The Rat Bastards Never Let Go
The rat beastmen were relentless. "Fire!"
A flat, open lot situated a short distance from the train station. An old bolt-action rifle barked and spat flame. After completing basic drill training, firearms safety education, and mastering marksmanship, Mogant's pack was running live-fire exercises with a weariness that bordered on exhaustion.
Licenses? Permits?
"Are you the local lord here, sir?"
"Ah, ahaha! ...Well, yes, but what's this about?"
"I've been authorized to recruit a new battalion, and I'll be conducting basic military training near the station. I'd appreciate your understanding when you hear the gunfire."
With my impeccably fresh murder smile, I made my polite request. To my surprise, the lord gave his cheerful approval.
Well. I wouldn't want to pick a fight with two thousand beastman infantry armed with submachine guns and a Behemoth armored train either.
"You're still holding the rifle wrong! You're not gang members anymore! Why do you keep gripping it like you're shooting from an alley? All right—watch the drill instructor's demonstration again!"
Deputy Lucila stepped forward and demonstrated a flawless shooting stance. Fire while standing. Fire while sitting. Fire while prone.
"Keep firing from each position until you hit every target. Understood?"
"Yes! Understood!"
"Good. Next squad."
They'd had enough experience handling guns in back alleys that they didn't flinch at the weapons. That probably helped.
"I'll start from the zero mark! You all learned the basic operations, so everyone take one shot—"
I was just about to begin giving the next squad their orders when—
"Commander."
First Battalion Commander. A massive bear beastman with an enormous frame approached me.
"The Second Battalion Commander is back."
"Back?"
"Yes. He didn't come alone. Dozens of rat beastmen arrived with him."
"Let's go see. Deputy! You're in charge of the remaining live-fire drills!"
The deputy flashed a grin and gave a crisp salute before carrying on with the training.
The evening sun was setting, and darkness was beginning to settle over the train station. Huddled together beside the locomotive of the armored train Behemoth, a group of rat beastmen was visible.
They'd emerged above ground while it was still light enough to see, and their expressions were stiff with discomfort.
"Second Battalion Commander!"
"Commander! We've returned."
"Looks like you managed to persuade them."
"Yes. He's the leader of the Southern Clan. Name's Kka-chi."
As the Second Battalion Commander introduced a rat beastman, a small-framed figure covered in scars on his face stepped forward toward me.
"I want to see the submachine guns."
Typical rat beastman. Cut straight to the chase, skip the pleasantries. I was used to it by now.
"Follow me. I'll show you."
I led them to the freight car loaded with submachine guns that we'd requisitioned from Marquis Leonard.
The rat beastmen's eyes lit up at the tightly packed crates of firearms.
"Chik! It's not a lie after all!"
"Why would I lie? I need your information, that's all."
"We want to go somewhere the talk won't spread."
At those words, I shut the freight car door and sealed it.
"The walls of the freight car are thick. Nobody outside will be able to hear our conversation."
"Good. I heard you plan to kidnap the bastard child of the Rubheim Marquis and use him for blackmail."
"That's correct. I need a lot of information about the boy. He actually exists, right? It's not just rumor?"
"Chik! It's not rumor. He really exists."
"Then let me ask you something. Why hasn't the Rubheim Marquis killed that bastard child yet? I heard the rumor that he was conceived when the Marquis's eldest daughter had an affair with a servant. Wouldn't it be simpler to just kill the kid rather than risk destabilizing the entire power structure of the South?"
It was a cold question, but that's how the world of power works—no blood, no tears. And Kka-chi's answer was even more dramatic than I could have imagined.
"That bastard child was born from a direct relationship between the Rubheim Marquis and his eldest daughter."
For a moment, I couldn't keep my expression steady and had to stare blankly.
"Are you sure?"
"Certain."
Kka-chi leaned in close and lowered his voice.
"The rumor about the bastard child currently wandering the world was spread by the midwife who actually delivered him. The Viscount House of Dwein, which was supposed to marry the eldest daughter, had caught wind of something and kidnapped the midwife for interrogation. During the torture, a few words slipped out."
Even the underworld fixer who'd supplied Mogant's pack with pistols knew about it—that's how widely the rumor had spread.
"The Rubheim Marquis was clever. Seeing that the rumor had spread, he did the opposite—he inflated the rumor himself to bury the truth. The preposterous story that the Marquis's eldest daughter had an affair with a servant spread across the entire South, front and center. That way, the rumor ended as just a rumor."
"But Kka-chi. You must have caught a whiff of something off that rumor, right?"
"There's always something rotten hidden in a rumor that spreads too fast. I trusted that one instinct and invested ten years. And I finally reached the truth. I found the location of the estate where the bastard child is living."
Relentless. If there was a word for it, these bastards were relentless. But from the rat beastmen's perspective, this matter was something they could never just let slide. A dangerous secret that could destroy the other side the moment it was seized—rat beastmen were the kind to obsess over secrets like that.
"What's the size of the garrison protecting the bastard child?"
"Thirty soldiers, heavily armed with firearms. Plus five knights and one mage guarding him."
