How to Use the Lord's Future Diary

Chapter 181 : The Reason for the Betrayal

Gios Haken.He was the second son of the Lord of Haken.

Unlike his eldest brother, Ollison Haken, a heavenly knight, he was a typical administrator and enjoyed the support of the officials within Haken Territory.

If there was one flaw, it was his somewhat irritable personality, but he handled his work meticulously enough that even the Lord of Haken trusted him with important tasks.

Perhaps the reason the selection of Haken's successor had remained strangely deadlocked was because he was competent enough in his own right.

The Lord of Haken, who was especially soft-hearted toward his family, must have found him just as precious in his own way.

‘I’ve met him before too. Well, we only saw each other briefly.’

It hadn't been a particularly memorable meeting.

We had merely crossed paths.

His attitude had been rather arrogant and irritable.

I remembered being a little surprised because he felt so different from the Lord of Haken.

Whereas Ollison looked almost exactly like the Lord of Haken, Gios barely resembled him at all.

He must have taken strongly after his mother's side.

“Isn't this one basically out of the running for successor?”

“Probably, right? Since there's an eldest brother. Most of the knights support my eldest brother.”

“He's both the eldest son and a knight.”

“Well, that's true. His personality is also very similar to Father's.”

“But he's still greedy for the position of successor.”

“Because Father hasn't decisively put an end to it. I think that's entirely Father's fault.”

“I suppose...”

The second son still coveted the position of successor even though the situation had already tilted heavily against him.

And there was a Master seriously backing him.

Viewed like that, it certainly looked suspicious.

‘But to commit treason?’

It was hard to believe he had joined hands with another faction and stabbed the Lord of Haken in the back.

After all...

“The relationship between the two sides isn't that bad, is it?”

“That's right. Well, they're not especially close. But you know my father. He's very attentive when it comes to family bonds. If there was any favoritism, it came more from my mother's side. He cherishes the other two wives almost equally. The same goes for my brothers.”

“Exactly.”

Betraying one's own father and seizing power wasn't something an ordinary person would even think of.

And it wouldn't end with a single betrayal.

With most of the knights supporting the eldest son, the second son would naturally have to eliminate his older brother to seize power.

He would also have to purge much of the faction that followed the eldest brother.

Unless he were some psychopath, there was no way he could casually do something like that.

Although I'd only met him briefly, the Gios Haken I saw wasn't twisted enough to go that far.

People like that usually couldn't completely hide it.

To begin with, it would be absurd for the son raised normally under the Lord of Haken to suddenly turn into a psychopath.

“Wouldn't the same apply to Sir Durek? He isn't exactly in a position where he needs to be so ambitious.”

“Sir Durek has served Father for a long time. It'd be strange for him to start plotting something now...”

The same went for the Master in question, Apophis, Sir Durek.

Thinking about it rationally, it would also be absurd for him to be plotting something.

What exactly was he lacking?

Even in the great Haken Territory, there were only three Masters. Even counting the still-inexperienced Sir Roman, there were only four.

And Sir Roman was Durek's disciple.

Although he currently supported Gios Haken, even if the eldest son became the Lord, his position wouldn't suddenly be looked down upon.

-But it still happened, didn't it?

‘That's the problem.’

Yet the betrayal was the future shown by the Diary, and judging from the circumstances, the culprit could only be Durek.

If I assumed Durek had betrayed them, it became understandable how the Haken group—with two Masters, Sir Irene, Celine, and even the Crimson Comet—could suffer catastrophic losses.

No, unless one of the two Masters betrayed them, there was no scenario where both Sir Irene and the Lord of Haken would suffer serious harm.

Now that it had been confirmed Durek was in contact with New Level, it would be ridiculous to suspect another traitor.

The problem was that I couldn't understand why any of this had happened.

“You're right. Unless he'd committed some unforgivable crime, there'd be no reason to take such a risk.”

“...Huh?”

The casual remark Yuria let slip pierced straight through my mind.

Perhaps we had been thinking about this the wrong way.

‘What if he wasn't betraying them to gain something, but because he had no choice if he wanted to survive?’

Most betrayals happened not because someone wanted more, but because they wanted to stay alive.

Come to think of it, it was strange that Master Durek insisted on supporting Gios Haken in the first place.

Why support the second son when the eldest son was a knight?

Why?

Why support the second son instead of the eldest?

“Sir Irene.”

“Yes, Lord Iron.”

“The Lord of Haken... he has more sons besides the eldest and second sons, doesn't he?”

“Yes, that's right. They aren't involved in governing the territory, but he does. My Third Brother and Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother is the full younger brother of Eldest Brother, while Third Brother is the full younger brother of Second Brother.”

“Do the siblings resemble each other?”

“They resemble... Hmm. I'm not really sure. Ah, come to think of it, you know the Video Storage Device that came from Haken? They should be in there.”

“Really?”

The Lord of Haken's third son loved singing and was said to be exceptionally good at it.

One of the performance recordings Haken had sent us supposedly included his performance.

To think the Lord of Haken even sent us a recording of his own son singing.

His doting father act really never changed.

As for the fourth son, who resembled the Lord of Haken, he served as a knight just like his full older brother.

Being a knight, he frequently played Battle Ball, and thanks to his excellent footwork, he excelled as a forward.

His skills were so outstanding that he naturally stood out, so Irene said I could spot him immediately just by watching the Battle Ball recordings Haken had sent us.

