My head was spinning.
I felt like my mind was about to black out, but I took a deep breath.
For now, I looked at Rang and asked.
"What exactly happened?"
"That noble drew a sword and threatened us, so we returned the favor."
He'd suddenly drawn a sword on them?
The contract had all been a ruse -- he'd been planning to kill us and pocket the money.
'Thank god the kids are safe. And good thing this was an alchemy workshop. There were plenty of fire flasks lying around that they could use to fight back. But what the hell was that noble bastard even up to?'
Not just targeting me, but trying to kill children too. A genuine piece of filth.
"Good thinking. If anyone asks, say there was an accident during an alchemy experiment. This was self-defense. The moment he tried to kill children, he lost the right to be treated as a human being."
Rang looked at me and marveled.
"Boss is always prepared, as expected."
"Right, you were just here to clean up trash and some human scum made things difficult. Can't have that causing problems for you."
"Yes, all we did was take out the trash."
The children didn't seem to have a scratch on them.
That was a relief, but I was still worried and had to ask.
"......Are you two really okay? You didn't get shaken up from seeing something rough?"
But what came back was a response more composed than I expected.
"We're fine. We've seen far worse."
"Ah."
Right, they'd talked about things like having their hearts cut out for alchemical ingredients. Or nearly being used as suicide soldiers on a battlefield.
These were children who had weathered every kind of hardship.
The most dangerous thing I'd ever experienced was rushing into a fire to rescue an elderly person trapped inside.
Unlike me, someone who'd lived a smooth and uneventful life, these were children who'd endured hardships I couldn't even begin to imagine.
They'd grown accustomed to sights like this simply because they had to.
Maybe I'd touched a sore spot without meaning to.
Worrying about that, but Rang just smiled brightly.
"Don't worry. We're not that fragile. We may never catch up to you, but we won't be a burden to you either. We'll support you to the best of our ability, Boss, so trust us."
That brought a warm smile to my face.
How could a kid be this mature and admirable?
"You don't need to say that for me to trust you. I do trust you, but."
I was smiling when I realized something important.
"More importantly, let's get out of here first. It's dangerous, isn't it?"
A burning annex was not a good place for a conversation. It was quite a rare sight, granted, but not one I wanted to keep watching.
I didn't want to keep breathing in the smoke either.
It was obviously bad for the kids' health.
At my words, the two brats nodded.
We quickly made our way out of the annex.
"......Burns well, doesn't it?"
The noble's remains, still somewhere inside.
But I felt no particular pity.
I wasn't about to sympathize with someone who abused children. I had no intention of praying for his soul, either.
I gazed at the oversized bonfire and fell into thought.
The fire, well...... the workshop was some distance away and the ground was sand. No need to worry about it spreading.
What concerned me was the plan going forward.
How we would act from here on out was the crux of the matter.
"We've already secured a workshop this early on, so we can move quickly. The heavens are on our side."
Rang spoke in a slightly exhilarated voice.
Behind her, the younger brother chimed in.
"S-sis, but is this really going to be okay? A noble did die, after all. What if there's an investigation?"
A noble had died.
We might be implicated and punished.
Ren seemed a bit scared at the thought.
I calmed the frightened Ren down.
"That's no problem at all. He said it himself -- he lost some money gambling. The state of the annex was a disaster. Why would an arrogant noble be living out here in the middle of nowhere?"
He had a nose too, presumably. There had to be a reason he was holed up like a dead rat in this filthy rural backwater.
Thinking about it, the answer was obvious.
"He was hiding because he was buried in debt. His acquaintances probably don't even know he's dead. They'll just assume he's gone into hiding again."
As if the medieval world had CCTV, or a police force.
There were guards, technically, but they didn't actually do their jobs. Even if you got caught, a little bribe money slipped their way and that was that.
"So you planned for even that before coming here, Boss."
"......Don't say weird things. What do you mean, planned?"
I am a civilized 21st-century human being.
Kill the merchant and the goods are free? He was abusing kids anyway, so let's deal with him in the name of justice while we're at it?
I don't scheme like that.
This was an accident, a coincidence.
I'd had no intention of doing anything so drastic.
......Though I also had no intention of throwing away a windfall I'd stumbled into.
"Still, having an alchemy workshop fall into our hands this early really is significant. No need to agonize over contracts or profit splits -- we can just start mass-producing soap in this workshop right away."
We could move things along faster than expected.
A bigger windfall than I'd imagined.
"Yes, you mean the 'soap.' I'll make thorough preparations. Enough to completely purify the Empire."
"Don't rush it. For now, just enough for the Empire's upper echelon will do. Just enough to use on the nobles."
What I was planning now was viral marketing.
