Chapter 55: The Fraudulent Contract

“Ka, Karvald Austri…? How did you get here…”

The owner of the flustered voice was Tridric Scaphti.

He had impersonated the vessel’s name to lure Reysir Daudabina, but he didn’t expect me to show up here.

With a troubled expression, he fumbled for an excuse.

“Don’t tell me… Reysir didn’t come here immediately after finding the note, but you went to find him first…?”

“Do you really think you’re in a position to ask me that?”

There was no need to kindly explain to Tridric how I came to be here.

So, through Karbaldr’s manner of speaking, I conveyed that I didn’t want to answer.

His face immediately twisted with rage.

“H-ha, haha… So you thought Karvald Austri would say, ‘You don’t need to go that far for someone like me,’ huh?”

Grinding his teeth and sneering like that.

He must have nursed quite the bruised pride from the way I treated him like nothing at the Family Restaurant last time.

‘If I hadn’t used such phrasing, would Tridric have refrained from causing all this trouble?’

That thought flashed through my mind, but I quickly dismissed it.

“Your tone’s gotten insolent.”

“Don’t tell me you actually thought I’d kneel and beg? Still not grasping the situation, huh?”

Tridric cast off all pretense, glaring at me with eyes full of hostility as he retorted.

Yet, his voice carried a mixture of exhilaration and relief.

As if he felt refreshed finally being able to let out what he’d held back.

Judging by the emotion I felt, it was far too clear to be mere grudge from the Family Restaurant incident.

That day was merely the trigger.

There’s no doubt that his gun had been loaded a long time ago.

‘In the original story, Tridric followed Karvald Austri faithfully to the end and volunteered as his subordinate, but that was only because he judged the benefits to be great at the time.’

I’m certain Tridric has hated Karvald Austri from long ago.

The idea to kidnap Hailga as a hostage and torment Reysir wasn’t something he came up with overnight.

In the end, today’s incident is something inevitable that had to happen once I decided to live a different life from Karvald Austri.

“I understand perfectly well what kind of situation this is.”

“Then why are you so calm about it? It’s annoying. I’ve never liked you—from the start. That superior gaze looking down on others, that arrogant attitude acting as if everyone naturally bows to you, that effortless pride… All just because you were born into a good family!!”

Tridric’s hatred toward Karvald Austri seemed rooted in jealousy and inferiority.

Well, someone who enjoys bullying others wouldn’t stand having someone above their head.

He probably thinks just as he looks down on those beneath him, his superiors would do the same.

“You were born into a privileged noble family too, yet what are you saying?”

“Do you think a viscount’s family and a duke’s family are the same?! I have to swallow my pride and cling to powerful people like you, attend social gatherings diligently to expand my connections… while you just sit back and people come bowing to you, finding it bothersome as if it’s your right! You don’t even care about networking, and have no worries about the future at all!”

No matter how much people see only what they want, this is extreme.

It shows zero understanding of the character Karvald Austri.

‘There’s no way he didn’t have anxiety about the future—his father ignored him. He must have been constantly on edge, fearing abandonment.’

He found those who approached him to fawn irritating because they were only after something from him.

If they ever failed to get the family’s support, they would turn their backs or even mock him without hesitation.

Why bother managing such people as “connections”?

‘Is Karvald Austri’s arrogant attitude a result of effort? To appear worthy as the heir of House Austri and to hide his precarious situation from others.’

But I had no intention of getting angry in Karvald Austri’s persona.

Though I inhabited his body, I’m not truly Karvald Austri.

Calmly, I continued the conversation.

“Why are you complaining so naturally?”

“ōtōt… haha! Complaining? You call this complaining?”

“If you don’t like that word, should I say whining?”

At my mocking question, Tridric ground his teeth.

But perhaps no rebuttal came to mind, because instead of arguing, he uttered a threatening statement.

“Except for being born into a duke’s family, you’ve got nothing to be proud of. You’re nobody… What kind of nerve do you have to show up here? And bringing that Liolikin fellow with you? Did you really think that fancy family would always protect you?”

“Do you think it’s impossible?”

“Are you stupid?! Of course, it’s impossible! If I order the mercenaries here to kill you right now, what can your family do? You should have at least brought someone who’d help under your prestigious family’s name!”

