Killing Two Birds with One Stone
Thunderbolts from a clear sky.
Hagen felt as though the heavens had truly come crashing down.
...The imperial palace?
The imperial palace? The one I know?
He wanted to deny reality. He wanted to insist, with all his might, that his ears were off, that he had clearly heard wrong.
...I did think something was strange from the very beginning.
He felt wronged, too.
After leaving things alone for so long, they were only sending someone now?
And they had even gone so far as to invent a rank he had never heard of before, some Commander of the Special Security Unit?
No matter how he looked at it, it was suspicious. If they had truly intended to normalize Nox, they would have sent a much larger force, prepared to do it properly from the start.
And yet they had sent only one man.
Worse, they had sent some fresh-faced boy who looked barely old enough to be called an adult, and called him a commander.
If the imperial family was behind all this... then maybe...
The thought began to spiral, chasing its own tail.
The imperial palace, his young age, that arrogance beyond mere insolence.
N-no way...?
The line of thought that had seemed as though it would never end stopped at a conclusion so horrifying that his mind refused to go further.
Royal blood.
It obviously would not be direct lineage.
But if even a single drop of imperial blood was mixed in there...
...then Hagen would become a man who was neither alive nor dead.
His mind went white. His heart pounded. Even his breathing began to go out of control.
His teeth clacked together with a sharp rattle.
"How is it? Got the situation figured out yet?"
The smile at the corner of Kael's mouth deepened little by little.
Just looking at that smile made Hagen's suspicions harden into certainty.
He dropped flat to the floor and began begging forgiveness for his sins.
"I-I-I've committed a crime deserving death!!"
The man who had thrown away dignity and pride alike.
Hagen began to tremble like a frightened child.
...Hmm.
Looking at Hagen like that, Kael thought to himself.
This guy seems like he's... misunderstanding something, doesn't he?
That was exactly the reaction he was getting.
And now that he thought about it, he had probably phrased things in a way that invited that misunderstanding.
Well, I didn't actually say that.
What was he supposed to do about a conclusion the man had reached all on his own?
Since it had come to this, Kael decided to make use of the situation.
He sat down in the luxurious chair Hagen had been occupying just moments ago and crossed his legs.
Hagen, still prostrate on the floor, did nothing but shake.
"Hmmm... what should I do with you?"
"I-I've committed a crime deserving death..."
"What, you want me to just kill you now?"
"......"
Hagen went dumbly silent. Apparently, even that was not to his liking.
Kael let out a snort and spoke again.
"Hey, lift your head."
"......"
"From your perspective, why do you think I came here?"
"I-I, that, I don't really..."
Hagen was drenched in cold sweat, having no idea what answer Kael wanted from him.
"People say things like Nox is a garbage dump."
"......"
"But now that I've actually come here... I think that's half right and half wrong. There is trash all over the place here, sure, but there are also a few usable jewels mixed in. It'd be neat to just sweep everything away, but that's a waste, isn't it? I'd have to throw out all the valuables too."
Hagen, listening in silence, began rolling his eyes around frantically.
Survival instinct was a frightening thing. Show a person even the thinnest thread of hope, and they'd cling to it.
"T-That is entirely correct! E-even if this city looks like a cesspit on the outside, it's not necessarily..."
"Shut up. Can't you see I'm talking right now?"
"......"
"But then again, I can't just leave stinking, ugly trash lying around, can I?"
"R-right, yes..."
"So I came up with a pretty good idea."
"A-an idea, you say?"
"Yeah. If you keep acting like trash the way you are now, then I'll have no choice but to throw you out... but if you come under me, doesn't the story change?"
"...Pardon?"
Hagen blinked at him blankly, clearly unable to follow.
"I'll make it easy for you. Do you want to join the guard, or do you want to get buried in the ground like the trash you are?"
"J-Join the guard...?"
"As you know, our guard is a little short on people. I'm the commander of the so-called Special Security Unit, and also the captain of the guard, but I don't exactly have much to show for my dignity right now. So this is me making you an offer. You could call it a recruitment pitch."
"I-Is that really possible...? Then what about all the business we've been running?"
"Come on, do you really think I'd be so stingy I couldn't even overlook that? Keep doing things the way you have been."
"...?"
Keep doing things the way they had been? Was that actually possible?
"Just pay your taxes properly and bring me your ledgers on time. Don't do the things I tell you not to do. Easy, right?"
Only then did Hagen, who had been wearing a foolish expression, finally understand.
Ah. So that's what this was.
Kael intended to swallow Iron Thorn whole.
* * *
"I-Is this really our office...?"
"Yeah. Didn't I say I'd come after finding us a new place?"
The grand mansion that Iron Thorn had owned and run as a business, standing right in the heart of the city.
As of today, it had become the guard office.
"That sign's crooked. Move it a little to the left."
With a gesture from Kael, the former Iron Thorn members corrected the placement of the sign they were installing.
"And get rid of that hideous statue and those damn chains too. What is this ugly mess supposed to be? Seriously, what awful taste."
Kael clicked his tongue at the decorations symbolizing Iron Thorn.
He was sweeping away every trace of Iron Thorn still lingering in the office.
