Do You Hunt Demons Well?
What is essential to human survival?
In truth, it wasn’t a question worth agonizing over.
Ask almost anyone, and most people would give the same answer.
Clothes, food, shelter.
The so-called necessities of life.
The three essentials required to guarantee at least the minimum of a human existence.
But my view was different.
If there were only one element that could encompass all three, clothing, food, and shelter alike—
It would be, without a doubt—
“...A bounty?”
Money.
That was all there was to it.
“You’ve handled a total of thirty-two wanted criminals.”
What, that many people died?
I hadn’t even killed that many myself.
No, wait. I did kill the True Ancestor, so I guess that does count as me killing one.
Come to think of it, that was true.
Whatever the process, they’d died because of me.
So there was no need to explain myself.
And if they were going to hand me free money without even being asked, there was no reason to refuse.
“The total amount settled comes to... ah, ten thousand imperial gold coins.”
I swallowed.
Ten thousand gold coins was enough to buy at least three mansions in the imperial capital.
“And this is...”
The official in his formal uniform rummaged through his things and produced something.
What he handed me was a badge plated in gold.
“This is your appointment as Imperial Special Inspector. From now on, all public order maintenance and inspections across Blackmore will fall under your jurisdiction.”
A gold badge symbolizing a regional administrator.
Among those, the ones assigned to especially dangerous special regions were called Special Inspectors.
A special seal denoting a Special Inspector.
Because I’d been abruptly dispatched to Blackmore, I hadn’t even received a proper appointment letter and had left in a hurry. Apparently, the formalities were only just being completed now.
“That concludes everything I was instructed to deliver.”
After bowing politely, the official and his entourage climbed into their carriage.
And now, after the carriages had departed and I had sorted out the gold from the bounty, I was back in my office.
“Hm.”
I sat on the sofa and sank into thought.
Imperial Special Inspector.
The official responsible for managing special territories where bizarre terrain, hostile environments, and demons ran wild.
Among them, the official who managed Blackmore, the greatest hellscape in the empire, entirely alone.
That was me.
If you wanted to call it a promotion, I supposed it was one. But considering I’d been stranded in the middle of a hellish wasteland, it was hardly something to celebrate.
The basic rule for a Special Inspector was that one was dispatched to a designated jurisdiction.
The moment you were assigned there, you were given the duty to govern and supervise the area, along with the authority to maintain order and inspect it.
In especially dangerous special regions, a Special Inspector could exercise limited extralegal force at their discretion. In other words, it was practically the same as being handed every authority over Blackmore.
Which meant—
As a regional administrator, and more specifically as a Special Inspector, I could essentially play lord here in Blackmore.
That didn’t mean I could go overboard, of course. But by the same token, as long as I stayed within the lines, the empire wouldn’t interfere no matter what I did.
I vaguely remembered that this sort of special post existed because the world of the original work I’d transmigrated into was, in part, styled after dark fantasy.
Conflict between hostile powers, wars erupting, demons flooding the land, the seeds of the apocalypse...
The continent had already been hurtling toward destruction for centuries, and with untamed regions scattered everywhere across it, even the imperial household, called the sun of the continent, had to hit a limit eventually.
As a result, the imperial bureaucracy had gone through repeated changes, and one of the special posts that emerged from those changes was the Special Inspector.
You were dispatched to unclaimed regions the empire itself had abandoned, and within your jurisdiction alone, you could exercise extralegal authority.
Naturally, it wasn’t a job just any ordinary official could handle.
Which was why a Special Inspector was an appointment that couldn’t be finalized without the emperor’s approval.
And yet...
“...Why me?”
Luke Richter.
The illegitimate son of the Richter count family, and at the same time, a low-ranking official who had only just entered the imperial palace.
...No, seriously, something is off.
Where in the world had this gone wrong?
The empire hadn’t lost its mind and appointed me as a Special Inspector for no reason.
But I really was just an extra with nothing going for me, wasn’t I?
I’ve got no idea anymore.
Asking for an explanation didn’t seem like it would get me one.
And once a personnel order had already been assigned, it wasn’t going to be canceled.
What mattered right now was surviving this hellscape by any means necessary.
This place was Blackmore.
A land where civilization didn’t exist, where all manner of horrors teemed, where life was cheap... a place of death, where surviving was harder than dying.
I had to endure there for five years.
My chances of lasting five years at my current level?
Naturally, they were slim.
