Weapon Master of the Count’s Family

Chapter 1. The Young Count and the Beggar (1)

I began as a gladiator slave and spent my entire life on the battlefield. Could there be a life more miserable than that?

There was. It was the life of a beggar.

That of an orphan who didn’t even know his own name.

“Sigh.”

I had never once wished to be born again. But if given the chance, I would’ve liked to be born the child of a rich family, living freely and spending money without worry. Unlike this beggar’s life.

“Sigh……”

I thought about taking revenge on the ones who had dealt me that humiliating death in my past life, but even that didn’t seem possible. Never mind that this was a distant island kingdom far from the Empire...

“Boss! Boss!”

A beggar boy in the same boat as me came running over.

“What? Is there a party or something?”

“Not that, but I’ve got the news you wanted. News from the Becken Empire. I asked the servant kids, and it’s true—they say both the Emperor and the Sword Saint are dead.”

As soon as I found myself reincarnated in the body of an orphan, the first thing I tried to confirm was news from the Empire. I didn’t expect to hear it so soon—just two days later. It wasn’t the news I wanted to hear, though.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I asked a bunch of people!”

Even my targets for revenge had died—one from illness and one from an accident.

Damn it.

“But why are you asking about stuff from before you were even born? That was decades ago, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. Go get something to eat.”

“Got it, Boss!”

The scrawny boy smiled brightly and ran back to the streets.

I didn’t think that face could smile—he had looked half-dead just yesterday.

Actually, not just him—this whole beggar town had a nasty vibe. At least until I overthrew the old boss who had been extorting the other beggars.

Maybe it’s because I’m a fighter at heart. I quickly brought the place under control.

After all, someone who’d killed enough people to be sick of it on the battlefield wouldn’t be threatened by fights with kids not even old enough to be adults.

Once I’d taken control, life became at least a little more bearable. Well, by a beggar’s standards, anyway.

“Boss!”

Another beggar approached.

“Boss, you gotta be careful. That bastard says he’s gonna get revenge on you. Heard he went to the black market…”

That “bastard” referred to the previous boss.

“Hah! What’s that guy gonna do? He can bring a hundred or a thousand—I’ll take ’em all. I’m off.”

“Where to?”

“To eat.”

I left the beggar town and wandered aimlessly through damp, dark alleys.―Splish, splish.

A purposeless life. The lowest of the low. How was I supposed to live from now on? I’d been thinking about that since last night, but no answer had come.

‘There aren’t even any gladiators in this country. If I want to live honestly with the skills I have, I’ll have to go to some military academy… Wait, didn’t someone say there’s an academy that accepts anyone regardless of status? Would they accept beggars too?’

While worrying about how to make a living, I caught sight of someone calling out to me from outside the alley.

“Whoa! It’s really him!”

Turning my head, I saw someone who was my complete opposite—Expensive clothes made from fine fabrics, leather shoes that looked like they’d never touched dirt, hair slicked with oil—And a face… a face identical to mine?

“He really looks just like me! Hey! Beggar!”

“Me?”

“Haha! Even your voice sounds like mine!”

The noble boy entered the alley accompanied by a sword-bearing man.

“Smells~”

He pinched his nose and stood right beside me. Taking a pose like he was measuring height, he nodded with satisfaction.

“Except for how skinny you are, I’d believe you were me. Right, Butler?”

“Yes. Not even the collateral relatives would be able to tell the difference.”

“Knew it. Then let’s go with that plan.”

What the hell were they talking about? They were just talking among themselves, using me like some prop. I tried to walk away, but the boy raised a hand to block me.

“Hey, wanna make a deal with me?”

“What kind?”

When I replied informally, the man called “Butler” reached for his sword hilt.

A silent threat. So what?

“What? Hahaha! Look at this guy. Yeah, living recklessly, huh? I like it. It’s nothing big—want to live like a noble for two days?”

“What?”

“Put simply, let’s switch places for two days. Sounds fun?”

“What’s the catch? Don’t tell me you just want to experience a beggar’s life.”

“Thing is, an unwanted guest is coming to our estate. So I need you to act as my stand-in. All you have to do is pretend to be sick, greet them once, and stay locked in the room. Easy, right?”

Is that really all?

