Montblanc's Trial (4)
I was a small fry, so I distrusted everyone. Whenever a stranger came near me, I checked their status window first. Even when I was the one walking up to someone, fishing for information, I checked their status window all the same.
If they were a civilian, I could handle whatever they'd prepared without breaking a sweat. But if they were a Master like me, I had to be careful. You never knew when those people would pull something — or what they'd pull.
A civilian.
As always, I checked Auntie Hazmo's status window as I followed along behind her. She appeared to belong to Palos's Bird, but to my surprise, she was an ordinary person. Then again, if every last member of the organization were a Master or a Fairy, they would have brought down the Ferdium Empire a long time ago.
Confirming that Auntie Hazmo was a civilian let me relax, if only a little. No matter how much of a small fry I was among Masters and Fairies, drop me among civilians and I was an emperor. A god.
"Ohohoho~ This is Ventis Tea, the pride of our village. The flavor and the aroma are so fine that even rulers come looking for it. Please, do try some."
She wasn't wrong to introduce it with that much confidence. The tea had a genuinely lovely fragrance — nutty and floral, the kind of thing you'd want before a meal.
"I'd rather hear what you have to say first."
I wasn't naive enough to gulp down tea offered by someone I'd just met. How was I supposed to know she hadn't put something in it? I'd let my guard down a notch. I hadn't dropped it.
"Ah. Yes..."
Hazmo scratched her head, looking awkward. Then she got to the point of why she'd approached me.
"Orders came down from above. A man named Eric Karun betrayed the organization. We're to kill him on sight. And wouldn't you know it — a few days ago, the very traitor we were ordered to execute showed up in our village."
She'd stripped the nasal lilt right out of her voice. The serious talk suited her better. Easier on the ears, too.
"So did you kill him?"
"No. We haven't killed him. We're just watching him."
"Just watching? Why?"
"Because I don't have the strength to kill him."
"Hmm."
That tracked. As the status window had already told me, Hazmo was nothing more than a civilian. Most of her stats sat at four or five points — a powerless ordinary person. Even if Eric Karun had lost every one of his Fairies on the run, he hadn't lost the strength in his own body. A civilian killing a man like that was next to impossible.
"And he's so suspicious. The moment you so much as speak to him, he goes on guard. So I reported to my superiors that Eric Karun is here, and I've been watching him ever since."
"You're saying he hasn't fled?"
"That's right. He's still in the village. It's as if he's waiting for something. Sevi's mother overheard him muttering, 'What's taking them so long? If they don't get here soon...'"
"This village has no combat personnel?"
"None. I'm the only member of the Bird in this village to begin with."
"You're the only one? Then how did you even know Eric Karun was hiding here? No matter how capable you are, you can't possibly keep track of every outsider who walks into town."
That she was the sole member of Palos's Bird in the village sat wrong with me. Ventis was small compared to a real city, but hundreds of people still lived here. One person watching every stranger who came through the gates was impossible.
Hazmo burst out laughing again, the nasal giggle filling her voice once more.
"Ohohoho~ You're looking down on this old lady a little too much~"
"...Excuse me?"
When had I looked down on her?
"We aunties, you see, know everything that happens in a village. We may not have the kind of power a Master like you does, but there is no way to hide from the eyes and ears of the aunties. I may not look like much, but I've got every auntie in this village firmly in hand."
Ah. That kind of thing.
Martial arts novels always had their orthodox and unorthodox factions, and the intelligence networks behind them never changed: the Beggars' Guild on one side, and the Hao Clan on the other — a web of courtesans, innkeepers, and thieves. They sat at the very bottom of society, so everyone ignored them, and everyone talked freely in front of them. People simply did not see them as equals.
The auntie network Hazmo was describing was the same animal.
An auntie network... Not bad at all.
I'd already been feeling the need for an intelligence organization of my own. Inside my head sat a future no one else knew — information, in its own way. But those memories were hard to spend in the moment, and more than that, they told me almost nothing about what was actually happening in this world right now.
I couldn't walk with Palos's Bird for the rest of my life. I needed an information network that belonged to me alone, one they would never know about. And here was Hazmo, a woman who already had an entire village in her grip.
...Should I pull her over to my side?
I needed at least one place where I could live without anyone watching me. Didn't I?
"Ahem."
Coming on too strong, too fast, would only make her suspicious of me in return. I cleared my throat and eased into it.
"I understand completely. I'm sorry for doubting you. If I've given any offense, I hope you'll forgive me with that generous heart of yours."
"Ah — no, why are you suddenly doing this?"
I bowed my head as I apologized, and Hazmo went thoroughly flustered, as if this was the last thing she'd expected. She didn't know what to do with herself, waving at me to lift my head at once.
"Thank you for your forgiveness."
"Th-there's nothing to forgive. If anything, it's overwhelming — someone from the organization treating a lowly person like me this way."
"Lowly? You are the one responsible for this village, Hazmo. A person's worth is not decided by their strength. It's decided by their words and their deeds. You are not lowly. You are someone of value."
"....."
Hazmo's mouth opened and closed. No sound came out. She stared at me, dazed, and then the tears started falling.
