Lv.4: Yoeu the Orc

Gaon ordinarily went about under a polymorph spell, having settled on a particular East Asian male appearance that he used both when going out and when playing games.

Now that this face had been exposed as a Swordmaster's, he had decided to create a separate look for going outside.

Each time Gaon's lips stirred, the spell's power rewrote reality. His features shifted with such effortless naturalness that even a dragon, watching, could never have hoped to imitate the feat.

He had been at it before the mirror for quite some time when the Goddess inquired.

"Gaon. If the point is simply to craft a face that will not be recognized, there is hardly any need to fuss over it. Why, then, has my Great Warrior been wasting hours in front of a mirror?"

"Goddess. This is not a waste of time. When you start a game, spending a few hours on character customization is always worth it."

"When you start a game? Is my Great Warrior truly distinguishing between reality and entertainment?"

"Yes, of course..."

"Your Goddess is worried. As I have told you time and again, your Goddess does not care for that amusement of yours."

"Yes, I know..."

From there the Goddess launched into a lengthy sermon on how electronic games were the root of all evil, how most of society's problems originated from those damned video games, and so on.

Gaon was enduring this with some difficulty when the Goddess suddenly remarked:

"In truth, that amusement of yours has produced one good thing."

"Which is?"

"Until not long ago my Great Warrior shunned the very idea of going outside, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yet since taking up that game, the frequency of his outings has increased considerably."

"Ah, that's true enough. There was a stretch of thirty consecutive years when I didn't go out at all."

"Those were years that tore your Goddess's heart to pieces. That he now ventures out more often is, I suspect, because that game so closely resembles reality that it has turned my Great Warrior's interest toward the world beyond his door. For that reason, your Goddess is... somewhat glad."

Gaon laughed awkwardly at that.

The Goddess spoke of him as if he were some kind of shut-in, but the truth was that even people who weren't shut-ins wouldn't be particularly eager to go outside. Not if they lived in Hugin. Probably no one would.

In As, the standing of democracy is rather like the standing of communism on Earth. Jokes to that effect circulate on As's internet.

Earthlings mock communism on the grounds that, however noble the intent, the results are horrific. The people of As mock democracy for the same reason.

Every nation on As that championed democracy ended up twisted, or else collapsed in spectacular failure.

And the most frequently cited example of democracy's catastrophic failure was none other than Gaon's homeland.

The Hugin Republic. A nation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forsaken by the gods.

A kingdom of ashen-gray vampires.

A country where a priest rapes a young girl and is murdered by a burglar who happens to break in. The burglar has both arms severed and is himself raped, and then that rapist is raped in turn, and everyone laughs it off as nothing worth mentioning. And not a single one of these incidents ever makes the front page.

This horrific absence of public safety stemmed from the total paralysis of state authority.

So thoroughly was public power disregarded that one vampire family had produced the current president from among its own members — and still ranked only fifth among the organizations inside Hugin.

And ranks one through four? Vampire organizations, every last one of them. Ranks six through nineteen as well.

Thus the vampires had, for all practical purposes, seized Hugin.

It was not domination in pursuit of political ambition. To the vampires, Hugin was nothing more than a tool for making money.

Their enterprises ranged from narcotics to cutting-edge semiconductors. If it could turn a profit in Hugin, the vampires would sell it — smartphones, corpses, anything at all.

That they sold corpses was meant in the most literal sense. When a citizen of Hugin died, the body was not cremated. It was sold to General Secretary Kashad at about ten dollars a head. Thanks to this arrangement, more than half the skeletons of the Yehinatal Socialist Union were originally from Hugin.

And it was not only the dead who made for good merchandise. The living did too.

Human trafficking.

Which was, as it happened, precisely what had befallen the neighbor of the scrawny orc, Yoeu.

Gaon had expected ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yoeu to come to him with some thoroughly low-grade request.

Beat up a bigger orc who'd been picking on him, or co-sign a loan so he could buy a motorcycle. The usual orcish sort of favor.

Orcs were dim enough as it was, and this one even spoke with a slur, the sounds leaking through his nose. He looked considerably less intelligent than other orcs. If an orc that stupid treated a figure of Swordmaster caliber like the neighborhood tough guy and came to him with a favor, it wouldn't even be strange. A stupid request from that orc was entirely plausible.

That was what Gaon had thought. Then he found himself reconsidering his prejudice.

Yoeu's request was a selfless one. And it was the sort of thing that, realistically, only a Swordmaster could hope to resolve.

"There's a little girl living next door, yeah. She's about second ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grade, and she's pretty, she is. And vampires like pretty little girls, yeah. They say virgin blood's the best for feeding, and the younger they are the more likely they're still virgins, or something like that. It's not even always true in this neighborhood, but..."

Gaon asked in a lowered voice.

"So she was taken, is that it?"

"Yes, yeah. I thought about grabbing a gun and charging in like an orc, yeah, but when it came time to actually do it, I didn't have the guts..."

