Chapter 4
I’ll Destroy It All and Start from Scratch!
Yukime the Spirit Fox waits for her guest atop the White Tower’s highest floor.
The moon’s pale light streams in from outside, and the candle on the table illuminates the lavish dinner beside it.
Suddenly, the candle’s flame flickers as a shadowy figure appears in the dim light.
“Ah, you’re here…”
Shadow, dressed in his jet-black longcoat, appears out of nowhere before the room’s sliding door.
“Mr. Shadow, we’ve been expecting you.”
A pair of women wearing bold kimonos greet him.
Shadow sits down across from Yukime.
She offers him a quick bow. “I am greatly in your debt for the incident the other day. Had it not been for you, I would not be alive here today.”
Soft flesh jiggles against her boldly low neckline.
“Would you be so gracious as to accept my thanks? Natsu? Kana?” Yukime flashes a charming smile.
Natsu and Kana, the two women, expose their chests and approach Shadow.
“—That won’t be necessary.”
“Ah, so you are not a man of such tastes…”
Yukime gives them a signal, and Natsu and Kana retreat.
Then she sidles up to Shadow’s side and fills his glass.
“Our finest sake.”
Shadow doesn’t take it.
“—State your business.”
“Verily, I wish for us to get close, Mr. Shadow,” she whispers in his ear with a smile. “But I know building trust takes time. So instead, I have some interesting information for you.”
Her bosom presses against his arm.
“Pray tell, have you heard of the anti-Mitsugoshi alliance? Many companies fear Mitsugoshi’s rapid expansion; hence they’ve joined forces and are plotting to take down Mitsugoshi. Who will win? Mitsugoshi? The Major Corporate Alliance? Either way, it will surely spark a decisive war for trade in the region…”
She leans in so close, her lips are practically touching his ear.
“And the winner of that war will be neither Mitsugoshi nor the Major Corporate Alliance. It will be you, Mr. Shadow, and it will be I…”
She breathes out a puff of air, then rests her head on Shadow’s shoulder.
“What do you say? Shall we join forces and snatch up everything worth snatching?”
Shadow’s ear twitches.
It’s the middle of the night, and the carriages are about two days’ journey away from the capital of Midgar Kingdom.
The entourage is currently making camp by torchlight.
Each carriage bears a carved logo resembling a mask. It’s proof that they belong to Mitsugoshi, Ltd.
The procession of slumbering carriages is packed to the gills with goods. Rumor has it that a single carriage of Mitsugoshi merchandise is worth over a hundred million zeni. Seeing dozens of them lined up like this would be enough to make anyone’s head spin.
Once the goods are brought to the capital, people line up in droves to buy them, and the company makes a killing.
That’s why Mitsugoshi has been able to expand at such an astounding rate.
There’s no shortage of merchants that regard the company as a threat, of course. However, the demand for Mitsugoshi goods is so tremendous that even a whole coalition of merchants wouldn’t stand a chance against them.
Thanks to that, its system has been rock-solid up until now.
However, if a coalition of merchants couldn’t stand up against Mitsugoshi, what about a coalition of companies…?
Now, at long last—the major corporations are getting off their asses and banding together.
Amid the darkness, several figures gaze down at Mitsugoshi’s camp.
Each is wearing a mask on their face and a sword on their hip. They would look like simple brigands if it weren’t for one incongruous fact.
They’re all dark knights.
It isn’t rare for dark knights who’ve committed crimes to fall into lives of banditry, but an entire band of brigands being dark knights is nigh unheard of.
Communicating via hand signals, they creep toward the camp.
Then all at once, they charge.
“Eeeeeeeeek!!”
A female scream rings through the air.
They cut down the silver-haired elf who was standing guard, then go after the rest of the personnel.
The sounds of slaughter echo through the night.
When attacked by a group of dark knights that size, not even Mitsugoshi stands a chance. The final survivor is a beautiful elf with platinum blond hair.
As they drag her out of the carriage, tears well up in her blue eyes.
“Please, I’m begging you. Don’t kill me…”
On seeing how beautiful she is, vulgar sneers creep across the brigands’ faces.
“We’d better make an example of her.”
“Heh-heh. You said it.”
They roughly tie her up.
“An example…?! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Wanna find out?”
“N-no, please! Don’t hurt me…!”
One man draws his sword and slowly slices the woman’s dress open from the side, exposing her pale skin.
“Your luck ran out when you guys pissed off the Garter Corporation. All it took the president was a couple words to quell the major corporations’ fighting and unite them under one banner. Mitsugoshi is finished…”
“Wait, no, you don’t mean… You people are…?”
“You guessed it, we’re Garter’s private army. Our power’s on par with that of a small nation.”
Despair flashes across the woman’s eyes.
