Those More Wicked Than Demons (1)

Taxes are a necessity in every nation, no matter where you go.

Even setting aside the world we live in now, a country or a territory needs a minimum of money simply to keep itself running. And so, in exchange for that minimum, people pay money to the ruler of the land and gain the right to live there with a sense of security. Naturally, the lord who receives that money must work hard in turn to keep his people safe.

The more land a ruler holds, the more people belong to him — and the more staggering the sums he collects.

Yet perhaps because of that very logic, there exist shameless bastards who brush it off with a shrug, as if to say, What harm could it possibly do if I skip paying taxes once or twice? Before I crossed over into this other world, tax evasion was one of the crimes that occasionally made the news.

Assault, murder, theft, robbery — tax evasion hides in the shadows of those violent crimes, but it is every bit as serious. Because the money collected is meant, plainly and simply, for the protection of the territory's people and the defense against outside invasion.

And if the day ever came when evasion left a territory unable to repel an enemy attack... then that, quite obviously, would mean the end of that land.

This unchanging truth applied to Cumul Territory as well. Moreover, despite sitting on the easternmost frontline, the sheer height of the buildings raised here spoke volumes about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just how extraordinary the abilities of its lord — Ellie — truly were.

Now, let me return to the problem I had uncovered.

The document I was currently studying covered the territory's finances. And as I combed through the tax records, I discovered that a small city by the name of Heiji was collecting a revenue figure that made no sense whatsoever.

The amount a small city paid to House Cumul should have been somewhere between five and seven percent of the total tax revenue. The bulk of the taxes came from the great vassals who held large territories — the likes of Cloud and Rodge, who each accounted for roughly half of the whole.

By contrast, Heiji's collection rate was under one percent.

Did that make any sense at all?

Just in case, I looked into whether something had gone wrong in the territory. If collection had fallen below one percent, then something had certainly happened in that small city. If they had failed to pay because of a bad harvest, or because of some external catastrophe like a sudden demonic incursion, I could have understood.

But there was none of that in the auditor's report. The report I held in my hands right now read, simply, 'No anomalies found.'

If a problem had truly occurred, then the auditor's report should have recorded the cause of the problem and the steps taken to resolve it — not 'no anomalies found.'

When I showed the paper to Ellie, she stared at it as if she could not believe her eyes. She had accepted the auditor's report from me with the same lingering doubt I'd had, but there was no chance its contents had been swapped out in that brief span of time.

As I watched her pinch the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger, someone suddenly knocked on the office door — a wordless request for permission to enter. We recognized the voice of the one knocking and ushered him straight in.

"My lady, Head Butler Edgar. Might I have a moment?"

Ellie's face twisted as though she were fighting down the anger welling up inside her, and only after a very slow, deliberate deep breath did she permit Edgar to enter.

"Come in."

Edgar bowed his head slightly at the sight of Ellie and me, and then delivered his report.

"The auditor I dispatched to Heiji has been found dead, my lady."

"What? You knew of this as well?"

"I do. Three days before I was to report to you, I attempted a rendezvous to receive his findings — but he never appeared."

"...So he simply didn't show."

"No, my lady."

The auditor who had failed to appear at the meeting place was eventually discovered as a corpse. Soldiers had spotted his body drifting down a river, and his condition had been horrific.

"I remember — even his report letter suggested that Heiji was suspected of tax evasion."

"Since I had already dispatched the auditor, I intended to hold the vassal to account based on his findings, but..."

"I beg your forgiveness."

Edgar bowed deeply, calling it his own failing. Ellie gently stopped him, and together we set about deciding what to do.

In the end, the course we chose was an incognito inspection. As long as Ellie held the lordship of Cumul Territory, the legal authority to judge rested with her alone — which meant she was more than capable of taking the head of a vassal whose crimes had brought harm to the entire domain. Better still, if that vassal had committed a grave offense, the justification would be beyond reproach, and the punishment could be carried ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out all the more smoothly.

On that account, Ellie resolved to enter Heiji herself and get to the bottom of things. The second person to go would be me.

No one could say what might happen inside the city. And with the auditor found dead within its walls, there was no telling what manner of horrific crime was unfolding there. If only to protect her, it was right that I go.

Counting our Authority, Ellie was the only person in that city capable of withstanding my attacks. And even setting the Authority aside, Ellie herself had told me she'd all but caught up with Edgar's swordsmanship — and that, at this level, she could trust me with her back. So I was going.

The decision to keep the party to just the two of us came from Edgar and Ellie both: if more than two gathered, our identities might be compromised.

We would go tomorrow. It was Ellie's judgment that the problem needed to be uncovered immediately — because any lord who would murder an auditor and conceal a disaster of this scale could hardly be considered ordinary.

An auditor enters in secret, hiding his identity. The reason is simple: word of an incoming audit lets criminals conceal their crimes and prepare against the obvious targets, so the disguise exists precisely to prevent that.

And if the auditor's identity had been leaked, it meant someone inside Cumul Manor was feeding information out. Since we had to depart tomorrow, we left the task of finding that person entirely in Edgar's hands.

