As soon as my conversation with Margaret ended, I returned. On my way back, I couldn’t help but examine the Inferesse Family’s territory.

After the Reross’ attack, the damage had been almost completely repaired. From the outside, nothing looked wrong or destroyed. The restoration was complete, in other words. Other than that, there were far fewer people around than I had seen when I came here disguised as James Bluelet. Most had either died or decided to stop working for Inferesse.

On the other hand, it was also a way to see those who remained loyal to this family. So even though the problems were big, I guess I can’t say there was zero benefit… right? Or is that looking at the situation too positively?

I… am not sure.

A short time later, I sighed softly, headed toward my office, and sat down at my desk. There was still so much to do, I didn’t have a single second to waste.

Except for one, tiny thing of course…

“You could have at least let me know…”

My voice echoed slightly muffled in the room, while the person opposite me spoke without any reaction.

“I didn’t have time. This was the most logical and efficient option.”

He had red hair and brown eyes. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, but his unkempt beard and face made him appear involuntarily older. He was quite tall but also looked fragile. Aside from that, his suit bore the Bluelet Family crest.

Of course, it was all a deception.

Because the person in front of me was actually Alex, whom I hadn’t heard from in days.

“I didn’t say it was pointless or illogical… but I can’t say I wasn’t worried either.”

After the chaos of the attack, he had disguised himself as a member of the Bluelet Family, confident that I could handle the Inferesse side on my own, and had decided to resolve the Bluelet Family matter as cleanly as possible.

And I would reap the rewards of this. Even though I didn’t know exactly how he did it, the fact that he settled the succession so quickly and presented his achievements as the Inferesse Family’s wishes would be extremely useful to me.

Still, I would have preferred to be informed. He could have used his contracted spirit or something to let me know…

“Anyway, now that we’re finally together again, let’s quickly go over our choices.

I quickly recounted what I had done in the Inferesse Family, and then he recounted what had happened in the Bluelet Family.

Aside from what I had been struggling with for days, Alex had destroyed Barry, Margaret’s brother’s, entire reputation somewhat, causing even those who supported him to change their minds. Then, by causing him to make a huge mistake, he had led him to his ‘accidental’ death and ensured that Margaret was the sole heir.

Did this guy Barry deserve any of this…? I have no idea. But I don’t really care. Ethics, unfortunately, isn’t something I need to take so seriously right now.

After discussing the past few days in detail, it was time to look ahead to the days to come.

“The first thing we need to do is renew our sources of income, and I’ve already taken the first steps in that direction. I’ve also started working on finding new employees. There’s a big chance of other families trying to plant spies among us, so we need to be careful, but with so few employees, it will take us just as long to recover.”

Alex listened quietly to this and much more. He didn’t seem to see a problem with most things, so he didn’t interrupt me, occasionally nodding his head thoughtfully.

After about half an hour, we had our plan back on track and had reached a common understanding. There wasn’t a huge difference from what I had planned, but we had changed the timing of some things and added a few more.

Having someone like Alex by my side was beneficial in every way.

Which reminded me of another problem we had.

“By the way, Phillip Inferesse’s right-hand man is a bit of a problem. We need to get rid of him. He could cause us trouble.”

Alex paused for a moment.

“His name was Stephen, right?

“Yes. He has more influence within the family than we thought. Most of the servants and staff trust him quite a bit. Despite his power, though, I don’t feel like he has any desire to kill me and become the new family head. He’s truly loyal to Phillip, but that’s also the problem.”

Stephen is someone who needs to be eliminated. The sooner we can put Alex in his place, the better.

“What do you think?”

When I saw Alex deep in thought, I couldn’t help but ask, but he quickly snapped out of it and began to voice his thoughts.

“I was thinking about how we could get rid of him. He’s old but healthy, no chronic illnesses. We can’t just kill him and be done with it… it would raise suspicion. If he has as much influence within the family as you say, smearing his name won’t do much good either. Since he’s not overly powerful, we can’t just put him in a fight and say he died.”

He paused again.

