The Doomed Fief’s Dying Lord (30)

But the next moment, Vittorio grabbed my neck and lifted me up.

A pain as if my throat would be torn out and the terror of suffocation swept over me at once.

“Ugh…!”

“Young master!”

I heard Ronari and the staff calling out to me.

Vittorio didn’t even look at them.

“It’s like a nightmare.”

“Let me go…”

“If I kill you, will I wake from this nightmare?”

I grabbed his arm and fought desperately.

I couldn’t afford to lose consciousness.

“Fine, try killing me once, you idiot…! Then you’ll get two things: my corpse, and a reality with no hope. Hahaha…”

I sneered at him.

“If you’re going to kill me, do it quickly…! Otherwise stop this damn nonsense and fall to your knees and beg! Beg to be saved, to be taken out of this shitty reality! That’s your only escape…!”

Darkness slowly crept into my vision.

My struggling gradually lost strength.

Then suddenly, his hand let go of me.

-thud

The sound was nothing special, but the impact was tremendous.

I thought my tailbone had been crushed.

“Cough, cough… Can’t you put me down more gently…?”

I sat down on the ground and muttered a complaint.

Vittorio looked down at me and spoke.

“I’ll ask one last time. How did you know? That I had an episode?”

There was still a killing intent in his voice.

Yes, killing intent. Fine, bring it on.

But I had no intention of giving in easily either!

“…One last answer. Fuck, I can’t say. You just follow my orders. Then you’ll live! Your domain will receive 20 billion. No damn changes to the terms.“

‘You have no choice, Vittorio Leviner.’

I wanted to make that certain.

Even if it cost me my life, I didn’t want to give him any leeway.

Any chance to escape my control.

What I wanted was a faithful retainer.

A retainer I could trust.

‘What you received in exchange for your survival is a dog collar. Know that…!’

I dusted myself off, stood up, and faced him.

Vittorio closed his eyes.

The crease between his brows deepened as if in torment.

With his eyes closed, he asked.

“…What orders do you intend to give me?“

I pointed to Ronari, who was standing some distance behind.

“The actual orders will be given not by me but by Ronari, the strategic analyst. In other words, there will never be demands that go beyond the scope of the Dungeon assault operation.”

I whispered that to him with his eyes closed.

“If you heard the conversation between your mother and me, you know. I have no intention of forcing unreasonable sacrifices on you. I rather hope you’ll come back safely and quietly leave.”

“There’s no basis to trust your words.”

“Ha…”

I let out an empty laugh like a sigh.

There have always been people who wouldn’t trust me.

I never once told them to trust me.

Rather, I couldn’t understand them.

‘Do you really think you’ll trust me just because I give you some evidence?’

Trust isn’t created; it’s built.

It’s accumulated over time.

And you expect to trust me just because of a scrap of proof?

What a laughable notion.

“What you need isn’t evidence. No matter what I give you, you won’t trust me. You don’t know who I am. Do you think I’m seeking your trust? What a noble delusion.”

I jabbed a finger at him as I spoke.

“What you need is reassurance. Understand? I never gave you the right to distrust me. You have only one choice left. Follow me.”

‘So obey me without words. Unless your pitiful pride intends to reject me and bring about your own ruin.’

I was certain.

Vittorio Leviner is not the sort of man who would make an irrational choice out of pride.

Of course, I was right.

Finally, his rationality awoke from its slumber.

“Understood. I’ll accept your proposal. But if even one word of what you’ve spouted is a lie… I swear on my life. I’ll crush and burn everything you hold dear.”

“That won’t happen.”

“We’ll see.”

Vittorio and I confirmed the taut hostility in each other’s eyes.

‘To make him my true ally, I’ll have to take a long detour.’

I softened my fierce gaze and chuckled.

“…What is it?“

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just that I find myself amusing.”

I offered him my hand.

“I’ve used some harsh words, please forgive me. I’ll also pretend your slap never happened.”

Vittorio did not take my hand.

He just stared down as if he couldn’t bear to look.

“…!“

I grabbed his hand anyway and shook it.

“Let’s do well together.”

“…“

“Aagh!”

A pain as if my hand were being crushed flashed through me.

Vittorio gripped my hand tightly.

Then he turned and walked toward his horse.

‘You’re still not over it?!’

I shouted at his retreating figure.

“Didn’t I say I was sorry!”

He answered without turning back.

“You seem unlike Jin, yet you have some resemblance.”

“What?!”

“Your apology doesn’t feel like an apology.”

Saying that, he mounted his horse.

“Huh!”

-clatter clatter

While I searched for my lost composure, he rode off to his men.

‘What a narrow-minded bastard!’

“I’ll really be watching you! Two days from now!”

I shouted.

It was after he had gone far enough.

’…Won’t he come back?’

He won’t.

“Phew…!”

Well, I guess my generous self has to put up with it.

At that moment, someone grabbed my hand tightly.

It was Ronari.

“Ronari?”

“…“

Her lips moved slightly.

But no sound came out.

She just stared at me with an expression that was surprised, confused, or perhaps angry.

Behind her, the staff had gathered and approached.

‘What on earth happened?’

The staff looked like they wanted to ask exactly that.

What should I answer?

