Chapter 10

Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The instant Lucian finished speaking, Hugo’s movement came to a complete halt.

It was as if a shard of ice had been thrust through his spine. His entire frame turned to stone, and he found himself unable to draw even a single breath by his own will.

Lucian directed a freezing smirk at the immobile Hugo.

“Is something the matter? Keep smiling. You were wearing such a pleasant expression a moment ago.”

“….”

“This is a celebratory occasion, yet you look so strained. You’ve successfully burdened the Grand Duke’s heir with a mountain of gambling debt; shouldn’t you be calculating how to exploit me? A man of your talents must have already mapped out the ideal moment for blackmail.”

“Gasp.”

Hugo parted his lips to offer a response, but the task was beyond him. Instead, the air he tried to release seized in his lungs, leaving him with the sensation that his windpipe had been manually obstructed.

His intellect screamed at him to fabricate a defense, but his raw instincts provided a diametrically opposed caution: the second he voiced a clumsy deception, he would be hauled directly to the gallows.

Battling his own survival instincts, Hugo managed to force out a few syllables.

“Young Master.”

“Yes?”

“There appears to be… some sort of misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding, you say?”

Lucian let out a short laugh and settled back into his seat. After a brief window of quiet reflection, a bone-chilling tone escaped his lips.

“Do you imagine you can simply walk away if you endure this specific moment? I assume you believe escaping is a simple matter, considering you’ve outfitted this place with a hidden exit.”

“…!”

“To be fair, I was quite taken with the mechanical trigger you installed in the chair’s arm. It’s a sophisticated piece of work. Which artisan did you employ for that?”

“How—how could you possibly be aware of that?!”

Hugo was so rattled his heart nearly failed him.

The specific mechanism that triggered the passage by rotating the armrest in a precise sequence was a secret held by Hugo alone. He had not disclosed it to the criminals in his employ, nor even to his most trusted associates. How could this youth possibly possess that knowledge?

Observing Hugo’s terror-stricken face, which looked as though he were staring at a phantom, Lucian stifled a chuckle.

‘How do I know? Because I’m the person who uncovered it when I came to hunt you down.’

In two years’ time, Hugo would be apprehended for the distribution of narcotics. The Grand Duke, consumed by fury, would mandate Hugo’s capture, and Lucian would lead the charge alongside the palace guards.

Hugo had anticipated the raid and vanished in secret, leaving them empty-handed initially. However, obsessed with the puzzle of his disappearance, they had dismantled the gambling hall piece by piece.

After three days of pointlessly scouring the room, Lucian had lashed out at the chair in a fit of pique. That random strike had accidentally engaged the trigger.

‘I can still recall the shock I felt when that wall began to slide aside.’

Even following that discovery, Lucian had been coerced by the Guard Captain into traversing the hidden tunnel to its very conclusion. Consequently, he knew exactly where the path ended and what was stored within.

“Near the North Gate fortification. You picked a superb spot. There are livestock merchants nearby and a maze of intersections; even if we had squandered a day or two searching for the entrance, we would have lost your trail. I respect your attention to detail.”

With every syllable Lucian uttered, Hugo felt his consciousness going dull.

Exactly how much did this Young Master truly know? If he allowed the boy to continue, the youth would likely deduce his last meal and the shade of his undergarments.

‘It’s over.’

Any ruler of a province was destined to despise the drug trade. This wasn’t necessarily born of altruism for the peasantry, but because the economic fallout was catastrophic.

Narcotic dependency transformed a productive citizen into a hollow wreck. Not only did the pool of labor and tax contributions crater, but the users also ceased following the law. Driven to insanity by the substance, they were controlled more by the dealer’s whims than the ruler’s edicts.

For this reason, lords would put drug traffickers to death using the most agonizing methods available. There were even tales of destitute frontier lords taking on loans just to secure the services of a master torturer.

In short, once a peddler was identified, it wasn’t a question of survival—it was a matter of begging for a swift execution.

And now, he had been intercepted by the Young Master while attempting to move the product.

‘Should I eliminate him?’

If he ended the Young Master right here and hid the body, could he buy himself some time?

For a fleeting second, a lethal spark flared in Hugo’s eyes, but it faded almost instantly, replaced by a hollow, self-deprecating laugh.

