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Volume 5 Chapter 2 Part 7

「I agree . 」

Theo nodded his head vaguely.

「Lord Theo…」

Siluca stared at Theo.

「I thought you knew a lot about the city of Laxia, but have you ever lived there? 」

When Siluca asked that, Theo’s entire body seemed to stiffen.

「For about half a year… 」

Theo said quietly.

「I am from a village on the west side of Sistina. That village was one of the places that the people of the Rossini family were coming to pillage every year until there was nothing left for its inhabitants. And then when they were coming back the following year, they always taunted us by feigning surprise that we were still alive. Then they proceeded to go search around every house looking for food that the villagers might have hidden, and if they found any, the whole village would be punished for it. 」

「That’s terrible…!!! 」

Priscilla involuntarily let out a shocked voice.

「Maybe so, but we didn’t think about it that way. For us, and for all the people of this island, that was something perfectly normal. 」

Theo answered Priscilla.

「The people in the downtown of Laxia can live comfortably thanks to the slave trading with the continent and the income from the farms around here. It’s the slum-dwellers who are responsible for the pillaging, and they’re doing that to others because they were ones who had everything pillaged from them. 」

「Have you ever thought about becoming a plunderer yourself, Lord Theo? 」

Siluca asked in a gentle voice so as not to make it sound like she was accusing Theo.

「I thought about it once… 」

Theo nodded his head and then went silent for a while.

「I was angry with the plunderers, but more than that, I couldn’t forgive the villagers who didn’t put up any resistance. But once I started living in that city, I realized that the people whom my anger should be really directed towards were the Rossini family who employed that style of ruling the island in the first place. Because of them, the people of this island started to hate and kill each other. Thanks to that, they can live comfortably inside of the city walls in their fancy mansions without getting their own hands dirty, because all they need to do is to take the most of what the slum dwellers took from the villagers. 」

「I’m glad that you noticed that. 」

Siluca smiled.

Theo is always resourceful and quick-witted, so even if he had become a subordinate of the Rossini family, he would have probably risen to a position of importance in his own way, but he knew that this would’ve been a wrong thing to do. Not many other people would dare to think like that.

That is exactly why the Rossini family is still the Lord of this island.

「Not really. When I became a Lord, I didn’t think about defeating the Rossini family, but only about obtaining a knighthood in order to become the Lord of my hometown village. I thought I could protect only that village of mine. When I met you and you pointed out the mistake in my thinking, I was shocked to my very core. 」

There should be a Lord governing Theo’s home village, but his Lordship over that area should be purely nominal. And as long as the peerage system is followed, the Mages Association will not interfere in the way that Lords rule over their assigned territories.

「I’m starting to understand how difficult it is going to be for us to defeat the Rossini family… 」

Siluca sighed.

It would have been easy if the Rossinis had been mere tyrants who ruled over Sistina in a haphazard or irresponsible way, but unfortunately for them, their governance over the land was well thought. If they weren’t aware of the weakness in human hearts and could not exploit it properly, they wouldn’t be able to achieve what they achieved today.

「However, you returned to this island with the aspirations to liberate it, Lord Theo. And now that you have openly declared war against the Rossini family… 」

「That’s right. It’s finally time to fight them. 」

Theo nodded his head vigorously.

「But even if you say that it’s time to fight, all that you can do right now is to run around the place for a while, right? 」

Aishela said as if she was bored.

「Our enemy is going to keep on spreading the news about Lord Theo’s arrival on the island all over Sistina, so for the time being it should be more than enough for us to only not let ourselves get caught by them. 」

「The best course of action for now would be for us to hide ourselves in the Demonic Realm and leave the information gathering to Irvin, Luna and Emma. 」

「As you wish, Lady Siluca. 」
Irvin bowed. Luna and Emma also silently nodded their heads.

「Please do so. 」
Siluca smiled.

「We’re going to be living in a magical place for a while again, huh? 」

Aishela dropped her shoulders in disappointment.

「Ahh, I miss Petr’s softness and Captain Grak’s hardness so much! 」

* * *

「Theo Cornero came to this island? 」

Hearing the news from his third son Salvador, Viscount Pederico Rossini narrowed his eyes like a blade.

「I didn’t expect him to actually come here. 」

Pederico pondered that matter while stroking his beard.