The man’s smile grows even crueler as his cutting reaches the woman’s chest.
A pair of round white mounds flop out—or rather, they should have.
Instead, the only thing that comes into view is the lump of black clothing that was adhered to her skin.
It covers her body in a flash, hiding her exposed flesh.
“The hell?!”
“I appreciate you being so forthcoming with me.”
The despair in her eyes is gone without a trace. It’s been replaced by the ruthless, resolute gaze that only the truly powerful possess.
“Damn you!” The man swings his sword at her.
She doesn’t dodge.
The sword slams into her neck, then comes to a complete stop. The black garment refuses to let it sink any farther.
“Wha—?!”
The woman looks down coldly at the blade. “—You’re so weak.”
Then she stabs forward.
An ebony blade bursts through the man’s heart and out his back.
He collapses, blood foaming at his mouth. The woman casts a disparaging glance his way, then holds her sword aloft.
“It’s time—punish them.”
Upon hearing her cry, the first victim, the silver-haired elf, stands up and cuts her assailant down.
And that’s just the beginning. The supposedly dead Mitsugoshi employees stand up one after another and wipe out the assassins. Every single one of them is wearing a black garment under their clothes.
The situation’s done a complete one-eighty.
The assassins try to flee, but the women cut them down.
Pleading and death cries fill the air for a spell, but after a little while, the night is silent again.
The platinum blond elf turns to the silver-haired one. “Nights really are nicer when they’re quiet, aren’t they…? Beta, your report.”
“We’ve finished taking out the assassins, Alpha. Our side suffered zero casualties and no injuries, either. We were also able to capture three of them alive.”
The attractive elf she referred to as Alpha nods.
“Leave the rest to the Numbers.”
“Understood.”
“Looks like we have a war on our hands…”
Alpha’s blue eyes flash as she glares at the distant sky.
As fall comes to a close, the night air gradually starts getting cooler.
I listen to the bugs chirp and buzz as I change into a suit in my dorm room. Suits didn’t exist in this world originally, but Mitsugoshi popularized them, and now they’re all the rage among the aristocracy.
My suit, however, isn’t one of Mitsugoshi’s. It’s a copycat product made by the Snow Fox Corporation that Yukime gave me as a present.
Apparently, she manages a legitimate business that operates outside the Lawless City. They’re currently in the middle of expanding their line of Mitsugoshi knockoffs.
That said, Mitsugoshi’s products make full use of all sorts of information I brought over from my original world. Even though Snow Fox is widely recognized as the leading authority on plagiarizing its designs, they’ve only been able to replicate a small fraction of their products.
Mitsugoshi engineering is the best in the world!
This society doesn’t have antitrust laws, but if they did, the way Mitsugoshi’s taking over the marketplace would definitely violate them.
“No wonder the Major Corporate Alliance is pissed at them…”
Honestly, Alpha and the others might have overdone it a bit.
As for me, I’ve got a whole outfit going on. Black suit, striped button-down, thin black tie. My shoes are black straight tips.
I finish the look off by parting my hair to the sides and donning a white mask that covers the top half of my face.
“Heh-heh-heh…”
I feel like an FBI agent.
Slime bodysuits are great—don’t get me wrong—and they can’t be beat when it comes to functionality. However, I can’t let the Shadow Garden girls figure out who I am just yet.
Now then, it’s almost time for my meeting with Yukime.
I turn off my room’s lamp, leap out the window, and dash off into the night.
My presence is completely erased. Nobody’s following me.
After leaving the school grounds and dashing through a forest for about half an hour, I hear a roaring waterfall as I come to a clearing.
In it, there’s a mansion nestled right up alongside a mountain stream.
Its name is Descendingwater, and between the forest, the waterfall, and the stream, it’s got one hell of an aesthetic.
Apparently, it was designed by some famous architect. Yukime uses it as her secret base.
I see warm light spilling out from a window, and with my presence still erased, I silently slip inside it.
Yukime is sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
Her white hair glows in its light.
My heels click as I walk, and the Spirit Fox turns to me and smiles.
“Once again I fail to sense you coming, Mr. Shadow.”
“…I’ve abandoned that name,” I say quietly as I take a seat on the sofa across from Yukime.
“Ah, that’s right. Now you’re Mr. John Smith.”
“Right. That’s who I am now…”
For the next little while, I plan on acting as John Smith, Super Elite Agent. I’ve even changed my tone of voice to sound cooler and more collected.
“My heart becomes warm to know you decided to trust me, Mr. John. Care to drink with me?”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
As Yukime pours the wine, she makes sure to emphasize her exposed cleavage.
Nice. I love this whole “sexy accomplice from a sketchy organization” vibe she’s got going on.
I pretend to enjoy the wine’s aroma, then take a sip. For the record, I don’t know shit about aroma or flavor when it comes to wine.
