The Shame of Shatren (8)

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Following Camilla had turned up a whole trove of materials that would serve perfectly as weapon components for the villagers.

We gathered every scrap of junk into one pile and forged weapons from it, and once the people of Rusmayer took them up, they made up for their lacking strength and managed to beat the demonic beasts down.

And right at that moment—

I had braced myself for the rate to drop, since the villagers would inevitably take some harm in the process.

But the system had judged my decision to be correct.

Now that they could deal with the beasts far more efficiently, the system had wasted no time throwing up this window and admitting my answer was right.

As I thought — there was no need for me to step in myself.

Just how rough and brutal must their lives have been? Thinking it over, one could even argue that what had kept them from fighting the beasts wasn't a lack of information so much as the fear that seized them before they even started.

And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then, returning to the present—

As I watched the villagers taking down the demonic beasts with their own hands, the status windows began popping up one after another.

Several entries had been added that weren't there before.

Rusmayer becoming capable of clearing out demonic beasts on its own, and the rise in trust — those I had expected to some degree. The rest held nothing remarkable either, but the fact that I no longer needed to raise their affinity through other side episodes cut my timeline down once again.

At this rate... I can move straight on to the plan.

Ever since Karsein had taken full control of Rusmayer's effective governance, the land would belong to him rather than House Bagrand. That carried enormous weight, and saving time was the single most valuable thing to me right now.

Alright. I'll stay one more day or so.

I had a feeling that no choice about driving me out of this situation would ever appear.

Right at that moment—

"You lot! I've arrived, and not one of you offers a greeting?!"

A link to the next episode. It meant I was to protect this Rusmayer — now my territory — as its lord.

But wait, this isn't supposed to appear right now, is it?

If this window has popped up, it means there's an enemy nearby.

...Don't tell me.

I turned my head toward the direction the voice had come from.

"You there, in the black hood! Who are you, to barge into this territory uninvited?!"

And there he was, a man pointing his finger straight at me.

That guy shows up here?

The face was familiar — not to me, but to Karsein.

Hemnon Modrich.

I remembered the name because I'd seen it in a Memorial. He was the one Karsein had beaten half to death as an example — the fool who'd picked a fight on the day of Arina Bagrand's coming-of-age ceremony. So why was he showing up here, of all places?

The status window answered me.

Ah. So that's how it is?

Right now, I was in the middle of Episode III, tasked with rebuilding Rusmayer as its lord. If someone chose this exact timing to show hostility toward me, the reason was obvious: dissatisfaction with this very situation.

Because whoever they were, they didn't want to see Rusmayer — which had just cleared out the beasts on its own — revived.

Because they didn't want this Rusmayer, a place capable of profoundly reshaping noble culture, to prosper.

And so they were directing their hostility at me, the one who had brought about these changes.

Even when I'd played the game, I'd never taken this branch — but I'd wager that my affinity drops with each visit had been the result of Count Modrich's house sabotaging me in exactly this fashion.

Sooner or later, someone was bound to corner me and apply the pressure.

And if that someone happened to be a man both Karsein and I already knew, then I could act as boldly as I pleased.

"Get lost at once! Do you have any idea where you are—!"

Shring! Shk!

"Wh-Wha—?!"

"Young Master Hemnon!"

"You insolent wretch! You dare point a blade at the young master Hemnon?!"

"Do you have any idea who you're—!!"

Whoa. That's actually a rather becoming haircut.

Since this family's knights were nothing but bandits, maybe this counted as a fair trade?

Then the toad began bellowing, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his jowls quivering with fury.

"Show me the face hidden beneath that hood and speak your name at once! I shall determine your punishment only after I've had a look at that ugly mug of yours!"

As if he'd been waiting for exactly this, I pulled back my hood.

"No need for introductions, I'd think. Hemnon Modrich."

"You— you're...! Karsein... Bagrand...!"

So he recognized me too. Even better. No need to fumble around like the other knights, pretending not to know who I was.

"Oh, I can tell you remember me. But don't forget this part."

"Urk...!"

When I pressed the blade to his throat, the toad's face drained chalk-white.

"You asked if I dared enter this territory uninvited? And yet here you are, trespassing on someone else's land and spouting that garbage?"

"Someone else's land? This is Rusmayer, is it not? What in the world—"

Tap.

"It's my territory, certified by the Imperial Family. Check the date — the official decree has long since arrived."

