Chapter 7:

“The Master Plan, Part 1”

“What do you do when one of your subordinates is smarter than you?

Why, pretending to be smarter of course!

It turns out that smart people with a lot of devotion tend to think whoever they are serving is smarter by leaps and bounds. If you know how to use it, that’s an extremely good thing: that means you can steal their ideas and make them look like they were your own.

Except they won’t ever suspected. And you won’t force them into misery and poverty after doing it.

Well, there is one slight inconvenience though. Sometimes it’s really off-putting how far off they go with their suppositions. Eventually, it’s too much of a bother to actually try and correct them…

So yes, do the mastermind thing. It always works.”

-Excerpt from “Evil Overlord Tricks Compilation” by Ingenio

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“Gah-!” Lawrence winced as a sharp pain erupted from his guts. He stopped on his tracks to grab his stomach.

Seeing an opening, Mika lunged forward, pivoting with the leg she had used to kick him and lunging at his head with her fist tightened in a ball.

However, Lawrence immediately got back to fight as if never had happened, swiftly slapping her fist with one hand as he punched her in the face with the other. Not giving her time to rest, he immediately stepped forward and followed with an elbow jab, sending her tumbling against the wall, and pinned her by the neck with his arm.

“Do you wish to stop?” Lawrence’s breath bounced on her neck, tickling his face.

Mika’s face reddened a bit, and she slowly nodded.

Lawrence had set up a preparation routine before fighting the Yakuza. Which apparently was a thing he would do now. It felt alien to him, like the moment wasn’t actually coming any time soon.

He pushed aside the thought.

The routine looked like this: Wake up. Go to the Clowdsweet. Exercises. Sparring with Mika. Lunch. Discussing possible strategies, plans and backup plans, and backup plans for those backup plans with Christiane (who was turning out to be a really good strategist, her overestimation about him aside), exercises, more training with Mika, dinner and sleep. The past few days had been composed of mostly that. From time to time, they would all sit together and discuss other things, like Lawrence’s plans for the future.

Plans which he didn’t have.

And yet, Christiane claimed to, according to her own words: “Perceive the general details of Mr. Lawrence’s master plan, if the details are a bit shoddy for me to understand just yet.” At least, that’s what she had said when they sat to have a proper talk for the first time. The first thing they had done after Lawrence examined her skills in-depth.

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Villain: Christiane Agatha

[ Status ]

Rank: D

(5) Quests before rank-up

Reputation: None

Feature Points: 20 (Next Feature costs 25 Feature Point)

-You have a Free Feature Voucher

[ Meta-Ability ]

And Then There Were None: Greatly boosts perception and deduction abilities

[ Features ]

Insight:

- Allows you to perceive the general details of a person’s skills and personality, including your own. Renders you immune to most mind-reading and tracking effects.

- Pasive skill

Drill Sergeant:

- Increased interrogation effectiveness while holding a drill in your hands.

- Semi-Active skill

Field Writter:

- Share ideas and thoughts mentally in the middle of battle.

- Semi-Active skill

[ Quests ]

– First Stain:

Goal: Make your name grow famous around the local area (1%)

Reward: Free Feature Voucher

– Evil Lord’s Right Hand:

Goal: Gain the respect of your boss(10%)

Reward: 25 Feature Points

– As Expected of Mister Boss!:

Goal: Intue your boss’s Evil Master Plan to World Domination and help him carry it through (0.2%)

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Reward: 3000 Feature Points

– Severance:

Goal: Help your boss take down the local Yakuza branch (0/1)

Reward: 150 Feature Points

Okay, first of everything, I don’t have an Evil Master Plan to World Domination. What kind of crap is this? Second, Drill Sergeant? What the hell? Is she a closet sadist or something?

He evidently didn’t want to let his thoughts surface, so he got a good hold on his Chaos Borne feature and played as cool as possible for someone in front of what for all he knew could be drill fanatic, not in the best possible way.

“Wow, that looks… good” Mika poked and prodded at the hologram-like screen, whistling. She wasn’t wrong. Christiane’s skills, though not particularly flashy, did seem useful. Drill aside.

Yep. I’m still not forgetting the drill.

Let’s… not think too deep about it.

“Why thanks. Although I am sure Mr. Lawrence has much better skills on his own.” Lawrence had insisted she would have to earn their trust before letting her know of their own statuses, as safe line in case the woman decided to betray them before the approaching fight.

Which seemed kind of pointless, what with how oddly fixated she was on him and her resolution to stick around and watch him take over the world with his outstanding charisma, power and intellect. How he was supposed to do that, heavens knew. Him? Not so much.

“Wait, Chief… don’t tell me… you already have a plan to take over the world?!”

Oh no, not you too!

Christiane laughed. “But of course. It is Mr. Lawrence who we are talking about, after all. It only makes sense he has a plan and a backup plan for everything there is.”

Seriously, stop it please! I’ve been able to pass it like everything I did so far was calculated thanks to sheer luck but I won’t be able to keep it indefinitely!

“Ooooh, I bet it’s a super cool plan! With a lot of lasers! Ooh, and cookies!”

