Chapter 27
A little while had passed since that burly, stern-faced man paid me the compliment, “You ordinary brat!!!!!”
Amazing. Truly amazing.
I was moved.
That man had recognized my true self—in other words, my mob-like qualities.
His powers of observation were incredible. It might not be an exaggeration to call him my mentor.
He was that much of a stand-up guy.
Toward the end, he looked at me with completely terrified eyes, muttering, “...Eek!” He must have been frightened by Enrique’s display of overwhelming strength.
I understand how you feel.
Even after knowing him for quite a while, there are moments when he still sends a shiver down my spine.
It must have been far too intense for someone meeting him for the first time.
Anyway, having received a dose of courage from that stern-faced man, I left the dimly lit club and headed toward the main building.
And waiting for me when I entered the main building was—
“Ugh... Ultos... I’m counting on you to look after the Randall family from now on...!!!”
“Sure, sure, Father. You can tell me the rest back at the estate.”
“U-Ul-chan... You’ve grown into such a fine young man while I wasn’t looking...”
“Mother, you’re just as plastered. You can’t hold your liquor, so please take care of yourself.”
Right.
My father and mother were completely soused.
The fact that they weren’t spewing abuse even though they were this drunk just goes to show what wonderful parents they are.
They really are refined people, and incredibly kind.
If only they weren’t so careless... They could have played a huge role in the original story...
“Still, this is quite the scale,” said Enrique, carrying my father over his shoulder.
“Yeah. This is the very definition of the wild revelry people expect from nobles.”
Looking around, I saw many nobles fast asleep.
Apparently, the sensible nobles had either returned to their territories right after the meeting or cut the ball short.
My father and mother had stayed because they were simply too kind.
“All right. We’ve got your parents secured.”
“So, young master, what’s next?”
“I think we should head back to the estate for now.”
After that, I headed for the exit of the main building.
Of course, even as we made our way out, men who seemed to be Gregorio’s lackeys would occasionally come up to us...
“Y-You...! How dare you act without permission?!” and the like, but Enrique—who should have been struggling to move freely with my father “equipped” on him—beat them all back with a single blow.
The men went down with laughable ease.
“Hmm... This is strange.”
...What was going on?
I was beginning to have a vague suspicion.
They were weak. Gregorio’s faction was far too weak.
But—
“I’m grateful.”
As I walked, I couldn’t help smiling.
That’s right.
This was very much in our favor.
To be honest, when it came to carrying out all sorts of schemes here in Lyon, my biggest concern had been the enemy organization—in other words, how strong Gregorio’s faction was.
In the original story, the protagonist, Sieg-kun, clashes with Gregorio in the latter half.
Gregorio, with his public face as the mayor and his secret control of Lyon’s most powerful underworld guild, becomes a formidable antagonist who puts the protagonist through hell.
—But that raises one question.
That’s right.
I could make a reasonable guess at the strength of Gregorio’s faction in the latter half of the original story from having played it, but that was still years in the future.
In other words, I had absolutely no idea how strong Gregorio’s faction was at this point in Lyon.
Even in the original, all the protagonist does is get pummeled by bandits, and the player never directly faces Gregorio’s faction at this point, so it was almost impossible to gauge their strength.
All I knew was that, at this point, Sieg-kun’s father, Rain, the Knight Commander, was the strongest.
I knew nothing else.
To make matters worse, levels didn’t exist in this world.
So we could only make rough judgments about how strong our opponents were.
For example, Enrique and I were about evenly matched, while Enrique was stronger than the thugs in Gregorio’s faction.
...That was the sort of thing. We could only get a vague sense of how strong people were.
But then, a pleasant surprise came along.
I looked ahead.
“D-Damn it...! Why is someone this strong mixed in with us?!” and other bold words were coming from members of Gregorio’s faction, who were being helplessly beaten by Enrique, a former F-rank adventurer.
Come to think of it, that man earlier had also been defeated by Enrique with absurd ease.
I figured he must really have been weak.
At that level of weakness, he probably wasn’t an adventurer at all—just some burly thug with a scary face, or an unsuccessful theater actor they’d picked up at random.
Yes, in other words—
Gregorio’s organization was pretty strong in the original story, but at this point, they were seriously short on capable people. That’s why they had so many weaklings like these.
That did make sense.
Gregorio probably wanted to use the Lyon incident to expand his influence all at once.
Which meant...
There was a good chance our secret plan could work out perfectly.
A grin spread across my face.
This could work.
—That’s right. It was time to smash every single doom flag and return to being a background character.
I picked up my pace and headed back to the estate.
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Once I returned to the estate, I asked Liera to look after my parents. The Lyon residence had its own staff, so there was no problem.
Gregorio was busy right now arranging for bandits to be brought in and taking credit for it, so he probably wouldn’t come here.
In the first place, the Randall family was a ducal house.
No matter who Gregorio was, he couldn’t take on a ducal house head-on. That was exactly why he’d spent years devising such an elaborate scheme.
And then.
I stepped into my room in the estate.
Sitting there was the luggage I’d gone to the trouble of bringing from our manor back in the territory.
Why had I needed this?
This was my second secret plan.
I reached into the luggage and took out what was inside—