11. No Answer Means Yes?
11. No Answer Means Yes?
Here's a truth a lot of people overlook: prosperous cities aren't gathering places just for the haves.
If anything, it's the have-nots who desperately claw their way into wealthy areas, consumed by envy and determined to put down roots there.
I knew that all too well. Even in Seoul — the capital of South Korea, where I used to live — cramped attic rooms and closet-sized spaces you could barely squeeze into always had demand spilling over.
Because no matter how little you have, just managing to stay there means you can access the infrastructure, the markets, the jobs — all the benefits — without needing a fat wallet.
And the slums on the outskirts of the Empire? Those were exactly the kind of place where sewer rats gathered for that very reason.
Naturally, in a place where people like that congregated, discipline and morality faded into the background. With no proper administration, there weren't any guards or peacekeeping forces deployed either.
In other words, this place was a lawless zone where only the traces of civilization remained.
In a sense, you could argue it was a place seething with even greater evil than the Demon King's army's occupied territories.
"It's... raining."
Was this a warning that I shouldn't bring Vivian to a place like this?
Dark clouds hung so thick that it felt dim even in broad daylight, and the cold rain spilling from them began soaking into the hood wrapped around my body.
Thankfully, I'd prepared sturdy, waterproof materials in anticipation of a long journey, but I was the only one who got to benefit from that.
Vivian, who'd urged me to leave the residence in a hurry, had dashed outside wearing nothing but the thin nightgown she always wore around the house.
"Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah. I'm fine."
Even so, Vivian hugged herself, pretending nothing was wrong.
That flimsy fabric must have been soaked through by now, clinging to her skin as the cold crept in. But the trembling of her body probably wasn't just from the chill.
"I-if it's for Mom... I can endure this much. The housekeeper said... this is what I have to do to see Mom again..."
Her mother.
Whatever the reason, her mother had been the catalyst that drove her to begin her research with the Mage Tower's backing.
The reason I'd brought her here was to help her reclaim the thing she cherished so deeply.
If I'd failed to give her a satisfying answer back then, my life might have ended right on the spot.
"Here. Put this on."
But that aside, I still couldn't bring myself to leave this precarious-looking woman on her own.
Especially since I'd managed to suppress her madness — the kind that could reduce this city to rubble — by making her remember my existence.
"...I-is it really okay?"
"Yes, I've got a spare."
I handed her the hood I'd been wearing and wrapped the cloak from my portable kit around myself instead.
This one wasn't waterproof, so my clothes would get soaked, but it was better than nothing.
"H-hehe. I-it's so warm."
As she wrapped the cloth around herself, still pretending she was perfectly fine, she smiled and pulled the hood I'd given her tight around her body.
She even pressed her face against the surface, like she was savoring the feel of it.
"I-I can feel the housekeeper's warmth."
"R-really?"
"Mmhm. It's warm... it's nice."
Maybe soaking in that warmth had eased her heart a little?
It bugged me a little — the way she basked in my body heat so freely — but for now, I figured I should just be glad she'd calmed down.
"...We're almost there. Get ready."
I pushed those thoughts aside and kept walking, leading the way until we reached a shabby alleyway.
Beyond it, a massive building stood out conspicuously. That was probably where the criminal organization we were targeting had set up shop.
I hadn't even needed to ask around.
This slum was a place even the Empire had abandoned, so even a large-scale crime syndicate could operate out in the open without any trouble.
"Is this... where the culprit is?"
"Yes. This is where the Blood River operates."
The real question was whether the person standing behind me could actually handle an organization like this.
Sure, she was a scholar affiliated with the Mage Tower — the gathering place of the Empire's finest mages. But her opponent was a criminal syndicate the Empire itself had given up on controlling.
Setting aside individual strength, just counting the members down to the lowest grunts meant they probably rivaled a decent-sized army.
"Uh, Vivian."
And as for me? I couldn't bluff my way through this, not even with lies.
I'd seen way too many people in this world who'd pulled stunts they couldn't handle and ended up crossing a river they could never turn back from.
"As it happens, I've got no talent for fighting. The best I can do is guide you around..."
"I-it's okay."
Even when I let that self-reproach slip out, she didn't mind at all.
Clutching the hood I'd given her close to her body, she spoke in a soothing tone.
