Shadows of the World
“Ugh…”
“Grrraaah…”
“Damn it, how did things end up like this…”
The high-ranking demons gathered in one place, grinding their teeth. Having been collectively leashed by Sena, they could only vent their meaningless frustration at this absurd reality.
The effects of the geumje—the high-level soul-binding magic that held their very souls hostage—were absolute. There was virtually no way to escape it. Of course, there was one sole loophole: ‘the contractor dies or personally nullifies the contract.’ But if Sena, who maintained the entire Northern Territory, were to die, everyone here would meet the same fate. In that impossible situation, they let out despairing groans.
Amidst it all, the only one who had remained silent was Leona. She finally spoke in a grave tone.
“…This is strange.”
“…?”
“Sigh… What do you mean, exactly?”
The other high-ranking demons asked the question through the heavy, gloomy atmosphere. Leona slowly tapped her fingers on the table and answered in a cold voice.
“Our lord… Sena. Doesn’t it seem like her political skill has improved far too suddenly? Until just recently, she couldn’t even squeak if we said a single word. How could that girl have completely bound all of us in less than a single day?”
“That… is certainly strange.”
“The schemes were far too refined for someone who knew absolutely nothing about politics.”
“This is just my personal opinion, but perhaps someone has appeared at Sena’s side… someone capable of covering her political weaknesses.”
Leona spoke her thoughts in a serious voice. However, a few of the others began to express doubt at her statement.
“But there hasn’t been any noticeable change in the lord’s daily routine. Just in case, we investigated. Aside from the mansion and the grand assembly hall, she has no other places she visits.”
“More importantly, this is Sena we’re talking about. Would that girl, who only reluctantly follows even our suggestions, really listen to someone else so easily?”
If someone had truly begun helping Sena, some sign of it would have appeared in her daily movements. Yet Sena, who simply commuted between home and work in a typical pattern, showed no such indication. Considering her usual personality, even if a quiet strategist existed beside her, it was questionable whether she would actually heed their advice.
“That is true, but… we still need to investigate this thoroughly. Proceed as secretly and as meticulously as possible.”
“Understood, Lady Leona.”
The person who had moved Sena with a single action and bound all their limbs was clearly no ordinary talent. However, Leona’s order to look into that individual wasn’t simply out of wariness for the future.
The fact that they had used Sena to land a blow on her meant the reverse might also be possible.
‘Perhaps… that strategist could become the clue that lets us escape this situation…’
Feeling both caution and a faint thread of expectation, Leona took a sip of the tea in front of her before asking another question in a businesslike tone.
“Then, let’s set this topic aside for now. Where exactly has our lord, the one holding our leashes, gone?”
“I heard she headed somewhere in the north. She said she was upset because of this incident and would take a short break…”
“Hah, what a blessed life. I wonder who the one truly upset is…”
After completely subjugating them, she had the gall to leave on vacation because her feelings were hurt. From their perspective, the situation itself felt like nothing but deception and mockery. Nevertheless, Leona and the other high-ranking demons had no choice but to continue their work and wait for their ‘master’ to return.
*
“Whoa…”
The vast plain spread out before my eyes. As I took in the sight of the enormous grassland stretching all the way to the horizon, a natural sigh of admiration escaped me.
The real thing was on a completely different level from the rough description given in the game. Having only ever seen mountains and horizons in my previous life, the scene itself felt truly wondrous.
The place before me was the Northern Great Plains, located at the northernmost tip of the demon kingdom of Highground. I was still drinking in that breathtaking panorama when—
“U-um… how is it? I’ve always wanted to show you this place at least once, Mom.”
Sena’s question carried both tension and a hint of expectation. In response, I gave her my honest, unfiltered feelings.
“It’s magnificent. Just looking at it refreshes the soul. By the way… so this is the place where my daughter served for many years?”
“Hehe… yes. This is where I beat those damn elves to death with enthusiasm and eventually rose to the position of lord. It’s all in the past now, though.”
Her words carried a bit of embarrassment mixed with considerable pride. It was the kind of military pride one might expect, but having served on the front lines in my previous life, her attitude didn’t feel entirely foreign to me.
‘In this regard, we’re surprisingly similar…’
Just as I was feeling an unexpected sense of kinship, Sena, who had been watching my expression, asked cautiously.
“Um… Mom? Why did you want to come here? And right after finishing the work, so suddenly?”
Now that I had firmly fastened tight collars around the high-ranking demons, I—no, we—needed to begin properly consolidating our power. Yet despite that, I had come here to the Moor Fortress in the north with Sena under the guise of a vacation… which was, in truth, more of a business trip.
Facing our daughter who was expressing her doubts, I offered a calm smile and said,
“There are several reasons… but first, I want to teach you something.”
