Trolling 5

Jestiel had been living in extreme anxiety and tension lately.

About two months ago, she was happy when Alice, who had murdered her rotten lifeline of a biological son and taken his place, introduced herself as an Overseer and said she would help Jestiel regain what she had lost.

Just happy?

No, she even felt a sense of liberation.

Even before becoming Perdain’s wife and taking the name Jestiel, she had always been highly self-respecting, with a desire for her own success that was almost dictatorial.

So much so that anyone who knew her during her time at the Academy would take a low profile as a matter of course, and Jess was the woman who had confidently declared that she would use her talent to achieve success as a First-Class Overseer or something equivalent.

Of course, after becoming Perdain’s wife and having her talent stolen by the Arbentaine Family’s vision, she had fallen into a miserable and unsightly state, pinning her hopes on a good-for-nothing son who would even devour his own mother.

In that situation, Alice’s existence was a stroke of luck and a blessing for Jestiel, but, ridiculously, Alice had not shown Jess any significant moves since their meeting two months ago.

Frankly, Alice wasn’t thinking anything complicated.

‘If we take down the core of the rebellion, we’ll need someone to manage this family and the layer, right? There’s no need to do anything complicated or radical, is there? It’s a super-long-term mission with eight years given. If I just spend my time moderately enjoying daily life and peace, the time will eventually come when I have to get rid of Perdain. Then I can just give Perdain’s place to Jess and Taylor, and that’s it.’

From the beginning, Alice didn’t have a complicated and meticulous plan to prematurely depose Perdain. She was just proposing a deal to Jess to maintain a peaceful relationship between a foster daughter and her mother until the time came to suppress the rebellion, since it would happen anyway if she just sat still.

To put it simply and concisely, Alice wasn’t thinking at all.

It didn’t matter to Alice since it wasn’t a problem even if she wasn’t thinking, but it was a little different for Jess.

She had been waiting for this day and had lived only hoping for Perdain and the Arbentaine Family to be destroyed.

But Alice hadn’t made any attempts to kill Perdain in the past two months, and instead, she only showed herself enjoying her Academy life and faithfully living as the family’s successor, so Jess was getting increasingly impatient.

‘Could it be… has she been bought off by Perdain? Does she like the rights and life of the successor so much that she doesn’t intend to fulfill the offer she made to me?’

The offer Jestiel received from Alice was simple.

Access to the layer and all the family’s information as the mistress of the Arbentaine Family, and a good relationship as a foster mother.

In return, Alice promised Perdain’s downfall and Jestiel’s liberation.

Naturally, Jestiel desperately brought all sorts of information to Alice, and Jestiel even bowed her head to old acquaintances and people she didn’t get along with to get the information Alice wanted.

She also treated Alice very faithfully and kindly as a foster mother.

They spent time together often and had much warmer and happier times than she had with her own son, Dehite.

This life itself wasn’t bad.

Thanks to Alice’s existence, Jess had regained peace of mind and thought it wasn’t bad to gather with her daughter Taylor and have a cozy tea party.

But Jess’s goal wasn’t to settle in the present.

Jess’s goal was to regain the talent that Perdain had taken from her or to take everything from Perdain, so she could never be satisfied with just staying quiet and enjoying the current peace.

However, as Jess watched Alice, she felt frustrated and suffocated, as if something was stuck in her throat.

Alice had come with a long-term mission that looked ahead to years, but Jess had been living with everything taken from her by Perdain, clinging to the rotten lifeline of a good-for-nothing son, so how frustrated and trapped must she have felt?

Naturally, Jess was impatient.

She wanted Alice to take some action as soon as possible, and she wanted Alice to kill that wicked and damned hypocrite, Perdain Arbentaine, right away.

And so another day passed.

Yesterday, Alice bragged about how she and Taylor had been attacked by Dehite’s gang at the Academy and had crushed them all in reverse. The day before, she had shown her the lower layer’s diet, bringing out steaks mixed with sawdust and retort foods full of artificial sweeteners.

And today.

Jess felt the mansion suddenly become busy.

Suddenly, all the personnel in the mansion were controlled and told to stay in their places. Jess couldn’t miss the tense and quiet atmosphere, as if a war had broken out.

“What’s going on?”

“It seems the mansion is under attack.”

“Attack? By whom?”

