The explosion wasn't very close to me.

In fact, it was relatively far away.

Nevertheless, I experienced the tremor, the dazzling light, and the deafening sound.

It was quite a large one, even though it didn't harm me.

There were probably several casualties.

But those weren't the things on my mind.

Why...?

And...

Who?

~bang!

The door to my room suddenly swung open, and a servant with sweat dripping from his forehead entered.

It happened so suddenly that I almost forgot to change the expression on my face to one of shock.

He was an average-looking man of middle age, with the Inferesse family crest—a sword with angel wings—on his jacket.

The servant sighed in relief when he saw that I was awake and alive. But seeing the expression on my face, he quickly returned to his anxious state.

"I've come to take you to a safe place! Please follow me!"

"W- what happened?"

He approached me, quickly grabbed my arm, and pulled me out of bed.

"There's no time to explain, please follow me!"

Then he began to lead me through the corridors, the safe ones, while I was still in my pajamas.

If my ring had been with me, I would have tested whether he was lying or not, but since I was currently in the form of James Bluelet, I didn't have an answer to give if they asked about the ring, so it wasn't on me.

Still, there was another way to confirm what I was thinking.

'Sith, is he trustworthy?'

'Yes, he truly intends to take you to a safe place.'

When my answer came quickly, I sighed slightly.

Sith didn't have the ability to detect lies. But in the midst of this chaos, he could easily check where we were going without fearing being caught as much as before.

I finally tore my eyes away from the servant who was dragging me along and looked around.

After the explosion, the mansion had become quite chaotic.

We encountered numerous servants and guards in the corridors we passed through. Most of them were running in the opposite direction we had come from, likely heading to provide "support."

A short time later, we descended two flights of stairs into the basement, and after walking a little further, we stopped in front of a room, and the servant who had brought me here quickly opened the door and entered.

The door and walls of the room were quite thick, even excessively so.

As soon as we entered, the door closed.

~psshh!

The moment it closed, it released air as if it were vacuuming. A few mechanical sounds came from where it was attached to the walls, and the door locked as if it were sealed.

I swallowed hard, turned my eyes from the locked door to the servant who had brought me here, and asked in fear.

"W- what is going on?"

He turned toward me, opened his mouth to speak, but paused.

I couldn't understand why he paused. But immediately afterwards, my answer came from someone else.

"The mansion is under attack."

I swallowed my words.

I slowly turned around, toward the direction of the voice.

The person answering my question was sitting in a chair leaning against the wall directly across from me.

With his blonde hair and blue eyes, it was Franz Martin Inferesse.

"U- Under… attack…?"

They've brought him here too, huh…

"Yes."

I studied him for a moment.

He seemed more serious than usual. The attack had apparently come as a big surprise to him.

But then the corners of his lips turned up. It was as if he had completely forgotten about the attack and noticed something that pleased him.

"You can probably guess who attacked us."

I can probably guess, huh...

Tom Bluelet is actually at the top of the list.

It seems clear that the Inferesses are trying to protect themselves. And I don't think Philip Inferesse would throw away such an opportunity when he could both eliminate the Rerosses and gain the support of the Bluelet Family.

Collaborating with the Bluelet Family is more profitable for him than the Reross Family.

I paused, three words echoing in my mind.

The Reross Family.

…

Is it them?

"You seem to have figured it out."

Franz's smile widened.

"Yes, the attackers are the Reross Family. Apparently, they heard that you didn't die, and the alliance between Inferesse and Bluelet must have scared them quite a bit for them to launch such an attack."

It makes sense.

It makes perfect sense.

But there's a problem here that he doesn't know about.

The Reross Family didn't fail.

James Bluelet is truly dead.

Inferesse and Bluelet must have concealed the accident James was involved in. After all, it couldn't leak out until they reached an agreement. Otherwise, they'd be in trouble.

Then… how did they find out?

How could the Rerosses attack here on the same night?

Did someone… leak the information?

There are plenty of spies among the mafia families; it would be strange if there weren't any in such a large criminal ecosystem.