“Well… we could actually kill him. You yourself said we need to hire new employees. It wouldn’t be too difficult to create a scenario where one of these employees is a spy for another family, killing Stephen to weaken us further. Considering Stephen’s position, it’s not something that couldn’t happen. The only problem is…”

“There isn’t a family among us that hates us enough to want to do this. Considering our alliance of seven families, people at our level wouldn’t want to mess with us eith-“

When I suddenly cut myself off mid-sentence, Alex quickly focused on me. I, meanwhile, leaned back, narrowing my eyes at a sudden occurrence.

“What, did you find something?”

“Yes… there was a family head who voted against me in both alliance votes. I think it was the Helmon Family. I was thinking of a scenario where he opposed my ideas and, fearing where the alliance was headed, tried to kill me but failed and killed Stephen instead. That way, I could give the alliance a reason to exploit him and his family, and the amount of control we need to exert would decrease. The alliance’s power would also be somewhat diminished from its scattered state.”

Easier said than done, of course. There are a lot of things to consider to avoid raising suspicion or to make the whole thing as believable as possible. But as an idea, I think this is the best we have.

Alex thought for a moment, simulating what I said in his mind, I suppose. Then he slowly got up, headed for the door, and his final words were quite clear.

“I’ll look into what we can do. I probably won’t be around for a while. Don’t forget to register me with the family.”

He left the room like that. He would probably go to the family I mentioned, investigate, and depending on the situation, inform me and put the plan into action. With his invisibility ability, mist magic, and ‘that’ skill, infiltrating places and spying was quite easy for him.

After Alex left the room, I quickly accessed the family’s security system and both personally registered him with the family and announced his assignment to the system used by the servants, granting him special permission to enter and exit the mansion as he pleased.

That way, I could finally focus on other things. And that’s what I did. I continued what I had been doing for days, taking the necessary steps to improve the family’s situation…

“Hey.”

But it was then that I froze suddenly, with the world around me.

Hearing the voice, I slowly raised my head at first, then found myself staring ahead with my mouth open involuntarily.

“What are you staring at like an idiot? It’s not like I’m appearing in front of you for the first time.”

There was no one in my office.

The door hadn’t opened; no one had come in.

No, I hadn’t been momentarily distracted either.

Even though I was focused, I was aware of the passing time and my surroundings the whole time.

It was just…

“Ah…”

It was something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Emotions.

“H- ha…”

More accurately, negative emotions.

Carefully suppressed by the Absolute Mind.

All those pent-up feelings suddenly flooded my mind, and I felt like I was going to be crushed under their weight.

It felt like the world was collapsing on me.

I… felt like I was going to break under the strain.

Still… I held myself together. I, at least, tried.

First, I regulated my breathing, then my posture. Within a short time, I was at least in a state where I could present myself properly if someone entered the room.

“Well, at least it was shorter than I thought.”

With the voice once again echoing in my ears, I refocused my eyes and attention back to the front.

To the figure leaning against the wall, right across from my desk. The figure whose eyes glowed with that disgusting purple light, whose face I knew all too well… because it was me. My old self.

“Alaric… why are you here?”

It had been almost a year. He hadn’t appeared before me since I woke up from the coma I fell into after the Holar War. Now, though… out of nowhere, he had suddenly appeared before me.

“Couldn’t I be bored of standing inside your consciousness? It’s pretty boring in there, as you might expect.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly, sharpening my gaze. He, on the other hand, smiled. The smile that had previously instilled the deepest tones of fear in me whenever I saw it was now a little more… mocking.

“Heh, your reactions before were better. It would have been better if we hadn’t told you anything when you were in a coma. It’s like Aiden made a mistake.”

“Get to the point. You said you would teach me caora when I woke up from my coma, but you didn’t show up for months. I’m sure this isn’t something you just randomly decided now. Besides…”

I pressed my finger to my forehead, feeling much calmer than before.

“I’m also sure he wouldn’t allow something like that.”

The smile on Alaric’s face faltered slightly. It seemed to bother him to be reminded that he wasn’t in control.

“Anyway. Yes, I haven’t come forward for months. Because I simply couldn’t.”

He couldn’t?

“Just a few problems with your skill. You can probably guess.”

…

Oh, is it Absolute Mind…?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep