My Death Flag Shows No Sign Of Ending

Episode 18

That proposal took Tasuku completely by surprise. There was no need to even talk about the reason.
Since Tasuku had no part in the development of LP farming at all.

「What do you mean? I haven't been involved in the development at all though.........」

「Only until now. But from here on out, for spreading out LP farming we'll use the Sumeragi's name」

From his words, Tasuku remembered something. Within Juno's report, there was information that "his behavior in front of his parents is different".
He had thought of it as just the difference between his behavior in front of his relatives and others, but a single possibility went across his mind.

It was that Harold might be hiding his own ability from his parents. If they had known about his capability, they would have tried to show his appeal much more when they had first come to decide on the engagement.
Adding onto that, Harold himself had hinted at the fall of the Stokes house in the letter. That meant.........

「Harold-kun doesn't think of it as a good plan for your parents to know about LP farming?」

「As expected, I well understand my parents' personality」

If they knew about LP farming, in all probability it would advance towards the development that Tasuku feared. Harold was convinced of it.
That was why, he had come here like this to ask for the Sumeragi's cooperation.

「Moreover, I don't have enough pawns. If I increase the trial farmhouses any more than this, I won't be able to monitor them」

「I see」

He understood what Harold was trying to say here.
He wanted to enlarge this operation without letting his parents become aware of it. For that sake, there were limits if he continued as it was.
Since it was such a ground-breaking method, there was a need to control its management completely so as to prevent any information leaks. And to do so, since the human resources he could gather wasn't enough he had brought this proposal to the Sumeragi.

「But why to my side? If there were this much profits, I think that anybody would jump at it」

「It was just that with the conditions I wanted fulfilled, you were the easiest one to cooperate with」

This was a bluff. If Tasuku shook his head horizontally, Harold would be in a predicament since he had no other intermediaries.
But since he understood Tasuku's personality and knew about his weakpoint, he would use his a certain thing as leverage.

「If you refuse, I just need to reach out to the 2nd or the 3rd candidate. Well, that won't be necessary though」

「You think that I would absolutely accept this proposal?」

「Right, you have no choice but to do that」

Absolute confidence no matter what. What was it that made him think like that. Tasuku didn't think he would just come here with a strong stance without any basis. Rather, he seemed as though he would use logic to cut off the opponent's path of retreat beforehand.

(Wait, block the path of retreat? No way........!)

An unpleasant bead of sweat rolled down Tasuku's cheek.
Due to a sudden flash of insight, he connected together the scattered pieces and formed an answer. As soon as he reached that answer, chills to the extent of freezing his spine ran through Tasuku.

「You realized?」

That voice which carried an ominous sharpness as though it were the scythe of the Death God, struck Tasuku's ears.

「..........Were you anticipating this situation from the beginning?」

「So what? Would it change your answer?」