The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - Volume 5 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Prepares a Counterstrike

I returned to the estate and got right to work on my retaliation against the aristocrats who had laid a trap for me.

If left to play out, their ploy would harm both my individual standing and House Tuatha Dé.

“Building a telecommunications network with well-placed agents has given me even more power than I expected.”

It was an enormous infrastructure that connected twenty major cities and allowed for one-to-one conversation. I had deployed spies to each area, and they used the phones to share the information they gathered. Specifically, there were two types of people I dispatched for the job.

The first group was made up of the most loyal of my Natural You employees. They were working as merchants in all the important metropolises, and they primarily sent me data related to economics and the distribution of goods. Overseeing the flow of money and inventory helped me recognize the start of any schemes.

The greater the plot, the more funds and assets will shift. I can use that to deduce whatever the planner is up to.

Keeping people quiet was easy compared to disguising shifting resources.

It was the other group that proved helpful this time.

My other intelligence agents consisted of nobles who admired me as the Holy Knight. Nearly all of them were mages, and they offered intel pertaining to noble society.

They were made up of people who could contact the Holy Knight, so they were highly skilled. The only people capable of that were either from highly ranked houses or were those with access to unsavory back channels.

I had interviewed each candidate individually and chose the ones I could trust to become my operatives.

Using them was easy. They looked up to the Holy Knight as a hero, and aiding me made them feel like heroes themselves. I also paid them plenty of money. They may have been nobles, but most of them had not yet inherited their houses and thus had never possessed much to spend for themselves, so they were happy to have funds.

I also secured their loyalty using conditioning techniques and reduced the risk of estrangement by giving them whatever their positions required. That would ensure they would give me all the information I could want about their own houses.

The problem was that while they were skilled, many of them were childish. They were all people who wanted to play at being heroes, so that attitude was unavoidable. As a result, I invested a lot of effort into risk management in the event any of them were discovered.

“Prioritizing observation of the royal capital paid off.”

I had deployed many agents there. It was the center of politics, and the nobles who valued the central government over their own domains were extraordinarily vain and prone to bouts of jealousy.

I suspected there would be many in the capital plotting my downfall. Certain aristocrats were undoubtedly beside themselves with jealousy over me.

According to the hierarchy, I was no more than the oldest son of a lowly baron’s house. Yet I was killing one demon after another, the royal family liked me, and even House Romalung, one of the four major dukedoms, was getting friendly with me. All that glory and favor was bound to attract envious glares.

These nobles were afraid that House Tuatha Dé would climb the ranks of the nobility and threaten their own positions. If only they knew that Dad and I both had no interest in that kind of thing.

“If they thought about this even a little, even they should understand what would happen if they sabotaged my position.”

They would only be harming themselves if they got rid of someone capable of defeating demons. The hero was currently unable to leave the capital, meaning the demons would be free to rampage all over Alvan if I was unable to deal with them.

The demons being left to do as they wished would result in the resurrection of the Demon King. It was entirely possible that not even the hero would be able to defeat the Demon King, which would mean the destruction of the kingdom.

Those aristocrats should’ve at least left me alone until the demon threat was taken care of.

Despite the grave stakes, they justified their savage acts born of jealousy and vanity with unfathomable logic as they plotted my downfall.

“I had planned to let stuff like this go if it wasn’t overly harmful.”

This particular scheme was of especially poor character. I had to deal with it.

I was going to challenge them openly at first, but I was considering turning to my main profession if required. That was how deplorable their trap was.

The following day, a Romalung messenger arrived to pick up Nevan. As a lady of a prestigious family, she was constantly busy. She had remained with us as long as she could, but it was time to see her off.

“I enjoyed my time here in Tuatha Dé very much. I will come again. Thank you for your hospitality,” she said.

“You gave us a great time in Romalung, so there’s no need for thanks. I hope we can continue to build a favorable relationship,” I responded.

“As do I. Next time we meet, I’ll treat you as your caring upperclassman.”

“And I’ll behave as your innocent junior.”

That reminded me that the academy’s reconstruction was supposed to finish soon. That would indeed make Nevan my upperclassman again. I’d intentionally avoided her at the academy last time, but there would no longer be any need for that.

“Before I go, I noticed that something seems to be troubling you, Sir Lugh,” Nevan remarked.

“What are you talking about?” I responded.

“Don’t think you can fool me. Nothing about your expression or your behavior suggests that anything has changed, but something feels different.”

She got me. Very few people in this life or my previous one had ever seen through me when I concealed my feelings.

“A little trouble came up.”

“Shall I lend you some of House Romalung’s strength?”

“I can handle it myself.”

That wasn’t a boast. I genuinely didn’t require Nevan’s help, and I didn’t want to wind up indebted to her.

I wouldn’t need House Romalung’s help until later on.

“I see. Please contact me if you change your mind… I will keep this on me at all times,” she said, waving her mobile phone.

“When the time comes, I will,” I responded.

This telecommunications network was set up in each of the kingdom’s major cities. It went without saying that included the Romalung domain.

I had taught Nevan the location of the large signal device in the city, and we would be able to contact each other if she used it. Her phone was set to access only one channel, however, preventing her from listening in on my intelligence agents.

Nevan gave one last bow and departed.

Being around her was mentally exhausting, but it was also great fun, and I learned a lot from her. Maintaining an amicable relationship with Nevan was for the best.

After Nevan left, I returned to my room and used my mobile phone to connect to the telecommunications network.