"Oh, listen to me, getting all weepy. I'm sorry. That's the first time anyone's ever said something like that to me..."
Embarrassed, she turned her face away and wiped her eyes with a tissue. She called herself ridiculous. I didn't see it that way at all.
People with a lot of scars on their hearts have a way of letting the hidden parts show at a single warm word. In my previous life, too, I'd often watched people with little to their name get looked down on by society. Everyone says contempt and discrimination are wrong, but they happen in every society that has ever existed. Looking down on someone else is an easy way to feel superior.
And that tendency stood out all the more in a world like this one, where the gap between those who had power and those who did not was carved into the open. A person with power could insult a person without it, and there was no one to tell them otherwise. Step in, say the right thing, and they wouldn't listen — and you might die for the trouble. Hazmo had almost certainly spent her life under that quiet, grinding contempt. And she'd hidden the misery of it behind that peculiar nasal laugh.
After a while, the tears ran their course, and she settled.
"Are you a native of this place, Hazmo?"
I shifted the conversation, hoping to lift the tear-stained air in the room.
"Ah, yes. That's right. I've lived here my whole life, from the day I was born."
"Then how did you come to join Palos's Bird?"
"I didn't have a choice."
"No?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"Well..."
Hazmo told me how she'd ended up in Palos's Bird. There wasn't much to it, in the end.
The organization had been expanding its reach through the shadows, and their wings had stretched as far as Ventis. But this place had only one real virtue — good tea. It wasn't a strategic location. There wasn't even a city ruled by a king or queen anywhere nearby. Ventis had no useful fighters to speak of, and from Palos's Bird's point of view it was a leftover: inside their territory, yes, but whether they secured it or not hardly mattered.
A group of people came to the village and ordered Hazmo's father, who was the village chief at the time, to submit to the Bird's rule. Refuse, they said, and they would kill every last person in the village. Her father could not refuse. The men were armed with quality weapons and armor, and one look was enough to know that the entire village could have rushed them at once and still failed to bring them down.
In the end, Hazmo's father became the village's intelligence officer. Time passed, he died, and she inherited the seat.
"It hurt, having to hand over the villagers' information to them. But what else could we do? My father and I did as we were told. Cross them even a little and everyone would die. It wasn't all bad, though. They gave us a modest stipend every quarter."
"Is that so?"
Palos's Bird was, surprisingly, an organization with a welfare policy.
So that's how it is.
Palos's Bird did not consider Ventis important. They considered it so unimportant they hadn't even stationed a single combat operative here. Which was exactly why a traitor like Eric Karun had come crawling into this village to hide.
I finally drank the Ventis Tea she'd given me. It had gone cold while we talked, but the flavor was still good enough to justify her claim that even rulers sought it out.
"Ohohoho~ Oh, look at me. The tea's gone cold, hasn't it? Let me brew you a fresh cup."
There was goodwill in the way she looked at me. My manners — polite, without a trace of arrogance — had earned it.
"No. I'll finish this and be on my way. It's time I dealt with the traitor. Would you tell me where he is?"
"What? Ah — yes. I'll show you."
"That's all right. Just give me the location. If you move with me, your identity could be exposed. I'll go alone and handle it quietly."
"Y-you will?"
"Yes. I'll come back when the work is done. You can brew me that fresh cup then."
"...Yes. Ohoho~ I'll do that."
With the location of my second target's hideout in hand, I stood up from my seat.
"Urgh... ghh..."
"Hah! Thrashing around and making a goddamn fuss. I told you we should do this the easy way, you bastard."
I caught my breath and smacked the back of Eric Karun's head as he lay groaning beneath me.
"Let's keep this clean."
"W-wait! Spare me! If you kill me like this, you'll die too! My comrades will be here any minute!"
"Tsk. I said let's keep this clean."
"S-spa— ghk?!"
My blade came down and punched straight through Eric Karun's nape. He convulsed, then went still.
Killing him had bumped me up a level. That made seventy-three.
"Warriors really are easy to put down."
Eric Karun's level had been about the same as my first target, Jeffrey Isaac. The fight itself had been far easier. Being a Warrior class, his hideout had no traps waiting for me. We'd ended up in a brawl, but I'd pinned him with my superior Strength stat and crushed him through raw power.
"Let's see... anything worth taking?"
I cut off Eric Karun's head, stowed it, and searched his hideout. When I'd dealt with Jeffrey Isaac, the villagers had come running and I hadn't been able to loot a thing. This time I could.
"Tsk. Nothing here."
Aside from a small amount of Gold, there was nothing worth taking. A 4-star, and the man was dead broke — not even a single common item to his name.
"Comrades on the way, though?"
Right before he died, he'd said his comrades were coming to this village. Probably not a lie. One of the village women had overheard him muttering about how long they were taking.
"Hmm."
I could leave right now and go after the last target. But if I did, Eric Karun's comrades might reduce the village to ashes when they arrived.
"I want this village for myself..."
The fact that Palos's Bird barely paid attention to this place was especially appealing. Here, I could grow my power without them ever noticing.
"All right."
I'd deal with those bastards first. Then I'd go kill the last target.