I doubt it. There’s definitely something he’s not telling me.

“You’re so skinny, claiming you’re sick would be convincing. And—”

“No.”

“……Why?”

“Just seems dangerous. No noble would live as a beggar for two days, no matter how unpleasant the guest.”

Did he realize I saw through him? He rolled his eyes silently, then grinned.

“Then how about this? Butler, show him.”

The butler took out a heavy pouch.

The clinking sound made it obvious it was filled with gold coins.

“Two hundred gold upfront. That should be enough to escape this life, right? Just stay at the estate for two days, and I’ll give you another two hundred afterward.”

Back when I was a gladiator, my match fee was just 30 gold. Compared to that, this was insanely high pay for the task. Tempting, yes. But that just made it seem even more dangerous.

“Fine. I’ll take it.”

And so, I accepted the offer.

“I’ve been living with my life on the line anyway. As long as the pay’s good.”

No matter how dangerous it turned out to be, it had to be better than living like a beggar.

“What? You talk like you’ve lived for decades? You’re a real piece of work.”

The boy didn’t know. How many enemies I’d faced in my life. Or how many times I’d danced on the edge of death.

“Good. Then it’s settled. Let’s go somewhere quiet so you can change.”

“Before that……”

“Hm?”

I asked seriously.

“Can I eat whatever I want for those two days?”

“What? Hahaha! Do whatever you want. Whatever.”

***

The next night. After swapping clothes with the noble boy, I was now lying quietly on a massive bed.

Rumble...

Of all days, tonight had to be stormy.

It made me all the more glad I’d accepted this deal.

‘This much rain… that guy’s going to have a rough time too. His name was Evan Lafard, right?’

Evan Lafard. The eldest son of the Lafard Count family and sole heir.

I kept repeating the name to myself.

I couldn’t afford to slip up.

But it wasn’t just the name I had to worry about.

‘I can mimic his tone of voice, but I don’t get noble etiquette at all.’

Even in my past life, I’d spent my childhood as a gladiator, and adulthood on the battlefield.

I had no knowledge of high society or noble life.

Sure, I’d held the title of Border Count, but I’d never been a true noble.

‘I’ll just keep quiet tomorrow and eat bread.’

So I really did hole up in the bedroom under the excuse of being sick and just took in food.

Fortunately, members of a collateral branch from the Pillard family who came by in the afternoon saw my condition with their own eyes and dropped their suspicions.

They just had a light tea time and left the mansion, so it wasn’t too unpleasant—just like Evan had said.

Rumble...

Thunder roared louder and wind beat against the windows.

On nights like this, it wouldn’t be strange for someone to come to kill.

In fact, a real ‘guest’ had come earlier tonight, aiming to assassinate me.

The guards had taken care of him, but still―Clatter clatter...

‘I hope that was the end of it, but at least for tonight, I can’t let my guard down.’

To prepare, I placed a dagger beside the bed.

The rest should be handled by the guards downstairs.

“Ah, I’m thirsty.”

Checking for any movements and to wet my throat, I got up and headed into the hallway.

―Step, step...

I wandered through the second-floor mansion hallway and headed downstairs toward the kitchen.

―Crash!!!

A bolt of lightning lit up the hallway for a brief moment. And in that flash, I saw it—Shadows of armed figures coming up the stairs.

‘What the—’

I instinctively slipped into the nearest study and hid.

Peeking through the crack in the door, I watched.

Three intruders with swords.

Their blades already stained with blood, they headed straight for the room I had been in.

‘Of course it wouldn’t end with just that. No one pays that kind of money for nothing.’

I’d expected it, more or less. I had hoped I was wrong, but no—Two of them seemed pretty injured, but one looked practically unharmed.

This mansion was supposed to have decent guards.

Unfortunately, that meant these weren’t amateurs like the ones from earlier.

They were skilled assassins.

‘Once they realize I’m not in the room, they’ll tear the place apart…’

I couldn’t keep playing hide-and-seek until morning.

I scanned the room, grabbed a thick book from the shelf, and on my other hand, I took an ink bottle filled with quills.

Then I crept into position, waiting for the next thunderclap.

―Rumble...

‘Now!’

As the thunder masked my movement, I rushed forward and kicked the kneecap of the limping one among the two injured attackers.

