The Heroines Are After My Fortune

9 – The First Acquisition (Revised)

When Caesar drew his auric blade, proving his worth, the vassals’ faces lit up. Though generally a Marquis family and a Baron family were mismatched, the situation was different if the other party was a future Swordmaster. Actually, the weaker the family power of the partner, the better.

And so, their marriage proceeded with blessing, for a show of power between the couple and for the benefit of their houses. Rafael, watching this, ground his teeth but, even so, always thought deep in his heart, ‘Still, I am the heir.’

Then, one day it happened. Rafael, passing by the family council chamber by chance, overheard the meeting and was plunged into shock. Vassals were suggesting to his father that the position of family head, which he had taken for granted, should be handed to Marie.

He naturally expected his father to refuse. But reality was harsh.

“Hmm, I will think about it positively. I will make a decision at the next meeting, so wait.”

He knew that ‘think about it positively’ was just a formality, given the family head’s emphasis on saving face. The position of family head had essentially been given to Marie. It felt like he was going insane. It felt as though he was losing everything he had.

‘…I cannot crumble like this.’

In the end, Rafael decided to take the devil’s hand in order to obtain the position of family head.

######

Marie, near full term, was summoned by her father, the family head, late one night.

Marie couldn’t think why she was being called at this late hour, but then she remembered one thing and told Caesar.

“Oh, now that I think of it, a few of the vassals were talking about the family head. Apparently, there was talk of passing it on to me.”

“…Do you want to be the family head?”

Caesar carefully asked, curious about his wife’s opinion, and Marie chuckled and answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“No, I’m someone who threw away my reputation as a Marquis’s daughter, got pregnant out of wedlock, and came here. Even if I were to take such a heavy position without responsibility, who would follow me with sincerity? I am content to live happily with you and Sasha, just the three of us.”

Caesar smiled contentedly. This was the wife he loved.

“I’ll be back soon, Caesar.”

“Ugh, I told you not to call me that…”

Though he clearly had another name, Marie, having been taken by his childhood nickname, Caesar, had started calling him that every day. She quickly put on her coat and, seeing her off, her husband, went directly to her father’s chambers. She couldn’t wear the sword she usually did, as it had been stolen a few days prior. Still, this was her home, no doubt no dangerous thing could come to pass.

Thinking that, she opened the door where her father was and the scene before her eyes was, to say the least, shocking.

“Fath—er…?”

Her father, Marquis Este, lay brutally slain, a sword piercing his heart.

She crumpled, speechless, to the floor. Wiping away the tears that threatened to consume her, her hand trembling, she noticed something intimately familiar amidst the carnage.

‘My sword…!?’

The blade embedded in the patriarch’s chest was none other than Marie’s own.

More than one thing felt amiss. A hexagram, a ritualistic circle, etched into the floor. And the patriarch’s body, gaunt and withered beyond what a recent death could explain, the scene reeked of a pact with the devil.

A trap.

A vicious, vile trap.

Marie’s mind raced to find a way out, but time was not her ally.

“Wh-What in the name of gods…! Sister!”

Raphael, bursting into the room flanked by a cohort of the family’s most elite knights, roared in disbelief. The knights, summoned to the patriarch’s chambers alongside Raphael, were equally stunned by the ghastly sight. The evidence, so stark and clear, led them to the same conclusion.

“Marie Este murdered the patriarch and made a pact with a demon…!!”

“That vile wretch…! So that brilliance of hers was nothing more than the fruit of a contract with a devil!”

Raphael and the knights all drew their blades, turning them toward Marie. She was livid with injustice, ready to tear her hair out in protest. But she couldn’t afford to be captured, not now.

‘I have to protect Sasha, my daughter, and Caesar…’

Wooom———!!

Marie steeled her resolve, drawing out her aura from every pore. A perfect, pristine aura blade bloomed into being.

Faced with such dire peril, she had finally achieved the peak of the Swordmaster’s art.

Ordinarily, the sight would have earned the knights’ awe, but in this moment, their eyes saw something altogether different.

“To devour your own father and become a Sword Master, are you not ashamed…!”

“What talk of chivalry when facing a demon woman. All, attack together—!!”

The knights, even more enraged, flew into a frenzy.

Though she had become a Sword Master, being surrounded by nearly ten knights with a full belly of child, her future could hardly be called bright.

####

‘Something is wrong.’

The atmosphere within the family estate felt off, something disorderly. From afar, high-pitched shouts and sounds akin to clashing swords reached his ears, a pungent stench of blood pricking at his nose. Instinctively, he knew something dire had transpired, and grabbing just one sword, Caesar left his room. He was met with the sight of family members, their faces twisted with rage, rushing toward him.

“There, the demon woman’s husband…! Seize him!”

‘What in the…!’

From all directions, swordsmen charged to capture Caesar. He, desperate to save Marie, cut down everyone who came at him without rest.

He cut down the fellow swordsman he’d been joking with just yesterday, a man his own age.

He cut down a swordsman who had sought him out for a signature of the future Sword Master.

