Ugly Bastard

Keneth was mumbling something in anger and exasperation the whole time the group walked through the mansion, gesticulating with his hands the entire time; however Madam of the De la Cour family and her daughter, Evelina, barely listened to him, only voicing sounds of approval and nodding, showing that they listened to him, while gazing at each other meaningfully as they walked in front of the young nobleman.

Both women understood what was at stake. What a wrong time it was to have a scandal such as this. They were almost at the finish line. They could not lose it all because of this incident.

Something had to be done.

Killing or making Keneth disappear was not an option. A death or disappearance of such a high noble's scion as Count would attract attention. In the worst case it would involve Royal Investigators and then no amount of arrangements would let them hide the truth.

Would it be possible to close the young man’s mouth in any other way? Even if it was so, the blood was spilled. The entire entourage of this young man was slaughtered according to his words. Even if he says nothing, his father, Count McAlister would raise a storm once he found out.

No. They had to find another way. Erase the evidence and make all accusations in their direction unfounded.

For that they would have to pull out of this young man all the needed information with any means. Chat him, make him drunk, threaten or beg him, hell, fuck him if needed. The most important thing right now was to make him spill everything. Then they would spike his drink or pump him full of alcohol until he passed out. No matter what they had to hold him here until their servant would go and wipe out all evidence.

After that they’ll drag him to some whorehouse where they’ll leave him to sleep it off. By the time he comes to his senses, there will be nothing to prove his story. Even his father would consider his story a mere slur of a drunkard. 

A small smile spread on the lips of the Madam De la Cour as she led Keneth McAlister into the private room.

*****

When Keneth was led to the mansion, one of the servants brought his horse to the stable, leaving it to the stable servants to take care of.

The servants quickly removed the harness to lighten the stress of a poor animal and put it away. No one noted a small round object hanging from a harness among other decorations.

When the servants were gone, Noah appeared near the harness looking around the stable and picked up the medallion, hiding it in the pocket. He walked through the stall dressed in the stable boy’s clothes, careful not to seem suspicious and threw some sleeping pollen around, putting animals and servants to sleep. 

It would raise alarm if servants were to notice that several animals suddenly disappeared. Putting everyone in the stall to sleep at least would buy enough time for Nu to finish what she was sent to do without problem.

Noah closed the doors to the stall from inside, making sure no one would be able to come inside for some time and went to do his part of the plan. 

First he stole several of the horses. He made sure to pick the best of the flock. Then he went to the carriage garage, where he chose the most luxurious carriage among the ones that were parked there and pressed his hand against it, storing the carriage into his dimension pocket.

Once his job here was done, he went back into his mind realm and traveled through the dream realm to the other medallion.

He reappeared in the different part of a county where a guard from real Keneth McAlister escort that was sent to retrieve a carriage from some noble family, was laying on the ground in a hypnotized state with a Dryad sitting at his side quietly singing a lullaby for him.

Noah nodded to Dahlia who looked up at him when he appeared and took out the carriage that he stole from the De la Cour mansion.

As a finishing stroke, Dahlia weaved an illusion around the signature crest on the carriage so that the Count De la Cour’s crest would not be easily recognized.

Half an hour later, real Keneth McAlister would unknowingly be sitting in this carriage driving toward the Margrave O’Sullivan mansion. His possession of that carriage would be proof that he was in De la Cour mansion and disparage all his attempts to defend himself from accusations that would be thrown at him later on.

These were very crudely set up evidence that would be too obvious if someone were to investigate it just a little bit, but it didn't matter. Noble families valued their face and honor the most. Once fists were thrown, the face of the family would be at stake and their relationship would be ruined. No one would care whether it was a trap or a set-up. The conflict that would sprout in the heat of the moment would continue on even when the set-up was uncovered days later. However, the relationship between the households would never be the same again. 

Such was the world of nobility. It wasn’t rare for hate and rivalry spanning generations to spike out of carelessly thrown words at a bad moment or simply in a heated emotional state. 

What Noah would make them do however would go far beyond that. Their families most likely would loath the very idea of being in the same room from this day on.

