That had not been the original plan. I had not intended to reveal that I was a demon in front of the children in the slightest. The plan had been to knock all the scum unconscious first, free the children, and then quickly carry out the soul offerings once no one was watching. I would dump the empty shells left behind after their souls were removed somewhere deserted.
That way, the incident would be wrapped up neatly. This was supposed to be a good deed performed by an unidentified righteous person, not a Legion Commander.
That was why I had deliberately avoided using my Flame ability during the fight. I had also greatly held back my combat skills. In the eyes of the witnesses, I was supposed to appear suspicious, but human nonetheless.
The plan had been going fairly well in its own way. All the problems began when one piece of scum held a knife to the throat of an innocent child. I could have subdued him with swordsmanship. But if my timing had been even slightly off, there was a chance the child would be injured.
I had no choice but to subdue him using another method. A soul offering. I chose the fastest, most certain, and at the same time most horrifying option.
The result was exactly as expected. My identity as a demon was immediately exposed, and the situation descended into chaos. Still, thanks to that, the criminals’ mental strength collapsed rapidly, making it easier to offer their souls instead.
I stored all the dangerous drugs using the game’s inventory function. It was truly fortunate that the storage function from the game was provided exactly the same way in reality. These drugs would never be released into the world again.
Perhaps believing that their own souls would soon be offered as well, the children were crying for their mothers or calling the name of their god. I had not wanted to traumatize children.
I examined the children’s conditions one by one. The burst blood vessels in the whites of their eyes, and the dark shadows settled deeply beneath them. Their drug-stained hands, and the faint trembling in their legs caused by symptoms of addiction. This was a problem that had to be dealt with immediately.
I opened the shop and searched for an item that could treat the patients.
<13 Addiction Recovery Candies (Apple Flavor)>
200p
Do not eat too many just because they taste good!
Please eat exactly one each, no more and no less.
I purchased the item using some of the points I had just received from offering the souls. Candies wrapped in aurora-colored wrappers poured down through the air. The effect was a little excessive, but it was enough to draw the children’s attention.
“It’s all right. Eat these, one each.”
I spoke with a gentle smile.
The children picked up the candies with trembling hands. With wariness and fear mixed in their gazes, they unwrapped them and cautiously placed them in their mouths. It was obvious that they were only eating them because they had been ordered to.
The effect was immediate. Color returned to their faces, and the stains on their hands disappeared. Their breathing, which had been so thin it seemed ready to break, also stabilized. The children startled and looked over their now-clean hands again and again.
Urgent footsteps came from upstairs. They belonged to the Sanctuary Guard. Sasha’s voice could also be heard.
“It’s down here! I’m certain.”
Without adding another word, I concealed myself with Stealth so I could observe the situation.
I hoped that this day would not remain in your memories as a nightmare you could never overcome.
Holding on to that small hope.
***
Sasha, an apothecary with brown curly hair and leaf-green eyes. Her story in the game was as follows.
Sasha operated a small potion workshop with her parents, while also participating in the activities of the Sanctuary Guard whenever she had time in order to protect the village’s safety. Then she discovered that a drug organization was behind the serial disappearances of children, and this prompted her to devote herself seriously to researching a cure.
Later, she manufactured potions for soldiers in the middle of battlefields while fighting against the Demon King’s army. The title she gained during that process was ‘Saintess of the Battlefield.’ Just as the outstanding healer Rihen was called a ‘Saint,’ Sasha was also more than qualified to be called a Saintess.
However, that was a story from the distant future. Right now, she stood frozen stiff with shock. Even after hearing everything the children had said, she could not organize the situation in her mind. No, it was closer to refusing to organize it.
The fact that a Legion Commander had appeared and taken all the drugs. That fact alone was shocking enough, yet he had even given the victims a cure.
And at last, Sasha realized what his actions meant. It was a cruel scheme so horrifying that it would have been better not to know.
The Legion Commander was skilled in Stealth. For someone like him, slipping into the residence of a high-ranking official would be no more difficult than taking a walk.
He would mix drugs into their meals and wait until his targets became addicted and collapsed. Then, he would appear once more before those who had lost everything to their symptoms of addiction and whisper in a wicked voice like a snake.