Hand out samples to the upper classes as a trial, and they'd spread the word themselves, raving about how incredible this was. Might even become a trend.
"......The execution of the plan is not far off."
"That's right. It's the moment we reveal ourselves to the world for the first time. Better make thorough preparations."
The framework of the business was starting to take shape.
So it's really happening -- actually starting a business.
Just as I was basking in the sentiment, Rang posed a question.
"What will you do about the slaves who worked as apprentices here? Their skills could be useful. And if any of them were to leak what happened here, that would be troublesome......"
"Stop."
I cut Rang off.
I could already guess what was going to follow.
"I have no intention of forcing their cooperation. We're supposed to be freeing slaves, not putting the leash back on and working them to the bone. That'd be trampling my own beliefs with my own hands."
"I'm sorry, Boss. I wasn't thinking."
I thought it over briefly and reached a conclusion.
"......I should probably go talk to them."
***
The slaves who had been trapped here as the workshop's apprentices.
I gathered them all in one place, then made my declaration.
"Your master is dead. So you're free to live however you want now. Nothing holds you down anymore."
What I'd expected was at least some degree of joy.
Whenever I freed children from the slave merchant, they'd typically be so happy they cried.
But for some reason, the reaction this time was oddly muted.
Their expressions were anything but joyful.
"If you're worried about how you'll get by going forward, don't be. I'll provide some support to help you live a normal life. I know of an orphanage too."
Maybe they were worried about starving if they couldn't find work? With that thought, I mentioned I'd help, but the reaction was the same.
This wasn't...... a case of them not being happy about their freedom. It was something else.
"Th-that's all right. I, I want to work under you! Being freed from slavery...... I never even dreamed of something like that."
It seemed closer to disbelief.
After all, I'd seen that noble's personality firsthand. They must have been ground down from being tormented so long under someone like him.
They'd given up on expecting they could ever live a normal life.
Resigned themselves to the fact that miracles would never come.
Just doing their desperate best to avoid being punished, devoting everything to staying on their master's good side -- that alone had been more than they could handle.
'I truly don't like a single thing about this damn Empire.'
It was a world where people couldn't even take kindness at face value.
Just looking at them now proved that.
"W-we know a lot of techniques too! S-so please don't throw us away. Please don't sell us off to a slave merchant!"
How badly must they have been mistreated to end up like this?
I cursed the Empire several times in my head, then put on a serious expression. I looked at the slaves and spoke.
"I'm not throwing you away or selling you off. I truly, genuinely want to help you live free."
In this Empire, nothing was taken for granted.
Not even bathing at least once every seven days.
And not people living like people, either.
"All this time, serving under a noble -- you never got to play, eat properly, or try doing the things you wanted to do. I don't like that."
At my words, everyone stared at me blankly.
Not understanding what in the world I was saying.
The children's faces showed they couldn't comprehend it at all.
"You've finally been freed, so why would you go back to serving someone else? You should live happily doing what you want to do."
"......Wh-why are you saying things like that? D-didn't you need the alchemy workshop? You have convenient slaves right in front of you, branded with contract seals and leashes and all."
There are convenient slaves right here, so why not use them?
My answer to that was too obvious.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
"......Pardon?"
"That's what I believe, that's what I was taught, and that's how I've lived my life, thinking it was only natural. No matter how fucked up this Empire is, I don't want to compromise on how I live."
I am a modern person.
I have no intention of compromising just because I was dropped into the medieval era.
A disgusting Empire.
In a nation where enslaving children was treated as normal -- was I supposed to simply accept that normalcy as my own? That would be too revolting.
I didn't want to follow the ways of the Imperial Family and those in power.
"So go. Go do what you want to do. Play as much as you like, eat what you want to eat, and live with a smile."
I wanted to help as many people as I could.
If I expanded the business and grew my influence, I could save more people.
"Why would you do all this for someone you just met today......?"
"I don't understand why you keep asking about something so obvious."
Why are you going this far for us?
Something like that didn't even need to be asked. It was just obvious.
"Children have the right to grow up like children. Without having to agonize over whether they'll starve to death, or dread being sold away -- the right to laugh and play and grow up with their innocence intact."
Of course, I was well aware.
That in this Empire, such things were a pipe dream.
"Every human being has the right to live like a human being. It's so obvious it shouldn't need saying. But what should be obvious isn't easy in this country -- this damn Empire."
But so what?
Just because the world was this way didn't mean I could stoop to living like a barbarian.
"So, well, what can you do? We'll have to change it. Right now, you're all I can save, but I hope that someday, I can build a country where the things that should be obvious actually are."
So I'd only said what was perfectly obvious.
Words most modern people would agree with.
I'd said them without thinking much of it, and yet --
......Why does everyone look like that?
And why are they bowing their heads to me?