A con man's way

My time in this dark and awful dungeon has felt like eternity and the longer I waited the more I doubted whether I'll ever get out, the more I had wished that I never came back here at all. I wondered what will happen to me the second time I died, hopefully I get to pass on this time. I am tired of all this isekai shit and I just want to be free.

I rested my body in the scabby bed given to me with the cushions a cloth stuffed with hay. I tried to cry but I couldn't for some reason, I felt rage but nothing else. How could I have been judged without a fair trial and how did my strongest allies become so powerless. Again and again I would think of different scenarios of how I could have avoided this whole mess and again and again it goes back to the same conclusion, I should have ran away. I never should have met the king and the moment he captured me with the slave driver, my fate has been sealed to be killed by my own goddamn master.

I fell asleep and I had a vivid dream about the first time I ever ran away. I was just a normal boy then and my life did not make the unbelievable turn it had just yet. My parents and I went driving one day and it had been after we celebrated me getting a consolation prize for a chess tournament, yes they were those kind of parents who would celebrate even when their son is a disappointment and I loved them dearly for it, my father was a writer and often times he would quote Rudyard Kipling and tell me

"you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same"

And I did not understand at all but it made me just a little bit relieved that there were people who would cheer me up in my victories and defeat just the same...until there were none....in that fateful day a delivery truck lost its brakes and the driver came rushing towards our sedan and the last thing I saw were blinding lights. When I regained consciousness I saw my parents bloody and unmoving, their heads were stuck in the broken glass and this had been the day I regretted most in this life, the day that I followed my instincts that screamed into my head to run. When I did there was still a few spare minutes but after exiting the car, my legs turned to jelly and I shook to my very core, it had stayed that way until the next minute when in an instant everything was engulfed in flames, the car had exploded and took my parents with them. That was the day I lost my family, that was the day that I ran away and also the day I started running away from everything.

I furled in my bed over an over, sweating bullets and as someone woke me up, I gasped for air and my shirt was soaked in sweat and I could feel the rapid pounding of my heart. As for the one who woke me up I could not see very well in the dark but the silhouette was that of a woman's and the hand was of someone I knew but could not quite distinguish.

The woman took me by the hand and pulled me towards her and as she did so she also opened what I could only assume is a portal and brought me outside of the palace. When I could finally see, it was Zyderine who despite being at a worse condition still saved me nonetheless.

"You shouldn't be here" I exclaimed worried about her as she pressed towards me having lost her strength from casting such an advance magic spell and leaving her bed when her body is far too preoccupied fighting off the poison that she took.

"Neither should you. Worry not Escroc, your little concoction worked and I am definitely going to destroy this poison. For now you worry about yourself, it won't be long now when they find out and kill you"

I looked at her worrisomely, I could not believe that it would be Zyderine who would save me despite me making the least bit of effort to help her or even acknowledge her at that and now she could barely stand and her ailment could possibly get worse by doing this and yet she did do it.

"What are you looking at me like that for? Go run away! I'll be fine"

"Runaway? No I can't leave you like this"

She then grinned and from her pocket took out a letter, the one I wrote for her.

"It had always been your plan to do so, so go now before they find and kill you"

I became disoriented with the way out Zyderine gave me, yes it is true that I had planned on running away and while I was at the cell I thought about doing it countless times but now that the option really is plausible I cannot help but waver and contemplate the consequences of my actions. Would Zyderine survive this? What if they choose to kill Blade instead? What would happen to Claudia and Crystal without me? and most of all if running away is what I really wanted.

Faced with the facts I came with an unlikely conclusion, as much as I have changed, I'm still a con man who is used to deceiving people...

"I won't be leaving you" I say as I carry Zyderine on my back to her suprise.

Yes I am still the con man I have always been but on this world, I am also Gordy Marod a man who lives by values, and most of all I am also the man who has been gifted by such a lucky life, one given the opportunity to fight among and against legends, one given a life where I can actually make a difference, and one where I am a person relied upon and worth relying on. Yes I am a con man and as a con man I would be stupid to throw all of this away, I will have everything or nothing at all.

As I carry Zyderine I came to wonder where I was bringing her to, I had nowhere to go much like the first day I have arrived in this crazy world and while reminiscing I came into an ergo moment of that time that I decided I would make a cult one day, and what better day to start than now?

