Ch.2121. I Should Have Just Laid Her on the Bed and Devoured Her!!

“Are you awake?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Well, you kept refusing to meet me, Lord Selden, so I had no choice but to see you this way.”

When I came to my senses, I found myself in an indoor space.

The mixed smell of rotting wood and mold made me wrinkle my nose involuntarily.

Looking out the window, I could see scattered green trees, which gave me the immediate sense that this was an abandoned house in the mountains.

Swoosh-!

After checking with my Spiritual Eye, I confirmed there were three elite-level knights around Tras, one mage…

Including the mediocre talents, there were ten people in total.

Moreover, all of them had familiar faces.

They were the subordinates who had accompanied Tras when he visited the mansion.

And.

I was sitting in a chair, my body bound with rope.

Judging by how tightly it was secured, it was rope made from Fail fruit.

They must have dealt with me carelessly since they had no information about my strength.

I could easily break it, but the problem was that escaping without harm from not one but four elite subordinates seemed impossible.

Hiding my confusion, I continued speaking as calmly as possible.

“Lord Tras, this isn’t right, is it?”

“Well, if you had just bought back the Fail fruit as I suggested, this would all be over, wouldn’t it?”

“I am not a merchant. Besides, there was nothing wrong with the goods, so how can you suggest undoing a completed transaction?”

“The price dropped. That makes it fraud.”

“Fraud? When you bought the Fail fruit, Lord Tras, the market price was appropriate. That’s why you purchased everything without complaint, isn’t it?”

“Ah! Enough of that. What matters is that the price has fallen, and now I’m in a difficult situation.”

Sigh…

Even for a scoundrel, I didn’t expect him to be this reckless. Does he even know what he’s doing?

No wonder he was ostracized by the Cardrian family.

I bit my molar slightly before raising my head toward Tras.

“This could lead to war between our families.”

“War? I’m about to be expelled from my family, so why should I care about some war?”

“Then are you saying you intend to kill me now?”

“That depends on how you respond, Lord Selden.”

Well, if he wasn’t prepared to kill me, he wouldn’t have dreamed of doing something like this.

If a noble tried to murder another noble without reason, it would be considered a serious crime for that reason alone.

He was truly a moth diving into flames without considering the consequences.

“What do you want me to do?”

Thinking the conversation was going his way, Tras pulled out a pre-prepared paper from his pocket, revealing his pale teeth.

“It’s very simple. You agree to keep quiet about today’s unfortunate incident and agree to buy back all the remaining Fail fruit at the price I originally paid.”

An absurd condition.

If I had known this would happen, I would have sold small quantities to other families despite the hassle.

My original plan was for Tras to be ostracized from the Cardrian family.

I couldn’t agree to a deal that would only bring me losses.

I couldn’t let myself be dragged around by Tras for the rest of my life because of this one incident.

And.

By now, the sharp-witted Knight Commander and Rio Sergan must have noticed my disappearance and would be combing through the mountains.

I thought that if I stalled for a bit longer, they might find me.

‘Then should I build up more justification before that?’

I took a short deep breath and curled up the corners of my mouth.

“I heard this all happened because you were trying to impress Lady Elina. Is that true?”

“Wh-what nonsense are you—”

“Isn’t that why you put financial pressure on the Parseche family?”

“Ha! I don’t know where you heard such nonsense. The Cardrian family would never do such a vulgar thing.”

“Cardrian family? Don’t you no longer have the right to casually mention the family name, Lord Tras?”

WHACK-!

They say fools lead with their fists rather than their heads, and sure enough, Tras, in his agitated state, struck my face mercilessly.

“Y-you bastard, how dare you run your mouth like that? Huh, huff…”

It felt like getting a massage with a cotton bat, if I had to describe it.

Tras seemed exhausted just from moving his body a few times, breathing heavily.

I pretended to be in pain, diligently turning my head.

“Everyone here should cut this rotten rope. If you keep holding onto it, you’ll be swept away together.”

I tried to create some discord, but their eyes showed no wavering.

It was obvious how much money Tras had fed them over time.

“Do you want to die!?”

“Have we dropped formalities now? Well, I suppose since you’ve been cast out from your family and are no longer a noble, you’ve decided to be crude?”

“Hah… you crazy bastard!!”

The sight of him grabbing my collar and shaking me was truly pitiful.

Those fragile arms that looked like they might break at any moment.

It seemed he had enjoyed many privileges in this world despite being born a noble without qualification.

“You’ve done everything you wanted until now, haven’t you? That’s why you’re making these unreasonable demands.”

“What unreasonable demands!! You fraud!! You sold me the Fail fruit at an inflated price and now you say that!?”

“That happened because you were greedy and didn’t know your place. If you had bought a reasonable amount, your position in the Cardrian family would have been more secure.”

