The Purge of Bicken Territory (1)
Unlike usual, a large crowd had gathered in the square of Bicken City. They were spectators drawn by rumors that a trial would be held here today. In medieval times, watching trials and executions was little more than a dopamine-fueled show for people starved of entertainment.
“As a vassal family, deceiving our count house, attempting to marry my daughter, and deliberately trying to hand the territory over to another noble is behavior that cannot be tolerated, no matter his noble status!”
Luimina’s voice rang out powerfully across the square as she presided over the trial. Perhaps because he had been thoroughly teabagged, Wellington knelt deathly pale, saying nothing at all.
“I-I didn’t know anything! Count! Please spare me!”
“I’m not from the main family, so I didn’t know!”
The Bicken family members who had followed him were all crying out for mercy, begging Countess Luimina to spare their lives.
“Silence them all.”
“Yes! Gag them!”
Finding the noise unbearable, Luimina whispered quietly to Ertia Bicken, the newly appointed head of the Bicken family. While Luimina was carrying out the executions, this was Ertia’s land. She could not issue direct orders to the soldiers and knights here.
“Do you bastards even know who I am! Mmph!!”
“Shut your mouth!!”
At Ertia’s command, soldiers stepped forward and began forcing gags into the prisoners’ mouths. There had been a time when the mere fact that they were nobles prevented soldiers from treating them roughly. That time was over. Even common soldiers could now lay hands on them and deliver a certain degree of rough treatment.
“This is a royal decree from His Majesty the King, recognizing Ertia Bicken, Baroness, as the new ruler of this territory and permitting the execution of Baron Wellington and the other implicated nobles! In accordance with this decree, I, who have been appointed to oversee this trial, hereby sentence all of you to death!”
Once every mouth was gagged and the protesting voices had been silenced, Luimina brought the trial to an immediate close. Of course, the outcome had been decided from the start. The entire affair was a performance meant to show the commoners that even nobles, regardless of the severity of their crimes, would be dealt with according to proper procedure.
“Carry out the sentence!”
At Luimina’s final command, the executioners began hanging Wellington and his faction one by one from the gallows.
“Ugh… How gruesome.”
The crowd frowned at the sight of necks snapping, yet no one left. How often would they ever witness nobles being executed like this again?
“Ptui. That Wellington bastard finally got what he deserved.”
“That son of a bitch raped my mother…!”
When they remembered the atrocities Wellington and his cronies had committed against them, the spectators likely felt a refreshing sense of justice.
On the day Wellington was executed, the territory’s people gathered in small groups of threes and fives, enjoying their own modest festivals.
*
“It’s a shame we must leave.”
“You can always come visit again later, can’t you?”
“That’s true. Elisa, take good care of Master while I’m away.”
“Yes.”
After Wellington’s execution and the formal succession ceremony in which Ertia officially received both the lordship and family headship, Luimina could no longer remain. Perhaps that was why she kept glancing at me with regretful eyes even as she prepared to depart.
“Ah, Lord Alpha… I’ll hand this position over to one of my other siblings and return here as quickly as I can!”
In contrast, Airen declared she would return soon and began rubbing her scent all over my body.
Smack♥
“I understand. Both of you need to get going now, yes?”
“Hehe… ♥♥”
Only after I firmly gripped both their asses did they finally set off from the territory. Since we would meet again soon, there was no real sorrow in parting. Luimina seemed diligent in her duties as a lord for now… but before long she would be unable to forget my cock and would appoint a suitable proxy before rushing back to me.
After Luimina left, I was finally able to focus on my work again.
Now that Ertia had become lord, the number of tasks I needed to handle had increased dramatically. It could not be helped. Ertia was little more than a figurehead. In practice, I was the one performing all the actual duties of a lord.
Wellington had attended every meeting but had never been a diligent ruler, so the workload he left behind was light. I, however, was not Wellington. To properly lead the territory, power had to be centralized. I needed to guide Bicken Territory with the rule of an Alpha Male, distinct from that of Beta Males.
The current power structure of Bicken Territory consisted of five key positions: the Lord, the Finance Minister, the Administrative Minister, the Knight Commander, and finally the Minister of Black Plague and Pregnancy Countermeasures.
