LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24 - Eighth Elder. (2)
” I’m curious about who provided the information about this place.”
The gaze of the Eighth Elder, who had taken off her glasses, became fierce. At that moment, it felt like even the surrounding air was freezing.
“I will reward the good child who speaks honestly.”
A cold smile spread across the old woman’s lips.
The benevolent face had somehow transformed into the expression of a beast in front of its prey.
But the thieves merely sneered.
There was no way an old woman alone could stop them.
They only thought of quickly getting rid of the hindrance and plundering the magic tools of the Golden Wing Merchant Group.
One of the thieves rushed forward, swinging his sword.
“How dare you, at your old age…!”
The Eighth Elder didn’t move an inch.
She easily blocked the flying sword with just a finger cutting through the air.
The sword was repelled by an unknown force.
“…What?”
Strange.
The thief’s eyes widened in disbelief.
He had definitely swung his sword with all his might, but it was blocked by a single finger.
“Of course, I will punish the bad children.”
With a chilling voice, the Eighth Elder’s finger brushed the thief’s forehead.
At that moment, a bizarre scene unfolded as if space-time itself was distorting.
The thief’s eyes became bloodshot and unnaturally protruded, and soon his face turned bright red.
This was just the beginning.
Then suddenly, his entire body began to swell to a grotesque extent.
“Aargh-!”
He screamed in extreme pain as if thousands of snakes inside his body were trying to burst through his skin.
His body twisted in extreme agony, and his blood vessels burst through his skin and spurted out.
Splash-
And finally, it all ended.
The breathtaking scene that felt like an eternity passed, leaving only the blood-stained debris.
“Well, are there no more good children?”
The Eighth Elder looked around at the remaining thieves with a chilling gaze.
No one dared to speak to her, overwhelmed by her madness-filled appearance.
That was not human. It was a monster itself.
“……”
Terrified, no one could answer.
Then, someone barely mustered up the courage and raised their hand.
“I-I will speak!”
Starting with him, two more people raised their hands.
“Me too! Please, just spare my life!”
“Oh my… There seem to be only three good children here.”
As she flicked her finger, the bodies of the remaining thieves began to be sliced by an invisible force.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Aaargh-! P-Please spare me!”
Miserable screams echoed through the street.
Someone’s body swelled up and eventually exploded.
Someone else was torn apart beyond recognition, with flesh and bones mixed together.
A moment later, the bloody wind stopped, and the silence of death engulfed the street.
The slaughter had ended.
“Heu, heuk…”
The three thieves who barely survived sighed in relief and looked at the old woman.
The demonic appearance from earlier was gone, and the Eighth Elder smiled gently again.
‘I-Is it finally over?’
The expressions of the survivors brightened.
Thank you for sparing our lives.
Muttering that inwardly, they were about to let their guard down,
Clap-
The Eighth Elder clapped her hands.
Then, children were walking from a distance.
“Aren’t the children lovely?”
The Eighth Elder’s voice had already returned to that of a kind orphanage director.
“As time passes, those children will also perform their respective roles.”
Roles? Perform?
They still couldn’t understand the meaning of this mad conversation. But they didn’t dare ask in front of the monster.
“I want to teach the children many things. In that sense, I thank you all.”
The monster who had just committed the slaughter disappeared, and Zenobia bowed her head in gratitude.
Seeing that, the thieves broke out in a cold sweat.
‘…What is she thanking us for?’
The meaning could be understood a moment later.
Because the children the director mentioned had already arrived in front of them.
The problem was that they were holding various deadly weapons in their hands.
They were all terrifying things for children to hold.
“Experience is important for children. As adults, we must let them learn.”
Seeing Zenobia’s chilling smile, the thieves could intuit why she had spared their lives.
“Well then, shall we begin?”
As soon as the director’s words ended, the children rushed forward with laughter.
* * *
The Golden Wing Merchant Group was attacked once again.
The problem was that this attack included Bastel.
And a few days later, I heard a piece of news.
“Bastel handed over all the shares?”
It was that Bastel was handing over all the shares of the Golden Wing Merchant Group to Bella.
“Yes, and he is completely withdrawing from managing the merchant group.”
Emilia bowed her head and spoke in response to my words.
I fell into thought, looking at her lively gray hair.
‘Was the trauma too much?’
He had already been attacked by thieves while traveling.
Fortunately, Bastel, riding in the carriage, could save his life, but not the others.
Perhaps because of the aftermath, Bastel became overly sensitive and reacted excessively to even small commotions after being rescued.
“Sigh.”
It was a situation that made me sigh.
Now, he was holed up in his room, voluntarily becoming a reclusive loner.
What had driven him to the edge of the cliff?
I asked Emilia, who was standing beside me.
“So why did he hand over the shares?”
“He says he saw a monster killing the thieves during the attack.”
I couldn’t help but click my tongue at Emilia’s answer.
“Tsk.”
It was a typical symptom of trauma.
Well, it must have been scary.
Because this was the second attack.
Moreover, in the first attack, everyone in the merchant group died. And in this second attack, Bastel himself almost died, so he must have developed trauma.
Maybe he even misperceived things in the urgent situation and developed delusions.
‘Or did he even develop hallucinations?’
It was good to seize the shares of the merchant group, but it wasn’t good for me that Bastel was holed up in his room.
Originally, the plan was to gradually take the shares of the merchant group while putting Bastel at the forefront.
