Listen Dracula is good but The Count of Monte Cristo is the superior “There’s A Creepy Guy In This Creepy House And He Seems To Have Magical Control Of Everything That’s Going On Here” book
I’m positive Edmond could do the work of all his (3) servants by himself without the guests noticing, but Dracula can’t destroy the stock market for the sake of getting revenge on one person
He also just seems to be able to arrange circumstances Just So, he just Decides what should happen and it more or less does. Need an introduction to high society to start your revenge plan? Just get the son of someone who is pretty sure you’re dead kidnapped and then rescue him so he believes himself in your debt.
Also let’s not forget despite being a self possessed man with a large fortune whose borderline magic he gets super close to fainting a lot and is absolutely EXTRA to the very end
Edmond’s really out here like
“Oh you tried to kill the Crown Prosecutor and rescued his half-dead son? What a coincidence.. how strange that you’d be the guy I hired.. out of all people.. ”
“Oh did you happen to spot the man who killed your father while you were at the opera? That’s so weird 😳 what was he doing there??”
“Oh hello woman I just met, you seem to have a strange interest in poisons.. I can totally teach you about how to make some, if you’d like”
And everyone’s like
“this guy is Creepy but also Attractive but also He Is Pale And Cold but he also gives good advice that will definitely never turn out bad for anyone ever.. so when you weigh the pros and cons, I’d say he’s an overall trustworthy guy!!”
*little girl chickens voice* Look at all these coincidences
Also never once in years of planning this out does Edmond sit down to himself and ask ‘am I being too extra meticulously destroying the lives of anyone who I have decided has wronged me either by choice or circumstances? Is there any way this could spiral out of control and hurt innocents?’
No he spends all that time perfecting his ability to materialize in opera boxes and be a dramatic bitch
also lets not forget out of everyone who thought he was attractive FRANZ that poor boy had it so bad.
Franz had the most common sense out of everyone in the book, but then again the bar is really low
Franz was like “hey Albert I think the Count keeps looking at you with the sort of gaze that often signifies malicious intent”
And Albert’s like “Nah! The Count’s cool! He would never!”
And Franz goes “well ok if you say so” and Nopes off to Italy for most of the rest of the book