Chapter 18 | The Assassin Gathers Information
The day I returned home, there was a grand celebration for me having reached adulthood.
The next morning, I sensed someone in my room, and I opened my eyes to see that my mom had sneaked in. As a trained killer, I had the ability to immediately wake up no matter how tired I’d been.
I pretended like I was sleeping, and she stared at me for a long time… Mainly at the lower half of my body.
Mom really hadn’t changed in the last few years. I’d grown a lot while I’d been gone, but she hadn’t visibly aged at all. I don’t know how she managed to look twenty-five years old despite actually being over forty. Perhaps the Tuatha Dé family had some sort of secret for preserving youth.
Were that true, it’d probably be a bigger hit than the moisturizer I’d created.
I sat up in bed.
“Good morning. Mom, what are you doing in here so early?”
“Drats. Nothing happened this morning.”
From that one sentence, I knew that Tarte had told her about the darkest moment of my life.
“… I’ve developed a countermeasure so I won’t have to deal with that again. Besides, if that happened every day, it’d be a serious illness.”
“Well, that’s disappointing.”
“Hold on, do you really want to see that kind of thing from your son?”
“I really want to see it! It’s proof that you’ve become an adult.”
I smiled reflexively.
Regarding that “darkest moment”…
It was fall of my thirteenth year. Tarte and Maha usually tried to hide this from me, but they were clearly starved for affection, prone to loneliness, and yearned for family.
Such a yearning was understandable, especially because they both lost their families at very young ages. Occasionally, the loneliness would become too much for them to bear, and I would let them sleep with me.
There was nothing lewd about it. All we did was sleep in the same bed. Feeling someone else’s body heat helped them to relax.
This custom also helped bring us closer together. The trouble was, I hadn’t quite understood the desire of my developing teenage body. That’s not to say I lost control to the point where I did anything stupid like put my hands on either Tarte or Maha, though.
One ominous day, Tarte and Maha had coincidentally both asked if they could spend the night with me, and we all ended up sleeping together. We all happily greeted the morning together. That’s when everything went tragically south. Tarte sniffed a few times and said that she smelled something weird. Maha agreed and craned her neck, and then I panicked upon realizing the sticky state of my lower body.
There couldn’t have been a worse time to have a wet dream.
I hadn’t had many of them in my first life, and this had been my first ejaculation as Lugh Tuatha Dé, so it took me a bit of time to realize what had happened, which is why Tarte and Maha had caught on first.
I knew I’d never forget the looks on their faces. They both blushed deep red and looked away, shyly peering toward my mess.
I’d always regarded the two as family and acted as both a father figure and a brother to them, and then I’d allowed something that disgraceful to happen. I wanted to smash something. Or die.
I could feel everything I’d built crashing down around me.
For some reason, the fact that Tarte and Maha didn’t hate me for it but instead were clearly concerned for me made it so much worse.
“Master Illig, um, please ask for my help from now on! I’m your retainer, so I can give you that kind of service as well! It will be so hard for you if you just let it build up! This is a necessary service!” Tarte insisted.
“… Dear brother, even if you call me your sister, your body doesn’t lie. Sometimes I wonder whether you want me to be your sister or your lover. Isn’t it possible for me to be both?” Maha asked.
I couldn’t believe they were so considerate as to be able to make jokes at a time like that. As a result, that horrifying scene had ended with laughter, and I was able to maintain my dignity as their father figure and older brother. After that, they’d asked to sleep with me much more frequently, for reasons that continued to elude me.
From then on, I took special care to ensure that shameful incident would never occur again. I didn’t want Maha or Tarte to have to see anything so unsightly. I even devised a countermeasure to prevent any future explosions.
My own body sure was annoying. The sexual appetite of a young adult was truly something to behold.
Not even an assassin could escape the shackles of the human body.
Mom refused to leave the room when I was trying to change, saying she wanted to “see my grown-up body,” so I chased her out, got ready, and went to the dining room.
The breakfast Tarte prepared for me was waiting on the table, and once I sat down, she stationed herself behind me. Unsurprisingly, the girl’s cooking was as tasty as ever.
This meal was extra enjoyable because it’d been made with Tuatha Dé ingredients, which made me feel nostalgic and increased my appetite.
After I’d finished eating, Mom walked into the room with a wide smile on her face. She handed me a proposal for a wife.
There were no digital photos in this world, so hand-drawn portraits were sent before meetings that arranged to judge compatibility for marriage.
As it happened, this was actually the fourth girl Mom had brought to my attention. All of the girls so far had been beautiful, held good social standing, and were close to my age. From an objective standpoint, they’d all been perfectly fine candidates.
Although Tuatha Dé didn’t have the highest annual tax revenue, it was well known that we made a lot of income through the medical trade. The family also had strong connections with major noble families. As such, we never hurt for marriage proposals.
Tarte, still stationed behind me, seemed to be in something of a bad mood.
“Mom, I’ve told you I don’t need these. I have no plans to take a marriage interview.”
I was already in love with Dia, so I didn’t need to meet anyone.
Tarte breathed a sigh of relief.
Most noble families used the marriage of their oldest son as a tool to make connections or increase their family’s rank among the noble hierarchy. Undoubtedly, many investigations were conducted to find the most suitable partner for any one candidate. My parents and I didn’t have an interest in that kind of thing, however.
If our family rose beyond the rank of baron, there’d be an increase in responsibilities. Doubtless, we’d have to attend more annoying social functions. The current size and standing of the domain suited Tuatha Dé just fine.
The reason Mom was bringing me these marriage proposals was probably because she was excited to have new babies to dote on.