Mika was extremely childish at times, if well overly mature when it mattered the most. It was a trait of her he had grown to appreciate… Right now, however, it wasn’t doing wonders for him. I do not, and allow me to make myself clear again, I will not under any circumstance create a master plan that somehow has laser rays and cookies involved!

…

He had just cursed himself, hadn’t him?

Uuuugh…

Christiane giggled. “Well, I cannot see that part just yet- to be honest, I cannot see much of anything about Mr. Lawrence’s plans. Only the general lines of his immediate course of action- and even that is a little foggy on the edges. Even from my perspective, however, it is clearly a magnificent and elaborate plan that I could have never thought of. As expected of Mr. Lawrence, he continuously exceeds my expectations.”

Mika’s ears perked up at that.

What do you mean ‘As expected of Mr. Lawrence’? Forget a plan, I don’t think I know the thing I’m supposed to eat by supper.

I want some of the thing this lady is taking.

Instead of complaining out loud, Lawrence simply nodded.

“So, Mr. Lawrence… Do you really plan on doing that?”

I’m sorry, come again?

Now he was supposed to read into extremely cryptic sentences through sheer genius? What was that even supposed to mean? A special move? A brilliant attack?!

“Indeed. I am doing that. Are there any complaints?”

I am so blowing smoke right now.

“No, of course not. I could never.”

“I feel lost here” Mika said, switching to stare between one and the other. You and me both, Mikaella… You and me both…

Suddenly, a spark lit Lawrence’s mind.

“Christiane. Voice your theories. You can see it as a way for me to assess your understanding of my plans. And enlightening Mikaella about them.” Because, you know, I couldn’t exactly tell Miss Drill Master he had no fucking clue about what he was supposed to be doing.

“Of course. Well, I should start by the beginning.”

Christiane seemed to doubt for a second before deciding on something. “Well, I suppose there are other steps prior to this one, but the first one I can partially see is, of course…”

“Is, of course…?” Mika seconded.

Is, of course? Lawrence himself urged her to push forward.

“Well, in Mr. Lawrence’s case, it would be… Dairy.”

…

I’m sorry, what?

“At the speed in which he has been moving so far, I can deduce the moment Mr. Lawrence decided to start working on world domination is around the same time dairy products were started rise due to inflation. At first, I brushed it off as a mere, coincidence, but as more and more of his plan became apparent to me, I noticed it was everything but. Mr. Lawrence most likely received his Meta-ability at the beginning of this wakening season, based on my calculations. Why not start right then? And the answer comes in: dairy, of course!”

“…I don’t see it” Mika said.

I think she’s finally lost it.

The woman in front of him had made some kind of connection between dairy products and his plans for world domination. He had heard about that, the day before awakening.

But yeah, it was a complete coincidence. There was no way she seriously thought he had some kind of master plan involving dairy.

“Of course you don’t. It took me a while to realize as well. I will explain it a little further. For now, let us said this timing was required for him to start his run. Now, everything was set, all Mr. Lawrence had to do was finding the right pieces to play the game. I believe him finding you was a happy coincidence, however. I believe, Mr. Lawrence’s original plan involved recruiting one of Mr. Chase’s men, the empowered one.”

Right, we did debrief her on the general situation before she had gotten here, it makes sense she knows about him.

“However, you entered his life at the perfect moment- instead of going through all the trouble of obtaining a Meta with unpractical power, Mr. Lawrence now had a powerful asset that was capable both in stealth and combat situations. Yet, as we have stated before, Mr. Lawrence had decided to take on the subtle approach, and therefore had little use for your particular skillset for the moment.”

“So instead, he used your beaming, easy-to-go personality as a way to accelerate part of his original plan.”

“Shortly after meeting you, Mr. Lawrence first discovered the Clowdsweet Café.”

How the hell does she know that ?! I never spoke about that...!

“I happen to be a regular client, and I am in good terms with the waitress” she said, as if reading his mind. “Miss Emma kept talking about a handsome man with a particular aura. After seeing yours up close, I think it is unlikely she could be talking about anyone else.”

Emma thinks I’m handsome.

Okay...

…Okay.

When this whole thing is over, I'm asking her for a date.

“But you didn’t really discover it that day, did you, Mr. Lawrence? You were already aware of Miangella’s powers. How? I do not know. But you ‘happened upon’ it at the perfect timing, did you not? Yes, she alone might have not been enough to keep Mr. Chase’s horde away, but with the help of Mikaella, they would have a swift victory… under normal circumstances. But Miangella did not have as much food at her disposal as she usually would, and that hindered her ability to fight properly…”

“Because of dairy prices?” Mika asked in awe.

“Because of dairy prices” Christiane nodded.

… I what now?

“Normally, I would discard this theory as far-fetched. But in addition to letting Mikaella know about the Cloudsweet shortly after fighting of Chase’s men in the sewers, I have no doubt this is what happened. In short, you set a trap for both Chase and the Meta baker, so that you could use them both when the time came. You have already collected your debt from Chase. As for Mia… She comes to play later.”

“Wait, so the Chief used me as bait?”

“Yes, though he was most likely was aware that you could escape if things truly went awry.”

“Cool.”

No, not cool at all. Don’t go casually suggesting I use my minions as bait!