If they obediently did as he ordered, he would give them the cure.
There would be no one who could dismiss his words as a bluff. Had he not already proven the existence of the cure using young children?
High-ranking officials would be shaken by a single Legion Commander. Troop deployments, supply lines, weaknesses. Without spilling a single drop of blood, he could extract the highest-level military secrets in their entirety. Going even further, he might manipulate the political situation however he wished.
The Commander of the 13th Legion was no mere slaughterer. He was an existence who calculated even the way he wielded evil. A kind of enemy that the logic of good could never reach.
Sasha clenched her fists tightly. She could not simply rejoice over the fact that the victims had been safely rescued. The children had survived. But in exchange, the seed of an even greater catastrophe had fallen into the enemy’s hands.
It was the beginning of a nightmare.
Had even one piece of the cure remained intact, she would have summoned apothecaries and begun researching it. They might have analyzed its ingredients, reproduced the manufacturing process, and found an alternative.
But there was no cure left. The Legion Commander had handed out exactly as many pieces of the cure as there were kidnapped victims. Considering his meticulous nature, it was only natural.
Sasha was unable to move for a long while before that terrible reality.
“Sasha, is something wrong?”
A fellow guard lightly nudged Sasha. She opened her heavy mouth.
“I think that the Commander of the 13th Legion may have….”
Sasha told the guards her suspicions, and all of them agreed with her opinion.
“E-Excuse me….”
A woman who had been quietly listening to their conversation called out to Sasha with difficulty. She was one of the two adults rescued this time. Though she was called an adult, she looked as though she had only barely passed twenty. A painfully thin body, rough breathing, and shabby clothes. She still looked nothing but sickly.
The woman lightly tapped Sasha’s shoulder. Then she placed something on her palm. It was a candy wrapped in glittering paper.
“It’s the cure. The children said it tastes like apples.”
The woman spoke quietly.
“Th-This… shouldn’t you be the one to eat it?”
At Sasha’s question, the woman calmly shook her head. Then she lowered her gaze as though she were a criminal.
“Even though I’m an adult, I couldn’t help the children at all. I only trembled in fear.”
She continued calmly.
“So… now, for the first time, I want to do something worthy of an adult. If you conduct research based on this medicine, and learn how to make the cure… then you can stop that Legion Commander’s plan too, right? You can, can’t you?”
Sasha stared at the woman without saying anything, then suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.
“I promise. I’ll make the cure as quickly as possible. So please, hold on just a little longer. Please.”
Sasha’s voice trembled, but it was clear. The woman entrusted herself to her warmth and smiled in relief.
Sasha wrote down her home address and handed it to the woman. She told her to come at any time if she needed help. The woman carefully folded the note and placed it in her pocket. Then, staggering, she went outside for the first time in a very long while.
It was night. It was cold, dark, and dangerous, but she was simply happy that she could breathe the outside air.
A man with a hat pulled low over his face came walking quickly from the opposite direction and bumped into her. The woman staggered and nearly fell, and the man hurriedly supported her.
“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”
He bowed his head several times. The woman smiled and said that it was all right. Then she began walking aimlessly once again.
Her hands were cold. The woman put them into her pockets.
Rustle. In the place where there should have been only the feel of the note, she felt something else. A candy wrapped in glittering paper. The very cure the Legion Commander had handed out.
“……!”
The woman looked around and searched for the man who had bumped into her moments ago. But he had already disappeared without a trace.
The woman hurriedly tore off the wrapper. When she placed the candy in her mouth, the fresh taste of green apple spread over the tip of her tongue. Tears suddenly poured from her eyes.
She had called herself an adult in front of the others and pretended that she was not afraid to give away the cure meant for her.
But in truth, she desperately wanted to live.
She wanted to recover.
The person who had placed this candy in her pocket must have been the Legion Commander. Of course, there was no possibility that it had been an act of pure kindness. Rather, it was closer to a warning. A warning that he had heard every word of their conversation.
He knew that she had handed over the candy instead of eating it. He also knew that they planned to struggle to create a cure. No matter how desperately they fought, they were still in the palm of his hand. The Legion Commander was conveying that message concisely and unmistakably.
Nevertheless… the candy was very sweet.