‘You fool. What were you even contemplating?’

The transgression of slaying the Grand Duke’s blood was infinitely worse than peddling drugs. For the latter, they might stop looking after a decade, but for the former, they would pursue him to the very gates of the underworld.

“Sigh.”

The realization that there was no escape actually ushered in a bizarre feeling of serenity. One only frets when there is still a choice of which path to take to avoid the net. He had already been snared and gutted; what was the point of further worry?

There was only one logical move remaining.

Thump.

“I beg you, show mercy.”

Hugo dropped to his knees. As his massive frame collided with the floorboards, the entire room vibrated with a heavy impact.

While the bystanders watched in stunned silence, Hugo lowered himself even further, striking his brow against the wood.

“If you command me to be a hound, I shall be a hound. If you order me to bark, I shall bark. If you tell me to grovel, I shall grovel. Just please, allow me to live.”

“P-please have mercy on us!”

“Save us, Young Master!”

Grasping the severity of the crisis from Hugo’s desperation, the remaining henchmen also threw themselves to the floor and began striking their heads against the ground.

Lucian smirked as he observed the four men repeatedly bashing their foreheads against the wood.

“Well, I suppose keeping a dog wouldn’t be the worst thing. I was just thinking that I lacked the manpower to carry out my whims.”

Hugo exhaled a breath of profound relief at Lucian’s comment.

Yes, as long as his heart was beating, he could navigate a solution. He didn’t know the duration of this servitude—whether it would be a few years or a decade of labor. But as long as he drew breath, an opening would eventually present itself. For the moment, he was simply thankful to avoid the blade.

“My thanks, Young Master. I shall commit my existence to—”

“But you see, a dog is perhaps a bit too common, isn’t it? And you don’t strike me as the sort of individual who would be content simply playing the part of a pet.”

“Pardon?”

“Listen, Hugo.”

Lucian leaned down and spoke softly into Hugo’s ear.

“Don’t you have any desire to try becoming a knight?”

Hugo’s eyes flew wide open.

If a demon were to offer a pact, would it sound like this? His pulse began to hammer violently.

Did he wish to be a knight?

‘I would trade my very soul for the chance.’

What was the utility of having natural skill or mastering blade techniques? This tainted lineage of his sabotaged him at every turn, ensuring that no legitimate path ever bore fruit. He had reached the summit of the criminal world, but that was his ceiling. Hugo understood better than anyone that even this status, which made the common folk shake with fear, was merely a target of loathing and ridicule in the civilized world.

It was a fantasy he had once yearned for with every fiber of his being, but one he had buried long ago to survive.

And now, the Young Master standing before him was unearthing that dream and offering it up.

“Can I… truly achieve that?”

Hugo asked in a voice that shook with emotion. He was terrified that after dangling such hope, the boy would simply laugh and call it a joke.

But Lucian gave a firm nod, providing a definitive reply.

“It won’t be an immediate transformation, but it is achievable depending on your dedication. However, you must first agree to two requirements.”

“Please, name them.”

“First: Unwavering fealty to me.”

CRACK!

Hugo slammed his head against the floor with significantly more violence than before. Crimson blood began to seep from his brow, but he was oblivious to the pain.

“As long as you grant me that chance, I will execute any command except one that requires me to take my own life.”

“And second. In truth, this is the most vital point.”

Lucian didn’t even acknowledge the pledge of devotion. If the second requirement wasn’t satisfied, he had no intention of granting him knighthood or anything else.

“Have you ever distributed these drugs to anyone? Not just in this instance, but in your past as well.”

Despite the freezing tone of the question, Hugo’s mouth stretched into a massive grin. Whether it was because luck had finally turned or fate was smiling, he had already fulfilled the second condition.

“This was our debut attempt. We only just completed the laboratory; I haven’t even placed the order for the raw components yet.”

Only upon hearing that confirmation did Lucian finally show a real smile.

Thankfully, Hugo was still at a point where he could be rehabilitated.

—

“I am Hugo, and I will be serving the Young Master from this day forward. I look forward to our cooperation, senior.”

“….”

Hans stared at the grinning Hugo and gave a nod, looking visibly distressed. Witnessing a man whose gargantuan frame looked capable of snapping several men in half acting so subservient was not something he could easily process.

