Chapter 466: Gossip 26 - Laojun and the Celuroa Kingdom (2/2)

“Well, no, but I found some commoners who had a short sword that seemed to be made by the same craftsman and tried to ask them about it, but they turned out to be quite the defiant people.”

“Hmm. But what about those automata guards I gave you?”

“…I’m truly sorry, Father, but… Though we had a numeric advantage, they were destroyed by a monstrous automata they had with them.”

“What did you say?”

“In addition, that boy, Andro, who had been appointed as an attendant to Beato, turned out to be a demon.”

“WHAT!?”

“It’s true, Father. He called himself ‘Androgias the Wild’.”

“Hmm…”

The duke intimately entrusts his entire weight to the back of the chair. Once again, the chair squeaked.

“…And then?”

“Yes. Beato and I defeated that demon.”

“I see. I expected no less from my own two children.”

Smooth words make smooth ways. In reality, if not for Reiko’s stun, not even a party of a hundred people with the skill those two had would have been able to defeat Androgias.

“What about those defiant Magi Craftsmen you mentioned earlier?”

“Yes, he had several friends with him, including this Stear… something or other, woman.”

The duke fell silent for a moment as if deep in thought, then finally opened his mouth again.

“Stear… Stearleana, you mean?”

“Ah, so that was her name.”

“That’s one fine woman… Ahem. So what happened?”

“The lot she was hanging out with had that crazy strong automata that destroyed all of our automata guards.”

“Hmm… So they were Magi Craftsmen as well?”

“That’s what it looked like.”

“Alright. Let’s bring them in. Go discuss the details of it with the housekeeper.”

“Understood. Thank you, Father.”

Thus the Selfish Siblings, Albert and Beatrix, ended the audience with their father.

However, at the time, Capella 10, one of the Quinta who operated under Laojun’s orders, was using “Invisible”, and was standing right next to the duke.

“…This concludes my report.”

“Understood. You are to retrieve that short sword. I will send you the money for it shortly.”

As soon as Capella 10 issued his report, Laojun’s orders came right back in. Shortly afterwards, 10 gold coins were transferred to him.

“We are not to steal this short sword.”

After eavesdropping on their conversation, they had learned that they had bought the short sword for 100,000 Tolls. Jin’s financial affairs -or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say Hourai Island’s budget- were ample enough for them to be able to afford to pay for the short sword.

They were to retrieve the short sword and leave the 10 gold coins, worth 100,000 tolls, in its place. Laojun secretly laughed at the thought of what kind of face would the duke make after realizing that the short sword had turned into gold coins.

The next target were the Selfish Siblings themselves.

Laojun handed out instructions to Regulus 11 and Deneb 25, who were in charge of Essiah, the capital of the Celuroa Kingdom.

“Slip this document into the Head of Domestic Affairs’ report.”

“Slip this document into the Head of Military Affairs’ report.”

Laojun had prepared two documents stating only the bare plain facts. They read as follows:

“After receiving unfair treatment, Stearleana Beta has gone into exile. Her destination is currently unknown.”

“There was an intrusion made by a person that seemed to be a demon, however, he was killed without prior interrogation, so no further information could be obtained from him.”

Laojun knew from Quinta that this kind of clumsy reports were what the current king hated the most.

This fact soon reached the king’s ears, which earned Albert and Beatrix a reprimand, causing their right to succeed the throne to fall by 10 places.

Albert fell from the 13th place to the 23rd, and Beatrix fell from the 21st to the 31st.

Their father, Duke Hubert, was also brought down by five positions. He was said to be in a very grumpy state for several days after being dropped from the 9th place to the 14th.

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“This is just the beginning. How should we proceed next…?”

The brains of Hourai Island, Laojun, would never forgive that family for their insolence against Jin and his friends.