[TOPMITW] Ch2

“Hmph, it seems he really has died as reported.”

“As ordered by Master Felix, we took precautions to avoid being seen and didn’t encounter any problems. For us, this was an easy job”

“I was expecting him to try and fake drinking the poison to escape… but it looks like I was wrong”

Felix von Édouard lowered his gaze to the corpse that was lying by his feet. With his hand touching his chin, Felix radiated the dignity of a true noble. He was a true heir of the Édouard family and lacked nothing, but while gazing at the recently dead Rondo, he furrowed his brow.

Felix had never thought of Rondo as his younger brother. As Rondo had the blood of a commoner flowing through him and combined with his utter lack of magical talent, he was considered a stain on the honour of the family. 

“The commoner’s blood that entered the Édouard family has finally died out…Even though he had that stubborn commoner like tenacity, in the end his luck finally ran out”

Rondo’s eyes were closed as his body lay on the ground faceup, his face and back becoming sticky from the mixture of the poison and wine. The poison used this time was selected by his father the Margrave, and came from the venom of a snake-like monster called the Arinebra. The strength of this poison was not that strong, and the victim didn’t suffer from excessive pain or numbness from its effects. However, if you become aware of the poison you would feel your strength slowly becoming weaker and eventually fall into death as the toxin circulated throughout your body. 

Felix had intended for Rondo to receive a more deadly poison, one that would make him regret ever being born, but his father did not agree. Felix wasn’t satisfied with this at first…but after seeing the corpse of his brother firsthand, some of his frustration melted away. This was because it looked like Rondo died in agony as he frantically tore at his clothes. It seemed that this poison had at least some level of effectiveness against his brother. 

“Tch! Even though you supposedly died in agony, your face is surprisingly peaceful. Don’t tell me you’re just playing at being dead?”

As Rondo’s facial expression at death was somewhat suspicious, Felix raised his right hand. On the palm of his hand was the proof of his talent in water magic, a teardrop magic crest. As he concentrated, the magic crest started to glow with a faint blue light. Using his vast strength, he instantly formed a spell in his hand. 

Water Jet Cutter – This was a spell designed to slice an enemy to death using high pressure blades of water. While normally this magic would simply cut someone in half, Felix skillfully controlled the power of this spell during casting. 

Shu-shu-shu-shu-shu-shu^[1]This part was a bit tricky to translate as japanese words use a lot of onomatopoeias, but it’s basically similar to the sound a pressurised hose being fired 

A rain of miniature water blades bore down on Rondo’s body. To prevent the carpet from being ruined due to blood, a veil of water covered the underside of the body. The amount of pain caused by the sharpness of the Cutter spell piercing into the body was unimaginable. The force of the spell was also lowered to minimise the amount of blood squirting out. But in order to make sure that no one alive could avoid crying out in pain, the sharpness of the spell was magnified to the extreme. As a result, no matter how much a person could endure, it would be impossible to hold in their voice until the end. 

“So there’s no reaction….It seems like he really died”

After hearing nothing despite the body being covered in blood, Felix no longer had any doubts. In addition, whether it was due to the storm of blades or the entire body being wildly shaken by intense vibrations, Rondo’s dead face looked to be in greater agony than before. After seeing this, Felix felt a little better. 

“Alright, take this corpse to a burial ground at the cemetery. While you’re at it, take the remains of his tramp mother as well. Make sure to bury them well in the commoner^[2]The specific word used in japanese was public, but given the tone and attitude of the speaker I changed it to commoner to reflect his disdain towards them as not being worthy of being put in the … Continue reading graveyard”

“As you command!”

As Felix was about to hand the corpse over to the guards who came with him to confirm Rondo’s death, he noticed that the water he created to cover the body was saturated with blood.

“Damn!”

Snapping his finger, the water that had been covering the corpse of Rondo started moving like a living thing. The blood that was dripping from the body was suddenly absorbed and the water turned red. 

“It would be too tiresome to stain the mansion with this bloody corpse…looks like I have no choice but to fix this situation”

As he raised his right hand, another stream of water was created. A soft green glow started covering Rondo’s body, and the numerous cuts inflicted by Felix started to close up. By the time the bloody water had been thrown outside through the window, the body had returned to its normal condition. To Felix, this water based recovery magic was a skill that he could use anytime he wished. 

“Now you can take the body”

“Yes sir!”^[3]This response was actually the exact same as before, but I worded it differently as sometimes the exact meaning can be subtle depending on tone and context. Here I took it more to mean agreement with … Continue reading

As they replied, the guards carried away Rondo’s corpse. The top notch clothes given to him by his father were torn apart by Felix’s magic and were now stained with blood. Despite that, the bottom part of the body was unusually absent of wounds and presented a somewhat unbalanced view ^[4]It’s kind of a weird comment but I think it’s referring to the previous chapter when Rondo first took off his pants so as a result there are no bloodstained clothes in that area after being healed

“Now then… I should get back to work. Even as the heir I can’t relax”

Even after casting a number of spells all at once, Felix didn’t seem to have any indication of being tired. Turning on the heel of his feet, he returned to his private quarters. By the time he had returned to his room and sat on the sofa, he had already forgotten about the matter of the unworthy bastard.

“There…we go!”

With a loud thump, the dead body of Rondo was roughly thrown into the grave. Keeping his body unmoving like a sack, Rondo closed his eyes tightly. Right next to him was the urn holding the remains of his mother Maria who died several years ago. Above him, the guards were rubbing their shoulders as they tried to relieve the fatigue they picked up from the long trip hauling these heavy objects.

“It’s so far from the horse carriage station to the graveyard by damn”

“Don’t say that, after all Master Felix is paying us separately for this job. Let’s get a drink after this with that gold”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea”

After chatting for a bit, the 3 guards left the public cemetery. This country had a very plain burial process and leaving the corpse in the grave for a bit of time was a common occurrence. This was out of consideration to people with unknown backgrounds or people who wished to meet the dead one last time before complete burial. The guard trio quickly turned around and left. And at that time, a corpse suddenly opened its eyes….

“I…I was saved…”

As if awakening from suspended animation, Rondo regained consciousness unseen and alone. 

[Message from the author]

This chapter was uploaded today on the 18th at 9pm. 

If after reading this novel you thought even a little bit

“Enjoyable to read!”

“I’m curious to see what happens next!”

“Good job with that escape!”

If you can give 5 stars below I will be very happy!

The support I get from my readers is one of the primary motivations to keep me writing. Thank you for reading!

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Corbenik