Like Recognizes Like

‘The quality of the troops is better than I thought. Is it because they’ve only experienced real combat in the sea and survived? Each one seems to be over level 30, which is the level of a typical knight.’

“Baron. What are you doing?”

At Sophia’s urging, I take everyone and move near Shakline’s secret location.

Shakline, who is starting to sweat, puts his hands behind his back and moves slowly.

As I pretend to check on Sophia and look at Shakline’s subordinates, one by one, they start repeating the same hand signals.

‘He gave some kind of instruction to the rear.’

I meet Shakline’s eyes as he sizes us up, smacking his lips.

His eyes show he’s prepared to lose everything.

As my inheritance passive slowly activates, his intentions become clear.

Flare and Luna subtly stick close to Sophia and Kasha, on guard.

‘It seems they’ve noticed that only two of us are meant to survive.’

Having come this far, there’s no stopping now.

“Over there.”

Shakline, maintaining silence at my words, tries to hide any change in expression, but the corners of his lips twitch.

Shakline confidently shouts.

“What on earth makes you think there’s something like that there!”

A ploy to buy time.

His subordinates swarm in.

Sophia and Kasha finally notice something is wrong.

The subordinates each grab a weapon and confront us from the opposite side.

“Count!”

“Brother! Just give the order!”

Shakline threatens, his face about to explode.

“Oh? Are you still going to go inside, Baron?”

He looks at me as he speaks, but he’s threatening Sophia.

As he shows off his power, he also releases his mana to confront us.

Sophia is startled by Shakline’s threat.

Everything depends on Sophia’s choice.

She narrows her eyes and questions Shakline with a suspicious gaze.

“It’s certain. It’s down there. Princess Sophia.”

His eyes burn as he glares as if to kill.

“Baron. That’s enough. I was being quiet while you were talking nonsense!!”

“If you dig inside—”

“That won’t do! There are very important items inside. So, think as you please! I may be from humble pirate origins, but after receiving the title of Count from the Emperor, I swear to the heavens that I have never committed any wrongdoing.”

Shakline cuts me off, twitching his lips.

“Princess! Please punish Bernatore for mocking me here! Behead this man for obstructing the noble magistrate’s duty!”

Sophia, enraged, glares at Shakline as if to kill him.

‘Unbelievable. Shark.’

Sophia sighs deeply and turns away.

“Bernatore, Baron, stop it! Count Shakline, we’ll be going now.”

In the end, Sophia makes the decision to back down from the Count’s threat.

As we appear to be running away without a fight, those around us laugh at us.

Shakline, raising his eyebrows, mimics my tone.

Calm and low voice, flat tone, nonchalantly.

“Please. I hope you will listen to the Baron’s words when you get back.”

Sophia trembles at Shakline’s mocking words.

‘Let’s see if you can still laugh in a little while, Shakline.’

Following Sophia, who is running away, I exit the mansion.

So, is Brookrudi the only one who got screwed over?

‘Not my problem.’

Look at him running away in fear.

Look at his face. He looks like a back-alley thug, unable to even put up a fight.

Those are the kind of people who are hereditary nobles? Disgusting.

How dare he suspect our Count? Who does he think he is?

I ignore the words coming from behind.

I pass by the Brookrudi father and son, who are in despair.

What on earth… Is the Princess really backing down like this?

Father? What’s going to happen to us?

The atmosphere inside the returning carriage was subdued.

“…I’m sorry. Brother.”

Sophia’s words were filled with dismay.

“It’s alright.”

Everyone is looking at me, so I close my eyes.

“I understand.”

Sophia said no more.

Kasha follows me into the room even though I didn’t call for her.

I feign a tired and sluggish tone.

“What’s the matter, Kasha.”

Why are you getting angry as if you were the one who suffered?

“That Count Shakline…!”

I take a deep breath and turn away.

“It was a dangerous situation. Sophia made a wise choice.”

“…Yes.”

Considering what I have to do from now on, it’s best not to let Kasha know either.

‘She might bring Flare and Luna along.’

I speak vaguely.

“I want to rest, so leave me alone.”

“Understood. Lunch—”

“I don’t want to eat either, so tell everyone not to look for me.”

“Yes.”

Kasha leaves and I lock the door.

Click.

I use one of the magic items I bought from the thief merchant.

“Shadow.”

As I chant the activation word while injecting mana, the magic ring transforms into a sword. When I cut off the mana, it returns to the shape of a ring.

‘I got the invisibility robe back too.’

The invisibility robe I thought I would use for the Flare event, and even the sword ring.

Using the transformation ring, I transform into Hati, and as I equip the items one by one, the character I saw in the game is in the mirror.

“…It’s quiet outside.”

It can’t be helped.

How surprised must they be that a Count rebelled against a Princess.

‘Let’s think about dealing with Shakline first.’

He’s the guy who imprisoned the Baron too.

He just tried to kill the Princess, what wouldn’t he do?

