“Hm. So he is currently hunting with Viscount Holten?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
With a slightly nervous expression, Baba answered.
“It’s not bad, but…”
The glasses man on the chair rubbed his chin.
Baba unconsciously took a dry gulp.
A timid look that didn’t match his big size.
He was that afraid of the glasses man, Hooke, the master of the Janis Information Agency and the best information agent in Miller Castle, who was in front of him.
“Hm.”
With a sharp light shining in his eyes, Hooke fiddled with his glasses’ frame.
It was one of his habits that came out whenever he was contemplating or was deep in thought.
A moment later.
“And if the plan goes wrong and Viscount Holten fails?”
Did he perhaps expect the question?
Baba immediately answered.
“We will cut off our tail.”
“Cut off our tail?”
“Yes. We have already cleaned up the articles and records related to the plan. If the plan goes wrong, we will immediately dispose of them.”
An immediate answer.
A confident face.
Only then did Hooke show a look that was slightly relieved.
But there were still many other things that needed to be checked.
“There are a significant number of nobles that hold a close relationship with us. Among them are counts as well as marquises and dukes.”
Baba nodded instead of answering.
He too had clearly memorized the Janis Information Agency’s list of customers.
The big shot nobles whose names he wouldn’t dare to mention lightly.
“What’s your reason for leaving them alone and choosing Viscount Holten instead?”
With an expression that seemed to emphasize how obvious the answer was, Baba replied.
“There is the advantage of him being easier to control than other big nobles, but most of all, Viscount Holten’s ambition is big. He is……”
His expression turned strange.
That was a certain kind of sneer.
“A man who wouldn’t even refuse a poisoned apple for success.”
It was true.
In the case of higher nobles who had already achieved much and had much to lose, there was no need for them to risk danger for a greater success.
But those like Anthony, whose ambitions were grand despite being in an ambiguous standing, wanted to accomplish big achievements even if they had to overextend themselves.
And because Baba recognized that and threw out the bait, Anthony had immediately bitten it.
Making a foul smile, Hooke nodded his head.
“Well, that’s probably why he’s thoughtlessly jumping at a shabby plan like this. Kuk.”
A sneer leaked out.
“And the reactions from the princes?”
It was a fact that most nobles, no, almost all residents of Miller knew that Roan was on Prince Simon’s side and Anthony was on Prince Tommy’s side.
It was highly possible that the princes would take some kind of action.
Baba answered with a slightly nervous look.
“Surprisingly, there is no reaction. It seems that all three princes are watching the situation.”
“Really? I wasn’t sure about the other princes, but I thought that there would some reaction from Prince Simon’s faction……”
Hooke made a surprised expression.
However much the Janis Information Agency held and controlled Miller Castle’s information, it obviously didn’t know very much about the situation inside the palace.
“Anyhow, I quite like how you handled the work this time.”
Hooke looked at Baba and nodded his head.
Only then did a look of relief appear on Baba’s face.
‘He’s doing it again.’
Hooke didn’t miss that change in Baba’s face.
Frowning his nose, he asked in a small voice.
“The spies on Baron Tale are still properly attached, right?”
“Yes. They have continued to bring various information until now.”
Baba nodded his head with a confident face.
“This time, if the plan goes wrong, they must spy on him more thoroughly. If he shows even a small suspicious movement, tell them to report immediately.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Baba answered with a slightly nervous look.
It was a brief movement, but his expressions changed too often.
Hooke tried to say something, but soon afterwards waved his hand instead.
A sign telling him to now leave.
Lowering his head, Baba bowed and exited the office.
Hooke, who was left alone, bit down on his lower lip.
‘Baba. I was planning on making him the agency’s next master since he received quite a lot of the members’ support and had good talent, but……’
It seems he had to change his thought.
‘He is too young and soft. His vicious side is lacking.’
The heart was too weak to carry the group.
At his single expression and word, Baba repeated being delighted, nervous, and afraid.
‘It seems that I have to look for a new guy.’
Hooke planned to slowly increase the Janis Information Agency’s size.
His ambition was certainly great.
