Maeve, who is destined for much greater heights in the future.

The Quie family, who ’run’ the Academy for the time being.

Through Julian’s intermediary, the Virhen Family, which oversees almost all the counts.

The Bealy Family, one of the most influential families among the Baron Families, although its name is not well known.

The Potenbea Family, one of the Pillar Families and the future owner of a huge guild.

And much more.

I’m going to build my network of knowledge with this and that.

So… Cassandra and Jack are not really important people. They’re just… pieces to help me on my way.

That’s why I didn’t take them too seriously until now.

The key word here is ’until now’.

The more helpers, as long as they’re all under control, the better.

Dealing with Maeve was too simple. She simply came to me herself. The Cassandra thing was pretty easy to handle, too.

All that’s left for me to get the Academy completely in my grasp is Jack.

But… I’m not sure what to do with him. That’s the only problem.

Maybe I can try to control him with my connections like I did with Cassandra. But… behind him is not just a family of barons, but a much bigger one, a pillar family like Potenbea and Virhen, which is Laehera.

Even if he would be afraid of my connections, it’s not something that would cause him to back down. He’ll just start taking me more seriously and put me at the top of his list of importance, that’s all.

That’s why the method I used on Cassandra is dangerous to use on him.

So… the only thing I can do is to get him off the stage.

The question is… how do I do that?

Like… blackmail?

A bigger show of strength?

Ah, what if I just snooped around his every move for a couple of days and drove him crazy?

Actually…

~beep! ~beep! ~beep!

“Huh?”

I paused as my watch suddenly started to ring, and even more confusion enveloped my body when I realized that the number on the screen was not in my contacts.

Curious, I answered the call.

“I’m Aiden Tenebra, how may I help you?”

And the answer I received…

“Good afternoon, Count Aiden.”

I stood still for a moment as the voice sounded familiar, my mind quickly trying to figure out who it belonged to. But… it was as distant as it was familiar.

But then…

“Please forgive me if I have disturbed you. I am Duke Laehera.”

Duke… Laehera?

Wait a second…

The leader of the Laehera Family?

“I won’t take much of your time, I just want to tell you a little something about my son.”

His son?

“Ah, yes…?”

“I specifically informed him as I didn’t want any friction between you and Jack. I warned him not to get in your way. He’s a bit… restless, I cannot lie. So I don’t know how much he’ll take my words into consideration, but I would ask you not to make him your enemy if possible before he makes any moves. And if he doesn’t take my warning seriously… he deserves what he gets.”

H- how the hell…?

This guy… he took care of everything for me?

B- but… I couldn’t even deal with Jack properly!

It’s not fair…

“Thank you for your thoughtful gesture. You’ve saved both me and Jack a lot of trouble. However… I won’t bother with him only for now, since it was ’your grace’ who asked me for a favor-. Because I had other plans in mind, at least until you informed me…”

“And thank you for listening to my words. And… if Jack really disobeys me and doesn’t take our warnings seriously…”

The voice of the man who until now had been polite, quite calm, and formal, suddenly became serious. So much so that… even though I was on the other side of the call, I felt myself trembling involuntarily.

“You can do anything you want.”

Immediately afterward, he returned to his previous tone.

“Thank you again for your time and I apologize again if I have caused any inconvenience. Until next time, Count Aiden.”

And he just hung up the call, not even waiting for a response from me.

And… even though I kept my cool while talking to him, I couldn’t stop my face twitching and my fist clenching involuntarily.

Jack… you got off really well… I hope you thank your father every night.

Or… never mind thank him. I hope you ignore his warning so I can spend some time with you without having to worry about you and the Laehera Family… Since I have your father’s permission, you don’t mind, do you?

~beep! ~beep!

All the thoughts in my mind, good and bad, were interrupted again. I checked my screen again… and… there was a number on the screen that wasn’t in my contacts once more.

The only difference was that this number was not the same as the previous one.

Raising my eyebrows involuntarily, I answered the call in the hope that it was Jack who wanted to challenge me.

“I’m Aiden Tenebra, may I help you?”

But… there was no answer.

I handed the call to the holographic display and pulled the screen in front of me. The call counter kept advancing. But there was no voice.

“Who am I speaking to? Would you please answer?”

And this time… there was an answer.

“Oh, sorry… my watch is connected to my headset, I was disconnecting it.”

An answer that literally made me stiffen where I was.

“And I did it! Although… are you there? It doesn’t feel like you can hear me…”

A familiar voice… too familiar, even.

“What do you want…”

I narrowed my eyes slightly, straightening my posture as I breathed calmly into my lungs.

“Paul.”

“Aha, you can hear me! Why were you so quiet…?”

I opened a different holographic screen in front of me, logged into the messaging app and answered his question while typing a quick message to the usual trio who always helped me.

