~ Chapter 42: Real Intentions ~

[Alexandre Damascus' point of view]

 One of the reasons why I came all the way to this little town in the middle of nowhere was because I heard there were some promising children here. If their Blessings were rare, I planned on stealing them. After all, why bother to hunt for adults who could properly use them when children were far more vulnerable and easy to catch?

To this end, I used one of my many Blessings, which gave me the ability to charm and to some extent mentally control those around me. I needed a proper disguise to let me get close to my prey, so I killed the original Alexandre Damascus and took his armor and weapon. Even if he was a Royal Knight, he was still a weakling when compared to me. He didn't even carry a useful Blessing, so to me he was nothing more than a disposable tool.

It was highly likely that by now someone had already found his rotting body in the ditch I left him in back at the capital, but Robert here never suspected even for a single second during our long journey that I could be someone else. My Blessing made sure to erase any doubt from his heart, and it wasn't that difficult for someone like me to pretend to be a Royal Knight. It wasn't the first time I did it either.

Still, it would be a lie to declare that I went through all of this trouble just to get my hands on the Blessings of some brats all the way out here. No, my real target was the Gallyater Royal Magic Academy. I wanted to infiltrate that place and take the Blessings of ALL the children there. Of course, I had it all planned out, and this little bit I was doing now was part of it. After all, I needed the recommendation of a teacher there in order to apply as a substitute teacher. Once I got in, all I had to do was mark my targets in a suitable order and then get on with my feast!

Children were easy to fool... easy to catch... and delightful to kill.

And so, I met the child of this town's Lord. He annoyed me so much, that I was this close to killing him on the spot, but I abstained. Someone else would end up killing him sooner or later if he continued to behave like such a fool. The real world was filled with butt kissers, and you were either one who had a shiny butt or one who did the kissing. This guy was definitely the latter but acted like the leader of the first. This sort of disrespectful behavior would only lead him to his downfall. As for his Blessings, he bragged about them immediately, and they were nothing special, the common [Blessing of Combat] and the [Blessing of Guidance], which was useful only for a teacher.

Robert gave the boy a few manner lessons, but this man was an idiot who actually cared about properly raising children. I didn't bother to say anything; I just tapped the hilt of my sword to show that I was pissed about the kid's behavior.

After that brat, we came down to meet the children of the Drakarys Baron family. At first glance, they both looked far better than the other kid, and they had a strange aura around them like they were meant for greatness or something. Usually, this sort of prey meant useful combat Blessings, but until then, I had to listen to Robert talk about manners and the future of that bratty kid of Earl Rupert Levias of Briston.

Then came the talk about the two children of the Baron family. The little girl had three Blessings! She was a prodigy! I literally hit the jackpot with this one!

When I laid my eyes on the little girl, I knew I wanted to rip her apart and make her Blessings mine. With my strength and current abilities, it would have been a cinch, so I used the same Blessing which allowed me to pretend to be a Royal Knight in order to influence the minds of the teacher and urge him to depart as soon as possible. I also added a little extra to make the children and their parents’ consent to his proposal.

It was a set thing. The little girl would depart with us and then she would meet an unfortunate accident and die somewhere along the way. A monster would attack us or maybe some unknown black-hooded assassin. Yes, that lie always worked!

Ah~ I can already see myself tasting her fresh plucked out heart and draining the energy from it! I thought.

With my Blessing's influence, I urged the teacher to bring up the talk about requesting for us to depart for the capital as soon as possible. I also made sure his parents would give their approval to this, but that wasn't supposed to be too hard, after all, what baron family wouldn't want their child to study in such a prestigious institution? Unfortunately, instead of bringing up this subject, Robert had to start talking about the little boy first.

He was a useless kid with only one Blessing, and hearing Robert claim that even one mattered felt more of a lie than all of mine put together. This world was dominated by those who had at least two of them not one.

Still, even if he had one Blessing, if it was a good combat oriented one, I wanted to get my hands on it. If I planned everything right, the child would meet a horrific end, and his parents would suffer greatly because of the loss of both of their children. There was no need to feel bad about this, after all, between me and this brat, I was the obvious better user of whatever Blessing he had.