“T-that’s…”

“You should take out your frustration on the other families who didn’t buy from you, not on me who did nothing wrong.”

Tras’s hand gripping my collar trembled.

Though he had a mouth, he had nothing to say.

He knew better than anyone that this happened because of his own greed.

“…But you secured that much funding. Can’t you help me?”

“Why should I help you? Are we allies? Childhood friends?”

“The Succubus Magic Stone, don’t you remember?”

“Pfft! Don’t try to take credit for stealing a magic stone from someone in my territory. Besides, I paid separately for that stone.”

Tras’s face flushed red and blue.

It turned so crimson that it looked like it might burst.

“Fine, so that’s how you want to play it?”

“If anything, you seem more shameless than me. Kidnapping someone because a deal didn’t go your way.”

Since reinforcements didn’t seem to have arrived yet, I perked up my ears to try to sense any presence.

Seeing this, Tras clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.

“Kuk!! Don’t tell me you were trying to buy time by talking? If so, you’d better not even dream of it. This place has high-level barriers that make it difficult to find unless you have a 6th circle mage or a knight of equivalent power.”

Hmm, so an elite mage is 6th circle?

If that’s the case, it would be difficult to find this place, as Tras said.

In the end, I had to choose one of two options…

First, break the rope and fight these people to the death.

Second, make the agreement since nothing is more important than life.

Normally, I would have chosen the latter to reduce risk, but strangely, I didn’t want to bow my head to Tras.

Had I already been influenced by the noble life where honor is more important than life?

‘So in the end, I have to kill him to end this.’

I might suffer significant damage too, but thanks to my consistent training, I didn’t think I would lose.

As soon as I untie the rope, I need to take out at least three of them…

That would make the rest of the fight more manageable.

Gulp-!

As I was looking for an opportunity to untie the rope, Tras, seeing that I still hadn’t answered, nodded to a subordinate behind him.

And then, a moment later, a woman was led in by the subordinate’s hand.

“M-master…”

Luna appeared with a pale face, tightly bound with rope.

Until now, I had been too preoccupied to even think that she might have been captured too.

Tras grabbed Luna’s hair and turned her face toward me.

“Seeing how you were walking together, you must care for her. I could keep her for myself, couldn’t I? She has an excellent face and figure.”

Huh…?

If he would really just do that, I could buy back all the Fail fruit, but that would be impossible, right?

Seeing no response from me again, Tras gripped Luna’s hair more tightly and shook it.

“What will you do? Will you buy back all the Fail fruit?”

“Do as you please.”

“W-what did you say?”

They say even if the sky falls, there’s a hole to escape through.

Indeed, I felt in my bones that God had not abandoned me.

With the most arrogant expression I could muster, I raised one corner of my mouth.

“She’s just someone I was playing with for a while, and I was getting tired of her anyway.”

Ding ♪

━Luna’s Affection Deficiency

= 15 → 40 changed [↑25 increase]

“She was so innocent that she mistakenly thought I liked her.”

Ding ♪

━Luna’s Affection Deficiency

= 40 → 70 changed [↑30 increase]

That’s right.

I’m now going to achieve an Affection Deficiency of 100 to activate Luna’s Blood Massacre.

I had needed to verify whether this was the penalty for ruthless massacres as in the original work, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to check.

I couldn’t even gauge how extensive the damage might be if I tried to confirm it recklessly.

But now.

The perfect situation had presented itself.

Since they had set up barriers, the damage wouldn’t spread outside.

I couldn’t imagine a better opportunity.

Luna’s expression hardened instantly at my unrestrained words.

But I couldn’t stop here.

“Her lunch boxes were so tasteless… I had a hard time pretending they were delicious.”

Ding ♪

━Luna’s Affection Deficiency

= 70 → 90 changed [↑20 increase]

Tras asked with a bewildered face at my continued muttering.

“What on earth are you mumbling about…?”

“I should have just laid her on the bed and devoured her!!”

Ding ♪

━Luna’s Affection Deficiency

= 90 → 80 changed [↓10 decrease]

Damn it, I was so close, but why is it decreasing now?

I was running out of things to say.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I threw out my hidden trump card.

“I should just marry Elina instead!!”

Ding ♪

━Luna’s Affection Deficiency

= 80 → 100 changed [↑20 increase]

┗Blood Massacre is activated.

Crack-!

With the sound of the rope breaking, a small vortex rose around Luna’s body.

Looking at her eyes, I could see they had lost focus.

While everyone else was panicking, I alone wore a calm smile.

“Invisibility.”

*Invisibility: When using this skill, you become invisible. However, it is canceled when casting magic or making physical attacks.

Now, let’s see a proper show without lifting a finger!