"......So. In your homeland, Boss, they melted down irredeemable trash and turned it into bags?"
Rang asked in a tense voice.
Well, eco-bags made from recycled plastic were a thing, after all. I must have picked up a few from here and there.
"Yeah, I even had one myself. It's not that unusual -- most people back home probably had one?"
"Not just you, Boss, but most people from your homeland? They openly did things like that?"
"Hm? Why would that be something to be ashamed of? You're putting trash to good use. If anything, it's something to be proud of. Everyone from my hometown would agree."
Using eco-bags to prevent environmental pollution was a praiseworthy act. Those small practices were what protected the environment.
At my words, Rang was struck speechless.
I saw her reaction and added a remark.
"It's just a hometown story, so I get that it's hard to wrap your head around."
Waste sorting, eco-bags, and all that. It would be stranger if medieval people actually understood any of this.
I'd never planned to bring any of this up in the first place.
But...... after a moment's thought, Rang conceded to my words.
"Indeed, for irredeemable trash, that may well be the best thing for the world. It does seem a bit extreme, but. If that's what you believe, Boss......"
She spoke with the eyes of someone steeling their resolve.
"I'll steel my own heart as well."
I had no idea what sort of resolve she was building up. I corrected the 21st-century information I'd accidentally let slip.
"Well, just forget what I said earlier. Like I mentioned, we don't have the tools for that kind of work here anyway, so it'd be easier to just handle things simply."
"Handle things simply, you say......"
In the medieval era, where do you throw away trash?
Public trash bins? Recycling centers?
As if any of that exists in this damn Empire.
The whole world is just one big trash dump.
I briefly wondered if we should dig a hole and bury it, but.
"We burn it all and purify it."
Digging hurts your hands.
Who's got time to bury trash with a shovel?
Too much hassle, so just burning it would be the easiest option.
"......As you command."
Rang lowered her head to me, her expression resolute.
But of course, I had no intention of sending just the kids.
"No, nothing to command. I'll help clean up too."
I was technically the adult here. I couldn't very well dump all the trash disposal on the kids. Obviously I should pitch in too.
That was what I said, but.
Rang and Ren shook their heads with grave expressions.
"No. We need to do this."
"W-we'll prove it -- that we're prepared to follow you, Boss. We can't do it like you can yet, but. We'll prove that we can cleanse trash with our own strength!"
Their attitudes were dead serious.
Throwing away garbage didn't seem like something worth getting this solemn about, but. Well, environmental protection is a serious matter, I suppose.
More importantly, wasn't it admirable to see children trying to do something on their own? Kids this proactive were rare.
I smiled warmly and said.
"All right, be careful out there."
***
The workshop's owner, Leon, smiled.
'A big catch has bitten. And it walked right in on its own, no less.'
A golden goblin, plain and simple.
A commoner with money but no power to protect it. The perfect prey had come strolling up begging to be devoured.
'Form a partnership, he says? Start a soap business together?'
He had never heard a more absurd joke in his life.
That inferior brain of his must not have grasped it, but.
Contracts were things formed between people. There was no need to sign a contract between a human and livestock.
And commoners were livestock.
Just as sheep offered their wool, commoners existed solely to offer taxes and labor to nobles such as himself.
What he had gone to retrieve was not a contract.
SHING—.
A keenly honed blade.
The sword caught the sunlight and gleamed.
Why in the world would he need to bother with a transaction with livestock?
He could simply slaughter it with this sword and take the meat.
The silver coins that fool had brought for the contract would be put to good use. Covering up the death of a single commoner was easy enough.
His Imperial Majesty graciously cared for his subjects, but......
Those lowborn cattle bastards were nothing like real citizens anyway. A sentiment His Majesty was said to express often in private.
Just kill that one white-haired man, and he wouldn't have to worry about money for a while.
Oh, make that three kills.
He'd have to silence those brats too, to keep them from doing anything foolish.
Leon was thinking this with a smile when --
"I've been looking for you. So this is where you were."
A voice came from behind him.
He turned to look, and what he saw was a brat.
Blue hair and red eyes. The twin siblings he'd noticed earlier. They'd come looking for Leon, oblivious to what was in store for them.
His intended victims had come to him of their own accord.
'Even the heavens are on my side.'
He'd been wracking his brain over the possibility of the brats screaming and running, making things messy.
He never imagined they'd walk right in on their own.
Leon's lips twisted upward into a crescent moon.
And...... the child smiled too.
"S-sis. Let me, let me do it! I learned something good thanks to Boss, so. I want to repay him."
"All right, I'll leave it to you."
The siblings were chatting casually between themselves.
Leon's face was stained with bewilderment.
Had these little bastards lost their minds?
A man close to two meters tall was brandishing a sword, radiating hostility with killing intent burning in his eyes.
