**sses and the Dark Moon:**
—
A great tragedy had struck sses of the Dark Moon. The wits and brains behind their operation. Exactly three years back from now, the young master of the house that was closest to the Ediab forest had decided toe and flip their grand idea of trying to revive themselves over.
It was always like this. Even thousands and thousands of years ago, some man named the millennium wizard had killed the second generation of the Dark Moon, and the Mirxa''s were the greatest enemies of the fourth generation.
It was widely assumed that the original Dark Moon and his seven whips thousands of years ago had helped a great hero ascend through the worlds. Whatever that meant.
sses had hoped to revive the glory of the Dark Moon with the help of the greatest whip master he could find and indoctrinate.
But as luck would have it, he was now stuck…
"Say, sses. Shouldn''t you guys do something to expand now?"
Stuck with a white haired, red eyed young tyrant in the name of a child who could easily cut off kilometers off of a forest like a goddamned superpoweredwnmower.
"Expand… how?" sses asked the man sitting in his office.
From the day he had invaded their ce five months back, this man had decided to turn the Dark Moon into his bitch.
With the seal of the leader in hand, he had made his move and started to manipte the people of the Dark Moon as if he was the real leader.
It was a vicious method.
The man leaned ahead on his table, resting his chin on his palm as he rapped his other hand on its side.
"You''re plenty smart, sses. You can do a lot of things. First and foremost is to find people in weak spots and help them out."
sses tilted his head.
"Help them out?"
"Yes," Eugene, the tyrant, nodded. "You find people that are suffering from some loss and help them, tell them you are on their side and that the world, the society itself is unfair."
A chill ran down sses'' spine. It wasn''t that he hadn''t thought of these things, it was that the man in front of him who was supposed to be a young lord here to stop such crimes was instead encouraging it.
"You talk about your religion."
"R-religion…?"
Eugene sighed. "Whatever your Dark Moon cult thing is. You gotta get people tied in, you see. Make a book or a leaflet, tell them of the benefits. People of this world think of workce benefits as some kind of magic anyway."
"I… see…" sses perked his sses up. This was a trove of opportunity. If he could just do all of this and frame it on the kid in front of him, he would be rid of him forever and be the real Lord Dark Moon atst. "What next?"
Eugene leaned further on the table.
Why was he spilling in the first ce?
It was then that he noticed. A box of choctes that was ced on his table. It was from a famous small shop in Apollon that sold wine choctes.
"L-lord Dark Moon…" sses called. "Where did you get those choctes?"
Eugene looked at the choctes and smiled, a stiff smile he who had not seen smiles could barely mimic.
"My knight left it for me in the office. Have one if you want. I don''t like eating alone anyway. Food is made to be shared."
"U-uh… sure…"
"Anyway, next you should make a casino."
sses stopped his hands from reaching for the chocte.
"What does that mean?"
"Once you have indoctrinated people to your side, you make a casino. Of course, you indoctrinate in many ways, make songs and tales, fables and books, it has to be simple, crisp and memorable so that anyone from children to old people can remember these… anecdotes?"
sses nodded.
What was this kid? He was starting to get scary.
"Of course, there have to be more detailed tales to entertain the youth as well, but what''s most important is a simple summarization of your beliefs."
The ideas he kept pulling out were enough to start a whole new branch of things.
"W-what next, my lord?"
"Right, I digress," Eugene hummed, nighying down on the table. "Next you do something smart which is building a casino. For the simple reason that it brings in three things."
"Three things?"
"Money. Status. Information."
Eugene was having a hard time keeping his eyes open now, but he did so anyway in his spiel. And sses was gaining too much to let go.
"Casinos are structured so that the more you win the more you''ll lose. People always cave to the thrill. Money. Running a casino with money and keeping your customers satisfied and safe naturally brings status. Andstly, the more important people you bring in and get drunk, the more information you can get."
"Oh…"
"What then? You utilize it to take grab of weak nobles and make them bend your way."
"Splendid, just splendid Lord Dark Moon."
"You need trustable people like you for these things, sses."
Trustable people like you was a sentence born of pure drunkenness. The trove of information was going to keel over any moment.
"Lord, lord, what then?"