"D-Don't tell me — House Bagrand has purchased this land?!"

Hemnon's eyes bulged round enough to pop from his skull.

He knew perfectly well it was no forgery. It hadn't been approved by some lesser authority — the Imperial Family itself had sanctioned it.

And yet, Hemnon reached for the same weapon those knights had.

"Hmhm. One moment. Reading it over slowly... so it's not House Bagrand's land, but yours?"

The blood began creeping back into that chalk-white face. His eyes narrowed into venomous crescents, and he snatched up a ledger at once.

"The Shame of Shatren is etched into the memory of every soul in the Empire. And you would presume to be a lord here?"

He swaggered his shoulders with theatrical flair.

"Perhaps the Imperial Family saw fit to approve it. But you, a lord? Bwahaha! What an absurd joke! I suppose another territory is about to be ground into dust, then!"

Having finished his sneering, the man turned and shouted at the people of Rusmayer.

"You all know the Shame of Shatren well enough, don't you? How a flourishing territory was ruined in an instant by the meddling of a single man. And yet — you would still accept this man as your lord? You would do well to think it over one more time."

How transparent could his intentions get?

Bringing up the Shame of Shatren to the people inside the territory — what else could it mean but this?

Sow doubt by questioning my qualifications as lord, then use that seed of mistrust to threaten my position here. It was obvious.

I'd braced myself for this, and it was a phrase I'd seen to my heart's content in the game. Some of them would surely waver.

Which is why I hadn't dismissed it outright — I'd planned to wait for the choice to appear.

Until just now, that is.

"That's hilarious! I'd take a bastard like you pretending to manage our village over anything he's got to say!"

"And what was that? Manage? He never properly helped us — he just showed up late every single day!"

"He even collected 'clearance fees' from a village that was already dirt poor! How in the world is that helping?!"

"He got our own villagers hurt and never once apologized!"

...So this is how it turns out.

It wasn't what I'd intended, but there was no need for me to step in.

Those people were on my side right now. No — to put it precisely...

The entire territory of Rusmayer is defending me.

Was it the affinity? If that's what it took, then this situation was turning out rather nicely.

As Kiyan and the other two boys along with Diena shouted, Hemnon began to panic.

"Y-You wretches dare! You dare insult me?! You there! Drive these people out of my sight this instant!"

""Yes, sir!""

CLANG!

"And who gave you permission to move? The lord of this place is me."

"Ghhk...!"

"Withdraw your soldiers. If you resist by force, I won't stand idle either."

Even though this was Karsein's territory, the moment a blade was drawn, he'd be making an enemy of House Bagrand as well.

Hemnon knew that fact all too well — which left him no choice but to click his tongue and order his men to fall back.

Realizing he couldn't lay a finger on those who had already turned their backs on him, he pivoted the conversation toward Rusmayer instead.

"I'll concede that Rusmayer is now your land. Which means I can finally say this to your face. I've come to collect compensation from you."

"What compensation?"

"I, Hemnon Modrich, have administered this territory in its master's absence all this time. Even today I brought my knights with me intending to deal with those demonic beasts. No matter what nonsense these people spout, the records of my stewardship remain on paper!"

Hemnon thrust the documents at me with all the pomp he could muster.

And thanks to that, I gained one more piece of information I'd never gotten in the game.

So this bastard is the reason the village was stripped bare — he tore out everything that wasn't nailed down?

The clearance fees went without saying; he'd even hauled off the beasts' carcasses. On top of that, he'd strangled the territory's prospects and isolated it, so there'd been nothing left at all.

In the game it had simply sat there, hollowed out and useless — but because I'd arrived so quickly this time, those things had still been here.

And I had no intention of letting that slide.

"If we're really going to tally it up one by one, the party owed compensation is on my side. So why don't you climb down off that high horse of yours?"

"Wh-What?!"

"Kiyan!"

"Yes, my lord!"

"Melik, Tony — bring those men over here with you."

At my words, the three boys' faces lit up all at once.

The villagers still looked bewildered, but they were no different. Watching the three men dragged over, trussed up tight in rope, their expressions were full of anticipation.

Hemnon's face, on the other hand, had gone rigid. It seemed these knights had been acting on his orders all along.

Which meant I had nothing to back down from either.

THUD!

"HURGHEK!"

When I drove my foot into his stomach, the man let out a squeal like a slaughtered pig.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this! Do you intend to escalate this into a matter between noble houses?!"

