I'd expected too much from medieval people.
I'd known for a while now that it was best to think of medieval folk as moderately intelligent orangutans.
'I figured that at the very least, a company head who makes a living off commerce would have even a shred of business sense.'
But the medieval world exceeded my expectations.
The company head was no company head.
No shrewd negotiations took place. No nerve-racking battle of interests. No fierce exchange of calculated maneuvers.
These bastards were thugs.
"Yeah, I don't know about any of that! I'm telling you we're not signing unless it's on these terms! See if I give a damn what you have to say."
The man was openly bullying his way through.
"Let's calm down a bit. Negotiation is normally about confirming what both sides want and finding a balance that satisfies everyone......"
"Shut up and bring your master here. Tell him if he doesn't want to die, he'd better sign the damn contract right now. If he refuses our offer, things are going to get very fun for everyone. You tell him that."
I wasn't saying he was acting like a thug.
He was literally, in every sense of the word, a thug.
In this damn Empire, hoodlums were parading around with titles like "company head."
"Would it kill you to at least hear me out? This isn't a negotiation anymore -- it's extortion."
Please stop cutting me off. Every time I tried to make a proposal, he'd chop my words to pieces so we couldn't even communicate.
I didn't expect him to act like a gentleman, but could he at least act like a human being?
"Boy, you've got some mouth on you. When did we ever extort anyone? We were just having a little chat."
But that was apparently too much to ask of a medieval person.
Not even thinking about what he'd been doing this whole time. Latching onto the word "extortion" and having a meltdown all by himself.
The man looked at me and spoke threateningly.
"You've been talking like you're somebody this whole time, but you're just Leon's slave, aren't you? Even if one of you dropped dead, Leon wouldn't bat an eye. Where's this confidence coming from?"
Openly declaring he'd kill someone, just like that.
How much further could the Empire's average possibly sink? I hadn't seen a single normal person aside from our kids.
There had to be a limit to how low-quality someone could be.
"I could kill you right now and just pay that bastard for a replacement slave. He'd probably be happy about it, honestly. So please, learn your place. You are not in a position to have a conversation with me."
"I'm merely relaying the terms that Lord Leon has requested. And yet you refuse to listen to even a single sentence of those terms......"
"What? 'And yet'? So what? Just shut up when you're told to shut up. Why do you have to talk so damn much?"
No matter how reasonable I tried to be, nothing got through.
Negotiation was impossible.
Conversations were meant to happen between people. How was a human supposed to negotiate a contract with an orangutan?
'This just isn't going to work.'
I'd wanted to find a way to persuade him, if at all possible.
But signing a contract with this bastard would be harder than teaching a chimpanzee to read and write so it could sign for itself.
It wasn't as if his were the only trading company in the world. Finding a different one would be a bit complicated, sure.
But I really didn't feel good about doing business with someone like him.
"......God, this is maddening. Where the hell is your master? I need to grab that bastard by the scruff of his neck and drag him here. That idiot can't even be bothered to keep a proper guard around."
"I imagine he'd be at a nearby gambling den right about now. The master tends to enjoy his games while still drunk after drinking."
Any thought of signing had long since evaporated.
I made up answers and replied as needed.
"So where exactly is that?"
"......I'm afraid that when he's drunk, he acts quite insensibly, so. I don't know exactly which gambling den near here he might be at either."
"Hah, utterly useless from top to bottom."
The company head looked down at me with a heavy sigh.
"You better brace yourself. I'm letting you off for now because grabbing the sucker before someone else does is more urgent, but......"
The man shot to his feet.
He looked at me with a chilling smile and declared.
"Unlike that noble bastard, there'd be zero consequences for disposing of you however I please. I may not look it, but I hold grudges. When I come back, you're in for a fun time."
Ah, I really do hate this Empire.
The slaves were all good people, so how was it that every single person with a shred of power was this much of a dirtbag? I wished someone would stage a revolution already.
"You'd better look forward to it."
A single knife wound would kill him all the same. Why was he running around making enemies with talk like that?
Medieval people truly made no sense.
I was thinking that with a sigh when it happened.
What I heard was Rotan's dumbstruck voice.
"......Huh?"
The company head had opened the workshop door to leave.
He'd opened the door; all he had to do was walk out.
But he suddenly froze, his mouth hanging open.
......What was with this bastard now?
***
Rotan, company head of the Rotan Trading Company.
He stood frozen, hand on the doorknob, face blank.
'Wh-what the hell is this?'
What lay before his eyes was a scene beyond comprehension.
......They were burning.
The subordinates he'd brought were burning alive.
Reduced to ash without leaving a trace.
People had died before his very eyes in an instant.
He'd seen people die plenty of times, of course, but this was different.
