Leave a comment

◇◆◇◆◇

Cain had strengthened his room defenses since the day before.

The intruder was so brilliant that he wouldn’t have noticed if not for the faint flowery fragrance left behind.

Unlike the Adventurers from before, this time the dispatched person was clearly a level above.

He often returned to his room on longer breaks, investigating more traces of intrusion and whether there was any lost article that could lead to their identity, but there were no good results.

“So this time they sent a professional of that field, huh?”

Cain brushed up his hair in irritation and spit out. He was hurrying towards his dorm room. It was to check his room as his established practice during breaks.

There was no conspicuous evidence in his room, but there was a corridor that led to where he hid them right next to it. Thus, this was his daily check of whether or not it was discovered.

He caught the two groups of Adventurers from before and tortured them, but only found out that they were Adventurers from Raum.

They didn’t seem to know who the client was. The enemy ringleader seemed to at least consider minimum safety.

“The suspicious one is… Yowi, after all.”

She was his fiancee that recently transferred over. Cain was also aware that she was against the marriage with him. But he also knew that her personality was even more eccentric than before, so it wouldn’t be strange for her to transfer on a whim.

He heard that she was playing an Adventurer during her young days, and it was made clear during her transfer day’s greeting.

He was being targeted but he couldn’t see the enemy. The pressure of that was making Cain more stressed than he expected. He had taken up the test of patience and even refrained from the drug production for the past few days.

If the warehouse was discovered by some chance, it would directly lead to his demise.

He wasn’t the only hair of the duke. Since he had little brothers, his father could even lop his head off if he made some big blunder.

“What a bother. But it’s hard to let go of her popularity.”

The eccentric yet friendly Letina was quite popular among Raum citizens.

She, the Nicole girl that she brought, and one other commoner from Raum, were adored like little sisters and daughters by the citizens during their Adventurer-like activities. If he was to advance into the capital, he needed her popularity no matter what, and Cain understood this too.

There was also her servant Finia, who was also hard to let go of. She was beautiful, had a long lifespan, and carried herself better than her appearance suggested. Cain realized that she was an able fighter based on the way she moved.

She was well educated as a servant too, making him dream of how enjoyable it would be for him to obtain her.

He would’ve taken her as a concubine had she not been a commoner. Then again, even as a commoner, it meant she could be cast aside at any time.

“I would’ve just put them down and it would be the end of it if they were your average trash, but…”

If those girls were connected to the intrusion, he had to take some measures. And he had a measure in mind too.

“If push comes to shove, I could just turn them drug-dependent. There’s a danger of turning them into monsters if I overdo it, however.”

He said and a grin showed up on his face. Then, a girl coming from the other end of the corridor entered his vision.

It was a long, blond-haired beautiful—or rather, lovely girl. It was Finia who was currently serving the Marquis’ daughter Letina.

He hurriedly removed his grin and returned to… what he thought to be his normal intelligent expression.

Finia had also noticed his presence and with a stiff face, moved to the side of the corridor and awaited him to pass with a deep bow.

As the two were about to pass by as if nothing—Cain smelled an unfamiliar perfume. It was the same as the flowery smell he smelled in his room. More accurately, it might have been different, but it was a similar simple flowery aroma.

“You, what is that flower fragrance?”
“W-Wahh?!”
“Ah, I’m sorry for frightening you. What would be that flowery smell on you?”

He ended up talking using his real manner of speech, but he calmed down and glossed it over. It felt like he was buttering up to a commoner which made him irritated, but he thought it would be bad if she told bad things to Letina.

“Ah, t-this? It’s a potpourri that I made myself… but if it displeases you I will get rid of it at once.”
“No, it’s not unpleasant. It was just an unfamiliar smell. My bad for getting in the way of your work.”
“Not at all.”

Perhaps due to the relief that her fragrance didn’t lead to a problem, Finia answered with a smile. Seeing that smile, Cain’s sadistic desire surged up again, but he forcefully pushed them down.

If he detained her here, she would get suspicious, thus Cain decided to promptly make his exit. He had finally caught the enemy by their tail. He didn’t want to make them suspect it and let them escape.

Within that day, Cain set out to the city with various ‘drugs’ in hand. There was also the ‘business’ that was stopped for a few days, but he also had things to do regarding Finia that he encountered at noon.

He intentionally put on dirty clothes and dirtied his hair and face to disguise himself.

He stood still at an unpopulated gloomy alley several twists away from the main road for a few dozen minutes. Eventually, men with drunk gaits circled around him.

“Hey, my bad to have you come here, master.”
“If you just give me what you have, I don’t mind. I’m doing business, after all.”

Normally, he never came to directly do transactions, but this time, he immediately needed the drug so he came to check on the situation. He also had something to entrust them with too.

“Hehe… really sorry about this. We really have to rely on the drug’s power.”
“I don’t mind that, but pay attention to the dosage. If you overuse it, it’ll become poison. Not that I care.”
“Are you worried about us? It seems that we have become dependable.”
“Don’t let it go in your head. Here’s the drug. Now give what you can.”

The drugs Cain dealt with would turn people into monsters if overdosed.

This was due to the materials used, but it would be bothersome even for him if a monster incident broke out in the city. He warned them about it, but his clients seemed to have mistaken his intention.

But for him, as long as he sold what he wanted, he wouldn’t warn them any further. Even if they were turned into monsters, he had the confidence to cover it up as long as it happened in this city.

And above all, the current drug was special-made. It was more concentrated than usual, so they would most certainly stop being human. But this time, the uproar that it would cause was his objective.

“More importantly, I had something to ask of you.”
“Huh?”

Once their transaction was concluded, Cain addressed the men once more.

He lowered his voice and moved to an even less populated and dark area. The talk that he brought up was not completely unrelated to those men either.

◇◆◇◆◇