“Young Master, what exactly occurred in that building?”

“They appeared to have utility, so I convinced them to enter my service.”

“So you intend to employ these individuals as staff?”

“Why? Do you see a problem with that?”

Hans’s eyes drifted toward Hugo and the crew standing behind him. Five men with faces just as intimidating as Hugo’s were trailing Lucian. Every single one of them bore several scars on their features or limbs, and a subtle aura of violence radiated from them.

By any objective standard, these were not domestic workers; they were career criminals from the gutter. And he was going to treat them as valets?

“Um, Young Master. It might be forward of me, but you really shouldn’t place your confidence in people from the slums.”

“And why is that?”

“They prioritize their own gain, and the second they decide the arrangement isn’t profitable, they’ll turn on you. They’ll bow when they’re in a corner, but once they achieve their goals, the fire in their eyes changes.”

“That is often the case. However, these men will never be in a position to betray me.”

“Did you happen to secure some blackmail against them?”

“There is that, but it’s also because they can only maintain what they desire as long as I am present.”

Why would a knight stay loyal to a lord even when facing death? Because the most efficient path to social elevation is to serve a superior power. Authority and social standing are only truly validated by others when they are bestowed by a recognized source.

No matter how much influence one amasses, if the legitimacy of that power is shaky, they will face endless opposition. This was a reality even for the nobility, so it was a certainty for someone of low birth—especially a commoner from the underworld. Without a lord to vouch for their status, no one would ever respect their position.

‘That’s why Hugo was under constant siege even after he styled himself a pretender Baron.’

Though his martial prowess allowed him to hold off those challengers and keep the title, it didn’t mean his rank was respected. People merely tolerated him because they couldn’t kill him; not a single soul viewed him as a legitimate Baron. Even if he raised an army, no true knight would ever swear an oath to him, so he was fated to eventually crumble.

Whether in his previous existence or this one, Hugo undoubtedly understood that reality. That was why he would not squander this opportunity to earn a legitimate title and become a recognized knight.

‘Even if he attains knighthood, betrayal is out of the question. Because without my support, no one will acknowledge his status.’

To be considered a noble without Lucian’s blessing, four generations—descendants, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—would have to pass. In practical terms, as long as Hugo didn’t abandon his ambition, there was essentially no chance of him turning on Lucian in his lifetime.

When Lucian arrived at the gates with Hugo and his crew, the sentries recoiled.

“Young Master. These men following you are….”

“My newly appointed staff.”

“Staff? With countenances like those?”

“What is the issue with their faces? They seem perfectly fine to me.”

The guards were deeply skeptical, but they eventually stood aside. Regardless of how little they resembled servants, what could they do when their superior had recruited them himself?

Lucian moved through the heavy gates and entered the inner keep. The resident servants jumped back when they saw the gang marching in with the late-returning Lucian.

“Y-Young Master. Who are these individuals?”

“Staff.”

“Pardon me?”

“I said they are my newly appointed staff. Introduce yourselves.”

Staff with faces like that?

Lucian smirked at the other servants, who were still grappling with the visual of the thugs.

“You’ve made your introductions, yes? Now, go summon the Head Maid.”

“Why are you requesting the Head Maid?”

“For what other reason? She needs to be introduced to them as well, doesn’t she? Move quickly and fetch her.”

“….”

The servants once more looked at each other nervously. Their urge to avoid being the target of blame if things went sideways was obvious.

Seeing their hesitation, Lucian’s grin widened.

“This is precisely why I brought on new staff. It appears no one in this vicinity actually follows my instructions.”

“Young Master, please understand our position. What authority do we have to….”

“Hugo.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

Lucian cut the servant’s excuse short and looked at Hugo.

“Identify the ones who are failing to follow my commands right now. They are the ones you will need to instruct.”

“I’ll be quite occupied for a time, then. Beating someone to the brink of death without actually killing them is a refined craft; it will take some time to educate them all to the proper standard.”

“I’ll provide all the time you require, so take your time with it.”

“My thanks. I’ll ensure I carve the word ‘loyalty’ into these wretches’ minds so deeply they won’t even forget it in their sleep.”

At that exchange, the servants all turned pale. A chilling sensation that something had gone fundamentally wrong began to creep up their spines.