The Second Son of the Marquis Wants to Laze Around-Chapter 81: Before the Ambush

A quick flashback—four days ago, to be exact.

After Eren finally pinpointed the location of where to find the hidden dungeon, he realized he needed a solid plan to sneak away from the knights without making them suspect he had run off or disappeared completely.

His first idea was reckless but simple, just run off on his own, dungeon-bound, and not care about the chaos or panic his absence might cause.

However, after a moment of clarity—and probably imagining his father, the Marquis’s reaction —he scratched that plan off his mental list.

"If I vanish just like that," Eren muttered to himself while lounging in his bed with a bored expression, "those overprotective parents of mine would flip the entire kingdom over trying to find me..."

And he was right. If he disappeared without a trace, the incident would surely be reported to his father, the infamous Marquis. Knowing how seriously his new family took things, they’d likely dispatch every knight under their command, maybe even hire a battalion of Awakeners who are elite trackers, just to find him. That would make his secret dungeon expedition a complete failure.

So—no disappearing act.

What he needed instead was a distraction—a clever way to divert his parents’ attention elsewhere while he went dungeon-diving in peace. Something convincing, yet controlled. Something that would seem dangerous... but not too dangerous.

And then, like a lightbulb flickering on in a manga panel, Eren remembered the previous ambush by Raven’s monster group and the info he had dug up afterward.

"Useless," he called out to his system. "Give me more details about whoever was behind that attack."

Using the system’s SP to dive deeper into the chain of events, the system quickly pulled up a log of classified information. It didn’t take long for Eren to find the name he was looking for: Bailey Greenhorn, the first son of the Greenhorn Viscount family—a noble house from the Nerwyn Kingdom.

Apparently, Bailey had a long-standing grudge against Cedric Valmont, Eren’s older brother. The cause? Business rivalry.

As the system explained, Bailey had attempted to compete in the trading world but was... hilariously bad at it. So bad, in fact, that he resorted to illegal trade deals, which eventually got exposed. And, of course, being the sore loser he was, Bailey blamed Cedric and the entire Valmont family for his own failures.

From that point on, the guy grew obsessed—spying on the Valmont household, gathering intel (excluding direct family details), and looking for petty ways to get revenge. When he caught wind that the "second young master" of Valmont was going on a trip, Bailey hired Raven to stage a fake ambush—just enough to rattle the boy and cause panic among the Valmonts.

...Or so he thought.

Unfortunately for Bailey, he didn’t know that Cedric and Eren didn’t exactly share a warm brotherly bond. Their relationship could be summed up as awkwardly distant at worst. So, any plan that relied on "emotional concern" from Cedric was doomed to fail from the start.

Also—Bailey clearly had no idea just how much influence the Valmont family wielded. Sure, the Greenhorns were wealthy, but compared to the Valmonts? They were like a snack stand trying to compete with a mega-corporation. Their wealth and power didn’t even come close—maybe 1/6 at best.

And now, with this convenient little grudge on record, Eren saw the perfect opportunity to twist things to his favor.

"Heh... So you’re the one responsible for ruining my peaceful gamplay..." he muttered with a smirk, remembering the moment he was disrupted while playing Oldest Ring, and failed the challenge because he was knocked off his seat.

"Guess you’ll make a fine scapegoat."

With his fall guy selected, Eren moved on to step two, hiring the right kind of people to make this plan work.

Using his system’s help, he located a small bandit group camping out on the northern edge, just beyond the Dry Forest. They were weak, unknown, and had no real reputation

—perfect.

That night, Eren used a teleportation scroll to travel to their hideout in secret. Disguised in a dark cloak and enhanced with illusion magic, he strolled into the den of thieves like a shady, mysterious client from an RPG side quest.

"Who the hell are you?!" the bandit leader growled, drawing his sword. The rest of the group followed, weapons raised and eyes cautious.

"I come with a job offer," Eren said calmly, altering his voice with illusion magic into a deeper, more mature tone.

"And I’d like to hire all of you."

Without wasting time, he summoned a heavy pouch of gold coins from his system storage and tossed it onto the floor with a satisfying clink! The metallic thud made every bandit in the room freeze.

The leader, wide-eyed, crouched down and opened the pouch. After a moment of stunned silence, he raised an eyebrow and gave Eren a second glance. "...Go on."

"I need you to help me stage a kidnapping," Eren said coolly, arms crossed.

