Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up - Volume 3 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Company Conspiracy

Frann Valdesca, advisor to the Naruyan Kingdom and mage of rare talent, now stood just across the border of the Runan Kingdom with a small number of his subordinates, all of them disguised as peasant farmers. They’d abandoned their horses to avoid drawing suspicion, instead continuing the rest of the journey toward the Eintorian Domain on foot.

But for Valdesca, who lacked stamina, the trip was torture.

Normally, he stayed cooped up in his study, working on magic and military strategy, so he could hardly be blamed for that. Even so, despite his subordinates’ attempts to dissuade him, he kept walking onward without rest, intent on his goal. And thus, Valdesca finally came to the garrison in the Eintorian Domain. Frann Valdesca had crossed the border into this domain to see what they were doing with his own two eyes.

Why did this domain, of all the domains in Runan, have his special attention? There was a clear reason for it: Erhin Eintorian. The only foreign noble who had ever defeated him was the ruler of this domain.

When the next war with Runan came, he was sure to face Erhin again.

On top of that, his scouts had recently reported suspicious activity in the Eintorian Domain. That gave him the additional impetus to see it for himself. It was a mark of how highly Valdesca rated Erhin’s abilities.

He wanted to beat him.

No matter what the cost, no matter what strategy he had to use, he was intent on avenging his past defeat and preparing for the war that would eventually come.

There was no rush, of course.

Preparations for the Grand Subjugation were proceeding apace. Their losses in the last war were negligible in the grand scheme of things for Naruya’s army. If all went according to plan, they would be ready in another four to five months. In fact, if he were to let his drive for vengeance blind him, they would no longer be able to unify the continent. Valdesca knew that very well, so he instead steadily amassed strength, though that didn’t ease his concern about Eintorian.

“A barracks here? I don’t believe it was in our earlier intelligence reports, was it?”

“You are correct, sir.”

There was no way that his subordinate Milton could possibly know anything that Valdesca himself did not. Valdesca watched the soldiers training near the barracks. However, military facilities are always on guard against enemy scouts. As he might have expected, a lone soldier rode up to them on horseback, shouting, “Who goes there?!”

A surprised Milton quickly turned and answered, “Just some passing farmers.”

The soldier let out a suspicious grunt before saying, “This is a military facility. Where are you going? Did you get lost on the road?”

“We’re heading to Eintorian Castle.”

“This isn’t the way, then. Head all the way down there, and you should see it,” the soldier told them. He’d explained it kindly because the number of migrants was on the rise due to Erhin’s tax policy, but his expression quickly changed when he was done, gesturing to shoo them away. Valdesca was forced to comply.

Once the soldier went away, he remarked, “What high morale. Everything about these soldiers is impressive, including their training. Seeing the way they enthusiastically go about their training without complaint, even at an outdoor camp like this...”

He had only seen them practice for a short time, but Valdesca was still able to determine everything, from the state of their training to their high level of discipline.

“I knew there was something different about him.”

Yes. There was a clear disconnect between the reports they received about the Runanese Army and what he’d just seen of the Eintorian Domain Army. Valdesca continued moving forward. This time, a small village caught his attention. Oddly, the soldiers here were working the fields, and everyone who wasn’t a soldier seemed to be a woman.

“Um, mind if I ask some questions?”

Before Milton could stop him, Valdesca went to query them about this without bothering to put on any sort of act. It was just so strange. Not that Valdesca had any great ability as an actor either way.

“Please, don’t talk to them so carelessly!” Patrick rushed over to whisper in his ear.

“Oh, that’s right,” Valdesca said, realizing his mistake and rapidly shifting tone. One of the soldiers rose from the field and looked at Valdesca.

“Mind if you ask some questions?” the man repeated sarcastically. “What are you, some kind of big shot?”

You look like a peasant, though? the soldier’s face said.

“Tch! It seems I said something I shouldn’t have.”

“Hmm.” The soldier’s eyes were suspicious. Valdesca cleared his throat, trying to beat a hasty retreat, but this time he tripped over a rock and fell.

The women couldn’t help but chuckle at that. This pathetic display quickly dispelled the soldier’s suspicion too. If this were something Valdesca had planned, it would have been brilliant, but...

“You really do have to watch where you’re going,” Milton said as he hurried to support Valdesca.

“Why must there always be rocks in front of me?!”

“Why’s a man with such a broad view of world politics unable to see a rock that’s right there in front of him?” Patrick mused with a sigh.

Despite all this, Valdesca turned to the women to ask another question. More politely this time.

“Is this a newly built village? I feel like it wasn’t here before...”

“That’s right. It’s a new village, built to accommodate migrants. Were you people intending to settle here as well?”

“Well, something like that.”

“There are some uncertainties, living along the border, but the soldiers visit all the time, so we’re very satisfied with the place.”

That meant Erhin was increasing the population of his domain. Valdesca couldn’t fail to notice that would have a large effect on the number of troops they had at their disposal.

Increasing his population. Increasing his manpower. Wasn’t he supposed to have sworn loyalty to Runan...?

Not only that, based on what they’d observed so far, many of the policies being pursued strengthened the domain, not the kingdom. Valdesca stroked his chin as he considered this.

Valdesca followed the road and entered Castle Eintorian. He already knew Erhin was away, so he had ample time to carefully look around the castle town.

As he did, he heard something unbelievable from the townsfolk. They’d been exempted from taxes for an entire year! It was unthinkable. Such a thing would cause the domain’s finances to collapse. They wouldn’t have the tax money to pay to the central government. Unless they were sitting on a vast amount of secret funds, it was impossible.

No, even if they did have such a fortune, they’d only draw the royal family’s attention to it. That was a negative, in the long term. His suspicions mounted.

The barracks outside the castle, the newly built village, and the construction he had witnessed on their way here...

Valdesca began bashing his head against a notice board. Finally, he felt he could concentrate a little.

What exactly are you plotting, Erhin Eintorian? What is it you’re strengthening your domain for...?

As he was pondering this, a shudder suddenly raced through his entire body.

“Hold on...”

“Master?” Milton asked in a whisper, but Valdesca didn’t respond. Instead, he just kept on talking to himself.

“What if he were taking aim at Runan...and at Runan’s king...plotting a rebellion...?”

Valdesca turned around.

“We’re heading home. We must capture Eintorian while their lord is away, before he can cause any trouble. Hurry!”

“Master...? What do you mean?” His bodyguards Milton and Patrick hurried after their master.

“As soon as we’ve returned, we advance on this territory with the forces of the Ducal House of Valdesca!”

Valdesca was well aware of how dangerous it was to suddenly lead a force to attack Eintorian, and how it might risk ruining their preparations for the Grand Subjugation. That’s why he planned to only use his own house’s troops. If Erhin became the King of Runan, the Grand Subjugation they were planning might drag on even longer.

Even if it meant sacrificing some of his own troops, he needed to crush Eintorian early, before their plans became unsalvageable... Or maybe not?

“No, hold on!”

Valdesca quit panicking and came to a stop again. It was because it occurred to him that this could be another trap.

“We’ll move our troops, but first we need to ascertain the situation in Rozern. Understood?”

Once he’d given new orders to Milton, Valdesca headed for the Naruya Kingdom’s Sentreet Domain, which was near the border with Eintorian. Should he attack Eintorian, even if that meant acting on his own initiative, or was this clear display of movement toward independence itself a trap?

After a long night agonizing over the question, he came to the decision to strike, but just as he had...

“Your Excellency! Your Excellency!”

“What is it?!”

“Urgent news from the Brijitian front! The Brijitian capital has fallen! Erhin has returned home to Runan!”

Valdesca stood bolt upright when he heard this.

“Pull our troops back at once. We’re going back to the capital!”

Eintorian had many troops, with good training and high morale. Any siege of the territory would take a long time. If Erhin were away, it would still be winnable, but now that he’d come back, it would be utter folly to proceed with the attack without a proper plan.

No, even before that, Valdesca felt a sense of awe toward his archnemesis.

How had Erhin taken the Brijitian capital in such a short time? Could Valdesca have done it if he were in the same position? It was absolutely impossible.

Valdesca had total confidence in his own abilities. Looking at things objectively, he would have been able to go as far as defending Rozern, but no further than that. Yet Erhin went on the offensive and took the enemy capital?

Fists clenched, Valdesca ordered a thorough investigation of the circumstances, then turned back to the Naruyan capital as if fleeing from Eintorian with the thought, Only Erhin Eintorian stands in my way, graven in his mind.

*

Exhaustion rushed over me when I awoke in the morning. It was like all the fatigue that had built up before now hadn’t gone anywhere. Even though my stamina ought to have recovered. I sat up, yawning.

The room looked the same as ever. The posh interior of a lord’s bedroom. Outside my window, the domain was at peace. The scenery hadn’t changed, but my reputation as a lord was completely unrecognizable at this point. It hadn’t been long since the people stopped calling me a villainous lord, and yet rumors of my tax policy and land development had brought refugees flocking to the domain.

Indeed, the largest change during my time in Rozern had been to the population.

It had gone from two hundred and twenty thousand to two hundred and thirty thousand over the past two months. An increase of ten thousand people.

I might not have been at my goal of three hundred thousand yet, but the important thing was that the numbers were going up. Opinion sat pretty at an impressive 80 too.

If I can maintain that score, it’s good enough. I just need to avoid doing anything to lower it.

The newcomers flowed here with high expectations of their new lord, so they hadn’t had a negative impact on public sentiment. In my absence, training continued for the army that was now twenty thousand soldiers.

Eintorian Domain Army

Manpower: 20,000

Training: 89

Morale: 80

They were operating on a much higher level now. Those numbers were made possible by some of the high-Command personnel that I had in my camp.

If I have twenty thousand elites who’ll just follow my strategies, then these scores are more than good enough to get results.

The training would continue, as would the policy of rewarding my people to raise morale. I could never stop those.

