Dying People, Rationalization
Once public opinion had been whipped into a frenzy by the Interrunner, riots erupted across the entire Empire.
"The people trapped in the Red Gate vortex are human beings too!"
"Emperor, stop your tyranny!"
"Don't kill our families! Humans aren't monsters!"
The moment the people began to raise hell, the Empire immediately issued rebuttals and explanations—but it was like pouring firewood onto a blaze that had already been lit. With the initial response bungled so badly, the situation only grew more severe.
In an Empire where the Emperor held absolute power, large-scale protests—something once unthinkable—began to spread. Sensing the gravity of it all, the Emperor deployed his enforcers.
"Alik. Find the ones leading these protests and kill them. Handle it somewhere out of sight whenever possible—but if any of those impure elements use force or push back too hard, slaughter them right out in the open."
Alik, commander of the Imperial Execution Squad charged with punishing those who broke imperial law, bowed his head as he spoke.
"As Your Majesty wills. Anyone who tears down the Empire's order and throws society into chaos—I will kill them all."
With that, Alik kept his head lowered and slowly backed out through the door. Then he addressed the squad members waiting outside.
"His Majesty has grown noticeably gaunt. All the recent troubles, no doubt. Tyro, report on the current situation."
"Riots are breaking out across the Empire. The ones driving them are few in number, though. If we quietly dispose of just the ringleaders, we should be able to contain this."
"His Majesty ordered the riot leaders handled in secret, and the truly vile ones publicly beheaded to plant fear. Tyro—what do you think?"
"Both options are dangerous. Even if we kill them in secret, no one will fail to realize the Imperial Family had a hand in it. And if we do it openly, the backlash will be enormous. Extreme terror might shut the citizens up for a while—but that only works without the Interrunner in the picture..."
Tyro answered with a grave expression.
"No matter what method we use, the moment word spreads through the Interrunner that we're on the move again, the scale of the riots will explode. And the citizens will unite at a level completely different from anything before."
"Haa..."
Alik pressed a hand to his forehead, his face heavy with conflict, and muttered under his breath.
"The Interrunner... that damned communication channel is the problem."
"Exactly. Without the Interrunner, we could systematically behead the rioters region by region and crush them before the information spread. But as long as it exists, no matter which side we clean up first, the news will travel with it. Anyone with a Distance can log in, and the Empire can't even monitor the Interrunner."
Alik opened his Distance and stared at the Interrunner screen. There, excessive insults and criticism of the Empire poured out without end. People calling for the Emperor's immediate death, claiming the Empire treated its citizens not as humans but as monsters—crossing every line. Alik wanted nothing more than to track them down and punish them for treason on the spot, but there was no way to catch them.
"So this is how terrifying public opinion can be. It binds people together, dulls their fear of death, and lets them act as a single mass."
"Because they move as a group, isn't it? Separately, one by one, those bastards wouldn't have dared open their mouths. But once the numbers grow, they have the gall to commit treason against us."
Alik nodded as if in agreement, then lifted his sword and stepped outside at a measured pace.
"For now, we quietly dispose of the ones we can reach. And we have to solve the root problem as well."
Having said that, Alik moved from place to place and personally carried out the beheadings of those who had led the riots.
Shunk.
The sound of a blade sliding home. Alik looked down at the man he had stabbed, his face devoid of any emotion.
"Ghk... Did... did the Empire send you...?"
One of the rioters who had stepped forward and raised his voice. Even with a sword buried in his body, the man refused to yield.
"If... if the Empire did send you... please... tell them to stop detonating mana bombs inside the Red Gate... My family is in there... my family..."
Alik listened, then crouched down and met the man's eyes.
"Hey. The Empire already announced it. That plan was fabricated. The Empire would never do something like that."
"Ha... but the Imperial Seal that only His Majesty possesses was stamped on the document, wasn't it?"
"Like I said—that was fabricated too."
