The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration

hind.
As if he never existed in this world.”

“Yes, sir.”

Soon after the person answered concisely, he turned to the men behind him and gave his orders.

Then, some men headed towards the coachman’s body.

Without mercy, the men twisted the dead man’s cold ankles and dragged his body away, disappearing through the forest.

Leo and the other men approached the shattered carriage.

It was the center of the disastrous scene, the place where there was the most blood.

Leo, who reached that place first, slowly crouched down.

As he went lower, the huge bloodstains became clearer.
However, the body he was looking for was nowhere to be seen.

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The smell of metallic blood reached the tip of his nose.

“My older brother has a long lifeline, huh.”

Along with the grim murmur, Leo’s lips drew a deep arc.

It was the metallic smell of blood.

Leo touched the dry blood with his fingertips.

Only reddish-brown chunks could be found amidst the dry, hardened bloodstain.

Staring at what was on his fingertips with a twisted expression on his face, Leo soon stood up, shaking his hand.

“I believe he ran away, sir.”

The mage who stabbed the coachman with eyes bowed his head and spoke up.

He was the same person who asked Leo how they should dispose of the coachman’s body.

Looking down at the mage, Leo replied in a humming tone.

“I know because I have eyes, too.
Yeah, I think my dear older brother ran away like a rat.”

“Shall I find his trail and chase after him?”

“That’s how it should be.”

No matter how much he struggled, there was no way he’d come back alive from this.

As Leo mentioned earlier, his brother had a very persistent lifeline.

Even though his life had been threatened several times, it was testimony enough that he managed to live to see the day that he reached adulthood.

No one tried to help save him.
Though he was like a fleeting candle swaying in the wind, his fire had yet to be put out.

It almost made Leo want to applaud him.

However, it was impossible for him to admire Cassion’s persistent vitality forever.

Because his foolish older brother had become an adult.

Next year, when Leo himself would pass his own birthday and he’d reach adulthood as well, the competition for the successorship of the Duchy would begin in earnest.

For successor candidates who had come of age, there was a set procedure.

Of course, Cassion was a candidate who had no mana despite being part of a family of mages, he had no base of support, he had no other family members to aid him and he had no property at all.
But even so, a less than half bastard candidate was still a candidate.

As long as Cassion was a candidate for succession, he posed the weak possibility of ‘what if’.

And a weak possibility was still a possibility.

What was not 0% could turn into a miracle because the hope for a coup would be fostered.

An opponent to the successorship, a competitor, an enemy.

‘Someone to get rid of.’

From a very young age, these were the words that his mother continued to tell him.

’It doesn’t matter who the other person is or how small of a threat he poses.
Some people lose their lives even by being bitten by an ant.’

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‘Then what should be important?’

‘Presence, absence.
If it doesn’t exist in the first place, it isn’t even a threat.
So…’

If there was even the slightest chance to harm him… then he should get rid of it while he could.

That was the surefire way to win.

When hearing this for the first time, it would sound cruel, but his mother’s method always had sure results.

Therefore, Leo never thought that his mother’s method was wrong.

A fruitless method was nothing but an excuse, and a method that produced sure results was the only right answer.

Then it was only right to take care of anything that had even the smallest chance while he could.

Until Leo would come of age on his birthday in the following year, Cassion must die.

The most certain way to become the successor was to have only one candidate for the succession race in the first place.

“Young Duke, I found a bloodstain leading to a nearby river.”

He was still not officially the heir to the Duchy, but the people around him called him Young Duke and followed his words.

According to the right etiquette, it was not the correct title for him, but no one pointed this out.

Leo turned around casually and looked towards the ground.

As the man said, there were bloodstains over the overgrown weeds and gravel next to the river.

‘Did you go down the river, or.’

Did he try to struggle and go against the currents?

The latter was the more dangerous choice, but Cassion probably would have chosen to die through struggling rather than to die without doing anything.

“He couldn’t have gotten far anyway, so look for any signs of torn clothes or anything.
The highest possibility is that he moved along with the river’s current.”

“Yes, Young Duke.”

After the group of men wearing black cloaks answered in unison, they left one by one to do their work.

Leo looked towards where those people disappeared to, then he turned his gaze back towards the dry blood.

He loved this terrible sight.

It would have been perfect if his older brother’s body was here with him.

‘It would be great if you’re dead, but…’

“I’ll teach you a lesson instead.
I’ll make you know that death might have been better for you.”

He would let him know that the misfortunes he had experienced thus far was nothing at all.

As if his tongue could already taste it, he licked his red lips.

Like a snake.

Red tongue, red lips, red eyes, red hair.

The crimson man smiled fiercely, and it was as though he himself was covered in blood.

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