I’m level 25. I reached level 22 when I killed Poholizen, then went up another 3 whole levels for defeating Brijit.

Killing a commander with a Martial of 98 had had a major effect. Commanders with a Martial of 95 or higher had a positive modifier to the experience they gave. Those three level-ups had given me a total of 900 points.

150, 150, 150, 150.

Setting aside three hundred points for any skills I might need to use, I spent the other 600 on raising my Martial score 4 whole points from 65 to 69. Because Daitoren got powered up during the war, I could fight the strongest warriors on the continent, albeit with a time limit of thirty minutes.

My Martial will be 99! That time limit is unfortunate, but there’s no getting around it. This is a game. The management team may dole out bonuses, but they have to balance them. This is probably how they chose to make that balance.

There were also the spoils of war I got from the treasury after occupying Brijit’s capital. There was nothing from the Ancient Kingdom, unfortunately, which meant that none of the items were on the same level as the Nameless Sword that I had found stored in Rozern’s treasury. None of the treasures of the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom that were supposedly shared between the Twelve Houses were in Brijit.

Brijit was one of the Twelve Houses, so they definitely would have received some of the Ancient Kingdom’s treasures. Did they manage to misplace them?

Not even their king had used any special items. I asked the head chamberlain in Brijit’s royal palace about it later, but he didn’t know anything. The same went for the rest of the royal family.

Well, the ones in Rozern had been left sitting around, their importance forgotten there too. It’s been a long, long time since the Twelve Houses founded their own countries, so maybe there’s no helping it.

I thought the treasures of the Twelve Houses held great significance. Like there might be a secret of some sort, or maybe more bonuses, since this was a game. A secret felt more likely than another bonus. That made me all the more eager to find them, but the fact was that I had no method for doing so. There were no hints whatsoever.

Maybe I’ll find a lead in Runan’s palace.

Runan was approaching its end of days. If things went as planned, I would have a chance to investigate Runan’s treasury eventually. I just had to hope I found some kind of hint there.

Well, setting that aside, next it’s time to distribute items.

There might not have been any treasures from the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom in Brijit’s palace, but there had been some that the system identified as items. Two of them could raise ability scores:

Jade Sword

Martial +1

A jade sword handed down since antiquity.

Black Armor

Command +2

Jet-black armor that raises the user’s majesty.

I didn’t need either myself, so I decided to try using them to raise my retainers’ stats. I immediately called up the system and had it display all of their ability scores.

Hadin Meruya: Martial 60, Intelligence 57, Command 70

Bente: Martial 49, Intelligence 38, Command 82

Jint: Martial 93 (+2), Intelligence 41, Command 52

Yusen: Martial 82, Intelligence 60, Command 90

Gibun: Martial 70, Intelligence 34, Command 76

Euracia Rozern: Martial 87 (+3), Intelligence 57, Command 95 (+2)

You can’t equip more than one sword. That rules out me, because I use Daitoren, and Jint, who’s using the Nameless Sword.

I plan to have Yusen do big things in the future. His stats are good across the board and he’s highly loyal to me, so it’d be good to give him the Black Armor to raise his Command. Not as sure what to do with the sword though.

I expected that I would be getting more and stronger commanders later, so I decided to hold on to it for the time being. If there was one inconvenience, it was that because this wasn’t a game I was playing on a screen, ability scores didn’t automatically go up. A weapon would only have an effect once they were able to fully make use of it.

This world really is a mix of game elements and reality.

*

Heina Berhin visited a slave trader in the capital. Even in this world where slavery existed, making a living off of human trafficking was strictly prohibited... But only on paper, of course.

In every era, there are things the powerful are drawn to precisely because they’re so forbidden. Owning people was the ultimate pleasure for stimulating the nobles’ human greed. And in Runan, where their avarice destabilized the country, there was a rather large-scale network of slave traders working in the shadows.

Of course, even with the protection of the ruling class, slave traders couldn’t operate out in the open. Their headquarters in the capital was in a top secret location.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

This organization, called the Droy Company, specialized in underworld jobs like human trafficking, abductions, and assassination. They were a massive company with their tendrils extended all across Runan and even into Naruya. The master of the Droy Company, Gensema, was always in Runan, where his main customer base was clustered.

As befitted a slave trader operating in the darkness, if a customer had the money, he would enslave anyone they wanted, whether the person was wealthy or poor, and present them to his client.

However, the Droy Company’s greatest power lay with their assassins. Because they had taken so many jobs, the nobility couldn’t touch them. Gensema identified Heina at a glance. He knew everything there was to know about the nobility.

He welcomed her with a sly look on his face.

“You know me?” she asked, surprised.

“Information is power. Of course I know you. Heh heh!”

Heina furrowed her brow at his crude laughter but chose to endure in the name of her objective. “You seem to be using that power to do other things behind the scenes, though?” she said.

When Heina cut straight to the point, Gensema played ignorant, cocking his head to the side.

“Doing ‘other things.’ Hah hah hah! Whatever could you mean...?”

Suddenly, he stopped laughing and his expression grew serious. With an expression that looked every bit like the scoundrel he was, he said, “But that is what you’ve come here for, isn’t it? Please, ask away, Your Excellency Heina. If you are looking for a male slave, just tell me your preferences...”

“My interest with you lies elsewhere. There’s a man I want killed. I want it more than anything!”

“Oh, do you? Heh heh heh! Then you’ve come to the right place, Your Excellency.”

Heina clenched her fists. Having lost Ronan’s trust, the other nobles looked down on her even worse than they had before. She’d completely lost any chance to distinguish herself. Heina loathed Erhin Eintorian, the root cause of her troubles.

She would never forgive him for ruining her and her clan.

But she stood no chance if she challenged him in any orthodox manner. That fact was an affront to Heina’s great pride, and only served to strengthen her determination to end Erhin’s life. If he were gone, the position of advisor to the Runan Kingdom would return to her. There was still a thin sliver of hope that Ronan might call her back.

That was why, much as she hated to stoop this low, she had come to visit Gensema.

“They say there’s no one you people can’t kill.”

“Tee hee. What are you saying? There are some beings that even we cannot kill. We wouldn’t be able to slay the five New Stars of the continent, for example. Anyone else, though, I’m sure we can manage.”

The five mightiest people on the continent. In game terms, these would be the only S-rank characters. People called them the New Stars out of a sense of awe. The greatest among them was the King of Naruya.

“We manage a special organization of assassins, Your Excellency. We raise them from a young age, and many grow up to be excellent at their craft, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Showing his absolute confidence, Gensema let out a low chuckle.

“If we are talking about a mark on the level of Erheet Demacine, then things become more difficult, but...not all assassinations need to be carried out by the knife. Poison is effective against any target, and we also have ways of making it look like an accident. Tee hee. Although, it’ll cost you an arm and a leg. There aren’t many nobles in Runan who would be willing to pay it.”

Gensema brought up the Runan Kingdom’s mightiest commander. He was boasting that, while Erheet was strong, he was not one of the five New Stars, so they could kill him. The Droy Company were confident that they were the continent’s largest organization operating in the shadows.

“So, who would you have us kill? The cost changes depending on the class of the target, so could I ask you to tell me who that is?” Gensema rubbed his hands together.

“Erhin Eintorian,” Heina replied without hesitation. “I want him dead.”

“Oho... Why, if it isn’t the man everyone’s been talking about recently,” Gensema said with a chuckle, rubbing his hands once again. “Now, if we are discussing Count Erhin Eintorian, he is a rather capable man, is he not?”

“What do I care how competent he is?! I’m asking if you can kill him.”

“It is as I’ve already told you. Would you suggest that, even though we could kill Erheet, we couldn’t kill Erhin? War and assassination are two separate things, Your Excellency Heina. Of course, given his high class, the cost will be exorbitant.”

“How much?”

“Let me think...” Gensema put on a creepy smile and held up five fingers. “Around five years of your domain’s income, I suppose.”

“What are you saying?!” Heina exclaimed, scowling at Gensema over this outrageous sum.

“He is a gifted strategist. The high price should have been a given. The rare thing about our Droy Company is that we always succeed at the jobs we take on. If you can’t afford it, then please give up this charade. Let us simply pretend you never said anything.”

Gensema’s firm stance on this made Heina tremble with rage, but the money mattered less to her than her wounded pride.

“You really can kill him, right?”

“Certainly.”

Gensema nodded firmly. Heina bit her lip.

“You’ll be paid after you’ve disposed of him.”

“But of course. We here at the Droy Company are famous for collecting our payment only once the job is complete, after all. Heh heh!”

Erhin Eintorian.

He was known for being an excellent strategist, but his martial abilities were not well known. The people of Runan hadn’t seen his battles in Rozern and Brijit for themselves, and even in the war with Naruya, he hadn’t displayed his ability to fight except at Lynon Castle, where he fought alone.

Because so few people knew about Erhin’s martial prowess, he was sorely underestimated.

*

As the sun dipped down below the horizon, I found myself at my office desk after I returned from inspecting the Eintorian Domain. I had a mountain of other things to do on top of that, the most important of which was approving expenses. While we did have a great fortune under the castle, it would rapidly dwindle if I spent it frivolously.

I picked up my pen to begin filling out paperwork, and then it happened.

Suddenly, I was interrupted. My glass window shattered.

“Huh...?”

A team of five men clad in black rushed in through there, each one carrying a sword or knife.

Without so much as a hello, they dashed in to begin their assault.

Four of them had C-class Martial scores, and the last boasted an A-class Martial score. There were only about forty A-class characters across the entire continent, which meant if this team of assassins had one with them, they were pretty experienced.

This surprise attack is dangerous.

Without Daitoren equipped, my Martial was still low. I only kept my cool like this because Euracia sprang through the window at almost exactly the same time as they did.

