to take responsibility for it.”
Hmm. I noticed Triana Mueller’s expression darken behind him. Well, if this man had taken the field himself, things probably wouldn’t have ended so pathetically.
Trowin pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket.
“There’s just one last thing I want to confirm.”
“Confirm?”
After scanning the paper, a strange light flickered in Trowin Mueller’s eyes.
“Why do you think I handed the position of successor to that bastard?”
“Hmm. Has your eyesight deteriorated with old age?”
“Hmph! No respect for your elders at all.”
Even as he glared at me, a faint smile tugged at the corners of Trowin’s mouth.
“My damned eldest son was undeniably stupid. He was trash who hated being compared to his younger brother. But Tirus wasn’t without his own problems either.”
“Ugh.”
Triana’s mouth opened slightly before snapping shut. She bit her lip and averted her gaze. It was her grandfather badmouthing her father, after all. She couldn’t intervene. Trowin continued speaking without concern for the discomfort radiating from behind him.
“If I had to choose which was better… Tirus was the lesser evil. But think about it. If that bastard had willingly handed the succession to his younger brother, would anyone have accepted it?”
“So you gave the successor position to Tirson Mueller to avoid unnecessary conflict? You believed Tirus Mueller would understand and support him?”
“Tirson would have been satisfied with that much, bloated with superiority. Tirus was the kind of boy who knew how to endure in moderation. I judged that he could soothe his brother appropriately while helping manage the domain without issue.”
But that judgment had been wrong. Tirson Mueller’s rampage had far exceeded his expectations—far, far beyond them. He should have dealt with it decisively from the start.
“There was someone fanning the flames.”
“Oh?”
That was new information. When I glanced at Triana, she wore a genuinely shocked expression. So she hadn’t known either.
Trowin tossed the paper he had taken out.
“It’s not certain. At the time, the only trustworthy person I could contact was the head butler, and even he couldn’t confirm it completely. However, the information that several unfamiliar men were seen near Tirson is reliable.”
“Unfamiliar men.”
The paper contained a drawing of a man.
“There may be others we don’t know about, but most of them died in the last battle. The only one left is this guy.”
Suspicious bastards. And the order Tirson Mueller had given. The forced pregnancy law was more than enough to connect the dots.
“Red Blood?”
“I’d say so. My gut tells me it’s definitely them.”
Trowin frowned openly, not bothering to hide his displeasure.
“Those bastards haven’t changed a bit. Still just as fucking disgusting as they were back then.”
“Ho. Are they that bad?”
From what I’d read in books and heard from my father, they didn’t seem like people worth paying much attention to.
“Red Blood is a cellular organization. Multiple factions each run multiple cells. Some cooperate by region, while others are outright hostile to one another.”
“And that mess somehow functions as an organization?”
It sounded like complete chaos. At my pointed remark, Trowin shook his head.
“Of course it doesn’t. That’s why most of them collapsed.”
“……Are they just stupid?”
“It’s the opposite. A few massive organizations use the smaller ones as bait and experimental sacrifices.”
“Experiments?”
What filled Trowin’s eyes was pure rage.
“Human experimentation.”
Human experimentation using forced breeding between magic users, crossbreeding with magic beasts, and fusion between humans and monsters. Utilization of Magic Stones derived from enchanted ores, Bachn Kingdom pearls, and biological organs of monsters.
“Hmm.”
Human experimentation. That didn’t sound pleasant at all.
“Not everyone in Red Blood lacks magic power.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
It isn’t only those without power who hate those who possess it. Sometimes those who have it hate each other even more—because they understand the difference and cannot bridge it.
“The dangerous ones within Red Blood are truly dangerous. I thought we had cleaned the southern region thoroughly during the previous war.”
“Is that so?”
“It was a chaotic era in many ways. Power struggles among nobles, traitors from the royal family, revolutionaries…”
Ugh. Just hearing about it made my skin crawl. I was glad I hadn’t been born in that time.
“What about the human experiments?”
“It’s not exact, but those bastards have been conducting various experiments for a long time—crossbreeding between humans, of course, but also between magic beasts that possess magic power, and even between those monsters and humans.”
I couldn’t help but grimace. The mere thought made me feel sick. Triana, Chloe behind me, and even Zeke looked visibly unwell.
And the only experiments were breeding?
“There’s more. You know that any substance containing more than a certain amount of magic power—whether it’s magic-infused ore, biological organs from monsters like the pearls of the Bachn Kingdom, or anything else—is called a Magic Stone, right? They conducted all sorts of experiments using every kind of Magic Stone without discrimination.”
The past deeds of Red Blood that Trowin described were quite interesting. Beyond the experiments, there were terrorist acts in various cities and assassinations. Most noble assassinations failed, but they couldn’t prevent every terrorist attack on cities and towns. And the majority of the victims, from the beginning, were commoners.
“The order of things got completely reversed.”
“Exactly. In that era, Red Blood was the public enemy. Even commoners knew about them and couldn’t possibly feel any goodwill. Not to mention they fought among themselves. The moderate faction, which could be called relatively peaceful, even cooperated with noble families to fight against their fellow Red Blood members.”
“There are organizations like that too?”
“Indeed. There are groups whose goal is to study the power of magic itself and expand its use to more people. Others hold the ideology that even if one possesses magic, it shouldn’t be used to divide social status. Whatever their ideology, these organizations mainly focus on academic research. While some nobles disliked them, many were moved by those who risked their lives to speak out, or simply admired their guts.”
Expanding the number of magic users was one thing, but approving of the abolition of social status? Well, it wasn’t entirely impossible. This world tended to value powerful magic and bloodlines more than status itself. Even if status disappeared, raw power wouldn’t. Even if magic spread more widely, it would probably only reach the level of adventurers or knights at best. Even in the far future, I doubted it could ever spread all the way to Count-level magic power.
“There really are all kinds of organizations.”
“There are many groups that are Red Blood in name only. Plenty of swindlers who extort money from commoners under the banner of ‘liberation.’ Some even attack merchants like bandits. We suppressed those kinds as well.”
Perhaps tired from talking so long, Trowin took a sip of tea and let out a deep sigh.
“In any case, I cannot tell how deeply these bastards have infiltrated Muller now, or how far they’ve spread across the southern region. With no more people I can move at this point, this is the only information I can give you.”
Red Blood. I had thought they were nothing special…
The bundle of papers Trowin had handed over contained the description of the sole survivor along with records of their various activities within Muller.
“I also heard that the princess of Bachn was kidnapped. In this worsening political climate, there’s nothing an old man like me can do anymore…”
Finally, Trowin looked at me and said,
“I leave Muller to you, new master of this land.”
“……Well, I’ll do my best.”
Strictly speaking, I was nothing more than a puppet chairman with heavy stakes held by both Franz and Beauleng. Still, I would make good use of the information he had given me.