Author's note: I suggest to read the cheat sheet beforehand because there will be characters which appeared a long time ago.

...

Correspondence from Ilusia V. Chafón to Lizko (II) L. Irim

Hello, my dear friend,

My name is Ilusia V. Chafón, and I am one of the direct descendants of my household, which serves the grandiose Marquise Lopon.

I am writing you, my honorable Lizko (II) L. Irim, to find out if you were also contacted by someone who had the race of a djinn. He was quite the charming but forceful gentleman who asked me something interesting while mentioning your name.

While he told me a lot, which was appealing to me, I was also quite confused and wanted to know if it was indeed the truth. As such, I will be direct: Someone wronged me, and I am seeking retribution for the person who exuded such behavior.

I need allies for such an endeavor. Since he also made quite an intriguing proposal while mentioning that you accepted it, a partnership between us could become fruitful, as we have a similar goal.

I am intrigued and torn by his offer. However, if what he said is true and you were to be one of the few who accepted such a proposal, I would join the endeavor and, besides providing resources, try to get more people onto our side.

While I hope you didn't go through the same humiliating experience as me, I can't possibly imagine why someone would otherwise take such a proposition. However, I almost immediately felt a certain kinship towards you on a fundamental level when I heard that I wasn't the only one.

As such, I will try to look for many more victims since we can't be the only ones, and if it is possible, I would love to use your name as one of my allies to persuade many more who suffered the same fate. So, please write back to me as fast as possible, as I will then start gathering more people after receiving your answer.

Were my words understandable to you? If so, I hope to continue a cordial correspondence with you. If not, please ignore my letter as a harmless confusion from my side since I was then apparently tricked by the antics of the djinn.

With all due respect,

Ilusia V. Chafón

...

Private Quarters, The Main headquarters in Moorgrel of the Cathedral of Pestilence

The Cathedral was an eerie place, especially the faculty, whose scholars experimented on horrendous convicts, animals, monsters, and wild demons. Screams resounded through the day, and cries of desperation and hopelessness were heard at night.

However, even between the laboratories that emitted such despair, there were living spaces for younger talents and seniors who lived their lives rather casually, as the cries became nothing more than white noise to them.

Such a dragon-kin lived in one of the rooms. Lizko was sitting at his desk, leaning back while reading a letter. The more he read it, the more pressure he unconsciously put on the parchment, 'Interesting.'

It was correspondence from someone under the Lopon household banner who was writing to find out if a djinn also contacted him, 'She probably means William.'

He scratched his head and thought through who exactly Marquise Lopon was, as he couldn't remember the unimportant ones when one talked about higher nobility. While it sounded presumptuous that the son of a Viscount calls a Marquise household insignificant, it was very true that the council, which had eleven higher nobility households, more than half of them were not worth mentioning.

Eight had the Marquise title, and three were Dukes. While all the Dukes held some importance, only two Marquise could somehow rival them, and he was under such a household. The remaining Marquis's households were nothing but trash, like Lopon, who could be regarded to have the same strength as a competent Viscount under a Duke.

He rubbed his temple as he tried to remember all the factions but became increasingly annoyed with the system they had. The naming sense was inaccurate and archaic since it was a copy from the humans, dwarves, and draugr. It wouldn't be too bad if it stayed like it was and didn't go through thousands of years of infighting in Mal-Gil and get shaped into the mess it is now.

Because of that, many things didn't make sense. For example, the Knightages, under the Count, would be considered to have the same military strength as half the council put together. However, calling such powerhouses Knightages was an affront in itself and gave a wrong sense of their actual power, 'There was a reason how they invaded central Mal-Gil and slaughtered half the nobles hundreds of years ago.'

Lizko usually wasn't one to care about such things as statuses. If he could, he would like to ignore them for as long as possible, but as the heir of the Irim household, he was obligated to care.

Besides knowing the convoluted structures, he was also bound by other unwritten practices. One of those was that he couldn't become compromised. It would end terribly if he took over and Green continued with her extortion. It was especially dire since Kalpoma, from whom his household got their land and title, was basically a zealot and didn't tolerate critique toward the Temple. As such, Green's blackmail could compromise his future ruling heavily, and if he acted against her, there was no way he could survive it.

He needed a solution, and William gave him one, which he took gladly. Nonetheless, to say that he wasn't excited that others, like him, were wronged by the Leonandra household and their allies would be a lie. The more people he could work with, the better since he also started thinking about becoming more proactive in their scheme.

Why now? Over the last few years, Green's demands increased; she wanted more spells and more theory, even from fields he did not know about, to the point where he needed to copy books from the library and send them to her.

He was sure about one thing: She was playing with him as there was no way some brat could learn that fast, 'Does she think she is teaching Merlin?!'