“I don’t really want to hear your voice. On the contrary… I’d rather find out where you are and rip your spine out.”

“Well… isn’t that a little harsh?”

“For someone who dated my sister for months just to get close to me and then ran off with a terrorist organization?”

I paused, then rolled my eyes.

“No, it was even too soft for someone like you.”

“Ahahah… you might be a little right about that… but bear with me.”

He leaned all the way back on a creaking chair. Every creak seemed to want to tear my ears off.

“Clara… she’s a pretty nice girl. But naive, too. It would be good to keep her away from people like me. There’d be a lot of people chasing after her… especially her lips…”

“Paul.”

“It’s too bad we didn’t take things further- Ah, yes?”

“What… do you… want…?”

Paul was silent this time. He quickly stopped leaning back in his creaky chair and straightened up, but this time, the creaking was quite low.

“I want to meet.”

Meet…?

“And do you really I would jump into your trap?”

“Oh, no… I assure you there will be no trap.”

Lie.

“I just… want to talk.”

Straight away… lie.

“Alone.”

And he expects me to believe that?

“I refuse. No matter what you say… I’m not one to jump into your trap.”

“I escaped from Saligia, Aiden.”

My eyes narrowed even more. I wanted to grab my watch and smash it, to not bear to hear his voice anymore.

But I held myself back.

How much longer was he going to lie?

“There’s a lot more than Cevilian and Holar after me right now. And you know why…?”

A deep silence fell over the room.

“It’s you.”

He took a deep, really deep breath.

“I failed in my mission, and not only that, I was exposed, and I became a known and wanted man. I inevitably revealed a connection to the organization I belonged to. Do you think a terrorist organization would want to keep someone like me?”

No… it probably would not.

But it’s a lie… Every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie.

There won’t be a single word that I’ll believe to be true.

“That’s why… I ran away. I’ll probably be found soon. And when I am found, I know more or less what will happen to me. I have no power, my system hasn’t even woken up yet… I’m no different from a normal person. It was too dangerous for me to even call you. But I did it… because I want to talk to you, face to face, alone.”

“I won’t come, Paul.”

“But if you don’t come… my sister and Clara might be in some danger.”

I jumped to my feet in an instant. My clenched fingers pierced the palm of my right hand, and I felt the warmth of the drops of blood. My eyes and face twitched as I tried to control my anger, but…

“What have you done… you bastard dog?”

“Nothing much… I have forged evidence that they were both working for Saligia. I was the lover of one and the brother of the other. We spent a lot of time together, I had plenty of opportunities to play it safe, just in case. And you know what happens when that happens, don’t you?”

Cevilian or Holar… won’t be able to help. Because Saligia is a globally recognized terrorist organization. And other countries will want Sue and Clara.

Whether that’s true or not, they won’t want to risk their jobs.

And… Saligia will also target them. They can’t leave anyone alive who might have information with them who isn’t in their organization, even if they’re not sure…

“You’re gonna send me a live location of yourself, Aiden. And you will come to the location I’m going to give you. The moment I detect any other activity on your part, I’ll share all the ’evidence’ I have with the media. Clara and my sister’s life will be ruined before your eyes… and there will be almost nothing you can do about it.”

I don’t know why, I imagined him smiling, as if… as if everything was going according to his plan.

“And… don’t worry. Everything I said was true. I assure you, nothing I told you was a lie. Where we go… it will be just the two of us.”

He just hung up the call, not saying a word.

The silence of the room enveloped my whole body. A strange coldness permeated my skin, sending shivers down my spine. As the blood oozing from my palm dripped onto the floor… I continued to look ahead with a blank expression.

Seconds passed.

Then a few minutes.

’Are you planning to go?’

Sith appeared in front of me. He seemed calm, honestly. As if… whatever I decided, he would support me… trust me. Just like every other time.

I clenched my fist even tighter. I let myself fall back in my chair to calm my anger, took a really deep breath, closed my eyes, and thought for a while.

I thought.

I kept thinking.

~beep!

The notification on my watch… was from an unknown number.

<<——————————

Unknown Number: Text the live location to this number. Waiting.

——————————>>

And immediately afterward, he sent a location. It was in a wooded area, not far from Wiathen.

And another notification…

<<——————————

Unknown Number: I know I’m not the most trustworthy person, but… I hope you will trust me.

——————————>>

In the end… all I did was stand up.

No, I don’t trust him.

No, I’m not gonna risk my job.

But…

“I’ll go.”

I’ll go alone.

The only difference… I won’t be as alone as Paul thinks.

’I’d go too if I were you. Don’t worry, you made the right choice.’

Sith flew to my shoulder, a smile on his face. It was comforting, to be honest.

“I don’t know, Sith.”

The only difference…

“We’ll see.”

I… was not in a position to relax.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep