The Existence of the New World Group
“Cough. You think I’ll talk? Don’t delude yourself. If any of us try to spill the secrets—”
Yeah. He could die for it. So he doesn’t have to speak.
“Ah. You don’t have to tell me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I already know that much.
If anything, it’s fortunate. That means no matter what that little brat reported earlier, they won’t relocate their base right away.
“I expected as much, which is exactly why talking is inconvenient. Celia. Cover his mouth.”
“Yes.”
Celia sealed the old man’s mouth shut. I had her gag him just in case—better to prevent him from talking himself into suicide or some other self-destruction.
Then I laid my hand on the old man’s forehead and began rifling through his memories.
I pulled out all sorts of information. Exactly where this damned New World Group was hiding—quite the variety of locations.
After digging through everything, I glanced at the old geezer. At a casual look he seemed like the sort who’d spend his days as a village chief in some rural backwater. Yet he was one of the executives of the New World Group.
What’s more, his duties included touring the branches, stirring people up, and recruiting them into the fold.
Impressive.
And the number of those branches was considerable.
“Grrrrmph!”
“Oh-ho. This guy’s quite the big shot, isn’t he?”
My luck had been pretty good from the start. This much was satisfying. I’d gotten everything I needed—including how this old man had lost his grandson and granddaughter to a noble, and how he treated the children he brainwashed and brought into the New World Group like his own grandchildren.
“What do you mean by that?”
“First of all, there are about ten New World Group branches in the Empire alone, and under them roughly a hundred and thirty groups operating disguised as bandits and various other fronts. In short, large and small, there are about a hundred and twenty New World Group forces in the Empire by itself.”
To have built up this much power inside the Empire. Was that worth rating as impressive? I decided to give them a sufficiently high evaluation.
“Bandits or other identities—”
That much was obvious.
“They disguise themselves as bandits, kidnap people or drag them off, and brainwash them into the New World Group. Merchants buy slaves through black-market deals under the table and brainwash those slaves, or—”
When I glanced at the old man with open contempt, his eyes bulged several times larger and veins stood out starkly.
“Looking at your face, that seems about right.”
Yeah. Exactly. You can tell just by looking.
In my eyes, this grandpa was simply a fool.
What to do with him. Kill him? Spare him? He did have a pitiful enough story.
But it wasn’t as if the man had done anything good either.
He had lured still-immature, ignorant children with lines like “You are the chosen ones” and “You’re still young, so you can still walk the right path.”
And then, astonishingly, he had made those same children rush at Imperial nobles and blow themselves up, or else turned them into thoroughly sinister believers.
He had completely ruined the lives of kids the same age as his own grandchildren.
“Is he more of a piece of trash than I thought?”
“A guy who claims to care about his grandchildren led children the same age as his grandchildren down the path of corruption. Ruined their lives.”
I couldn’t overlook this. It wasn’t my place to judge, but even so, this man couldn’t be excused as a mere victim of brainwashing. He had joined that ridiculous cult called the New World Group of his own free will and committed every one of those acts himself. He had gone around doing evil for no reason other than that his own grandchildren had died.
I explained all of it to Celia.
“Hah. What an evil man.”
“Yeah. At a glance he’s pitiful. But he committed that many sins. So I’m pondering what to do with him.”
I tightened my grip over the hand covering the damned old man’s mouth, giving him a jolt of pain.
Such a cunning bastard. A trash-like bastard. Hard to forgive.
How had a creature like this lived this long and served as an executive of the New World Group?
Really, it didn’t make sense. What to do in times like this.
“Grrrhmph.”
“Just because your grandson died, you make young children the same age as your own grandchildren die?”
Yeah. A good idea had just come to me. Leave him alive. This was the Ribelt region. In cases like this, it was better to leave the matter to Valk, lord of Ribelt.
Of course, before that, I would beat him as much as he deserved. An old man I simply could not forgive. A human who should have died long ago had survived only to commit filthy deeds.
Whack!
He was the type who didn’t deserve respect for elders. So I would beat him thoroughly.
“Guaaah! Just kill me!”
Kill him? As if I would.
Whether to spare or kill him was ultimately the Ribelt family head’s business.
“What’s the point of killing a man who’s already dead for a cult? He’s a human I simply can’t forgive. This kind of guy should be kept alive and tormented for a long time.”
“Gyaaaaaah!”
I beat him for a while, pouring out elder-attacks without a shred of elder-respect.
At a glance, Celia and I would have looked like wicked women thrashing a helpless old man, but I simply could not leave this human alone.
My body moved before my reason, you see.
Then I hauled every item out of the place and carried them outside. They were full of filthy things, after all. It would be useful to stimulate the nobles with them—firmly prove the existence of the New World Group and make the nobles’ eyes light up at the presence of anti-imperialists.
The New World Group that rebelled against the current Imperial system. To the nobles currently basking in wealth and glory, these people could brainwash the common folk and raise a revolt, so they would absolutely try to hunt them down and kill them.
I gathered the materials, seized the old man by the collar, and headed down toward the territory.
Somehow, at the foot of the mountain, Valk and the Ribelt soldiers were already waiting.