“Who are you people?” Euracia interposed herself between the assassins and me before taking a merciless swing at the nearest of the black-clad men. Blue mana pierced the masked man’s chest as she swung her blade in a wide horizontal arc, neatly cleaving the man beside him in twain.

Blood rained in the office.

“Er, Euracia... You don’t need to go to such violent lengths.”

The corners of her eyes turned up angrily for some reason, and she didn’t bother to respond as she took on another of the masked men who came at her. I couldn’t just sit back and watch.

There’s an A-class talent with them, after all.

Said A-class talent must have decided to kill me first, because he left Euracia to his subordinates and sprang at me.

With a Martial of 90, he’s probably the best assassin in their entire organization. But I have a Martial of 99 with Daitoren equipped. That’s higher than any of the forty or so A-class characters on the continent. So this guy’s no match for me.

I faced the enemies with Daitoren held at the ready. It only took two swings of my blade before the enemy fell. That’s what they got with the overwhelming difference in Martial scores. The man died with a look of disbelief in his eyes.

“Wait, Euracia!”

I wanted to keep one of my assailants alive to find out who they were, but Euracia had wiped the enemy out by the time I spoke.

She has a Martial of 90 with Rossade equipped. I probably should’ve expected this.

“What is it?” she replied, her expression oddly pleasant.

Is it just me, or does she look like she wants to be praised for a job well done?

“I wanted to keep one of them alive so I could ask who sent them after me.”

“Huh?” Euracia’s cheeks puffed up a little.

She must have seen the logic in what I was saying, because she crouched down and slapped one of the fallen masked men with a blank expression on her face.

That’s not gonna wake him up. He’s dead as a doornail.

Her cheeks inflated further, and she rose to her feet, giving up on the dead man in the mask. “I was just so mad I couldn’t control my power.”

“What made you so upset?”

“I just sort of felt that way.”

Now that she’d said her piece, Euracia vanished out the window she’d come in through.

*

My retainers gathered in the office in Eintorian Castle. Naturally, since their lord had just been attacked.

Seeing the bodies, Yusen scowled and asked, “Were they talented?”

“Yeah. They were fairly skilled.”

“Oh, no...! We’ll have to assume that someone with considerable power sent them after you then... Do you have any idea who that might be?”

Any idea, huh? I’ve killed everyone I ought’ve. Ronan and the king still need me, so they wouldn’t have pulled a stunt like this.

Of course, there were those who resented me. It’s not like I had no idea who it might be.

But I shook my head. “No one in particular.” Without concrete proof, I’d just have to hold my tongue for the moment. There was no point in making any accusations just yet.

“We’ll have to look into it.”

I nodded in agreement with Yusen.

At that moment, Jint, who had been examining the bodies with a serious look on his face, lifted one of their wrists. “This...” he said darkly.

“What is it, Jint?”

“You said that they were assassins, but it’s really just like I suspected... I had to check just to be sure, but it’s them.”

There was a spider tattoo on the man’s wrist.

“‘Them’?”

Jint showed his own wrist in response to my question. It bore the same spider tattoo. Once I saw it, it hit me.

“You don’t mean the slavers who took Mirinae, do you?”

Jint nodded firmly, a fire burning in the depths of his eyes. That was to be expected. The slavers were old enemies of his. In order to get Mirinae back, he joined the assassination group they managed, and shuttered his emotions under lock and key in favor of living like a robot.

“They were called the Droy Company.”

The Droy Company, huh?

I knew the name well. They were famous in the game too. After the fall of Runan, the scumbags worked underground in Naruya and the Matein Kingdom, engaging in human trafficking, abductions, and assassination. Because of their great size and connections to people of influence, they never vanished from the stage of history. But their name wasn’t known to the general public—only to the powerful—because only nobility ever utilized their “services.”

“The Droy Company? What’s that?”

Of course, a commoner like Yusen was hearing about them for the first time. My other retainers had similar responses. Apparently, even a rural noble like Hadin knew nothing of them.

“Think of them as a shadowy cabal. As far as I know, if the Droy Company are out for my blood, it must be because a noble from the capital sent them after me.”

“You’re saying a noble from the capital tried to have you assassinated, Your Excellency?” Yusen asked with a look of surprise.

“That is what I mean, yes. So I’ll need to go there and ask about it directly.”

It wouldn’t be tough to wipe out the Droy Company. After destroying the Brijit Kingdom, something like that would be a piece of cake. They might slink around in the shadows, but they weren’t on the same level as a nation-state.

If someone is targeting me, I definitely need to find them and take revenge, and these guys deserve to disappear anyway.

Also, there was one more thing: if my guess was right, then I should be able to use them to pull Erheet over to my side too.

The Droy Company has deep ties to Runan’s nobility. I don’t know precisely how high up any of their clientele go, but Duke Ronan and the king can’t be unaware of it. If the honorable Erheet were to learn of the slave traders, I’m sure he’d oppose them.

If I could plant the seeds of discord between Erheet and the nobility, I could possibly manage snagging him.

Either way, I need to find the Droy Company’s home base and prove they’re involved with the Runanese nobility before this can go anywhere.

Fortunately, I had some idea where that could be already.

In the game, the Droy Company move their base once Runan falls. It was in Runan up to that point, but when you’re chasing down the Droy Company in the game, there are a number of locales within Runan’s borders where you can fight battles to mop them up. In the original timeline, they would have relocated their headquarters already, but unlike in the game, Runan hasn’t been destroyed, so their main base should still be here.

I’ll bet one of those locations is their current headquarters.

I stared at the map and began plotting which spot was most likely.

*

Mirinae was reading a book.

Ever since Erhin gave her the opportunity to learn to read, she read whatever books she could get her hands on. Mirinae had said she’d sew or do anything to repay her debts, but instead Erhin had her learn to read. She’d always thought reading was only for the nobility, but the man was their savior, so she did as he asked, and to her surprise she was starting to find it interesting.

This is what her stats looked like when she came to Eintorian:

Mirinae

Age: 21

Martial: 5

Intelligence: 59

Command: 10

But they changed after she learned to read.

Mirinae

Age: 21

Martial: 5

Intelligence: 70

Command: 20

Her base Intelligence was good, but she’d never known how she could put it to use before. Learning to read boosted her Intelligence by a full 11 points, and her Command score went up by 10 points at the same time. Her ability scores were like children—they grew up fast.

“Mirinae.”

“Oh? When did you get back?” Mirinae looked up from her book, surprised, then rose to greet Jint.

“Just now.”

“I’ve been reading this. I don’t know if it will be of any help to our lord, though...” Mirinae said with an apprehensive smile.

Jint felt nothing but happiness seeing her like this. Because, after living on the run for so long, she was able to have such a good life. During the war in Rozern, there was a moment when Erhin’s life was in danger. Jint tried to throw his life away for their benefactor.

But he was the one who saved me instead.

This was the second time Erhin had ensured he would come back to Mirinae’s side.

And today he gave me the opportunity to take revenge on Mirinae’s enemies, and my own.

“Jint? Did you mess up again?” Mirinae said in a loud voice, putting her hand on her hip as she noticed the change in Jint’s expression.

“I didn’t do anything...! I’m sure your studies will help him. He’s not been wrong about anything so far.”

“Well, you’re right about that.”

“Anyway, I’m going to the capital on his orders. I’ll be away for a while again.”

Jint didn’t tell her about the slavers. There was no need to bring them up and retraumatize her.

“I see. Well, I’ll need to pack you a lunch to take, then. I’ll get right on that!”

Mirinae rushed off to the kitchen without ever noticing Jint’s clenched fists.

*

“Okay, is everyone here?”

After deciding to head out to deal with the Droy Company, I gathered my retainers and allies. It was important to clarify their orders before I left.

Hadin Meruya: Martial 60, Intelligence 57, Command 70

Bente: Martial 49, Intelligence 38, Command 82

Jint: Martial 93 (+2), Intelligence 41, Command 52

Yusen: Martial 82, Intelligence 60, Command 90 (+2)

Gibun: Martial 70, Intelligence 34, Command 76

Euracia Rozern: Martial 87 (+3), Intelligence 57, Command 95 (+2)

I called the only Eintorian noble among my retainers first.

“Hadin!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

“The checkpoint at the border has been fixed, I assume?”

“Indeed it has, Your Excellency!”

“And has construction of a castle wall in the direction of the capital been moving forward?”

“That will take a while still.”

I was in the process of building a castle wall not just on the side facing Naruya, but at key points in the direction of the Runanese capital as well. Considering the chaos to come, there was no point in only being able to defend the Naruyan side.

“I see. Continue focusing on the construction. And be careful not to do anything that would lower the people’s opinion of us. Keep accepting refugees, give them jobs, and provide them with as much food as you can manage. Don’t forget to keep developing more farmland.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

I had no fear of Hadin exploiting the people of the domain. That’s why he was such a good pick for this.

“Yusen!”

Yusen was a man of many talents. He was the most exemplary of my retainers, with strong ability scores across the board.

“I want you and Gibun to go to Bertaquin, the place I told you about before. I’ve asked Count Fihatori, who is garrisoned in the former Brijitian capital, to send some troops. You’ll go there as my magistrate. I need you to secure shipping routes for iron ore.”

This was the most important task of all, but I didn’t have time to go myself. That’s why I chose to leave it to Yusen, who I could trust because of his cautious approach to everything.

“Understood. We’ll set out at once!”

Finally, it’s time for me to head out.

“Jint and Bente, you’ll come with me!”

Will you deploy?

Available Troops

Eintorian Domain Army: 20,000 men

Training: 89

Morale: 80

I don’t need that many men. It would be a problem moving around with such a large force.

Cavalry Unit: 100 men

I chose to set out with a hundred men—elites with 89 Training and 80 Morale. I wouldn’t be able to train any iron cavalry until I had iron from the mines in Bertaquin, but there was no issue paying the upkeep for a hundred cavalrymen.

