A Horror Novel’s Supporting Character Wants to Live as a Human Chapter 38

The Licht viscounty neither ran special businesses nor made investnts.

Yet it was strange that they had quite a large influence in the west.

It would be understandable if they had popularity, military accomplishnts, or connections in the central region, but they had none of these.

It was said that the Licht family was exceptional in managing their inherited wealth.

Whether their managent thods were illegal or legal, being exceptional was still exceptional.

Like this prayer hall gambling den.

Rotaer Licht, the forr head butler of Hartmann and the eldest son of the Licht family, couldn't get up from the floor.

This was because Leandros had slamd his head to the ground as soon as he tried to escape.

He had tried to scream, but quieted down when Leandros threatened to cut out his tongue.

After breathing heavily for a while, he shouted in a voice filled with fear.

"Wh-what are you planning to do with !"

"Please don't act like this when you know everything. What do you think is the reason I ca all the way here?"

"I don't know anything. Nothing!"

"Yet you blackmailed Assistant Head Butler Alia quite well."

When Alia's na ca up, Rotaer's eyes widened.

"How did you know, Alia..."

"Setting aside how I found Alia. Let ask you directly. It was you who colluded with Crown Prince Yurik, wasn't it?"

"No! How dare you see as!"

"So far, I've been seeing you as a traitor."

"Are you going to kill ?"

He didn't understand why people who had committed cris always expected death. It wasn't like their cris would be pardoned by doing so.

"Not today. I just want to know about your relationship with Yurik. If you tell about that, we'll leave peacefully."

He gently pushed away the gold coins that had rolled to his feet.

"...Or I could give you so gifts."

Rotaer rolled his eyes, scanning the gold coins spilled on the floor.

After weighing his options for a mont, he cried out desperately.

"Sw-swear to ! Swear that you'll let go if I tell you everything."

"I'll try."

At his response, the strength in Leandros's hand slightly decreased.

Only then did Rotaer, panting, pour out his story.

"I, I didn't even know I was connected to His Highness the Crown Prince. I swear, I just went to a tavern to play so card gas."

"When you were head butler?"

"Before becoming head butler. I always played gas on holiday evenings, and that day, the tavern owner particularly urged , saying a skilled player had co, so after a few gas..."

He must have beco engrossed without realizing it.

Rotaer Licht was a gambling-friendly character.

This was natural, considering his family ran such a large illegal gambling den.

In fact, the reason Rotaer had been practically expelled from his family and entered as a head butler was also due to gambling.

Pathological gambling addiction.

A ntal disorder called gambling addiction in modern tis.

He had beco addicted to gas at the gambling den operated by his family.

And then he had accumulated large debts while being unable to control himself while gambling elsewhere.

As a result, his family had paid off the debt on his behalf and practically forced him out to Hartmann.

As befitting a noble family's son, he had a record of attending the Academy and wasn't particularly unintelligent.

But the problem was his addiction.

"I didn't know. I didn't know. I was about to win, but at the last mont, the card ca out like that!"

"I'm not interested in that. So you lost. How much did you have to pay?"

Rotaer spat through his teeth.

"Seven thousand seven hundred ninety-seven gold coins. The number written on the promissory note is sothing I haven't forgotten to this day!"

A sum that couldn't be earned even if Rotaer sold himself ten tis over.

What happened next was roughly predictable.

"So you beca indebted, and to repay that debt?"

"Letters kept coming, threatening to inform both the Hartmann family and my family. I tried to do sothing about it. But I thought I couldn't be driven out like this when my appointnt as head butler was almost certain."

Rotaer paused for a mont.

The voice that followed had sha embedded in it.

"...I explained my situation in a letter, and he said he would think of a solution together. And a few days later, the person I t again at the tavern was His Highness Crown Prince Yurik."

"I heard there was so relationship with the creditor?"

"His Highness Crown Prince Yurik said that man was a businessman in whom he personally invested. But he said the man beca financially troubled, and His Highness directly purchased his business."

"And you believed that?"

"Looking back now, it seems strange, but at the ti, I thought that the entire enormous debt was dependent on His Highness..."

"That commoner businessman, have you ever seen his face?"

"He was wearing his hat pulled down deeply, so not at all."

The image of Leandros sweeping through the gambling den ca to mind.

He would bet that the businessman was definitely Yurik himself.

If there was a protagonist buff, there must certainly be a villain buff too.

Fucking novel rules, he thought.

"Continue, please."

"His Highness said he would give a different proposal instead of bankrupting ."

Ah, his head.

While pressing his temples firmly, he asked.

"Was it to sell out Hartmann's internal affairs? Instead of properly repaying the debt?"

"I had no choice! Who could repay such a large amount of money, who!"

"There must have been other ways!"

"People like you who have lived in comfort in a ducal family wouldn't understand, you could have obtained that amount just by throwing a tantrum!"

Rotaer scread.

"You think people who carry around money are abundant in this world! Hartmann might have been able to obtain it with a wiggle of a finger, but not ! From the beginning..."

From the beginning, those born with golden cradles know nothing.

That there truly was no way for himself.

Why bla him for falling into the Crown Prince's sche?

He was rely a chess piece sacrificed in the fight between the ducal family and the royal family.

Thinking that way, he too was a victim.

He seed to have heard roughly that kind of talk, but it wasn't clear.

He was so angry that his head was spinning.

