CH 80.1

Chapter 80.1. Duke Kanna’s Miscalculation

-Duke Kanna’s POV-

The Japanese Magic Empire.

It was a country founded by Nobunaga Oda, the founder. He was an “impudent” feudal lord who suddenly emerged in the Warring States period and unified Japan with his overwhelming power. After conquering Japan, Nobunaga later declared himself a demigod. He mastered all kinds of magic and created a series of never-before-seen magical objects, including a castle in the sky. In this way, he ruled Japan.

In the more than 500 years since then, the Japanese Magic Empire, founded by a single genius, has been struck by various national disasters, but it continued uninterruptedly until now.

The ruler of the Japanese Magic Empire is the emperor and his nobles. The nobles support the emperor. Among them, the most powerful nobles are called the 36 families.

In other words, they are high-ranking nobles with e dukes, 3 marquises, and 30 counts.

Although there are only three dukes, Kanna Dukedom is proud of its superiority over the other dukes in the Japanese Magic Empire.

Although loyal to the emperor and the most powerful, Ryusui Dukedom isn’t interested in business, and their financial power is weak.

Aguni Dukedom, who have ambition, send many family magicians to the military and the warriors, mainly to manage mining dungeons, etc., and have enormous assets, but are one step behind Kanna Dukedom, and Marquis Teijo Marquisate, and have little influence.

Compared to these two, Kanna Dukedom, who own military enterprises, have a weapons division that feeds into the military, have great influence, and in terms of financial power, they are undeniably the leading dukedom, with a wide variety of businesses from the Kanna Department Store to amusement parks and various other diversified businesses, as well as large personal connections in many circles.

Above all, as a family that manipulates several attributes, they’re no different from a string of gods who also could master several attributes. There are only a few families who can master several attributes.

Duke Kanna, who is flying high, thought there would be no problem if he took the emperor’s position.

That was what he thought.

“………What do you mean?”

Duke Kanna, who usually didn’t open his eyes and had a calm and dubious face, was sitting on a chair in his office and tapping his desk while looking at the men standing opposite him.

The office gets elegantly furnished with antiques. Duke Kanna takes many magic measures to prevent prying eyes and no sound leaks outside. The dukedom, which has existed since ancient times, has many items that people can’t manufacture today that aren’t allowed outside the gates.

“Ha, yes. I can’t get in touch with Loki at all.”

Seeing his subordinates shrinking their shoulders and looking horrified, Duke Kanna becomes more grim-faced. That’s unusual for a man who is usually calm and collected and, like a high-ranking noble, never shows his emotions.

His subordinates shrink even more as if he’s uncomfortable with the current situation.

“I know Loki’s personality. They enjoyed seeing Japan’s chaos. They don’t care about treasure, so I thought they wouldn’t betray me…”

He leans back in his chair, rubs his chin, and ponders. Loki had supported him in his struggle with the emperor. He thought they wouldn’t interfere until he was on the verge of becoming the emperor. They might betray him when he’s close to becoming the emperor and helping the opposing forces. They’re a person who is always looking for inspiration. He didn’t trust them that much, but he had read their character.

But this time Loki betrayed him.

“Is it possible that Solomon’s people killed him?”

“No, we have confirmed the bodies of numerous magicians at the scene, probably Solomon.”

“Muu……….”

Solomon is a group that manipulates monsters and tries to revive and use them as demonic gods. It’s a group of monster users searching for the 72 pillars used by the ancient King Solomon. They were a useful group that manipulated powerful monsters and were easy to use. Therefore, he teamed up with them for this job.

Monster users fight enemies by manipulating monsters. Because of their nature, they’re difficult to be captured by the enemy, and because they can dispose of monsters, they were a powerful force to be reckoned with. Since they were untrustworthy, it was conceivable that they might betray him in the middle of the mission, but he had prepared for that eventuality.

After all, they were a foreign group. There were limits to how much treasure they could carry. Even if they were to stumble upon a way to transport the treasures and betray him, we would have no choice but to rely on the Kanna Dukedom name again. There are many ways to manipulate an opponent without fighting.

Solomon was a powerful man, but the number of monster users was small, and their power outside combat, like transporting and information gathering was weak. This time, he was able to infiltrate Japan secretly because Duke Kanna was behind the scenes.

Therefore, there was no problem even if Solomon betrayed him. He would have to share some of the treasure, but the treasures would soon get returned to him.

The treasures will be an important source of funds he could use behind the scenes. Since the money was unaccounted the fund, he had many ideas on how to spend it, but he went par.

“Among the corpses was King Solomon, Solomon’s boss. It could be a fake body. At any rate, the corpses were all in their underwear, and someone took everything they wore from them.”

“Is it true that the fact that their magic tool gets stolen is proof of its authenticity?”

“It seems that all hell has broken loose. It seems that many high disciples were also involved in this operation, I have received reports that they’re struggling to maintain their organization after the loss of the upper echelons all at once.”

“Then the real ones get killed. There is no advantage for King Solomon to pretend he died here.”

If that is the case, then Loki must have betrayed him.

“Like defeating king mantis, Loki’s behavior this time is strange. ……… It’s not like them. Don’t tell me they’ve joined the side of the royal family?”

Duke Kanna hasn’t grown that much in power. Or maybe they didn’t, or they couldn’t. The royal family’s power is great, and the emperor is shrewd.

Therefore, this operation could be called a “dry and win-win” operation, and if it succeeded, the emperor’s prestige would fall at once, and Duke Kanna would expand his power at once.

Even though it was a desperate maneuver, there was a good chance the operation would be successful. The odds were in his favor. He has a powerful group of people, a worthy scapegoat called Solomon. Loki enjoyed chaos so much that they’re extremely unlikely to betray him.

It was supposed to be an operation that finally ready after many years of preparation. This operation was a big gamble of both time and money.