"Y-you don't... have to do anything, housekeeper. Y-you just need to decide... one thing."
Her voice trembled,
and yet a sense of dissonance crept through — this complete lack of hesitation.
"...Decide what?"
"Wh-who I need to... take care of."
Right.
When it came to having no boundaries around ethics, she was no different from the rest of the Mage Tower's people.
"...C-can I ask that of you?"
Vivian looked up at me, her gaze precarious and filled with anxiety.
Meeting those eyes — pitiful, in a way — stirred up a very slight, very cold feeling inside me.
Maybe it was because of my ability, but even while consumed by madness, she was showing a version of herself that depended on me.
Perhaps if I used this power, I could manipulate her while she was this emotionally vulnerable... I could make someone strong enough to belong to the Mage Tower dance in the palm of my hand.
Just a few lies, some sweet talk, and a little comfort.
"...Yeah. Leave it to me."
The moment I realized that, I crushed the thought, and self-loathing rushed in to fill the void.
She'd genuinely decided to lean her wandering heart on me, and here I was, already scheming to exploit that.
Was I really that greedy of a person? Or had I just been pushed that far since coming to this world?
"The hell? Who's here?"
While I wrestled with that, a voice rang out. I quickly pulled Vivian behind me and focused on the presence I sensed.
A rough-looking man was loitering in the rain-swept street like he was on patrol.
The fact that he strutted around the middle of the road openly carrying a dagger and a club studded with nails was all the proof I needed that this place was lawless.
But what triggered my wariness more than anything was the emblem on his chest — the symbol of the river of blood.
"What're you punks? You know whose turf this is, coming here?"
"If you came here, you gotta pay the toll. Hey, hand over everything you got and piss off—... wait, hold up."
The Blood River.
The low-level grunts from that organization soon spotted Vivian hiding behind me, clutching my clothes, and vile grins spread across their faces.
"Kyehehe, there's a woman back there?"
"Doesn't look like some random whore from the streets... kyehehe, well, once we strip her down, we'll find out if there's any fun to be had."
I'd expected that reaction.
To ethics-deprived scumbags, a powerless woman was nothing but a plaything.
"H-housekeeper."
But that frail appearance was only on the surface.
I knew she belonged to the Mage Tower. I'd experienced that power firsthand, indirectly, down in the basement.
I knew she possessed a force so overwhelming that her emotional upheaval alone could crush everything around her.
"These bastards... can I kill them?"
That's how I knew.
Those words whispered behind me weren't a bluff or a lie.
"Th-they're in our way, right. Huh? They're irritating. Can I kill them?"
She was trying to leave that line up to me. Her grip on my clothes tightened.
The weight alone made my shoulders sink and tension crash over me. I swallowed hard and started weighing what answer I needed to give right now.
Ever since coming to this world, I'd long stopped considering things that fell under the category of morality — unless my heart made me.
So my top priority was always whether I'd take damage or not.
And what came next in this situation was whether her dealing with these guys would interfere with her objective — an objective she was depending on me for.
"...Yeah."
The answer didn't take long.
"They're nobody worth sparing."
Guys who'd already thrown away their humanity to survive in a crumbling world — that's all they were from the start.
There was no way I'd feel any guilt if they died here. It'd be best to clean them up quickly and move on.
"...Hehe, hehehe."
At my judgment, she laughed softly and reached her hand out over my shoulder.
"Th-then I'll start right away."
I didn't know what she was about to do, but those men would soon be dead.
Unlike me — breaking out in a cold sweat from that premonition — they just strutted toward us, brimming with arrogance.
"Keke, the hell are those two babbling about?"
"Hey, enough. Hand over the woman right now and get lost, you bookworm. Otherwise..."
-Thud.
The yapping man's mouth clamped shut at the sound of his partner collapsing behind him.
An icy chill made his footsteps freeze in place.
Then, sensing something was off, he slowly turned to look behind him — and his eyes went wide.
Round as saucers, like he couldn't comprehend it.
"Huh...?"
Yeah, I was probably wearing the exact same expression.
I'd expected them to die, but what I felt right now wasn't terror — it was closer to sheer confusion.
Because the head of the man she'd pointed her finger at had simply vanished on the spot.
Not cut off. Not burned away. Nothing like that.