With things in a state where we could no longer focus on work, we decided to call it an early day.

And so morning came. To hide her trademark golden hair, Ellie used a dyeing magic tool to change its color — and the color she chose was the same black as mine.

When I asked her why, she said there was no particular reason. My hair was black, and she touched and stroked it so often that black was simply the first color that came to mind.

At her words, I broke into a pleased smile, and Ellie gave my hair an affectionate ruffle before finishing her preparations to depart.

Both of us now wore long cloaks to conceal our identities. We led two horses out of the stable and rode hard for the small city of Heiji.

Her horse and mine were the same ones that had served us so faithfully on the forced march before we rode out to face the Tide of Corruption. I stroked their necks as if to say, Counting on you again, and they snorted warm breath through their nostrils and fixed me with a look that seemed to say, Just trust me.

We rode and rode, and at last we reached the lands of Heiji.

Our current identity was that of ordinary adventurers. Not low-ranked, not high-ranked — just average, silver-class adventurers.

On the way to Heiji we passed through several villages and cities, and at every one the guards barred our path and conducted an inspection. They demanded proof that our identities were legitimate before we could enter, so we drew the silver adventurer's badges we'd prepared in advance from our belts.

When we showed the guards the silver-class plates, they nodded, searched us thoroughly, and — finding nothing amiss — signaled that we were free to pass. We read the signal and moved on, slipping swiftly through each city.

At last we arrived at the small city of Heiji. But despite the name 'small city'...

It boasted an outrageously opulent appearance. The tiles laid across the ground and the walls lining the streets radiated extravagant luxury.

In stark contrast, though, the condition of the guards stationed at the gate told us that something rotten had spread all the way out here. Every piece of equipment they wore was ancient and worn. Their spear shafts were blackened with grime, the blades rusted in places — and their armor wasn't even the silver plate we had supplied them, but plain leather.

Looking at them, I thought bitterly: what on earth had the lord of this city been doing — and plundering — to let things fall this far?

Ellie and I swallowed down that surge of hot fury and, playing our parts as adventurers, readied our silver plates to enter Heiji.

Even in such pathetic gear, the guards had not forgotten their duty. They examined our baggage meticulously, checked the silver plates that vouched for who we were, and then —

"You may enter."

— granted us passage into the small city of Heiji.

The first thing we noticed upon entering was that there were no people. For all that the streets had been dressed up so lavishly, the city was nearly empty. Even the merchants who would normally be competing noisily from both sides of the road, hawking their wares, were so scarce that you had to walk several ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠paces to spot a single one.

At that sight, Ellie quietly leaned close to my ear.

"This... no amount of money for one skipped month of taxes could pay for all of this... Something's going on here."

I was already inclined to agree. For an economy to function, you need people — plenty of them — to keep the trade houses and businesses busy. Building roads and walls this luxurious with a population this small? It made no sense whatsoever.

Worse, the scarcity of merchants preparing and displaying their goods meant few trade houses had been coming and going here lately. We resolved to keep searching for the root of the problem.

We walked along the roadside and visited inns and eateries, but nearly every proprietor we met had lost all spirit for their trade. And the final place we made for was the smithy.

It was true that the hour was drifting toward evening, but even so, a blacksmith should never have let go of the iron. Out of professional pride, smiths were said to never put down their steel hammers or their works in progress.

Yet this smith had set his hammer aside and stood there empty-handed, gazing blankly up at the sky. We deliberately made noise as we stepped into the forge, and the smith's eyes turned toward us.

Seeing the hammer abandoned at his feet, I spoke to him.

"Excuse me — are you not doing business?"

The smith let out a long sigh before answering.

"Turn back. This city is no longer a place anyone can live in — and least of all a place for adventurers like yourselves."

"What do you mean by that?"

Ellie lowered her hood, letting her black hair show, and asked. The smith answered.

"Just what I said. Something seems to have come over him... but the lord suddenly began lashing out in tyranny."

"Tyranny?"

We pressed him, and the smith nodded and went on.

"Wherever he got the money, he suddenly had the city's roads torn up and paved with luxurious tile. The construction made it impossible for us merchants to do business, so the owners of the more influential shops went to protest to the lord."

"And the fate of those who dared protest and rouse the lord's temper was horrifying. Every single shop owner who stood against his will — every last one — was killed without mercy, in the name of 'the lord's decree.'"

We could not keep our mouths ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from hanging open at the sheer horror of it. Even a small city would have at least twenty shops, and among them at least five merchants of real standing...

And in the first place, Heiji had never once been mentioned in the game. Which meant this was my first time experiencing any of it — I didn't even have the advantage of foreknowledge.

And then, a message floated up before my eyes.

'Ha... damn it. Again?'

Seeing my face twist, the smith spoke with an expression of understanding.

"I know. Our city's in a sorry state. Every adventurer who's come looking for work here has come to a bad end."

A bad end...? We looked at him, half afraid of what we might hear next — and he told us.

"Before you two arrived, adventurers who didn't yet know how things stood here passed through this city. And before long, they went missing."

"They vanished?"

