With a burst of darkness that seemed to blaze with fury, Count Kazar stormed into Christian’s room.
Christian, his face flushed from drinking, greeted his father with a hiccup.
“Father? Hic.”
“What is this behavior?!”
“What behavior? I’m enjoying a drink during the day. After all, daytime drinking is the best. Would you like a drink too, Father?”
Count Kazar clenched his fist, watching Christian’s drunken state.
Just as he seemed ready to strike his son, the nearby servants gasped.
Count Kazar, with slumped shoulders, turned away.
“…Do as you wish. I will expect nothing more from you.”
Christian thought to himself quietly.
‘Well, I do feel a bit sorry. But I couldn’t give him a heads-up.’
His current behavior was all an act.
An act to bait the rat.
The rat, seeing his return to debauchery, would make a move, and Christian intended to use this to annihilate the rat completely.
However, he could not disclose this plan to Count Kazar beforehand.
‘They say to deceive your enemy, you must first deceive your allies.’
If Count Kazar knew in advance, it might give something away, and the rat would be cautious and not easily trapped.
‘Seeing him like that is somewhat disconcerting. Still, what I’m about to do will be beneficial for the Count Kazar family too.’
At that moment, Banshee approached and fluttered beside him.
[Ohoho… Are you concerned about your father? Our young master is truly dutiful.]
“…Can you please stop with that ‘dutiful’ talk?”
[Why such a reaction? Accept this glass of wine from this maiden.]
Using poltergeist phenomena, Banshee served Christian another drink.
Receiving wine service from Banshee was an experience he did not want to repeat.
[Moreover… to devise such a plan. I truly admire it.]
Banshee had heard Christian’s plan and had agreed to cooperate.
In exchange, later on, Christian would fulfill one favor for Banshee, as long as it was within reason.
[What’s more admirable is that you managed to modify the 4-star curse ‘The Mark of Binding.’ And you did so in such a short time.]
Over the past fortnight.
Christian had done more than just physical training.
He had also learned various dark magics.
He had mastered basic 1-star dark magics and did not stop there; he had also learned the 4-star curse dark magic ‘The Mark of Binding.’
Even for a genius, mastering a 4-star spell at the level of 1-star was impossible, so how did he do it?
He modified it.
So that even he, at a 1-star level, could use it.
“I told you. I’m a genius.”
Christian said nonchalantly as he drank from his glass.
Then he grimaced.
‘Damn, I really want a real drink.’
What he was actually drinking wasn’t real alcohol.
Banshee, who had agreed to cooperate, wouldn’t allow it.
[Ohoho… Young master, you are underage. Real alcohol is not permitted. Please be satisfied with the fake one.]
“…I’m a rascal, what does it matter.”
[Still, underage drinking is not allowed. Absolutely not. Ohoho….]
Banshee, who was always seeking the blood of virgins, oddly held conservative views in this regard.
Thanks to his previous life’s knowledge of alchemy, he was able to drink alcohol stripped of its potency.
His apparent drunkenness was just an act, a skill he had learned in his previous life.
He had mastered all sorts of tricks to appear intoxicated without actually being drunk.
‘Well, I might as well rest during this opportunity. It’s unfortunate it’s not real alcohol, but…’
He enjoyed lazing around and indulging in leisure.
He planned to truly rest while pretending to be a wastrel.
‘Great! It might not be so bad if the rat takes longer to walk into the trap. I’ll have more time to play, drink, and laze around.’
Just as he was about to fully enjoy a long-deserved break, the door burst open with a crash.
Turning his head, Christian saw an unexpected figure.
‘Theren?’
It was his brother.
Theren was glaring at him, seething with anger.
‘What’s got into him?’
Christian was slightly taken aback.
Theren, with a face red with anger, strode up to him.
Then, suddenly.
He grabbed Christian by the collar.
“!!”
“What are you doing?!”
Theren shouted angrily.
“Is this all you were? Is this pathetic display all you’ve been pretending to be superior for?!”
Christian felt a pang of surprise.
He read genuine, heartfelt anger in Theren’s eyes.
It was unexpected.
‘Didn’t he hate me?’
It was right to assume he was hated.
But it seemed it wasn’t just simple hatred.
If it were, Theren wouldn’t show such genuine anger.
It was disappointment.
And disappointment comes from expectation, from hoping for a change.
One does not have expectations for someone they merely despise and hate.
‘He must have considered me a brother in his own way.’
With that thought, Christian came to a conclusion.
As expected, Theren was not the culprit.
The rat was someone else.
Then.
‘I should use Theren.’
Christian spoke.
“Let go.”
“…What?”
“Let go, I said.”
Just as Theren was about to shout again, their eyes met.
“!!”
Tern’s pupils trembled faintly.
He sensed something odd.
Christian appeared drunk, but he was different from the wastrel he had been before.
The substantial charisma Christian had shown in their last bare-handed fight weighed heavily on Theren once again.
Christian raised his hand and loosened the grip on his collar.