“There’s profit in it for me. That’s all there is to it…”
“Oh my. A relationship built solely on profit? That’s far too sad, no?”
“You’re no different, are you?”
“I do wonder… Care to test that theory?” Yukime licks her soft, full lips and beams a seductive smile.
“You’re wasting my time.”
“On another occasion, perhaps…”
She straightens up her exposed cleavage a little, then sips her wine. Her lips leave bright red marks on the glass.
“The MCA—the Major Corporate Alliance—held a meeting the other day. Now, they did little more than show up and confirm their mission statement, leaving the specifics of their plan for another day. Alas, from the looks of it, they’re already employing rather vulgar methods. Mitsugoshi might fall faster than expected.”
“…I see.”
“However, our plan remains the same. First, we let Mitsugoshi and the MCA crush each other. Then we make our preparations and wait for our chance—”
“—and then we take it all.”
At the end of the day, Alpha and the others went too far.
The way it sounds, their fate was sealed the moment they went up against the MCA. Yukime says so, and so do all the old guys who run stores in the shopping district.
I mean, it makes sense.
Some rookie kids who’ve been doing business for only a couple years shouldn’t pick fights against legacy corporations with years of experience and history. That’s basic common sense.
There’s only one way for me to save them.
I have to destroy it all, then start from scratch.
Mitsugoshi stood out too much, so everyone and their mother is zeroing in on them. Unfortunately, that means there’s no choice but to hit the reset button.
Mitsugoshi is gonna get crushed by the MCA.
However, Yukime and I are gonna be working behind the scenes to take down the MCA so we can divvy up their assets and the brand-new marketplace.
Then I’ll found a new company and hire Alpha and the others to run it.
In other words, Mitsugoshi will simply be reborn under a different name.
“We’ll need you to do some work to make this all happen. Be very careful,” she warns.
“Be careful…?”
Yukime’s face darkens as she rises to her feet. Then she turns around and unfastens her kimono’s sash.
Fwump.
The firelight illuminates her naked body as her clothes fall to the floor.
Her back…is hideously inflamed.
“The man who did this to me, Gettan the Sword Devil, works for the MCA.”
Her back still pointing my way, Yukime looks at me over her shoulder.
“Gettan is mine. I will verily kill him with my own two hands…”
The crackling of the fire serves as the backdrop to Yukime’s grim proclamation.
Then, suddenly, she smiles.
“Hee-hee. Now then, shall we get to our scheming?”
After Yukime puts her kimono back on, her aides Natsu and Kana appear to refasten her sash.
I down the rest of my wine and quietly rise to my feet.
I’ve got the day off.
At the moment, I’m spending it with Skel and Po. It’s been a while since we three NPCs went shopping together like this.
I don’t have anything in particular I’m dying for, so I fill up my basket with daily necessities and bring it up to the counter.
“So out of five thousand zeni. Are paper bills all right for your change?”
“Uh, sure.”
Making sure to add an “uh” before your answer is Background Character 101.
More to the point, it seems like people have started using paper currency recently. The Midgar Kingdom fundamentally runs on a coin-based economy, but bills have made some serious inroads.
Now, paper money isn’t really money. Technically, it’s more like a voucher that can be exchanged for actual currency.
Because of that, there are plenty of stores that won’t take them, and plenty of people who don’t trust them. It’s considered polite to ask permission before attempting to use them.
Having taken my change and finished the transaction, I head outside and casually look over the bill.
“Huh…?”
I only just noticed it, but why is the design different from other thousand-zeni bills?
Seeing me suddenly stop, Po calls out to me. “What’s wrong, Cid?”
“Did thousand-zeni bills always look like this?”
“What are you talking about? That’s one of the new bills the MCA just put out. Do you not know why we’re out shopping today?”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“Today’s the big sale commemorating the MCA releasing their new bills, remember?”
“Oh, right. Right right right.”
Was that it?
“C’mon, Cid, get your head in the game.”
I see. They’re holding a blowout to entice people to use their new bills.
Wait a sec.
If the MCA only just put out their bills, where did all the paper money we’ve been using before come from?
Now I’m kinda interested, so I reach into my wallet and pull out one of the older bills to take a look—and discover a shocking truth!
“The hell?”
I can’t stop myself from yelping.
“Wh-what’s wrong, Cid?!”
“Hey, Cid, what’s up?”
“Why the hell does this have ‘Mitsugoshi Bank’ written on it?”
I can see the words on the edge of the bill clear as day: Mitsugoshi Bank.
What the hell is Mitsugoshi Bank?!
Don’t tell me Alpha and the others started a bank, too?!
“’Cause it’s a deposit receipt from Mitsugoshi Bank. Duh.”