Certainly, the ones who died weren't his parents, and the fallen family wasn't his family.

But he was here now.

This bastard had built up the situation that the body he possessed was in.

Even considering that Yurik was the mastermind behind the manipulation, there were parts that could be taken into account and parts that couldn't.

Rotaer was completely different from Alia.

No remorse, no regret.

"Fine."

At those words, Rotaer, who had been letting out screeches close to curses, abruptly stopped.

"Wh-what?"

"It's all fine. Let's not talk about past events. Eliminating you won't take us back to the past anyway."

"Are you letting go? You're releasing ?"

"What are you talking about? You still have sothing to repay to ."

Rotaer's eyes widened.

He ca down from the sofa and stood in front of him.

"I've lost too much due to your snitching, how could a few thousand gold coins be enough? I could cut off your finger here and write a promissory note."

"Su-such cowardly actions won't work!"

"I'm just saying. But I've decided to think generously, just like His Highness Crown Prince Yurik."

The sight of him squirming at his feet was distasteful.

While making an effort not to inadvertently step on him, he spoke slowly.

"You'll need to recall all of your conversations with Crown Prince Yurik."

*

When they ca out of the monastery, the sun was already halfway up.

There was a jingling sound from the pouch fastened at his waist.

This was because, in addition to the gold coins Leandros had earned, they had completely emptied Rotaer's pockets.

Today was a complete jackpot.

Arndt would probably faint with joy if he brought this to him.

As he created a shade with his hand because the sunlight, as radiant as the gold coins, was dazzling, Leandros put the hood back on him.

"Shall we head back?"

"We've obtained all we need."

Leandros deserved much of the credit for making Rotaer talk.

While so violence was inevitably involved, he still seed to be exercising maximum restraint.

That suddenly bothered him, so he asked.

"Weren't you angry when the head butler was making excuses earlier? I almost strangled that bastard."

"If you had given the order, I would have done it instead."

Leandros paused for a mont before adding.

"I would have understood completely."

"Yet you don't kill him."

Rotaer didn't really possess any crucial information.

But just by relaying what he had heard from Yurik, there were several things that could be inferred.

First, Yurik had shown a fearso obsession with the ducal family.

The knife pointed at the ducal family wasn't sothing that had been sharpened over just a few days.

Rotaer had spilled information that Yurik had been particularly interested in.

One of them was about the forr Duchess.

And also about Arenheit, the son of the forr Duchess.

If he intended to use "revelations" as Leandros had said, it made sense.

Since the Duchess was also one who received revelations, if the Duchess refused, he might have tried to take Arenheit hostage.

Suddenly, he rembered the last ti he died.

Yurik, who had tried to dismber him.

Yurik would not know that he could experience "revelations."

If he had judged the Duchess to be of no use and killed her, did he also kill Arenheit because he had lost his usefulness?

But if so, why did he keep Arenheit alive by promoting his improbable reinstatent beforehand?

Keeping him alive, then killing him.

No, it seems closer to deciding to keep him alive, then changing his decision to kill him.

And the change that happened to him during that ti was.

Possession.

Arenheit disappeared, and he entered instead.

Therefore, he chose to kill this body rather than save it.

What benefit did he gain by killing him?

-The limbs will be distributed evenly across each region of the empire. I didn't expect to be taking care of the Duke in this manner, but that body has many useful purposes.

"Leandros, I'm just asking this, but have I changed from before?"

"You've beco quite eloquent. Your patience has increased. And communication is normally possible."

"What about in appearance?"

"You seem a bit taller."

It seed there weren't any changes from before.

He looked down at his hands.

This seed like one of the tasks he'd need to figure out in the future.

And the second story Rotaer had told.

Whenever he t with Yurik, he always appeared busy.

One might think this was natural for a Crown Prince, but according to what he had overheard, Yurik seed to be conducting business in various parts of the kingdom.

One of them was said to have the south in mind.

What ca to mind when he heard about the south.

The rpeople who had died.

Was it his misperception that it overlapped with the east?

"Let's leave here first and go to a larger village. Sowhere likely to have an Aisling rchant Group branch."

"Yes."

"I wonder if Arndt has reached the east."

"Distance-wise, it's entirely possible."

"We'll know if we contact him through the branch."

He needed to ask about what had happened in the east, and whether there had been any entanglent with the Arnold baronial family.

With these thoughts, they mounted the black horse again and left the village.

Three days later, they arrived at one of the western cities.

The rchant group branch in the city was a bit small but had everything necessary.

They asked for permission and wrote a letter addressed to Aiden.

However, when he handed the letter to the clerk, the clerk, after checking the recipient, showed a perplexed expression.

"I'm sorry. It seems letter delivery will be impossible through here."

"What? Even though it's a telegram for Aiden Aisling. Did sothing happen to Aiden perhaps?"

Could this guy have been pushed out of the successor position!?

Suspicion suddenly rose within him.

But the clerk shook his head.

"All routes to the east are currently blocked. Not just for us, but for other rchant groups and travel routes as well."

"What? Why?"

Not just Aisling but other rchant groups were in the sa situation?

A foreboding feeling suddenly arose.

"I heard that an anomalous phenonon that appeared in the wasteland, where reclamation work was in full swing, has engulfed the east. Those sent for situation assessnt haven't returned, making it difficult to provide details. I ask for your understanding."

The clerk explained.

Bad feelings always co true.