No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 64

When I used to read books in the past, I didn’t pay attention to the book spines, so I don’t know who the author is, but this world is a field created by the author.

From the beginning, the author set the difficulty level of the worldview to hardcore when creating it. The symbol of that difficulty is the Black Fog and the Named. It means the setting value of the world itself is like that. The difficulty setting is not a factor that can change no matter what I do.

It would have been nice if I could have received a lot of possessed person privileges and lived while destroying the original, but as long as I bear the name of Cassice Demillang, I have to become a hunter. There is no era where heroes are more frequent than troubled times. Now is exactly that. Every day, thousands of hero candidates appear and disappear. If I can’t prove my qualifications as a hero at Areah Academy, the privileges Demillang enjoys as a branch family head also become null and void. But rather than putting my heart and soul into becoming a hero, let’s try our best to just save face, cleverly.

That’s what I had been thinking until now.

‘But now the tables have turned.’

A love fight. Now that it has begun, from now on, I decided to set my goal to become the family head as quickly as possible. It was one of the schemes that I had to sharpen a weapon to pester Ryuseong without getting killed, but there were also practical gains.

‘The family head doesn’t go to war.’

When the head of the family collapses, the family collapses. There have been quite a few families that lost their family head and were destroyed because they stupidly went to the scene in the name of a cause. Therefore, if I become the head of Demillang, it means I can avoid the crisis of being screwed by getting caught up in the original plot.

Above all, the point that is attractive is that if Ryuseong kills me, it changes from a simple death to an incident where the head of Demillang was assassinated. It’s a big deal even if a branch family head dies, but the head of a family is the pride of the family and is no different from the family itself. If I just write in my will that Ryuseong is the culprit, Ryuseong is screwed. Not only does he get screwed alone, but the entire Hanra gets screwed.

Can Ryuseong handle that risk?

‘For the sake of the world, can you accept the destruction of your family?’

In summary, it means that if I become the family head, I can promote my own safety. No, well, if I really want to live safely, running away or going into hiding is the only answer, but…

‘I’m pissed off right now.’

So I can’t do the rational act of living just to live. I can’t do things like run away leaving you, or give up on love and back out.

So at least for now, if I have to die, I’ll be faithful to the purpose of destroying you as well.

‘I’ll show you a proper personality from hell.’

Before I knew it, when the car stopped, the butler got out first and opened my car door for me.

The place we arrived at was a humble and cozy cabin in the woods, but I couldn’t feel any signs of people. I stepped out, stepping on the fallen leaves with my loafers. And then a casual remark.

“It’s a good spot to attempt an assassination.”

“Young master.”

“Ah, I wasn’t suspecting the butler.”

I was suspecting him. But rather than openly saying that I’m suspicious, it’s better to smile prettily and test them to pressure the other person.

The butler wasn’t so dull as to not grasp my intentions, so he bowed his waist apologetically.

“I sent a message, but as time was short, I’m afraid it will be difficult to receive the young master yet. If you could just wait a little…”

I didn’t listen to his words till the end. I had no intention of standing blankly and waiting in front of the cabin with fallen leaves, and I thought it wouldn’t take that much time to tidy up the inside of that small house.

Still, I should come back out if it’s a trash heap and makes me feel sick, thinking that, I moved my steps briskly. I gripped the door handle in one breath.

But right after, whoosh! A burning sensation grabbed my palm.

From what I felt, it was the magic surrounding the cabin attacking me. But do you think I only learned one or two things at Areah Academy? There are very slow and common magic dispelling methods, and there are fast and unusual ones…

Most people choose the common method even if it takes a long time. But I was a genius. Cassice Demillang’s body was equipped with innate mana control ability that could survive even after constraining mana in the lower abdomen, and Jeong Ian’s brain scans all the content it reads.

Since I read through the original what the ‘unusual method’ that Areah said was not suitable for your level and passed over without teaching…

I was able to do it.

“Young master, it’s dangerous…!”