“I’ll go too.”

At this point, Euracia made her appearance. She wasn’t officially my subordinate yet, so I’d been letting her do as she pleased. She could come in handy, though, so I nodded, and...

Morale of deployed soldiers has temporarily increased by +10

...suddenly, the soldiers I was deploying got a boost to Morale.

Is this the power of her 97 Command?

*

A boy and two girls were imprisoned behind iron bars. Emaciated, all of them—wearing filthy, tattered rags. They all came from the same village. Having lost their parents in the war, the villagers sold these unfortunate waifs off so there were fewer mouths to feed.

“Lilian.”

One of the girls weakly raised her head at the sound of her name. It was the boy, Sedick, calling out to her.

“Are you cold?”

“I’m fine...”

Lilian shook her head, but she was shivering. Sedick took off his coat for her. Once he put the sleeveless, vestlike garment around her shoulders, Lilian didn’t quiver quite so much.

“You gave your coat to Frill, so you must be cold yourself, right?” Sedick said with a gentle smile.

Frill was sleeping with Lilian’s coat as a blanket.

“If only we could be as carefree as Frill...”

“Yeah,” Sedick replied, his shoulders slumping.

“Do you think it’ll be as bad as they say, being slaves...?”

Sedick and Lilian were already fifteen. They knew what kind of treatment slaves faced, and what kind of fate that awaited them too. It was Lilian’s seven-year-old sister Frill who remained blissfully ignorant of what lay ahead.

At that moment, there was a clatter as the cell door opened, and two men entered. The captives’ eyes all turned toward them.

“I hear we have newcomers?” Gensema asked his men as he looked through the bars.

“Yes, three of them. Here they are,” one man responded, leading Gensema to the cell that held Lilian and Sedick.

“Ohhh, that girl shows promise,” Gensema says, pointing to the sleeping Frill. “Well, he should be satisfied with a girl like this. He’s quite particular in his tastes.”

With a treacherous smile, Gensema went to pick up Frill. Lilian moved to stand between them, having figured out the situation.

“I-I’ll go instead. Let go of my sister!”

“Oh, is that right...?” Gensema looked at her, intrigued. “I’m sorry, my precocious young lady, but you’re a little too mature for my client.”

With that, he casually shoved Lilian aside. Unable to watch this any longer, Sedick sprang at the man.

“Let go of Frill!!!”

However, before he could even get close to Gensema, one of the other men kicked him to the floor. Emaciated as he was, he had no strength to resist.

“Hey, you. Don’t rough up the merchandise. There’s demand for boys too these days,” Gensema scolded his subordinate before picking up Frill. As he did, the little girl drowsily opened her eyes.

“Sis?”

Gensema patted Frill on the head as her eyes wandered in search of Lilian.

“There, there. You’re going to live well from now on, I’ll make sure of it. You’d like to eat tasty food, wouldn’t you?”

“Tasty food?”

“No, Frill!”

Lilian tried to rush Gensema but was immediately restrained by the man beside him.

“Frill... Frill...!”

The girl was her only kin, entrusted to her by her parents before they died. She had to protect her precious little sister. Lilian cried and kicked and screamed, but the men around her simply looked on, smirking.

As the heavy iron door closed behind him, Gensema pressed his close associate Lutri, who was waiting for him there, on another issue.

“You’ve made sure Count Erhin is dealt with, I hope?”

“I sent Hog just to be sure. Even your average general wouldn’t stand a chance. I’m sure he’s on his way back from the job already. Don’t worry about it.”

“Hog? Isn’t that a little excessive?”

Gensema furrowed his brow at the mention of the name of their strongest assassin. At that moment, having finally fully woken up, Frill looked around, searching for Lilian.

“Where’s sis...?”

“She’s already gone on ahead. Heh heh!”

Gensema flashed the girl a fake smile and melded into the darkness.

*

The Droy Company’s secret base was located daringly close to the royal capital, inside a long-abandoned fortress. The company’s private troops and the assassination group seemed to be stationed here at all times. Large carriages came and went frequently, so it likely doubled as a holding area for their slaves.

I had every intention of destroying this fortress, of course.

In order to move covertly, I had the hundred cavalrymen I had brought with me disperse, and then meet up again in the mountains where the base was located. It would be bad if any of the nobility in the castle caught wind of what we were up to. Fortunately, thanks to their training, we were able to assemble near the fortress without incident.

Standing at the vanguard was Jint, burning with an even greater hunger for battle than usual.

“Listen to me, Jint. No harm must come to the innocent people they’ve abducted or were sold to them.”

“Of course. They’re just like Mirinae. We have to save them.”

From the sound of his response, it wasn’t going to pose a problem.

“Okay, we’re going in!”

I immediately ordered an attack on the fortress. The Eintorian elites intrepidly charged in. Thanks to all their training, their movements were incredibly swift. They moved so fast that Jint’s charge demolished the fortress’s main gate.

“Who’re these guys?!”

The Droy Company’s private troops drew their blades and began to fight back against our sudden raid, but while they might have had success if they were fighting the Royal Runanese army, my forces were on a whole different level from that sorry lot. They never stood a chance against us.

Eintorian Domain Army Cavalry Unit

100 men

Droy Company Private Troops

250 men

We might have been at a numerical disadvantage, but we had a Training score of 89, and Euracia boosted the men’s Morale to 90. My cavalry were handily beating the company’s private troops. Of course, since the assassin organization was based out of this fortress as well, some of them did have a high Martial. But since I’d killed the Martial 90 assassin they’d sent after me, their combat potential was already obviously degraded.

“How dare you trade people like cattle,” Euracia spat.

Even Euracia joined the fight, alongside Jint, who had turned into a battle fiend, resulting in a one-sided massacre. However, at the same time, there was chaos behind the iron doors where people were being held.

The private army had opened the doors in order to cause confusion. As a result, the prisoners ended up witnessing the battlefield outside. I immediately sent my troops toward them. Taking the captives into our protection was top priority.

Of course, the company’s soldiers gathered there too.

Eventually, the area in front of the door became the spot where the most intense fighting was taking place. No, that’s not quite right.

The battle was completely one-sided.

Eintorian Domain Army Cavalry Unit

100 men

My forces’ numbers hadn’t dropped, but...

Droy Company Private Troops

87 men

...the number of private soldiers had rapidly dropped.

Our side had some wounded, but Jint and Euracia’s efforts at the forefront sapped the enemy’s spirits, and we made it through without any fatalities. In the chaos, even children started running out from inside.

I was beside myself with fury when I saw them.

Even going as far as trading children...

I’d known this logically, but actually seeing it for myself made me seethe with rage.

*

In the middle of all the chaos, people were cowering, not sure what to do with themselves. But Sedick was different.

“Lilian! Let’s run. Now. I don’t know what’s up, but this is our chance!”

“But what about Frill?” mumbled Lilian, scarcely louder than a whisper. She was still in a daze, slumped on the floor with her back against the wall.

“You dummy. We can’t search for her if we don’t get out of here!”

With that, Sedick took Lilian by the hand and raced out of their cell.

“It’s dangerous out there, kids! You’ll be safer here!” one woman who had been locked up in another cell shouted after them, but her voice was lost among the din. With their command structure in tatters, the private soldiers were now killing the fleeing slaves so they couldn’t get away.

Thanks to that, the captives stayed quivering inside their cells. But Sedick worried that they would be locked in again if they didn’t act now.

He’d made the wrong call.

“Sedick!”

As he ran, dragging Lilian behind him by the hand, a blade flew out and stabbed Sedick in the back—another victim of the private army’s indiscriminate killing. Lilian fell to her knees, screaming his name and crying.

Crimson flowed from the wound in a cascade, his life leaking out with it.

“Sedick! Sedick...! No, don’t die. I can’t lose you too! Not after they already took Frill!”

At that moment, the private soldier who’d spotted them making their escape was already swinging his blade again. The sword came down, but it didn’t meet its mark. A loud clang rang out as it was deflected by Bente, who’d forced his way into the jail.

“Get back in your cell for now! It’s dangerous outside!” Bente shouted, but Lilian wouldn’t stop clinging to Sedick, desperately trying to keep what little warmth she could from escaping his gradually cooling body.

*

And so, with the Droy Company fortress having fallen in short order, Bente led Erhin to the prison. This was where the captives were, so there were things that he needed to do here.

“Your Excellency, I’ve gathered them all up!” said Bente.

Erhin nodded in response. Then he addressed the people gathered before him.

“I am Count Erhin, Lord of Eintorian. In order to exterminate slave traders and stamp out their vile business, I’ve come to rescue you all. Anyone here who has been abducted, please raise your hand. If you have somewhere to go back to, we’ll see to it that you get home!”

A number of women, looking around anxiously as they tried to judge the situation, hesitantly raised their hands.

“Good. Could you all gather in one place? I will make sure you get home, no matter what. This must have been horrible for all of you.”

Dozens of women gathered at Erhin’s instructions. The remaining captives murmured, never taking their eyes off of Erhin.

“The rest of you were likely sold as slaves. If you go home, you’ll either be oppressed or sold off again. So let me give you a choice. If you want to go home, you can. But if you want a new life, then all of you should come to the Eintorian Domain. We are currently developing new land in order to welcome refugees. Those of you who can’t go home ought to build villages in Eintorian and live there. My land is a border domain, so there are risks, of course. But have no fear. I will protect you. I swear it. If you don’t want to lead a miserable life any longer, then step forward!”

The people whispered after Erhin spoke.

“Count Eintorian... Isn’t he the one who ended that war?” a recently abducted woman said, her voice rising with surprise. Having been abducted in the conflict region, she’d heard rumors about Erhin. It also helped that rumors of his talent as a strategist had already spread all around Runan.

“Yes, that’s right.” Erhin nodded, prompting the woman to step forward immediately.