While I was pondering, someone came running in a hurry and shouted.

It was the coachman, Landen.

“Young master really drove off those Limone bastards…!”

“Huh?”

The staff looked at Landen with puzzled expressions.

Landen said.

“Young master told only me! That those Limone bastards would chase after us, but to be at ease. And that he’d take care of them himself!”

Hearing Landen, the staff looked back at me.

‘Is it true?’

I unintentionally nodded.

Then a few of the staff exchanged looks and said this.

“…On the count of one, two, three, we begin.“

I asked them.

“Um… what are you doing?”

“Huh? Ah, isn’t this what we normally do at times like this?”

“Do what?”

“My father taught me that way. Three cheers are for moments like this. Right?”

The staff member looked to his colleagues for agreement.

His comrades nodded eagerly.

Then they began arguing among themselves about what form of address to use, whether to shout five cheers instead of three, and so on.

This scene — if you ranked strange ways of receiving praise, this might be around number three.

“Please stop, could you?”

It’s true I wanted praise.

But I didn’t want it like this!

I barely managed to stop them.

I sent them back to their carriage.

Even then, Ronari kept holding my hand.

“Ronari… could you start letting go of me?”

But the answer I got was a counter-question.

“…Why did you do it?“

“Yes?”

“You could have told me. That those bastards would chase after us.”

Ah. Is that what she meant?

“I didn’t want to wake you. I have to entrust you with important tasks. You need to rest even a little.”

“…“

She bowed her head and turned away.

I asked cautiously toward her back.

“Why is that…?”

She turned slightly and glanced back at me.

“Honestly, I want to be annoyed.”

“…You do?“

“It makes me more annoyed because I feel I don’t deserve it.”

It was a statement I couldn’t immediately make sense of.

I tilted my head.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Denabi would not be surprising if it collapsed immediately without you. Yet you take no care at all.”

“Ah, if that’s it, I’m sorry. But that’s all calculated…”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. No need for excuses either.”

She cut me off.

“The reason you overexert yourself like that, and try to handle everything alone, is because we, no, I am lacking.”

Having said that, Ronari walked briskly toward the carriage.

I watched her back and thought.

‘It worked.’

Her indignation had been intentional.

The more I handled things alone, the more disappointed she’d be in herself.

She would think herself inadequate.

But that would become motivation.

A motive for growth.

‘Get stronger, Ronari Arenta. So you can even take on my tasks. So I can give you praise.’

That will make you a true S-rank.

-ringing ring ring ring ring

Six chimes of the bell.

And the gatekeeper’s cry echoed after them.

“The youngest young master has returned!”

I dismounted from the carriage with swagger.

I walked three steps toward the main gate, then looked to the right.

There was a flowerbed there.

“Gwaaah…”

-tap tap tap

Ronari sighed and patted my back.

“Th-thank you…”

“That’s enough, so finish what you were doing.”

My stomach, having borne the brunt of the binge, was again pleading to donate.

The donation target, of course, was nature.

What I would donate was food.

“I told you to go a bit slower.”

“Ugh… But I had to wait for Vittorio… ugh. Considering the time lost waiting, I had to rush like this.”

“Thanks to that, the gardener now has to do janitor work too.”

I’ll have to apologize to the gardener later.

And just as I emptied what was inside me, someone walked out through the main gate.

It was Alejandro and his retainers.

“Shane!”

“Ah, Father…”

Before I could react, he hugged me.

If there had been anything left in my stomach, that embrace would have been a bit less moving.

I spoke while in his arms.

“It succeeded. Limone will send reinforcements to Denabi. Three hundred in total. There will be no betrayal.”

“Is that what’s important right now? I was regretting letting you go. What if you couldn’t return…?”

He looked at me with a serious face.

I tried to reassure him.

“Haha… Father. Do you still doubt my ability? The Limone lot can never harm me.”

“Well done. Well done… Now go inside and rest.”

I glanced at Ronari.

Then I said.

“I can’t do that. We need to immediately draw up training plans for when Limone’s reinforcements arrive. We also need to reassess the organization.”

“Leave that to me.”

It was Ronari who said that.

“Young master is very tired from negotiations and the journey. I have compiled information on the Limone forces and a secondary plan for operations.”

It was an overly presumptuous statement for a rookie of the regiment to make.

It meant Ronari had been provoked to that extent.

Her raised eyes were saying this to me.

‘Please go rest. I’ll handle it. I’ll make the plans run. Even without you, young master.’

I decided to agree meekly.

And I lent weight to Ronari’s presumptuous remark so it wouldn’t be attacked.

“Hmm… Certainly a strategic analyst could do that. But I should be there…”

Then Alejandro said.

“No. Really rest. We’ll call you when it’s truly necessary.”

I pretended to hesitate, then agreed.

The stage for Ronari had been set.

From now on, the battlefield is hers.

Vittorio has been told to cooperate with Ronari as well, so she’ll do well.

Both affairs and military matters were placed in the hands of people more suitable than me.

Now all that remained for me were my own tasks.

I rolled up my sleeve and looked at the curse embedded there.

A blue crystal emitting light on my arm.

Materialized mana, the essence of magic.

“…And my final insurance.“

The moment had come to turn this curse into my weapon.