Chapter 52
A car was traversing the barren wilderness.
"Phew..."
The neatly dressed man in his fifties riding in the car sighed nervously as he thought about their destination, which was gradually drawing closer.
As he did so, he began checking once again to make sure none of his clothes or accessories had become wrinkled.
He had checked dozens of times before setting out, but as he was only human, he could not help worrying just in case.
Seeing his employer in the rearview mirror, the driver spoke in a composed voice.
"You seem rather nervous. Would you like a potion to ease your tension?"
"Hmm... Ask me when we arrive."
Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
As he said that, the man began anxiously shaking one leg.
"What are you so worried about?"
Vroooom.
The inside of the car was so comfortable that it was hard to believe it was speeding across the rough wilderness.
Within it, the driver's composed voice echoed.
"Even if we're going to the Nebula ducal family, I doubt they'll harm you as long as you don't entertain any strange thoughts."
At the driver's words, the man stopped shaking his leg, leaned back against the seat, and spoke with a sigh.
Tap. Tap.
"Haa... Yes, I suppose you're right."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"How long have you worked under me?"
"About fifteen years, sir."
"I see. That's a long time."
That was why the man could let down his guard and reveal a little of what he was really thinking.
After all, the driver before him was a subordinate who had looked after him for nearly fifteen years.
"How could I not be nervous?"
The Nebula ducal family.
One of the four great ducal families of the empire.
But its more famous nickname was probably the King of the Underworld.
From an ordinary person's perspective, they might simply regard the Nebula ducal family as a dangerous entity unlike the other ducal families and leave it at that.
"..."
But from the perspective of a man who ran several businesses in the mana stone industry, the Nebula ducal family was absolutely not a family that could be dismissed as merely frightening, as ordinary people saw it.
What did the title King of the Underworld mean?
It meant that the moment you dipped even a toe into that world, nearly all your information would end up in the hands of the Nebula ducal family.
Running a business while pursuing only legitimate ventures without coming into contact with the law was far more difficult than one might imagine.
Lobbying, favors, or illegal dealings.
Could one build a company using only its products and business without doing any of those things?
Impossible. He could say that with certainty.
...
He still remembered it.
He remembered when a competing company much like his own had turned the Nebula ducal family into an enemy.
Barely a week after making an enemy of the Nebula ducal family.
In just one week, the competing company had collapsed with a spectacular uproar.
Thanks to a ledger detailing its corruption that had been neatly placed in the man's bedroom while he slept.
...
The fear he had felt then was still vivid.
Since he ran a business, it was only natural that he kept his guard firmly raised.
But someone had slipped effortlessly past all that security, only to hand him the competing company's ledger of corruption?
'Never make an enemy of the Nebula ducal family.'
That was why he had voluntarily bowed his head and chosen to submit to the Nebula ducal family, which, unlike the other ducal families, maintained only a modest level of involvement rather than becoming overly attached to business and the like.
And yet, to be attending the succession ceremony of such a ducal family—one announcing its heir—he naturally had no choice but to be nervous.
"Phew..."
But no matter how long the driver had served him, it would be foolish to tell him all of this.
Especially when it concerned the Nebula ducal family.
"I'm only nervous because this is my first time going to meet the ducal family's heir."
The man gave an awkward chuckle.
Tap. Tap.
The driver quietly watched the man, then stopped tapping the steering wheel and smiled lightly.
"Haha. That's a relief. And we've arrived."
The car began to slow down.
The driver gazed at the sky, where the sunset was gradually beginning to spread, then stared at the enormous mansion visible outside the car window.
"At the Nebula ducal family."
.
.
.
After the man disappeared under the servants' guidance.
The driver parked the car in the parking lot prepared by the Nebula ducal family, got out, and began lightly stretching his body.
"Ngh..."
As expected, driving all the way from the city they had departed from to this mansion for half a day had left every muscle in his body stiff and knotted.
The driver sighed lightly at his condition and rotated his stiff shoulders, then turned a corner in the parking lot and tapped the wall as if knocking on it.
Tap. Tap.
After confirming every reaction the man had shown from the moment they departed until now, including everything he had seen inside the car, the driver reached a simple conclusion.
[No abnormalities.]
"Hmm."
Humming softly, the driver began walking into the mansion toward the room where the servants of the retainers invited to this succession ceremony were resting.
Without making even the slightest sound with his footsteps.
