Betrayal.
The impact of that single word was imnse. A heavy silence, so thick you could hear a pin drop, fell over the area.
"Betrayal, you say." Rather than showing any particular reaction, Finch shook his head as if in pity and let out a long sigh. "This year marks my twentieth year of loyalty to the Oldone family. That’s longer than you’ve been alive."
He looked down at Simon, his eyes cold as ice. "You, who have been an employee for a re three days, dare to question my loyalty?"
"The issue of betrayal," Simon retorted without missing a beat, "is not sothing that can be glossed over with emotional argunts about ti or age. Only clear facts matter."
"And what is this clear fact that makes you dare to call a traitor?"
"The pirates who conspired with you have confessed."
A wave of murmurs rippled through the retainers, their faces etched with horror.
"The naval soldiers of Blue Harbor also heard their confessions," Simon added.
"Confessions, you say." Finch scoffed. "For a necromancer, extracting a desired answer from a prisoner’s tongue is a task so simple it’s boring."
"Then let’s all go to the beach," Simon challenged. "We’ve captured more than just one or two pirates. It would be impossible for to have manipulated all of them in such a short ti, wouldn’t it? We can uncover the truth there."
"This is a ti of war," Finch dismissed him coolly. "With pirates running rampant across the territory, we have no ti for that."
’It’s over,’ Simon thought as he slowly lowered his stance. "Then at least put the Count down, and we can talk. You are a suspect."
"I believe I said I cannot make any compromises when it cos to the Count’s protection."
"Uncle Finch." Shun, still held by Finch’s liquefied arm, spoke with a firm expression. "Let go."
An order from the Count himself. Finch, now a suspect, had no grounds to refuse. The public opinion had already turned against him. He let out another long, theatrical sigh.
"Very well."
As Finch spoke in a tone of resignation, he bent his knees and shot into the sky. At the sa ti, green spheres fell from his Subspace, hissing as they spread a thick, poisonous fog and paralyzing gas in every direction.
"Ugh!"
"Be careful! Cover your noses!"
Everyone scrambled to cover their faces with their clothes. In the confusion, Finch’s lower body turned to smoke and vanished over the mansion’s roof.
"Could it be... Finch really..." The head butler’s pupils trembled, his mind refusing to accept the reality before him.
Simon, covering his own nose, shouted, "I’ll pursue Finch! All of you, spread the news of his betrayal to the navy and other officials!"
The head butler bowed his head, his face a grim mask. "We’re counting on you. Please, the Count..."
"Leave it to ." Simon imdiately stepped on a platform of Jet-Black and launched himself in the direction Finch had disappeared.
---
Finch flew a long distance with Shun in his grasp. He soared past the burning mansion, over the smoldering city, across a deserted sandy beach, and finally out to sea. A thick fog still hung heavy over the water. As he cut through the mist, a lone pirate ship floating on the waves ca into view.
Finch landed on the deck with a thud. The vessel was eerily silent, devoid of any sign of life. He tied Shun’s wrists tightly with a rope and threw him onto the deck.
"Oww!"
"Stay put," Finch ordered coldly.
Shun let out a pained groan and pushed himself up. He now saw that the empty ship was littered with the corpses of dead pirates. Beneath them, intricate magic circles were drawn on the wooden planks. Finch muttered an incantation, activating his black magic.
Shun scrambled back in horror, pressing his back against a mast. The flesh began to peel away from the corpses as undead skeletons rose unsteadily to their feet.
’S-Skeletons...!’
"Get to work, you pieces of trash," Finch commanded.
The skeletons clattered and scattered, busily raising the anchor and taking the helm, dividing the tasks to prepare for sailing. It was a grisly display, made possible by utilizing the strong residual mories and habits from their forr lives.
"Hmph." Finch slumped wearily into a chair on the deck.
Shun, who had been watching the skeletons work, turned his head. "Uncle Finch."
Finch smirked. "You still have the nerve to call uncle?"
"Why are you doing this to ? If I did sothing to upset you...!"
"It’s not you." Finch took a cigar from his pocket and placed it between his lips. "The root of all evil is your father."
"...What?"
"The death of my sister. Your mother." Finch’s lips twisted into a bizarre, cruel grin. "Do you know the truth about that?"
Finch Nikiman. Though born into a fallen, insignificant noble family, his talent was nothing short of genius. He showed overwhelming promise from a young age, and rumors of his prowess spread throughout the federation, marking him as the most likely candidate for Kizen’s next Special Admission No. 1. Various families scrambled to recruit him, but the most aggressive was the Oldone family, a wealthy house based in Blue Harbor. Finch’s sister married their eldest son, and Finch himself signed an exclusive contract with them.
It seed like a guaranteed path to success, but sowhere along the way, it all went wrong.
A year later, during Kizen’s admission season, Finch received no offer. Far from special admission, he even failed the entrance exam he took after swallowing his pride. The Oldone family beca a laughingstock. After spending a fortune to recruit him and marrying their heir into a family with no pedigree, all they had to show for it was a loser who couldn’t even cross Kizen’s threshold.
In the end, Finch enrolled in Alrand, one of the three major necromancer academies ranked below Kizen. There, he beca an elite student, consistently ranking in the top five, but the ridicule never subsided. Still, Finch tried desperately, putting his faith in the transfer system that allowed students from the major academies to move up to Kizen. He believed they would surely call for him.