But they must have concealed an event as significant as the alliance between the two families without leaving a single trace behind.

They wouldn't allow information to leak out. At least, it shouldn't be possible for it to happen in such a short time.

This… doesn't make sense.

Not at all.

"You're thinking a lot. I've never seen you think this much before."

Franz's words brought me back to myself.

The situation in front of me was so illogical that I had unconsciously slipped out of the role I was playing.

"I'm… thinking about what will happen…"

"Oh, then I don't think you need to worry so much."

Franz raised his hand and drew a large circle with his index finger pointing upward.

"This is our territory. Even though we were caught unprepared... The Rerosses are a weaker family than us. We will suffer losses, yes. But it's impossible for them to win."

He was overly confident in his family.

"They hastened their own demise out of fear of the future. A desperate struggle. That's all."

Well, it wasn't that surprising actually.

The Inferesse Family wasn't particularly high in the hierarchy, yes.

But they were still above average.

The Reross Family, on the other hand, was a family that had just entered the ranks of the average.

The Inferesse Family's influence was much greater.

"I- I see..."

I took on a relaxed expression and sat down on one of the chairs as if I were having trouble standing.

All we had to do was wait here. That was what he had said, essentially.

But... what was on my mind was something entirely different.

This... would change the plans.

I had already considered most of the possibilities, yes.

But I hadn't considered something so illogical.

Such a thing wasn't part of Plan B, Plan C, or any of the plans beyond that.

I need to revise some things in my mind...

Five minutes passed.

Occasionally, we heard other explosions and felt tremors.

The battle above continued.

Fifteen minutes passed.

The battle became even more intense.

The number of explosions had decreased, but it was not over yet.

Half an hour passed.

Then forty-five minutes.

We stayed in the room throughout this whole time.

We waited, safely, for the conflict to end.

Franz didn't lose his composure for a moment; he even started reading a book at one point when he got bored.

As for me, even though I knew I was safe, I continued to act nervously, as if I were never at ease, like a coward would.

But then...

A silence fell.

We no longer heard the sounds of guns or magic.

The attack seemed to be over, and the mansion had calmed down.

Until the thing that made us all jump in our seats happened.

~BANG!

It was a loud sound that echoed throughout the entire room.

But what caught my attention was something else entirely.

This sound…

~BAANG!

It was coming from the sealed door.

"W- what's happening?!"

I quickly turned my eyes to Franz.

The smile that was always on his face had disappeared. He was squinting at the door.

Just as he was about to open his mouth...

~THAANG!

A bulge appeared above the door. An area as large as a normal person's chest was bent toward us.

The three guards standing in the room with us sprang into action.

They quickly stepped in front of Franz and me, grabbed their weapons, and waited.

~KLAAANG!

The bulge grew larger. The corners of the door bent as if unable to withstand the impact of the blows.

Then came one final blow.

~CLAAAANG!

The door bent completely and separated from its frame.

It was about to fly forward, but due to its weight, it only traveled a short distance before coming to a stop, falling right in front of our guards.

~THUD!

Dust from the corridor filled the room, and a figure looked at us from where the door had been.

He was a man in his forties with a rather large build.

Like most people here, he was wearing a suit.

However, what was important was not these details, but the crest on his jacket.

Two swords crossed over a red flame.

It was the crest of the Reross Family.

"Ah, so you were here."

He had dark red hair and a thick beard.

He also had a scar running from his right cheek to his neck.

He kept his dark brown eyes fixed on Franz and me, without looking at the guards in front of him.

When the guards stepped in front of us, blocking his view slightly, he paused.

"Hmm, you're not much of anything."

He said this while looking at the guards.

Almost as if he were slightly disappointed.

'Sith… how powerful is this man?'

The role I'm playing belongs to a weak, useless, incompetent man.

Franz isn't that powerful either; he's probably D grade or something like that.

If this man is stronger than the guards in front of me, I'll have to abandon my role.

"He's almost B grade, probably C+ or B-."

...

Now this... is a bit of a problem.