Chapter 3 – Becoming the Power Behind the Count’s House (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In Psychedelia, House Palladio was the sort of villain that looked as if it had been drawn from a template.

It appeared in a side quest, got turned into experience points for the protagonist, and vanished.

In other words, it was little more than an extra in game terms.

The reason Alon knew so much about the family was simply that he had cleared that side quest many times.

The rewards were good.

That meant that in the game, the family was nothing more than background material for the hero’s growth.

But this place was no longer a game.

And from inside the family, it felt different.

In the game, House Palladio was summarized in a line or two.

They sold drugs, dealt in flesh, and ran an underworld organization called Avalon.

Here, Alon had seen the details with his own eyes.

He was seeing them now, in fact.

He looked toward the coffin in front of him.

Tonio’s body lay inside.

Cause of death: accidental fall.

For a man who had built a name for himself selling narcotics to the kingdom, it was a laughably empty death.

Naturally, Alon knew it was a lie.

Anyone here would have known the same.

He glanced to the side.

Leo, the eldest son of House Palladio and Tonio’s rival in the fight for succession, stood with his head lowered and an unmistakably satisfied smile playing on his lips.

At this rate his face is going to split.

He was not even pretending.

Even the current head of the family, Count Aldimore Palladio, said nothing.

Neither did the knights.

Nor the retainers.

No one challenged Leo.

Then again, the count was too ruined by drugs and women to care what his sons did to each other.

Watching the head of the family lounge through the funeral with narcotic leaves and women still hanging around him, Alon let out a dry laugh.

Dark fantasy really does mean every household is a disaster.

Still, he had no intention of interfering.

His own plan was proceeding well enough already, and the only truly dangerous variables in it were the Five Great Sins.

I need to find the rest of them soon.

So he simply watched the funeral proceed.

Then, just as Tonio’s coffin was about to be sealed, a thought crossed his mind.

Wait.

Was Tonio supposed to die like this?

When the Palladio family episode appeared in the game, Leo was the only brother who mattered.

Alon had always assumed Tonio died offscreen at some point.

But something felt strange.

He remembered a scene from the game in which Leo, after being thoroughly crushed by the protagonist, screamed about all the suffering he had gone through over several years just to finally kill his brother and secure the position of heir.

That memory made Leo’s present smile look oddly ridiculous.

Hmm.

In the end, Alon only shrugged.

He was not interested enough to dwell on it.

* * *

A few days after Tonio’s funeral, House Palladio, which had been noisy and unstable, grew strangely peaceful.

The succession conflict was over.

There was still a third son, of course, but no one expected Alon to throw the house into turmoil.

Tonio had been able to oppose Leo because he had joined hands with criminal organizations and built up power through the drug trade.

Alon had nothing.

Even Leo, who was notoriously sensitive about succession, seemed to have no concern whatsoever where Alon was concerned.

He barely paid attention to him and instead focused on swallowing up the narcotics business Tonio had left behind.

At such a time, Alon was reading a letter from Yutia.

“Hmm.”

As always, there was little different about it.

The letter contained small updates about the orphanage, remarks about how several of the children were growing well, and a brief note about Deus.

Growing up properly, with nothing lacking.

Reading that short line, Alon smiled in satisfaction.

Perhaps because he had asked her to look after Deus carefully, calling him a somewhat hurt child, Yutia always added a short note about him.

If I only went by these letters, she’d seem like nothing more than a kind country girl.

For a moment he considered going to see her in person.

Then he shook his head and continued reading.

Near the end of the letter, he spoke up.

“Evan.”

“Yes?”

“Do orphanages usually get much support?”

“Well… they receive some, I imagine, but not that much.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The reason Alon asked was the list of donors Yutia had included at the end.

About three months ago, maybe four, someone else had begun supporting the orphanage alongside him.

The letter only named the person as a merchant called Malano and did not specify how much he had contributed.

This month there are five sponsors, including me.

Alon made an odd face, then let it go.

More donations are only a good thing.

He wrote a reply that matched Yutia’s tone and handed it to Evan.

“Will you take it there yourself again?”

“No.

Didn’t you just go a few months ago?”

“Three months ago.”

“And what was it like then?”

“If you mean the orphanage, it was operating well.

And Deus, the boy we sent there, looked much improved.”

“Really?”

Alon nodded with satisfaction.

As expected, even the Five Great Sins weren’t born as the Five Great Sins.

Looks like the kids are growing up properly.

In the end, it must have been their environment that turned them into murderers.

It struck him again how important a person’s surroundings were.

“No need to go in person this time.

Just pass the reply through the mercenary guild.”

“Understood.

Ah, and there was something else you asked about before.”

“Something else?”

“The old book.”

“…You found it?”

“I found a clue, at least.”

“Let’s hear it.”

Evan relayed what he had learned from the information guild.

By the time he finished, Alon had located the whereabouts of the third Sin.

* * *

Margot, a viscount’s domain near a small village in eastern Asteria, was famous on the surface for its exquisite glasswork.

In truth, what really made the viscount money was drugs.

More precisely, an organization called Palan used Margot as a distribution hub and paid the viscount handsomely for the privilege.

Palan had grown steadily, and now boasted hundreds of members.

Each of its executives had more than ten Experts under them.

It was a giant organization in the making.

That was why Loten, the boss of Palan and an Expert himself despite being a mercenary by origin, had thought the organization would only continue to grow.

That was what he had thought until yesterday.

Now he looked around in terror.

All he could see were dozens of corpses collapsed in blood and the few remaining members of his organization screaming themselves hoarse.

“P-please spare me!”

“Please, please!”

“Aaaah!”

Loten stared, shuddering.

Those men should have been reassuring.

Even if they were weaker than him, sheer numbers should have made him feel safer.

Instead, he was afraid of them.

Because every surviving member of Palan was gripping a blade in reverse and holding it to his own throat.

“No, don’t!

Don’t do it!”

“Stop! Please stop!”

Their faces were full of pleading and desperation.

But their bodies moved smoothly, mercilessly, and pushed the blades into their own throats.

The last dozen or so died the same way.

Then Loten felt his own body move.

“N-no…!”

The sword in his hand reversed.

“Please…!”

No matter how he tried to resist, his body no longer obeyed him.

At the last instant, he saw them.

A pair of purple eyes staring at him from the darkness.

Then his blade pierced his own throat.

He collapsed.

The man who had been standing in the dark, Deus, stepped forward silently.

“Well done.”

Yutia walked out after him.

“Was there any point in killing them?” Deus asked.

Unlike a year ago, his eyes now clearly held reason.

“Are you sympathizing with them?”

“No.

I know these men grind people up to make narcotics.”

“Then?”

“…I only mean this.

Does killing them really help us kill those bastards?”

Yutia smiled.

“Of course it does.”

Then, as if answering a question too obvious to dwell on, she continued:

“This is the foundation for preparing a place for him to return to.”

A magic circle spread beneath her feet, marked by a giant eye and a crescent moon within it.

“When he comes here himself, how can we let the place be shabby?”

“…I understand.”

After looking at the symbol beneath her feet, Deus nodded.

Then the two of them spoke together.

“Everything according to his will.”

With that repeated phrase on their lips, and the pattern at their feet complete, they disappeared into the darkness.

Nothing remained in Palan’s hideout.

The organization called Palan had vanished just like that.

Without leaving behind a proper trace.

And in a place far from there, Alon still had no idea that another one of the routes tied to the future Five Great Sins had already been erased in his name.