More than anything, if he’s alive, he’ll definitely be an obstacle to Luna and Flare’s future.

I’ll go first before he comes.

I quietly open and close the window and activate the invisibility magic of the invisibility robe.

Fortunately, there was no security magic on Shakline’s mansion.

‘It would cost a fortune to put magic on a place this size.’

I enter the garden and check the reception room, where one wall is a large window.

Shakline is holding a cutlass and threateningly brandishing it in front of the three Brookrudi, who are tied up and trembling in fear.

There were signs of beatings and blood everywhere, but they were still alive.

‘Those guys drew aggro.’

Ughahaha! You damn shark bait!

Please save me! Please save me!

Count! Please! I’m sorry! I was deceived by that cunning bastard!!

Please, I beg you! I didn’t do anything!

There’s no one around here, who’s going to listen to you? Huh? I’ll kill you and send Sophia and Scarl, those sons of bitches I can’t chew enough, to the afterlife with you!

Because of that damn bastard!

Kkyaaaaak!

Kyaaaaaaaaak!!

‘You guys buy some more time there.’

I enter the room with the window wide open.

I approach the owner of the room, who is hanging clothes in the closet, from behind.

‘Let’s start with this guy.’

“Shadow.”

Stab!

“Nu, hic. Ugh.”

I quickly cover his mouth before he can scream.

I twist the sword that pierced his lung, completely taking his breath away.

The guy who was struggling becomes limp without much resistance.

I take out any clothes from the closet and stuff them into the gaping chest hole.

I cover the corpse lying on the bed with a blanket to make it look like he’s sleeping.

I take out clothes from the closet, put them on, and put a pirate bandana on my head.

‘I can’t help the smell of blood.’

I thinly spread mana to check the location of the mansion’s guards. I go out the door, matching the timing when they pass by.

The sound of Shakline brandishing his sword is getting smaller, and the secret room is getting closer.

Two guards are standing in front of it, who weren’t visible before.

“What? It’s a long way to the sea, why the bandana?”

“Is it a shift change? But why are you alone—”

“Shadow.”

When mana materialization reaches a certain level, you can give it attributes like a mage.

The sword blade contains the mana of fire and takes on a red color.

“Fire?”

“No. A sword like—”

‘Flare was already handling one attribute, how did that happen.’

“March.”

At the same time as cutting off the two guys’ necks, the mana of fire sears the flesh.

I catch the guys falling down with a foul smell and pretend to be sleeping, then enter the room.

I touch the suspicious floor of the room, which has no furniture.

Clatter.

‘These guys are predictable.’

I put the sword between the gaps in the tiles and lift it up, and a small wooden door appears.

As soon as Kasha came out of the room, she summoned everyone.

‘It’s urgent.’

“The master told me not to look for him today.”

Everyone nods obediently.

“What on earth is going on?”

Luna didn’t know what was going on and only moved as Scarl told her to.

“Two days ago, Sophia and I went to meet Count Shakline. Actually, it was supposed to end there, but…”

“Flare. From what I heard today, you and Brother were caught, right.”

“I’m sorry, Sister. Hati beat up Brookrudi’s son and ran away because of me. But I didn’t know Shakline would take him.”

Luna, who had expected it to some extent, sighs deeply.

“No. Haaa… What did Scarl decide to do with Shakline, Sister?”

The three look at Kasha, who just came from meeting Scarl.

“Actually… This morning, the master said he used a gold coin with a tracking magic on it.”

“Tracking magic? Aiden’s?”

“Shhh. Be quiet. Flare. Brother will hear you. But why…”

“Since it was made by Aiden, the performance is guaranteed.”

Sophia, who had been quiet, opens her mouth with a cold face.

“Look at the Count. He tried to kill me, right? Obvious. That son of a bitch.”

Flare opens her mouth.

“…That bastard seems like he’s going to come barging in soon.”

“Yeah. I think so too.”

Sophia’s mind flashes.

“Wait! Brother! Definitely! He said he wanted to be alone today…!”

Sophia hurriedly leaves the room.

Following her, they all rush to Scarl’s room.

Knock knock knock!

“Open the door! Scarl, Baron!”

Knock knock knock knock!!

“Open the door! Brother!”

Flare puts her ear to the door.

“There’s no sign of anyone inside. He definitely went alone.”

It’s already been quite a while.

Time is of the essence.

The four instinctively repeat the actions of the most intense past two years.

“I’ll get the weapons somehow! You two please wait here!”

“Okay. We’ll be doing the rest of the preparations. Sister.”

“Thank you. Sister Kasha.”

Sophia became anxious when she was left out.

“Sister Kasha. What about me? I can help with magic too!”

Kasha, who was about to leave, stops and shouts at Sophia.

“The Queen doesn’t stay still in chess! Princess!”

Flare’s pure question.

“Not the King?”

“Isn’t the King going to the enemy lines alone right now!!”