If Bastel directly operated the merchant group and brought glory to the family, I could reap the benefits.
But looking at his current state, it didn’t seem like he would improve anytime soon.
‘I’ll have to tell Bella to appoint a separate head of the merchant group.’
Since it was inconvenient for me to move the merchant group directly, I needed someone to do so on my behalf.
‘Bella was only meant to be the support, after all.’
Now, it was time to find out who was behind this.
“So who is behind this? If they were attacked twice, there must be something, right?”
But Emilia shook her head at my question.
“Bella is currently searching for information related to the attack on Bastel. We think the Imperial Merchant Association might have been involved.”
Emilia’s tone was cold.
‘She speaks respectfully to me but just calls Bella and Bastel by their names.’
Well, it didn’t matter.
I wished she wouldn’t act stiff with me either.
‘By the way, the Merchant Association…’
If what Emilia said was true, it was quite a headache.
The Imperial Merchant Association was practically the largest merchant association on the Ellunia continent.
It was large in scale, including prominent merchant groups from the empire and duchy.
‘Were the magic tools annoying?’
The Golden Wing Merchant Group was soaring while trading with the Fire Magic Tower.
But it must have been an eyesore for a small merchant group to triumph with the magic tower’s backing.
In fact, the merchant groups trading with the Fire Magic Tower were quite large in scale.
So they couldn’t express their dissatisfaction with the Fire Magic Tower and instead targeted the relatively easy Golden Wing Merchant Group.
‘But the Rosemund family should also be in the Merchant Association, strange.’
Viscount Rosemund was Bastel’s maternal family.
There was no way they wouldn’t know it was the merchant group operated by their grandson.
‘Was the Golden Wing Merchant Group that much of an eyesore to them?’
Well, it wasn’t my business to care about the circumstances of the other family.
The problem was that their attacks ended in failure.
Will they continue to keep us in check in the future?
‘That must never happen.’
I absolutely refused to be bothered.
“Tell Bella to discreetly warn the Merchant Association.”
“Understood.”
Emilia said that and left the room.
* * *
In a dark room, Count Hoffman muttered while raising a wine glass.
“I didn’t expect the attack to fail.”
Count Hoffman was the head of the Imperial Merchant Association and held wealth and power in his hands.
But recently, one thing had gone awry.
The count took the wine glass and approached the window.
“I underestimated the little one’s skills too much.”
Perhaps because of that, the night view outside the window was beautiful, but it didn’t catch Hoffman’s eye.
His mind was on the target of the failed attack.
The other party was Bastel Hartwell.
The owner of the Golden Wing Merchant Group, which the count had targeted.
In a way, Bastel could be considered a person closely related to the Merchant Association.
Because Bastel was the maternal grandson of Viscount Rosemund.
Who is Viscount Rosemund?
Isn’t he a member of the Imperial Merchant Association, operating the largest merchant group in the Arcadia Empire?
However, such a fact was not important to Hoffman.
After all, Viscount Rosemund had also participated in this plan.
– Even if the fellow is my grandson, he has crossed the line this time.
Viscount Rosemund had also agreed to attack his grandson’s merchant group.
“Heh, it’s a complete mess.”
It was amusing that he was blinded by money to the extent of attacking his grandson.
Thinking that way, the wine tasted sweet.
As head of the Merchant Association, Hoffman’s most important task was maintaining the current power dynamics.
But Bastel ignored this order and proceeded with the trade with the magic tower.
Of course, the magic tower had proposed the trade first, but Hoffman disliked the merchant group that readily accepted it.
“How dare they ride on the back of the Fire Magic Tower.”
Where would there be a place that doesn’t want to trade with the Fire Magic Tower?
Moreover, the Fire Magic Tower highly valued trust.
It was a place that considered trade only with merchant groups that had someone related to the Fire Magic Tower. However, it was still a mystery why they made such a proposal to Bastel.
‘Could it be because of Albert?’
Albert was the eldest son of the Hartwell Count’s Family and Bastel’s older brother.
He was even evaluated as a talented individual in magic, whom the magic towers were drooling over.
If the Fire Magic Tower was supporting Bastel in order to recruit Albert…
“Hmm…”
But that didn’t mean Hoffman would sit still.
It didn’t matter what happened to Albert anyway.
Hoffman only needed to get rid of Bastel.
“Haha!”
As the intoxication rose, the count was in a good mood.
He planned to devise a plan to get rid of Bastel again soon.
As he tilted the wine glass with self-mocking laughter, a cold sensation was felt on the back of his neck.
Someone had pointed a knife at him from behind.
Count Hoffman’s body stiffened.
“W-What is this!”
The startled count reacted with a trembling voice.
“L-Look here… If you spare my life, I will give you double the money you were promised to receive. No! I will give you as much as you want! So please, spare my life…”
He had made too many enemies while rising to this position.
The count hastily offered money, trying to appease the other party.
However, the cold sensation on the back of his neck did not disappear.
“How dare you ruin the Leader’s plan.”
The other party spoke monotonously and pushed the count towards the window.
Crash-
As the count fell out the window, he could see the one who had pushed him.
‘A girl…?’
In the count’s pupils, a girl with gray hair reflected in the moonlight was captured.
That was the last thing he saw before his body hit the ground with a heavy thud.
The wine glass the count was holding shattered into glass shards and scattered across the lawn.
The shards shimmered beautifully under the moonlight.