“Dammit all! Why is the daughter of House Bloody getting all friendly with that piece-of-crap lord from House Hamilton?!”
I, Versago Inclay, angrily smacked the table in front of me, causing the nearby girl dressed in unsightly rags to yelp. Her terrified expression only served to enrage me more. Obviously, she wasn’t my maid—she was my slave.
“Lord Versago, please calm down,” she said. “Have something to drink.”
“Silence! When did I say you could talk back to me?! And look, you spilled it everywhere! Hurry and clean that up!” I snarled at her. “House Inclay has endured for generations, and House Hamilton cannot even come close to us! So how is he the one getting buddy-buddy with Aigis, even though I was supposed to win her over with my charms? Not only that, but Gustaf and Barbaro were both arrested because of him. It’s all that Hamilton punk’s fault that my plans for my slave routes have been thrown out of whack!”
The slave hurriedly wiped down the table using her tattered clothes as I screamed at her. It was against the law in this country to possess, buy, or sell slaves, but they certainly were handy to have around. No matter what you did to them, they couldn’t complain.
There were many members of the nobility who desired such items. The whole reason I based my slave-trade operation in the Hamilton territory was so that I could push the responsibility onto them if we ever got caught, but Weiss just had to ruin all of that.
As I bemoaned my poor luck, the door opened. The man who entered had his hood up far over his head. He was a collaborator of mine and one of the few who knew about this manor where I kept slaves.
“Oh, my. What’s this? Is something the matter, Lord Versago? You seem in a particularly foul mood today…”
“You!” I turned my rage on him. “You told me that as long as I followed the plan, I’d be able to buy and sell slaves and make House Hamilton take the fall if something happened! Explain yourself.”
“Hm, you are right.” Despite saying that, he seemed completely unfazed by my anger. “I certainly didn’t expect the Hamilton lord to be so talented. I thought he would become Gustaf’s puppet and derided by his people as a corrupt lord.”
The man’s words only further infuriated me. “Talented, my ass! He was just lucky, and your plan was full of holes!”
“Indeed. I do apologize that things turned out this way, even after receiving your assistance.”
He was bowing his head, but the fact that he seemed so nonchalant about all of this only made me hate him more. Unfortunately, I needed him to tell me about the slavers’ trade routes and how to acquire drugs to sell, so he still had his uses.
Not to mention, thanks to the traceless poison he’d given me, I’d been able to murder my annoying father and little brother and become lord. So, I did owe him to some degree.
Still, it only seemed fair that my stupid father should die after giving his support to the stupid son he had with a concubine, just because that son was supposedly talented. The same went for my little brother. He didn’t know his place.
“Well, why are you here? I was about to have some fun.”
“Ah!” The slave twitched and squeaked as I watched her, only serving to feed my sadism. Her fear put me at ease.
“My, my… I apologize for interrupting your private time. However, I came here to report that the slave-training facility you disguised as a church here has been cast under suspicion. It is possible that the capital will send an investigator here in the near future.”
“What?!” I couldn’t hide how badly his words shook me. “How can that be? You said it would be fine!”
If I was caught taking part in the slave trade in my own territory, it would be terrible. I could always throw the people in charge to the wolves, but I would never be able to erase all of the evidence leading back to me.
Why was this guy so damn calm? He would be just as screwed as me if that facility was discovered!
“I, too, was surprised to find that someone was suspicious of that church,” he said. “However, this will not affect the plan. There is a sister there who is hated by all. If things go poorly, you can simply make her the scapegoat.”
“Ah, right. Astesia, was it? She’s a beautiful woman, but for some reason, I’ve never felt the desire to take her for myself. If anything, I find myself wanting to stay away from her…”
I recalled the one time I’d eyed her from afar. She had a beautiful face, yes, but in that moment, I’d felt a visceral disgust toward her. It was a truly odd thing.
“Likewise, I have hidden one of our Twelve Apostles at the church, so fear not,” he said. “They have a bit of a unique personality, but they are strong. The investigator they send from the capital will not stand a chance.”
“A member of the Twelve Apostles?”
I’d heard the rumors. Just as Zeus possessed Twelve Apostles, Hades had also granted special blessings to his own Twelve Apostles. Someone that amazing was working for me?
I could feel my chest burning with excitement. The man before me grinned when he noticed the change in my face.
“That’s just how important you are to us. I look forward to our future business arrangements, Lord Versago. May the blessings of Hades be with you.”
The man bowed and departed.
The Hades Church was quite an organization. They were certainly suspect, but they seemed to value me greatly, which pleased me. If nothing else, they were useful, so I didn’t mind maintaining a positive relationship with them. When I’d gotten everything I wanted, I could cut them loose.
I grinned as I watched the man leave.