The village headman started at the sum of 230,000 wid and seized Astan's hand.
"Please, just tell me what to do! Even if I have to burn up this old body of mine......!"
"......No, you needn't go that far. I only need you to handle the village budget, enter projected expenses in the ledger, manage the funds, and take care of the official documents you've been handling until now."
"Understood."
There was nowhere that would hire a man in his sixties.
His wife had fallen ill and died long ago, and his children had left for the city.
All he had left was the granddaughter who had come from somewhere unknown and whom he had adopted.
He couldn't die like this.
He had to earn money, if only for his granddaughter!
The light began to return to the headman's lifeless eyes.
"Then I look forward to working with you."
"Yes, thank you!"
The headman...... No, Sebas, now the treasurer of House Payson, hurried to gather the servants at the mansion.
"Let's draw up the employment contracts first."
"W-will we really receive 200,000 wid every month?"
Astan nodded at the question from a plump woman in her forties.
"Of course. But if you don't carry out your duties properly...... I'll give you a month's notice and throw you out of the mansion. Earning someone else's money isn't easy, is it?"
"Ah......"
"I'll be away from this mansion for two weeks. Please clean it thoroughly and look after it while I'm gone. Treasurer, please supervise the servants. And......"
The treasurer was given a variety of duties.
Managing and supervising the servants, directing the laborers who would come from Cielo Village, and drawing up budgets to manage and develop the village.
Sebas nodded, his face tense.
"Leave it to me."
"Then I'll leave you to your work...... I should be going. I'd like to rest comfortably in this mansion when I return."
Astan waved as he left the mansion.
Sebas immediately turned to the servants.
"The lord has already brought in the cleaning supplies. You will come to work at eight tomorrow morning and clean the mansion until five in the afternoon. Once the cleaning is done, five of you will work the day shift and the other three will work the night shift."
"The day shift runs from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon, and the night shift from four in the afternoon to midnight. Let me know which shift you prefer later. I'll adjust the schedule and assign you accordingly."
"Yes!"
The eight women who had become servants nodded and answered loudly.
Sebas felt a flicker of anticipation.
How would that young lord change this rural village?
Would he really enable its residents to live in plenty without worrying about hunger?
The village's development was tied to a brighter future for his granddaughter.
So......
'If I'm going to help the lord...... I must do my part too.'
And so change began to come to Rabin Village.
For two weeks, the servants cleaned the mansion.
Sebas supervised them while directing the laborers building the wooden palisade.
Then a construction expert arrived with about ten laborers, and they began building quarters for the soldiers.
The villagers watched the scene with bewilderment.
"Wh-what on earth is all this for in a little village like ours......?"
"It looks like they're building quarters for soldiers to stay in."
"Soldiers......? What would a little village like ours need soldiers for?"
"They say it's to maintain a minimum level of security...... Well, what can we do?"
"You know how those goblin bastards sometimes turn up nearby. If they attack our village......"
"With a palisade and private soldiers to boot...... We'll be safe, all right."
Sebas had posted a notice on the bulletin board saying that groups of goblins and kobolds had appeared in a nearby forest.
It wasn't a lie, of course.
They were simply a little farther away.
By heightening the villagers' sense of danger, Sebas had won their support for the palisade and the private soldiers.
As a palisade rose around the village, the mansion was cleaned, and the soldiers' quarters were built, Astan was waging a war of his own in the slums of the small city of Alf.
CRASH—!
"Aaaagh!"
SWISH—! SLASH—!
"S-stop him! Stop that bastard!"
"Fuck, what the hell is that......?!"
Large criminal organizations operated in the southern region of the Rabadian Empire.
A branch of Skull, the most influential among them, had collapsed in a heap.
Organizations just below Skull in influence, including Despel, Barbaras, Akid, and Penber, had also fallen to a single boy.
"Urgh...... P-please...... spare me......"
A black-haired woman sat on the floor begging for mercy.
Her face was hideous beyond description.
That didn't mean she was ugly.
'Burns...... Her face has been completely mangled.'
Astan crouched and met her eyes.
"You're the head of Despel's branch, aren't you?"
The Alf branch of Despel, to be precise.
The head of a branch in a small city was pitifully weak.
To think she could become a branch head with only a low-level Expert's Sword Aura......
"I won't kill you. I won't. So stay still. Got it?"
She nodded vigorously.
Her whole body was already broken.
How could she move in this state?!
Astan grinned and sank his fangs into the back of her neck.
SQUELCH—!
"Nnngh......!"
She clenched her teeth as her body convulsed.
Something was flowing into her body.
She had to stop it at once.
She had to force it back out somehow......!
"Want to die?"
At the cold voice ringing in her ears, her shoulders slumped.
Astan quietly watched her change.
A little demonic energy began to seep from her.
Her eyes had turned red, too.
SWISH.
Astan picked up a liquor bottle lying on the floor and splashed its contents over her face.
SPLASH!