One day, while studying, a letter arrived from his sister.
’It’s too difficult, Finch. Please take back ho. I want to get out of here.’
He knew how she was being treated. He knew her suffering was his fault. But that knowledge only fueled his vicious determination.
’Just hold on a little longer, dear sister. I’m sure Kizen will call for soon. When I get in, the family and the world will surely see us differently.’
But no matter how he excelled at Alrand, Kizen never called. The days passed in vain, and as he was about to graduate, Finch received the news of his sister’s death. The family claid it was due to an illness. But at the funeral, Finch opened her coffin in the dead of night. Bruises from her husband’s beatings covered her body. And hidden beneath her thick clothing were the clear, damning marks of a rope around her neck.
She had taken her own life.
Finch cried out in silence. In front of the coffin, unable to make a sound, he choked on his sobs, begging his dead sister for forgiveness again and again. But the dead do not return. All a necromancer could do was desecrate a corpse to make a skeleton or a zombie. He despaired, realizing the knowledge he had so desperately acquired was useless.
Exhausted from crying, he returned to the mansion at dawn, only to hear the explicit sounds of a man and woman moaning from the head of the family’s room. It was horrifying. His sister’s body wasn’t even cold. And yet, her husband, the man who had driven her to her death, was fooling around with the daughter of another family attending the funeral.
Blood trickled down his chin. Standing before that door, his eyes bloodshot, Finch made a vow.
He would bring this family to ruin. He would take everything from them.
And so, ti passed. The head of the family fell ill with a mysterious disease and slowly wasted away. His son, Shun, inherited the title of Count at a young age.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!" Finch laughed like a madman, finding it incredibly amusing how Shun’s expression had changed throughout the story. He laughed and laughed at the boy’s dazed eyes. "Do you understand now, my nephew!" he shouted. "I poisoned your father! I am your father’s enemy! And I am the one who killed your mother’s murderer!
"And I waited for a ti like this, when all the mbers of the Oldone family would be gathered in one place! There is no escape. The people of this island will be eliminated by the pirates, and the Oldone family will disappear from history! And the sovereignty of Blue Harbor and the wealth of the Oldone family will fall to the only remaining family mber." Finch’s expression twisted like a demon’s. ". It will all be passed down to Finch Nikiman.
"What do you think of my plan, nephew?"
Shun squeezed his eyes shut. Then, taking a deep breath, he glared at Finch. "It won’t go according to your plan, Uncle."
"Hmm? And why is that?"
"Because Simon will co to stop you."
’Pfft!’ Finch burst out laughing. "Yes, you calling Kizen’s Special Admission No. 1 was the only variable in this plan. But after seeing him with my own eyes... Huh! My god. A diocre talent with no distinguishing features is Special Admission No. 1?" Fury blazed in his eyes. "I failed the entrance exam! And a diocre talent like him gets in? Nephthys must be old and losing her sight! Damn it! Kizen! Kizen! Kizen! I wondered what was so great about it! What kind of amazing person he must be!"
Finch roughly ran his hands through his hair and put the cigar back in his mouth. A puff of smoke billowed out, and his expression cald slightly. "Fine. It’s all in the past. After I take you to the Oldone ruins and retrieve the fortune, I’ll kill that Special Admission No. 1 and all the pirates with my own hands."
"Simon won’t die!" Shun yelled.
Just then, the ship jolted violently. Finch glared irritably at the skeleton at the helm. "Can’t you steer straight—! Hm?"
Out of the thick fog, a large pirate ship suddenly appeared, cutting through the waves.
"Woah!"
The two ships collided. The deck tilted, and the hull shook violently. Shun tumbled across the deck, while Finch used Jet-Black to anchor his feet and stood firm. After taking one last drag from his cigar, he flicked the butt into the sea.
After the tremors subsided, a figure began walking across the deck of the other ship. Finch gathered his Jet-Black. "Who are you?"
Shun stared ahead, half-worried and half-hopeful. Whatever happened, the situation couldn’t get any worse. Could it be Simon, here to save him?
’It can’t be Simon,’ Finch thought. They had just parted ways at the mansion. Logically, it would be impossible to seize a pirate ship and ram it into his in such a short amount of ti.
In the end, Finch was right. The figure that erged was a black-bearded man wearing the long-brimd hat of a captain.
"There you are, Count."
It was none other than the pirate captain, Gale. His gaze was fixed on Shun.
"Why are you here?" Finch demanded, frowning.
"Isn’t it obvious?" Gale grinned and thrust out his arm. "Bring the Count, unhard! You can kill anyone who gets in the way!"
"Ooooh!" Pirates began to swarm from the deck of the opposite ship.
Finch smirked and drew up his Jet-Black. ’So they betrayed first.’ Finch and Gale had used each other, but in the end, their relationship was destined for betrayal. Gale despised necromancers, and Finch wanted the Oldone fortune for himself. ’They’re all just small fry anyway. It’s not a bad idea to settle this here and now.’ Finch’s lips curled into a sneer as he watched the charging pirates.
Gale, on the other hand, swallowed hard, his eyes darting around nervously.
’Phew, thank goodness he didn’t see through my disguise,’ Erzebet thought. ’So, what do I do now?’
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