Starting with a Military Arms System I Rise to Dominate Another World Chapter 49 : Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Peaceful Days, Stirring Undercurrents

People often said that when three won got together, it was a whole performance.

So what about four won?

They could practically make up a full mahjong table.

The girls’ tea party began amid the chatter of the four of them.

The servants had long since prepared all kinds of pastries and drinks.

Tina and the other two also shared plenty of gossip with Isabella.

The head of this family had gotten a concubine pregnant, that family’s elder was keeping a mistress outside the house, and so on.

Isabella listened to their gossip with great interest.

It had to be said: once girls started talking about gossip, ti passed incredibly quickly.

While they were chatting, the lively and restless Tina glanced out the window and noticed Ryan.

“Huh, Isabella, who is that person?”

Tina pointed outside the window and asked.

Rosa and Sophia looked over as well.

“That man isn’t from the Jurgen Family, is he?”

Rosa asked in confusion.

This was not her first ti coming to chat with Isabella, but she had never seen Ryan before.

“He’s not from the Jurgen Family.”

Sophia said with certainty.

“Yes, Sophia is right. He’s an adventurer. My maid Nila’s older sister is his slave, and he ca here to discuss business with Father.”

Isabella explained.

She had not forgotten Ryan’s demand that she keep the creator of the firearm a secret.

So she only gave a simple introduction to Ryan’s identity.

“He’s discussing business with Alfred?”

Tina cried out in surprise.

“That’s amazing!”

Rosa exclaid in admiration.

“Mhm, mhm, mhm...”

Sophia nodded repeatedly.

In their minds, anyone qualified to discuss business with Alfred ought to be a very mature person.

This was the first ti they had ever seen soone so young doing so.

“He doesn’t look very old.”

Tina murmured.

“That’s right. Mr. Ryan is the sa age as us.”

Isabella nodded.

The three of them imdiately beca a little curious about Ryan.

They all wanted to know how he had managed it.

“Isabella, could you invite him over? Ryan, right?”

Tina said in a coaxing tone.

“Uh... that wouldn’t be very appropriate. Mr. Ryan is studying martial arts with my father right now. It would be best not to disturb him.”

Isabella looked troubled.

“Ah? I see... All right, then.”

Tina sounded a little disappointed.

She had thought she might be able to call Ryan over for a chat.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine to ask him over when he’s resting?”

Sophia cut in.

She practiced martial arts all year round herself.

She knew martial arts training was extrely physically demanding, so Ryan would definitely need ti to rest.

“That’s impossible. Whenever Mr. Ryan is resting, my family’s craftsn go to discuss things with him.”

Isabella shook her head.

Back then, she had wanted to speak to Ryan during his breaks too, but she had never gotten the chance.

“...”

The three of them suddenly felt a little regretful.

But the thought ca quickly and went just as quickly. In the blink of an eye, they forgot all about it and went back to gossiping.

Ti passed swiftly, and before long, the sky had darkened.

The three girls also took their leave.

Lady of the House Greta personally saw them out.

She was very grateful to the three of them.

Before Ryan had arrived, only the three of them ca to visit Isabella often.

They were among the very few friends Isabella had.

Because of that, Alfred had taken special care of the families they belonged to.

In the past, Greta had wondered whether the three girls had been sent by their families to use Isabella.

But the results of the investigation showed that was not the case.

There was no need to go into the details of the thods used in the investigation.

The Jurgen Family had its own ways.

The fact that Alfred had been able to take the position of family head ant he was by no ans soft-hearted.

What was more, magic existed in this world.

Its convenience made many things easy to accomplish, including extracting confessions.

So to this day, Lady Greta remained deeply grateful to the three girls.

Every ti their tea party ended, she personally escorted them out.

......

Ti flowed on quietly, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Under Ryan’s guidance, the entire Production Process for perfu had been completed.

The Jurgen Family’s craftsn had already learned every thod.

From then on, all that remained was to gather raw materials on a large scale and begin production.

Those matters were no longer within Ryan’s scope, so he left the Jurgen Family to handle them as they pleased.

Ryan only focused on training in martial arts.

After the initial stage of laying the foundation had ended, Alfred stopped teaching Ryan personally.

Once the fundantals were in place, all that remained was diligent practice.

There was no shortcut to mastering martial arts. One could only move forward step by step.

Ryan did not slack off in the slightest and trained strictly according to Alfred’s guidance.

Because Alfred was extrely busy, the person who sparred with Ryan every day was the butler Marcus.

Even though Marcus’s hair was already streaked with gray, when it ca to actual combat, Ryan was still no match for him.

Of course, that was under the condition that Ryan did not use firearms.

Over the course of this past month, Marcus had also witnessed Ryan’s rapid improvent.

Although he appeared to be congratulating Ryan on the surface, Marcus felt a strong sense of wariness toward him.

He hid it well, however, and Ryan did not notice.