"Gah......!"
The liquor was as cold as chilled water.
It brought the woman back to her senses quickly.
Astan crouched and met her eyes.
"From now on, you're my thrall."
"Wh-what does that......"
"Put your head down."
THUD—!
The woman struck her head against the floor.
"Ngh......!"
"Lift your head."
The woman raised her head with difficulty.
Astan showed her the liquor bottle in his right hand.
What does he mean?
Does he want me to drink?
As she frowned, her face appeared in the bottle.
The melted burn scars had vanished without a trace.
"Ah...... Ah......"
Seeing her at a loss for words, Astan quietly set the bottle on the floor.
SNATCH!
The woman swiftly picked it up and stared at her face.
Then she slowly touched it.
"I-is it really......"
"I intend to rule the darkness of the Rabadian Empire. I chose this place as the starting point for that plan."
The woman stared blankly at Astan's words.
"I'm a demon."
"......?!"
"A vampire, to be precise."
"Th-then......"
"That's right. You're a vampire now, too. It's not so bad, is it? The scars on your face are gone, your lifespan has increased severalfold, and you can even keep your youth."
"That......"
It certainly sounded appealing.
"First, I'm going to bring all the criminals in Alf under me...... I'll turn the useful ones into thralls and have them manage the underlings. Oh, and keep quiet about us being demons. It'd be a headache if the Imperial Knights and the clergy started moving because of it."
The woman nodded silently.
She had become a demon herself.
If she carelessly let it slip, her own life would be at risk.
"Now, let's hear a little about you. Everything from your name to your past."
She swallowed once and began to introduce herself.
"M-my name is Kalia."
She said she had once been an ordinary resident of a rural village.
"Do villagers learn swordsmanship, too?"
"M-my parents were mercenaries, so I was able to master Sword Aura."
"Hmm......"
Kalia, who had been called a genius swordswoman in her village, had apparently caught the eye of the lord's son.
Repulsed by the young nobleman's excessive advances, she had firmly rejected him.
The villagers had snickered at the sight, humiliating him even further.
"After that, my family was accused of treason. They claimed we'd supplied magic stones to demons......"
"Huh? Just like that?"
"Yes. It truly happened without warning."
There hadn't been a shred of evidence.
Kalia's family had been detained on the strength of testimony alone and taken to the city.
Their sentence was death by burning.
Her parents had burned to death amid the city residents' vicious curses.
"They said...... they wouldn't kill me. Instead, they set fire to my face......"
They had apparently made her beautiful face hideous.
"......They must have wanted me to experience hell while I was still alive."
Kalia clenched her fist and gritted her teeth.
"What's the family's name?"
"......Bobeon."
It was the name of a house he'd never heard of.
It wasn't in Astan's memory, either.
"When I come to rule the darkness of the Rabadian Empire, I'll help you destroy House Bobeon with your own hands."
"Eh......?"
"I mean I'll erase the name Bobeon from the world."
"Ah......"
"By the way, what title does House Bobeon hold?"
"Baron."
A house he could deal with easily if he controlled only the southern slums.
"House Bobeon may be a baronial house, but...... they're vassals of House Krantes, a ducal house......"
So it would be dangerous to touch them recklessly?
"All right. First, let's smash every criminal organization in Alf and bring them together as one. As for the organization's name...... Yes, Chaos will do."
Astan grinned and met Kalia's eyes.
"Take me to the bases of the criminal organizations in Alf."
"Understood."
"Oh, right. I've already dealt with Skull and Barbaras, so skip those."
Kalia nodded.
She had no hesitation.
Despel's Alf branch had already fallen.
After all, she, its branch head, had been defeated.
'If he orders me to kill myself, I'll have no choice but to do it.'
A single command from him had forced her to strike her head against the floor.
She couldn't even struggle against it.
The moment she harbored murderous intent toward Astan, her head began to throb with pain.
'If he helps me get revenge...... I'll sell my soul to the devil himself.'
Kalia's eyes flashed as she left the branch with Astan.
They walked the streets of the slums, visiting the criminal organizations one by one.
Kalia was stunned by the force he displayed.
She had sensed it when he'd handled her like a child, but......
"He was this strong......?"
Astan turned every leader and officer he captured into a thrall.
"Seventeen in all, then."
"Most of them say they can use Sword Aura one level higher than before. I can, too......"
Kalia could now wield a mid-level Expert's Sword Aura.
She felt fairly satisfied with becoming a demon.
After all, she could now fulfill the desires humans had for a longer life, youth, and strength.
"I'll have to buy more magic tools."
He had bought five each of Saran's Necklace, Hus's Ring, and Alpha's Ring at the magic tool shop in Alf.
Who would have thought ruling the slums would be this easy?
They had no loyalty at all.
They valued their own lives more than their leaders' lives or their comrades' lives.
They would even kneel and submit before the strong.
Strong against the weak and weak against the strong......
They were, quite literally, no different from beasts.