"That doesn't seem like a level we can handle just by handing over submachine guns."
"Correct. We can't handle it. But there is a way to kidnap just the bastard child. We confirmed there's a secret passage in the estate, prepared for emergencies. Three years ago, we dug an underground tunnel connecting to the midpoint of that secret passage."
Kka-chi flashed a sinister grin.
"If we can get our hands on firearms and explosives, we can cause a commotion and make the bastard child flee through the secret passage. And at the decisive moment—BOOM!—we collapse the underground tunnel and isolate the child. That way, we can extract just the bastard without ever needing to engage in combat."
Impressive. Truly relentless and venomous bastards. That's exactly why, even more so, I thought they were exactly the kind of people the North needed right now.
"Second Battalion Commander. Labelt-chi has already explained sufficiently, but I'm going to rebuild this crumbling North. And my subordinates—I intend to build a land where beastmen can live without fear."
"We've heard it."
"I'll build you houses. Not underground—proper houses, where you can eat good food with your families and sleep in a proper bed. I have no tail to tie a knot with, so I can't make that kind of oath, but I swear on my name and on ten years of military service."
Watching the rat beastmen led by Labelt-chi, I carefully extended my open palm to Kka-chi, following their custom of showing trust.
"I need your help. Bring the South's bastard child to me. If you do that, I'll give you a land you can call home as a gift."
Kka-chi and the southern clan's officers' goatees trembled. Their expressions still hadn't fully shed their suspicion.
But—
"I've read the newspaper every single day for ten years. Labelt-chi's face was printed front and center. They called him the Empire's hero—a being who assassinated thirty high-ranking officers of the Kramkin Kingdom."
"I didn't assassinate thirty of them directly. Most of them were exposed in position by rat beastmen and killed by simultaneous artillery bombardment. The Imperial court just spun it a little to boost morale."
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that one of us appeared in the Empire's newspaper."
Kka-chi didn't deliberate for long. He placed his tail on my open palm. The strongest gesture of trust a rat beastman could offer.
"I trust you, Commander Volka. A warm house. A soft bed. And properly cooked, hot food. I want to give my children a place like that."
I smirked.
"Consider it done. We'll fleece the Southern nobles too."
"Aaah. Of course."
"Take as many submachine guns as you can carry. Take as much pistol ammunition as you want. And hand over a few of the combat engineer explosives from the ammunition car of the armored train. That should be enough to collapse the secret passage."
Kka-chi grinned. Chik.
"You're a friend who knows how to talk. When I arrived, I saw wolf bastards carrying guns around the train. Are you planning to bring them to the North too?"
"Right. Wolves, rats, rabbits, foxes—we're bringing all of them to the North. The North is short on population, after all."
"There are more rat beastmen than wolf bastards. Is the freight car enough?"
Unfortunately, no. Just the two thousand wolf beastmen were already more than enough. The Emperor had attached about eighty freight cars to the armored train, reforming it into a grotesque transport-specialized unit, but there was no room left to fit the rat beastmen on top of that.
"Not enough. The wolves alone are plenty."
"No problem. We can just hijack another train to ride up. You're not just going to fleece the Rubheim Marquis for money, are you? You'll need to requisition grain and magical supplies too."
"Obviously. Are you planning to escort the transport train up to the North while you're at it?"
"Just plain escort duty? That's no good."
Kka-chi pulled a credit voucher worth roughly one million crowns from inside his coat and dangled it.
"I'm buying the train. The North is poor, right? There'll be plenty of occasions where the train needs to move. Buying one is a decent investment. And on the side, we'll fill the remaining cars tight with food and magical supplies."
Not bad. These rat beastmen really knew how to think.
"Three transport trains. Roughly one hundred and twenty freight cars total. And filling them with food and magical supplies—that's not a bad deal."
"Obviously. If we can strip all of that away for one million crowns, it's a steal. Of course... that means we have to kidnap the bastard child first."
"Just bring him. When we fleece the Rubheim Marquis, you come along too, Kka-chi. The two of us working together could make for a pretty entertaining blackmail."
"I agree. Then I'll start securing the submachine guns. I'll leave the procurement of explosive charges to you."
"Fine. Learn marksmanship from Labelt-chi. He'll teach you well."
"You're a trustworthy kinsman. Understood."
The conversation was over. Efficient and pragmatic, the rat beastmen promptly gathered fifty submachine guns, pistol ammunition, and combat engineer explosives.
"I'll be back. Commander Volka. When I return, I'll bring the bastard child with me."
Leaving those words behind, Kka-chi and the Second Battalion Commander vanished quickly into the darkness that had now fully settled.
The die was cast. If the kidnapping succeeded, it was a jackpot. If it failed... well, it was over either way. But I wasn't worried at all. One way or another, I was already screwed. With nothing to lose, I had no hesitation about making bold moves.
"Commander Volka! Dinner's ready!"
"Alright! Let's go!"
I headed off to eat with the wolf beastmen. Hoping the Southern Clan rat beastmen would prove worthy.
And a few days later—
"I kept my promise. Commander Volka."
Kka-chi appeared before me, bringing with him a pretty boy with golden hair.