Even if I’d brought Rudine and Adina into my party, nothing changed.
No, come to think of it, I hadn’t even fully brought them into my party yet.
If I had to be honest, they were more like time bombs that could go off at any moment.
...The biggest problem is Rudine.
My thoughts had followed the trail back to her.
The soul that bore the Seed of the End was closer to pure evil than anything else.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star wasn’t some innate nature that could be fixed.
Naturally, there was no such thing as reforming her through moral education.
The moment the apocalypse lurking inside her began to germinate, she would transform into an incarnation of slaughter and threaten the entire continent.
Of course, that didn’t mean there was no solution.
I’d read the original work, so I knew quite a few turning points.
Among them was Rudine’s socialization.
“In the original story, it was definitely...”
Deep in Blackmore.
There, the roots of a giant tree grew from the blood of elves.
“...Mircdrasil.”
Mircdrasil.
The colossal tree touched by primordial mana, a fallen world tree that hungered for blood and madness.
Guess I have no choice.
I clicked my tongue and pulled myself out of my thoughts.
The priorities were set.
Rudine’s socialization, and an expedition into Mircdrasil.
I’d start with that.
****
The executive organization, Arcana.
A militant force belonging to the Great Lord Arkan Monarch Assembly.
Even within the Assembly, where strength was worshipped, these were the people who called themselves investigators. Their martial power was considerable.
So much so that the title of elite among the Assembly members wasn’t the least bit undeserved.
Valkan Kast, the chief executor of Arcana, was no exception.
Merely showing the executor’s badge was enough to earn admiring looks, and his actual combat ability ranked among the very best in the Assembly.
And he had been summoned to the central assembly hall.
The one who had summoned him was none other than the Great Lord Arkan.
She occupied one of the Six Heavens, and in truth, she was the monarch assembly’s ruler and absolute authority.
It wasn’t just Valkan.
Most of the personnel belonging to Arcana had been summoned to the hall with him.
There were more than twenty of them.
Something was wrong.
Even Valkan, as chief executor, had never seen the Great Lord personally pull manpower like this before.
So they’d gone with a full heart, brimming with expectation.
And the order they received was—
“Go out on dispatch for five years.”
“...Pardon?”
“What, you didn’t hear me? Go somewhere for five years.”
...A dispatch mission.
For five whole years.
And the details were even more absurd.
Apparently, the Arkan Monarch Assembly owed a great debt to some man, and in order to settle it, he had demanded manpower from the central assembly.
And so the task they were assigned was—
“Just think of it as being his underlings. Easy, right?”
“Pardon?!”
“Behave yourself for five years. Report anything unusual. And it’d be best if you didn’t get any funny ideas. If even the slightest complaint comes out of his mouth, I’ll have to step in personally.”
“...Understood.”
“Good, good. Just treat him the way you’d treat me. He’s not some easy man, so be careful.”
“...”
The number of people selected was twenty-three.
It was unbelievable.
Without question, it was an unprecedented mission in Arcana’s history.
...What on earth kind of man is he?
But the Great Lord’s command was absolute.
No one could dare resist it, and no one should.
Still, separate from that, none of this situation made the slightest bit of sense.
They were sent to the designated location.
It was a district at the very entrance to Blackmore, adjacent to the Cliff of Death, Calbaron.
And now they had arrived at their destination.
“Oh, you’re here.”
A man came forward to greet them.
“Arkan sent you, didn’t she?”
“Yes, I am Valkan Kast, chief executor.”
“So you’re executors, then? She really sent the best of the best.”
An easy exchange followed.
It was deeply uncomfortable to hear him address the Great Lord as if she were just a friend, but Valkan did not let it show.
“I’m sorry to say this right after you’ve arrived, but I think I need to step out for a bit.”
“Is that so?”
“So, would it be all right if I put you to work right away, seeing as this is our first meeting?”
“Of course.”
The man led them to an office.
Then he handed them a bundle filled with strange little signs of unknown purpose.
“...What is this?”
Signs? How utterly random.
And the contents were even more random.
[ Are you good at swimming? ]
[ Are you good at hunting demons? ]
[ What color is a hamburger? ]
[ Burgundy ]
[ Hahahahahaha ]
...
...
...
“???”
What in the world was this?
And after handing them over, the man said—
“Just walk around and stick them in places where people might die. Easy, right?”
“Pardon?”
Luke Richter.
There was no doubt it was a man badly, profoundly wrong in the head.