CH 149

A Wicked Design



“What does this mean? Robert, I thought I had left the food distribution to you. So why did I get such a letter from the Royal Family?”



The day after the evening party, Robert was summoned to the study by his father.



After Robert entered the room, he was greeted by the sight of his frowning father, holding a letter, which pointed out House Lance’s food distribution inadequacy, up high.



“I’ve always told you not to disgrace our Lance family name… I was disappointed.”



“…I’m sorry, Father.”



Despite apologizing, Robert didn’t seem to hold any remorse.



In the first place, the food distribution should have been the responsibility of the current Duke, his father.



‘Isn’t it too unreasonable for him to scold me whenever a problem arises when he is the one who pushed this job to me only because he didn’t want to do it?’



Robert wanted to say that the way his father did the food distribution was also flawed, because he only ordered the servants to follow his father’s practice.



But there was no way he could talk back to his father.



Things only turned out this way because that person said such unnecessary things to the King.



Emma Stuart… Just remembering that name pisses me off.



Everything is her fault.



Just wait, I will make you taste hell at the academy tomorrow.



♠♠♠



After he was finally released from his father’s scolding, Robert called Bryan to the Lance mansion, and they headed to the inner part of the large garden of the House of Duke Lance.



“Robert-sama? Where are we going? If House Lance receives a letter from the Royal Family, my house will probably also receive one tomorrow, so I want to formulate a countermeasure…”



Bryan’s household was in charge of the food distribution the week before House Lance.



After hearing about what had just happened to Robert, Bryan racked his brain over how to get away from his parents’ scolding.



“Shut up, just follow me quickly. You’ll get scolded anyway, so isn’t preparing our revenge more worth it?”



Ignoring Bryan’s complaints, Robert advanced further and further into the garden’s depth steadily.



After going this deep into the garden, pretty much no servants of House Lance could be seen setting foot there. When they bumped into a sturdy locked fence halfway, Bryan stopped in place as he thought that was as far as they could. However, Robert took out a key from his pocket and strode inside.



“R-Robert-sama? Where exactly is this? Where are we going?”



After walking pretty far, Robert continued to unlock other locked fences several times, and advanced quickly towards the path in the woods with a lot of vegetation.



Upon seeing the tight security of the place, Bryan only had a bad premonition. Even the fence before him was extremely solid. It was as if it was to lock up a first-class monster.



“This is the last fence. Something that will make Emma Stuart cry in despair is in here.”



“Hehehe.” Robert laughed until his face twitched.



He thought that it would be better if he just turned around and forgot the whole thing if what was inside was really that dangerous. But he still felt disgruntled because being scolded by his father meant that he had the risk of losing his qualification to be the successor whenever he got careless.



This was especially so since Robert had many male cousins. It meant he could be easily replaced.



Robert had come this far with the intent of getting revenge on Emma, who caused him to be caught in this predicament, but he hesitated to turn the last key.



“Robert-sama, let’s just go back. After all, it’s still better for us to prepare for tomorrow’s Monster Science class.”



Bryan was scared of the Monster Science teacher.



He wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully in class as long as he was unable to answer the teacher’s questions.



“Heh. Isn’t it impossible for the great ME to get cold feet from this? See this, Bryan. We will throw these at her.” 



A creaking sound was heard as Robert opened the last fence.



“…?”



‘If it’s the size of something that can be thrown by hand, it won’t be dangerous, right?’ Bryan peeked inside the fence.



After blinking several times to get used to the dimness, Bryan caught sight of a building shaped like a sunroom, and many overgrown plants he had never seen before.



“Robert-sama… What are you… going to throw…”



*rustle rustle rustle rustle* …Bryan froze as a traversing black object entered his field of vision.



What is that?



What the?



That “rustling” thing was also there at Bryan’s feet.



“A-Aagghhh!!!!”



The moment he caught sight of the ‘thing’, Bryan screamed at how disgusting it was.



W-w-wha… no, what the heck is that thing?



“R-r-r-robert-sama, i-is it… okay to throw such a thing? If someone throws that at me… hic… Are you a demon? You are, aren’t you?!”



Bryan had never seen something that repulsive.



He’s going to throw that?



Someone might even get injured.



He’s going to throw that at a young lady in the academy? At a young lady who people have started to call Saint? 



…She won’t die from shock… or anything like that, right?



“Oi, Bryan. Hurry and collect them all. That thing’s power multiplies according to its number. Let’s pack it into this box and pour over Emma Stuart from up above.”



“Hehehe.” Robert was laughing happily.



“Collect all those”(?) what kind of torture is that…



Bryan took the pair of tongs, and while fighting against the coming shivers, started putting ‘it’ into the box together with Robert, his movements being faster than expected.



“Hehehe, I can already imagine Emma Stuart crying…”



Robert’s booming laugh echoed throughout the empty sunroom.