Black String of Fate

"For tomorrow's carriage, the porter will be the one whose tongue has gotten a bit too slippery. Isn't that right, Xavier?"

After the mining shift, all the children were gathered in the living room to assign them the duties of labor for the higher-ups. It was another form of child exploitation, but the innocent minds here thought of it as a compulsory contribution to the orphanage.

"No problem, sir."

"Good, I'll whip your ass if you try to do any funny business."

The children looked apathetically toward Xavier. They did not have the slightest bit of pity, as Xavier was a notorious troublemaker and bully.

'Damn, I was hated quite a bit, wasn't I? Doesn't matter, soon I won't have to see their faces at all.'

Despite his thoughts, Xavier made a frustrated expression so as to not arouse any doubts. Baldur had a smirk on his face seeing this rebellious kid give in to him. Little did he know that behind that face was a man with a plan that would soon turn his world upside down.

'If I had even a minuscule fraction of power from my prime, I would have evaporated this bastard in an instant.'

Soon, the next day arrived, and Xavier had boarded the carriage filled with servants. From what he knew about these trips, some higher-up nobles hired the orphanage to send in their children for extremely cheap labor, and while these practices were condemned in society, they were being swept under the rug here because they weren't harming the interests of the truly powerful.

The children from this orphanage were used for physical labor, but there were some disgusting cases where they were forced into prostitution as well.

'Ah, no use thinking about it now. It's the hero's problem, not mine.' Xavier thought as he got out of the carriage. He had his plans all ready to escape during this trip and contact some people outside.

But seeing the mansion gave him déjà vu. He was sure that he had seen it somewhere before.

'Is that... The Grimswalds? The ones who are only in authority and power only because of the lord's wife, who is the daughter of some bigwig count? Oh my, what a gold mine...'

Xavier's mind instantly spurred into action and his previous plans were scrapped. He had to make good use of this opportunity, as he knew quite a big secret about the family.

A secret big enough to have the lord here at his beck and call.

**********

Inside the mansion, the lord was inspecting the goods which were delivered by the laborers. He knew that these heavy loads were lifted by small children, but he couldn't spare them his worries.

'I don't like dealing with that shady bunch, but laborers are known to have a loose mouth. These children are indoctrinated by the orphanage to never speak anything about their employers. If any word about this got out, it won't be soon before the Secret Service comes knocking on my door. The current king is strict about tax evasion...

Anyway, not reporting about the Mana Crystal mine is a risk worth it. These gems alone have increased the revenue in my territory by about 37%. Seems like the neighboring countries need it a lot for some reason since the market is volatile and the prices are off the charts these days. If I sold them the legal way and the kingdom taxed them, my profits would decrease by a minimum of 52%.

Seriously, the crown sure is greedy...

.

.

.

Hmm?'

As he was strolling around, he found a piece of paper stuck between the crystals. Now, he wasn't stupid enough to not know that this was a secret message. A paper was coincidentally stuck in a visible area between crystals worth a fortune? Yeah, no way. He nonchalantly took the paper quickly and headed to his room to read the message in private.

'The only people who could've put this message here are the laborers. Is there an undercover spy among them?'

He reached his room, locked the door, and opened the chit with his hands sweaty. As soon as he read the first line, his face went white, his hands started shaking and he felt his world crumble.

"I know you are cheating on your wife with her handmaiden. You most probably don't want her to know, since your whole family still relies on her esteemed status. Meet me on the outskirts of the mansion, at the garden on the hour of the brightest moon."

Immediately, he activated his magic power and burned the chit to ashes.

'It's no secret message, but a blackmail. But how? How can anyone know about this? I know I did not slip up, so is this a blind shot at me?

...No, I'm not stupid enough to ignore this situation. Since he messaged me like this, he must want something from me. It's not all over yet...'

*******

In the middle of the night, under a full blue moon, a boy running while hiding his face under the rags the mana crystals were covered with. He was rushing to the place he told the lord to meet him at, but he was running late.

'I forgot to take into account that the herbs were way less potent before the age of chaos. Drugging those watchmen took longer than I thought...'

Soon, he reached the outskirts, and in front of him at the designated location was a man armed with a staff. He was the lord of the Grimwald estate, a fourth-tier fire mage.

'So he was an Expert-tier fire mage back then too? The only difference I see from how I remember him in the future is that he was at least a Crafted Expert back then, however, all I see now is a new Initiate Expert. To be stuck on this realm for so long, his talent really is trash.'

Meanwhile, the lord, who just saw a small boy walk out of the bushes, was confused.

'Was this child sent here as a decoy? Seems like the bastard is pretty cautious...'

"I was the one who put that message in. There is no one else coming." Xavier spoke as if reading the lord's mind. The lord was surprised by his words, as he didn't expect the one who gave him all this trouble was just a small child.

But, he was relieved.

"Ha...Hahaha! And here I thought that a whole organization was after my family, but you came alone, a small child? How did you even know about the affair, did you accidentally see us?

Anyway, what a relief, I thought I was a goner. You sure have the guts to blackmail a noble like me."

The Lord spoke with a cold smile, ensuring that there was nobody else around. His blackmailer was only a small, malnourished child without a drop of mana. He started revving up his mana to end it with one spell, but soon stopped as he heard the child's next sentence.

"Did you really think I came to meet an Expert without any preparation? If anything happens to me, a little birdie will reach Lady Michelle and whisper to her the news along with some sensual pictures. Kill me if you think I'm bluffing, in the end, we'll both die then." Xavier spoke with a calm smile as if he expected such a reaction.

Such a declaration caught the lord off-guard. The amount of calmness exuded by the boy under his magical pressure, even though he was just an uninitiated child, was mind-boggling. Any normal child would have fainted due to the mental pain. Plus, there was no fear in the face of this child in front of death.

"Oh, in the mood to listen now, are we? Then let's begin the negotiations." The boy said with an even wider and very unsettling smile, as the man gulped and nodded his head.