"Knights of a count's house ran rampant through my territory. Demanding tolls without authority, picking fights, and refusing passage to the very end — that is not a matter between houses. It is the one-sided fault of House Modrich."

"E-Even so, I knew nothing of it! That was those men's doing— HURGHEK!"

"They're knights of Count Modrich, aren't they? Since they caused damage in another territory, shouldn't they be paying compensation? Or is that simply the way of House Modrich?"

When I fed his own logic right back to him, the man raised two fingers.

"Ghk— kehhk! I'll knock off 20,000 Pecels. There! Satisfied?!"

Needless to say, the answer was number three.

50,000 Pecels was already an absurd sum to begin with, and even the remaining 30,000 was considerable money. Unless I intended to commit the lunacy of bleeding the village dry of what little it had left, the debt had to be collected.

Think it through, and the hint had been handed to me on a platter.

"And how exactly do you explain the fact that those 'knights' of yours were bandits who'd been plundering Rusmayer? Does House Modrich keep bandits in place of escorts?"

Hemnon Modrich's face twisted.

A knight of Count Modrich turning out to be a common bandit — even if they severed the tail, word like that could never be allowed to spread. The moment he grasped that solid compensation was the only way to bury it, the man raised two fingers again.

"I'll knock off another 20,000 Pecels! And for the record, I knew nothing of it!"

"Is that the end of it?"

The choices appeared once more, and once again I picked number three.

Because 10,000 Pecels wasn't the whole of it.

After all — the goal here was never simply to offset his claim. I was the one who needed to be squeezing him dry.

"Wh-What else could there possibly be!"

"Those documents of yours contain the full record of how you've been using this territory. Something should be coming to mind about now, shouldn't it?"

"The record of... using it...?"

Hemnon's mouth opened slowly, then fell wide apart.

Yes. Of course it would come to him.

He had trampled this land for free whenever it suited him — yet when the people of Rusmayer tried to use the road, he'd refused them passage and demanded tolls instead.

That alone was a contradiction.

"B-But that was for the territory's people—!"

"Barak, representing the people of Rusmayer. We follow our lord's will."

"Ghhk...!"

With lord and people now united as one, Hemnon's compensation claim was wiped out to the last coin.

"F-Fine! Consider that compensation paid in full and settled!"

Under that pressure, Hemnon folded his tail completely.

With no more business with the knights either, he was trying to slink away, muttering about cutting his losses.

The choices had already ended there, none further appearing — so to all appearances, this branch was wrapping up just like that.

But no matter how I turned it over in my mind, something told me this was not how it should end.

I blocked Hemnon's path once more.

"Hold on. And where exactly do you think you're going? It's not over yet."

"Surely this time it truly is over!"

"Don't make me laugh. Add up every toll you've pocketed from this place, and it comes to well over 10,000 Pecels."

"Ridiculous! No matter how steep the tolls, they could never amount to— HURGHEK!"

Another firm press of my foot, another pig-squeal.

"You're the one who claimed you'd been managing this treacherous stretch, aren't you? So you hoard the only flatland passage through it, and on top of that you gouge travelers with tolls?"

"F-Fine! Whatever sum you name, I'll pay the sum you name!"

Unable to withstand the pressure on his stomach, the writhing Hemnon ordered his knights to hurry and fetch the purses of gold coins.

Extracted through sheer strong-arming, yes — but this much could surely go toward the village's recovery.

"S-So now it's really finished?"

"Nope?"

I pointed my index finger at this stretch of land.

"Today's toll. There are six of you, after all — so six travelers' worth of toll stays behind before you go."

A sound like teeth grinding themselves to splinters came from between Hemnon's lips.

Once I informed them that as long as I held this post, they'd be paying tolls on every single visit going forward, Hemnon's face cycled through every shade of red and blue. His own words had built the trap he was caught in — he had nothing left to say.

The man paid up obediently and slunk off. I'd set the tolls steeply enough that even this single collection made the villagers click their tongues in disbelief.

Two left, then.

Rusmayer's rejection by the nobility had complex roots layered one atop another. It wasn't merely the demonic beast incursions or the nobles' pressure — the territory's finances were in ruin as well, and those would need to be covered by other means.

To set my full plan in motion from here, I would normally have needed to run through any number of side episodes to earn their trust and raise their affinity.

But it seemed there would be no need for that after all.

"What would you have us do from here on, my lord?"

Because this territory was already more than ready to receive my every command.