In the brief instant it took to blink away the annoying splash of rain in my eye, his head was gone and his body had crumpled to the ground.
-Fwoosh!
What followed was a fountain of blood erupting to fill the space where the head used to be.
But even that felt eerily natural.
Like something that had been dammed up suddenly vanished, and everything that should have been there all along just belatedly rushed into the empty void. That was all.
-Thud.
As the headless body collapsed to the ground and convulsed, the other guy finally grasped what had happened, and terror spread across his face.
"Wh-what the hell! What in the..."
-Fwooosh!
Another head disappeared.
And another fountain of blood shot upward.
-Thud.
At the end of it, the body crumpled on the ground started thrashing like a grub someone had stepped on.
As if it hadn't even realized it was dead yet — its nerves and heart still proving they were alive by flailing wildly...
"Hehe."
From behind me, the woman who'd been watching that scene together with me...
"Hehe, I killed them."
The mage who'd killed two men with nothing more than a point of her finger brought her lips to my ear and let out a giggle.
No, wait. What the hell was that just now?
Magic is supposed to have phenomena before casting — light distortion, noise, something. Was that actually even magic?
Wait, is she even a mage to begin with?
"N-now that the ones in our way are gone... we can go forward, right?"
She clutched me from behind and whispered against my ear.
"H-housekeeper. Answer me. I can... go forward, right?"
Two men in an instant.
And through a phenomenon I couldn't even comprehend. The woman who'd snuffed out their lives was whispering to me enticingly.
I had to answer.
If I didn't want to end up like those two collapsed over there... if I angered her, that could be me.
My head could vanish at any moment, and that would be the end...
Still leaving behind nothing but a body twitching in the rain — I didn't want to end up in that position.
"There was a commotion here just now!"
Before I could answer, screams rang out, and the people beyond the alley started flooding toward us.
More organization members stationed nearby, probably. Every single one of them was clutching a wicked weapon, and the moment they saw the emblem on the two collapsed corpses, their faces contorted.
"You're the ones who killed them!?"
"You'd better be ready to..."
Before their warnings could even finish, more bodies collapsed.
The heads of the men beside them vanished right before their eyes. As blood geysered from those empty spaces, blank expressions began to dawn on their faces all over again.
Because they couldn't understand it. The phenomenon of human heads simply disappearing on the spot — with no warning at all.
"Annoying."
But she didn't give them the time to understand.
"Dealing with them... is annoying."
She was just irritated.
At the single fact that they'd obstructed her path — her desire to just accomplish her goal and go back.
-Snap.
As if to give form to that emotion, her fingers snapped, and instantly, their eye levels all dropped at once.
They didn't bend their legs. They didn't lower their heads.
The ground they'd been standing on disappeared.
And so did the legs planted on top of it.
"AAAAAGH!"
In the moment their legs collectively vanished — blood spurting from the empty spaces, agonized screams echoing through the rain —
"Ah, aagh! Wh-what the! My legs! Where are my le—!"
"Shut up."
-Snap!
Her fingers snapped again, and the screams disappeared.
Like shearing off heads of grain with a sickle and sweeping them aside.
Everyone who'd been lifting their heads from the vanished ground to cry out in agony — their heads simply ceased to exist, severed along a single clean line.
-Fwoosh, fwsssh!
Blood spurted where the screams had been.
All of it washed down by the rain pouring from the sky, soaking into the earth below and staining it deep crimson.
In puddles full of mud steeped in blood and water, headless and legless corpses began twitching with postmortem spasms.
"H-hey... housekeeper."
In that scene — practically swarming with maggots — she didn't bother paying it the slightest attention.
Her gaze had already moved past them — toward the massive building that loomed beyond...
Pointed straight at the stronghold of the criminal organization we'd originally come for.
"D-dragging this out... probably isn't good either. Can I do it?"
When I realized that, a low voice reached me.
But things were moving so fast I couldn't even process her words.
Can I do it? Do what?
I still couldn't make sense of what she'd already done, so what the hell was she planning to do now?
"If you don't answer... I'll do it...?"
As if taking my silence born from confusion as a yes, her fingers snapped once more.
Yeah, that was more than enough.
To erase the people in the spot she'd aimed at, and the buildings too.
To erase everything that existed there from this world without leaving a single trace — that was more than enough.