Chapter 24
A little while passed after everyone around me started saying, "I-I'm getting sleepy..." one after another, then suddenly began dozing off.
――Well then.
I opened my eyes.
All around me, the room had fallen silent, as if the earlier commotion had been a lie.
"Hup."
I rose from the sofa and slowly rolled my neck.
Looking around, I saw that every last one of them was fast asleep.
They looked exactly like a bunch of noble brats who'd played themselves into exhaustion.
"Liera, are you awake?"
"Yes."
As if following me, Liera rose as well.
"Is this all right?"
"Yeah. They're only sleeping, so you don't need to worry."
"I see... But you really are amazing, Ultos-sama. You'd already predicted someone was going to drug them, and even pretended to fall asleep."
"It was nothing. Besides, I'm pretty sure the same thing is happening at the ball, too."
I avoided the people sleeping soundly in front of me and headed for the door.
It really was nothing special.
――I only knew because of the original story.
Liera and I went through the door and out into the hallway.
"Hey, young master."
At that moment, a voice called to me from the darkness.
Ah, that casual voice could only be—
"What, Enrique? Where are the guards?"
"Oh, the people who work here? Most of them went outside. I took care of the ones who stayed behind."
The person who emerged from the darkness was none other than Enrique, a former F-rank adventurer and a man with genius-level acting skills.
As expected of a former adventurer, even if he was only F-rank.
It seemed he'd taken out the guards at this facility. I'd been the one to tell him where it was, but I was grateful nonetheless.
"Still, this is incredible," Enrique said admiringly.
"To think bandits are about to show up in Lyon."
"Yeah."
As Enrique excitedly exclaimed, "And the young master who saw that coming is incredible, too!" I thought about how the events would unfold from here.
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The Lyon Event.
It was an important event where the fates of the protagonist, the main heroine Iris, and a disposable villain (me) intersected in a major city.
First, protagonist Sieg-kun and Iris meet, but Iris is disillusioned by the scummy nobles she encounters in Lyon and tries to leave right away.
Up to this point was just the prelude to the battle segment, and I'd already cleared it.
――But.
From here on, everything takes a sudden turn.
As Iris is trying to head home, she passes through a village and, unbelievably, gets attacked by a band of bandits.
Normally, the area around a major city like Lyon would be properly secured, so a surprise raid by bandits should be impossible.
But that "impossible" scenario comes to pass.
Iris is abducted by the bandits.
The protagonist, Sieg-kun, notices something is wrong in the neighboring village and confronts the bandits, but he's only a village boy.
He gets utterly beaten by the bandits.
――The boy loses consciousness in despair.
To make matters worse, the timing couldn't have been worse.
That's because the nobles who were supposed to be leading the response to the bandits in Lyon were all passed out drunk at the ball.
In the nick of time, Sieg was saved by his rarely-seen father, Rain.
As the city's Knight Commander, Rain had secured the cooperation of Lyon's mayor, Gregorio, and was already mobilizing to rescue Iris.
Rain was an exceptionally capable man in every respect, and fought like a lion to drive off the bandits.
He secured Iris's safety and made it back alive.
And so, this incident led protagonist Sieg-kun to yearn for strength, while Iris came to admire Rain, the hero who'd saved her.
The fates of the two would eventually cross at the Academy of Magic—
...But, much to my dismay, we high-ranking nobles took a huge hit to our reputations.
Well, of course.
Even if we nobles had been drugged at the ball, there was no reason for anyone to like nobles who'd spent their time indulging in luxury and were useless when it mattered.
Incidentally, the secret debaucheries of Kuzutos and the other noble brats somehow got exposed here, too.
And so, what happened in Lyon, the city where it all began, led to distrust of the nobles and rising expectations for the mayor.
That was the Lyon Event, but...
Question: Who was the one who rose to fame in this event???
At first glance, it might seem like the hero Rain, who stepped up despite knowing it could cost him his position, but Rain has absolutely no interest in power.
That's right.
The one who received all the praise for this incident was—
M A Y O R G R E G O R I O.
In other words, the whole thing was that mayor's fault.
Man, what a brilliant manufactured crisis and self-serving solution. It's impressive every time I see it.
Of course he'd be able to bring in bandits if he was pulling strings behind the scenes.
What's more, Gregorio had a reputation as a handsome, upstanding mayor who never indulged in luxury or went out partying.
And if that weren't enough, the man who'd drugged the nobles at the ball and secretly spread rumors about their depravity was none other than the mayor himself.
Having secured his own power base this way, Gregorio steadily continued to amass influence—
And in the latter half of the original story, he'd clash with the protagonist's group as Lyon's ruler, a man who'd surpassed even the nobility.
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"...Yeah, this really is bad."
I muttered that after thinking back through the original story up to this point.
Yeah, no matter how I looked at it, this was bad.
I couldn't understand why I had to cross paths with such a dangerous character so early on.
I wished he'd do all this somewhere other than Lyon.
This was also why I'd been worried about my parents before.
Despite the extenuating circumstances, the Duke of Randall had been no help in an emergency. No matter how good a lord he'd been until then, his reputation could fall in no time.
And then the grueling workload would take its toll, and my parents would lose their lives.
...I'm sorry, but I couldn't allow that.
My parents were good people, and above all, my goal in life was to be a background character.
――Background characters don't need tragic pasts.
A background character's parents should be alive and well. The protagonists are the only ones who need to bear tragic pasts.
I wanted my parents to remain lords for another fifty years or so, and maybe have a younger sister and brother who'd be even better suited to ruling, then enjoy a happy retirement.
I let out a sigh.
It was all for the sake of my life as a background character.
No offense to Gregorio, but—
"――Don't underestimate my life as a background character."
I steeled myself.
And then.
I turned around to speak to the two of them, about to say, "All right, let's go," when I saw Enrique looking strangely intimidated.
"What's wrong?"
"N-No, your mana suddenly surged for a moment."
I understood.
Apparently, I felt so strongly about being a background character that some mana had leaked out.
"Well, I thought I'd try a little harder."
"I-I'm sure you'll be fine, young master. When it comes to swordsmanship, you're starting to approach my level. And that mana of yours... you're going to become something incredible."
For some reason, Enrique laughed as he said that.
It seemed Enrique was trying to encourage me.
Well, I had indeed begun to feel that I was getting closer to Enrique during my swordsmanship training.
But still.
Being told that by a former F-rank adventurer was a little...
No, I have seen that kind of thing before.
But normally, it's some ridiculously powerful guy saying, "Heh, kid. You're starting to approach my level."
"Ahhh... yeah, thanks, Enrique."
...If only he were a little stronger.
I looked at Enrique with somewhat disillusioned eyes, thinking he could at least have been D-rank.
"W-Well, let's get back on track..."
I clapped my hands.
"All right, Liera. Once we get to the main building, shall we take Father and Mother back to the estate together? Enrique can help with the heavy lifting, and if anyone gives you trouble, just blame it all on me. Also, I have a few preparations to make for what's coming."
That's right.
I wasn't satisfied with just my first secret plan: "Say a bunch of cryptic things for now."
――My next secret plan was, of course, already prepared as well.