Chapter 49: Bribery IV

With the end of winter nearing them, Herbert knew that now should be the time for him to settle the matter of the tax collector. He had been sitting around the territory all winter. Once the winter snow had finished thawing, Herbert decided to make a trip back to Tenebra city and prevent people from setting a fire in his backyard.

Although Tenebra city is technically under the jurisdiction of the Oxswords, the fact that they had invited foreign forces was a big problem in Herbert's eyes. Their meddlesome actions were supposed to make way for the middle to late stages of the story as challenges for the protagonist to grow and expand his horizons to other kingdoms.

Since he had already decided to make his move, Herbert wouldn't let the church continue with their plan to make a plague cause big trouble for the kingdom.

While settling the affairs outside the territory of the Ravenmoon, Herbert also believes that he should strengthen his grasp over the family so that he wouldn't have any problems with inheriting it soon.

After finishing up his thoughts, he had taken a long and comfortable bath time which he used to thoroughly clean himself up. Ever since he had begun merging with the other Albert, he noticed that his behavior of being disgusted with unclean things had been lessening. Although he would still occasionally feel it whenever he was triggered, at the end of the day, the other personality somehow balances things out. But he also thought that the powers that he had unlocked when he had reached the Transcendent realm had helped him to create a situation where he could simply use his power of purification to clean himself.

Relying on this thin and delicate balance, he had been able to maintain his sanity during his earlier battles while he stayed at the Featherwing Fortress.

When he had finished grooming himself, Herbert once again came out of his room to accomplish one of the things that he could do during his stay at the territory, and that is…

"It's time to send some bribes."

Right in time, Herbert once again came across the Spymaster from the Conspiracy troops. As someone with a high position within the Ravenmoon family, Herbert knew that this guy should be one of the targets that he should bribe.

"Mr. Oscar, can I have a bit of your time?"

"Young master, I apologize as I am a little bit busy today. Perhaps next time?"

Hearing his flat-out rejection, Herbert almost wanted to click his tongue, but he knew how to be polite so he instead smiled and reached out his gloved hand to Oscar and tapped him near his shoulder where he had a pocket near his chest.

"I see, perhaps we can talk again next time when your schedule is free."

Saying such things, Herbert then slowly walked away with his ears perked and ready to hear Oscar's voice calling out to him once again.

Just as he had expected, he soon heard Oscar's old and deep voice calling out his name.

"Young master, I believe that you dropped this?"

Feigning his surprise and confusion, Herbert turned around to answer him.

"That is? Well isn't that an Awakening Crystal? Where did you find this Mr. Oscar?"

"You dropped it in my pocket earlier when you went past me."

"Did I?"

"Yes. Yes, you did, young master."

Just like all the other servants from the Ravenmoon family, Mr. Oscar had a stone-cold face. He didn't seem like the type that would give in to Herbert's devilish whispers. His continuous actions almost made Herbert stop what he was doing, but he only took a second to compose himself before once again finding another chance to prolong their discussion so that he could lead it in a direction that is more advantageous to him.

"I see, however, Mr. Oscar, since you found it in your pocket, why didn't you take it as yours?"

"I wouldn't-"

This time, while they were having a smooth flow of conversation, Herbert cut off Mr. Oscar before he could continue with his next words. He already knew how inflexible he can be and this knowledge didn't come from the book. Instead, it came from the original Albert's memories as a child who grew up under the care of the Ravenmoon family.

"I know that you're too old to think about becoming an awakened. But I also know that you have a son. Shouldn't he be reaching past the age where he can no longer naturally awaken?"

Herbert's conjecture was once again without the foreknowledge coming from the book so he didn't know if Mr. Oscar's son would indeed not awaken naturally. But this time, Herbert's words seem to have struck a chord within Mr. Oscar as he gulped in a mouthful of saliva. His current appearance seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of accepting Herbert's bribe

Before he could continue to deliberate, Herbert once again took hold of the situation by speaking to him.

"Since you mentioned that you were busy and still had something to do, why don't we talk about this another time?"

After he stated his words, Herbert then took the Awakening Crystal from Mr. Oscar and left as soon as he arrived. Mr. Oscar wasn't prone to making decisions in the heat of the moment, due to the nature of his work, he had to think things through logically before making a decision. This was why Herbert immediately left after he gave him the voices of temptation.

With his sudden surplus in Awakening Crystals, he had the leeway to think about to whom should he give the bribes. As he did a mental calculation, he divided the portion of the Awakening Crystals. Originally, he had gained five from this trip, but after giving one away to Lady Elena who then gave it away to Princess Amelia, he now only had four.

From there, he then decided to reserve one for Mr. Oscar, and the other two for certain higher-ups from the Unkindness and Treachery troops. As for the remaining one, Herbert did not have anyone else in particular in mind to bribe. However, he did have another idea as to how he should use this one.