“After being abducted like this...even if I did go home, I’m sure that people would talk about me behind my back. I want to go. Will you take me with you?”

“The choice is yours to make. It’s up to you.”

Nine-tenths of the captives were women. That’s why they seemed worried they were about to be carted off somewhere else, but this woman’s words set off a chain reaction. Their trust in him suddenly rose. Soon the women were racing to step forward first.

Following that, more than half of the people who said they wanted to return home now wanted to go to Eintorian instead. Eintorian’s weakness was that it had a low population due to it being a borderland region. Of course, refugees had begun drifting there due to Erhin’s recent fame, but it still wasn’t enough.

For a border region, their rise and fall was tied to the flow of migrants.

Meanwhile, Lilian, who had been forcibly dragged away from Sedick’s corpse and brought here, just stared vacantly at Erhin, not stepping forward or even standing up. The woman beside her took Lilian’s hand, her eyes full of pity.

“You have nowhere to go either, right? Your friends are dead. I saw it all. You poor thing... This is a good opportunity. Why don’t you come to that Eintorian place the man was talking about and live with me?”

Lilian’s gaze shifted to the woman. “Is he someone important?” she asked.

“Yes! I don’t know much about him myself, but it sounds like he’s a very important person.”

Lilian saw the confidence with which Erhin carried himself. She saw the other men—the ones who’d killed all of the scary guards—and she saw the one who’d shouted orders to those men.

Maybe he could save her little sister?

That thought dominated Lilian’s mind. With Sedick dead, Frill was all she could think about. She’d made a promise to her parents. If he’d saved all these people, surely he’d save Frill too.

As Lilian was thinking about it, Erhin shouted some more orders.

“Bente, I’m going to the capital, so stand by here with the men. Once I return, we’re taking everyone back home!”

Having watched him all this time, Lilian raced to Erhin’s side.

She was prepared to do anything if he’d just save Frill.

*

Gensema visited Duke Ronan’s son, Cervil, who was also his most important client. The idea was that, with his son as one of the company’s customers, Duke Ronan couldn’t lay a hand on Gensema.

“You called for me, Your Excellency?” Gensema said.

The ducal title still belonged to Ronan. As he had the rank of count until he inherited his father’s title, Cervil’s address was Your Excellency. Cervil looked incredibly unamused.

“I don’t like the slave you brought me last time.”

“Y-You don’t?! We don’t normally accept returns, but...if the slave was not to your liking, then I will, of course, prepare another!”

“Heh heh. That would be most appreciated. Once I become duke, I’ll mobilize the country’s resources in order to support your company.”

“We can only swear our loyalty to you as we eagerly await the day. Hah hah hah!” Gensema politely agreed with Cervil.

“Bring me a replacement at once, then. Heh heh heh.”

Cervil drained his glass of wine and rose from his seat.

“Understood. I will present one to you right away.” Gensema left the room with his head still bowed. On his way back, he grumbled to his subordinate, “That scoundrel. A replacement? Slaves aren’t things you can exchange for a new one.”

“Isn’t that why you brought the child from the fortress?”

“Well, yes, it is. But it hurts my pride to hand her over so easily... Tch! There’s no other choice. I’ll bide my time now in order to make a puppet of him later.”

With that, Gensema headed toward his secret base in the capital.

*

Because I’d known more or less where the Droy Company’s secret base was, I was able to mobilize the cavalry and find it immediately. The issue was that the master of the company hadn’t been at the fortress, nor did they keep any accounting records there.

I need the ledger. It’s sure to have a record of their transactions with the nobility. I won’t be able to move Erheet without it. It’s a secret document, so if it’s not here, then the master must keep it on his person at all times. I’ll just have to search for the master.

With that in mind, once I finished interrogating the survivors, I used the information I had obtained from them to withdraw my forces temporarily and visit their secret base.

Since it’s a secret base within the capital, there can’t be all that many enemies inside it. Jint, Euracia, and I can take it on our own.

Following the map I was holding in one hand, we arrived at a simple two-story building. The survivors claimed the base was in the basement here. The upper floors weren’t being used now, and it seemed that they had chosen not to post guards so as not to arouse suspicion.

“They’re awfully unguarded,” Euracia remarked.

“If they looked like they were on guard, it would kind of defeat the point of hiding in the first place,” I explained to her.

“Is that how it works?”

Euracia tended to be more aggressive than necessary. If there had been any guards standing around, she would have cut them down without question.

“By the way, have you ever seen the master, Jint?”

“I’ve never seen him myself. He’s supposedly so cautious that he doesn’t reveal his face to anyone but those he can genuinely trust.”

“I see.”

Well, I’ll be seeing his face soon enough anyway.

On my signal we began heading downstairs, a casual kick from Jint smashing the basement door to splinters. Inside, there was a group of seven nasty-looking men sitting around drinking alcohol. The men looked at us and the demolished door in shock.

“Who’re these guys?!”

“Don’t they know what this place is?!”

Jint was silent for a moment before howling, “I’ll kill you!” He whipped out his sword, but the company’s men just sneered at us.

Euracia scowled, but I signaled with my eyes for her to stop.

“What a bunch of jokers. They charged in here knowing what this place is. What, did we nab your sweetheart? Gah hah hah hah!”

It was the worst thing he could have possibly said.

Jint’s eyes went bloodshot.

In an instant, the sneering man’s head said goodbye to his body, and then the severed head was further cleft into four pieces.

“Bro!” the remaining thugs shouted, glaring at Jint, but the battle was over before it had begun.

In less than a minute, every man in that basement had been decapitated without even having time to scream. It was a total massacre. Crimson pooled on the floor, fed by the blood gushing from seven headless corpses.

His shoulders heaving with each breath, Jint lowered his sword.

In the middle of this grotesque display, someone came up from an even lower level.

“You’re making a racket,” a middle-aged man said, sticking his fingers in his ears as he came up, followed by a young man and a little girl matching the description that the girl Lilian had given us of her sister. Fortunately, it seemed she hadn’t been sold off anywhere yet.

I turned to Euracia. “Could you rescue the girl and protect her?”

“All right,” she answered. The men scowled at us.

“Master Gensema, it looks like some crazy people are attacking us.”

“That it does.”

Gensema

Age: 49

Martial: 71

Intelligence: 66

Command: 70

Lutri

Age: 26

Martial: 94

Intelligence: 20

Command: 30

It looked like the middle-aged guy was the boss of the Droy Company, while the tall man was his bodyguard.

He’s probably the strongest they have. The assassin they sent after me was their number two, and this guy’s their number one. Well, he’s still no big deal.

Euracia wasted no time before rushing at Gensema. When Lutri tried to stop her, Jint charged in and locked blades with him.

“Wait, you’re not Jint, are you?” Lutri recognized him.

Jint recognized Lutri too, and glared at the man, shouting, “You... You’re from the assassin team!”

“Long time no see. I worked you hard because there was something in your eyes that told me you were going to amount to something, but then you went and ran away like a coward. Unbelievable, huh? If you’ve come back here by your own will, I imagine it’s not just to commit suicide, right? Heh heh heh!”

“Shut up!”

Jint took a vertical swing at Lutri, who easily swung back.

But it left an opening for Euracia to take advantage of, closing in on Gensema, kicking his arm aside, and getting his hands off the girl. Lutri meant to make quick work of Jint and then defend Gensema, but Jint was far stronger now than he had been back during his days in the assassin group.

They were more or less evenly matched, with neither able to strike a decisive blow.

Perhaps sensing that, Lutri’s face twisted into a snarl, and Euracia pulled the girl close to her and held her tight.

“Who are you?” Gensema asked in a commanding tone.

“Me? Just the man you tried to have killed...Count Erhin Eintorian.”

“Eintorian? What?! And Hog? What happened to Hog?!”

I guessed Hog was the name of the assassin who tried to kill me.

“He’s dead.”

“Hog, dead? That’s absurd! It can’t be true!”

Gensema still didn’t understand the situation.

“You don’t seem to understand there are people in this world who you should never piss off,” I said, causing Gensema to snort derisively.

“So this guy killed Hog, did he? If he can face Lutri on even terms, then maybe it’s possible. But Lutri is many times stronger than Hog!”

Gensema seemed to have great faith in the man called Lutri who was currently fighting Jint, not realizing that his faith was meaningless.

“Tell me who hired you. You do that, and I can spare your life, at least.”

Well, not that I plan to do that either way.

Taking my words at face value, Gensema trembled with rage.

“What’s taking you, Lutri?! Finish him off and come kill this one already!”

Of course that would be his response. Up until now, with a Martial of 94, there hadn’t been anyone in the Runan Kingdom other than Erheet who could have dealt with him. That a mere slave trader like him was able to have continent-spanning influence was likely because of how superb Lutri and the organization of assassins he’d trained were.

But that was only when it came to assassination.

“Jint. Stand back, would you?”

In order to crush Gensema’s confidence, I summoned Daitoren and attacked Lutri just once. I didn’t even have to use Crush on him. Lutri was immediately bisected. The assassin who had never known defeat was reduced to two hunks of meat without ever learning fear.

“Wh-What...?!” Gensema shouted, spittle flying everywhere. It must have been awfully shocking to him after having been able to rely on Lutri and the assassins to support his evil ways for all this time.

“Wh-What’s happening?! Lutri is the strongest in Runan! He can’t lose...” Gensema sputtered, backing away, as it finally dawned on him that things had changed.

His once confident features twisted with terror.

Then, he sprinted for the lower basement.

There was likely a passage there he could escape through, but...

“Have some shame, you scum,” Euracia said coldly, covering Frill’s eyes with her hand as she tripped Gensema with Rossade, sending him tumbling down the stairs.

That’s just the kind of thing I like to see happen to scumbags like him.

I strolled over to Gensema and lopped off one of his arms. It flew through the air, brushing the ceiling before falling back down to the floor.