There was a large relay device set up within the Tuatha Dé estate. It was a slightly special one and not present in the records. Even Maha didn’t know about it.

This machine had a unique function that the others didn’t have. Its purpose was to pinpoint any traitors and keep the damage they caused to a minimum. That was why I kept everyone in the dark about it.

I set my phone to one of the channels established to speak to my intelligence agents rather than the personal one for the girls.

“This is Silver, speaking to King…”

I used real names when speaking on our personal channels, but I used code names when talking to my operatives. I was Silver, and King referred to my agents in the royal capital.

I issued my orders to begin setting a ploy for the fools trying to trap me.

I prepared hang gliders the next day. The first was a two-person one for Dia and me, and the other was for Tarte alone.

“Sorry about this. I had wanted to rest at home for a little longer,” I apologized.

“I don’t mind at all! I will go anywhere if it means I can be with you, my lord,” Tarte responded.

“This is really terrible. I can’t believe they’re calling you a criminal,” said Dia.

“Yeah, it’s despicable.”

The people trying to bring me down were framing me for murder. They hadn’t discovered that I was an assassin, so their claim was an utter fabrication.

There was no greater shame for one of my profession than being discovered and captured. It was as good as being publicly branded as unskilled.

Even if this was a false charge, it still infuriated me.

“Their methods are crude. They killed a political rival and disposed of the corpse in Jombull, and they are going to have a false witness testify that I slew the person during the battle with the demon,” I explained.

“Um, would you really be punished for that, my lord? I think it’s inevitable that people will die during a fight with a demon. If we were focused on preventing all loss of life, we wouldn’t be able to fight,” said Tarte.

“I shouldn’t be. As a Holy Knight, I’m relieved of the responsibility for any damage I cause during battle,” I answered.

Those rights didn’t just apply to a Holy Knight but also to the hero and some of the higher-ranking regular knights.

When people of great strength fought, it was inevitable that there would be far-reaching destruction. People in those positions were often deployed to fight powerful enemies or to deal with extreme emergencies. They wouldn’t be able to handle the situations properly if they were worried about collateral damage.

“That doesn’t make sense, then. It shouldn’t be possible to pin the crime on you,” reasoned Dia.

“No, it’s enough for them. The person they’re saying I killed was virtuous and popular. Even if ending their life isn’t technically a crime, I’ll become an object of hatred among the commoners and nobles. Some may even call for vengeance. The scheming aristocrats want to sabotage my standing. They’re even fabricating discord between the victim’s family and House Tuatha Dé to make it look like I killed him on purpose.”

Some death may have been accepted as inevitable due to my rights as the Holy Knight, but intentional murder would still be judged problematic. Even if I wasn’t charged with a crime, there was no doubt that many noble houses would place a variety of sanctions on House Tuatha Dé.

“That’s disgusting. This is why I hate noble society,” said Dia.

The most effective way to advance in the aristocracy was to drag down those above you.

It was possible for people to climb in rank during a war by rendering distinguished service, but it was much more difficult to stand out in times of peace. That meant the most important things for aristocrats became avoiding failure and causing their rivals above them to drop in the standings. Particularly ambitious nobles excelled in that area.

The people plotting my downfall were of that variety.

“How do you plan to deal with it, my lord?” asked Tarte.

“I’ve discovered the identity of the witness who is going to provide false testimony. I’ll win him over to our side with a little convincing. When it comes time to tell everyone of my crime, he will instead testify against the mastermind who is trying to sabotage me,” I explained.

“He’s going to change allegiances?” asked Tarte.

“You think I can’t manage it?”

Tarte seemed surprised, but I was a master of persuasion.

I wouldn’t have had time for this counterstrike without my telecommunications network because of how trials worked in the Alvanian Kingdom.

After someone accused another person of a crime, there was a deliberation to determine if a trial should be held. Upon approval, a carrier pigeon would be sent with a letter, and a government official would depart in a carriage at the same time, carrying a copy of the same letter.

The accused had to return to their domain within three days of the government official’s arrival and then accompany the official to the capital. Then the trial was held as soon as possible, taking into account the involved parties’ schedules.

It took a minimum of one week to reach Tuatha Dé from the capital by carriage. A carrier pigeon would arrive in two to three days.

Thus, the government official would arrive five days after the bird. The official would then wait for three days, giving the accused a total of eight days after receiving the initial letter to return to their domain and go with them to the capital.

However, this time, it seemed like the plan was for the carrier pigeon to have an “unfortunate accident” that prevented it from delivering the missive. Ignorant of the situation, I wouldn’t return to the Tuatha Dé domain during the three days when the official was there. This would make me a truant, and my guilt would be automatically assumed.

Even in the case that I made it, the people taking me to court had pulled some strings to have the trial take place the day after I reached the capital. If I hadn’t known about the conspiracy, I would’ve either lost the case by default or had to attend the trial with no chance for any preparation.

“This really wasn’t what I had in mind when I built this telecommunications network,” I admitted with a bitter laugh.

Still, it had saved me. The government official carrying the letter had reportedly left the capital this morning. Learning about that yesterday afforded me a bit of preparation time.

“I’m relieved that it sounds like you can prove your innocence,” Dia remarked.

“Me too. But I don’t plan to end things there. They’re going to pay.”

It wouldn’t be enough to simply prove my innocence. I needed to make an example of those who plotted against me so that no one would be foolish enough to attempt such a thing again.