Yeah, maybe I could grab him on the way out of town... Maybe make it look like he got lost in the woods? He's a stupid child, so the adults would believe this. Hm, yeah, that sounds good! I thought while smiling on the inside.

It was the perfect plan and my own Blessings were going to be the key and reason for it to work so perfectly. Nothing could resist my mind control and influence! It was an ultimate and extremely rare Blessing which I stole from a priest five years ago.

Yeah, everything will go just as I had planned... while I was thinking about this, the boy raised his voice and said something foolish.

“No! I won't let you take away my little sister with you! At least not today or in the next two days!”

“Why, may I ask?” I kept my calm, although, this strange behavior of his wasn't part of my plan.

According to how I used my Blessing, he was supposed to push his sister forward not stop her.

I don't understand... why did he say this? I wondered while still believing that I was in full control.

This boy glared at me and then retorted that I was the reason, that he didn't like me. It wasn't the teacher, the journey, the academy, or anything else his little mind could have found to blame and point a finger at, he bluntly said that he didn't like ME!

“What?” I let the word slip as my mind tried to make sense of all of this.

“I said it once, and I will say it again! I don't like YOU, Sir Alexandre Damascus!” he declared boldly while glaring at me.

Everyone in the room was at a loss of words, but stranger though, the little sister nodded and agreed with him.

This should be impossible! Why?! I asked myself as I clearly saw that the two siblings were not in the least bit under the control of my Blessing.

I would even be so bold as to claim they were able to somehow resist and fight against my influence, but such a thing should be impossible unless they had a Blessing designed specifically to counteract mine.

“If Leonidas says so... then I will agree with him. I'm sorry, Sir Damascus.” said the father.

Like a miracle, they all snapped out of my spell's control and began to take his side.

But he's just a brat! I should be seen as a Royal Knight, one of the strongest fighters in this kingdom! If I can't protect her, then who could?! Why are they taking his side? It doesn't make any sense?! I screamed in my mind as I tightened my grip around the hilt of my sword.

I was furious, but letting my rage get out of control would defeat my end purpose. My ultimate goal was to reach the Gallyater Royal Magic Academy to harvest all the Blessings from all the students there. I couldn't give myself away just because of this annoying brat, but if I were to return to the capital without the teacher, I wouldn't have the chance to persuade him to write me the recommendation. Forcing him was out of the question because they checked it with magic.

This brat is going to ruin my plan! I shouted in my mind.

There was the option of going for another teacher, but this one was the easiest to influence, the weak link in the staff. Anyone else would be extremely hard to approach, not to mention convince to write me that letter. As for other posts I could aim for, there were none to suit my needs because only the teachers had access to the students' files and Blessing information.

“Is that so?” I replied with a smile after I managed to calm down my anger. I released the hilt from my grip “Then, shall we prepare a different escort for the young lady?” I asked.

“The earliest would arrive in one week.” Robert said as he was rubbing his chin.

Perfect! I thought.

“In that case, let us do so. It appears that for some reason, I... frighten them.” I showed them a smile.

One week was more than enough time from me to find a moment to kidnap the girl, steal her Blessing, then leave a trail of breadcrumbs that lead to the nearby forest. With one wind spell, I could rip her body apart and make it seem as if she was attacked and then brutally killed by someone or something else. Of course, I would be the one to catch the supposed killer, an assassin sent by a rival family or an envious noble like the Earl. After, his child's chance to enter was refused while that of his vassal, the Barons, was accepted, the Earl went mad. It was a perfect deduction!

I had multiple choices if I wanted to put the blame on someone: Tumur, Vlamyr, Nassir, Vemire, the Earl, and there was also the rich Countess Osengas. If I spun the story in the right way it was going to be fine. By the time they discovered even one hint of my wrong doings, I would already be far away feasting on the hearts of the children in the Academy.

Yes! This is also a good plan! I thought to myself.

Meanwhile, I could just as well find out why my mind control Blessing didn't work on these two brats. Did they carry around a special amulet against it? Was it one of the little girl's Blessings? I had to find out and make sure it never happened again! Or at the very least thread more lightly when using my Blessing in the future...