“Gahhhhhh!” Gensema screamed, his face contorting with pain as he clutched at the bleeding shoulder his arm was once attached to.

“Do you want me to spare you?”

Gensema nodded frantically as I leveled my sword at his eyes.

The bastards who hurt others the most are always real tenacious when it comes to preserving their own lives.

“Okay, take me wherever you were going to bring the girl. If you don’t, the next swing parts your head from your body. Oh, and I’ll be having your ledger too. Also, it’d be wise to tell me who hired you to kill me.”

“...”

“You still need to think about it in this situation? Fine, I guess this is how it has to be, then.”

I took hold of Daitoren without a shred of mercy.

“W-Wait! You’re really going to spare me? You’re saying that you’ll spare me so long as I do as you say, right?”

He really seems to think he’s got a chance of revenge if he makes it out of here alive. No way.

“Well, that’s certainly something I could do. You have five seconds to decide.”

“F-Fine, I’ll take you where we were going! I’ll give you my ledger too!”

Ultimately, Gensema confessed while nodding his head.

“And Heina Berhin hired us to kill you.”

*

Yusen and Gibun finally made it across the mountains to Bertaquin.

“I never thought the new domain would be so remote...” Gibun, exhausted by the long journey, shook his head in dismay. It wasn’t that far in terms of actual distance, but having to cross the mountains to get here made it feel a whole lot further.

“It may be a frontier territory, but it’s an incredibly important one. Assuming, of course...” Yusen looked around, confirming there was no one else to overhear him before continuing, “...that there’s iron.”

“Yeah, no kidd. I’ve never heard of any iron in these parts, myself. Well, there are a lot of mountains, so I guess there could be.”

“Shh! Hey, you’re talking too loud!” Yusen smacked Gibun lightly upside the head.

“Come on, there’s no one here!” Gibun grumbled, frowning. “And you said it first, Captain!”

Silencing Gibun with a look, Yusen turned his gaze back to the lord’s castle which was visible up ahead. This domain was on the level of a village, practically speaking, so the castle was small in scale. The vast majority of the land was mountainous, after all. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to call whoever owned Bertaquin a mountain lord.

“Anyway, let’s head to the castle.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go.”

Yusen and Gibun moved on to the castle. The flag of the Runan Kingdom was flying there. Noticing the Runanese guards, Gibun approached them.

“Hello there, Mr. Runanese Soldier. Good day to you.”

“Who’re you people?” the soldier replied, scowling at Gibun’s cocky attitude.

“You dolt!” Yusen whacked Gibun upside the head again, before turning back to the guard. “We’ve come from Eintorian. I believe you should have been informed...”

Once Yusen politely showed him the standard that bore the Eintorian crest, the man dropped his suspicious expression and nodded.

“Oh! You’re the ones from Eintorian! Please, wait just a moment!”

The soldier rushed off somewhere. Gibun smiled with satisfaction. “Yeah, that’s right. That’s how you do it. Gah hah hah hah!”

“I swear, you are such a pain in the ass. How did I end up with a subordinate like you?”

He could trust his war buddy with his life on the battlefield, but Gibun was always saying things that caused problems. As Yusen gave Gibun an earful, the soldier soon returned with a man wearing armor that denoted his high rank in tow. Those of hundredman rank and above were able to wear armor. It was only natural that someone of commander rank would have been sent to occupy the domain, but what surprised Yusen was that this man wore noble armor.

“I am His Excellency Erhin’s retainer Yusen. Might I ask who I have the honor of addressing?”

Seeing the confusion on Yusen’s face, Fihatori scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he replied, “You’re the one His Excellency Erhin sent? It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Fihatori, commander-in-chief of the Runanese Army in Brijit.”

Yusen was surprised to hear this. Erhin had told him about Fihatori. Fihatori was supposed to send soldiers to Bertaquin, but he never expected the man to come here himself.

“I’m sorry to ask, but what are you doing here, Your Excellency? I was told you would be sending some of your men, but...”

“I couldn’t delegate a direct request from His Excellency Erhin to my subordinates. His words that I have a role to play are engraved deeply in my mind. I was also interested to see what it is he plans to do here.”

“Y-You were, were you?”

Now it was Yusen’s turn to scratch his head awkwardly. Bertaquin was originally Brijitian territory. There had been a need to have Runanese soldiers take the domain from the existing Brijitian forces and lord because Eintorian didn’t have the resources to spare. Yusen was under orders to send the Royal Army home and then begin searching for iron mines in secret.

“The truth is... His Excellency Erhin gave me instructions to maintain only the minimum number of guards necessary and send the rest of the soldiers home. I will defend this place. I know you’ve come out of your way to be here, but orders are orders, so I can’t say any more than that...” Yusen said with a look of disappointment. It was all he could do.

“Well, that’s fine. You don’t need to look so troubled. I’ve only done my best to do as His Excellency requested. This was the only place that he requested for himself after the occupation of Brijit’s capital, so I came here to put things in order for him personally. I’ve already persuaded the residents of the domain for you, so he can go ahead and manage the territory as he sees fit. I’ll leave you with as many guards as you need when I head home. Please just inform His Excellency that I was here,” Fihatori responded as if it didn’t bother him.

*

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh when I looked at the ledger I’d seized from Gensema.

Go figure.

The thing was packed full of the names of influential Runanese nobility. At the very top of the list was the highest member of Runan’s nobility, Duke Ronan himself.

This meant Ronan was involved with the Droy Company.

Regrettably, however, the duke hadn’t purchased slaves himself. The one dealing with slave traders was his son, Cervil.

“So you were going to give that girl to Duke Ronan’s son, then?”

“That’s right.”

“...Screw you.”

I kicked Gensema and sent him flying. What an absolute piece of human garbage. Jint walked over to the fallen Gensema and pulled him up by the hair.

This is why it’s been impossible to eliminate slavers from Runan. If even the highest of nobles like Duke Ronan has his hands dirty, who would dare touch them? This means, ultimately, I’m the only one who can eliminate these guys from Runan, because I don’t need to be concerned about the king, Ronan, or anyone anymore.

I didn’t need to visit Ronan now. This ledger was detailed enough that I was already perfectly set to head toward my goal. Because the duke’s name appeared in it so unambiguously, I immediately went to visit Erheet instead.

“Is this true?! You must be joking...!”

Erheet trembled with rage as he looked at the ledger.

This guy’s the rare noble who isn’t involved with slavers.

In fact, if anything, he was the type who couldn’t abide such injustice. Because of this personality of his, the other nobles were desperate to hide their involvement with the slave trade from him. That was how he’d languished in this state of total ignorance.

“I traced the assassins to find out who tried to have me killed. That led me to a fortress their organization was based out of, and then I found a ledger in their secret base inside the capital. The evidence is all here, Your Excellency.”

“Then His Highness knew about all this and left them alone?” Erheet asked again, unable to believe it.

His face begged me to deny it, but I couldn’t do that.

“In fact, His Highness Ronan has been using their services. Look at just what his son Cervil has done, and you’ll see how vile it is.”

I pointed to Frill, who was playing in Erheet’s garden. She was picking flowers, a look of innocence on her face. Euracia was sitting next to the garden, putting flowers in Frill’s hair.

“...”

Erheet watched that peaceful scene in silence.

“His Highness Ronan has the power to wipe out the slavers while still keeping it under wraps, but he didn’t do that. Instead, he introduced other nobles to the slavers and used their weaknesses in order to control them. It’s all right there, plain as day, in the ledger.”

“...”

Erheet slammed his fist into the table. He was infuriated.

“I can’t believe it. I just can’t... How could he do something so filthy...!”

Well, given he’s sworn loyalty to Runan all his life, this kind of reaction was probably to be expected.

I needed to turn that reaction into a distrust for Ronan.

“I’ll give the ledger to you, Your Excellency. I don’t mind if you give it directly to His Highness Ronan. I’m not able to act on the information it contains myself.”

Even if I showed it to the king, nothing would happen. Nothing would change. That’s just how far the rot had progressed. That’s why all that could be gained from this was this man’s anger. It wouldn’t be enough, on its own, to tear Erheet and Ronan apart.

But this is enough of a spark for what will come later.

*

“Is this true, Your Highness?”

Erheet was a very straightforward man. So he immediately took the ledger to Ronan.

“Cervil has lived a sheltered life. He makes mistakes sometimes. And I needed to have that sort of dirt on the nobles if I was going to rally them together. Are you not so broad-minded about such things?”

“But human trafficking? That changes everything!”

“Human trafficking? I never ordered any such thing. What are you talking about?!” Ronan’s voice grew angry, causing Erheet’s eyebrow to twitch.

Not even he could believe the duke. Everyone knew that slave traders were engaged in human trafficking.

“So it’s true that you deliberately left the slave traders to do as they pleased, sir?”

“Where did you even come across that ledger?”

Erheet shut his mouth. Erhin had said it was okay to talk about it, but Erheet was not the sort to name names so easily.

“I came by it by coincidence, but I didn’t believe it was real until I saw your signature for myself.”

“I see. I understand what you’re saying, so hand over the ledger. You’re to leave the handling of this matter to me.”

“But, sir!” Erheet rose from his seat.

“You dare defy your master? Erheet, you cur!” Ronan shouted angrily.

That shut Erheet up. He had no choice but to be silent.

“I will give you the ledger. But as for the punishment of the nobles named in there...”

“You had best go and cool your head for a while.”

Erheet’s mind had gone blank. He’d completely lost sight of the idol he’d pledged loyalty to all his life. Ronan genuinely desired to protect the country, and unlike all the other dukes, he had gone off to war himself. It was only because of him that Erheet had pledged loyalty to Runan.

But to think that he would employ such a vile method in her defense...

It was little wonder Erheet was left in a total daze by this revelation.

“You will go to a fortress on the border for the time being.”