After finishing a day of training, Ryan turned and left with Nika to go back and rest.

Marcus watched Ryan’s departing figure, his expression uncertain.

Then he turned to look at the place where Isabella practiced her marksmanship during the day and recalled her shooting. In a low voice, he murmured, “Miss... Ryan... I just hope the plan won’t go wrong.”

......

Alfred Jurgen was ranked third among the sons of his generation in the family.

When he was young, he had chosen to beco an adventurer and go out into the world, forming an adventurer party called Ironblade.

At the age of twenty, he led the party deep into the Black Forest to subjugate a Shadow Panther.

The Shadow Panther could rge into the shadows and had already caused seventeen villagers to disappear.

After successfully killing the Shadow Panther, one of his sword techniques was recorded by the party as Shadow-Breaking Slash, and later beca an exemplary move in the family’s swordsmanship manuals.

At twenty-two, he went alone to the Plague Marsh to deal with a Rotclaw Troll.

After that mission, he was awarded the Silver Shield dal by the kingdom, and the three villages around the marsh erected simple stone monunts in his honor.

At twenty-five, he participated in a joint campaign to subjugate the Crimson Scale Evil Dragon.

Alfred received the dragon heart as his share and used it to strengthen the family’s magic shield.

At twenty-seven, his adventurer party accepted a commission to clear out the Undead Legion in the Wailing Mountains.

The Undead Legion was controlled by a lich and consisted of more than three hundred skeletons and fifty ghouls.

Alfred created twenty Holy Light Rune Scrolls and completely eradicated the undead threat.

After that operation, the Ironblade party beca famous, and Alfred’s na was entered into the 《Kingdom Adventurers’ Almanac》.

At the age of thirty, a sudden upheaval struck the family. His father died, and Alfred was forced to end his adventuring life and return to the family to inherit the position of family head.

After becoming the head of the family, he worked hard to develop it.

Now, under his managent, the Jurgen Family was flourishing.

It was doing vastly better than it ever had when his father had served as family head.

However, under the surface, the family had always been plagued by hidden currents.

Alfred knew the reason, but it was not easy for him to deal with.

That was because, among his father’s sons, he ranked third.

Above him were two older brothers.

Though both of them were also Mages, their magic talent was far inferior to Alfred’s.

His eldest brother, Hermann Jurgen, was a B-rank Mage.

His second brother, Otto Jurgen, was a C-rank Mage.

It might look as if B-rank and A-rank were only one level apart.

But the gap between them was as wide as heaven and earth.

It was precisely because Alfred was an A-rank Mage that his father had designated him as the family head.

Because he had been personally appointed by the previous head, and because Alfred truly was outstanding, no one in the family had objected.

But Hermann and Otto were deeply dissatisfied.

In their eyes, Hermann’s abilities were not much worse than Alfred’s, so why did Alfred have to be the family head?

Just because he was an A-rank Mage?

They refused to accept it.

Over the years, the two of them had constantly looked for opportunities to bring Alfred down.

But Alfred managed the family so well, and the family mbers admired him so much, that they never had the slightest chance.

Then, just when they had nearly despaired, a turning point appeared.

Alfred’s daughter turned out to have only D-rank magic talent.

That made them see an opportunity to overthrow Alfred.

It was bad enough that the head of the Jurgen Family had no son, but even his daughter was incapable of achieving anything great.

What if, before dying, Alfred passed the position of family head on to his daughter?

A D-rank Mage—was that not the weakest kind of Mage?

How could such a Mage possibly beco the head of the family?

As ti passed, such talk only grew more and more intense.

Of course, it was Alfred’s two brothers who were secretly fanning the flas behind the scenes.

Though it had no real destructive force, it put enough pressure on Alfred through public opinion and damaged his prestige.

At the sa ti, the two brothers were secretly gathering strength, planning to seize the right opportunity and pull Alfred down from the position of family head.

No matter how well the Jurgen Family was developing now, what did that have to do with the two of them?

Nothing at all.

Everyone would only rember Alfred, the family head.

No one would care about the two of them.

Moreover, they were confident.

Once they beca family head, they believed they could lead the Jurgen Family to even greater heights.

Alfred was the stumbling block standing in their way.

They thought of every possible ans to kick him aside.

To that end, they did not hesitate to use despicable thods, even bribing servants inside Alfred’s castle.

Recently, after hearing the news sent by their insider, they realized that ti was no longer on their side.

Alfred’s daughter, Isabella, had obtained a Magic Tool.

One that could help Isabella defeat a Mage.

If that news spread, it would be extrely unfavorable for the two of them.

With Alfred’s prestige, combined with Isabella shaking off the label of useless trash, the position of family head would surely fall into Isabella’s hands.

Once the family heir had been decided, the two of them would never again have any place in the matter.

Realizing this, the two brothers began preparing to mobilize all their power to drag Alfred down from the seat of family head.