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Volume 7, Chapter 130: The Crawling Shadow of the Past

「…What, in other words, are we going to assassinate the Lord?」

Bruder spoke casually as he reacted to my words. His words were somewhat nostalgic, as he unknowingly slammed his throat to open his lips while showing his teeth.

「At first, I thought about doing so. I was thinking of clearing the humiliating snow with my hands. But, it’s not amusing to follow the same route as before.」

Saint Matia strengthened her eyes upon seeing how lightly I spoke of it. Her sharp gaze seemed to pierce my body. As if she were silently telling me that she wouldn’t allow such actions. I felt as if she sewed me on the spot.

Indeed, she looked unpleased when I said that we were going to take different measures. This Saint woman did not realize that her gaze looked so poisonous. She unknowingly quivered her eyelids as if they were twitching.

Even so, I was not planning to back away now. My frustration and humiliation still sculled in the depths of my memories. In order to get my revenge, I felt determined to go the same way again but with a different approach. Ah, that horrid past of mine. I guess I would never forget it…

Anyway, I had a better way to do it now.

「…Lugis, I respect your words. However, I will have no choice but to step in if you act too recklessly. If that time happens, I will make you obey my words. Do you understand?」

An unsatisfied Matia sharpened her words with her fierce gaze. I raised one eyebrow and made my voice echo.

「What? Recklessly? We’re going to do something dangerous because there is no other way to change our odds. Listen, Matia. This city called Belfein runs with two different wheels. There may be other people pulling the strings, but there are only two main forces at the center. In other words, if we want to get rid of Belfein, we’ll have to get rid of them.」

It was not necessary to say who the wheels were. Lord Mordeaux Gon. And his daughter, the Steel Princess Vestaline Gon. The city kept spinning because these two had meshed well. Some even said that they were like materials who complemented each other reasonably well.

Of course, Belfein would not collapse even if we disposed of one them.

Perhaps, Mordeaux alone, Vestaline alone, or even one person with governing ability could rule alone. In other words, the governing authority would be maintained to some extent. But that’s all. Only governable. It was a completely different story between Belfein’s internal rule and someone who threatened its foundation.

「Are you trying to cut them off from the center? That’s impossible.」

Bruder spoke while opening the lid of the rum bottle on the table. It seemed that he could not wait any longer. Then, I also took the chewing tobacco from my pocket and put it in my teeth. When I thought about it, I realized that I could not relax or enjoy smoking after coming here.

Bruder, who cleared his throat with the bottle of rum, continued to speak instead of sighing.

「It’s much more than just assassination, you know. They are strong people because they are powerful together!」

Bruder’s eyes, with a slight amount of sickness, were looking quite cloudy. The words that came out of his mouth seemed to throw some of his emotions as well. After all, was it impossible for Bruder to be normal in a conversation?

Matia looked at Bruder in a suspicious manner.

What was going on? There was nothing to worry about, but they were fretting so much. But, I understood them well.

「I don’t believe that’s the case. I was convinced when I met her yesterday. They seem to be moving like wheels, but that doesn’t mean the moving is as smooth as it should be.」

Yes, they seemed to working well together as a team. Yet, their nature told otherwise. This teamwork did not match their individual needs.

In fact, their essence was like predators. One lived with a means to take away things, and the other was born to protect things.

Right now, their interests overlapped nicely, but just for a moment. Fortunately, the parts that did not mesh with each other were the feelings of parents and children. Such complex relationships could crumble at any time. All we need was a misstep from either one of them in order for the wheels to stop moving forever.

Bruder stopped pouring rum into his throat. His eyes looked distorted, and his expression seemed to be unable to measure the meaning of my words. In order to encourage my words, he put the bottle of rum on the table.

「One thing is certain. All we have to do is sow the seeds of suspicion that will make them feel doubt deep in their hearts.」

“Seeds of suspicion”, Matia muttered next to me by repeating my words. Somehow, her expression showed me that she pondered deeply about it. I did not think that Matia would react in such a way. I continued to speak.

「Even if one of them believes the other, the other will have doubts. They might have a normal conversation every day. However, in the heart, the child will doubt the love of the parent, and the parent will be anxious about the child’s rebellion. In a flash, love will turn into a huge mass of mud.」

Both wheels would stop running its mesh in unison. After that, both would decay on the spot and lose their function.

The strongest curse in the world was suspicion itself. Yes, the heart of doubt.

It was extremely hard to wipe the doubts in a human’s heart. Even if a person struggled to hide it and forcibly covered it, it would take just a tiny amount of wrath to burst it all out. I knew it well. True, I knew it more than anyone else around here did.

Bruder moved his lips. His mouth, undulated with sickness, slowly opened. Before he could speak, I release a few more words.

「I’m confident in my upbringing and motivation. Whatever you may think, I will show you that this strategy can work. Because I know how often people doubt other people.」

Bruder and Matia shook their mouths slightly. I did not add any more words to it. However, it seemed that my talk had a profound impact on their brains.

The Saint woman looked very tense and Bruder looked like as if he heard a joke.

While moving my shoulders, I took out the chewing tobacco from my mouth and expelled the air that had accumulated in my throat. A faint and pleasant scent scattered in the air. I already envisioned the whole scenario in my head. The only thing left was to draw it with my hands. How did I get them to move?

While I thought so, Bruder tilted the bottle of rum to his mouth and drank the liquid in a single breath. His throat screamed because it did not want the alcohol to burn it. I noticed that Bruder’s eyes stared fixedly at me while he drank. His eyes were flickering in a strangely hollow light.

A hollow light that reminded me of the past.

Originally, Bruder liked alcohol too much, but he was not particularly strong with alcohol. Rather, he was prone to getting drunk.

I often saw him get drunk, and he often fell asleep in the back alleys. I carried him to the inn for countless of times.

However, the way he drank right now. This was the first time since “that day” that I had seen him drink as if he had bathed himself with alcohol. I felt a suffocating feeling right down from my finger up to my spine. Something that I had no desire to get it back.

「…Okay, I will follow your plan. Ohh, actually, let me do it. I’ll crush their wheels and the bond between parent and children directly.」

His mouth was that of a drunken man. Bruder’s eyes were beginning to lose their focus. Still, though, his eyes were certainly directed at me despite his drunkenness.

I felt like avoiding his gaze. This figure overlapped with the old Bruder, the one who used to be with me in the past.

The old Bruder behaved and looked this way when I saw him the night before the raid on Mordeaux’s house.