No matter how loyal the general, Ronan couldn’t stand anyone speaking against him. And the slave traders were a sore spot for him too. Now that Erheet had touched it, no matter how close he and his subordinate were, Ronan couldn’t overlook the affront.

*

Fihatori was true to his word and really did leave with the soldiers. Yusen was impressed by the man.

“Hmm, so there’s nobles like him, huh?” Gibun said, apparently feeling the same way.

“Well, anyway, we have things to do. Let’s leave defending the domain to the guards while we go to the mountains,” Yusen said, unfurling a map inside the office at the lord’s castle. “His Excellency said it would be around this area. We need to do a thorough search here. First, let’s ask the residents who are familiar with the local terrain.”

Erhin only knew the rough location where it appeared in the game. Of course, there was a huge difference between knowing that and knowing nothing. This, fortunately, allowed him to narrow down the search area to a degree, and he passed that on to Yusen.

“Gather up the village chiefs. There aren’t many villages, so there can’t be that many of them.”

“Understood.”

Gibun went to carry out Yusen’s orders. Fihatori had already taken steps to protect the residents of the domain, so he was able to do it without any interference.

Some time later, the elderly chiefs came to see Yusen.

“Have you seen iron anywhere in these mountains?”

In an isolated domain like this, it was hard to imagine word of this conversation leaking to the outside. Even if it did come out, it would probably be after Erhin declared independence. They couldn’t talk to the Runanese soldiers yet, so they had no choice but to seek the cooperation of the domain’s residents. Those were Erhin’s instructions.

“Iron, you say? I wonder. This is the first I’ve heard of it. But that area is...”

“Is there something about it?” Yusen asked, detecting something strange in the man’s expression.

However, the chief shook his head. “The mountainfolk are there, so I’ve never gone.”

“The mountainfolk?”

“Yes. That has always been the mountainfolk’s domain. We’ve handed down warnings against approaching them for generations, so none of us have been there.”

Yusen suddenly rose to his feet when he heard that. He instinctively knew they had it, especially since the domain of these mountainfolk overlapped with the area that Erhin had told him. Yusen asked the chiefs for directions to the mountain where the mountainfolk lived and then set out with Gibun.

“But what are the mountainfolk?”

“An indigenous tribe, I’m sure. They seem to be protecting something, so there ought to be something there. Let’s hurry.”

“You were never this sharp before, Captain... Were you imitating His Excellency just now?”

“Shut up and follow me.”

Gibun earned another cuff to the head for jabbering. After a desperate climb up the mountain, they set foot in the area the chiefs had told them about.

When they did, three men with just their lower halves covered and their faces painted green dropped out of the trees, blocking their path.

“Karagatel!”

“What’s he saying?”

The words were incomprehensible. All that was clear was that they definitely were not welcoming.

“Captain. This is just a guess based on how they’re acting, but maybe he just told us to get lost?”

“You could be right. Well, it seems they aren’t friendly.”

It was at just that moment that the mountainfolk rushed toward them. Yusen drew his sword reluctantly.

“Gibun, don’t kill them under any circumstances. It could make things worse if we kill indiscriminately.”

The battle started right after Yusen gave his cautious orders. Given that he was a commander who boasted considerable martial prowess, Yusen was naturally able to take care of the three mountainfolk in no time.

“Who are you people?! Invading our lands and attacking us!” Another man had dropped from the treetops. This one, fortunately, spoke the common tongue of this continent.

“This is all a misunderstanding! We only fought back after you people attacked us first!”

“You started it by trespassing!”

Ultimately, there was another fight. This man was built completely differently from the three who’d attacked them before. It was obvious just looking at him that his martial prowess was on a different level. Yusen crossed blades with the man for some time.

When Gibun tried to step in and assist, Yusen shouted, “Don’t get involved! Stay there and watch!”

The battle went on for a while after that. At the end of their long struggle, Yusen emerged victorious, but he was pretty exhausted.

“We don’t mean you people any harm. We just came to ask you something!”

When Yusen caught his breath and said that to the man he’d just bested, Gibun let out a sigh of admiration.

“Captain, ever since you put on that black armor, you’ve looked so much more dignified!”

“Oh, yeah?” Yusen chuckled. “You don’t have to say that just because it was a gift from our lord... No, no, that’s not important now. Do you see this, Gibun?!”

“See what?”

“The man is wearing something like iron armor. It would take incredible craftsmanship to make iron that thin.”

“Huh? That’s iron?” Gibun’s voice raised with surprise.

Then the fallen man suddenly got up and ran away.

“Captain, let’s go after him!”

Yusen shook his head.

“It’s obviously a trap. If we were to go after him, they’d surround us and attack from all sides. That’s just basic strategy. It’s dangerous to chase him.”

“But...”

“We’re taking the long way around. That way.”

The two took a side route in the direction the mountainfolk man had fled. This led to them wandering the mountains for hours. At the end of it, they arrived somewhere mysterious.

“What...is this place?”

There was a massive stone wall in front of them, on which there was a mana circle.

“What’s this doing out here in the mountains?”

As Yusen approached the mana circle with a surprised look on his face...

“Balkarka!”

...the mountainfolk appeared again from the opposite side of it. This time they were in a rather large group.

“This is no good. We can’t kill them, so let’s fall back for now!”

Fortunately, because they had taken a side route, they were able to go back the way they came and escape without being surrounded. Once they had retreated some distance, the mountainfolk stopped chasing them, perhaps unwilling to leave their own territory.

Once they were sure of it, the two men sat down to catch their breath.

“Gibun.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Are you tired?”

“Of course.”

“I need you to work anyway. Head back to Eintorian at once.”

“So soon?”

“Tell His Excellency everything that we just saw exactly as it happened. I’m not able to make any decisions here. There was something strange about the thing they’re protecting too. I didn’t expect to see a mana circle. This is already beyond the scope of anything I can decide. That’s why you need to go inform His Excellency directly. I couldn’t leave such an important task to anyone else, could I?”

“Well, that’s true, but... What will you be doing in the meantime, Commander?”

“I need to gather more information. That’s why you’re the one going to ask His Excellency for instructions. Got it?”

“Understood.” Gibun nodded at Yusen’s order.

*

In the royal capital, the size of a noble’s residence changed depending on where they fell in the hierarchy. The more powerful a noble, the closer their home was to the castle. The mansion in front of the castle, for example, belonged to the duke. Those nobles who lacked power, however, had their houses on the outskirts of the capital.

I was visiting one of those residences in the outskirts. It wasn’t an official visit, so I’d asked Euracia to help because of her special ability that let her walk along walls using mana. Using that power, we crept into the office of that house.

“What are you planning to do here?”

“To settle things.”

Euracia shook her head in dismay before vanishing out the window. She’d seen too much of the corrupt side of Runan recently and had an expression on her face that looked like she was fed up with everything.

Jint stood behind me quietly.

He’s a reliable bodyguard.

After waiting for some time, someone entered the office. The room lit up as they came in. The only people who could enter a countess’s office were the maid who cleaned it or the lady herself.

And cleaning was done during the day.

Naturally, only the countess herself entered at night.

“Who’s there?!” Heina shouted, immediately attacking Jint.

Jint instantly forced her to her knees and put a gag into her mouth. His speed increased continually as his Martial rose. At the rate he was growing, he’d outstrip the Swiftblade who gave me trouble in Brijit soon enough.

“It’s been a while, Your Excellency,” I said, earning a glare from Heina.

Frankly, I was being pretty tolerant, all things considered. She tried to have me killed. Normally, I’d have gone further than this.

“This simply won’t do. This whole business of you sending assassins to kill me and all that.”

I couldn’t raise a ruckus, so I whispered those words in her ear. Her features twisted with indignation.

I have no idea where she gets off being angry at me in this situation.

“I am not here to ask, ‘Why did you do it?!’ or any other such nonsense, Your Excellency.”

Yeah. I wasn’t here to confirm what I already knew. Of course, with a gag in her mouth, she couldn’t answer my questions anyway.

“You must have looked into my accomplishments more than anyone. The battles in Rozern and the ruin of Brijit. You investigated all of that, didn’t you? So you must have known I wouldn’t go down to mere assassins. Looking at their ledger, you promised them an outrageous sum. Although, I’m sure you never intended to pay it.”

Heina twisted around, a look of surprise on her face.

“You have the intelligence to have worked as advisor to the army. I would like to credit you for that much, at least.”

Heina was struggling to say something, but I didn’t intend to listen to obvious falsehoods, so the gag stayed right where it was.

“You were aware that Ronan’s name was at the top of the ledger. Your true aim was to create enmity between the duke and myself. Right? Were you not able to predict I’d come here to kill you like this?”

Heina let out a muffled cry as I showed some bloodlust.

“Ronan doesn’t like me. He’s simply using me. When you learned that, it must have made you all the more eager to get your job as an advisor back. You wanted to win yourself back into Ronan’s good graces, then regain the seat of advisor and use it to rebuild your house. I understand you have strong feelings about this, but you have to use your head. You chose the wrong person to fight. I think you would have done better currying my favor rather than Ronan’s, you know?”

With that said, I removed the gag. I didn’t care if she shouted at this point. I’d said my piece.

“The fact is, I’ve put cracks in your relationship with His Highness, haven’t I?!” Heina crowed. “His Excellency Erheet has been sent off to the borderlands, and His Highness has figured out that you were the one who gave him that ledger. He’ll never let someone who’s openly opposed him run free!”

“Oh, yeah?”

Well, it’d have been pretty easy for him to figure that out if he really wanted to. It sounds like Erheet didn’t tell him, though.

“If you’re going to kill me, then kill me! You’re finished too! Revenge is mine!”

“Finished, huh? I don’t know what mistaken impression you’re under, but I don’t care one bit what Ronan thinks of me. Nor do I care what happens to you.”

“What?!”

“If anything, I’m actually grateful. You created a rift between Ronan and Erheet. I was aiming to do that myself.”