“Oh, come oooon, Lugh. I found a really good girl this time. I want to meet my grandchildren!”
… Just as I thought.
Tarte looked like she wanted to say something, so I allowed her to speak.
“I think it’s too soon for Lord Lugh to marry.”
“It’s not too soon! He’s already an adult. If he takes too long, I’ll be an old woman before I have any grandchildren. Oh, wait, could you have his babies, Tarte?! …Hey, that would work, actually. You have mana, and you’re not a noble, so the number of annoying parties we have to go to wouldn’t increase. That’s a good bargain. I have a feeling you’d be able to have children right away, too.”
“Wha—? U-umm…if that’s what my lord desires.” Tarte blushed deep red all the way to her ears at my mom’s relentless teasing.
There was no need for her to take that joke so seriously.
“Mom, stop picking on Tarte.”
“I’m not picking on her. And, Lugh, I’ve been meaning to bring this up, but you’ve been talking back to me quite a lot lately! What kind of tone is that to use with your mother?”
“I’m an adult now, so I feel like I should speak like one. I’m not a little kid anymore.”
I’d considered continuing to play the good child in front of Mom, but…parents needed to be able to let go of their children.
“Awwww, come on, Lugh. I can’t take it! My cute little baby has become so brash!”
Evidently, my mom took no notice that treating me like a child was going to make me want to behave the way she wanted even less.
When night fell, I released two pigeons into the sky.
A letter had recently arrived from Maha, who was still in Milteu. She was running my cosmetic brand, Natural You, in my absence.
It was a lot for her to handle on her own, but Beruid was helping out as her assistant.
Beruid had received a high-quality education from a young age, and he had connections in various places. He had a wealth of real-world experience, too. Often, he’d sat in on my classes for Tarte and Maha, and proved to be a fast learner. That played no small part in enabling him to become the skilled businessman he was today.
Even though I was the representative of the overwhelmingly successful Natural You brand, I’d still been surprised to learn that he wanted to take classes from me, considering that he was heir to the Balor Company.
I told Maha to make effective use of him—and to learn from him, too. Just as he had a lot to learn from me, I was sure there was a lot that could be learned from Beruid.
My letter of reply contained two orders for Maha.
The first order was to gather information on Count Azba Venkaur, my current assassination target. Count Venkaur’s wife was a Natural You customer, so the company likely had some intel on her already.
I wanted Maha to use that as a starting point and perform a thorough investigation into Count Venkaur.
With this job, I wasn’t sure if it was wise to take my employer’s information at face value. That’s why I needed my own reports on the mark.
My second order was to send a letter to Count Venkaur’s wife informing her that Illig Balor wanted to visit her to show her a new product.
If Count Venkaur had anything to hide, he was likely to be extra wary, making it difficult to get near him. His wife, on the other hand, was sure to welcome Illig into her home, as he represented Natural You.
The requested data arrived four days later.
Maha had ended up sending me stacks of files, all of which had been transported via horse-drawn carriage to conceal them as a mere cosmetics shipment.
Natural You performed regular shipments of goods to members, and because my mom was a member, there was nothing unusual about a delivery arriving from Milteu.
Creating a membership program with regular home deliveries had been one of my proposals. The shipments included products a grade above what could be found in the store, and they were delivered monthly. It was a service targeted at the truly wealthy and, as a result, came with a heavy price tag.
The service transported reliably high-quality products in exchange for large, regular payments. The system gave Natural You a steady source of revenue from wealthy clients, and it had worked to successfully prevent the resale of products.
If you could afford this service, then you could avoid the war zone that was the storefront every day. What’s more, being sent special products most people couldn’t obtain gave the buyer a sense of superiority that upper-class people couldn’t resist. The number of members quickly exceeded capacity, and being a Natural You member had even become a symbol of status.
“Maha works quickly. So he really is spreading narcotics. This guy really is something.”
The size of the Balor Company information network was truly incredible. Count Azba Venkaur had previously caught the attention of the Balor Company while up to some criminal activity in Milteu, and they’d been keeping files on him ever since.
Narcotics brought misfortune to all but those who sold them.
Count Venkaur would get young nobles addicted by inviting them to try the drugs at secret parties, and it appeared he also made use of a criminal network to spread them throughout cities.
In particular, the narcotic he sold was derived from an evergreen shrub called vieze. Technically, it was a stimulant.
Stimulants increased activity in the brain, heightened the senses, and caused a state of excitement. Put simply, they made you high. In exchange for the feeling of euphoria, your body ended up becoming extremely dependent on them.
Milteu was able to prevent the narcotics from entering the city, but neighboring towns ended up suffering deeply from the addictive nature of the drug.
“Guess there’s no choice but to kill him.”
This count was selling narcotics in such a roughshod manner that he’d already ended up on the Balor Company’s radar. It was only a matter of time until his actions went public.
However, when accused of being responsible for trading narcotics, Count Venkaur feigned ignorance about the whole thing, saying he was unaware of the mafia transporting the drugs through his domain. He ended up arresting a small-time criminal and pinning the blame on him, thereby crediting himself for solving the problem.
Large bribes to a high-ranking official had likely also helped him get away with it.
Since such an excuse had actually worked, Count Venkaur likely had enough support from other nobles that the royal family was unable to touch him.
The steady increase of narcotics being dealt bothered me. If left alone, the entire Alvanian Kingdom risked being plunged into addiction.
Since the law couldn’t bring him to justice, there was no choice but to remove the pest through assassination.
Such was the duty of House Tuatha Dé.
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