―Thud!

Then I jammed the pen nib into his ear.

―Squelch.

“What the—!”

One of the assassins turned his head—I immediately splashed ink into his eyes.

“Argh!”

“You bastard!”

The leader swung his sword.

I blocked it by opening the book and catching the blade, then twisted it with the book still clamped.

“Guh!”

The assassin with the shoulder injury let go without resistance.

I didn’t miss the chance—I grabbed the sword and gave a shallow slash across his neck with the tip.

―Slice!!!

He fell.

Now only the assassin with ink in his eyes was left—still the most intact.

He wiped his face roughly and thrust his sword at me.

“Die!”

―Clang!

I blocked it well enough, but he was bigger, and I was losing in raw strength.

―Clang!

Pushed back, I widened the distance and swung the sword.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

He came at me head-on—But I stopped, flipped the grip to reverse, and instead of the neck, I stabbed downward—into his foot.

―Squelch!

“Aaargh!!!”

He screamed, stiffened in pain.

I picked up the book I dropped and slammed it into his throat.

―Thud!

“Ggh! Ggh!”

As he gasped and choked, I pushed him down flat. Then I bashed his face with the book.

―Thud! Thud!

After several blows, I subdued him and began the interrogation.

“Talk. Who sent you?”

“You son of a—”

“You still don’t get it?”

―Thud! Thud!

I kept bashing him until the sticky blood coated the book and he no longer moved.

“I asked who sent you.”

“Guh… Glen Pillard… Please, stop…”

So now I knew the client.

No reason to keep him alive anymore.

I brought the book down with all my might, crushing his face.

By then, the assassin had stopped breathing.

“Huff… huff…”

I collapsed in the hallway. Though my mind remembered being a Weapon Master, my body was still that of an untrained teenage boy.

‘If that bastard Glen Pillard had spent a bit more money, I’d be dead right now.’

Once the situation settled, I thought of the one who’d hired me.

‘Now that I think about it, the pay was dirt cheap. Only this much for being bait? Sigh, I’ll stay positive. I accepted it knowing nothing, and even the guards didn’t get paid—they just died.’

That thought made me rise and head down to the first floor.

There I saw the bodies of the guards who had defended the mansion.

Too late to help them, but I closed their eyes.

“Ugh…”

Then, I heard a faint breath from the drawing room.

‘There’s a survivor.’

I picked up a guard’s sword and carefully pushed open the half-closed door.

―Creak...

Inside, I found a boy with a dagger stuck in his back.

‘It missed the vital point by a hair’s breadth. Talk about luck.’

I figured he still had a chance to live.

So I headed outside to get medicine from the annex.

‘I remember seeing a storage room there. A mansion like this must have medicine.’

―Drip drip drip.

The annex next to the mansion housed storerooms for medicine and other supplies, and also staff quarters.

I ran through the rain and opened the door.

‘Urgh!’

A wave of blood stench hit me.

Turning around in disbelief, I saw everyone there was dead.

‘Those bastards! There was no need to kill everyone here too!’

Grimacing at the brutality, I focused back on saving the living.

I gathered as many medicines as I could and returned to the mansion.

“Mom…”

I carried the boy upstairs and laid him on my bed, beginning treatment.

“I’m no doctor, but I know a thing or two. Bear with it, even if it hurts.”

Drawing on experience treating my own wounds in the field, I carefully nursed the boy.

Eventually, the bleeding from the dagger wound stopped, and color returned to his face.

“Whew…”

Watching the boy fall asleep as if fainting, I let out a deep sigh.

‘Thank god. At least I saved one…’

Now that I could breathe, I started to feel fury.

Fury toward the noble heir who set this whole thing in motion.

I could understand if it was just me—but what did the innocent servants do to deserve death?

He escaped alone and let everyone else die?

‘First thing in the morning, I’m going to find him and beat him senseless—for treating human lives so cheaply.’

With that resolve, I left the mansion at dawn and headed straight for the beggar town.

I meant to demand more money.

‘Not just for me. He’ll answer for the lives lost tonight.’

If he refuses? I’ll break both of his legs, without a doubt.

“…Huh.”

Returning to the beggar town with that thought, I found the bodies of the Count’s eldest son and his butler—cold and lifeless.