It was ridiculous, and he was not someone to take it and be blackmailed for the rest of his life. Even the thought made his anger surge to degrees he didn't know would be possible.

She was humiliating him. He was usually composed, but now, he was in wrath, wanting to kill the little bug, but before that, he wanted to see who this Alexander was. While he had nothing against her apparent student and wouldn't like to kill him, he had no choice. If he wanted Green to be killed, he needed him dead, as agreed with William's group.

He pulled out a parchment and started writing back, 'Ilusia, huh? Some useless Viscount brat but better than nothing.'

Some days ago, William also wrote to him about some youth from the Rosé household, which was under the Duchess Zarmanas, which was much more promising. Yet, as he tried to remember who Louis was, he couldn't think of anyone, 'I think it's just some child from a concubine.'

While he would've preferred to have help from someone different, who was part of the higher nobility directly, it was fine like this, too. While they weren't compelling, they could be used as tools so he could reach his goal.

As Lizko condemned others, he knew his household wasn't strong either. It had declined over the last few years and could only hold onto some sense of dignity through Kalpoma.

Their strength came from their magic. Sadly, besides him, only his Father was born with [Mana Sense], the prerequisite to becoming a mage. As vassals to Kalpoma, it was necessary to maintain a certain minimum in strength and talent, as the only reason they were under her and granted a fief was that she needed mages.

From rumors, he knew that there was a superior duke household specialized in magic and alchemy, which had a way of instilling [Mana Sense] into their progenies. Still, it was also apparently very dangerous as sometimes, many of their children were never seen again, probably because they died by whatever method they used.

However, he would never dare to voice his opinion on this matter, even though he found it cruel. It was the household that Merlin created, and there was no way he could, as a mage, go against the founder of their magic.

Regardless of the cruel methods, his involvement in the Cathedral and the research on the weaknesses of wild demons was favorable. The Temple also saw wild demons as sacrilege to nature itself, and with it came much more support from Kalpoma. As such, he had more time to do his research while supporting his household, but it would also end sooner or later. Till then, he would need to dispose of the bug.

He now needed to decide on how far he was ready to go. Would he want to only assist in certain things or directly intervene? The former would guarantee his safety, but the latter would increase his chance of ending this charade for good.

After he wrote the letter to Ilusia, he sat in his office and thought about all the probabilities as his anger slowly rose to immense degrees, and a smile graced his face when he thought about how the annoying bug would suffer and die.

Yet, his task wasn't taking her down, but only helping in taking down the boy for whatever reason. While he didn't understand the group's motives, it was fine for him as long as they were trustworthy and competent, which they showed by sending a detailed prediction about what would happen in Wolfsteeth and Foxteeth. Even though it was somewhat off, they achieved something great, and he decided to dedicate himself fully to their deal.

So, his target was now the boy, and if he died, he trusted the group to hold up their part of the deal by killing the insect. However, even though he was sure that he could kill the boy, the problem was that he would be immediately eridacated if the Leonandra household found this out. Worse, they would probably also raid the Irim household and wipe it from existence together with other Guard Households.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Even though their primary residence was in central Mal-Gil, Moorgrel cared little about it. With the Count standing behind them, they could act as boldly as they liked, as seen by their actions towards central nobility inside their territory.

As he looked around for inspiration on being more proactive, he suddenly got an idea. He remembered a fairy tale of a stubborn girl who wanted everything. She inherited the title of nobility, fell in love with all the boys she met, and married them, but shortly became bored, repeating the cycle while collecting men like trophies. At some point, she was killed by one of her concubines out of jealousy.

When her sister took over, she needed to accept all the men. She acted the same, but after she got bored, she killed them one after another. Yet, she was quickly assassinated by the third man before she could kill him. It was obviously out of protection.

The third sister, though, was clever. When she took over, she slept with them but, after she got bored, poisoned them secretly while giving them love and care, never leaving their side as they died. At some point, all the concubines died slowly off.

It was a cautionary tale for the children of nobles and taught that they should act cautiously. Even though they were selfish and ready to backstab for their own greed, they should always appear as if they were a saint.

Lizko stood up and walked to the bookshelf with dozens of books about alchemy and pharmacy. He started skiming through them while thinking about what he would exactly do. Since the Leonandra youth would visit the ball in some years, it also meant that he had a chance to meet him. As such, he could concoct some potion to slowly kill him over time, without even being a suspect.

While an assassination attempt sounded great, it was too harsh, and a too-strong poison would immediately make him the suspect. So, something slow and strong was needed, but he couldn't find anything after looking through his books.

The problem was that the boy was too young and probably had no [Poison Resistance]. As such, any poison would most likely kill him immediately.

Yet, as he turned around, he saw his little demons in jars and smiled viciously, 'Why not?'