"What then…? You gotta be kings if you have information. Behavior that would suit… the strongest…"
Eugene keeled over and fell asleep. No matter how strong the person was, his body was still inexperienced with alcohol.
This was how Eugene in fact first had alcohol with not Keith or Maria but with sses.
And how sses gained knowledge of a way that he could bring the Dark Moon to a glory it had never seen before.
It could reach to the level of the fourth generation where they became the arch nemesis of a grand family.
Or even of the first generation and raise a hero from the back.
Or even…
Go beyond…
"Long live the Dark Moon!"
—
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.
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**First Time Cooking**
—
"Just watch me instead."
The very day Eugene Hall had transmigrated into the world and had woken up, he entered the kitchen under the pretext of cooking and sent Maria out.
Unable to understand anything, Maria clenched her trembling heart and rushed out of the kitchen and mmed the door shut behind her.
She mmed her back against the door and let out a deep sigh.
What was this new bullshit that her young master was pulling now?
Why did he ever have to change from the little child he was all those years back?
Why did she resent him so yet could not leave him alone?
All those thoughts consistently gued her mind and her heart. Maria took in a deep breath and shook her head.
It was then.
"Ow! Ow!! Damn it, I cut my finger!"
Maria looked back.
"Fuck fuck, just how bad is your damned dexterity, Eugene Hall!? How can you even y any instrument with hands like these?"
Sweat dripped from Maria''s forehead.
"Fine, we''ll train the fingers right now, super chopping training go!! OWWWW!"
Maybe she shouldn''t have left him inside alone?
Maria thought in that line before shaking her head right and turning back to the room she was in.
The young master deserved a little suffering for casually saying he''ll have her beheaded. It was only natural.
Eugene managed to train his dexterity enough to deliver a killer piano performance not long after.
Though he had to refrain from moving his fingers for a few days.
—
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.
.
**The knight''s daily excursions**
—
A great burden rested on Keith''s shoulders.
Years back, he had been tasked by the lord that had saved his life to protect Eugene Hall. The one child of the Hall family that the parent could not protect himself.
By all means, it was a tragic oue for a family life. Butpared to many people who were tortured by their own families, let alone the ones who didn''t have the privilege to call someone their family in the first ce like Keith himself, the young lord of Hall had had a rather fortunate life.
But just because someone suffered a pain worse than yours did not mean you should not scream. The ones who always brought up worse pains were no better than contrarians and hypocrites who would scream the loudest when they face their own troubles.
The young master had gone to sleep once again. It was time for Keith to begin his work in the dark of the night.
He tied his money pouch and weapon to his clothes, donned a cloak over his body and set off once again from the mansion.
On his way out, he was stopped by Maria.
"Sir Keith."
It was a time when he was still called sir by her.
"What is it, Miss Maria?"
"Are you setting off again? Just how many times are you going to keep ignoring your duties like this?"
A dryugh left Keith.
He looked back at Maria and smiled a wry smile.
"I do not move to ignore my duties, miss Maria. Never. What I am actually setting out for is precisely toplete them."
Maria stepped back.
"The responsibility on a man like me is the greatest in this ce. Do not delude yourself."
Maria was unable to say anything as she clenched her fists and red at Keith, walking way.
Keith made his way past the doors of the mansion and jumped ahead.
When night fell, under the orders of his master, he was tasked with getting rid of the people for him Eugene Hall was a big thorn in the sides.
His hands were meant to be bloodied each night.
That was his duty.
Meant to be.
Was.
"Alright! There''s none of them Fonias in this ce again today, like every other goddamn day!"
Keith pulled up his money pouch and smiled brightly. He jumped through the trees and made his way toward the town of the baron over to the east.
He jumped the walls and went straight inside, his feet carrying him toward the red light district behind the house of the adventurer guild.
Keith sported a nasty grin. Not long into his walk, he spotted the building named Sweet Honey and barged straight inside.
The receptionist smiled.
"Mr. Keith, you are here again today."
"Why hello. Is She in and free?"
"In and free."
Overprotective and paranoid parents were the best!
Keith mmed his money down and got the keys to the room he was to head to. Getting paid to do fuck all and go to a brothel every second night, what else could he ever need in life?
Keith the knight, through the years, was a true victor.
It all changed not long after, though.
When his young master became a freak of nature and started living on three hours of sleep while training every other fucking minute.