This place was going to be reborn from the ground up.
"...Is this really all right?"
Watching the scene with a complicated expression, Luke finally spoke.
"And what's supposed to be wrong with it?"
"Aren't those all criminals? Putting people like that in the guard..."
"Do you think there are any non-criminals in Nox at all?"
"......"
At Kael's reply, Luke fell silent. It was hard to argue with that.
"And technically speaking, they're not part of the guard. Hagen's the only one who is."
"...That feels like the same thing."
"It isn't. And think about it. Say we gathered a bunch of decent, innocent people and made them into guards. Do you really think the people living here would listen to them?"
Nox was unlike an ordinary city. The actual maintenance and management of the place was being handled not by an administrative office, but by criminal organizations.
Changing a system that had already taken root would mean tearing everything down and rebuilding it from scratch, and that would cost far too much time, manpower, and money.
Why go through that kind of trouble?
He had no desire to suffer for the sake of suffering.
Even if he did wipe out the criminal organizations completely, the chances of the city truly normalizing were slim.
And it doesn't even have to be normal, does it?
After spending about half a month experiencing Nox for himself, Kael had come to value the city's hidden potential highly.
It was full of stimulation.
Nox was basically Macau or Las Vegas, if you translated it into terms from Earth.
There was no shortage of incidents, but in terms of profit potential, it was top-tier.
It still lacked plenty, but Kael had set himself a goal: turn Nox into Las Vegas.
Better to drag it into the light than leave it rotting in the shadows.
That way, he could solve the guard's manpower shortage and make money at the same time.
Killing two birds with one stone.
Have your cake and eat it too.
Everybody wins, doesn't it?
Of course, anyone who crosses the line still has to be cleaned up.
Human trafficking, murder-for-hire, all of it would be swept away. Neither in the short term nor the long term would any of that do the city a shred of good.
In that sense... Bifora has to be wiped out completely.
Iron Thorn still had some value.
Their main businesses were gambling dens, taverns, and fighting pits, so with a little adjustment, they could be brought into the light.
But Bifora was different.
Their main sources of income were fencing stolen goods and human trafficking.
Those bastards were beyond redemption.
As for dealing in stolen goods, banned items, and contraband, fine.
The ones who traffic in people need to die.
* * *
A room hung with deep violet curtains. The air was thick with a sweet perfume, mixed with the stench of blood.
Bottles of liquor decorating one wall caught the light like crystal and shimmered softly.
Cecily, the head of Bifora, sat cross-legged on a black velvet sofa in the center of the room.
"I knew he was stupid and short on common sense, but... I never imagined it would be this bad."
Moments ago, she had received a report from one of her subordinates regarding Iron Thorn. Cecily let out a dry laugh.
She was almost impressed all over again by Hagen's stupidity.
To be this foolish.
It was almost enough to make her feel ashamed that she had ever competed with such pathetic losers for territory.
The reason she had done nothing and merely watched the situation unfold until now was simple.
It was to prepare properly.
Cecily saw this as an opportunity.
No matter how wildly a criminal organization might throw itself around, it was still just a criminal organization.
That meant it was a candle standing in the wind, a precarious thing that might go out at any moment.
But an officially appointed commander from the empire?
The moment she heard Kael's story, that thought had struck her.
If I use that man properly... couldn't I swallow the whole city?
It was tempting.
And it felt entirely worth trying.
There had been people she had contacted in secret recently.
The worst criminal organization on the continent, so dangerous that even speaking their name was something to be cautious about.
The Seven Deadly Sins.
Cecily was in contact with one of them.
If the Seven Deadly Sins were dragons, then Bifora was no more than an earthworm.
She had been cautious, worried that if she summoned them carelessly Bifora might simply be devoured whole, but in a situation like this, the risk was worth taking.
And today, at last, the person sent by the Seven Deadly Sins would arrive in Nox.
The expense is huge, but...
The amount they had demanded was beyond imagination, and she had hesitated for a moment, but in the end she had made up her mind.
It was an expense worth bearing.
If this were only a matter of killing him, it would have cost far less...
Cecily's goal was not to eliminate the man called Kael, but to turn him into a puppet and place him in her hands.
It was a highly difficult task, and one that required top-tier talent.
Then a knock sounded.
"My lady, your guest has arrived."
"Send him in."
At Cecily's words, the subordinate opened the door and nearly had his breath taken away.
The sweet perfume filling the room swallowed even the smell of blood.
What was the right way to describe it?
Only one word came to mind.
Death.
Yes, it was the smell of death.
"Th-this way..."
The subordinate quickly collected himself and guided the guest inside.
Swish.
No footsteps could be heard.
Only the faint sound of a black robe brushing against the carpet continued on in the silence.
"...Are you the client?"
A dry voice.
Within the robe, the man slowly raised his head.
He was lean, and his face was deathly pale.
A faded burn scar marked the skin around one eye, and a black pattern seeped across the tips of his fingers.
He was the sort of man who gave off an unpleasant feeling simply by standing there without saying a word.
"...That is correct, O Great Sin."
Cecily rose from her seat and knelt on one knee.
The moment she saw him, she knew.
This plan would succeed.