There Is No Need To Be Obsessed - Chapter 9

“Th-this…”

Count Yellun, filled with rage, glared at me wordlessly.

I smiled broadly at him and said my final goodbyes.

“Goodbye, uncle. May you be at peace on your way to your downfall.”

Anyone could tell murder was a grave crime. He would be stripped of his title and all of his property will be confiscated.

Count Yellun struggled furiously, but the judges mercilessly dragged him out.

Now that it had quieted down a bit, I was about to come back to dealing with the others when I noticed that there was one had not left yet.

He was also a judge, and under his great helm, his eyes were on me.

I tilted my head. Soon, I remembered something and smiled.

His shoulders slightly flinched at that.

“Thanks to you, my parents can finally rest in peace now. Thank you.”

“…”

Huh? Didn’t he just want to be greeted?

He quickly turned around and left the meeting room.

What was that? Such a strange person.

Anyway, as the situation had been settled, I counted the frightened relatives one by one with my finger while muttering.

“One, two, three…this is a little troubling. The rule is to get consent with a majority of votes, but the number is now even. What if it turns out to be a tie? Well, for now…”

Those who met my gaze trembled.

It was clearly visible that they were afraid of me, who had made this fuss.

How ironic to think that they were afraid of me when minutes ago, they were just looking at me with little respect.

Thinking that they were such cowardly people, I raised one hand with a light smile on my lips.

“Who agrees for me to take over the title?”

No one raised their hand right away. But as they exchanged glances hesitantly, their hands began to rise one by one.

And not long after, all eight hands were unanimously raised. At that sight, the smile on my face became bigger.

Well, even the noble judges came here at my call, of course they wouldn’t want to mess with me, would they?

I smiled broadly and ended the meeting.

“Then, I wish you all the best.”

No applause or reaction came back. It was a given anyway.

After the meeting, the relatives fled as quickly as possible. They were getting away from me as though they were avoiding a fire. 

It must have been because of the fear that the noble judges might return again.

I shook my head amusedly as I watched several carriages set off on their ways.

“Pathetic.”

It was pathetic to see them run off like that. Just looking at them made my eyes feel dirty, so I took my eyes off them.

Behind my back was Eril with her head bowed towards me.

After seeing the series of events in person, Eril seemed to have grown stronger in her loyalty to me.

I fell in thought as I headed back to my bleak room with that one bed remained.

The first challenge is cleared.

I didn’t have to worry about the relatives changing their choice afterward.

Since the judges have personally come, they would think that I have some kind of force backing me up.

The ‘noble judges’ were like the Supreme Court of the nobility, it was practically impossible for small and medium-class nobles to summon the judges.

First of all, the process of contacting them was very difficult, and no matter how successful one was, they had to have great power to call for them.

Therefore, it was most likely that small and medium-ranked nobles could not even see a judge for once in their lifetime.

Well, in some cases, seeing them meant someone would be judged and punishment would befall upon them, so it’s better not to see them anyway.

All in all, such a force came because of me. No one would think that I requested them on my own. So they would most certainly think that there’s some huge figure behind supporting me.

And that is the Duke of Finisis.

The Finisis Duchy held the most power among the three major dukedoms in existence.

The power of his family itself was by no means small, but the influence of the Cheshire business, which he was leading, was far greater.

The Cheshire Guild now topped the highest position among hundreds of guilds and businesses existing in the Empire, possessing enough wealth and power to dominate the imperial market.

Although he was not the original owner of the Guild, he had no less influence than that.

The next most powerful family in line is the Duchy of Henness…

Had it not been for the Finisis Duchy with Cheshire, the most powerful family would by far have been the Henness Duchy.

The Henness family owns the largest mana stone mine.

The Henness family was a family of wizards with a long history.

Until the Manastone was discovered, the Henness family was praised as the ‘family blessed by God’, the only wizard family in the empire.

They used the power of magic to play an active part in war, in crisis, and in famine.

For this reason, they were revered as divine beings by other nobles, and they were also famous for giving birth to most empresses throughout the empire’s history.

In addition, they amassed wealth from the huge amount of wages they received in return for using their magical powers.

It seemed that their stronghold would never collapse.

It’s an old perception, though.

However, as manastones were discovered and magic tools were invented, people stopped looking for wizards who demanded large pay.

This was obviously because magic tools were much more efficient than hiring them at a high price.

They stood against the mana stones, but no one listened to them.

With the spread of manastones, they gradually began to decline, so they reluctantly joined in the manastone business and were able to rise again by excavating the empire’s largest manastone mine.

It was definitely the Cheshire Merchant that helped them achieve such a revival.

At that time, the Cheshire Guild had a monopoly on the techniques of making magic tools.

The Magic Tool Workshop was also owned by Cheshire, so no matter how much mana stones there were, if they did not go through the Cheshire workshop, they were just stones in hands.

Numerous businesses and families tried to invent magic tools, but most of them failed.

The Henness family, well aware of such cases, gladly joined hands with the Cheshire Guild and grew together as business partners.

The head of their family looked kind of normal, but their second son was very handsome.

I recalled their young second son, whom I had met many times.

I couldn’t remember much, but I did remember that his light sky blue hair was like cotton candy.

Perhaps he was about the same age as Leone.

As my thoughts flowed, I arrived at the room thinking that I should ask Leone about the Henness family later.

After I took one look at my room, which was so spacious and bleak, I made up my mind to fill this empty mansion before going to the Imperial Palace.

I would have to hire a chef as well.