“Mitsugoshi Bank was the first one to start making paper money, remember? If you use them at Mitsugoshi shops, you get freebies and discounts and stuff.”
“Ah, now that you mention it…”
Back at the beginning, Mitsugoshi stores were the only places you could spend paper money. I’d always thought that was weird, as well as the fact that they gave you discounts for doing so, but now I guess I know why.
So they started a bank and kept it a secret from me, huh?
Wait, did they?
Actually, now that I think about it, I do remember that one time…
A couple years ago, everyone would praise me and go, “Master Shadow, you’re a genius!” whenever I told them random trivia from my old world, so I’d get carried away and tell them about all kinds of stuff. I think I might have mentioned something about banks and credit creation back then.
I watched a two-hour MBO documentary on credit creation once, so even though I only vaguely remembered it, I was able to yammer on for a decent while.
About halfway through, though, the look in everyone’s eyes started scaring me, and my recollection of the documentary started getting really sketchy, so I cut the explanation short by going, “Figure out the rest for yourselves.” After that, I think they were pretty pumped up about the idea of starting a bank themselves.
Oh god, were they actually serious?
Is the word restraint in any of their vocabularies?
Honestly, that was probably what set off the anti-Mitsugoshi faction.
“That’s why the MCA’s putting out paper money, too, huh…?”
If they hadn’t, Mitsugoshi would have run off with the ball. They didn’t have much of a choice.
The question then becomes How well does the MCA understand just how dangerous money creation can be?
The time has come for me to wield the knowledge imparted in me by that two-hour MBO documentary.
“Heh-heh-heh… The question is, How well do they…? Just how dangerous…? Heh-heh-heh…”
“What’s he babbling about over there?”
“He’s probably just stressed out. I can’t imagine his life’s going all that great, after all.”
When I take the simple-yet-elaborate Mitsugoshi Bank bill and compare it side by side with the flashy-yet-sloppy MCA bill, I notice something.
Wait, is this…?
The Mitsugoshi Bank bill has a serial number and a watermark.
The MCA bill has a serial number, too, but it’s missing a watermark. And its design isn’t that detailed, either.
If someone were to make counterfeits, getting rich off them would be piece of cake.
I don’t have the means to manufacture them on my own.
However, what I do have is a reliable accomplice who operates on the shady side of the law.
Oh, I can work with this. I can work with this indeed.
“Skel, Po, I’m on the verge of obtaining everything.”
“What are you talking about, man…?”
“Cid, did you hit your head…?”
Turn, O cranial gears of mine!
As for you, two-hour MBO documentary, I’m counting on you!!
As Yukime gazes at the hearth and sips her wine, she feels wind blowing in from somewhere.
When she turns around, she finds that the window’s open. She hears a sound like a finger flicking metal.
“Mr. John, pray tell, is that you…?”
Her question is answered when a suit-clad man emerges from the darkness.
His physique is well-balanced, and his face sports a white mask and an intrepid smile.
He takes a seat across from Yukime, toying with the coin in his hand and flipping it into the air.
“This single gold coin can double many times over. All on the back of the fickle, phantasmal power called credit…”
His voice is low and resonant.
Yukime senses he’s talking about the bills that have recently begun circulating.
“The slips of paper that the masses think of as currency aren’t technically money at all. In truth, they’re deposit slips. Tickets that can be exchanged to retrieve money you’ve lent the bank, nothing more. When Mitsugoshi Bank turned theirs out into the world, they also gave them the power to settle accounts—in other words, they made it so the deposit slips could be used for transactions. In the capital, it’s fully possible to exchange ten thousand zeni’ worth of deposit slips for ten thousand zeni’ worth of goods. And anyone can then take those slips to Mitsugoshi Bank and liquidate them. As a consequence, the people have come to believe the slips of paper have the same value as actual money…”
He takes out two slips of paper and places them atop the desk. One is a Mitsugoshi Bank bill; the other is one of the MCA’s.
“But do they really? Let’s say, hypothetically, that someone deposits ten thousand zeni with Mitsugoshi Bank. Mitsugoshi will then issue the depositor a ten thousand–zeni bill, and they’ll go off and spend it during their daily shopping. But something strange happens here. There’s the ten thousand stored at the bank, and the ten thousand making the rounds through the marketplace. We started out with a single ten thousand–zeni coin, but all of a sudden there’s twenty thousand zeni floating around.”
Yukime considers the fact that Mitsugoshi Bank got the people to believe that their deposit slips were just as good as money to be their magnum opus.
Thanks to that, they’ve gained the ability to inflate a single coin’s value countless times over.
“Now, if all the bank did was let the original ten thousand zeni sit quietly in their vault, there wouldn’t be a problem. Even if the money in the system still technically doubled, the amount out in the marketplace is still just ten thousand zeni, so no contradiction is born. However, Mitsugoshi’s been using the ten thousand zeni in their vault as collateral to issue yet another ten thousand–zeni bill and lend it out.”