But whether his talent was enough to follow that ambition was unknown.
*****
‘Dammit.’
Viscount Anthony gritted his teeth.
‘Even though we haven’t even gotten to where the traps are.’
He didn’t expect Roan to possibly take out a spear in front of nobles.
Of course, the nobles of that era weren’t the type to look away from insolence.
An era when honor was highly held up.
However, Anthony thought that Roan, who only recently became a noble, would remain docile.
And just like that, he hadn’t understood Roan properly.
If he was someone who had watched Roan until now, he absolutely wouldn’t have ridiculed or mocked Roan’s subordinates.
“Baron Tale.”
Forcing a smile, Anthony shook his hands.
“Ted simply made a mistake because his personality is a bit rash, so please kindly forgive him.”
For now, he had to calm Roan down.
‘Only then could I drop him into the trap, kill him, and cover it up as an accident or whatnot.’
But Roan’s expression was still cold.
“I’ll have to get an apology.”
“Yes. Of course he’ll have to apologize.”
Anthony immediately nodded his head and signaled towards Ted with his eyes.
Ted deeply bowed towards Roan.
“I’m sorry. I have shown you a bad side of……”
When he spoke up to that point.
“Stop.”
Roan shook his head and stopped him.
He pointed at Harrison with his chin.
“You should be apologizing to Harrison instead of me.”
“Hmm.”
Ted gritted his teeth.
To Roan, who was a noble, he could lower his head as many times as needed.
But that was different for Harrison.
‘I have to lower my head to the commoner bastard?’
He was a knight.
And even though it was only an honorary title that couldn’t be passed down, he had the title of a baronet. 1
He couldn’t lower his head to Harrison.
But.
‘Damn it. If it only wasn’t for the planned trap……’
For now, appeasing Roan came first.
Most of all, Anthony kept on sending him signs with his eyes right in front of him.
An urgently pressing look.
‘Dammit. Kuuk.’
Inevitably, Ted lowered his head slightly toward Harrison.
His face had blushed and was contorted.
“I, I’m sorry. I became excited and said too much.”
Harrison looked at Ted with a calm face, who was lowering his head at him.
But truthfully, he was greatly anxious inside.
And at the same time, he felt a thrilling exhilaration.
‘That prideful and arrogant knight bowed his head.’
And to him, who was a commoner.
It was a sight he wouldn’t had even dared to imagine.
Of course.
‘It’s probably to calm down my lord for now.’
Harrison, too, had a complete grasp of their scheme.
With a cough, he slightly raised his hand.
“It’s okay.”
As soon as he said so, Ted immediately raised his head up high.
His face was still brightly blushing.
Glancing at Roan and Anthony once, he returned to his original place.
His entire body trembled from the humiliation.
If he could, he wanted to immediately draw his sword.
‘I’ll wait just a bit, just a bit more.’
Once Roan and Harrison fell into the traps, he planned to stab the sword into their bodies.
Then, he heard Anthony’s voice.
“Really, that rash personality is quite troublesome. Hahaha.”
Anthony deliberately laughed aloud and changed the mood.
“Shall we continue the hunt?”
He signaled with his eyes to the nobles that came along.
The nobles, who became scared at Roan’s pressure and were reading the mood, soon noticed and nodded their heads.
“Yeah. That should be good.”
“There are only deer here, so why don’t we go a bit more towards the east?”
A conversation that naturally flowed.
There wasn’t a single part that was strange.
But inwardly, Roan was making a bitter smile.
‘So they’re suggesting to go towards the traps.’
He too had no need to specifically refuse.
That place was already Roan’s, not Anthony’s, territory.
Roan looked at Anthony and the nobles and nodded.
“Then, let us go east.”
*****
Paat!
An extremely crumpled piece of paper hit a wall and bounced off.
“So he is going to come at me like that……”
The man panting and raging was Baron Elton Coat.
“I betrayed Prince Simon because I trusted Prince Kallum, but…… he’s saying that I’m no longer needed now that the job is done? Hmph!” 2
The ball of paper Elton threw was a letter from Kallum.