Surprisingly, Theren couldn’t resist and was helplessly pushed back.
It wasn’t a matter of physical strength, but of being overwhelmed by Charisma.
“I’ll ask you one thing. What am I to you?”
“…….”
Theren kept silent.
What is he?
A disgrace to the family. A detestable kin.
That was what Theren thought of his brother, Christian.
But…
After their fistfight that day.
His views had begun to crack.
Theren hesitated, then answered.
“Originally, to me, brother, you were nothing but trash that disgusted me. I wished you’d disappear forever.”
It was a stark expression.
“And now?”
“…Now, you’re someone I want to thoroughly trample over.”
Christian chuckled.
In his own way, Theren had acknowledged him as a rival.
But he was angry to see him return in such a pathetic state.
“So, Theren, do you think I’ve reverted to the disgusting trash I was before?”
“…….”
No.
He knew intuitively.
Then why show such a façade?
“…Do you have an ulterior motive?”
“Yes, it seems we have a rat in the family.”
Christian briefly revealed his plan.
Theren’s eyes widened in shock.
“Are you serious that there’s a rat within our family?”
“Yes. It’s hard to say exactly who it is right now, but there definitely is one.”
“How dare…!!”
Theren gritted his teeth in anger.
“That’s why I have a request for you.”
“What is it?”
Christian looked at Theren.
Unlike myself, the reckless one, you are the exemplary young master recognized by the family.
And yet, you’ve been free from people’s scrutiny since you were young.
You are perfectly suited to handle this task.
“Come closer.”
Christian whispered in Theren’s ear.
Theren’s eyes widened in disbelief as he heard the specifics of the plan.
* * *
Afterward, Christian indulged in the life of a wastrel to his heart’s content.
He slept as much as he wanted, ate whatever he liked, and since he couldn’t drink alcohol, he did everything else as he pleased.
It was delightful.
‘As expected of a noble family. Even the food is delicious.’
The only downside was that a banshee was serving him.
Of course, he wasn’t completely wasting time.
While pretending to laze around in bed, he learned Dark Magic.
Magic could be learned lying in bed.
‘I have all the content of the books I read in the library in my head, so all I need to do is master them while lying in bed.’
Thanks to this, his spellcasting skills improved rapidly, and soon he could proficiently use most of the 1-star level Dark Magic spells.
He had reached a level where he could be called a 1-star Dark Mage wherever he went.
In between, he also caused some trouble.
Being too tame in eating and drinking wouldn’t suit a wastrel, after all.
He acted convincingly enough as a wastrel to ensure the rat would be tempted into the trap soon.
“What is this?”
“Why, what is it, young master?”
“This isn’t the wine I asked for. Bring the butler!”
“The, the butler is currently busy with…”
“Busy? Then I’ll go to him myself. Hic.”
Upon reaching the office, the ashen-faced butler hastily stood up to greet Christian.
“Young master, what brings you…?”
Instead of replying,
Splash!
Christian drenched the vampire butler’s white suit in wine, turning it red.
Butler Cox’s face flushed with anger.
Christian chuckled to himself as he observed.
‘I can’t cause trouble with just anyone.’
So, he focused his mischief on the butler, who he most suspected.
He frequently sought him out to pick fights and cause trouble.
‘Will he endure this time too?’
The butler’s neatly groomed beard trembled.
Surprisingly, however, the butler contained his anger this time as well.
“Is there any particular reason for this? If there’s something wrong, I’ll correct it.”
Christian was impressed.
Even drenched in wine, he endured.
“The servant brought the wrong wine. Is this because you’re ignoring me?”
“Of course not! I’ll see to it that the correct one is brought immediately!”
“Bring it yourself.”
“…Pardon?”
“Don’t send the others, bring it yourself.”
The butler hesitated.
Christian noticed the butler’s eyes rolling nervously before stopping on a part of the paperwork.
“I have some work I was handling.”
“You’re going to work looking like that? You’ll need to change anyway.”
The butler’s face trembled with a forced smile.
Such talk from the one who splashed the wine. He seemed to be barely holding back his anger.
“I’ll considerately allow you to go and come back. I’ll watch over here, so don’t worry. Or are you really ignoring me?”
“No, not at all. I’ll be right back.”
After a burst of anger, the butler reluctantly left.
That wastrel won’t know anything about paperwork anyway, he must have thought, letting his guard down.
Left alone, Christian’s eyes gleamed.
‘Let’s see, what trickery is he up to?’
Christian was almost certain that the butler was the rat.
‘If… it turns out he isn’t, well, sorry about that. But no, he must be.’
If the butler really was the rat infiltrating the Count Kazar family, it was highly likely he was up to some mischief in administrative matters.
And unlike the other straightforward demons, Christian was very adept at reading such paperwork.
He could see what the numbers meant.
Which items were unusual.
He could tell just by looking.
And then.
During the brief time the butler took to change his clothes and fetch the wine.
“Bingo.”
Christian smiled slyly.
He had found exactly what he was looking for.