He cut down a knight who had gifted him a basket of fruit, to aid in his wife’s pregnancy.

In this pandemonium, he desperately ran up the hill, searching for his wife. How long had he been running? Following the signs, he was finally able to find her, the one he sought so anxiously. But it was not as he wished.

“Ma, rie…….”

Around Marie lay a considerable number of knight’s corpses scattered. Her white nightgown, soaked in the knights’ blood, had turned a murky, darkish color. And someone was holding a sword to her neck.

“Raphael…! What in heavens name are you doing—!!”

Caesar instinctively understood.

This whole mess had come about from his machinations. Raphael gave Caesar a grotesque smile.

“You wretched pair. I forgave you for disrupting the family, but now you reach for even the head seat of the family?”

“What nonsense, I’ve never even considered such a position…!”

“Shut it…! The head of the family, it was everything to me, *everything*. Heh heh heh…”

And then, a thick, viscous aura surged from his entire body. The crimson aura rising from Raphael was enough to make Caesar feel a primal threat. He didn’t know what tricks he’d pulled, but Raphael had become a Swordmaster in a startlingly short time. Caesar, who was attempting to raise his own aura to face him in order to save his wife, was met with Raphael’s immediate opposition.

“Had a little tussle with this wench, so my state isn’t so great. How about a deal?”

“There is no deal I’ll make with you…!”

“Is that so? Then I suppose I’ll just have to kill her.”

“…………… Ugh.”

He couldn’t ignore it; his wife was in his clutches. Raphael’s terms were simple.

“Cut off your right arm, and I’ll let her go.”

“What…!!”

To cut off the very arm that was his life as a swordsman.

It was only through his skill with the blade that he was accepted as the son-in-law of the Este Marquis family. But to him, family was more important than an arm.

“Keep your promise.”

*Fwoosh—!*

“Ughh………!!”

“Caesar——!!”

Pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced washed over him, but he still thought, *If it means my wife can live, that’s enough*. But Raphael never intended to keep his word.

“Haha, you believed that? You pathetic fool.”

*Thwack—!*

Raphael’s sword mercilessly pierced through Mari’s chest.

“MaaaRIE—————————!!!!”

The forest shook with the roar, and Caesar, lost to reason, charged at Raphael, wielding his sword with his remaining left arm. But a swordsman who’d lost his right hand, suddenly gripping a blade with his left, could hardly muster even half his former strength.

*Clang…*!

In a single blow, Caesar’s sword was knocked away, leaving him disarmed. Raphael, looking down at the man sprawled on the ground, twisted his face into a grotesque grimace and unleashed a maniacal laugh.

“Hah! Hahaha, Hahahahahaha————!!”

How long did he laugh like that?

Abruptly ceasing, Raphael clicked his tongue, and then, as if having lost all interest, turned and abandoned them there.

Caesar felt utterly lost, alone. As the depths of despair, the worst of his life, washed over him, he heard a faint, crawling sound of Marie’s voice.

“Marie…!”

She still clung to life. Blood gurgled and surged from her throat, but she was pulling on the last threads of strength clinging to her body. Marie’s final words were simple.

“Don’t think about revenge. And… help me say a final goodbye to Sasha.”

“………………!!”

There was no way a dying Marie could deliver the child normally. That meant, she was asking him to cut open her belly so she could see her child. Cutting her open would hasten her death even more. How could he possibly do that, he cried, tears streaming down his face, but Marie seized his hand in a tight grip.

“You…”

It was a cruelly unjust fate, yet he couldn’t refuse her last request. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, and with his lone remaining arm, lifted his sword and sliced open her belly himself. He was able to safely pull his daughter Sasha from her womb.

“Eeh, eeh-eeeeh…”

“Our…daughter…”

Marie, despite the massive amounts of blood draining from her body, gave a faint smile as she looked at her daughter’s face.

“Caesar… protect… our daughter, Sasha… to the end.”

She closed her eyes, smiling as if she had fulfilled her final wish.

And then, she never opened her eyes again.

“KREEEEEaaaGH————————————————————!!!”

He wept tears of blood and swore an oath.

Rafael Este. He would never again share the same sky as that man.

He would kill him, no matter what, and avenge Marie.

But what dragged Caesar back to reality was Sasha, newly born.

“WaaaHH, WAAH-WAHH——!”

“…………!”

Sasha, startled by the scream that could have brought mountains crashing down, cried even louder.

The sound of his daughter’s wails brought him back to his senses. And he recalled Marie’s last words.

‘Our daughter, Sasha, protect her, to the very end.’

Even if he ground Rafael’s bones into dust and drank them, his rage wouldn’t be quenched, but for his daughter, he abandoned his revenge.

Now, only his daughter Sasha was the last reason for him to live in this world.

Since the incident, Caesar had hidden himself with his daughter in the outskirts.

And instead of a future of vengeance,

he chose an escape into a happy delusion.

Every single day, he took drugs and lived buried in a hallucination where he, his wife and daughter, Caesar, spent a happy life together.

