EP 1 - I Have A Plan
How wonderful it would be if everything in the world ran on inference and speculation. There would be nothing better than my predictions holding true and people acted exactly as I wanted them to. The same went for exposing Aira. I wanted her to act suspiciously as soon as possible and present me with evidence.
However, the only proof I had that Aira was a swindler was her status window. Since she hadn't actually done anything yet, there's still a long way to publicly shame her. Even if I accused her, saying, 'You’re a swindler!' it’s not like she would nicely reply with, 'Yes, I am!'
If I recklessly pushed the accusation that she was a swindler, it would just backfire and alert her. It's easy to catch an impostor who has infiltrated from within, but once they turn into a thief, catching becomes a hassle.
In the game, Aira betrays Lucius just before the hero party arrives. Based on my scouring, Aira only recently started working at the mansion but was assigned to attend to the lord because of her exceptional work skills.
Right. No matter how much of a pushover Lucius was, he wouldn’t suddenly entrust accounting duties to a maid he didn’t know. Aira must have worked by the lord’s side for quite some time and was trusted by him.
At this point, I needed to figure out exactly where I was in the game's timeline. I currently have three urgent tasks: dealing with Aira, preventing the NTR event, and finally, defeating the Demon King.
These three tasks were intertwined. The event where Sieri was forced to marry the NTR pig happens roughly a week to a month before the hero party arrives. The event where Aira embezzles money and flees also happens around a week before.
Lastly, the Demon King's resurrection would be about halfway complete by the time the average four-member hero party arrives at Lucius' territory.
Why is the Demon King's resurrection halfway done based on a four-member party? In [Heroine Legend], the game's difficulty is adjusted based on the number of party members. Recruiting new companions involves lengthy events which makes the in-game days pass quickly.
So if the main character skips all the events and doesn't recruit any companions, and heads straight to the Demon King's castle, the Demon King won't even be resurrected. Instead, they will arrive just as the Demon King is about to gather the necessary sacrifices for the resurrection ritual and kill everyone involved.
Conversely, if the main character recruits all his companions by completing various quests, they'll engage in a bloody battle against a jacked-up Demon King, who has grown stronger in the meantime.
Therefore, this is a game where the player can choose to defeat the Demon King with a moderately leveled party or to take their time, and fight tooth and nail to win. But according to my independent research, the prophecy designating the hero hasn't been made yet, and the elf princess, who's in the quest to vanquish the Demon King and eventually meets the hero, is still living peacefully in her forest.
So, I started thinking that maybe I should just defeat the Demon King myself, since it will take a while till Aira's betrayal or for the NTR pig to become fully active.
Why? Because if the hero enters the mastermind's mansion on his own without any events, they would be around level 20. The mastermind is merely an ambitious lord, one slash would be enough to dismember him.
Even at level 20, you can one-shot the final boss.
But Lucius is currently level 36, and he's a priest specialized in slaying demons. Plus, having played the game, I know who the mastermind is. The mastermind's domain is quite close to Lucius's territory, blocked only by executives during normal gameplay.
It would take about a week for a round trip on horseback. I wouldn't say it's easy to get there, but it's not too difficult either.
However, since the prophecy designating the hero hasn't been revealed yet, it means that there's no sign of the Demon King's resurrection, let alone any preparations. If I just barge into the mastermind's house and massacre the entire family, I'll just be branded as a crazy murderer.
Of course, Aira's saintly act was unmasked by that one overly flattering remark. In such harsh working conditions, anyone who says things like that was either shot in the head or had an ulterior motive. She should have just ended with 'I'm fine, it wasn't hard at all.' Excessive flattery tends to arouse suspicion.
That evening, I started digging into Aira in earnest.
I decided to entrust the investigation to Robin, the captain of the knights, whom I favored and was utterly loyal to Lucius in the game. But isn't leaving such a task to the captain too much of a hassle? With only 10 knights in this small territory, the captain's position was actually quite idle.
Thanks to this, even if Captain Robin wandered around, the maids and servants only sees 'Robin' and wouldn't think much of it. Although I wondered if this was an appropriate image for a captain, I decided not to interfere since he was diligent in his work.
A week after assigning Robin to monitor Aira, a report from Robin landed on my desk. Robin was perceptive of Aira's presence nearby, with the paper he handed me, saying, 'Knights’ Regular Patrol Report.' I too, very nonchalantly, looked at Aira and said.
“Could you fetch me some water?”
Fetching water was probably the task that took Aira the longest. Since there are no water purifiers in this world, she had to bring water from the kitchen on the first floor to my office on the third floor.
Once Aira was gone, I spoke to Robin.
“Report.”
“Yes. The maid Aira currently makes it a point that the people around her know that she is skilled in accounting, and periodically tells the head maid that her skills would be helpful to you, My Lord.”
It was within the range of what I had expected. It might be difficult for her to take charge of the accounting books right now, but if she continues to appeal and show her sincerity like that, even the strict head maid would eventually give in and suggest to me to have Aira handle the accounting work.
Once she takes over the accounting, she would start handling larger sums of money, and to control each and every thing, it would be easy for her to run off with a significant amount. However, I didn't plan on waiting that long.
“And, there's also talk that she regularly meets with the guard Karl...”
“Is that so?”
This might just turn into a fun plan. I didn't care whether Aira was a virgin or not in the first place. Given that she was fundamentally a swindler, she was likely promiscuous wherever she went.
“Robin, I have a plan.”
“Please speak, My Lord.”
I felt the corners of my mouth rise.
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