Unfortunately, the bandits—being the greedy idiots they were—immediately started whispering about taking the gold and getting rid of him. When they realized the target was from the Valmont family, they hesitated.

"Yeah, no thanks," the leader scoffed, tossing the pouch lazily in his hand. "We’re not stupid enough to mess with nobles—especially not one of those with high status."

Eren didn’t even blink. With a deadpan expression, he summoned an illusion—this time, a much larger pouch, easily ten times the size of the first.

THUD!

The heavy bag hit the floor with an echo that silenced the room.

All eyes widened. Jaws dropped. For a second, they forgot to breathe.

And then, with the flick of his wrist, Eren made the enormous bag disappear back into his, storage ring.

"That," he said, pointing to the spot where it vanished, "is your reward if you follow my plan."

The leader stared, dumbfounded, still processing the mountain of gold he had just seen.

With a forced cough, he straightened up and tried to act composed.

"Ahem... right. Well then, let’s hear the details of this ’plan,’ sir..."

And thanks to the power of money, the bandit leader who claimed he wasn’t stupid... finally proved he is indeed stupid and agreed.

With the deal sealed, Eren began to explain his plan for ambushing the Valmont convoy. He carefully laid out the strategy—highlighting key details like the knights’ positions, who to watch out for, which ones were dangerous, and what roles each bandit needed to play. He didn’t hold back any information.

To strengthen their chances, Eren also handed over several magic scrolls that could be used to launch long-range attacks. Among them were two high-tier scrolls: one to debuff the entire group of knights, and another specifically designed to bind Raven’s powerful tamed-monster. But that wasn’t all. He generously supplied them with rare magical artifacts—enhanced cloaks to amplify their defense, enchanted masks for identity concealment, explosive magic bombs, special powders, and well-crafted weapons suited for guerrilla ambush tactics.

After going through every step of the plan in detail, Eren handed the leader a marked map showing the perfect spot to set up the ambush. The map included additional handwritten notes with subtle cues and contingency actions—clearly written instructions to follow before the attack began.

Just as he turned to leave, a voice halted him.

"What if we decide to keep all the stuff you gave us... and don’t show up at all?" the bandit leader asked, smirking slyly as he leaned back, trying to gauge the reaction of the mysterious hooded man.

Even Useless—who heard this, also had some doubts. it was unsure bandits would actually keep their end of the deal or just scam Eren and run off with the loot.

Eren didn’t respond immediately. He slowly turned his head back, his hood casting a dark shadow over his face. A chilling silence filled the air. Then—his eyes glowed with an ominous purple light beneath the hood. In that moment, the entire room was swallowed by a crushing wave of killing intent so intense it made the air feel heavy and suffocating.

"!!!!!!"

The bandits froze. None of them could move.

Then they all felt it—hundreds of scythes, materializing around their necks, literally. The cold blades pressed against their skin, as if ready to slice at any moment. It wasn’t just intimidation. It was real death wish.

The leader and his gang went pale with sweat. Their smirks disappeared instantly.

"Then I’ll come for each one of your heads."

The hooded man—Eren—delivered the threat in a voice so low and cold it could’ve frozen lava. His words sent shivers down every spine in the room.

And just like that, the hundreds scythes vanished into thin air, along with Eren himself. The suffocating pressure lifted.

The bandits were left panting, shaken, and drenched in cold sweat.

They didn’t doubt him anymore.

...

Later, during the present-day ambush...

As the bandits attacked the Valmont carriage, Eren used illusion magic to project the image of the hooded man outside. Meanwhile, he was inside the carriage, unlocking the door from within. To everyone else, it looked like the hooded man effortlessly opened it from the outside.

However, just as Eren was about to sneak out, his path was blocked by his maid Marie.

The loyal maid stood trembling in front of the illusion hooded man, her legs shaking as she confronted what she believed was a threat.

Eren sighed in deep irritation. At first, he used the illusion to threaten her and tell her to step aside, but even with fear in her eyes, she refused—trembling, but still standing.

So, in the end...

–Bonk!

Eren smacked her on the head hard enough to knock her unconscious.

"Tch, troublesome woman,"

With the path cleared, Eren turned to his illusion and swapped places with it. From his storage, he pulled out his body pillow, disguised it to look like him, and then carried it on his shoulder, while he is disguise as the hooded man.

And that’s how Eren deceived everyone.

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