#126. Outsider (3)
“This result is far below expectations. If you had done it properly, there’s no way it would have turned out like this!”
“S-sorry, my lord. But I swear, I spread it all across the North, just as you ordered.”
“Then why! Why is it only my lands in chaos?!”
Duke Titova slammed the armrest angrily.
His subordinate shrank back and tried to explain carefully.
“M-my lord, we did gather reports that it spread to other lands too.”
“Other lands? Which ones?”
Titova snatched the map. Red marks showed where the curse had spread. They were scattered across the North.
“What is this…?”
The curse on Kartoff should have spread quickly, from nearby areas outward. Yet strangely, the lands right next to Titova’s were untouched, while faraway places were marked in red.
And in three neighboring territories, the curse appeared at once.
Titova soon noticed the pattern.
“It spread only to the lands of those who joined our meeting.”
Indeed, only the anti-Alexandra nobles were affected. Other lands were safe.
This was useless! Instead of achieving his goal, only his allies were suffering. Worse, angry complaints were already coming in from the other lords.
He forced himself to calm down.
We must have made a mistake. Fine. We’ll try again.
He launched the other plans he had prepared. Diseased Kartoff were secretly mixed with healthy seed sacks. Irrigation water was tainted.
Kartoff that touched even one diseased potato or drank tainted water would soon rot.
But again, his misfortune continued.
The sacks rolled off a cliff during transport. The polluted water somehow turned clean, as if purified.
“Why does everything keep going wrong?”
Every report was failure after failure.
「Why? Because you’re a fool.」
The mid-ranked spirit beside him yawned, then drifted away like wind — all the way to Sasha.
It reported everything it had just seen and asked:
「Alexandra, is this enough?」
“Yes. It’s enough.”
Sasha had been watching them from the beginning, especially Duke Titova. Thanks to her spirits, she already knew everything.
She had even placed spirits to follow his men, secretly blocking every attempt to spread the disease.
But she made no move to capture Titova.
「Why let him keep making trouble?」
The spirit was displeased.
Sasha shook her head gently.
“I don’t need to act. They’ll destroy themselves.”
「Hmm?」
“The poison I spread is already working.”
「Poison? What poison?”」
“Suspicion.”
「Suspicion… that’s poison?」
“Yes. A poison that will devour them from the inside. All I need to do is wait, and they’ll collapse without me lifting a finger.”
She smiled faintly, waiting for her poison to spread.
The reports Titova received were nothing but failure, failure, failure.
At first he raged, but now his expression turned cold.
“Someone is interfering with my plans.”
So many failures could not be simple bad luck. It had to be sabotage.
“Who? How?”
Only the anti-Alexandra nobles knew his plan. Normally, he should suspect them. But they had sworn on the relic — if anyone betrayed, their tongue would be cursed.
He placed spies to watch them, but no strange behavior was seen.
“So none of them revealed it… Then who?”
He frowned deeply, then Sasha’s face suddenly came to mind.
…Could it be her?
Alexandra Volkov, who had solved the North’s deepest problems as if it were nothing, who always seemed to know everything.
Maybe she had already found out and was quietly blocking him.
But he shook his head furiously.
No, impossible! She’s just a young woman. Even with talent, she couldn’t manage this!
And if she had known, surely Bellicordo Castle would not be so calm.
So Titova looked elsewhere.
His first suspicion landed on Count Perelman. Unlike the other nobles who obeyed like sheep, Perelman had often interrupted him with jokes or objections.
He even had motive: if Titova fell, Perelman could rise.
So Titova immediately cut him off from the next plans and doubled the spies around him.
Perelman noticed at once.
“You’re spying on me?”
He stormed into Titova’s presence, furious.
“Duke Titova! What is the meaning of this?”
“Do you really not know?”
“…You suspect me?”
Titova only sneered.
Perelman exploded.
“Ha! Then I’ll say this! Why is it only my lands where Kartoff rotted into piles of filth? Wasn’t this your doing? What’s your aim? Do you want to get rid of me?”
Titova snapped back:
“I knew it. You were hiding resentment all along — no wonder you did something so vile!”
“What?!”
“Don’t come before me again. If you do, you won’t leave walking.”
“Duke Titova!”
“You are excluded from our great plan. But keep your mouth shut if you want to keep your tongue… and your life.”
“…Are you threatening me?”
“Not a threat. Advice.”
Perelman stormed out. Titova’s cold eyes followed him. He vowed to deal with Perelman once this matter was settled.
But even after cutting him off, Titova’s suspicion did not stop.
He purged anyone who seemed questionable. Botanists and magicians who had studied the Kartoff disease were locked away.
Merchants were forced to sell him their wheat at low prices.
Mercenaries he once trusted were dismissed and banished.
His harsh rule silenced their angry cries.
Yet even after crushing every “suspicious” person around him, his plans still failed.
“How… how does someone keep ruining my schemes, as if they know everything?”
Grinding his teeth, Titova decided to play his final card.
If I can’t control all the North at once, I’ll secure just a part of it. That alone could win the people’s hearts.
If he erased Sasha’s influence and replaced it with his own, he could stir rebellion or even spark a war. Then he would call in Imperial aid and claim the North.
This time, he told himself, he must succeed.
He explained his last plan carefully to his most trusted men.
“No more failure. Prepare thoroughly.”
That night.
A man moved cautiously through the shadows of Bellicordo Castle. He looked around nervously as he hurried forward.
Finally, he reached the office of the acting lord.
He took a shaky breath. His heart was heavy with fear and doubt.
Inside, Sasha stood by the window, bathed in moonlight.
“Count Perelman. You came.”
“You summoned me, my lady.”
“I thought you might not. At such a delicate time, you’d want to avoid suspicion.”
She smiled gently.
Perelman stiffened. He stared at her in shock.
Does she know? Or is she just speaking nonsense?
He couldn’t read her.
He swallowed dryly. His heart sank, as if he had stepped into the maw of a beast.