"Do you take me for a fool? I heard the Emperor's seal has all kinds of safeguards that make it impossible to copy or forge. And yet you—kh... khh..."
Alik drove the blade deeper into the man's heart, then flicked the blood from his sword as he whispered,
"I was going to let you die with some peace of mind. You don't appreciate my consideration. If you want the truth so badly—you're dying anyway, so I'll tell you. The massacre plan is real. We only prepared it as a last resort; we never intended to use it first. Of course, given how things stand now... that last resort might be put into action soon. That's the problem."
"...G-God... will punish you..."
With a soft collapse, the man's body tilted sideways and began to grow cold in an instant. Beside him, the squad member Tyro hoisted the corpse onto his back and carried it toward the nearby Red Gate vortex.
He flung the body to the monsters, then spoke to Alik.
"Still, with the Red Gate mutants appearing, corpse disposal got a lot easier thanks to the monsters, didn't it? Once they eat them, not even the bones are left."
Alik did not answer Tyro's remark. Instead he said,
"Alik—how many more people do we have to kill?"
"...Maybe a few hundred more and this will settle? Just what we've killed today already looks like well over a hundred. For a single day's work, we've put down quite a few."
"Are posts going up on the Interrunner?"
"Yes. A few threads about the riot leaders vanishing have started to appear, but it's only been a day, so people are suspicious rather than certain. The Imperial side has also put people on it, trying to shift the Interrunner's opinion a little—pushing the narrative that the ringleaders got scared and ran. But with so many disappearing all at once, they'll catch on that we're moving."
"..."
Alik stared blankly into the Red Gate for a moment, then spoke to Tyro.
"According to posts I saw on the Interrunner, there's a Safety Zone inside the Red Gate vortex."
"I heard that too. Once the story first spread on the Interrunner, the Empire investigated and now suspects Leos created the Safety Zone. It's not certain—but the only person who can close the high-grade Red Gate near the center is Leos, so that's the inference. Gates don't just close on their own, do they?"
"Leos... that man is truly selfish."
Alik ground his teeth as he looked at the dead, and continued,
"If that bastard hadn't fled like a cripple and had answered the Empire's call right away—if he had closed every last Red Gate—there never would have been a massacre plan on the table, and innocent citizens never would have had to die."
"They say the Empire manipulated public opinion and pinned false crimes on him. The Imperial Shadow Unit was involved too, from what I hear..."
"Tyro, I despise selfish trash who think only of themselves. The sacrifice of the few for the greater good is inevitable. How is some piece of garbage who gets a little wronged and then holes up in a corner to look after nothing but his own survival supposed to be our only hope? Even if he was treated unfairly, when the citizens are in danger, when the Empire is in danger, when the Emperor is in danger—a true subject of the Empire should throw his life away and come running."
"I think so too."
"You said Leos might be in the central zone..."
Alik flung the remaining corpses to the monsters, then snapped his fingers. At the sound, the entire Execution Squad streamed toward the center as one.
Men who said nothing, heads bowed, each holding a sword marked with the Imperial crest. Alik addressed them.
"We've killed enough of the core riot leaders. From here on, we act for a fundamental solution. We're going to drag out the traitor hiding inside the Red Gate—that cowardly piece of trash. Leos. We capture him and force him to close the Red Gates."
Hearing that, Tyro asked,
"Will he cooperate at this point?"
"If he won't cooperate, we kill him. Trash like that has no reason to stay alive. We work for justice. We are people who live to enforce the Empire's will. We simply remain faithful to that duty."
The moment the words ended, the Imperial Execution Squad commander and his men began filing one by one into the Red Gate vortex. After several days, they succeeded in advancing quite deep inside.
And while they were making camp—
Beep... beep... beep...
An unknown, rhythmic mechanical sound began to pulse through the air.
Alik smiled and called his squad together.
"We've detected people moving nearby. Everyone—move out. Time to enforce justice."