After betraying Simon and placing himself in danger, Elton’s position became extremely dangerous.
He ran away from Simon for now and returned to his land in the north, but not knowing when he might be subjugated, he passed the days in fear.
With a sense of grasping at straws, he kept sending letters to Kallum, but Kallum didn’t even reply back once.
Also during that time, Baron Gary Renard, who betrayed Simon together with Elton, liquified his assets and his territory, and ran away to the Byron Kingdom.
As the situation turned for the worst, Elton sent a final letter to Kallum.
No, it was more blackmail than a letter.
Was it thanks to that? Finally, Kallum’s reply came.
“Kuk. We have never talked and have never met before?”
Coldly and cruelly, Kallum cut Elton off.
Elton loudly grinded his teeth.
‘If I knew this was going to happen, I should’ve just followed Prince Simon.’
Regret poured in much too late.
At that moment, Tony the vice captain of the territory’s army, who was standing by at a corner, spoke up in a cautious manner.
“My lord?”
“What!”
Elton reacted in a fit of anger.
Tony was slightly startled, but didn’t back down.
He too was in a corner as expected. 3
“Since it has come to this, why don’t we try to scheme up something big?”
“Something big?”
Elton creased his forehead.
He looked straight into Tony’s two eyes.
‘For someone with such a large stature, his head is quite exceptional and quick at understanding the situation.’
Because of that, Tony became his close aide despite not even being the captain of the territory’s army, but a mere vice captain.
Back in the Poskein Monster Expedition, he also made the achievement of convincing Simon to go out on his own.
Seeing Elton’s expression slowly soften, Tony inwardly cheered in success.
Quickly, he laid out his plan.
“Right now, there is nowhere in Rinse Kingdom that we can lean towards. Prince Simon won’t forgive us and Prince Kallum has abandoned us.”
“Don’t say what we already know.”
With an awkward look, Elton shook his head.
Tony nodded and quickly continued to talk.
“And even if we were to seek asylum with the Byron Kingdom, there is already Sir Baron Gary Renard who went first, so there is no chance for us to receive a good reception.”
“Get to the point, the point.”
At the continued explanation of the situation, Elton creased his brows.
With a quiet voice, Tony spoke as if to whisper.
“My suggestion is to go over to the Byron Kingdom while bringing a big present.”
“A big present?”
When Elton asked back, Tony pointed with his finger towards the ground.
“If it’s Coat Baronnie and Renard Baronnie, wouldn’t that be an amazingly big present?”
Suddenly, Elton’s eyes turned wide.
A strange silence fell in the office.
“Khm.”
Tony shrugged and let out a cough.
Only then did Elton gather himself and nodded.
“Do continue. I’ll hear it for now and then decide.”
He pretended to be calm, but his voice shook.
The tip of his mouth kept on twitching.
*****
At the eastern edge of the hunting ground, the grass had grown waist-high and a dense forest spread out.
Anthony rode a step ahead of the others and checked the inside of the hunting grounds.
‘Hm. It’s properly marked.’
A symbol only he himself, the knights, and the soldiers who took on the role of trappers, could recognize.
There, the traps were set.
With a faint smile on his mouth, Anthony turned to Roan and the nobles.
“This place is famous for La’bear to appear.”
“Oh! La’bear.”
“Finally, I feel like doing some hunting.”
Many nobles cheered and were delighted.
La’bear was a type of a special species of bear that only lived in Rinse Kingdom.
Although it was smaller than a normal bear, it was much faster and more agile, and had extremely hard skin.
And because there was a limit to hunting it with a regular arrow, one must use spears, swords, axes and such to fight in close quarters.
‘And because of it, it’s much more dangerous than other types of hunting.’
But it was a hunt where one could feel an equally sharp exhilaration.
Roan looked at the hunting ground and smiled.
‘We’ll have to run around over there if we want to hunt La’bear, but……’
In there, unseen traps had been set all over.
Of course.
‘We already changed all their locations.’
The smile that hung his mouth became deeper.
Anthony, who wouldn’t know of this situation at all, was excited on his own.