「My minions are chasing him, so they should catch up to him soon enough. 」

「Don’t take him too lightly. 」

Pederico scolded his son

「The Lord named Theo might be young, but he’s a crafty one. Shortly after he started his life as a wandering Lord, he managed to conquer Selvis in a short amount of time. When he was attacked by Waldrind, didn’t hesitate to become a subordinate of the Earl of Artuk just so that he could get himself out of that predicament, and in the lands that he ruled over he is being hailed as a hero because of his many feats on the battlefield. 」

「That man is supposed to be a hero? He didn’t look like one at all. 」

「These are the cold, hard facts. But it also seems that the earl of Artuk ended up paying the highest price for getting him. 」

「And yet you failed to kill him, father. 」

Salvador snorted mockingly.

「How could I have predicted that the Marquis of Halusia would be meeting him while being incognito?! Thanks to that, I can no longer attend the Fantasia Union’s Lord’s Conference. 」

「There are going to be no problems even if you were to be forced to leave the Fantasia Union, so you should just hurry it up and join the Factory Alliance instead. 」

「Dartania has been way ahead of us in that regard. On top of that, the Nords have advanced to the South Seas. We have to wait for an opportunity to see how we can sell ourselves to the factory Alliance at the highest price possible. 」

「Well, no matter what happens to the continent, this island will never change. 」

「And that’s exactly why I always say that you’re way too naïve. It’s not that the things hasn’t changed on the continent; they weren’t allowed to change. In order to do that, you have to always pay close attention to everything and extinguish even the smallest of sparks of change with all your might as soon as they appear. 」

Pederico just said that and gave a meaningful look to the Chamberlain who was waiting nearby. The Chamberlain approached him silently and received instructions from Pederico, and then he left without saying a word.

「Then it must be fate that I met this man called Theo. Let me deal with him. 」

「Let you do it? 」

Pederico stared at his son.

「Well, I guess it doesn’t matter all that much. Go and show me what you’ve got. 」

「Leave it to me! 」

Salvador grinned, and quickly left the room.

「Is he going to be okay? 」

A man who was reading a book at a distance turned around and called out to Pederico. It was Pederico’s second son, Juzel.

「It’s going to be a much better experience for him than chasing after woman’s skirts all the time. 」

「Even though the Lord named Theo seemed to have brought three beautiful women with him? 」

「In that case, that should be all the more reason for Salvador to get serious. 」

Pederico smiled wryly. Salvador is an unparalleled womanizer and an incorrigible pleasure seeker. He runs a brothel himself, where he’s frequently holding many masked balls about which he learned back when he was studying in Elam.

「I brought her, your Lordship. 」

A Chamberlain entered the room and called out to Pederico. Behind him was a woman in a black, flashy attire who was holding a broom upside down.
「So Theo Cornero really arrived in Sistina? 」

The woman asked with her eyes shining.

Her name was Yana, and she was a Witch from Artuk. Supposedly, she was not one of the White Witches who cooperated with the Mages Association, but a Black Witch who was much closer to Dark Mages than anyone else.

For some reason she didn’t want to specify, Yana was unable to stay on the mainland, so she escaped to this island. There are many such Lords, Artists and Mages on this island, and the Rossini family was keeping all of them as their guests, so that they could occasionally work for them in case a need for it arrived, like now.

「Are you sure you want to go after Theo Cornero? 」

「Of course. He and the bitch from Elam caused me a lot of trouble, so If I don’t fill my bathtub with their blood and bathe in it, I won’t be able to rest easy. 」

「So it means that the opportunity has come… 」

Pederico frowned for a moment, then nodded.

「Go and help Salvador then. 」

「Don’t worry, I will do more than that. 」
Yana smiled mysteriously.

「I will show you my power, which allowed me to assassinate the two Archdukes in the Grand Cathedral. 」

「I’ll leave it to you then. 」

Yana stuck her tongue out and licked her lips. Then she spun her broom round and round, and left the room after turning on her heel.

「If anyone finds out that you’re keeping that woman here, you will become an enemy of not only the Union, but the Alliance as well. 」

「It’s fine as long as I can keep on using her. 」

Pederico says to his second son while licking his lips.

「Should our family continue to cross dangerous bridges like that forever? 」

The second son sighed.

「Is there any other way for us?
Rossini had walked this path since our ancestors destroyed the Cornero family, and we cannot change that anymore. The day when we stop going down this path, our family is going to perish. 」
「Then I’ll do my best to make sure that it’ll happen neither in your or my own generation. 」

Juzel laughed.

「I’m counting on you. 」

Pederico trusted this second son the most. The leadership of the family will one day be passed to his eldest son, Dhoni, and Juzel will become his right-hand man.

He is an Intelligent realist. He’s usually kind to everyone, but unlike his violent older brother and hedonistic younger brother, he can kill people without even raising an eyebrow.

(My Rossini family is hated not only by the people of this island, but also by the people of the mainland. That is why the family must stay together if we want to survive.)