Chapter 115: Charisma

“Isn’t it too rash to go to the Silver Eagle Duchy in such a hurry?” Vela asked Angora after she relayed the message to Miller that they were going to set out the next day.

By the way, the messenger was so happy about Angora’s choice that he immediately started dancing the weird dance he learned from the players—It seemed that the power of assimilation was in one way the greatest strength of the players.

“The sowing festival is still quite a while away, and from the looks of it, winter is going to continue for another twenty or thirty days…” Vela asked in confusion, “Wouldn’t it be too much of a rush to do it tomorrow? Are you really planning to stay there for such a long time just because you miss your family?”

“Of course not, I had already become sick of that restrictive life that won’t even allow for the slightest bit of freedom.” Angora smiled and replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “What I want, is exactly to give the image that we’re in a rush.”

“What do you mean?” Vela was quite confused at what Angora had said, “In any case, aren’t you the son of the Grand Duke? Why would your life be restrictive? Shouldn’t people like you be sauntering around the streets with your lackeys and flirting with innocent maidens?”

“You mean those so-called sons of aristocrats that exist as antagonists in those knight novels? It’s exactly because the Grand Duke is considered high on the social ladder even within the nobles that the three of us brothers have been taught more rigorously and strictly than anyone else! From walk to talk, we have to act dignified in even the smallest details of daily life, in order to not bring shame upon the Faust family…” Angora sighed and lowered his head. “Honestly, it’s a complete pain in the butt, so this time that I’ve been living in this town has been the happiest and most relaxed I have ever been.”

“Is that so…” Vela couldn’t help the happy expression that showed up on her face. “Then why be in such a rush?”

“To reduce the time that the enemy has to prepare for my arrival…Well, if any enemy exists, anyway.”

There was a certain type of person that loved to lecture people on topics that they knew about for some reason that could be superiority or just because they just really loved to talk.

Many antagonists in anime or movies were this sort of person, and would stop right before they could kill the protagonist party with their next move and start rambling on about all of their plans from start to end, and some would even talk about their weaknesses clearly to the protagonists, before finally being killed off by the main characters that had the time to recover properly.

Coincidentally, Angora was also this sort of person, but thankfully, he didn’t have any hobby of gloating about his plans to the enemy, and only did so with his most trusted subordinate. “The town belongs to me, and they must have realized that it would be hard to lay a finger on me after the players got rid of the Society of the Secret Eye branches nearby. If I went to the Silver Eagle Duchy without any warning, it would definitely be a good chance for them to try and assassinate me there instead of here in the town!”

“I see, so the sooner and less unannounced we set off, the enemy would have a harder time to arrange a successful assassination!” Vela immediately understood what Angora was trying to say.

Assassination wasn’t something that could be done so easily. To perform a successful assassination, information about the target was extremely important—The target’s schedule, their selected route, and even some personal hobbies of the target would be able to increase the success rate drastically!

If Angora just headed for the Silver Eagle Duchy right before the sowing festival, the enemy would have at least half a month’s worth of time to plan for the assassination, and while the plan wouldn’t have been foolproof, it would still have been complex and extremely hard to deal with.

Perhaps death didn’t mean much for the other players because they could be revived later on, but Angora had never died before with the system he had now, so he wasn’t sure if he could be revived in the same way.

Just in case, the best course of action now was to take action while the enemy party still hadn’t prepared properly.

“Not only that, but this sort of rushed assassination attempt would also cause there to be many clues about the mastermind! If there’s anyone that wants to kill me, I swear on the name of the God of Games that I will drag him out from behind the scenes!” Angora replied seriously.

“But…Wouldn’t it be too dangerous if it were just the two of us?” Vela was somewhat anxious about it still.

As Angora’s subordinate, Vela was focused on helping him out more than dungeon crawling and training, so she was only at Level 14, with more or less 15% left before she reached the level where she could class change.

“Of course not, we’re going to recruit players as our bodyguards!”

Angora smiled, as if he had everything in the grasp of his palm. “No worries, with my reputation and charisma, I’ll definitely be able to recruit a thirty-person party without even breaking a sweat!”

☆

[Number of players that accepted the guard quest: 0]

Looking at the system page in front of him and the empty name list, Angora’s hands trembled slightly. “F*ck, why!”

“Because all the players that like adventuring have already gone to explore the area around the town.” Edward who had come to hand in the completion of one of his quests replied in a deadpan. “All the players that left behind in the town all want to live a steady life, so they won’t accept this quest that will use around ten days.”

“What about Mr. Marni? He would accept the quest, no?”

“He was poisoned to death at a banquet in Lancaster, and he’s even complaining about the underhanded tactics of his competitors while he’s waiting to be revived.”

“So he won’t be able to do business in Lancaster anymore?”

“No, he’ll definitely go back there three days later and tell them that the one that died was only a substitute of his or something like that and continue to do business as if nothing happened, probably. He had already done this same thing so many times that the people from Lancaster are starting to call him the ‘Infinite Wilf’…”

“What about you? Aren’t you the quest-accepting demon?!” Angora asked as he pointed towards Edward. “Why won’t you accept such a rare quest?”

“That’s because Eleena doesn’t like interacting with nobles, so our party doesn’t plan on accepting this one.” Edward spread his arms and replied, as if he was helpless to the situation too.

“Eleena? …Oh, the strongest in your party?” He had heard Vela tell him about how strong Eleena was, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Was she ever bullied by nobles in the past?”

“No, it’s because her father had taught her aristocratic manners ever since she was little because her mother was apparently a noble, so now she doesn’t want to have anything to do with them because of some sort of rebellious mentality,” Edward replied as he munched on some hard pieces of bread. “Now if you excuse me, I have some other quests to complete…”

“Wait, don’t go yet.” Angora propped up his chin with his intertwined fingers and stared at Edward, making the latter feel a chill run up his spine.

“W-What is it?”

“If I can convince Eleena, will your party be able to come help me?” Angora asked.

Edward thought for a bit, and thought that if Angora could convince Eleena to accept, then it wouldn’t be a bad deal to get on the lord’s good side, so he nodded.

“Alright!”