Chapter 56: Why is the Mastermind Always Her?!
Will finally learned from Hunter that Felix’s family was not doing well financially. The royal family itself was in decline, and the nobles were struggling.
So, they agreed to cooperate with the Brandon family. The Brandon family provided some money, and Felix’s family offered some power within their territory. The two families grew closer, and their younger members naturally got acquainted, with the older ones offering some care to the younger ones.
It was the second young master of the Brandon family who had been instigating Felix from behind the scenes, providing him with certain items and knowledge from a senior student’s experience, so that Felix could take the lead in bullying Will. Otherwise, with Felix’s abilities as a new student, how could he have accurately known the location of the school’s cold storage and stolen the key to let someone in so smoothly?
“The Brandon family? Alright, I understand. I’ll investigate it.” The Brandon family had indeed always been at odds with the Hysterm family. However, it was purely on a commercial basis. Both families operated in the dungeon business, but the Brandon family had always focused on logistics and supplies, mainly providing equipment and various resources needed by hardcore adventurers. The Hysterm family’s operations were lighter, concentrating on the market and services, offering a trading market within the dungeon and recreational and social services for adventurers.
Clearly, when dungeon exploration was not simple and consumption was high, the Brandon family profited well. The dungeon’s output was barely enough to cover exploration costs, and to save money, many adventurers chose to barter with the Brandon family for supplies, a method that often allowed the Brandon family, as the seller, to profit significantly. Therefore, adventurers of that era had almost no surplus funds to enjoy more services.
However, in recent years, the Hysterm family had provided substantial support to the Adventurer’s Guild and reformed the market structure. The variety of tradable items had increased, and pricing had become more detailed. Moreover, through some unknown means, the dungeon’s output had increased, and the risks had decreased, reducing the demand for basic equipment. Adventurers now had surplus money to enjoy the services provided by the Hysterm family.
Still, their recent commercial rivalry could not be considered a deep-seated feud. Today, they might be competing for personnel due to different business policies, but tomorrow they might cooperate on business dealings for mutual benefit. That’s the nature of merchants.
But…
“It’s strange. Even if the Brandon family is at odds with us, there’s no point in them bullying me. According to their information, I’m the unwanted child of the Hysterm family… Oh, right, I don’t have a mother anymore.” Will pondered this problem even as he sat at his desk at home.
He cut off a piece of the postmark, heated it to dissolve, and then sprinkled the powder he bought from the black market onto the small plate. “Bullying me at school… What’s the point, besides getting on my nerves? Hmm… To lure me into realizing something?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the results of the powder he had just sprinkled were out. The white powder had already changed color. “So fast, is this the rate of improvement the royal family has achieved over two hundred years?” Will brought the plate closer. In the middle of the melted postmark was the powder he had just sprinkled.
In stark contrast to the dark blue postmark, the powder had turned a bright red, a dazzling, brilliant red.
“…Wait?! This color is…” The moment he saw this color, Will’s eyes lit up. Will didn’t even need to consult the color chart beside him. He remembered this color. Because in the original work, Xiu had used this method to check letters from the Entak Royal Family, and the first time he discovered it was… this very red color. Although the original text only described the color, the emphasis on a vibrant, dazzling bright red in the original work was undeniable.
To be safe, Will took out the crumpled color chart given to him by the black market merchant. After cross-referencing, he once again confirmed his suspicion. “It’s her, no, so it was her…” This color represented the Fourth Princess, Eugenie Entak. And, coincidentally, the original work also mentioned that the Fourth Princess was the Brandon family’s backing within the royal family. A significant portion of Eugenie’s future dungeon exploration resources was also obtained from the Brandon family.
Identifying this one person meant connecting two seemingly unrelated events through the plot of the original work. Whether it was Will’s attack or the Brandon family’s bullying of Will through Felix, Eugenie was likely controlling it all from behind the scenes.
“If it’s her, damn it. I have to say, as expected of the first villain to appear in the original work, why is she so persistent…?” There was a reason this person was so familiar to Will. Because… in the original work, she was the mastermind of the first volume! Are you addicted to being the mastermind? In the first volume, Xiu’s forced departure from the team was almost entirely orchestrated by her. She was the one instigating discord from behind the scenes—of course, this instigation was mainly achieved by tricking and deceiving “Young Master Will.”
First, she sent her subordinates to join the “Shining Star” as strong mid-tier combatants. Then, through this person, she continuously tempted “Young Master Will” to buy expensive and impractical endorsement weapons and have him equip them on other team members, claiming this would increase the adventuring team’s ranking and earn more commissions.
Afterward, through the taunts of other teams, she made the already hot-headed “Young Master Will” challenge targets that were slightly difficult for the Shining Star at the time with these weapons. This was the beginning of the original story, where they started with a tragic failure. Finally, she made “Young Master Will” mistakenly blame the logistics member Xiu, causing him to pressure Xiu and leading to Xiu’s removal from the team. Due to his personality and being the visible captain, the other female leads, each with their own agendas, sided with him, kicking out the most convenient scapegoat with the mildest temper, Xiu.
It was revealed at the end of the first volume that Eugenie had orchestrated everything. She had taken a liking to Xiu’s talent as a logistician and wanted to poach him. However, Xiu had some reason for not wanting to leave the “Shining Star” team easily and was dedicated and diligent in his work, so she had to force him out through others. Oh, Xiu eventually chose to defect and went to the dungeon, where he was taken in by the popular Dungeon Empress and given a new harem – that was a much later development in this trashy manga.
“Although I haven’t met you yet, considering our future relationship, we really have a deep, fated connection!” Will, uncharacteristically, slammed his fist on the table and pointed at the red powder. That woman’s hair was red, and just looking at it made him angry! When reading the original work, he hadn’t thought much about it. But if he put himself in Xiu’s shoes, Eugenie’s machinations helped him see through his original teammates, and just after revealing her scheme, she was beaten by Xiu – how satisfying!
But… thinking from his current perspective. The people who attacked him were sent by her! The bullying was done by people she sent! The forced departure was orchestrated by her people! How much of a grudge do you have against Will Hysterm? Will’s competitive spirit was ignited. “Let’s see if I can find a way to punish you…”
However, if she was the mastermind behind the attack… why did she do it? Will scratched his head. Her actions were always convoluted, yet she could precisely control “Young Master Will’s” actions—it was hard to say. After pondering for a while without a clear conclusion, Will decided… to take out his trump card! With a snap, he opened the drawer, took out a book, and slammed it onto the table.
“Quest System!”
Plot stuck? No objectives? Lost? Forgot the original story? No items? Just open the system. It’s just that there are no items. A well-written quest system should connect the plot, allowing one to recall details just by looking at the quests and their descriptions.
“Since Eugenie is the Fourth Princess and a member of the royal family, I should probably meet the third person soon.” He flipped open the third chapter of the “Quest System.”
“Princess Treya’s Chapter.”
“That’s right… Treya. Treya Entak, Eugenie’s sister, the swordswoman of the Shining Star team.”
“Finally, it’s your turn.”
