Chapter 97 – Fear of Assassination

Translator: Kell | Editor: Ryunakama

Fear of Assassination

Let’s say for example a powerful noble’s daughter is sick. To save her life, the noble is desperate to look for a cure. But even a powerful noble can’t buy what’s not in the market. Cardinal Georgis would then offer to sell his medicine and in exchange demand the noble to work for him.

A lot of problems come with the method, but if it worked out fine, Georgis could expand his forces quickly. And since he’s already a man of authority, there’s a possibility for him to control the whole kingdom.

「You arrived at that conclusion in such a short amount of time? Are you perhaps a former spy or something?」

「Nope. Just a normal adventurer. It’s only natural to use what you have as a bargaining chip, right?」

「The fact that you came up with that idea just based on the prices of the medicine is not quite natural, if you ask me.」

After that, the Count was silent for a while. He then laid out a few documents on the table that showed names of nobles and their positions.

「Ten nobles approached us, looking to buy healing medicine no matter the price.」

「And this is the list of those nobles?」

「Yes. An astonishing lineup, wouldn’t you agree?」he said, pointing at their positions.

Count, Marquess, a Margrave. Even the highest-ranked noble, the Duke was on the list. Dukes were almost always a member of royalty. Such a VIP wanted our product, huh…

「Do they all belong to the anti-Georgis faction?」

「Not really. But they’re not on his side either.」

「Them wanting the medicine so bad means they need it for someone. Is there such a disease going around among the nobles?」

One or two would’ve been understandable. But ten bigshots desperate for the medicine is strange. Something’s fishy.

「Yes. Recently a fatal disease has been spreading among the nobles’ heirs. Apparently only the healing medicine can cure them.」

「That sounds awfully convenient for Georgis.」

「I can’t agree more.」

Maybe the Cardinal was the root of all of this. The Garden of Despair is certainly capable of doing it, and they won’t even bat an eye.

「So did you sell to them?」

「Of course. They were delighted. Apparently they couldn’t stomach the condition that Georgis gave them.」

「I can see that. Looks like we can get some people.」

The Cardinal wouldn’t even need to threaten those who would accept his condition easily. The nobles were worried about the declining health of their heirs. They should be really grateful to Count Meigis for selling medicines to them.

「Did you give them a condition? 」

「I can’t do what the Cardinal is doing. It would leave a bad impression of me. In the current circumstances, acting righteously will earn me more allies.」

I see. He didn’t just sell to them out of the goodness of his heart. While he looks like a kind-hearted person, he thinks about what he wants as well.

「But it’s also true that giving conditions will gain us allies more quickly. If you think we should, I will… What do you think?」

「I’ll leave the decisions to you. My role is to produce medicine, and yours is to deal with the politics.」

「Thank you. I’m glad you said that.」

Meigis has been fighting in the world of politics for so long, intent on bringing down Georgis. He’s also popular, so leaving matters to him wouldn’t be a bad idea.

「Most of the nobles that bought the medicine have their domains nearby. There might be more of them soon.」

「I see. Our forces will grow even more.」

「The more Cardinal Georgis limits the supply of healing medicine, the easier it is for us to make our moves. He should be panicking right about now.」

It sounds like our plan is going well. Which means it’s time to worry about a counterattack.

Georgis is only powerful because he has the criminal syndicate Garden of Despair behind him. If he really wants to, he can send an assassin.

We can still produce medicine even if Meigis is killed. But it would be a huge blow politically. With the man leading the anti-Georgis faction gone, the force that holds the citizens, especially the adventurers with inferior job classes, will weaken significantly.

They might even consider taking revenge. Once they lost their composure, it’ll be hard to come up with plans.

If that happened, we basically lost. Meigis’s citizens are loyal to him, but there’s only a few of them. Only about a thousand of them can actually fight. If they start a civil war and killed the Cardinal, the people would only see it as a rebellion.

If the adventurers with inferior job classes started a war and killed nobles, they will only get treated even worse in the future.

In other words, the death of Count Meigis will put all our plans on hold. And the Cardinal… No, the Garden of Despair should be well aware of this.