Not many people actually withdraw their money from banks, especially not when paper money is so convenient and easy to spend. Nobody wants to walk around with a heavy sack of gold coins jangling around, after all.
Furthermore, Mitsugoshi is incentivized to cash in on the capital’s prosperity.
There’s no end to the people who want to take out loans to start up businesses, so Mitsugoshi’s bills are practically spreading faster than they can print them.
“The ten thousand zeni in their vault multiplies countless times over, and thanks to the capital’s economic boom, Mitsugoshi Bank gets to rake in the interest. Such is the power of credit creation…”
Credit creation. It’s exactly what it says on the can.
Mitsugoshi Bank’s leader might well be the greatest con artist the world has ever seen.
Yukime doesn’t know who exactly was audacious and crafty enough to come up with such a scheme, but she’d love to get a chance to sit down and chat with them.
“But are these slips of paper really as valuable as the people believe they are…?”
If John’s story got out to the masses, they’d be shocked.
Of course, it’s probably common knowledge among the MCA’s leadership.
After all, they’re the ones who’re scrutinizing Mitsugoshi’s every move.
It’s no surprise John was able to figure it out as well, but why did he bring it up? Yukime thinks it over.
“Here are two bills. One is Mitsugoshi’s; the other is the MCA’s. Notice anything…?”
“My. Is there something to notice…?”
Yukime’s eyes look like pools of clear water as she compares the two notes. The designs are different, of course, but she doubts that that’s what he’s hinting at.
In that case…
“One has a watermark, while the other does not?”
“Exactly. Also, the MCA’s design is more simplistic. Do you know what that means…?”
“It’s easier to make counterfeits. That’s—”
“Exactly. We could make a killing.”
“Yes…” Yukime tilts her head to the side.
Making counterfeits is an idea even a child could come up with.
Yukime’s certainly considered the possibility, and the MCA doubtless has as well.
“Mr. John, the MCA’s bills have yet to circulate outside the capital. If counterfeits were to appear, their source would be found instantly.”
John freezes in place.
“A small-scale operation might be possible, but the profits would be correspondingly minor, mind you. However, anything larger than that would be shut down expeditiously.”
Given the small area the bills are currently being circulated in, it would be an easy job to track down where any counterfeits came from.
In other words, starting a large-scale operation would just be asking for trouble. While a small-scale operation wouldn’t be a problem, Yukime doubts anyone would be stupid enough to pick a fight with the MCA.
More important, doing so would let Mitsugoshi run unchecked. And that was a dangerous proposition.
At this rate, Mitsugoshi was liable to gain a complete stranglehold on all commercial and banking operations.
“Um… Mr. John…?”
John’s shoulders are slumped dejectedly.
He looks like a child who, upon asking a friend to go treasure hunting with him, was given the perfectly logical response that there was no treasure to be found.
He wasn’t seriously planning on making counterfeits, was he?
Yukime smiles. It seems the man has a cute side to him, too.
But the next moment, she feels something pressing against her body.
John’s shoulders are still slumped, but he’s emanating waves of raw power.
“Wha—?!”
“Is that…really what you believe…?”
His voice sounds like it’s resonating up from the void.
What’s with this insane force?
It’s not even magic. It’s like his willpower given form—
It’s almost as though he’s saying Yukime’s judgment was flawed.
He’s testing her. To see whether or not she’s fit to be his partner…!
But still… What was it she overlooked?
Yukime thinks back over their exchange.
Then she realizes something.
“Ah—”
If, hypothetically, they managed to introduce a huge number of counterfeits into circulation…then the MCA’s credit system would crumble.
Once the people harbored suspicions about the MCA’s bills, they’d probably go in droves to trade them back for official coinage. However, due to the MCA’s credit creation, they’ll have issued many times more value in bills than they have cash on hand. They won’t be able to cover all the exchanges.
The MCA’s paper currency will become little more than scraps of paper.
In other words…
“You would have us introduce vast amounts of counterfeits into circulation to intentionally trigger this credit crisis?!”
The shorter the time before the MCA went bankrupt, the lower the risk of them getting caught.
Better yet, Yukime has access to the perfect front—the Lawless City.
If they circulate the currency through the Lawless City, it’ll take the investigators that much longer to pin down where the counterfeits are coming from.
By the time the MCA figures out the truth, it’ll be too late.
To think John thought all that through.
Yukime finally realizes why he slumped his shoulders a moment ago.
He’d been disappointed in her…for not realizing the true significance of the counterfeits. He’d tested her.
He definitely hadn’t proposed making counterfeits on some idle whim.
It had been a calculated decree. He’d left nothing to chance.