***
The banquet hall of the Nebula ducal family was filled with countless dishes and so many works of art that one's eyes widened at the sight.
Inside the banquet hall, countless people were exchanging greetings.
"Heh heh. It's been a while."
"Wow, you helped us tremendously with that mana stone export deal a year ago."
"Oh, now that I think about it, would you be interested in investing in the magic engineering machinery we're developing this time?"
"If it's a profitable proposition, I'd be happy to hear it."
People who conducted major businesses in each of the kingdoms.
"Guh. Why am I in a place like this...?"
"Bear it, Boss. Do you really intend to rise up against the Nebula ducal family?"
"All right, all right, I get it. Good grief."
Or bosses who ran fairly large families in the underworld.
The sight of all kinds of surface-world and underworld people—good people and virtuous people—all mixed together in one room looked confusing at first glance.
'So this is...'
Amid the chaotic banquet hall, a man who had quietly taken a sip of wine from a server sharply observed his surroundings.
And as he looked at the splendid figures gathered in the banquet hall, he could not help swallowing nervously.
Gulp.
'Those are the executives of Morgan Corporation, aren't they? And over there is the Arpe Family, famous for being the most vicious in the imperial capital?'
There were also companies specializing in trading monster parts.
Or distribution companies that dealt extensively in the products of magic engineering caught the man's eye as well.
Distribution, exports, or manufacturing.
'They have nothing in common...'
Indeed. There was absolutely nothing in common among the businesses operated by the people gathered in this banquet hall.
Of course, there were some companies whose work occasionally overlapped, but most of them had nothing to do with one another.
Even so, there was only one reason they had gathered here.
They had come to attend the succession ceremony announcing the legitimate heir of the Nebula ducal family.
'This many?'
Marcel could only shudder at the power of the ducal family.
If the people gathered here combined their strength, there were enough major figures present to easily bring down a small country even without the ducal family's support.
Moreover, all these people had gathered to witness the succession ceremony after swearing loyalty to House Nebula.
Put another way, the power of a single family was this overwhelming.
Then just how great was the power of the other three of the four great ducal families, who were comparable to the Nebula ducal family?
And what about the power of the emperor who ruled over those dukes?
He couldn't comprehend it. The overwhelming sight of a gigantic mountain unlike anything he had ever seen made his mind go blank.
"Phew..."
'Get a grip...'
Even if he had been overwhelmed like this, what he had to do remained unchanged.
Thus, to soothe his anxiety, the man took another sip of wine and steeled his resolve.
"Heh heh heh. I see a face I haven't seen before."
As Marcel was gathering his resolve, someone's voice reached him.
Marcel turned toward the voice and saw an old man with a remarkably large frame.
He had seen him before.
No, not only had he seen him before, the man was one of the most famous figures in the automobile business he currently operated.
"Lord Lucas?"
Lucas Framer.
A colossus among colossi who distributed automobiles throughout the world.
Marcel himself ran a fairly large company that manufactured and distributed automobiles, but Lucas owned a business so enormous that it made Marcel's company look insignificant.
The fact that such a great figure had spoken to him momentarily flustered Marcel, but he quickly regained his composure, smiled broadly, and greeted him.
"Well, what an incredible figure has arrived."
Swish.
"Good evening, Lord Lucas. My name is Marcel. I run a small, insignificant automobile business."
"Heh heh heh. Aren't you being too self-deprecating? The fact that you've come here means you've met the Nebula ducal family's requirements. There's no need to rank ourselves here."
Lucas smiled warmly as he looked at Marcel.
"There's no need to be nervous. I truly came only because I saw a face I hadn't seen before and wanted to get acquainted."
'A lie.'
Marcel immediately rejected Lucas's words.
The part about getting acquainted was certainly true. But his claim that Marcel was a face he had never seen before was almost certainly a lie.
'Would a mogul in the same industry really come over just to greet me?'
If it had been a coincidence upon coincidence, there would have been nothing he could say, but the circumstances were far too perfect.
Nevertheless, Marcel did not bother revealing his thoughts on his face. He merely met Lucas's gaze with a broad smile.
"Haha. I see. I hardly know what to say."
"Those of us who have sworn loyalty to the same Nebula ducal family should help each other and make our way in the world, shouldn't we?"
"Then if I ever have the opportunity to do business with you, Lord Lucas, I hope you'll look kindly on me."