To dare attack the mansion?

Ah, could it be that Alice has started her plan!?

Jess secretly hoped.

“It’s not certain, but it’s presumed to be the work of some families in Ruincrest who oppose the head of the family’s cause. The combat secretaries, including myself, will be following the head of the family immediately.”

“…Ha, I see. I understand.”

Judging from the situation, it didn’t seem to be Alice’s plan.

No, maybe Alice had been planning it meticulously and secretly without even telling her, and the time had finally come for it to bear fruit?

‘No, Alice doesn’t seem that meticulous…’

In fact, Jess had an eye for people, and to be honest, in Jess’s eyes, Alice seemed more impulsive than meticulous or planned, and she even seemed like the type who didn’t think about the aftermath of her impulsive actions.

Of course, it was possible that the real Alice was so meticulous and considered all the possibilities, and was even skilled at acting, deliberately showing Jess this side of herself, but…

‘If it’s the rebels, it must be the idiots from Coffee Tree. Cowards who think they can persuade Perdain with words… Then the mansion’s terror attack might be a self-inflicted act, and if a terror attack really happened, some extremists acted on their own. Perdain is planning to use this as an excuse to subjugate all the families belonging to Coffee Tree.’

It wasn’t 100 percent true, but Jess came up with a fairly reasonable guess based on her own insight and the experience of being the top student at Ruincrest Academy.

Anyway, Jess sensed that the day Alice would assassinate Perdain wouldn’t come today either.

It was highly likely that this disturbance had nothing to do with it.

“Sigh…”

In the end, Jess sighed and returned to her mansion.

However, where was the terror attack?

“Hey, you, what’s your affiliation?”

“Yes, I’m Kutiké from the Special Purpose Assassination Team!”

“Lead me to the place where the terror attack happened.”

“But, the head of the family told us to stay in our places…”

“The mistress of the family is standing in front of you. I’ll take responsibility, so lead me there immediately.”

“Yes, yes…!”

Curious, Jess headed to the place where the terror attack had happened with the soldiers guarding the mansion.

Normally, Perdain would have blocked Jess, saying, ‘Don’t meddle presumptuously,’ but it just so happened that Perdain had gone to deal with Coffee Tree with Alice and the soldier corps.

From the soldiers’ point of view, what could they do when the mistress of the house was giving orders?

They had to guide her obediently.

As a result, Jess also witnessed the combat homunculus cultivation facility that Perdain had kept secret even from his wife due to this fleeting gap.

“…Ha. Is this the secret weapon Perdain was preparing?”

Jess also knew the power of combat homunculus that violated the taboo.

Certainly, if they could mass-produce something like this and implant Arbentaine’s vision of ‘accumulating talent’ into the homunculus, they wouldn’t have no chance of rebelling against the Ark.

Still, Jess didn’t feel so bad.

Thanks to the terror attack, the existence of this facility would have been exposed to Alice, the Overseer in the center, and Perdain’s planned rebellion would have been significantly delayed.

Jess decided to take comfort in the fact that the time for Alice to corner Perdain and Arbentaine had been brought forward a little.

She shouldn’t expect Perdain to die today and Arbentaine’s cause to collapse…

“Ugh, kyaa.”

“Marlang…”

“Marlang?”

At that moment, Jess, who was about to return, felt a number of presences.

Young girls began to crawl out slowly from between the culture fluid and the machines.

In fact, Jess didn’t know, but Alice had completely restored the machines in the cultivation facility to their original state with her hacking and nano-particles.

However, the system itself had been completely destroyed, so it couldn’t recognize its owner, Perdain. The cultivation facility was fully restored and performed its original role.

‘Produce combat homunculus and imprint a code of obedience to the owner.’

Moreover, this combat homunculus cultivation facility had already been ‘contaminated’ by Marlang.

All the homunculus produced were Marlang.

So far, so good.

The infinite Marlang Legion would be stronger than Perdain had expected.

But there’s a problem here.

The facility system was completely destroyed.

The ‘owner’ is blank.

Then who is the owner of the newly produced Marlang?

It would be the first person they saw.

“Marlang!”

“Marlang!”

“Marlang!”

“…What?”

Jess frowned at the Marlangs, who suddenly stood at attention and saluted as soon as they saw her.

It was quite an embarrassing situation.