A moment ago, he’d said, “But are these slips of paper really as valuable as the people believe they are…?”
He’d been hinting at the possibility of a credit crisis.
“All we must do is send them to bankruptcy before they find us… What an audacious plan.”
To think that a simple counterfeiting operation could have such a profound significance…
Everything he’d said had been foreshadowing this.
Cold sweat runs down Yukime’s back in the face of John’s sheer ingenuity.
It doesn’t end there.
“Is that…really what you believe—?”
“Wha—?!!”
The aura radiating from John intensifies.
Has she overlooked something else?! Yukime frantically racks her brain, but she comes up blank.
John’s eyes peer at her from beneath his mask, scoping her out.
This is bad! This is bad! This is bad—!
“…It is,” Yukime quietly murmurs.
She looks down.
The plan is airtight, so that’s the only answer she can give…
Lamenting her own incompetence, she awaits her judgment. However…John’s pressure dissipates.
“—Exactly.”
“Huh…?”
I-it was a trick—! If she’d given in to his pressure and spouted some nonsense, he would have condemned her.
Standing by her answer had been the right move.
The final thing he’d been testing had been her honesty.
Having understood all that, she goes weak in the knees and collapses backward into the sofa.
“Then counterfeits it is. It’s a much sounder plan than my original one. I will handle the production and distribution. When they join circulation, the MCA will open an investigation. I trust you can make sure it fails.”
“That I can.”
“Magnificent. We can deal with the rest of the details another day.”
“…Very well.” John flips his coin into the air.
It spins, then lands with a clink.
By the time it does, John’s already gone. All that remains of him is a cool evening breeze.
The fallen coin rolls along the ground and comes to a stop by Yukime’s foot. She picks it up and flips it the same way he did.
“John Smith… The man once called Shadow…”
What unbelievable ingenuity.
What unbelievable grit.
What unbelievable strength.
“Truly, he is a giant among men…”
Yukime lets out a heavy sigh.
Originally, she wanted to win him over for his strength alone, but the man is blessed with far more than just martial prowess. He possesses resourcefulness in equal measure, as well as the fortitude of will necessary to wield them both.
Now that I have Yukime’s seal of approval on the counterfeiting plan, there’s nothing left for me to do but wait for her to print the fake bills.
Once that happens, my job’ll be taking out enemy spies so they can’t figure out where the counterfeits are coming from.
Heh…
The scenario is thus—as Mitsugoshi and the MCA wage war out in the open, a mysterious man betrays his organization and pulls strings from behind the scenes so he can carry out his mission alone.
Counterfeits will circulate, the MCA will fall, and once all the dust has settled, his true objective will come to light—saving his original organization.
“…That’s what it means to be a Super Elite Agent.”
It’s badass as hell, if I do say so myself.
I’m a Super Elite Agent who must betray his organization in order to save it.
If Alpha and the others figure out who I am, everything will have been for nothing. That means I can’t use my sword. Because my sword isn’t part of my core aesthetic anymore, that means I can try out all sorts of cool new fighting styles.
As I’m mulling over my options and walking down the darkened capital streets, I spot a familiar pair of dog ears off in the distance.
“Delta…?”
The moment I murmur the name under my breath, the ears twitch.
She turns around. That’s Delta, all right.
“…Boss man,” she mouths.
Then she immediately drops to all fours and bounds all the way over to me.
That’s Delta for you. She’s always been stupidly fast. A normal person wouldn’t have even been able to see her.
“Boss m—!”
“I’m not ‘Boss man’ right now.”
“Oh-woof… Cid! I missed you!” Her tail wags excitedly.
However, her beaming grin quickly stiffens.
“Cid… You smell like fox…”
Her sense of smell is stupidly strong, too.
“Uh, I was off foxhunting.”
“I wanna hunt foxes!”
Her face brightens up again.
“Sorry, but the foxes are all hunted up.”
“Oh-woof… Next time, then!”
“Yeah, for sure. Oh, and quit marking me with your scent.”
Delta’s rubbing herself all over me, so I’m forced to manually pry her off.
“But Cid, you stink of fox.”
“It’s fine.”
“No!” Delta keeps coming at me, and it takes a good deal of effort to keep her off.
I decide to change the subject.
“So, Delta, what are you doing in the capital?”
“Oh-woof… Cid, you’re too strong.”
“So, Delta, what are you doing in the capital?”
“Hmm? What?”
“So, Delta, what are you doing in the capital?”
“Uh, well, see, I woke up this morning, ate some meat, and came to the capital.”
“So, Delta, what are you doing in the capital?”
“Uh, well, see, I was hunting!”
“In the capital?”
“Outside the capital. It was fun! I hunted a bunch! Cid, wanna join?”
“Why were you hunting?”
“Come hunt with me!”