"S-so this is what Boss meant. If you want to make the world beautiful, you just have to burn away every ugly person. Then good people will never have to suffer again."
"By consoling the souls killed at the hands of these ruffians, and gifting a new life to the victims who would have come after -- Boss truly is a merciful person."
What entered his vision was the children.
Their blood-red eyes radiated an eerie glow. In the middle of this gruesome scene, the children were smiling calmly.
As if they hadn't just killed people, but taken out the trash together. Every single one of them was smiling with the most satisfied look on their faces.
'Th-this is insane.'
But the most terrifying thing was not those smiles.
There wasn't a single scratch on their bodies. ......How in the hell had those little bastards done all this without spilling a single drop of their own blood?
His subordinates had definitely been armed. They were all former bandits who could hold their own in a fight.
Yet these things had subdued and eliminated every last one without a scratch.
And having already disposed of eight people without a trace, would they have any difficulty disposing of one more? He wasn't even a better fighter than his subordinates to begin with.
'M-monsters......'
Monsters. Those things were monsters.
Monsters he should never have gotten involved with.
And yet he'd already gotten involved. He'd walked into this den of lunatics on his own two feet.
He couldn't breathe.
His legs trembled uncontrollably with terror.
And then.......
'Ah.'
Their eyes met.
Those children looked at Rotan.
Looked at Rotan, and broke into a run toward him.
His legs locked up. He knew he had to run, but his body refused to obey. He felt like his knees would give out at any second.
"Mission complete! Reporting back, Boss!"
The children came running to the workshop with bright smiles.
Light, bouncy steps, as if they'd just been out for a stroll.
Heading straight for that man as if nothing had happened.
The man the children called Boss. The one Rotan had been speaking with just moments ago. The one who seemed to be the slaves' leader.
"We gave the guests a grand fireworks welcome, Boss. Did it pass your standards?"
Rotan prided himself on reading people well.
He'd climbed to company head by having a keen eye for spineless pushovers who'd crumble under pressure.
That man had seemed perfectly ordinary.
A calm way of speaking and golden eyes. From his voice to his words, no matter where or how you looked at him, he didn't seem like a lunatic.
He'd thought the man was ordinary.
"Oh, you even put on a welcome reception?"
The man was smiling with perfect composure.
His followers had just come back from burning people alive, and he was smiling without so much as a blink.
As if this were just some party game. No -- beyond that, as if he didn't even register that people had died.
He spoke with a pure, innocent face and a smile.
"It was so quiet outside, I didn't even realize you'd held a reception. Those things are supposed to be a bit lively, aren't they?"
......He was saying he'd wanted to hear screams.
Screams wrung from agony as bodies burned alive -- he'd wanted to hear them, and was disappointed they hadn't been delivered to him.
"I apologize, Boss. We gagged them and took care to muffle the sound, so as not to disturb your conversation. I didn't know you preferred to hear it."
She'd melted their vocal cords so they couldn't even scream.
The girl said such a horrifying thing as if it were nothing.
And the man responded to such a story as if it were nothing.
"Oh, is that what happened? Sorry, you went out of your way to be considerate and I didn't even notice. You're right, it is better to be quiet during negotiations. Thanks for always thinking of everything."
"It is only natural, as your subordinate."
The two of them shared a friendly smile.
No matter how he looked at it, this was absolutely not a situation to be smiling about. Yet the two of them were smiling more peacefully than anyone.
The dissonance sent chills deeper through Rotan than anything else.
"Between the welcome reception and burning the guests' trash on top of that, you all really worked hard. Breathing in all that smoke isn't good for your health either. Sorry for making you go through the trouble."
"Not at all, Boss. How could working for you ever be trouble? It's a joy and an honor in itself."
He had to escape from these lunatics.
He had to find a gap and get out.
"Mr. Rotan? Why the long face?"
The man looked at Rotan.
Having killed people right before his eyes, the man was now asking, with a face of genuine curiosity, why his expression was so grim.
There was not a trace of malice in that expression.
"Oh, was it the smoke that bothered you? I suppose burning things every time we take out the trash is a bit inconvenient. The smoke does look a bit unpleasant too."
But the absence of malice made it all the more terrifying.
The man was not trying to intimidate Rotan.
He was not threatening Rotan because he wanted something.
"If the smoke made you uncomfortable, I apologize."
He genuinely did not understand.
He didn't even understand why Rotan was afraid.
"We'll have to change how we dispose of the trash from now on."
A creature without emotions wearing a human mask.
The deranged psychopath spoke with a smile.
"We should just bury it in the ground! Stuff it in a bag, stomp it flat to squash down the volume, and then bury it."
He was saying he'd crush him flat and bury him underground.