“What?! Do you think you can survive in Runan when Duke Ronan has it out for you? My father died a miserable death after Duke Ronan cut him loose!”

Avenging her father. Rebuilding her house. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand her motivations, but she was going about it all the wrong way.

“Try to take a broader view of the situation. And by that I mean, look at the continent. How long will Runan last, as rotten as it is? Ronan’s not even a consideration for me. I intend to seize this entire world for myself. Destroying Brijit was only a small part of that. I haven’t hitched my cart to Runan’s by any means. Maybe you should consider a new path too, Your Excellency? Let me let you in on a little secret. Naruya will be invading again soon. This time, Runan won’t be able to stop them, and I certainly don’t intend to. There are many other ways for you to rebuild your house and take revenge. Maybe you don’t need to get Ronan to like you after all?”

“What are you even saying?!”

“Think with your head a little. Your father died a miserable death after Ronan threw him away. Why not kill Ronan to avenge him? Your chance will come in time.”

If she couldn’t control her anger and tried to have another go at me, then next time I’d kill her for sure. For now, though, she was still useful. I didn’t know how just yet, but there had to be something.

“How about, instead of going after me, you take your revenge on the direct cause of your misfortune?”

Yes, this was a spark. A spark for her to go after Ronan. Anyway, I had said everything I had to say to her, so I gave Jint the signal and she was set free. She didn’t move, though—just stared at me vacantly. Leaving her to struggle with her thoughts, I slipped out of the residence.

Then, immediately meeting up with Euracia, she asked me, “By the way, what exactly are your intentions? If another Naruyan invasion isn’t far off, then...in the end, the people of Runan will be...”

It seemed she’d heard everything.

“The king is an imbecile, and the duke is greedy. I don’t care what happens to them, but I don’t plan on letting the people die in the war.”

“...” Euracia said nothing in response to my answer.

In fact, when I looked at her, she turned her face away from me.

*

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jint said as he caught Gensema trying to escape.

“Spare me! You’re going to spare me, right? I’ve done everything just as you’ve told me to! Please, spare me!”

Sorry, but I never said I’d spare you. I only said that I could.

“What goes around comes around in this world, right? When you do something bad, then that much retribution is headed your way,” I said, handing Gensema over to Jint. “Do with him as you will.”

“You mean it?”

“Of course I do.”

At my nod, Jint bit his lip and grabbed Gensema by the hair. Then, just like that, he dragged the man up the hill.

“Ngh! Spare me! Please...! I get it, I’ll give you everything. If it’s gold bars you want, just say so. I have mountains of them!”

Perhaps sensing an alarming amount of bloodlust, Gensema cried and begged for mercy. Jint gave him no answer, though. He simply looked at Gensema, then swung his blade down.

“Spare—Gwagh...!”

In an instant, Gensema’s head flew through the air, his lips still moving. It took seconds for him to lose consciousness, and the severed head kept making noise the whole time. In those brief moments, his flying head likely had time to see the body it had been parted from. To stare down at its own decapitated torso.

Seconds of despair.

It might not have been nearly enough for the end of a scoundrel who’d plunged so many into the depths of misery, but I’d say that it was still a reasonably fitting end. Once he’d snuffed Gensema, Jint walked over and suddenly knelt before me.

“I don’t know how I can ever repay you... What could I possibly do...?”

It was a truly foolish question.

What’s that question for?

“You want to repay me that badly?”

“Of course! You’ve done nothing but help me, yet I haven’t been able to do anything for you in return!”

“Then get stronger. That’s how you’ll repay me. Get stronger, and be more useful. That’s enough.”

Yeah. Hurry up and become S-class. A loyal S-class subordinate. I’m going to need that kind of power. The stronger he gets, the less risk there is of him dying, so it’s a good thing for Mirinae too.

“You want me to get stronger? And if I do...I can be of more use to you?”

“That’s what I was saying, yes.”

“I’ll get stronger, then.”

Jint was a man of few words, as always. But judging by his enthusiasm, he seemed to get it.

There are more pressing matters right now, though. That’s that even with Gensema dead, the Droy Company still hasn’t been destroyed.

Destroying their fortress in Runan and killing the master only meant their boss was dead. The branches in the rest of Runan and Naruya were still unharmed. The Droy Company was structured a lot like the drug cartels and other criminal syndicates in the modern world. Because they held their secrets tight, it wasn’t easy to get a precise handle on what the situation truly was.

There was the top of the cartel, and then there were the people who procured the drugs, split them up, stored them, shipped them, managed the black market, pushed the drugs, watched for trouble, and managed the books. Everyone had a role assigned to them. It was normal for the commanders of the organization not to show themselves in public. This assignment of roles meant that while there were vertical connections between the members, they weren’t connected horizontally, so each member only knew their direct superiors.

Most of the time, when it came to people doing the same job, they only knew one another’s faces, not the names that went with them. So even when a person managing sales was caught, it was difficult to hunt down the leadership and catch them all at once.

On interrogating the captives from the fortress, we learned that Gensema of the Droy Company only managed the fortress and the main branch in Runan, while he gave orders to the other branches in secret without showing his face at any of them.

In conclusion, that meant the Droy Company was still largely intact at this moment, and I could take it for myself.

*

Euracia took Frill on ahead to the fortress.

Once we’d disposed of Gensema, Jint and I met up with her there. When I arrived at the fortress, I began interrogating our captives again.

“So they report in regularly. Each branch has a person who comes here, and then returns to their branch with orders?”

“Y-Yes!” the prisoner shouted emphatically.

“Your information has been accurate. Thanks to that, I was able to kill Gensema and Lutri. As long as you give me that kind of precise information, it makes it worth my while to keep you alive. You catch my drift, right?”

“Yes, of course! I... I’ll never lie to you!” the prisoner shouted, trembling with fear.

There’s no need to show mercy to men like these. But if there’s something to be gained from it, then that’s another matter entirely.

“Did Gensema ever show himself to the people from the branches?”

“No. He was deeply suspicious of others. Things are much stricter in the Naruya Kingdom, so he hasn’t shown his face to any of the people from the branch there. By keeping the branches ignorant of each other, even if one is put down the rest are able to survive.”

“That branch in the Naruya Kingdom is the one I need.”

More precisely, I need the accurate intel they could provide.

As a criminal syndicate that dealt with the nobility, it was easy for them to get their hands on important information, and they would uncover more than if I sent my scouts.

In war, intel is worth more than gold. It’s what leads the way to victory.

I was all too happy to become the master of the Droy Company in order to get that information. Of course, I didn’t intend to tolerate human trafficking. I planned to gain information while capturing the other Droy Company branches in one fell swoop.

If I’m going to round them up anyway, pretending to be the master of the organization to get intel out of them has got to be fair game, right? It’s two birds with one stone. Getting information about what’s happening in Naruya is more important than anything right now. More than the gold beneath Eintorian. No, more than the iron in Bertaquin, even.

“You were saying the messengers from the other branches gather again half a month from now, right?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Then start preparing immediately. I’ll be meeting with the other branches’ intermediaries personally,” I declared to my captive.

*

“Frill!”

“Sis!”

Frill hugged Lilian. Frill had been dragged around here and there without any idea what was happening, but it was different for Lilian. The girl shed tears as she hugged Frill tight.

The girl had come to me, crying, and begged me to save her little sister. It was immediately obvious that I should grant her wish. Her earnestness was palpable to anyone listening, and it was the little things like that which came together to form the public’s opinion.

The fact of the matter is Opinion scores are the most important element to take into consideration in the game. No matter how much I raise my level, without popular support I don’t have a proper country, and world domination is impossible.

Everything I did was to become the true winner of this game.

“Don’t worry. My domain is building villages, so everyone can live there. No one is going to make the two of you suffer anymore,” I told them.

“Frill, hold on a moment.”

“Sis?”

Leaving behind Frill, who was perplexed by her big sister’s sudden tears, Lilian walked over and prostrated herself before me.

“My lord!”

“Huh?”

“I... I’ll do anything! No matter what you ask of me! So, please, let me stay by your side to serve you!”

What she was saying was outrageous.

“Stay by my side and serve me? There’s no need for that. You should go to the village and live however you please.”

When I gave that kind of realistic response to her sudden request, she grabbed my leg while remaining prostrate in front of me.

“My sister and I were sold by our village! There’s no freedom for us if we go back there... Instead, I want to live for you, the one who saved my sister’s life, my lord! Please, let me repay this debt. I beg of you!”

“Uh, it’s nice of you to say that and all, but...”

Unable to brush her off, I was at a loss for what to do.

In a way, it’s easier dealing with scum like Gensema.

I suddenly broke into a cold sweat. She locked her little arms around my leg, unwilling to let go of me even if that meant being dragged around.

The longer this went on, the more people who would see. This situation actually risked creating misunderstandings. Misunderstandings that were bound to lower people’s opinion of me. I needed to handle the matter delicately. If she started crying now, there’d be no saving me.

I did have one idea that was kind of like serving at my side.

With my brain racing for solutions, I proposed, “Then will you serve as a maid in my castle? There’s a lot that you’ll have to learn, but that would be serving me, in a way.”

“I’ll do it! Please, let me! I’ll make your castle the cleanest on the continent!” Lilian declared, announcing a rather strange ambition.

If that’s what she wants, then so be it. I can leave the rest to the head chamberlain.

“Okay, okay. I’ll handle the formalities once we return. Now stop clinging to me and stand on your own two feet.”

“I’ll do my very best! I mean it! I’ll give it everything I have!” Lilian put her hands together in front of her as she tried to show how passionate she was.

Having seen this, of all things, Euracia suddenly appeared and shook her head with dismay. Then, she uttered two words.

“You pervert.”

Whoa, hold up. What about any of this makes me a pervert?!

“Hey, Euracia!” I shouted after her desperately as she went, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.