Once the preparations were in place and the slave was returned to the mansion in the royal capital with a growing belly...... News of it would naturally spread to the nobles who were incentivised to take down Linus and Lavallee. These nobles would act to remove Linus, who impregnated a slave despite not having a legitimate child. That was the plan this time.
"By the way, Victor, you're not doing all that bad for yourself huh. When I heard that brother killed the slave on the spur of the moment, I thought we had messed up. But as it turns out, it was a great success. You did great, really."
"No, no. I'm still very much inexperienced. This time round, you've been saved by lady luck."
Victor let out a sigh of frustration. He had not expected this flaw in the plan.
Based on the information that Laubert had obtained, the plan was to utilise the artificial insemination technique that Tullius possessed. The one who came up with the idea was Victor, of all people. He had poured his heart and soul into crafting the plan, hoping to get rid of that eyesore of an old man, but the problem was the pawns he used in the final stages.
"......Count Langogne. He's not what he seems to be, is he?"
They would have never dreamed that he could lead the conversation such that Linus would kill the slave. Fortunately, Linus went completely insane and the blunder resolved on its own, but Victor felt very uneasy that he was completely certain it would not turn out like that. If Linus had not gone out of his wits, he might have been able to argue, despite it being completely nonsensical, that it was Langogne who had impregnated and killed the slave. No, if Victor was in his position, he would definitely choose to do that. If the slave was still alive, he could use the magic of obedience to find out who the father was. On the other hand, if she was killed, everything would be buried in darkness.
Though he did not seem to show much interest, Tullius asked.
"Was he really that bad? He is the youth leader of the Centralists, right? Didn't you choose to use him because he was capable?"
"Nope. I used him because he was just the right pawn to use for this strategy, compared to the other nobles."
Victor explained further.
"The first choice might be, my own family, Count Lorge. He would be out of the question. After all, he is a dog of Lavallee who was forced to have a concubine as if she were an object, and even had to recognize the child that was in her belly. If I were to indirectly pass this information disadvantageous to Lavallee, he would probably consult his owner while wagging his tail."
He cursed his family for mistreating his mother and for letting her die. Tullius, too, snickered, but he nodded in approval and urged him to go on.
"Next, Count Chambery. He is a bat. A creature that cannot live without a branch to hang on to, incapable of knocking down a decaying tree to pave the way. Thus, he is unsuitable, in my opinion."
"So the only people in the Centralist faction who were capable of ousting Lavallee are Count Mearbahn and Count Langogne? I wonder why you didn't choose Count Mearbahn then?"
"He's one of the oldest members of the faction. While he may not like the old man, he also trusts him for his strength. He has been by his side for a long time. It's a 50/50 decision at best. You don't like risky bets, do you?"
"Of course. Fifty-fifty is such a low probability, I wouldn't want to bet on it unless it was the only option."
Tullius responded without hesitation. For him, risk was a concept to be avoided more than futility. After all, he was not willing to die and was attempting a moonshot — inventing a way to be immortal.
"See, the only one left is Count Langogne, right? That's why I had no choice but to use him. Of course, since he's the face that brings the younger members of the faction together, I was expecting him to hold a certain amount of ability—"
"But, the way it went, it's not what you had expected."
"—Yes. In the end, he proved to be a man who only has big talk but no real capability."
Victor tried to think through the achievements by Count Langogne. He was a man who inherited his parent's position in an orderly fashion and became the face of the young aristocracy as he was carried along by those around him. He was the kind of person who, from birth, walked on red carpet laid by others and truly believed that the carpet would stretch out forever. He had never suffered like him, who was kicked out for being an illegitimate child, nor has he worn out the soles of his shoes looking for a job like Laubert did. Surely he must not have had major conflicts with his brothers like Tullius did too. Even though he was over thirty years old, he was still a young man who never faced true difficulty.
"But..."
Uni, who had been silently listening to both of them, opened her mouth for the first time.
"Since he is such a person as you describe, surely he could be easily manipulated."
"If he was incompetent, that might have been the case..."
Victor smiled bitterly.
"When the person being manipulated thinks he or she is capable, the manipulator has a lot more work to do. Like this time, they'll do all kinds of unnecessary things."
"In other words, an incompetent worker?"
That's how Tullius summed it up. Tullius usually makes half-baked remarks, but sometimes he has a way of saying things that are right on target. Victor solemnly wished that Tullius could be like that all the time.
"I see, I can understand now."
"The problem is that even incompetent workers have to be used. He is a valuable link to the centralist faction. If we can brainwash him, it will be quicker, but it will be difficult if he is a big person with roots in the capital."
"There’s no end to annoying matters, isn't it? I have to take over my brother, reorganize the vassals, and negotiate with the centralists. I don't know when I'll be able to concentrate on my research. ......Uni, refill."
"Yes, right away."
The expression on Tullius' face as he grumbled gloomily did not show any guilt for driving his brother to madness. In fact, you could even see him blaming his brother for causing him trouble.
Victor thought to himself, he really has an unreasonable lord. However, while Victor might have a grudge against his own father, he had fully devoted himself to a scheme to rid Lavallee of his position. Perhaps then, Tullius and Victor were a great pair as lord and retainer.
"Then again, we have finally gotten rid of the biggest thorn in our side. Nothing can be considered too excessive in regards to that."
Victor could feel the dark pleasure crawling up his spine because he finally had dealt a blow to the man who had abandoned him and his mother. It was not enough to have driven him from his position as the leader of the faction, but this was all he could do at the moment. However, if he were to continue aiding his lord, there would be more opportunities for him to give the old man a hard time.
"Both brother and Lavallee have been dragged down from the stage...... But other than the old man, I think what happened to brother was... unfortunate."
"Hmm?"
These were unexpected words. Victor never thought that Tullius would say that he missed his brother, with whom he had always been at odds.
No, this wasn't pity, judging from the way he's been talking. He must be regretting that he couldn't get his hands on something useful as a pawn.
Tullius took out a small fist-sized lump from his pocket and released it at us.
"What is this, sir?"
"It's a potato. It's a crop grown in another continent. It grows well in rough soil and cold weather. My brother was trying to plant this in his territory as a hardy crop."
"Oh?"
Now this was certainly interesting. Even Tullius, who could use alchemy to change the properties of the soil, would have difficulty changing the weather. It would not be impossible to do so with the magic of Drei or Seis, but even so, it would be a heavy burden to them. It would not hurt to grow some hardy crops in case of a wheat failure or other natural disasters.
"Linus Oubeniel is a man of internal politics, isn't he? Now that I think about it, he had done most of the governing from the royal capital, but there doesn’t seem to be complete collapse in this far-flung territory."