“Then let's take a look.”

I had someone bring over the Video Storage Devices sent from Haken.

Then I slowly watched the recordings Irene had mentioned.

As we watched together, Irene even pointed out which people were her brothers.

Though honestly, I could've recognized them without her help.

They looked exactly like the Lord of Haken.

Both the third and fourth sons were unmistakably his children.

It gave me a strange feeling.

“By the way, what kind of person is your younger stepmother? What kind of impression does she give? Sharp eyes, perhaps?”

“My younger stepmother? Hmm... I'd actually say the opposite. She has a really gentle, puppy-like face. If anyone has sharp eyes, it'd be my eldest stepmother. She also has a stronger personality. My younger stepmother is incredibly gentle.”

“Really? For someone like that, she seems surprisingly unwilling to give up on making Gios Haken the Lord.”

“Well, that's because Second Brother keeps insisting. It's her son, after all.”

“I suppose.”

“But it's a little different. Even now, I think my younger stepmother keeps telling him to restrain himself. Even when she called me over, all she asked was that I look after my brother.”

Irene's younger stepmother was a relatively quiet woman.

Even when the eldest son had been chosen as the successor, she hadn't openly expressed any dissatisfaction.

If anything, she had comforted her frustrated son with kind words.

The problem was that the second son refused to give up.

She was so soft-hearted that she reluctantly helped him lobby people here and there, but Irene said she was never particularly aggressive about it.

Just from that explanation, I could roughly picture what kind of woman she was.

She wasn't someone consumed by ambition.

‘So that's how it is. I think I understand the situation now. I can see the outline.’

-Have you figured out the reason for the betrayal?

‘Not completely, but I think I can piece it together.’

Finally, I asked Irene one last question to confirm my suspicion.

“About Gios Haken. People must have talked about it before, right? He looks nothing like the Lord of Haken.”

“Ah, that? People did mention it. But Father firmly denied it every time.”

“I knew it.”

Well, everyone tended to notice the same things.

When someone resembled his father this little, it would've been stranger if no rumors had spread.

Though the Lord of Haken seemed determined to ignore them.

‘It looks like Gios Haken isn't actually the Lord of Haken's biological son.’

-...What do you mean by that?

‘Isn't it obvious?’

He didn't resemble him at all, and it couldn't simply be because he took after his mother's side.

That only left one conclusion.

‘Actually, something had been bothering me. Gios Haken bears a strange resemblance to Sir Durek.’

-Come to think of it... they both have rather snake-like faces.

‘Physiognomy never lies.’

If there had been an affair, the person who knew it best would naturally be the younger stepmother herself.

She probably hadn't welcomed the noisy spectacle of choosing a successor.

That's why she kept urging everyone to keep things quiet.

But her son refused to give up, so she had no choice but to get dragged into it.

With her personality, she was probably still worrying herself sick over it.

‘And as for the father...’

-You mean the male snake?

‘Probably. Why else would Sir Durek betray them? Because he has something to hide.’

-But why now? He never intended to betray them before.

‘Because something forced his hand.’

-Forced his hand?

‘New Level found out. If they threatened him with that secret, he would've had no choice but to move.’

Even a Master could end up fearing for his life.

Only under circumstances like these would Durek's betrayal become believable.

Because if things went wrong, he really could die.

-That's an unbelievably ridiculous plot. Even a novel would get criticized for something like that.

‘Reality is often more ridiculous than fiction.’

Novels at least had the final safeguard called plausibility.

Reality didn't.

If someone in a novel died because a falling signboard hit them, readers would curse the author.

But in reality, things like that actually happened from time to time.

Reality was sometimes far more absurd than fiction.

-So what will you do? Are you going to tell them?

‘Why? We don't have any proof. If this were something that could be exposed, it would've come out long ago.’

-Then why bother figuring out the reason behind the betrayal? It doesn't really matter.

‘It does matter.’

I couldn't reveal the truth, but that didn't make it meaningless.

Now that I understood the traitors' circumstances, I could predict their next move.

If the betrayal centered around Gios, they would absolutely have to eliminate Ollison and his faction.

Once betrayal had occurred, they couldn't keep pretending this was some WWE-style succession rivalry.

It would become UFC.

They'd have to choke the other side out for real.

One way or another, it would become a fight to the death.

‘Do I have to prepare for that too? This is getting exhausting.’

Protecting the Lord of Haken alone would've been one thing.

Now I also had to get involved in the complete chaos that would erupt within Haken itself.

Honestly, I wanted to expose everything—the betrayal, the secret of Gios's birth—and leave all of Haken's problems to the Lord of Haken himself.

‘But that won't work. The second son he'd believed was his own all these years is actually someone else's child. There's no way he'd believe something like that. If we're not careful, everything could spiral out of control.’

-He is an exceptionally soft-hearted male when it comes to his family. Unless something actually happens, he won't believe it.

‘Besides, this betrayal is destined to happen sooner or later. New Level will keep pressuring them. If we simply let things fade away, they'll be hit much harder later.’

At least now, we still had the opportunity to interfere.

Next time, that might not be the case.

The Diary cared about Irene, not the Lord of Haken.

Unless he trusted us enough to drive out Durek or Gios immediately, the Lord of Haken would never be able to act that way.

In the end, letting the truth explode first and then cleaning up the aftermath would probably be the safest course of action.

No matter how I thought about it, it was a thoroughly unpleasant situation.