Victor's will

For the past few weeks, Arthur's life had been quite monotonous.

From dusk till dawn, he would complete experiments in his laboratory. Often, he would send the newly advanced Beginner Knight James Heveer to the dungeon, in order to fetch some prisonners. It was no secret that anyone entering Arthur's laboratory never came back alive.

There were rumours of Arthur having turned to a Black Magician in his trip to the [Ivory Tower]. More rumours quickly followed, such as his ability to have blackmailed his own father with a curse. Viscount Frederick Landragon didn't let the rumour grow, as he found the culprits and hanged them all in the public place of Guardian City, the capital of the Landragon fief.

As for John, he saved Arthur's face by giving all kind of excuses, speaking of a strange disease that Arthur was treating. Somehow, his actions had dramatically decreased the Landragon fief's criminal rate. After all, prisoners were getting killed, hanged and possibly cursed to death. With John's actions, they were now even prone to contract a disease!

Fear of illness was sometimes worse than the fear of death.

Many soldiers enlisted for riches. They knew that enlisting would lead their family to live a steady life. It wouldn't be great, but even if they died, they knew that their family would get taken care of. The will to protect their own ironically fuelled their combat spirit, which would lead them to kill other human beings, creating a destructive circle where only the strongest would benefit.

Dying in battle was an honour.

Soldiers were not the only ones to think so.

Priests didn't fear death either, and they would rather die than lose their faith.

However, diseases were different.

People ignored the origin of diseases, and more often than not, their treatment.

To be fair, even Arthur was shocked when he had killed the elf Hildir of the Jagorn Wooden forest. He had never expected elves, who were hailed the best healers in the continent, to be helpless against a rank 0 [Ice elemental] curse. It was perhaps high-grade, but the [Ice] element was not known for its potency. When Arthur bought the spell, he only thought to use it for weakening strong opponents, or finish off weaker opponents.

The spell was stronger than he expected, and the druids much weaker than he thought. If they couldn't deal with a curse, then their ability to heal was nothing short of what mortals could achieve.

Still, there were results.

John Landragon had now fully acknowledged Arthur as the [Landragon Head Wizard], and he had thus embraced his role as the nobleman, in charge of politics and management.

However, the biggest change lied in Victor.

In the evening, Viktor wore his training armour like usual. Picking up his sword, he looked at his brother, who was bigger and taller than him.

'He used to be so small and fragile...Forcing this dumb brother of mine to train when I was younger turns out to be quite the fruitful investment', Viktor thought, 'Now he feels grateful to me, makes me stronger and he would probably kill John if I give him the good reasons for that'

Viktor had led a quiet life. He had always lived in John's shadow. He would never inherit the household, for the one and only reason that he was born second, rather than first. He knew that John was outstanding in many ways, and even if he had John's innate talent to wield swords, it wouldn't be enough to make his father change his mind about traditions.

But no matter what happened, Viktor was dedicated to inherit the household. He would never acknowledge John as the Landragon Lord.

Many would consider John to be apathetic and a manipulative individual. His tendency to view human lives as a resource had thoroughly disgusted the Viscount. However, Victor was much darker. He was someone who had gone as far as to hire assassins to kill his brother John in their childhood. His unfortunate mistake was choosing the wrong assassin guild.

Instead of killing John, it was Viktor who had awakened John's talent and dedication to the swords. His assassination attempt had turned John into a knight.

'What doesn't kill a man, makes him stronger'

Behind Viktor's naive and dumb acting, there lied a terribly evil soul. Teaching Arthur had been an investment. The gratitude that Arthur felt was a result of years of manipulation. As soon as Arthur returned successfully, Viktor had begun to plan a way to frame John for crimes he didn't commit.

However, Arthur was oblivious to Viktor's schemes.

Or at least, that's what Viktor thought...