"They did. And the ones who vanished were almost all young men and women. I'd assumed they'd simply left the city — that's the adventuring life, after all. But I soon learned my judgment was wrong."

"I only came to know it because I'm the sole blacksmith in this territory. I received a commission to forge a luxurious sword for the lord, and I was escorted to his manor."

"And what I saw there... were men and women in nothing at all, locked behind iron bars, trembling in the dark."

By the time we had heard the rest of the smith's account, we could no longer bring ourselves to ask anything more. The lord's evil went far beyond anything we had imagined.

"As my reward, he had the women adventurers stripped bare and thrown at my feet. Told me to take my fill of them."

"But I refused his offer and fled the place on the spot."

He wiped his face once with those clean, empty hands, and then spoke again.

"But I heard it, plain as day. The woman thrown to me — she and her lover had stopped in this city together; they were fellow adventurers...."

"I recognized her voice, from somewhere long ago. And the auditor beside him, too — he said he'd been summoned by the lord and was helping with the work...."

Thus he poured out everything he had witnessed. For his sake, in his pain, I quietly planted a seed of Purification's grace within him, and then we took our leave.

"If that woman of yours is precious to you, leave this city. And never come back. Let this suffering be ours alone to bear."

At his words, we gave him a bitter smile, turned our backs, and left the smithy.

The quest required us to erase three darknesses rooted in this city — and one of them, clearly, was tied to the disappearances of the adventurers.

If the smith's testimony was true, the lord was committing abduction, rape, and murder without hesitation. And if we failed, Cumul Territory would all too likely be laid waste by rebellion, just as Crystal Territory had been.

Worse, Ellie beside me would be thrown into that chaos all over again.

It had barely been two weeks since the defensive war ended. And even so, to quash a rebellion and seize the lord who would almost certainly be its ringleader, Ellie — the lord of Cumul Territory — would have no choice but to act herself.

And if things went as I predicted, then even if the rebellion ended quickly, an enormous aftershock would be waiting for us. A rebellion would wound our territory one way or another, and that wound would be Cumul's to carry.

That would profit us nothing, outwardly or inwardly — and so I resolved that, if it came to it, I would use my Authority to stop the bloodshed before it ever began.

And so Ellie and I were each walking down the road, lost in our own thoughts, when —

"Hey! You two, the black-haired ones!"

...My instincts told me at once.

Those men... were not ordinary humans. Every single one of them was a mana wielder.

I turned my head and met the eyes of the ones who had called out to us. We wore our cloaks, so our faces weren't easily visible — which seemed to irritate them, because they began shouting at us to take the cloaks off.

Just as I drew my sword to face them, Ellie tapped my shoulder with a sly little smile and laid her hand on the sword at her hip. Then, as if to provoke them, she threw back her cloak — and their reaction was exactly what you'd expect.

"Hah... holy shit. She's top-shelf."

"Told you. Look at that rack. She's mine tonight."

"And what about that ass... damn, that waist is getting ruined today, huh?"

Even with those filthy words spilling out of their mouths, Ellie didn't move a single step away from my side. Then one of the pack cackled and called out to me.

"Hey~ there, idiot. Leave the woman. Or else, right in front of your eyes...."

My rage hit its limit, and my hand was a breath away from drawing steel —

but Ellie moved faster than I ever could.

"She's angry. Ellie is."

Ellie utterly overwhelmed the five mana wielders who had insulted us — she crushed them, pure and simple. And with each one she felled, she spoke quietly.

"This is me venting. If you hadn't insulted me and Hyun, you'd have lived to see tomorrow. But your timing was terrible."

"Because right now, I have no desire to let any of you live. Die."

With a face of ice, she sent every last one of them to the grave together with a single stroke of her blade. And to those who could no longer speak but still clung to consciousness, Ellie stood at the very center of that ruinous scene, regal and unfazed, without a single drop of blood on her.

"After all, unlike Hyun, all you lot ever saw of me was my body... How dare you run those filthy eyes over me.."

She channeled an immense current of electricity through her sword and burned away the bodies hovering on the edge of their final breaths. Then, riding the skill's power, she called a bolt of lightning down from the heavens — and the cleanup, too, was finished without a trace.

I gathered her into my arms as she steadied herself, and held her tight. There was only one thing I could say to her.

"Ellie, it's okay to hurt. It's okay to cry. So, just for now — let yourself be at ease here, in my arms."

"....."

Wordless, she seemed to be trying to gather her feelings within my embrace — but in the end she could not, and tears of fury spilled down her cheeks. When I saw them, I made up my mind: I would show the lord of Heiji, in full, the price of laying a hand on the Azure Dragon's contractor.

Perhaps spurred by my fury, whirlwinds and crackling currents began to swirl around us. What happens when a Successor rages — what punishment awaits men who cross that line... and —

'I'll show you, with my own hands, exactly whom you've touched. Lord of Heiji.'

With that thought burning in my chest, I swiftly drew Ellie's cloak back over her shoulders and carried her out of the battlefield. All that remained where we had stood was a faint crackle of current, and a wind that felt just a little too fierce.