“Teach me? What?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? That this mother would teach you everything my daughter doesn’t know.”
“Yeah, you did…?”
Sena nodded, though her expression clearly showed she didn’t quite understand. Watching her, I gave a small smile and continued.
“Come along. From now on, I’ll teach you what we must do going forward.”
“Ah… okay!”
Together with Sena, who still carried lingering questions and a touch of curiosity, I headed deeper into the fortress. I steeled myself, knowing that unlike the refreshing feeling from moments ago, what was to come would not be pleasant at all.
*
In a shaded spot beneath the massive castle walls, a place no one paid any attention to, a young demon girl sat collapsed on the ground. Clutching her starving stomach with a lifeless expression, she was slowly dying from terrible hunger—like a weed withering under the scorching sun with no one to help it.
At that moment—
“Are you alright?”
“!…Ah.”
A piece of bread was held out in front of the girl. Without even having time to think, she snatched it and stuffed it into her mouth. Even though there was no one around to take it from her, she ate with desperate urgency, terrified someone might steal it away. The young demon girl chewed the bread with fierce determination.
“Eat slowly. You’ll upset your stomach.”
The voice sounded gruff, yet it also seemed to carry some complicated emotion. The girl paused her eating for a moment and unconsciously looked up at the speaker.
A woman wearing a coarse black robe, holding a pouch filled with bread. Her face couldn’t be seen clearly, but standing there with the sun at her back, she appeared to the girl in that instant as something impossibly vast and grand.
“Th-thank… you. Really… thank you so much.”
The girl kept bowing her head repeatedly in gratitude. The woman let out a small sigh, then took another piece of bread from the pouch and held it out to her.
“Ah…”
Without another word, the woman turned and left. As the girl watched her disappear into the distance with someone who had been waiting ahead, she thought to herself:
If there really was a god in this world… perhaps they would look something like that.
*
“…Sigh.”
Sena kept letting out heavy sighs with a complicated expression. Looking at her, I finished organizing the now-empty bread pouch and asked in a calm voice.
“You worked hard. It must have been difficult, right?”
“…No. Not at all…”
Just now, Sena and I had taken a lap around the back alleys—places we would normally never visit. Our steps, which had begun with a pouch full of bread, had ended with that same pouch now completely empty.
Yet even after distributing every last piece, the poor were still visible everywhere. Some had already become corpses, their breath long gone, unable to even receive the bread.
A dark shadow fell over Sena’s face as she looked at them.
This was the north that Sena ruled as lord. Moreover, this was the Moor Fortress, a place she had proudly claimed to know better than anyone. The expression on her face after belatedly realizing the true state of this land was one of utter distress.
“I didn’t know… This isn’t some other place; I’ve been here for so many years. How could something like this…”
“There’s no need to blame yourself. If you lift the lid on this world, you’ll find places like this everywhere.”
I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but I knew my words were the undeniable truth.
In the game, the descriptions of ordinary people who weren’t the protagonist were not particularly detailed. On the human side, the focus had mostly been on the academy and the nobles there. Even the protagonist, being the youngest child of a remote noble family, wasn’t exactly wealthy but had never been anywhere near poverty. Other races, including the elves, had no descriptions of commoners either. As for the demons, they were portrayed simply as monsters that invaded cities and massacred people, or as a combat race. Aside from a few named characters with backstories, there were no direct depictions of these people.
However, as someone who had been a politician in my previous life and understood how the world worked, I knew the truth. Even if it wasn’t depicted, from a political perspective, this world was rotten to its very core.
A world where war and invasion broke out without warning. Although magic existed as a technology, basic industry was poor, and due to racial conflicts, even proper trade could barely be conducted. Stories of cities being destroyed by bandits and monster invasions that sprang up everywhere were commonplace. In such a situation, it was obvious what kind of lives the powerless people at the very bottom were living.
“They probably didn’t start out like this. But if the crops they grow are stolen by bandits, burned by monsters, and taxes keep rising because of endless wars, they eventually lose everything.”
In a world of endless conflict, this was perhaps a natural outcome. After all, war had always been a gambling table played by the powerful at the expense of the common people.
But—
“Even so, we cannot simply leave a situation like this as it is.”
“…Mom…”
Politics, in the end, existed for the powerless. A politician had the duty to strive to give the people even a slightly better tomorrow. Although in my previous life I had died without even attempting to fulfill that duty… in this life, I would make it a reality no matter what.
Through our ‘daughter’ who was now agonizing over the reality I had shown her in this moment.
And…
“My lord! This is an emergency!”
“!”
Another piece of the plan I had prepared for this very purpose was approaching at this very moment.