It was perfect. Since he lived in Moorgrel, especially in the east, Lizko could poison him with something native to this area. Because they had all the foul smell around them, he judged they also had some natural resistance to demonic energy. With some little tricks, it would be possible to poison the boy slowly, and no one would be the wiser.

...

Somewhere else, Rosé estate, Training Grounds

A dirty training area stood close to a small and debilitated mansion where one of the sons of the Rosé estate resided. From the garden to the mansion itself, everything looked unkempt. It was as if nobody cared about it and just let it be—a disgrace to everyone who would call themselves an aristocrat.

On said training field, there was an ongoing sparring match where two youths, very different in age, were giving their all. One of those was Louis, a relatively young jaguar-kin who fought with everything he had. While he showed overwhelming talent, the difference in experience and age was impossible to overcome against his brother.

His rapier was fast and precise, but it was no use. One clumsy block and counter overwhelmed the young feline-kin as he slowly depleted his stamina, which led to such mistakes.

Louis fell to the dirty ground, hoping he didn't break any bones. As he lay down on the floor full of bruises and cuts, his older brother came over and looked at him in disgust, "Trash will always be trash. Even my spit would enrich your sad and pathetic life."

He sheathed his sword and walked out of the training area, followed by two of his servants who looked at Louis as if he wasn't worth their attention.

Louis ignored them, lying there and thinking about how it came to this. Months ago, he started to train more until one of their guard captains suggested that one of his siblings, a half-brother, spar with him sometimes.

To call it sparing was a stretch since all his brother did was beat Louis to a pulp and afterward abuse him; it wasn't nice, but this was all he got. Even his mother couldn't bring someone into the mansion to train him, as it was forbidden. So, he needed to endure it and get the most out of it.

If he went by the rumors, it was the first wife of his Father who made the rule to block any entry of strangers to him, obviously to strangle all of Louis's efforts to get stronger. Even this little training session was only an act of humiliation to break his will.

He stood up and limped towards the broken rack with his barely functioning training swords, putting his rapier away. Afterward, he walked back to his mansion to clean himself up.

As he limped back, everyone who looked at him, even in his own home, showed disgust and a reprehensive demeanor. He knew why: All his servants were from the first wife's side to spy on him so he wouldn't do something stupid.

All this was going on for years, the moment when the battle for succession began. It would last at least another five years, and this time would be the hardest, not only for him but also for his other siblings who were from other wives than the main one.

He could drop out and become a retainer to one of his brothers, but his spite toward his siblings and Father held him on point. He hated every moment of it and wished nothing more than to poison every single person in this mansion and sometimes, including his parents, who let it happen.

Yes, he was never hungry or cold and received a decent education in all walks of life, but was this worth it? For him, it wasn't. Thus, he sometimes imagined how he would live if he were born a commoner, making him regret his previously held assumptions. Even though he saw commoners and especially certain races as lesser, these sentiments softened heavily over the years.

He wanted love and affection—someone who cared for him unconditionally. Something he barely received and which turned to abuse as his position became worse than that of someone of lower birth. No nice and encouraging words anymore, but pure contempt was shown toward him.

While limping through the mansion toward the bathhouse and in thought, he saw through the window the main mansion far away where his Father and mother resided. Hate. It didn't matter who it was. Father, Mother, servants, siblings. He hated all of them for what they made him endure.

As quickly as such thoughts came, as promptly did he ignore them. It was useless to think about things he couldn't have, be it love or vengeance. All that would happen if he continued his thoughts would be that he became more depressed.

He kept walking and entered his bath, dirty and left alone by the servants, obviously to tease him. The worst was that he couldn't kill them as they worked for the Lady, and one mistake would cost him everything.

It was apparent that they wanted him to make such a grave mistake or switch sides. All of them were quite keen on disposing of him in some way or another. He had talent, much more than his siblings. Yet, what good was it if he didn't get the help he needed to develop it?

Even his mother, who should've been his number-one advocate inside the harem, didn't care. It was depressing that he had fallen so far down just because his bitch of a mother opened her legs for a miserable Father while shoving her constant disappointment in his face because she wouldn't accept any fault of herself.

As he washed himself clean, his thoughts momentarily stopped as he looked into the bathwater and saw himself crying, 'Again, huh.'

He was on the edge of a breakdown, and the bath was his only sanctuary for a few minutes daily. He would empty his mind and just let every problem he had fly away, hoping that it would be better next time.

He sat still, only looking at his own face, and as minutes went by, he came suddenly out of his trance and rinsed himself out and dried with some older towels, 'I really need to strangle the servants with those.'

As he returned to the office, he saw his last and only loyal servant, Sherly, waiting at the door, obviously not letting anyone inside as this place was where he had all his plans written down in a self-developed language.