There was no need to replace the Knight Commander or the Lord, since both were now my females. The Finance Minister and Administrative Minister, however, had to go. As for the plague and pregnancy department, I planned to withdraw into the shadows and hand it over to Gemini, renaming it the Health Department.
That fucking Wellington… He must have assumed the department would be scrapped soon, because he had given it an utterly ridiculous name. Sigh… There was no point cursing a dead man now.
After roughly organizing the plan in my head, I immediately set it in motion. I had to finish everything before Melania returned.
At the territory meeting where everything had been prepared.
Shaking uncontrollably….
“I-is this really true?”
“It is.”
Ertia’s body trembled with apparent fury as she looked over the evidence of the Finance Minister’s misconduct that Leona had uncovered.
“My Lord… this is simply common practice…”
“Common practice? You’ve been embezzling a portion of the profits from soap sales and even hiring back-alley thugs, and you dare call that common practice?!”
“The money given to the thugs was ordered by Baron Wellington… Hic!”
“So you were colluding with my father to overthrow the territory!!”
In her rage, Ertia drew her sword at once.
“Throw this man into prison!”
Of course, she did not actually strike the Finance Minister with her blade. It was all an act. Even a viscount was still a noble; he could not be executed without a formal trial.
“Kugh… My Lord! My Lord!!”
The Finance Minister shouted as he was dragged away by Erika exactly as prearranged, but no one paid him any attention.
“My Lord.”
I rose from my seat, bowed to Ertia, and spoke.
“There is evidence that the Administrative Minister has been accepting bribes and planting his own people in other departments during his tenure.”
“We only sold those positions because the territory’s coffers were empty! We had no choice!!”
The higher one stood in the administrative hierarchy, the more entangled they became in the buying and selling of offices the more corrupt they were.
“And the majority of those sold positions were related to the finance department, even as these people embezzled the territory’s public funds?”
I thrust forward the evidence I had gathered. The scale of the Administrative Minister’s sale of offices for bribes, along with the corruption committed by those he had installed, was staggering. Because it had not been directly connected to money and my own authority had been weak before, I had been unable to uncover it earlier. But once I began digging in earnest, it became clear that the entire territory was rotten to the core.
Even within the knight order—which I had believed had been normalized after becoming my females—problems continued to surface: portions of monster byproducts disappearing, inventories of the new armor and swords I had purchased vanishing, and similar issues.
“Investigate and apprehend every individual on this list…!! Imprison the Administrative Minister!”
“Yes!”
Erika, who had just returned after hauling away the Finance Minister, immediately dragged the Administrative Minister off as well. The reform to excise every corrupt element from the territory had begun.
*
“Kyaaak!! Spare me!”
“That’s my money! My money!! You bastards!!”
“These men are carrying out official duties!!”
After Ertia officially ascended as lord, those who had continued enjoying corruption as if nothing had changed from Wellington’s time began to face the stern judgment of the law.
“I am a noble, you bastards!!”
“What good is being a noble if you break the law!”
“Aaaack!!”
For such men, the fact that they were nobles offered no protection whatsoever. The soldiers had already arrested multiple nobles. They had been hesitant at first, but after witnessing the nobles they captured being executed or sold into slavery, they gradually grew more violent.
The thrill of changing from victim to perpetrator was so intoxicating that the soldiers could not stop themselves.
“Enough.”
“Yes!”
Knowing the soldiers might run amok, I had made sure Leona was always present during official duties so she could intervene if the violence became excessive. The soldiers who had been beaten half to death alongside the nobles they had captured immediately snapped to attention like perfectly trained troops, proving my decision had been correct.
“Keep it moderate.”
“Yes!”
“You did well today as well.”
“Thank you!”
The soldier who received thirty silver—one-third of his monthly salary—simply for following orders properly snapped a crisp salute. Of course, the reward was not limited to a single soldier. Soldiers could not be controlled by the whip alone. Following my instructions, Leona offered appropriate carrots to soothe and guide them.
“Then let’s move.”
“Yes! Follow us!”
“Ugh…!”
The corrupt officials who had lost everything in a single day could only be pathetically dragged away by the soldiers.