There were too many points to correct; I didn’t know where to start.

So I spoke as I felt.

“I didn’t bring anyone to help because I thought there would already be someone capable here.”

“Who would that be? Don’t tell me Reysir? He’s a hostage in my hands, what could he possibly do?”

Tridric chuckled as he lightly stabbed the tip of his knife into the neck of the unconscious Hailga.

A drop of blood began to seep out, and Reysir sent me a worried look, silently asking what I would do now.

I showed my palm to calm him and spoke again.

“Tridric, I expected you wouldn’t have been able to kidnap anyone by yourself, so you must have hired mercenaries. And since you planned to frame me as the mastermind behind this kidnapping, you mentioned my name when you hired them. Isn’t that right?”

“Pfft! You actually thought the mercenaries I hired would obey your orders? I might have used your name, but I’m the one who paid them.”

“Paid them? You dare spend that much money to cooperate in harming the youngest son of the Austri Duke?”

“…!”

The word ‘youngest’ carries a particular image.

Even among children, the youngest is especially cherished and spoiled.

Though the reality is quite different.

‘The mercenaries wouldn’t know the family background!’

Though Tridric seemed unaware, the mercenary standing behind him pursed his lips with an intrigued expression.

Though silent, it was an ‘Oh!’ of admiration.

“No matter how money-hungry the mercenaries are, they won’t easily take a job to kidnap a noble lady. It’s far too risky to cross a noble. But they accepted this job because you mentioned ‘House Austri’. They thought even if something went wrong, your family would cover for them.”

“Th-That’s… even so, they signed a contract, so they have to keep it…!”

“Why should they? It’s a fraudulent contract.”

They have to keep it because they signed it?

To think such naive words are said in this fantasy world.

You claim to have lived fiercely, but this just proves you’ve lived like a sheltered flower.

“Did you inform them beforehand that the kidnapping was just to torment a classmate, and that all blame would be pinned on someone from the Austri Ducal Family? Did you include a clause that if I appeared, I should be attacked too? If you planned to kill me and frame Reysir for it, do you have the financial means to pay for that?”

“W-Well…”

“Let me ask you instead. Why did you think the mercenaries would obey your orders?”

“…”

Tridric’s pupils shook as if there had been an earthquake.

But he still hadn’t properly grasped the situation.

Or rather, he was escaping from reality.

“Y-You know, the mercenaries already cooperated in kidnapping a noble lady. So they know you hired them, and they know it’s better for their safety to frame you as the one who orchestrated it. No, no… You could really have Reysir kill you! I have the hostage in my hands!! Then no extra payment would be needed…”

“If you truly think that, calling you stupid would be an insult.”

I clicked my tongue and glanced at the mercenary standing behind Tridric.

He must have already come to a conclusion but was pretending to hesitate.

“If your plan goes as expected, those mercenaries will have failed to protect me even though I hired them. Do you really think my father will let that slide? For them, going to jail for kidnapping a baron’s daughter would probably be better.”

“Of-…”

“In this situation, the most advantageous outcome for the mercenaries is to be the victims of a fraudulent contract. You threatened them with the duke’s name, saying if they refused the job, they’d be killed. So they had no choice but to kidnap the baron’s daughter, while everything else was your fabricated lie.”

“…”

Tridric’s expression hardened.

Clenching his teeth looked like he had made some resolution, which was not a good sign.

So I hurriedly continued.

“Since you were involved in the kidnapping, you will be punished. But because you were coerced by false threats, your sentence will be light. If you realize you were deceived and protect the baron’s daughter from the kidnappers, it might be reduced even further.”

Just as I finished speaking, Tridric moved to stab his dagger into Hailga’s neck.

At that same moment, the mercenary standing quietly behind him moved too.

Before the blade could pierce Hailga’s neck, the mercenary swiftly grabbed Tridric’s hand and twisted it backward.

“Ahh!!!”

Watching someone else scream brought me an unexpected sense of relief.

If Tridric would only cooperate with the conversation, I was confident I could resolve this and save the hostage this way.

Still, this is not my novel but someone else’s story.

I had worried about what would happen if things didn’t go my way, so I was truly relieved it turned out well.