No matter how bird-brained these brats might be, the natural reaction would be to tremble with fear.
Yet they were utterly nonchalant.
"Oh, h-hello, mister."
The timid-looking child approached hesitantly.
Without the slightest pause despite the opponent holding a sword. With a face that even looked a little excited, no less.
Could this situation really be so incomprehensible to them?
Leon scowled and opened his mouth.
"These little bastards have all gone mad......"
But those words would never reach their end.
Because an incomprehensible sight unfolded before him.
What entered his vision was a bizarre phenomenon.
'Huh? Wh-what?'
It was burning.
The brat's body was burning.
"A-actually, I usually don't like getting involved in things. M-my touch burns everything up, so. I didn't want to see people get hurt, and I decided not to get close to anyone."
This was no hallucination or optical illusion.
He could feel the heat. Unbelievable as it was, a heat that felt like it could melt his entire body was radiating against his skin.
"But Boss taught me something. He said it's okay to burn them. That you're supposed to melt them down. That bad people who dirty the world all need to be burned away and purified."
The child was smiling despite his entire body being ablaze.
His lips were split into a bizarre grin.
"I-I'm the timid type, so. I don't think I can go as far as Boss and melt them down and make them into trophies. But still, I'll try my best to be brave."
The voice trembled with timidity.
Yet a smile was plastered across his face.
The dissonance between that voice and expression was too grotesque.
Leon's hands were shaking uncontrollably.
His legs were buckling as if they'd give out at any moment.
'H-he's just a brat. Just one kid, that's all.'
He couldn't allow himself to be frightened by a mere child. A noble such as himself couldn't possibly be scared of some slave brat.
He knew this, yet the trembling would not stop.
If anything, it only grew worse.
"Don't worry. Boss said hypocrites who reek of stench are better off gone, so. We're doing a good thing. You're being 'purified' thanks to our Boss."
A voice dripping with innocence.
That innocence was what terrified Leon most of all.
If the child had cursed at him, it would have been better.
Or if the child had come to assassinate him on some other noble's orders. That would not have been this terrifying.
But the child wore an expression of pure sincerity.
Burning away the evil to purify them.
He had been genuinely moved by such an ideology.
"D-demons...... demon bastards......"
Leon mumbled as if in a trance.
But Rang, hearing those words, only scoffed.
"The nerve. Coming from someone who starved and neglected children. Who exactly is calling who a demon here?"
The child sneered.
"......Come to think of it, Boss wouldn't have known about my brother's power. How did he tell us to burn enemies as if it were the most natural thing? How far ahead is Boss seeing?"
The girl spoke with a smile.
"If we're going to serve him, we can't afford to let our guard down either. If we just stand around doing nothing, we'll only be a burden to Boss."
"L-let's do our best, sis."
"Yeah, let's give it everything. In accordance with his will -- so that we can overturn the Empire and build Boss's nation."
He approached.
The child drew closer and closer to him.
Leon screamed in terror.
"W-wait...... I'll do anything! I'll do anything you say!"
But the child did not listen.
Just as Leon had done to the workshop's slaves. Treating every plea as nothing more than the bleating of livestock, dismissing them entirely.
Ignoring Leon's pleas as though they held no worth.
"I-I'll repent and atone!"
Nor would any chance for atonement be given.
He wasn't even sincerely repentant. Even now, he was scheming for ways to stab these brats in the back.
How could a man who felt no remorse possibly atone?
"Don't worry. I'll help you. Just as he said -- I'll burn away the evil and make you clean."
His body was burning.
Leon's body was burning.
The last thing to enter his eyes was the smiling children.
Red-eyed demons, an exact match for the Seven Great Calamities of the prophecy.
"All for the utopia he has envisioned."
His vision blurred.
His consciousness faded as his eyes fell shut.
One villain was thus purified by fire.
***
......Why the hell do I smell grilling meat?
Unfortunately for me, a sensitive nose.
Whenever I opened the free soup kitchen in the slums as a hobby, the grateful hugs were nice, but my nose was tortured by the medieval folk's stench.
That same nose was now detecting something wrong.
What in the world was going on?
I walked toward the source of the smell.
An annex right next to the alchemy workshop. It looked like a space the noble from earlier used as a residence.
The smell grew stronger as I drew closer.
'A burning smell?'
What the hell was burning?
I opened the door, bewildered.
On opening the door, I saw that it was no major crisis, indeed.
An annex completely engulfed in flames.
Children waving at me from inside the blazing room.
Our kids had just thrown a human barbecue party, that was all.......
......Huh?
"Welcome, Boss. That aside -- you had it all planned out, didn't you? An efficient decision indeed."
Rang beamed at me as she spoke.
"When the merchant dies, the goods are free. The workshop is ours."