‘For now, we’ll free a La’bear that we had tied in the forest, and……’
For this trap, he had even prepared a La’bear.
And just in case the La’bear could step on the traps, they had spread the Vetto flower, a flower that the bear seriously hated, on top of the traps in bunches .
‘And if Baron Tale stepped on the trap while chasing the La’bear……’
If so, it would be a complete success.
But there still was the most important problem.
‘Baron Tale must be the first to hunt.’
Although they had marked the spots, Anthony, as well as the other nobles, could easily fall into the traps and get hurt while frantically running around.
‘How should I do it?’
When he was contemplating just how to naturally make him hunt.
At that moment.
Kueong!
With a loud cry, a La’bear ran out from the forest.
‘Those idiotic bastards! What are you trying to do releasing it already when there wasn’t a signal?!’
Anthony panicked and creased his brows.
Even though he hadn’t even passed the first hunt to Roan, the La’bear had shown itself first.
‘Uug! If something goes wrong, the plan will be ruined! Idiots!’
When Anthony was cursing the soldiers in charge of the La’bear.
“Sir Viscount Holten.”
He heard Roan’s voice.
Forcefully hiding his annoyed expression, Anthony looked at him.
Roan cheerfully smiled and lifted the Travias Spear.
“I haven’t had much to show off during the deer hunt, so may I take the first hunt for the La’bear?”
“Oh!”
Anthony exclaimed.
That was not a false exclamation.
‘What luck!’
The twisted situation untwisted itself on its own.
‘I have a good feeling this time!’
It felt as if lady luck was following him.
Anthony immediately nodded his head.
“To be able to see the skills of Sir Baron Tale, the hero of the expedition…… I wish to ask of you instead.”
“Then, I’ll take it as your permission.”
Roan brightly smiled and lowered his head.
Soon afterwards, he pulled the reins and kicked his horse.
Hihihiing!
The war horse wildly cried out and kicked the ground.
The place he was heading to was the field that the La’bear was running around.
Anthony’s face became greatly flushed looking at that scene.
‘He’s going. Go!’
Things were really going great.
The war horse carrying Roan ran toward the trap he had dug.
‘Just a bit, just a bit more.’
Anthony’s face turned serious.
The knights and the many nobles who knew of the situation all gazed at Roan and made dry gulps.
Finally.
Teodeog!
The war horse carrying Roan stepped on top of the trap.
“Good! We……”
Anthony unknowingly clenched his fist and shouted but soon shut his mouth.
Dududududu!
That was because the war horse that landed on top of the trap was still running toward the La’bear as if nothing had happened.
Anthony widely opened his eyes and looked at the people around him.
A look that showed complete confusion.
But that was the same for the other people.
Looks of panic were clear on their faces.
Meanwhile.
Dududududu!
Roan’s war horse stepped back and forth over the places where the traps were and where they weren’t, and ran on.
And the people who hoped each time for Roan to get hurt fell into great confusion.
Anthony wanted to shout out in frustration, but he couldn’t due to Harrison.
‘Damn it! Just what is happening?! What is happening!’
The two eyes widely opened to the point of being ripped open.
He clenched his teeth and sharply trembled with his entire body.
‘Were the traps incorrectly marked?’
Anthony grilled the knights and nobles with his eyes.
But sadly, the ones who knew the answer weren’t them.
‘How foolish.’
Harrison, who was watching the scene, inwardly smiled.
Looking at Anthony, who was laboriously making a smile at him, Harrison twitched his nose.
‘Welcome.’
His heart calmed down.
‘To the battlefield we have prepared.’
< A Good Person 5 > End.
Translator : CSV
Proofreader: st8_lupe.
1. Baron/Baroness is above Baronet/Baronetess, and Baronet cannot be passed down to descendants
2. Idiom 토사구팽, meaning “once the rabbit is caught, the hunting dog is no longer needed and will be eaten”, can be translated as “the hunting dog is no longer needed once the hunt is done”, interpreted as “thrown away like an old shoe”
3. not literal, and no pun intended, maybe