He greeted her, and even she could see how miserable he looked, showing pity. She greeted him with the utmost respect, waited for him to enter, and followed him.

He sat down in his chair and inhaled and exhaled strongly. Sherly tried to be more attentive before going to the business of the day, as always, "I hope you could cut that bastard this time, Mr. Louis?"

Louis smirked at her and waved his hand in dismissal, "How could I? He used a mana sword and an item while I was in training gear."

Sherly sighed, "OK, Mr. Louis, but I think I have good news..." She took two letters out of her cleavage and laid them down on the desk. The envelopes couldn't look different. One looked rough, as if some slum dweller wrote it, while the other was extravagant, typical for nobility.

He looked at her confused but accepted it and started to read the rough one first. With every word he read, his smile and vigor returned more and more back to him.

It was a letter from the group from where the spider-kin was from who visited him the last time and should be proof to show how capable their group was. The spider-kin wrote about all the chaos in Wolfsteeth and Foxteeth, which Louis already knew about, but there were bits and pieces in between that were unknown to the public, so they seemed to be legit.

After finishing, he started to read the elegant one. While reading, he began to shake his head slightly. It was from a noble from central Mal-Gil, some cat-kin girl with barely any power, who was far below him in status. Yet, going by her wording, she wanted to make sure he was part of the group, who seemingly also contacted her.

After finishing, he closed his eyes and leaned back, trying to think it through. He now had multiple choices. First, he could betray the ominous group and run over to the Leonandra or Nine-Fire household. However, if he did so, he would probably have a considerable hit on his head as he would anger the suspicious group and his family since supporting the Guard Dogs was heavily frowned upon.

The second option was that he could give everything he had to get some merits by killing some Guard Dog kitten and risking his life and that of his family. While he now cared little about his family, this thought of them dying cruelly under the might of the Guard Dogs made him joyful, 'Interesting...'

Louis stopped at that idea and decided on a slightly modified plan that would seem treacherous, but it was perfect for him. He opened his eyes again. He had a new vigor as if all vitality returned, "This is excellent news."

Sherly smiled at him, "Are we going to do it?"

He looked into her eyes and nodded, "Something like that, and for that plan to work, I need you to do a couple of things."

She bowed down, sounding like a soldier ready to die for her Lord, "How may I be of use?"

Louis smiled at that, thinking that she was indeed the only real friend inside the estate, which was nothing but Outer Circle, "I want you to take as much gold as you can and hide it outside the estate. Sell everything you get your hands on. Don't worry. You can even steal jewelry or artifacts."

She straightened up and looked at him, confused, "I don't understand. Mr. Louis, do you want to flee?"

He shrugged, "The estate's inner politics are too messy and convoluted. Even if I become, by some miracle, the new Lord, I would need to kill my whole family to get rid of every possible enemy..." He sighed, leaning back again and looking up, "...I am done, Sherly."

After a moment of silence, she answered, as sure as always, "How much time do we have?"

He smirked, "A couple of years till the great ball for the youth, at which I will participate and give my family my last present..." He suddenly snapped his fingers, "...right, I almost forgot!..." Louis smiled at her amiably, "...if I don't make it, the gold will be my last present to you then. Take it and live a great life."

Sherly wanted to kneel and thank him, but he stopped her, "Don't. Right now, I am too tired of this nonsense. Instead, go to Theodore and say that I want to talk to him..." He stood up and stretched, "...want to make me your retainer even after I went through so much humiliation? I will show you how good of an aide I can be."

She smiled like a little kitten at him, "Of course, Mr. Louis! I will be right back!"

She went out, and as the door closed, he looked the last time at the letters and disintegrated them with his energy, 'Well, it's time to prepare.'

Louis wanted to escape this madness while his family would be beheaded for his future assassination attempt. If he fled without getting rid of them, this would mean that they would try to find and kill him, as he would obviously create danger for the new Lord.

He wanted to fake his death at the ball and flee the moment he was sure that they had implicated him. At that point, Sherly would have amassed more than enough gold so they could live a leisurely life in the Guard Dog territory, far away from the Duchess's influence and spies.

It was an attractive thought which, by the second, made him want to do it more. Even imagining that he could live a lazy and easygoing life, far from this insanity of nobility with Sherly, brought a smile to his face.

However, now he needed to kneel and play the role of a loyal and broken retainer while swearing his loyalty. Afterward, he would send a letter to the weird group and Ilusia, disguised as a love letter, 'I really am ending this madness, huh?'

For some reason, after deciding his next actions, he became as light as a feather. As if the title of nobility was not something he was cut out for. Only after suffering for so long did he know what he appreciated: A leisurely life with his friend and, later on, maybe with a family, which he would treat better than the failure he called Father.