“Why were you hunting?”
“Alpha told me to! Cid, come hunt with me!”
“Oh, it was Alpha’s idea.”
“Yeah! Cid, come hunt with me!”
“What were you hunting?”
“Bandits! Cid, come hunt with me!”
“A bandit hunt, huh?”
“Cid, you love bandit hunting!”
“That’s true. I do love bandit hunting.”
“Come hunt with me!”
“All right, I’m sold. It’s not like I’m doing anything.”
“Hooray!!” Delta grabs me by the hand and starts trying to drag me off.
“Hey, hold up! I can’t leave right now. I gotta head back to the dorms first.”
“No!”
“Also, didn’t you have some business you had to deal with here in the capital?”
“Business?”
“I assume Alpha called for you or something.”
“A-Alpha?!”
“Did you forget?”
“She called me! Is she gonna get mad?!”
“I dunno. But you’d better go quick.”
“But the bandit hunt…” Delta looks at me dejectedly.
“I’ll be free for a while, so why don’t we just go tomorrow? Go take care of your business.”
“Got it! Cid, make sure you wait for me!!”
“I’ll be there at the dorm. Make sure you come inconspicuously, though.”
“I’ll come undercover!”
Delta drops back to all fours and dashes off through the capital at a breakneck pace.
If anyone saw her, she’d definitely turn heads, but normal people can’t make her out at those speeds, so maybe it’s fine.
For some reason, I’m reminded of the golden retriever I had back in my old world. I let out a quiet sigh.
We race through the forest in the dead of night.
I’m following close behind Delta.
I was worried about how well she’d be able to follow my instructions, but she managed to show up at my dorm without causing a scene or anything.
Of course, her abilities are the one thing I never have to worry about. Hunting is Delta’s specialty. When I see the way she conceals her presence, I’m honestly impressed. She might well be the cream of the Seven Shadows’ crop.
What’s more, her ability to sense prey is off the charts. To be honest, her sense of smell and hearing are probably even better than mine. No matter how much I try out some extreme body mods and boost myself with magic, the difference between species is too wide to overcome.
With the notable exception of her brains, every aspect of Delta’s is top-of-the-line.
That’s the reason I’m having her run ahead of me and act as my Bandit Radar.
When it comes to hunting outlaws, finding the first one is always the hardest and most time-consuming bit. With Delta running in front of me, all I have to do is follow after her and let her lead me to the good part.
Her nose twitches and her tail wags as she races forward.
Looks like we’ve got a hit.
She speeds up, dropping from two legs to four. She rips through the forest at blistering speeds, eventually charging straight toward a light barely visible off in the distance.
Screams fill the air.
When I get there a second later, I find several of the bandits already dead, their limbs strewn around the campfire.
Yeah, I had a feeling this would happen.
Going on bandit hunts with Delta isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are downsides, too. Notably, she loses the ability to wait the moment she spots her prey.
With her, bandit hunts have a habit of ending up as one-sided massacres. And where’s the fun in that?
Man, everything was shaping up to be a such a blast, too…
Now, strictly speaking, it’s not that she can’t wait. If I told her to, she’d probably follow my instructions.
However, doing so causes her immense stress.
She’ll behave herself as long as I’m around, but the minute I’m gone, she’ll have no choice but to vent it. That invariably causes problems.
She might end up mounting Gamma to assert dominance, or chop down all the trees behind someone’s house and leave the lot barren, or find a vegetable field and eat everything in it…
Back when she was a kid, it stopped there. Now that she’s grown up, though, I have no idea how destructive her stress-relieving methods might be. And I have no desire to find out.
As I stand there thinking, the hunt more or less comes to an end.
I barely even got to do anything.
“P-please, wait!”
The final bandit begins begging for his life.
It happens a lot, but the pleading never works on Delta.
A carnivorous grin spreads across her face as she swings her ebony blade with all her might.
There isn’t a shred of technique behind the blow, but it makes up for it with raw power. However, it isn’t just fast, but flowing and clean as well.
I guess that’s talent for you, huh?
Her sword barrels at the bandit’s neck, slices through the top layer of skin, then comes to a halt.
“Huh?”
Has Delta stopped…?
Impossible.
She sniffs, taking in the bandit’s scent.
“I—I knew it was you, Sara. Look, it’s me! It’s me!” says the outlaw.
As he repeats “It’s me, it’s me” over and over like a scammer, the bandit takes off his mask.
His features are rough and masculine, but they aren’t nearly as eye-catching as the fact that he has dog ears the same color and shape as Delta’s.
“That is you, right, Sara? It’s me, your older brother!”
Delta sniffs again, then tilts her head to the side and looks my way.
It’s a sign she’s asking for permission.
I nod, giving her the go-ahead to do whatever she wants.