Identical naked girls saluted her and followed her around.

“…”

No matter how much Jess was a personification of self-preservation and ambition for success, what could she do when the girls in front of her were looking at her with such bright eyes?

Even though she knew they were all combat homunculus and not human, she felt sorry for them for not even wearing clothes.

“Have the maids in the mansion dress the children in maid outfits.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Marlang!”

“Marlaaang!”

“Dipping!”

“Feels good!”

“Dipping!!”

The countless Marlangs who were produced were dressed in maid outfits under the guidance of Jess’s servants and soldiers.

“Haa, what the hell is going on?”

The Marlangs in maid outfits followed Jess around after that.

It felt like she was herding a flock of chicks following their mother hen.

However, there was no malice in them clinging to her. On the contrary, she felt a childlike purity and innocence, so Jess couldn’t bring herself to turn them away.

“Munch munch~”

“Chomp chomp!”

“Pouring pouring!”

“Marlang!”

“Marlang!”

“What are you saying? It’s not like you can’t talk…”

Jess soon had her servants procure simple snacks and treats for the children to eat. The Marlangs began to follow Jess even more like a mother, as if birds were pecking at food.

“…I’ll have to ask Perdain what to do with these children when he comes back.”

Besides, the children’s physical abilities were unusual, perhaps because they were combat homunculus.

When Jess took the elevator or stairs, the children walked upside down on the walls and ceiling, following Jess.

To be honest, their eyes were clear and their appearances were cute, but the sight of countless Marlangs looking at her and following her was quite horrifying, reminding her of a zombie movie to anyone who didn’t know.

And so Jess waited for Perdain with these troublesome children.

When will he be back?

This useless husband of hers.

Combat homunculus are Perdain’s domain, and I can’t own them even if I have them…

And then Perdain returned.

Jess was a little surprised.

‘Where did all the soldiers and combat secretaries go?’

Even Perdain’s body was quite battered.

The man who valued his dignity was covered in blood, dirt, and dust. Even in Jess’s eyes, who had lost her talent, Perdain was literally exhausted, with not a few injuries and his stamina and mana depleted.

“You son of a bitch…”

And the moment Perdain muttered as if swallowing his words in dismay as he looked at Jess and Marlang, something flashed in Jess’s mind.

‘Wait, isn’t this an opportunity?’

Jess’s gaze turned to the Marlangs hanging upside down on the ceiling, waiting.

The Marlangs’ eyes looking at Perdain contained a subtle hostility, and judging from the current situation, it was highly likely that Perdain had gone to deal with Coffee Tree and had almost been dealt with himself.

‘Huh? Could this be… is this what Alice planned!?’

Only then did Jess’s eyes seem to light up.

Yes, that’s right!

Coffee Tree and Perdain’s internal suppression were all according to Alice’s plan!

‘For some reason, Perdain’s stamina and mana are completely depleted right now! And he doesn’t even have any soldiers or combat secretaries with him…!’

And on the other hand, Jess had countless Marlangs.

Although they looked like girls, Jess noticed that the Marlangs’ combat power was enough to threaten Perdain when she saw Perdain flinch greatly and tremble as soon as he saw the Marlangs.

Yes, that’s right.

Alice had given Jess herself the opportunity to eliminate Perdain!

Ah, Alice. Alice.

How grateful…

Of course, if Alice herself heard this, she would have said, ‘Huh, me?’, but Jess didn’t care.

“Girls.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“Marlang.”

“That, pouring.”

The Marlangs’ gazes turned to Perdain all at once.

“Can you kill him?”

“Marlang~!”

At the same time as Jess’s words, sharp bones like blades protruded from the Marlangs’ wrists.

“Kuh, krr…!”

A huge anti-mana barrier spread around.

The anti-mana barrier used by all the Marlangs, not just one, was a tremendous pressure on Perdain, who was a mana Awakened and possessed the family’s vision, even though it was okay for Jess, who had become incompetent.

“Since when, since when, Jestiel!”

“Me?”

I wonder. Since when?

Ah, are you talking about my hostility towards you?

“From the beginning?”

Of course, Jess didn’t care right now.

She was just happy.

Alice had created this opportunity and given her, who had become incompetent, so many knives in the form of Marlang so that she could eliminate Perdain herself.

Ah, just gratitude to Alice.

So grateful.