I surround mana on my palm to suppress the burning sensation and spread the mana in another branch to sharpen it thinly.

To dismantle the barrier that dared to touch me with that.

Just like inserting a wire into a lock and stimulating the correct position can open a locked door without a key.

It’s a process of estimating each side like an ant, brushing over a word hugely drawn on a sandy beach with a tiny sense.

It’s incomparably simple compared to the complicated method of inferring the magic formula and then drawing dispelling lines one by one, but it’s a feat that can’t even be attempted if one’s talent is the slightest bit lacking.

Click.

It was easier for me than breathing. I watched the green light flashing once over the cabin and then fading away, and kicked the door open with my loafers.

I was also wondering what they were doing that they didn’t let in the precious branch family head and told me to wait, and I also wanted to show them my foul temper. I didn’t come here to spit out kind and affectionate words.

Why would I need to be gentlemanly when I came to ask why they swapped my medicine without permission?

While thinking that…

“…”

The inside of the door came into view, and I frowned.

The interior of the cabin with a countryside atmosphere and the smell of grass was…

‘Mirrors?’

All the walls were made of shattered mirrors. That was something strange. If it was an environment where people lived, it couldn’t be composed like this. An environment where no matter what action you take, you are reflected hundreds of times. As Cassice Demillang’s appearance was distorted, stretched, and split, reflected hundreds of times, I momentarily panicked.

I hesitated and tried to back away, but hundreds of ‘me’s reflected in front of my eyes smiled back at me. The smiles cunningly drawn over the pale skin were split into hundreds of variations, and the curves were terrifying as if they carried rapture or ecstasy.

How should I put it, it’s a feeling of myself becoming not myself…

…Did I really smile? Am I sure I smiled? No, is that really me?

Of course not, fuck. I am Jeong Ian.

‘Then why do I have to be here?’

At that exact moment when I thought that far, the mirrors shattered. A tearing sound echoed in my ears like tinnitus, and the very next moment all the shards fell to the floor and scattered like dust.

“You’re here, my grandson.”

Along with a voice as sweet as honey, a great-grandfather who calls me his grandson despite looking younger than me appeared in a shabby robe.

The boy-like man immediately tried to reach out his hand as if to greet me, but I was faster in pointing my cane at him.

“…”

“Oh my.”

To be honest, this might be because of Jeong Ian’s trauma. But it might not be. Since the possibility that Cassice Demillang’s great-grandfather is also a bastard like Demillang cannot be overlooked, I reflexively acted, but the wiser choice was to be wary without showing it, so I regretted it a little. If I treat him openly hostile, I won’t be able to backstab him in our future relationship, will I?

Nevertheless, great-grandfather only smiled benevolently with an embarrassed expression.

“It seems I startled you. Well, threatening incidents haven’t been rare lately.”

“…”

Then, he bowed his waist.

I heard the butler gasp. Even with the common sense I know, it was impossible for Demillang’s elder chairman to bow to someone else. But great-grandfather did it.

“I apologize for not being able to properly control the family head. I’m sorry.”

He formally apologized to his great-grandson simply for not being able to properly control his own son, my grandfather.

But wait a minute here.

‘…What is he talking about?’

I don’t know what the family head did to me!

No, we did have an argument, but I also threw a punch line there. Listening to great-grandfather, doesn’t it sound like he did something worse than that?

So I decided to bring over the strategy I used on Sinmyo.

“Has the family head been like this for only a day or two?”

Literally pretending to know. The grand plan is to test it out without any information at all.

And great-grandfather kindly fell for it.

“Even so, sending countless assassins is going too far. Does it make sense that more than half of the attempts to harm you are from blood relatives? I know you’re dealing with it wisely, but I’m sorry I can’t step up without justification.”

“Justification…”

“The family head should be someone who can ‘test’ the successor. So, I’m saying…”

The next moment, the eldest who was once the top dog on Earth said this.

“How about you become the family head?”

Saying that he’ll push for me.