“You smell like Dad…but I don’t remember you.”
Delta takes off her mask as well. Her face and tail come into view.
“Well, if it isn’t Sara. I’d heard you contracted the possession and the old man hunted you down, but…I guess you survived. Good going.”
“I’m the best at hide-and-seek, or my name isn’t Delta.”
“Delta? So that’s what you call yourself these days, huh? Hey, c’mon, let me live. I am your brother, after all.”
The man looks at Delta, clearly trying to butter her up.
Her tail puffs up menacingly. Oh, man. That’s a sign she’s unhappy.
“A weakling is no brother of mine.”
“Hey, hey-hey-hey-hey-hey, you’ve always been strong, and I know I can’t beat you! Even Dad always said if you weren’t a woman, he would have appointed you as the next chief! Your possession is all better, right? Why don’t I go talk to Dad and get him to let you come home? Whaddaya say?”
“If I wanted to go back, I’d do it myself.”
“Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah, of course! That’s just how you are! In that case, what if I introduce you to a master befitting your skills! Listen and be amazed—right now, I’m working for Gettan the legendary Great Wolf!”
Delta’s tail begins to swish. It’s a sign she’s outright pissed.
“Gettan… You heard of this guy?” I ask her.
“Don’t know him.” She shakes her head, her expression stern. Yup, figures.
“You’re kidding!! He’s the legendary Great Wolf, the one even Dad couldn’t beat! The strongest swordsman in all the wolf clans! I—I bet you could even get chosen as one of his lovers, and—”
“Don’t care; shut up. Weaklings should just be quiet.”
With that, Delta lops the man’s head off mid-sentence. His head flies in a clean arc through the air.
“Uh… Wasn’t that your brother?”
Her face looks downright livid as she glowers at the man’s severed head, but when she looks over at me, she wags her tail, all smiles.
“Weaklings are a stain on the family name. I’m glad I got to put him down.”
“I…see.”
There’s nothing else I can really say. I guess humans and therianthropes just see the matter in fundamentally different ways.
Therianthropes are a pretty diverse species, but something like 80 percent of them are of the opinion that “might makes right.” The strong are kings, and those who are good at hunting are respected, too, albeit not quite as much. In that regard, Delta’s an archetypical example of the stereotype, to the point where it’s like, “Oh man, settle down; we get it, you’re a therianthrope.”
However, even though they don’t all take it to extent Delta does, her way of thinking is pretty standard. To put it bluntly, therianthropes’ base stats are overpowered as hell. Their physical abilities are high, their senses are sharp, their reflexes are great, their magic is plentiful, they live long lives, and they reproduce like rabbits. If it weren’t for their intellectual shortcomings, they’d have easily taken over the world by now.
Because of their “might makes right” philosophy, every time their population goes up, they start infighting, and it goes right back down again. Occasionally, some grand therianthrope hero will show up and unite them, but they invariably end up picking a fight with the humans or the elves and get sent scurrying back. Wait…this is the therianthropes we’re talking about. They crush their opposition every time. What actually happens is that they extend their supply lines too far, their provisions can’t make it to the front lines, and they get hungry and head home. Every goddamn time. Still, that’s not to say there aren’t wise and clever ones, too. For better or for worse, they’re a diverse people. For example, the fox clans are famous for their intellect. Just look at Yukime.
Man, if only they’d just turn to the smarter clans and listen to them for a change. Actually, they do listen to them at first, but as soon as the supply lines get stretched out and the smart therianthropes tell them to play it safe, the meatheads call them cowards and push on anyway.
Apparently, they’re all “might makes right” when it comes to their instincts, too.
They do ostensibly have a constitutional government, and they’ve made some forays into industry recently, but they haven’t had much success. I guess their brains are too full, thinking of raw power.
“Still, you should try to at least recognize your siblings. That can’t possibly be too much to ask.”
“Um, my dad has around twenty lovers. I have over a hundred brothers!”
“Oh. Well, in that case, you can definitely stand to lose one or two.”
That’s therianthropes for you. They operate on crazy scales. Still, I’m kind of interested in this country of “might makes right.”
“You know, I kinda want to check out the therianthrope lands at some point.”
Delta’s ears twitch. “Ooh, good idea! You can become chief, Boss man!!”
“Huh?”
“You can beat up the old one, then become chief of the new pack!”
“Uh…”
“Then you can make lots of babies and become the strongest family in the world!!”
“Yeah, that’s definitely not on the agenda.”
“It is! We’ll find you a thousand women!! You can make lots of babies, the strongest in the world!! Let’s go!! You can become a big hero, then take over the world!!”
“That’s not happening. C’mon, we’re heading back to the capital.”
“No!!”
“Yes.”
“Boooooo!!”
I drag Delta back to the capital. This is giving me a headache.
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