Even if he had the courage, it would have been impossible. Storming a vampire mansion?

Vampire families were a kind of conglomerate. The security of a conglomerate family's estate was, naturally, formidable. It was far from certain that even an orc platoon could take the place, let alone one scrawny orc.

Of course, for a Swordmaster who had just come back from killing a dragon, it would be all too easy.

That did not mean his heart was entirely at ease. Gaon spoke with a carefully maintained air of nonchalance.

"Thank you, yeah. Thank you so much, yeah!"

It must have been something he had truly hoped for. Yoeu bent at the waist again and again, nearly prostrating himself.

Gaon clicked his tongue.

"Never mind the thanks... Which ones took her?"

"The Granot Family, yeah. Vampire types in the pharmaceutical business."

"Granot?"

"You know them, yeah?"

"I know of them, but... Right. For now, can you just show me to the mansion?"

Yoeu did as he was told.

A short while later, Gaon found himself looking at a mansion that might as well have been a medieval fortress. It truly was close to a fortification — particularly in that its walls were practically ramparts.

The defenses were every bit as thorough as a fortress's besides.

And they've plastered the place with anti-teleportation measures. Those things are so expensive they only get installed in places like the Pentagon. The vampires really must be raking it in.

That didn't mean a Swordmaster would have any trouble setting foot inside.

From a distance, Gaon picked up a stone that had fallen nearby. Then he hurled it.

The stone did not simply fly in a straight line, strike, and fall. It was like a miracle performed by a billiards grandmaster. The throw, which had seemed careless, traced a trajectory under precise calculation, and struck. It hit the ground and ricocheted at a diagonal. From there it struck the opposite wall, bounced again, and arrived at a security camera with perfect accuracy, shattering the lens.

It had happened from over a hundred meters out — a distance at which the cameras could not even detect him.

Yoeu had no idea what had occurred in a place his eyes couldn't even reach, and Gaon, for whom it was all too easy, was not particularly impressed with himself.

After neutralizing five cameras in this fashion, Gaon threw one more stone.

This time there was no complex calculation. He simply put power behind it.

One section of the wall came crashing down, as if it had taken a cannon shell.

As the roar echoed, Yoeu marveled.

"Did you just smash that with raw strength, yeah? Without even using Sword Qi?"

"Yeah. I'm a demigod, so I'm stronger than an ogre."

"Whoa, then you'd be invincible! You'd be the strongest of all the Swordmasters. Right, yeah?"

"Well, Sword Qi absorbs most of the impact it receives, so being strong doesn't automatically make you the strongest..."

"So you're not the strongest, yeah?"

"Mm, well. I am the strongest..."

Yoeu gazed at Gaon with eyes full of reverence. Gaon smiled awkwardly.

Looking at this, orcs really are simpleminded. He doesn't even ask why someone of Swordmaster caliber is sneaking around...

Gaon found himself newly grateful for that fact. He waved a hand quietly.

"Go on now. I'll bring the girl back myself."

Yoeu nodded and withdrew.

Alone, Gaon headed into the breached interior of the mansion. Quietly. Stealthily.

Approaching a target without being detected by anyone was one of Gaon's specialties. Swordmasters themselves had fallen to those ambushes, had they not? Moreover, the transcendent hearing unique to an elven Swordmaster could tell whether anyone stood on the far side of a wall.

He walked in silence, through places no gaze could reach.

A window stood slightly ajar. Wind struck this object and that, producing small sounds, and Gaon could hear them all. Sound that struck an object and returned was information in itself. After the wind's voice had brushed his ears a few times, Gaon had perfectly mapped the mansion's layout and the placement of every object within it. He even knew the positions of the security cameras and exactly where each one was pointed — from the sound of the wind alone.

Slipping through those blind spots was no difficulty at all.

"The outer wall's down! Intruder! Search everywhere!"

The racket of throwing a stone and collapsing the wall had paid off. The mansion's guards came pouring out with assault rifles. Their armament was easily a match for a nation's special forces, but Gaon was not particularly surprised. Nor was he concerned that their muzzles would turn his way.

While the mansion churned in uproar, Gaon walked on, unhurried. From the sounds, he knew the people of the house were moving in the opposite direction from him. He walked without obstruction and reached his destination.

A locked door came into view.

He tapped it lightly, and felt what lay in the space beyond.

Dolls and picture books, all manner of odds and ends... and one small human girl.

The door was locked from the outside, but not with a padlock. He could simply open it, without breaking anything or raising a commotion.

Gaon whispered in a lowered voice.

"Hello. Keep quiet, please."

And indeed there was a little girl in the room.

She had been clutching a doll. She looked at Gaon. Gaon looked at her. Their eyes met.

And so Gaon could see the girl's eyes — those vivid scarlet eyes, flashing as they caught the moonlight.

"Who are you, mister?"

To the vampire girl's question, Gaon answered in a gloomy voice.