Businesspeople were those who elevated a single remark into a way of making money.
Lucas probably regarded it as a mere courtesy, but Marcel was not incompetent enough to throw away an opportunity like this.
The fact that he had participated in the succession ceremony at the relatively young age of forty was proof enough of his ability.
Grin.
At Marcel's rather bold words, Lucas smiled calmly and nodded.
"Of course. Heh heh. I'll help you as far as my power reaches."
'Of course, that power might take the form of mergers and acquisitions.'
"Haha. It won't be anything too difficult. I only want an introduction to a reliable company or something along those lines. I have no intention of making an unreasonable request of you, Lord Lucas."
'Do you think I don't know how you do business? Your company grew by acquiring and merging with countless others. I won't fall for such an obvious trap.'
"Heh heh heh."
"Hahaha."
The two men stared at each other for a moment, then laughed lightly and moved on to another topic.
As if the small war of nerves from moments ago had never happened in the first place.
A little while later.
After spending time on small talk and occasionally exchanging business talk like jabs, Marcel looked around at the banquet hall, which was gradually growing busier.
"Oh, it looks like it's about to begin."
"You mean it's starting?"
At Marcel's question, Lucas nodded lightly.
"Yes. The succession ceremony should be starting soon."
"...At last."
The words slipped out before Marcel knew it.
Pretending not to hear Marcel's mutter, Lucas continued speaking.
"Yes. The succession ceremony."
Flash!
The lights illuminating the banquet hall brightly began to go out all at once.
Before anyone in the banquet hall could even wonder at the sudden darkness, a heavy pressure began filling the room.
Creak.
An old man who looked slightly gaunt entered through the opened banquet hall doors.
Step.
There was no grand introduction.
Step.
Nor did he summon mana to pressure his audience.
Step.
He merely moved toward the only place where the lights remained on as the illumination began to fade.
Yet everyone in the room instinctively knew who the old man was.
The head of the Nebula ducal family.
The King of the Underworld.
An absolute powerhouse who stood proudly among the strongest ability users in the empire.
Servan de Nebula.
Silence.
In the banquet hall filled with silence, only Servan's footsteps could be heard breaking through it.
Gulp.
'This much?'
Marcel barely swallowed his dry throat as he watched the current Duke of Nebula walk before him.
He was an old man suffused with signs of illness.
No—he looked so gravely ill that one could believe he was a patient on the verge of death.
Even so, the pressure emanating from that old man was beyond anything Marcel could have imagined.
Glance.
Rolling his eyes to the side, Marcel saw that even Lucas, who had been chatting and laughing beside him, had stopped smiling and was looking at the duke with a solemn expression.
After weathering the gazes of countless people, the duke arrived beneath the only light, sighed, and opened his mouth.
"What a pointless charade..."
His voice was rough, like that of a patient with phlegm churning in his throat.
The duke sighed softly, turned around, and looked down at everyone in the banquet hall from head to toe.
"I dislike trivialities, so I'll begin at once."
The duke's figure was visible beneath the light.
His hollow cheeks and pallid complexion made him look more like a corpse than anything else.
"I hereby begin the succession ceremony."
Yet despite his appearance, so thoroughly marked by illness, the duke did not collapse.
No, far from collapsing, he exuded a presence so overwhelming that an ordinary person facing him would have fainted.
"Flowery speeches and the like would not suit us."
I shall begin.
With the duke's declaration, everyone in the banquet hall who had fixed their eyes on him heard it.
The sound of the banquet hall's entrance opening once again behind them.
Creak.
"A man born and raised in the back alleys, who did not know what kind of blood ran through his veins."
Step.
"And yet, despite being covered in mud and filth, he boldly brought every member of the ducal family to their knees."
Step.
“Revealing the full extent of his vessel and eliciting the submission of them all!”
The duke shouted in a loud voice for his heir, who had arrived before him with an expressionless face.
"And at last! Having received my recognition! The name of the man who will become the complete and rightful head of the Nebula ducal family is!"
Abel de Nebula.
With the duke's declaration, Abel, who had been standing before him, turned around to face the people looking at him.
"I declare it here today!"
[On the day I die, Abel, standing right before your eyes, shall become the next head of the Nebula ducal family!]
As soon as the duke's declaration ended, every servant of the ducal family in the banquet hall erupted into thunderous applause.