Looking at it that way, what did that make me? It wasn’t as if they had come out to greet me. Still, them staring as if they had just witnessed something extraordinary wasn’t entirely a bad feeling.
“The snow melted a little while ago, didn’t it? The stuff that filled the mountain. Look—hasn’t the whole thing become a bare mountain?”
Ah, so he had seen it. Then there was no need to say more. Explaining until my mouth hurt didn’t suit my personality anyway.
“It couldn’t be helped. Those bastards planned to trigger an avalanche if they were tracked in Ribelt. If that had happened, you’d have been busy clearing snow for quite a while.”
They definitely would have. If anything, they should be grateful to me. I had finished things at this level—remade the mountain, solved the landslide problem, and caught the New World Group to boot. At this rate they would still be short even if they prostrated themselves and worshipped me as a god.
“Ugh. Right. Did you finish the subjugation? Do you need reinforcements or anything?”
“I finished it. I opened a path halfway up the mountain, so you can look inside, but there will only be corpses for now. I could have burned them, but I left them just in case.”
I had been thinking of burning everything clean.
“Well done. But what’s that?”
He pointed at the old man clutched in my hand. “That”? Anyone could tell this bastard was an executive.
“I left this old man alive. Looking into it, he was going around brainwashing young children. In short, it means he was trying to brainwash Ribelt’s young sprouts right here in Ribelt.”
“That kill-worthy bastard!”
Just as expected—he was furious. This man regarded every person of Ribelt as his own child. What would happen next was obvious.
Once someone like him got angry, this grandpa would not die peacefully either. Ribelt had accepted the Empire’s civilization, but when it came to truly heinous criminals, he killed without hesitation. That was the law of Ribelt.
Alright then—hand the grandpa over as is. I had already killed him enough.
“So I leave this old man to the lord.”
“Those things… are they about the doctrines of the New World Group?”
Hmm. Still quick on the uptake. He knew well. Valk stared intently at the book in my hand as if interested, so I handed it over.
“Yes. Criticizing the current noble system while spouting nonsense about having to revere a god.”
“The current noble system, huh. Ridiculous. Right. Well done. I never expected you would handle things like this in a single day.”
After reading that bizarre book for a while, he looked me over from head to toe as if seeing me anew.
Ah. I had seen that look a few times before—the expression of someone wanting to take me in as family of Ribelt. Even in Noah’s days it had been a reaction of “annoying, but I’ll accept you.” He had been thinking of picking one of the girls among the people and marrying me off.
As Noah, I had refused that proposal once.
So now I planned to ignore the expectation written all over that face.
As if I knew nothing at all.
“This much is basic.”
“Well done. Rest a few days before you leave. My son will be coming down to his hometown for a bit soon.”
Then I definitely could not stay longer. Why would I need to see that bastard Valen’s face? Looking at Valk, he seemed ready to try something, so I decided to ignore it.
“No. I need to head toward the Great Forest as well.”
“You’re saying you’ll depart right now?”
Of course. I could not stay here forever. I didn’t want to see his kid either, and I had things to warn them about at the Great Forest.
The elves of the Great Forest had an arrogant temperament, so I needed to meet that so-called elf king and consult about the New World Group.
For all I knew he might recognize me the way Glacia had, but given that the New World Group’s scale was larger than expected and they were actually operating near the Great Forest as well, there was no other choice at present. I would have to meet that long-eared bastard and talk things over properly.
“Yes. I said a week. There’s no time to play around in Ribelt. Instead, I’ll give you this.”
“What’s this?”
“The bases where those New World Group bastards near Ribelt are located.”
Before coming out I had prepared a map marking the New World Group’s bases. Among them were bandit dens and various other fronts. Handing this over would make catching the New World Group in the vicinity far less difficult.
“It can’t be helped. Use this usefully on your way.”
“What’s this?”
Valk handed me a small bundle. Looking carefully, it contained foods famous in Ribelt.
Was he telling me to eat them on the road? I could accept this much, but I was curious about his ulterior motive.
“Still, aren’t you the Taesa? I simply want to treat well an official who came from the center. Since you’re an Ashtar, you won’t need money or anything. Right?”
Ah. So this was a bribe of that sort.
“Well, I’ll gladly accept it as a bribe. Then I’ll be going.”
I bowed lightly to Valk and left the territory.
As expected, once I came out, that man Valk was truly impressive. How quickly he had given orders—everywhere was already filled with Ribelt soldiers.
It looked like work for rooting out the New World Group, and it was so fast I could only click my tongue.
“Do you really intend to go to the Great Forest?”
“I have to. Since the lord of Ribelt found out, it’s become inconvenient. There’s no need to stay here long either.”
I sighed and agreed with Celia’s words.
I didn’t want to go either. The problem was that the existence of the New World Group kept getting in the way.
“Hmm. Then it can’t be helped.”
“Before we go, it would be good to contact the capital first.”
“About the New World Group?”
“Yeah. I should give that one-armed kid a nice dose of frustration. Right?”
Since I had already informed Ribelt, I needed to send word to the capital so they would subjugate the New World Group throughout the Empire.
I had to reduce them even a little if I wanted to prevent the calamities that would soon befall the Empire.