As for the search for the true culprit, Noah made sure to leave evidence of another family member's involvement from among those that bullied him in the past. If they were to be found then this plan would go even better. If not…oh well at least McAlisters, De la Cour and O’Sullivans would have a fall-out that will break apart their alliance.

This was far enough from what he wished for Keneth for what he’d done. But this was a start.

Noah did feel bad for making William suffer so hard, but it was his choice to break their friendship and take the side of Noah’s bullies. He was Noah’s single friend when they were kids. His stab in the back still hurt when Noah remembered his childhood.

It was hard being ostracized and bullied by other noble kids for being the only one who still did not awaken his system by the age of 14. It was even more painful when his only friend betrayed him later, leaving him all alone until he turned 18.

It hurt Noah’s heart when he found out from Keneth that his own family took part in the assassination attempt back then in the Labyrinth.

But it hurt no less when William turned his back on him years before that.

Now, it was his turn to make them suffer. And Noah did not feel magnanimous enough to forgive them and pass the chance to make them hurt as he did once.

Noah wasn’t a naive kid anymore that would silently forget, neither he was a saint. He did not feel it to be above him to take revenge on his past bullies. No Noah was all too happy to pay them back as soon as he saw an opportunity.

*****

According to Ugy’s initial plan, Keneth was supposed to appear as a villain and scumbag, taking most of the blame for what was going to happen, where William would find out about it by accident and confront the McAlister family.

But as it often happens, plans may whirl off the road severely because of several unknown factors.

Nu’s role in this plan was to get into the De la Cour mansion to entice the Lady and the Madam of the house with shady methods, while disguising as Keneth McAlister.

Noah and Ugy did not know whether Kenneth had ever visited that mansion before. If he was, he would have guest permission to pass through the mansion's barrier. In this case, Madam would not think of ‘inviting’ him in and simply allow him to go inside. If he were to be stopped by the barrier, and Nu was sure to be stopped as she was never invited, it would raise suspicions.

To prevent that they needed the Madam to be in a state that would incline her to ‘invite’ Nu through the barrier regardless. The barrier magic worked in a special way. To pass it, you had to be invited by a member of the household. However, that very invitation could be perceived by a barrier regardless of whether they did it intentionally or just by a slip of mouth. That’s what Ugy intended to utilize.

At the same time they needed a strong reason for him to be there that would allow them to scam the Madam.

It wasn’t hard to find out that the De la Cour family was not doing very great lately. By now it was almost an open secret in high society circles, that their business was suffering from incompetent management and wastefulness of the Count De la Cour.

Moreover, Noah’s lover, Theressa, was very aware of all the political news in the Kingdom. It was her favorite pastime hobby to hold a good grasp on the overall political situation in the human realm and be up-to-date on all news. She heard several rumors about the worsening criminal situation in their County and had ideas why it was happening.

With this information, finding a weak spot to bite them with wasn't hard. All they needed is a good actor to scam the Madam to allow the wolf into the sheep stall. And who, if not Nu, had the best actor career in their fold.

Taking the appearance of another person was one thing. Making it so that no one would find anything strange was a lot harder. 

Noble’s were not stupid. Most of them possessed high levels as was required by the Royal Decree and had experience with hunting and fighting monsters. They studied magic and skills in the academy and would be aware of skills and abilities of changing appearance. Such things were not novel in this world depending on magic.

At first, “Keneth” would appear in their mansions all disheveled and pitiful, and naive, but make several worrying remarks that would leave no doubt that their house could take a fall because of this incident. His naive boy appearance, however, would make the Madam believe she could hush the accident. This would lead her to ‘invite’ Kenneth into the mansion through the barrier. 

Once inside this young nobleman would show his true colors. 

The Madam clearly understood the situation their family were in and seemed to be ready to take actions into her hand, just like predicted the funny being called Ugy, that whispered into Nu’s ear ever since she received a special medallion for this mission from Noah. 

And just as Ugy planned, Countess lured the young nobleman into the mansion. Only she did not know yet, that in truth she was the lured one.