I lay Zyderine in a chair near the road and I check on her condition, despite the poison's severity and considering how much she would have taken to get it this bad, she was surprisingly stable and although it wasn't very visible, she was definetly getting better and I guarantee that she would be back to perfect condition when the Bluemoon festival arrives.

Now then I shall make a spectacle out of the seeds that X planted and I shall be the one who reaps the bounties of the doubtful men. Zyderine looked at me with confusion as I brought her to the town square of Gilgaras where we see so many people running rampant, housing their sheep and preparing their weapons against the epidemic or any occult that had cursed the land. I decided to get their attention by having a show out of it.

"HEAR YE! HEAR YE! THE TIME OF JUDGEMENT HAS ARRIVED" Yes I sound a lot like one of those preacher people but I guarantee you that they're one of the greatest con men there is. Using religion to brainwash people's heads and the like and taking a portion of their salary as if the god their worshiping has a bank account. I swear it's utter bullshit when religion and money collide.

I managed to get a small crowd with my confident voice that coincided with their panicked state.

"Here we have a lost lamb who was twisted by her peers and she became lost and the darkness took over her body!"

I then showed her rashes that stated too look in the color of a faded violet which may be partly due to the ice and Zyderine was shocked at what I just did having not understood it herself. The crowd gasped in shock as this was the first they have seen a poisoned member and those who realized she was the princess were affected even more knowing that if the princess herself was infected then they the common folk could very well be dead.

"The Beast of Gilgaras dwells among us ye men and women! He chokes the weak in faith and with his fire burns those who follow him. Repent now and pray to your gods for all that you can do now is wait for the beast to enter your home and spread his disease to your children, husbands, and wives!"

A certain charisma and talent in story telling is needed to preach and I thankfully thanks to all my experience from my past life excel in both of these which made my bullshit sound real and scary. Keep in mind that this is a medieval like era, when people believed in magic. Well magic does exist in this world I suppose so let me rephrase that, the era where people believe in bullshit magic.

Many panicked and I could hear the loud murmurs as the crowd became bigger and bigger. X was a brilliant strategist I admit but the thing he lacks is resolve, he played far too safe and did not risk revealing his identity. True anonymity is often times a good protection but when you live a life of crime and deceit, there is no such thing as guaranteed safety, therefore his anonymity became untrustworthiness and his hiding among the crowd levelled him down to being a spectator rather than a player. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity and if one does not put himself out there then that opportunity would never present himself and one could conclude that scammers are lucky at choosing victims not because they always get the right people but because they put themselves in positions where they can target both the idiots and the guards, that is the only way to win.

Now I hope X is watching because if he doesn't make a move now then I shall be taking advantage of the chaos he created for himself and even if he had then I would have my target. It is true that people cannot destroy what they don't know but the same is also correct that people will not follow whom they don't know.

I assume that her rashes will be out by tomorrow so I'll be making Zyderine my leper that in the New Testament, Jesus once healed to show 'the Lord's power', mine would be um science. I will make it seem like Zyderine was healed because she followed me and bought my bullshit and that will guarantee my standing with the people. Of course there will be hecklers but in this kind of times they simply cannot risk criticizing me and being wrong, in case they arrive though they will be tested, of whether they would be wiling to do the same things that 'caused' Zyderine's ailment which I'll probably say is disrespecting the crown or worshiping pagan idols. Even the non superstitious in our world think twice upon defacing religious figures, how much do you think it would affect people of these superstitious times?

The best thing about this plan is that I am blatantly giving X the finger and he cannot do anything about it lest he reveals the identity he took so much lengths to hide. He hid all evidence of his appearance in the palace and he had to spread rumors instead of just directly informing the people, X is a precautious man I assure you.

I then make another move, I make Casa Escroc a makeshift factory where I create more activated carbon and sell it at unbelievable prices. I put a little bit of food coloring to it to make it seem slightly magical though. 5 silver a piece, and I get my final pawn, Shadow to sell it to the palace. They imprisoned me so I take their money, I'll be taking a lot more later as well for beating me up.

Well I suppose my beaten up look made me more reliable as I made it seem like I found out the truth and escaped 'the beast'. I'll be making my followers worship the palace instead of me sadly because another thing I learned in chess is that the most troublesome obstacles sometimes are your very own pieces that you are not allowed to hurt.