He couldn’t endure a single day without forgetting that horrible memory.

###

“No way, did that really happen…?”

“…I can’t believe it.”

Sasha and Casano, they couldn’t quite form words, like they’d been struck. Especially Sasha, the shock must be immense. Growing up not knowing even how she was born.

I sharply rebuked Caesar, who was still stubbornly silent.

“How long do you intend to hide? You, a noble by birth, you, of all people, should know better than anyone the difference between the capital’s heart and its outskirts. Are you going to let Sasha rot in the fringes her whole life, just because you’re scared of Marquis Este?”

“………………!”

His eyes wavered. His fist was clenched so tight his knuckles trembled, like he was still grinding his teeth.

“I don’t know how you found out, but if I return to Karna and confront the Marquis, Sasha’s existence will be exposed eventually. Even so, you’re saying I must fight the Marquis?”

“No, you’re wrong. Sasha’s identity won’t be revealed.”

“What…!?”

I shook my head, then answered,

“I’ll be the one fighting the Marquis. You, Caesar, in the critical moment when the Marquis falls, you will become my blade.”

Caesar was surprised by my declaration of intent to fight at the forefront myself.

He was starting to waver a little, but he didn’t seem to have completely discarded his suspicions yet.

“How can I trust you? What guarantee is there that you won’t sell me and Sasha out to the Marquis?”

“Caesar, you could kill someone like me anytime you want, right?”

“……Yes, as easy as pulling something out of my pocket.”

At that, Casano bristled, yelling “What!” but I just laughed, as if it was nothing.

“If you become convinced that I’m betraying you, anytime is fine. Come and sever my neck. I’ll gladly offer it to you.”

““…………………!!””

My bombshell declaration sent a powerful ripple through them all.

“What’s the reason for going this far? You shouldn’t harbor such strong ill-will towards the Marquis personally.”

“And why do you assume I don’t?”

“……………”

That’s right, truthfully I don’t harbor any ill-will. I’ve never even met him.

But if I stand idly by, something bad will surely happen in the future.

Rafael Este,

and his daughter, the villainess Renee Este.

The two of them are individuals who are definitively destined to become a major hindrance to my future with Elena. Ultimately, removing them was a necessary task for a brighter future for both Caesar and me.

“………………..”

Caesar seemed to be contemplating for a moment, then,

*thud!*

He knelt on one knee before me. And with a clear voice I’d never heard before, he declared,

“Until the day Marquis Este is destroyed, I, Caesar, will dedicate my entire being to faithfully carrying out the orders of Baron Aiden Roen.”

It was the moment I, having transmigrated here, recruited my first important ally.

‘Damn, this is insane.’

After a gamble that risked my life, I had secured the most powerful card I could possibly obtain.

I wanted to shout and jump around with joy, but barely managing to maintain my composure, I smiled benevolently at him.

“I will give you three days. We will be preparing your new identities and accommodations on our side, so if you have anything to settle in the outskirts, do so within that time.”

“……I will.”

Seeing Caesar’s changed resolve, Sasha smiled happily. She should be reeling from shock, but it was almost inspiring how she smiled brightly, putting on a brave face so as not to worry Caesar.

“Good job, Papa. Everything’s going to be alright from now on. Don’t worry about me too much. Did you forget who’s daughter I am? I’m incredibly strong, you know!”

Her words brought a smile to the face of her doting, fatherly man. The two seemed to have grown even closer because of this whole affair. I was watching them, feeling all warm and fuzzy, when I turned my head to the side and found Cassano staring at me with hollowed eyes.

“Woah, you startled me…”

“Aiden-nim, please, stop putting your life up as a wager. I feel like my lifespan is dwindling so fast…”

“Haha, if things get dangerous, Cassano-kyung will be there to protect me, right?”

“Khuh, Aiden-nim…”

Honestly, I don’t actually think he could properly protect me, but Cassano did go through a lot this time, so I figured I’d throw in a bit of lip service.

“I deeply regret my shortcomings in this matter. Once we return, I plan to reflect on myself, and take the time to grow, both in mind and body. I, Cassano, swear to completely and utterly protect Aiden-nim from this moment forward…!”

Oh, okay. Do your best.

I was worried that I might have to silence Cassano about everything that happened, but seeing him like that put my worries to rest. I was walking alongside him when Sasha, who was walking ahead with Caesar, turned her head and looked at me. She mouthed something, one syllable at a time.

[ThAnK YoU !]

Then she chuckled and turned back around. If I had a thing for cute, I might have fallen for that one, for real. I was sporting a dad’s smile because of how adorable she was, when…

“……………….”

Her *actual* dad casually turned around, and made a certain gesture.

A gesture of a thumb being drawn across his throat.

‘Right, let’s definitely not touch Sasha.’

The Swordmaster might come running at us and rip us apart.

Come to think of it, I had totally forgotten, but now I’m just realizing something.

‘Soon, the original story will begin.’

That damned original story, the start of ‘Lady Dreams a Sweet Dream,’ the Academy entrance ceremony, is really not that far away now.